Places of Interest on the web

Site	Description	Address
Edx	edX – is a community dedicated to bringing education to everyone across the globe. Tell your edX story, connect with others, and learn about new courses.	https://www.facebook.com/EdxOnline
Songs for Teaching	Creative teachers can use music to teach content across the curriculum – to students of all ages.We offer thousands of children's songs, lyrics, sound clips and teaching suggestions.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Songs-for-Teaching/118205941217
English is fun	This page is for those who love English, and want to improve it	https://plus.google.com/106180137997255308995/posts
Multimedia English	Their aim is to make learning English free and available to everyone, no matter where they live or how rich or poor they are.	http://www.multimedia-english.com/
engvid	The web site offers free video English lessons.	http://www.engvid.com/english-lessons/
BBC Learning English	It is a web site that allows us to learn English in a real context like the News.	http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
VOA	It is a web site that allows people to learn English by looking the news, each one with audio and the text attached to it.	http://learningenglish.voanews.com/
Idioms in English	It is a Facebook page that provides us everyday with a new common and useful expression in English	https://www.facebook.com/EnglishIdiomsExpressions
Live Mocha	It is a portal that allow people to interact with native speakers to practice and learn a new language.	http://learn.livemocha.com/#logged_out
English lesson planner	It is a web site in which you can create, store and find lesson plans for teaching English.	http://www.englishlessonplanner.com/
LearnEnglish – British Council	It is a web site with resources for people who want to learn English. And it is part of the British Council.	http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

Ingreso y conocimiento de los entornos AVA en la UNAD

¿Qué son los AVA?

Los AVA son un entorno de aprendizaje mediado por la tecnología, lo cual transforma la relación educativa en cuanto a la gestión, la distribución, comunicación y procesamiento de la información dotando a la relación educativa de nuevas posibilidades para el aprendizaje.

Se basa en el principio de aprendizaje colaborativo en el cual como estudiantes podemos realizar los aportes y expresar nuestras inquietudes a través de foros.  Mediante el uso de herramientas informáticas con lo que los textos pasan de ser letra muerta, de un texto en línea y empiezan a transformarse en un entorno comunicativo de construcción de conocimiento.

Los componentes de este sistema incluyen plantillas para la generación de contenidos, charlas, blogs, video conferencias, etc

Los ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje tienen varias ventajas, entre las cuales podemos mencionar las siguientes: facilitan la integración de la educación a distancia y la educación tradicional a demás de poder aprender a través de otros medios, la ampliación del aprendizaje, la relación con las tecnologías en las posibilidades de aprender con tecnología y de tecnología a la vez que también nos ofrece la posibilidad de  mejorar algunas habilidades cognitivas en la interacción cooperativa entre personas.

Video Tutorial - Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizaje

Funciones de un e-monitor

Un monitor nos aporta destreza, experiencia y apoyo, el monitor no nos da respuestas, pero nos ayuda en la solución de problemas, ayudándonos a encontrar respuestas.

En el capitulo VII, Honores, distinciones y estímulos a estudiantes, el artículo 56 Monitorias. Del reglamento general estudiantil de la Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, UNAD se establece que las actividades de monitoria son un incentivo que la institución otorga al estudiante que haya demostrado alto rendimiento académico y se haya distinguido por su contribución al desarrollo institucional.


El mismo articulo en su parágrafo 2, reza:

Las Funciones que debe realizar un monitor son:

a) Elaborar conjuntamente con el Director del curso académico, tutor de curso, director o
coordinador de los servicios que se prestarán, el plan de trabajo a desarrollar, el cual debe ser
remitido al Director del CEAD o instancias afines con la documentación correspondiente.

b) Entregar los informes de actividades al Director o tutor del curso.

c) Impulsar el uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en las interactividades
pedagógicas, como revisión de correo electrónico, chat, lista de correo, grupos de discusión, y
otras.

d) Participar en las redes académicas y de aprendizaje constituidas en el curso académico que
monitorea o en el servicio que se presta.

e) Velar por el buen estado de materiales y equipos a su cargo.

f) Apoyar las actividades académicas que demanden los estudiantes.

g) Contribuir a la búsqueda de fuentes bibliográficas actualizadas, sea a través de fuentes
convencionales o de fuentes virtuales.

h) Diagnosticar y socializar las necesidades de formación académica de los estudiantes.

i) Participar en la organización de eventos, simposios o actividades programadas.

j) Participar en los proyectos de investigación propuestos por docentes e investigadores.

k) Las demás que, por la naturaleza de la actividad, le sean asignadas por el Decano, Director de
Centro o instancia afín.



Fuente:.
Universidad Nacional a Distancia. (2006) Reglamento General Estudiantil. Recuperado de http://academia.unad.edu.co/images/reglamento%20academico/reglamento%20general%20estudiantil.pdf
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Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

It does not matter if you are a geek in the use of technology to notice that in the last years the use of apps and social networks has increase that much that those features have been applied in the education field thanks to the web 2.0, the term makes reference to a generation of websites in which people work collaboratively in the building of projects, such thing was not possible before when people were using websites built in static html pages.


The main differences between the web 1.0 and the web 2.0 can be taken from the words of Alberto Ortiz de Zárate Tercero in Manual de uso del blog en la empresa pag 18 in which he describes the web 2.0 as a social phenomenon in relation to the creation and distribution of content on the Internet, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and use, within an approach that treats the human and economic relations as conversations. Things like these were not possible before the technology development that helped web 1.0 to reach the level of web 2.0.


Let’s give a look to some tools and applications and what they are.

• A social network is a site that facilitates the building of relations among people who share interest, activities, backgrounds, or real life connections.

• Web pages are the content of the www, and can either be static or dynamic, webmail is any email client implemented as a web application accessed via a web browser.

• Blogs are Web sites that contain an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

• A wiki is usually a web application which allows people to add, modify, or delete content in collaboration with others.

• Podcast is a pre-recorded audio program that is posted to a website and is downloadable so people can listen to them on their computers or devices.

• Video and image sharing is the publishing or transfer of user's digital files online, thus enabling the user to share them with others (publicly or privately), instant messaging is a type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission over the Internet.

Some examples of these tools are:

§      Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. As well as to keep up with them

§      Twitter

https://twitter.com/

Twitter is an online social networking service and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".

§      Prezi

http://prezi.com/

Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery

§      VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/

VoiceThread is a totally web-based application that allows you to place collections of media like images, videos, documents, and presentations at the center of an asynchronous conversation and to make comments on them.

§      Vuvox

http://www.vuvox.com/

VUVOX allows you to create interactive slideshows and presentations from photos, video and music from Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, YouTube, Facebook and more.

§      Jing

http://jing.softonic.com/

Jing is an application; it captures anything you see on your computer screen, as an image or short video, and lets you share it instantly

§      YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view and share videos

§      Scribd

http://www.scribd.com/

Scribd is a digital documents library that allows users to publish, discover and discuss original writings and documents in various languages

In conclusion we can state that the improvement in technology has changed the way in which we teach and learn English because with web 2.0 we can create new environments that help students to get involved in the processes according with their interests, and using technology we gain confidence in the practice and learning of English on the web helped by an application or a platform.

SOURCES

·         Alberto Ortiz de Zárate Tercero. (2008). Manual de uso del blog en la empresa. Retrieved from http://www.infonomia.com/img/libros/pdf/BlogsEmpresa.pdf

·         Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. (2011). Tech-Ease. What is web 2.0? Retrieved from http://etc.usf.edu/techease/win/internet/what-is-web-2-0/

·         Metaweb. (10/23/2006). Topics. Social networking service. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/category/social-networking/

·         Tech terms. Internet terms. Webpage. Retrieved from http://www.techterms.com/definition/webpage

·         Wikipedia. (31 August 2013). Webmail. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmail

·         Merriam-Webster. Dictionary. Blog Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog

·         Wikipedia. ( 6 September 2013). Wiki. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

·         Entrepreneur. Podcast. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/podcast

·         Wikipedia. (1 August 2013). Photo sharing. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_sharing

·         Wikipedia. (12 September 2013). Instant messaging. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

·         Tech smith. Jing. Retrieved from http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

·         Wikipedia. (17 September 2013). YouTube. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

·         Prezi. (2013). About us. Ideas matter. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/about/

·         Linked in. (September 2013). Prezi. Actualizaciones recientes. Retrieved from http://www.linkedin.com/company/prezi

·         Penn State. (March 11, 2013). Welcome to VoiceThread at Penn State. What is VoiceThread? Retrieved from http://voicethread.psu.edu/

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. A list of 20 free tools for teachers to create awesome presentations and slideshows. Retrieved from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/05/list-of-20-free-tools-for-teachers-to.html

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my blog, this work has as objective to show how technology can be used effectively in language teaching and learning. And by the different activities you will find in it you will also find a way to engage yourself in the study of English in a blended learning environment with activities you can do by clicking on the screen or by rolling your mouse through it. 

If you prefer doing it in lessons, you can click one of the following links.

The alphabet
Animals
Numbers
Body

Ict in education from Julian Naranjo

De acuerdo con Vito Dibari* las características de la Web 2.0 pueden resumirse en los siguientes diez apuntes que permitirán una mejor comprensión sobre la Web 2.0:

1. La Web es una plataforma. Hemos pasado de un software instalable en nuestros PC’s a servicios de software que son accesibles online.
2. La Web es funcionalidad. La Web ayuda en la transferencia de información y servicios desde páginas web.
3. La Web es simple. Facilita el uso y el acceso a los servicios web a través de de pantallas más agradables y fáciles de usar
4. La Web es ligera. Los modelos de desarrollo, los procesos y los modelos de negocio se vuelven ligeros. La ligereza está asociada con la habilidad para compartir la información y los servicios de forma fácil y hacerlo posible a través de la implementación de intuitivos elementos modulares.
5. La Web es social. Las personas crean la Web “popularizan la Web” mediante la socialización y el movimiento gradual de los miembros del mundo físico hacia el mundo online.
6. La Web es un flujo. Los usuarios son vistos como co-desarrolladores, la Web 2.0 permanece en el “perpetuo beta”, se encontrará en el nivel de desarrollo beta por un periodo de tiempo indefinido.
7. La Web es flexible. El software se encuentra en un nivel más avanzando porque este nivel permite el acceso a contenidos digitales a los que antes no se podía llegar. Esta idea es similar a la del concepto del “Long Tail”, que se centra en el contenido menos popular al que antes no se podía tener acceso.
8. La Web es combinable. La expansión de códigos para poder modificar las aplicaciones web (como Google hace con las aplicaciones de Google Maps) permite a los individuos, que no tienen porque ser profesionales de los ordenadores, combinar diferentes aplicaciones para crear nuevas.
9. La Web es participativa. La Web 2.0 ha adoptado una estructura de participación que alientan a los usuarios mejorar la aplicación mientras la utilizan, en vez de mantenerla rígida y controlada.
10. La Web está en nuestras manos. El aumento de la organización de la información enfatiza el uso amistoso de la misma a través de los enlaces. Gracias al fenómeno social del etiquetado cada vez es más fácil acceder a la información.

Images taken from
www.englishcentregijon.com 
www.shayarinjokes.com
*Dibari, Vito. 2009.Las diez características de la Web 2.0: Internet ha cambiado, ¿y tú?.VITODIBARI.COM BLOGGING THE FUTURE. Recuperado el 7 de marzo de 2014 de http://vitodibari.com/es/las-diez-caracteristicas-de-la-web-2-0-internet-ha-cambiado-y-tu.html

Julián Naranjo Profile

My name is Julian Antonio Naranjo Arcila. I am 30 years old; I live in Yarumal city, Antioquia. I’m in third semester of Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

I am a philosopher; I have been working as a teacher since my graduation date on April 26th 2008. It is a great pleasure to me sharing this blog with you; my goal is to be a professional able to accomplish in my life new ways of getting knowledge and understanding of the things I haven’t discovered yet. 

For my professional life I hope to become a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and exercise my teaching with more resources than I have at my disposal now. 

I've been scout for over 10 years; I have a special love for nature and for trying to leave this world in a better condition than I found it. I believe such love is directly related to my favorite activity which is going camping in the forest. I don’t have a lot time to watch TV, but I like to watch sports, especially soccer. 

At the moment I have a Scout group in my home town and in this group there are about 70 scouts with whom I share a special feeling for nature, love. This feeling gives me strength and encourages me to continue teaching to children how to be good citizens and good people, while they protect nature and help others to achieve their goals in life. 

Paraphrasing Badem Powell, I work every day to try to put happiness into the lives of others. And perhaps one day I will be able to say: my mission is done, because just as the founder of the Scouts Movement I want to leave this world a little better than I found it[1]. 

[1] Baden-Powell's Last Message (1945)