My holliday in Marsa Alam!
Dear all,
I have just come back from Marsa Alam (Egypt)...what a wonderful holiday! I'm so sad for being here again!
Last week my classmates predented their presentation to American students using webcast. This week we are supposed to express our impressions on this experience. As I wasn't present in class I have to downlow the webcasts in order to give my opinion. However, I can't do it now because at home I haven't got the headphones and actually the lab is not free. For this reason I will carry out my activity by tomorrow (I hope the lab will be free!).
I just want to tell you something about my trip in Egypt...I really relaxed myself, in the sea there were so many kinds of wonderful and colourful fishes, I swam with the tartles, I sunbathed, and I had a trip to Luxor. Such a trip was very hard...I woke up at 3 a.m, we took 6 hours in order to arrive at Luxor by bus (and 6 hours to come back...totally 12 hours!). There were 45 degrees temperature at 10.30 in the morning! I visit the temple of Karnak, that of Luxor, and finally, the Queens and Kings' valley (at 2.30 p.m. there were 52 degrees temperature! I thought I could die!). At 12 a.m. we came back to our village in Marsa Alam! Although this trip was very hard, I liked it very much! The other days I stayed in the village...what a wounderful days! Unfortunately I'm here in Padua again...
Well guys, that's all for the moment!
Bye
Barbara

What a pity!!!
Hi guys!
This week I'm quite sad because last Monday (23th April 2007) I had my last exchange with Gillian. This time our exchange was different because we could see each other thanks to a camera. I had previously seen her in a photo but in reality she looks like quite different. I mean, in the photo she looks older than how she is...in reality she is so young! Whereas the other times I talked only with Gillianh, this time we (Italians) asked American students some questions about what happened in the "Virginia Tech" two weeks ago. We talked to all the American students and at the end of the lesson we all said goodbye to each other. I assure you that I was about to cry! Unfortunately I always grow fond of people at once. I was really sad because that was our last exchange and moreover, I hadn't personally said goodbye to my American peer. However, two hours later Gillian sent me an e-mail! She wrote me that, as we hadn't had time to talk to each other, if I had some questions to ask her about university system in USA (this is the topic of my final presentation concerning my English course)I could ask her. Moreover, she wrote me that she hoped we would keep in touch with each other. The exchange was really a fun experience, I really enjoyed myself! Moreover, I think I have improved my oral English and I am very proud of me as during the exchanges I talked in English for 40 minutes at least! I didn't think I would be able to do this!
I just want to thank the person who gave me the opportunity to have such a wonderful experience...thank Sarah! I suggest you to repeat this experience with your next classes! They can have a fun and improve their English!
That's all for the moment!
Next week I won't write in my blog as I will have a holyday so...see you in two weeks!
Bye
Barbara

MY THIRD ENCHANGE
Hello everybody!
Last Monday I had my third exchange with my American peer Gillian. The topic of our talk was alternative energy resources in Italy and in the United States. I was impressed by what she told me about hybrid cars and that’s the reason why I developed this topic in the wiki page of my English course. She told me that lots of her friends have hybrid cars and I realised that here in Italy very few people have this kind of vehicle (I don’t personally know anybody who belongs hybrid cars). In my opinion that’s a pity because using hybrids we could protect the environment and the air much more than we actually do.
Then we talked about our opinion concerning alternative energy resources, we asked some questions about the situation in our countries, and what we personally do in order to economize on energy.
Finally, I asked her the reason why she called me for our first exchange. She answered that at first her teacher gave the students the name of their Italian peer and she told her: “Well Gillian, you call Barbara”. For the next exchange their teacher told them to talk to the same person of the first time and Gillian said that she were happy to talk with me again, first of all because we had already broken the ice the previous time and above all we were able to understand each other (maybe not everybody is able to understand what his/her peer tells him/her). Of course, I’m happy as well to have a talk with her anytime we are supposed to have our exchange!
Well guys, that’s all for the moment!
Have a good week!
Bye Barbara

Hello everybody!
Unfortunately yesterday I had't got the opportunity to talk with my American peer because there in the States they are actually on holyday (just for one week). However, this week we are supposed to search for information about alternative sources of energy in Italy which is the topic of our next exchange. I must edit what I found about this subject in our course-wiki and actually I'm waiting (I have been waiting for 40 minutes by now!!!) that the person who is editing at this moment finishes his work...I hope it will happen as soon as possible. Furthermore, I have just realised that this person has already written most pieces of information I had saved in my word-document (before editing it in the wiki)...Well, now I have to revise it (what a pity! I heve been working on it for 2 hours!!!). This is the disadvantage of working in a wiki.
I must go away now, so I will try for the last time to edit my contribution to our course wiki.
See you next week!
Bye Barbara

MY SECOND EXCHANGE
Hello everybody!
Yesterday I made my second exchange with my American peer Gillian and as I supposed, this time things went better than last week as we had already broken the ice: yesterday we were less embarrassed because we already knew each other.
This time she had prepared some questions about recycling in Italy to ask me and she tried to speak Italian. At first I found it difficult to understand her because when she read her question she didn’t make any pause between words (she didn’t separate them). However, after the second question I realised her way of reading and I was able to answer her.
Furthermore, yesterday I recorded my talk with Gillian and listening to it I surprisingly realised that I’m not so bad at speaking English as I thought!!!
Well guys, that’s all!
Bye Barbara

WHAT A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE!
Hello everybody!
This week I'm going to tell to you about my first Skyping experience.
Last week we were supposed to find some pieces of information about recycling in Italy and then to write them down in our "Tulanepadova" wiki. On Monday we had our first exchange with American students attending the Tulane Univeristy in the United States and recycling was supposed to be the topic of out talk.
I was skyping with one of my classmates (in order to make some "prove tecniche" before skyping with our peers in the States) when I realised that my Skype-phone was ringing...an American student was calling me. I was quite worried for two reasons: first of all I don't understand American language very well; then I didn't know the person who was calling me so I didn't know what to tell her. However, I was able to talk to her for 40 minutes!!! And I enjoyed myself very much!
We talked a little bit about recycling (I asked her two questions about recycling in the States. She answered to me but as she spoke too fast I didn't understand all that she said.) Then we talked about ourselves as she hadn't prepare anything about recycling (neither questions about the situation in Italy nor pieces of information about that in America). However, I really enjoyed myself!!!
I look forward to talking to her again and I'm sure that next time will be much better than last time: we alreandy know each other and then she promised me she would speak Italian to me!

Well guys, that's all for the moment!
See you next week!
Bye Barbara

E-TIVITY 9: "STILL WORKING ON THE WIKISPHERA"

Hello everybody!
This week as well we are supposed to work on wikis because we have to improve our contribution to edutech wiki. The wiki administrator Daniel Schneider sent an e-mail to Sarah and asked her to tell us to improve our contributions adding some important pieces of information.

From this experience I understood that the world of wikis is governed by some important rules which contributors are supposed to obey. In order to give a good and useful contribution to the wiki, the writer has to:
- write a clear and concise text;
- paraphrase and summarize the source text intead of making long quotations;
- quote someonelse's words just to support his ideas and statements;
- make internal links (like this: [[blog]]) to other pages of the wiki if there are words which can be connected to eachother;
- cite the sources correctly;
- use paragraphs, divisions and bold in order to facilitate the reading.

To improve our contributions Sarah gave us an useful link which explains how to quote, how to cite electronic sources correctly, how to paraphrase, how to be concise etc.

I am in my fifth year at the university and in a few months I have to start writing my thesis. I think that in wikis I can find some interesting arguments for the topic I will choose (I still don't know what my thesis will deal with).

Well guys, that's all!
See you tomorrow!
Barbara