Hello!
Nice to meet you all.
I'm Barbara Dieu -Bee, as people call me online or Bee Kerouac in- world. I have been in ELT for more than 30 years now and am presently teaching EFL to students preparing their French baccalaureat at the Franco-Brazilian school in Sao Paulo. I am an amateur photographer and cook. I enjoy reading, listening to music, travelling, slow food and meeting people.
If social media means communication, I have been using it since 1997 in collaborative projects involving my classes and other students around the world and for professional development (e-mailing, forums, ICQ, photos, videos, Skype and more recently blogs, wikis and other tools popularly denominated Web 2.0). I belong to a number of communities of practice and social networking sites.
I blog at Wide Open Spaces
Looking forward to learning and sharing with you.
Bee
Barbara Dieu
Posts made by Barbara Dieu
I'd like to forward an invitation for all those working with e-learning in Africa, especially mobile technology.
Event: Webinar 1: Applying mobile technology in the global conservation and development effort.
"Shareideas.org community event with an online chat"
What: Workshop
Host: Teemu Leinonen
When: Tomorrow, October 12 at 1:00am UTC (check your time)
Where: http://java.freenode.net//index.php?channel=shareideas.org
To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=5309584869
Event: Webinar 1: Applying mobile technology in the global conservation and development effort.
"Shareideas.org community event with an online chat"
What: Workshop
Host: Teemu Leinonen
When: Tomorrow, October 12 at 1:00am UTC (check your time)
Where: http://java.freenode.net//index.php?channel=shareideas.org
To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=5309584869
Hello Nellie and all,
Although I have been following the forum with interest I was unable to participate and contribute until now for absolute lack of time. Just wanted to introduce myself and say I am interested and will pop in when I can.
I'm Barbara Dieu (a.k.a Bee) and have been involved in ELT (English Language Teaching) for more that 30 years (retiring this year). I presently teach at the Franco-Brazilian school in Sao Paulo and have been participating in collaborative projects online since 1997 both with students (classes) and organizing PD workshops for teachers.
When I started 10 years ago, our school had two disconnected computers in the teacher's room and all the work I did with students was from home on a dial-up connection. Now, we are all on ADSL with one computer per class and 4 computer labs with 17 computers and yet, in ten years we have had only 1 pedagogical ICT workshop which lasted a week. There have been 2 or three focused on how to use Word or Excel.
Many teachers are self-taught like me and have gone outside the system to learn or to develop their work. Most do not have the basic skills and refuse to work with technology with their students or use pedagogical CDs. The school board does not seem to be concerned and does not offer much support.
This is however the situation in my particular school, which is a bit of an ET in the local educational area. Brazil has two systems running parallel: private and public. In most private schools you can find cutting edge expensive platforms and resources and the latest gadgets. They work however in assembly line mode inside LMS. Training is imposed on teachers, who refuse it as this extends their work beyond paid hours (for which they earn very little). In the public sector, open source software and social tools are making its way and I have seen some good projects happening. There are a lot of ICT workshops for public school teachers happening in the universities coordinated by the Education faculties.
See: http://www.cidade.usp.br/blog/
Projects are mostly conducted by NGOs or sponsored by foundations or corporations coupled with government incentives.
See:
http://www2.petrobras.com.br/cultura/ppc/faq/faq_formacao.asp
http://www.fb.org.br/institucional
Although I have been following the forum with interest I was unable to participate and contribute until now for absolute lack of time. Just wanted to introduce myself and say I am interested and will pop in when I can.
I'm Barbara Dieu (a.k.a Bee) and have been involved in ELT (English Language Teaching) for more that 30 years (retiring this year). I presently teach at the Franco-Brazilian school in Sao Paulo and have been participating in collaborative projects online since 1997 both with students (classes) and organizing PD workshops for teachers.
When I started 10 years ago, our school had two disconnected computers in the teacher's room and all the work I did with students was from home on a dial-up connection. Now, we are all on ADSL with one computer per class and 4 computer labs with 17 computers and yet, in ten years we have had only 1 pedagogical ICT workshop which lasted a week. There have been 2 or three focused on how to use Word or Excel.
Many teachers are self-taught like me and have gone outside the system to learn or to develop their work. Most do not have the basic skills and refuse to work with technology with their students or use pedagogical CDs. The school board does not seem to be concerned and does not offer much support.
This is however the situation in my particular school, which is a bit of an ET in the local educational area. Brazil has two systems running parallel: private and public. In most private schools you can find cutting edge expensive platforms and resources and the latest gadgets. They work however in assembly line mode inside LMS. Training is imposed on teachers, who refuse it as this extends their work beyond paid hours (for which they earn very little). In the public sector, open source software and social tools are making its way and I have seen some good projects happening. There are a lot of ICT workshops for public school teachers happening in the universities coordinated by the Education faculties.
See: http://www.cidade.usp.br/blog/
Projects are mostly conducted by NGOs or sponsored by foundations or corporations coupled with government incentives.
See:
http://www2.petrobras.com.br/cultura/ppc/faq/faq_formacao.asp
http://www.fb.org.br/institucional
Back home after a two-week holiday away (almost) from it all. I was following the discussion from a distance. Congrats on the award! The moderators at Scope deserve it! You have been doing fantastic work here.
Hello everyone,
I'm Barbara (Bee) Dieu in RL or Bee Kerouac in SL. I teach EFL (English as a Foreign Language) at the Franco-Brazilian school in Sao Paulo.
I became acquainted with SL through JoKay and Sean Fitzgerald from AU and later explored it with Graham Stanley (Baldric Commons) and Nick (Corwin Carrillon) visiting different environments and looking at possibilities for creative teaching and learning.
I also started participanting in Bron's Atlantis Quest with two of my classes three years ago but our limited bandwidth and network issues prevented us from going further into it.
I will be travelling those next two weeks but I am very interested in the conversation so will log on occasionally and try to follow and contribute.
BTW - I would love to meet anyone on this list who happens to be in Barcelona or London - two places I will be visiting during my trip :-)
I'm Barbara (Bee) Dieu in RL or Bee Kerouac in SL. I teach EFL (English as a Foreign Language) at the Franco-Brazilian school in Sao Paulo.
I became acquainted with SL through JoKay and Sean Fitzgerald from AU and later explored it with Graham Stanley (Baldric Commons) and Nick (Corwin Carrillon) visiting different environments and looking at possibilities for creative teaching and learning.
I also started participanting in Bron's Atlantis Quest with two of my classes three years ago but our limited bandwidth and network issues prevented us from going further into it.
I will be travelling those next two weeks but I am very interested in the conversation so will log on occasionally and try to follow and contribute.
BTW - I would love to meet anyone on this list who happens to be in Barcelona or London - two places I will be visiting during my trip :-)