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?