Welcome messages
I have been an EFL teacher in the greater Lisbon area for the past 27 years and have taught all educational levels from 5th grade to university. This year I have three 7th grade classes (in their third year of EFL).
Throughout my career I have met dozens of colleagues and have taken various face-to-face training courses for professional development, but none has ever fulfilled me as the eight-week online training program with Webheads in Action from January to March 2002. I must have had a lucky star guide me the day I decided to join the Webheads!
I don't remember ever having learnt so much, in such a short period of time and with so much commitment, enthusiasm, fun, healthy socializing, mutual support and true friendship. It's been very exciting to work with such a fabulously warm, helpful, sharing, devoted, enthusiastic and professional group of people. Webheads are true 'mouseketeers' who follow the motto "All for one and one for all"! With such an extraordinary and diverse group of people, community building online could only become the enriching, lively and colorful experience it has been.
Over the past year we not only formed a solid and close-knit online community of practice, but also explored, experimented with and learned how to use state-of-the-art communication tools, as well as reflected on their applications to the EFL/ESL classroom. Some colleagues have already put into practice their newly acquired know-how, others are doing it at this very moment.
Being far apart (spread throughout four continents), but with a common goal and two powerful and reliable communication tools – email and chat –, has, I believe, brought us much closer together than we would be had we met in a face-to-face course.
My warm welcome to all those joining Webheads in Action in 2003. We will do our best to make you feel at home in cyberspace and to help you develop professionally. But. . . we also count on 'your' commitment, enthusiasm and contributions to help make this a better and ever-expanding community of practice!
28Dec2002
I am an EFL teacher in Argentina, Multimedia Coordinator in a 2,000-student private Institute, a believer in CMC Technology who one day in January 2002 accidentally came across a Community of teachers which enriched my professional life, as well as my personal development. Not only did I start to ponder over the possibility of adding CMC to my teaching practice, but I also gained the insight to understand the difficulties my students might encounter when communicating online, and the advantages and benefits this new tool can provide us all with, despite general disbelief and resistance.
That Sunday morning, from the comfort of my computer seat at home in my country, I felt blessed to stand the chance of learning and sharing, and, most important, of getting to know people from all over the world partaking not only a profession and aims, but also human codes of respect and generosity, ready to give, explain, back up, conduct, understand, inconditionally share. And from that morning on, I have experienced online what paper-based theory fails to render: the means to achieve true interchange and communication.
Rita Zeinstejer
December 2002
First of all, in this context, I'm a Webhead!,
This means that I've been
involved with the Writing for Webheads community since the summer 2001 and
joined the EVONline seminar in 2002 where we developed the ongoing practice
of Webheads in Action, and this year, I am part of the Communities of
Practice workshop, as a co-moderator in weeks three and four.
The reason why I got engaged in Webheads is my
actual researh interest in
socio-technical online networking in edcuation. I am doing a masters study
of education theory, focused on internet and computer supported
collaborative learning (CSCL). I live in Denmark, my university is the one
and only Danish University of Education in Copenhagen, and I work part time
as an external examination controller at the colleges of social education,
and as a free lance writer of education related matters. Although I have no
formal background in linguistics, I do feel connected to the EFL and ESL
matters more like a self directed lifelong student of English, profiting on
my experiences and interest in the internet activities.
As an occasional helpdesk I would be ready to help newcomers around in
Tapped In, and I've also some experiences with Yahoo Messenger (the chat and
video part; voice is not yet available in YMS on the Macintosh system).
Another way to meet online in synch is the free webcam meeting place, at
iVisit; and I hope we are going to show you more about this in our week 3.
27 January 2003
Updated on 27Jan03
Created on 29Dec02
Teresa Almeida d'Eça
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