After listening the presentation on Dropbox, I almost immediately downloaded the application. It is probably the best tool for team work purposes. In fact, I started using it in the following days.
It is way better than sending attached files through a webmail message. First, it is free for 2GB capacity which is largely enough for sending images or any document. How it works:
You download the application and you can "drop in the box" the files you want to share with anybody having installed the application. You drop documents needed for a semester project in the box and you let now to your colleague that the documents are there!
A very interesting feature Dropbox has is you can earn extra capacity storage when you refer somebody to adopt this tool...

The next application is huge to me: Google Earth.
For somebody being interested in travelling and geography, Google Earth, basically,  delivers the whole planet on my computer screen. The pedagogic possibilities are almost endless. Specially for high school international programs such webtool adds more excitement to the class. The 3D vision allows users to discover the ensemble of a city without being there physically. The virtual space that Google Earth provides may serve to travel in a class and keep the students motivated to learn and stay open minded to the world and its diversity.

I was appealed by two other Web 2.0 tools. The first is "Concept Board" (conceptboard.com
) which may improve teamwork within class.  For example seizing images, webpages and browsing them on this board could facilitate the synthesis of ideas in a group. In other words, concept board simplifies the process of building ideas.

Another webtool I found of interest is the kidblog concept. As a teacher who surveys the students' posts, he or she will be able to give immediate feedbach about writing. Receiving feedback and corrections for one's writing asserts improvement in one of the four areas of a language. Also, the authentic and engaging feature of personal writing  makes this webtool perfect for practicing grammar notions and concepts.

After seeing some presentations, the most appealing web 2.0 tools, to me, seem Animoto and StoryBird.

Animoto is a web application allowing anybody to produce video slideshows easy and fast. This could be useful to present images or concepts in a more dynamic and appealing way to students. Instead of making a powerpoint presentation, with Animoto it is possible to create slides with music. Teaching vocabulary with images, showing concepts as a movie trailer would be very interesting.

Using images as well, Storybird is a repertory of stories very useful to foster reading in young students (elementary). The artful images allows a teacher to engage more the students into a story thus increasing understanding.

I'm considering using those webtools in the future...

Assignment 3

After solving some technical difficulties on putting the website online and managing the process of it, I’m now working on the structure of the official version. Well, there is going to be a website plus a webquest, which is an online lesson introduced by the teacher last course.

At this stage of the process, I have to meet up with my artistic side to imagine the colors in it and what I would like people see about me, as I’m introducing myself as a future English Teacher.

I’ve been thinking to post my resumé and some pictures to start off the process of creation. I will try to keep things simple but not boring for the design and content of the webpage. I’m not sure if some music will be fine. If it’s possible, there probably will be embedded videos from Youtube.

Putting Online My Portfolio Website

Before getting into the process of creating the portfolio website, we had to sign up with a hosting provider. For the pedagogical purposes of the class, we signed up with a free web hosting service where all the files will be uploaded and kept. Furthermore, each of us created a specific domain name to present ourselves to the world as an ESL teacher.

We are currently working with Kompozer to create the whole website. At first sight, it looks like the software “Word’’: Understandable because the goal is to create text and structure it in a series of linked pages. As a student using “ Word’’ for many years I think it’s very user-friendly, and we’ll keep on going with it for the rest of the structure of the website.

For me, putting the page online took more than I thought. There were some problems with the names of the files and the location of folders. For small details (capital letters and location), I had to restructure the user root and the web root directories before managing the files in a control panel provided by the web host.

My View on PNLs

The technological realm in the world is the omnipresent bridge between people needing to connect anywhere, anytime. Over the last two decades, technology has exploded with innovations and increased its reach to people for occupations, creativity and entertainment. The advent of the worldwide web was the major link to the explosion of connectivity between people. That’s why we rely more and more on the Internet not only to connect with people but for precious and useful information, which is in constant grow. It just takes pushing some buttons to reach for a vast ocean of connectedness and knowledge.

Having said how technology is closely involved in our daily lives, it is easy for me to say that the cognitive process of learning is inevitably associated with technology. For instance, when you buy a new digital point-and-shoot camera, you need to read the manual and learn with some practice to use it properly. If we learn how to use and take advantage of technology by reading manuals, why not use technology for our personal learning and development?

Within this portrait, I think it would be impossible to escape from the use of technology in classrooms. Kids, adolescents and young adults are constantly in touch with any type of technology. And being involved with technology myself, I believe the uses and advantages of it are unlimited not just to improve the process of learning but to create new ways of learning as technology does to facilitate things for almost anything.

As technology innovates, the art of teaching and learning evolves as well. This is projected by Personal Learning Networks, where users create their own unique space to acquire the necessary input for improving their knowledge on any subject. For instance there are websites inspired on social networking sites where users build their own community. In this way communicating ideas and concepts between learners becomes easier and more motivating. Just as many people share a funny viral video on Facebook it is also possible to do the same with files, links or any other educational video in a Personal Learning site.

The beauty of a Personal Learning Network is the immediate connectivity between the member and the classroom environment. Logistical constraints are non-existent in that virtual environment.

Why not to relate the virtual with the abstractness of ideas to make those happen in real life?