DD: 'Deutsche' Days

Hi guys!

Do you like my picture?It was taken during the last few days! I was supposed to study but I really need a break from everything. So, I left with some friends and we visited our friend Mauro who studies in Mannheim (Germany). I really had a wonderful time!

Mannheim is a typically 'deutsch' city and I loved it. In particular, I enjoyed the culinary specialities, such as 'Bratwurst', 'Brezel' and soooo many sweets and liters of beer!! I already miss them ;-) Moreover, I visited Heidelberg, which is a mediaval city characterized by a wonderful castle. I walked thousands of stairs to reach it but it was worth it! The view was exciting..WUNDERBAR!

Now it's time to study again but after this break I feel more relaxed and I can do my best! Thanks friends ;-)

Elisabetta

SPECIAL THANKS

Dear guys,

as I wrote in my last post, last week I had my last English lesson. It was a very sad moment because it was the last university lesson of my career, so the very ending of an important and significant period in my life (all these 'last' makes me so sad!)! Moreover, these lessons were not only really useful but also amusing and I had a really good relationship with my professor Sarah and my classmates.

I really appreciated this course for many different reasons:

• I feel I really improved my English (I'm supposed to be a C1 student now ;-) );
• I improved my computer skills (sooo many discoveries!);
• I became a blogger (and I love blogging!);
• I realized I like taking pictures;
• I knew my classmates better and I made new friends thanks to our working groups.

Are you jealous of my achievements? I think you should ;-)

Finally, I want to thank all those people that made this journey with me. A special thank goes to my professor Sarah for her helpfulness, her innovative lessons and her critical teaching, and another goes to my working group (in alphabetical order Anna,Cristina and Michela ;-)) because thanks to their corrections and their collaboration and cooperation I improved not only my English but also my way of learning. A thank goes to all my classmates because they make this year unique and useful...thank you guys because I feel I improved as a student and as a person.

Ok after my 'Oscar speech' I think I could cry :-( but don't worry as I already said I'm going to keep on blogging ;-P

Elisabetta

CHRIS MARTIN'S SUCCESS

Hi guys!

Do you know the song Viva la Vida by Coldplay? I love it and it was the soundtrack of my last English lesson...sooooo sad!!! But let's reflect on it! I never thought about the meaning of this song but we did it in class and I think it was really interesting! If you don't know the song here you have the complete text!

What do you think? I think that the meaning of the song is really complicated and well hidden! However, my interpretation is that the song is about SUCCESS! When you are a successful person you are like a king, but success is something changeable and it stands 'upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand'. Success is linked to corruption, people who want to manipulate you and enemies who wait for your errors too. The only persons that can help you are those who really love you. They are the only ones who can be your 'mirror, sword and shield', they are like missionaries in the foreign world of corruption. I think that the song ends with a glimmer of hope because now the protagonist is aware of the negative sides of success and can redeem himself.

I think that this interpretation is linked to my personal vision of success ;) However, there are so many different interpretations of the text even if not an official one! Some people think it is about the fall of Satan, or the French Revolution, or the decline of the Church (here you can find a complete range of interpretations I 'stole' from my professor's blog ;)). One interpretation I particularly like is the one about love given by a friend of mine, Mario. You can go on his blog and read it because it's really beautiful ;-)

Bye

Elisabetta

Reflective blogging: my PLE is a galaxy

Hi guys!

..he he..I know what you are thinking: What is this scheme with all these stars and arrows? I introduce the mindmap of my Personal Learning Environment to you ;) I decided to divide and represent it as a GALAXY because I think that my learning environment is like a night sky composed by a constellation of stellar elements. They are all fundamental and necessary to enlighten the night of ignorance that characterizes a mind without knowledge! Today I am so poetic, don't you think? May be this is because I'm studying for my exam of Medieval English Literature ;-)

First of all, I'd like to explain what a PLE is. Indeed, there are many definitions and interpretations of this concept. If you are curious about them, my English professor Sarah gave us a complete and exaustive explanation in her blog post. In simple words, my personal interpretation is that a Personal Learning Environment is the whole of techniques, approaches and technologies we use to increase our knowledge. So, a PLE is very 'personal' and is different from person to person because our minds work in sooooo many different ways!

About my mindplan, I'm aware that it's a bit complicated but don't worry I'm going to explain it to you. As you can see, the first main division is between FORMAL and INFORMAL learning. Indeed, my learning is linked both to a more institutional context, for example at university, and to a more informal context, such as my everyday life. This first binary division is then developed like a mirror. Indeed, my formal and informal learning are composed by the same stellar elements: People, Places, Acting and Gathering information.

People that help me for my formal learning are my professors, classmates, colleagues and more in general all the people I meet in an institutional context. On the other hand, my informal learning is linked to my family, friends, and all the people I meet in my everyday life.

The most important Places for my formal learning are the university, my (actual and future) job-field and virtual places as the Internet. This latter is also fundamental for my informal learning that is composed by my home and the places I can see travelling and where I live too.

My Acting has some common features for formal and informal learning: speaking, reading, writing, listening. Moreover, my formal acting is linked to exams and presentations, while my informal acting is characterized by activities such as chatting, blogging and using Skype.

I divided the Gathering Information Star into two parts: physical and virtual. The physical part is totally different for formal and informal learning. Indeed, formal learning involves notes, books, conferences and dictionaries; while my informal learning is linked to more unconventional means such as TV, radio and music and newspapers. About the virtual part, formal and informal learning are strongly linked. Indeed, the Internet, Web 2.0, Del.icio.us, Wiki pages, blogs and forums can contain both authoritative and more informal information. For this reason, I considered them both formal and informal way of learning.

Now you know almost everything about how my mind work ;-) What do you think about my scheme? I made two new discoveries during its construction! I learned that you can 'draw' these kind of maps by using Freemind or Microsoft Publisher . I opted for Publisher because I think it's simpler and allows you to use different symbols, and because I needed STARS ;-)

I think this is my last Reflective Blogging as homework and this is really sad :-( But don't worry because I'm going to continue using this blog because I really looooove it!

Elisabetta

Opinion-polls: WE LOVE SUMMER !!!

Hi guys!

I have to admit that the results of my Second opinion-poll about our favorite season are not very representative (only 6 people voted :-( . However, I decided to publish the verdict because the winner is my favorite season and so the winner is....drum rolls....SUMMER!!!!!

As I wrote some posts ago, my new opinion poll is about the name of my future cat. I said 'future' because he is still living with his mother ;-) Help me in my choice pleeeaaaaaseeee ;-)

Bye,
Elisabetta

PS I want to thank Anna for her suggestions about my cat's name. If you are curious about them look at my new opinion-poll under my photo ;-)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

'God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers'
(Honoré de Balzac)

Happy Mother's Day
to all those women who are or are going to be mothers!

Elisabetta

Reflecting Blogging: INTERNET as a BOOGYMAN?

Hi guys!

This week I'm going to write to you about the risks involved in using the Internet. I reflected with some friends and we realized that the main problems you have to face while using the INTERNET are:

• privacy violation,
• identity problems,
• running into unwanted sexual, violent or illegal content,
• viruses and Trojan horses
• cloning,
• unconscious clicking
• unwanted sexual, violent, illegal contents,
• copyright infringements,
• false information
• addiction.

Ok, the list is a bit long but don't panic ;-) If we read through it carefully we can notice that all these troubles can be avoided using the Internet in a CRITICAL WAY. Now I'm sure that you are wondering: What does 'in a critical way' mean? I have an example for you! I use Facebook almost everyday because I think it's really useful to keep in touch with my friends who live abroad, and I share photos, links and other information with them. For this reason, I avoid having in my list of friends people I don't want to share my personal information with, or I use some filters ;-) So, we have to apply the same behaviour we have in our everyday life to our Internet life! For example, I don't think you usually tell your secrets or show your photos to the people you don't know, or you strongly believe in everything you read on newspapers or you see on TV.

I think that to be a RESPONSIBLE USER is fundamental especially when we have children using the Internet. This doesn't mean that we have to prevent them from using the PC because of the unwanted content they could find. Indeed, Internet is a new technology and contains useful and interesting information for children too. The important thing is that they use it with the help and supervision of an adult who should be the captain of their navigations ;-)

Do I reassure you about the Internet? I hope so, and remember that Internet is like our real world: neither safer nor more dangerous.

Bye,

Elisabetta

A new lovely friend!

Hi guys!

I want to introduce a new little friend to you ;-)
How could I name him?I hope to receive suggestions.....and in the next few days I'm going to create a new opinion poll about this important choice ;-)

Elisabetta

Reflective Blogging: Google Docs

Hi guys!

The new discovery of the week is: GOOGLE DOCS!

Ok, it's not a brand new discovery but I finally realized how I can use it and how it can be useful for me and my life ;-) Even if Google Docs is similar to a Wiki, it has some main advantages. Indeed, you can work with other people on the same document and edit it at the same time. It's your individual document and you have to invite people in order to work on it.

Do you think my explanation is a bit confusing? May be, so here you are a useful link about it and my personal complete description of the features of Google Docs:

• it's on the Web;
• you can work with other people simultaneously;
• it's your individual document;
• you have to invite other people to work on your document.

I experienced its use with my English classmates last week but I have to say that it was a bit frustrating. Indeed, we were tooooo much people working on the same document and our Google Docs continually changed, moved, shifted,...ahhhhh!!!!!! However, I think that it' s useful for my academic career and everyday life. For example, thanks to it I can have access to my documents all the time I want even if I'm not at home. Moreover, I can work in a team on the same document without problems of arranging a meeting and this is really useful! These are only two examples of how Google Docs can be used but I can imagine many different ways of 'exploit' my discovery and now I can apply it whenever I need it!

I hope and think this discovery is useful for you too!

Bye!

Elisabetta

Grammatical Status: 'COULD' AND OUR LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

Hi guys!

It's time to check the grammatical tips of the week!
Thanks to my English professor Sarah I reflected on how to make my blog readable. This involves not only avoiding grammatical mistakes but also the right use of:

1. links,
2. words (repetitions and synonyms),
3. lay-out (font and color),
4. structure (introduction+body+ conclusion),
5. lenght of sentences and paragraphs (short is better).

In particular, it's important to remember that English is a 'writer responsible' language, that is that the author is supposed to write in a way that the reader is able to understand. I must admit that this is sometimes difficult for me; indeed, I'm Italian and Italian is a reader responsible language and we often tend to be long-winded. About synonyms, I realized I must be really cautious. For example, I used 'search' and 'research' as synonyms but their meanings are totally different.

• Search is the generic 'looking for' and is countable.
• Research is used for the academic field and is uncountable.
• Reasearch study is used for the academic field and is countable.

Furthermore, they require different prepositions when used as verbs:

• To search for/ on / (-),
• To research (-).

As you can see, I finally learned how to list things in the right way. Indeed, lists are considered as normal sentences and for this reason I use commas, semi-colons and full-stops. Finally, I realized I have a love-hate relationship with 'could'. I love to use it but I hate it because it is so difficult to use in the right context! For example, I must remember that:

• COULD is a generic ability in the past,
• ABLE TO is an ability referred to a specific action.

Bye and be cautious ;-)

Elisabetta

Opinion-polls: results and.....SEASONS!

Hi guys!

Here you are the results of my First opinion-poll about changing the lay-out of my blog. The final verdict is (as you can see):
NO (77%)!!!

Now I have a new question for you about your favorite SEASON! Mine is Summer. I love hot weather, seaside, holidays and last but not least my birthday!!!! And what about you? Please vote (under my profile) and let me now ;-)

Bye!

Elisabetta

Reflective Blogging: APA vs MLA

Hi guys!

I'm here again ;-) I'm sorry but I worked very hard on my thesis during the last few weeks, so I didn't have a lot of time :-( However, the work I did is useful for my reflections! Indeed, I'm going to write about APA and MLA. These are two international styles of formatting texts.
In order to compare the two styles I start giving you one example about a reference for a book.

APA (American Psychological Association):
Anastasia, B. and Corò, G. (1996). Evoluzione di un'economia regionale. Portogruaro: Ediciclo.

MLA (Modern Language Association):
Anastasia, Barbara and Corò, Giovanni. Evoluzione di un'economia regionale (underlined title). Portogruaro: Edicilo, 1996.

As you can notice, the APA puts before the year of publication and the title is in italics and there's only the initial letter of the author's first name. On the other hand, the MLA has the title underlined, the year of publication is written at the end and the first name of the author is fully given. This rule is followed in references for articles and in periodicals too. Another difference is that APA uses in-text citations characterized by the name of the author and the date of publication, while in MLA in-text citations require the page number too.
More in general, MLA has more strict rules about style citations, preferes abbreviations and involves many different style and options for the different kinds of works to refere to and to cite. On the other hand, APA has less options but provides tips for the format too. So, I think that APA is more easy to use when wrtining my references.

When I wrote my BA thesis I used a mixture of the two styles. Here you are an example:
Blake, William, The Early Illuminated Books (London:the William Blake Trust, 1998)

However, in my final thesis I'm using a different format that follows the APA style apart from punctuation and abbreviations (my marketing professor 'suggested' it to me) . Here you are an example:
Agnis, Teri (1999), The End of Fashion: the Mass Marketing of the Clothing Business, New York: Morrow.

So, choose the style and format you prefere and feel more comfortable with and GOOD LUCK for your thesis!

Elisabetta

Reflective Blogging: FOOTLOOSE SHOES?

Hi guys!

I was going to analyze the article I chose for my post about Critical Reading but I realized that I didn't like it very much :-( So, I decided to find a new article that could be useful for my thesis, as well. So, forgive me for my change but here you are the link of my new article: Footlose Shoes? International competition and Industrial Districts in the Italian Footwear Industry.

It was published in 1998 and the author is Jochen Lorentzen (Department of International Economics and Management Copenaghen Business School and School of Development Studies University of Natal). In this academic article the Italian footwear districts are analyzed from the point of view of international competition, internal cohesion and delocalization. The article respects the hourglass structure. Indeed, there is a general introduction about Italian districts. The body is divided into three specific paragraphs which go down in specific details respectively about: The global and the local, Competition in the world footwear industry and Delocalization. Finally, the conclusion sums up in a general way what was written before about Italian footwear district's strategies and evolution in local and international industry policy. The division into paragraphs helps the reader to follow the logical flow of ideas: the discourse starts about global and local market and then focuses about footwear industry and the strategy of delocalising the production abroad. In this way, the text is really clear and easy to understand. Furthermore, it can be considered clear because conjunctions and subordinators render it cohesive. For example, 'on the whole' and 'to sum up' are often used, and they are useful to understand when a statement is giving a general conclusive idea about the topic. However, sometimes the lexicon is complex and difficult to understand because the article's assumed audience are footwear or industrial experts.

I think that a blog post should have the same features of an academic writing. As you can find in Handout2, they should be:

1. well structured;
2. logical;
3. clear and concise;
4. coherent.

It is important to notice that these features are applied to a different writing genre with some different consequences. For example, the concision of a blog post is linked to the fact that if it is too long the reader get bored; the clearness of a blog is linked to colours, font and pictures' disposition; a blog is coherent when links are used in the right way. So, remember to apply your list to your blog posts but with the right adaptations ;-)

Bye!

Elisabetta

Reflective Blogging: PLAGIARISM

Hi guys!

Today I'm going to write about a very 'hot' issue: PLAGIARISM! In simple words, in the academic world plagiarism can be defined as the imitation of words, ideas or opinions without identifying their own original source. For this reason, many authors protect their materials with IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). These rights allow their holders to control the use and reproduction of their creative works, which could be books, songs, films, photographs, articles and so on. Some solutions to avoid plagiarism are CREATIVE COMMONS, which is my new discovery too!! It is a non-profit corporation that allows people to mark their works freely in different ways corresponding to the different ways in which people can interact with them. In the following list you can find the different types of licences.

• Attribution is when you can use the materials by crediting the original author.
• Share alike is when the derivative works can be distributed only under an identical license.
• Non commercial is when materials can be used only without commercial purposes.
• No derivative works is when only verbatim copies are allowed.

An example of creative commons can be identified in Flickr, which is a site about pictures.
About ethics and copyright laws, a simple way to avoid plagiarism in our blogs could be:

• attribution;
• paraphrase + reference:
• summary + reference;
• links.

So, simply put some references to the materials we use or cite. It's important to remember the structure of referencing style too!An example could be:

1. author's name and surname,
2. title of book/article + chapter/journal + edited book/title of the blog post,
3. editor's name,
4. pages of chapter or journal article,
5. publisher/ url and date of the last visit.

I think that reflecting on plagiarism is very important not only because it is an offensive and bad habit, but also because in some countries it is punished with the failing of your course or even expulsion from university! Indeed, in the websites of many American universities I found explanations about plagiarism rules and punishments. For example, at Tiburg University in the case of plagiarism within a thesis a new thesis has to be written and at the Saginaw Valley State University I found a lovely honour code written to demonstrate respect to the work of other people and to maintain the honour of the university. Often universities provide tips for avoiding plagiarism and here you can find an example about Northwestern University. I shared this and other information on Delicious too.
Now that you know (more or less) everything about plagiarism remeber to pay attention to it!!

Bye

Elisabetta


PS I realized I could cover my pictures with copyright!However, I don't think I'm going to do it because if a person decides to 'copy' my pictures this means they are nice!;-)

Happy Easter!!

Dear guys..

I know I'm late but I wanted to wish to all of you a

Happy Easter!

I hope you had a wonderful time with your family, friends and everyone you love...
.....and I hope you had a great Easter Monday too!

Elisabetta

Sunny Spring

Hi guys!
Today it 's so sunny and hot and I'm so happy! I think this is a typical spring day: sun shining, birds singing, .....my dog and me playing in the garden ;-) I love these kind of days and I think I'm really meteopathic. How could I be sad with such wonderful weather? And you?

Elisabetta

Grammatical status: BEWARE OF.........RELATIVE CLAUSES

Hi guys!
Here you some new grammatical tips. This time I want to focus my attention on the difference between subordinators and conjunctions:

• Subordinators are NEVER preceded by a comma (you can find some more information in my previous Grammatical status)
  
• Conjunctions are INDEPENDENT SIGNPOSTS and are usually followed by a comma and preceded by a full-stop or semi-colon. Some examples are:

1. first of all, firstly, first.....to introduce a list;
   
2. in conclusion, to sum up, to summarize....to introduce a conclusion;
3. despite the fact, however, on the other hand...to express contrast;
   
4. as a result, consequently, therefore, .....to express a result;
   
5. moreover, furthermore, otherwise......to reinforce and add information;
6. for example, for instance.....to give examples.

Another fundamental point is the use of RELATIVE CLAUSES. I admit that for me it's not so easy to understand the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses. Here you some simple definitions in order to recognize them:

• DEFINING relative clause: gives essential information about the noun or noun phrase it modifies and without which the sentence wouldn't make sense (Pronouns: who, that, which, whose, where, when);
• NON-DEFINING relative clause: gives extra information about the noun or noun phrase it identifies, has commas at both ends and could be put into parenthesis (Pronouns: who, which, whose, where, when).

In order to understand the main difference between these two types of relative clauses, this week I tried to avoid the use of non-defining relatives and I finally understand that.....If you can put your information between parenthesis you are writing a non-defining relative clause and you have to use the pronouns 'who' (referring to a person) or 'which' (referring to a thing)!

Bye!

Elisabetta

Reflective blogging: CRITICAL READING

Good morning guys!

Did you read my post about evaluating on line source? I hope so because today I'm going to apply my reflections and my 4W to a Website I noticed surfing the Web thanks to Google scholar...my new discoveries are really useful! Indeed, I needed some information about e-learning and reading this abstract I realised that this article focuses on interesting topics, such as new systems used in education involving both formal and informal learning (WHY it was written). In the introductory page, I found not only the abstract but also the authors (WHO wrote it), the issue date (WHEN it was published) and I could look at the complete URL (WHAT the domain is). Thanks to this infomation, I realised that this article was authoritative and reliable because it was rather recent (19 the September 2006), the authors were linked to the University of Boston (among them there was a professor mentioned in other researches,too) and it was copyrighted. At this point, I decided to read it in full and I noticed that it was really well-structured and well-written using informal and academic language(WHAT style is used). All this evaluations didn't take me a lot of time and were really useful for my research..this is fantastic! I sometimes did it in an 'unconscious' way but now I am aware that I MUST do it all the times to be sure about the results of my researches. In conclusion,....I love my 4W!

Elisabetta

P.S. If you are interested in this article about e-learning I shared it on del.icio.us, too.

Reflective Blogging: EVALUATING ONLINE SOURCES

Hi guys!

How are you?Spring is finally coming!!!
Today I want to reflect with you about online researches. We started this reflection in class and I think it was really useful, indeed I always search for information and articles in the Internet, for example for my final thesis and for personal curiosity, too. You know that in the Web we have to be critical with everything we read, so I chose some main criteria I can use to make judgements about online researches and I found the 4W:

• who is the author (you can carry on a research on the publisher);
• what is the domain (.edu, .org,...) and what style, content, accuracy and structure is used;
• why it was published;
  
• when it was published.

You can fin a more complete and exhaustive list here... thanks Sarah ;-) Or if you have time, you can find longer descriptions in these Website: University of Essex, Purdue's Online Working Lab, San Diego Sate University. However, I think that you can easily get lost in these long and wide descriptions too full of suggestions.

And now I know that you'll be wondering..did she make any new technological discovery this week? Of course...YES! I have to admit that for my researches I used mainly Google and the online library catalogue, but I realized I used Google only in a 'superficial' way :-( But now I have my new discoveries in my mind and I can use:

• Google blogs, where you can find all blogs, some could be less authoritative but you can find blog of experts, too;
• Google books, the' you-tube' of books;
• Google scholar, where you can find abstracts, academic texts, journal articles,...

I want to conclude this post by saying that we should be critical not only with the information found on the Internet but also with everything we read and with any source, from journals to authoritative critics. They are often not independent but linked to associations and groups that conveys their ideas in 'certain' direction. So...BE ALWAYS CRITICAL and remember the 4W ;-)

Elisabetta

Grammatical status: BACK TO THE BASICS

Dear guys,

I decided to update my personal status in terms of errors ;-) I think that this is a very useful and effective way to remember my grammar mistakes and disgusting and horrible expressions..hi hi..and to avoid them. The key-word of today is SIMPLIFY in order to achieve a higher level of accuracy!

First: I really MUST keep in mind the structure SVO in order to avoid the use of intricate constructions, of fragments and run-ons.
Here you are some examples:
I didn't find IT very difficult
Feeds will help me to save A LOT OF updates (NOT 'a huge amount of')

Second: subordinators are NEVER preceded by a comma
Examples: after, while, until, so, since, in order to, despite, although, even if, unless, if,...

Third: I must LIMIT the use of : Present Perfect, also, such, have to, can/could

I hope and think that this could be useful for you, too ;-)

Bye!

Elisabetta

Reflective Bloggin: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING-Part II

Hi guys!

Today I'm going to write again about social bookmarking. Indeed, now we know what it is and I can suggest some interesting examples to you. During these last few days I looked at my peer's bookmarks about learning English and this thanks to the network I created on Delicious.I'm incredibly technological! Among their bookmarks I found some websites that could be useful for you and for me, in order to improve our English and I noticed that some of the links are the same. For example, I want to mention Anna's choice about www.learn-english-today.com because I chose it too ;-) Indeed, in this website we can find lists of idiomatic expression and proverbs, business vocabulary, exercises and wordgames as well. About Michela, I found Grammar Gang really useful; it is a blog which provides tips to improve our writing skills. Moreover, the fact that this is a blog means that it is continually updated and we can learn new things almost every day. Among Cristina's chioces I found Reuters very interesting. This website can be defined as a news service where we can find especially videos and recording on financial issues. So, the goal of this week is to practice English through these web-sites.HAVE FUN!

Elisabetta

Rainy Spring..

All this rain makes me so melancholic...I think that rain is wonderful when you are lying in your bed and you can listen to its relaxing sound..but ONLY in that case!! Don't you think?

Elisabetta

Reflective Blogging: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING- Part I

Hi guys!

..and the prize for the Brand-new discovery of this week goes to...drum rolls...Social Bookmarking (together with the awareness that I'm really uncultured about the Internet world)! Fortunately this course is taking me to a new level of knowledge about the useful things I can do thanks to the Internet! This week I discovered the existence of Social Bookmarking and, in particular, of Delicious...what a beautiful name! This service allows people to tag, save, manage and share Web pages all in one place. Indeed, Delicious is a community where you share the information you have found on the Web with other people with the same interests. If you want to add me as a friend my username is elisabettazambolin....ok I know I'm not very creative but what can I do? ;-) If you want my personal suggestion, all the sites I tagged with bloggingenglish_09 are useful in order to improve our English and our pronunciation but my favourite one is www.tv.com. Here you can find full episodes and clips of series, shows, movies,...now I'm going to watch an episode of Family guy so....see you and have fun with your favorite programmes!

Elisabetta

About pics...

Hi everybody!

I know that there have been problems of copyright about the use of pictures and I don't want to be in troubles. For this reason, I decided to 'embellish' my posts with my own photos (except for that about feeds, I really can't find a picture that could suit!). What do you think about them? You know.. I'm not a photographer and I've never been passionate about photos, may be a new interest could rise inside my heart! I posted pictures taken during my travels (for the moment I used two pics about Munich and one about Elba Island), but yesterday morning I decided to experiment new subjects! So, I went out in my garden and took some photos of my mother's flowers..she takes so much pride in them! Let's see what will happen in the next weeks....and let me know if you like them ;-)

Elisabetta

Opinion-poll..

Hi guys!

Under my profile you can find an opinion-poll (I LOVE them!) about my blog..if you have time look at it and give me suggestions ;-)

Elisabetta

Reflective Blogging: RSS

Hi everybody!

Today I'm very happy and optimistic..a lovely sunny Sunday and a new discovery about the Web! I have to admit that I had no idea what feeds and RSS were: I often wondered about what those nice orange icons were and NOW I have the answer! The most important thing is that I realized they are really useful; indeed, their function is to 'tell' me when my favorite blogs and websites are updated. In this way, I don't need to look at them ten thousand times a day in order to see when new posts appear. Moreover, with Bloglines I can arrange and divide them into playlists and read the new posts directly from this site..isn't it useful? Of course it is! Think about this: I can stay in touch with the members of my group, with the course blog, with world news from CNN, with articles from National Geographic,..all in one single page! However, not all websites have feeds, or may be their icons are so little I didn't see them..but why? I think they are really helpful and everybody should use them.....thanks for this new discovery!

Elisabetta

(PS This image source is www.fasticon.com)

Apologies..

I want to apologize because I realized that my last post was very long..a bit too much!I'll try to be more concise in the future...forgive me ;-) I hope it's not too late...

Apologize...

Elisabetta

My first Reflective Blogging

Today I'm going to write my first 'Reflective blogging' post! During this semester I'm going to write similar posts quite often because they entail reflecting on my learning process and creating a sort of diary of my improvements. Moreover, in this way I know that I MUST work on them each week if I want to have my conscience cleared ;-)
Unluckily I wasn't in class last week so I didn't work on my learning targets. However, I reflected for a while and I can say I need and I want to improve my spoken interaction and my writing. The former because sometimes I'm a bit shy and, as I speak, I become nervous and I make a lot of mistakes and try to correct myself while speaking and performing too long sentences. The latter because I want to improve and enrich my vocabulary and my style, indeed when I write I sometimes create very long and complex sentences. Furthermore, I want to work on them because they are going to be very important for a future job and, more in general, for the interaction with foreign people. I think that during this week I had to deal with them in different ways. About my writing, I worked on an analysis of a job offer (one of our assessments with Professor Taylor), I read some articles for my thesis and I'm working on my blog. About my spoken interaction, I tried to participate actively to our lessons in class and I offered to do a Power Point presentation for Professor Taylor. I think that our Thursday lesson was very useful for both my goals, indeed we had to correct in groups the comments we wrote. So, I could interact with other people and learn how to correct our most common mistakes (I have to admit that correcting our comments wasn't that easy!). Moreover, I had to present the blog I found (Dumb Little Man, you can find it on my favorite blogs) and one of my class mates and describe them in a critical way.
I think in the blogsphere I can find many examples of good formal and informal texts that can be useful for me and for improving my writing and my vocabulary, both in technical and everyday fields. Moreover, I can find videos and interviews that I can listen to in order to improve my pronunciation and have examples of fluent chats and talks. So, let's work on them!

Bye guys!

Elisabetta

Welcome guys

Hi everybody! This is my first experience with blogging, so be patient with me because I'm still working on the lay-out of my blog. My first impression is that this is going to be a very exciting and interesting experience to live together. I hope we could interact and help each other learning ad achieving new goals..so please leave comments with suggestions whenever you want! I think that with this blog I can improve my writing and analytical skills and I can enrich my vocabulary. Furthermore, the use of informal language is very important for my future everyday life and career, because people normally don't speak as academic professors ;) So, I'm going to write soon and often posts 'for fun' and 'for learning'!
Bye!

Elisabetta