XCHANGE_second meeting

Hello everybody!

I’m here to tell you something about my second Skype meeting. I have to say that I’m a little bit unlucky with technological stuff… Also this time I had problems with the connection: I could hear Allyson and Martina talking but they couldn’t hear my voice.
This is definitely the main reason why for the first half an hour I only practised my listening skill… They spoke about some words we had to discuss on the forum and Allyson wanted to know something more about the meaning of the word ‘raccomandato’… It’s so difficult to explain something that is obvious for you and your culture without finding the right translation for that word, isn’t it?!
Later, when I was able to take part in the conversation, we talked about terrorism, the movie "Buongiorno, notte" and the attack at the Twin Towers in 2001… Allyson told us how she spent that day but I hope to ask her something more, especially about her feelings and fear towards these events.
Reflecting on these two Skype meetings, I want to point out that talking in three is not easy, I mean that it’s difficult to control the turns of the conversation… And moreover, I tend to listen rather than speaking…
Anyway, I’ll try to make it work better next time!

C u soon and Happy Easter to everybody!!!

Terrorism

The discussion on the wiki of this week was really interesting but difficult as we had to talk about subjects such as "Gli anni di Piombo" and terrorism... But it has been useful as I had the opportunity to reflect on an important part of the Italian history and to remember it and its victims. I think it’s necessary to know our recent history in order to make things change and improve.
I haven’t seen the film "Buongiorno, notte" yet but I’ve taken a look at some videos on YouTube and I’m going to watch it soon. Here is a small scene…the soundtrack taken from "The great gig in the sky" by the Pink Floyd is amazing and makes these images even more dramatic.

2nd semester...Padova-Dickinson exchange

Welcome back my dear blogging mates!!!

The second semester has just started and I feel really motivated and curious about all the activities we are going to do… Unfortunately I can’t attend the lessons on Monday because of a course at the Chamber of Commerce but I can take part in the Skype exchange.

Last Tuesday we had the first meeting with the American students and, as usual, I had some technical difficulties… I was able to contact Martina and Allyson after half an hour because my microphone didn’t work! Anyway, in the end we were able to have a general chat about ourselves and about Italian and American educational systems.

I had never used Skype before and in spite of my technical problems I think it’s amazing! By using chats, e-mails or blog posts you can’t realize that the other person really exists while through Skype you can hear the voice, you can see him/her talking to you… It’s so exciting! I’m sure this exchange will be very useful in order to improve both my intercultural competence and my language skills… I’m really optimistic and that’s why I look forward to hearing from Allyson and Martina soon!

Bye!!

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!

Working with you has been a useful and funny experience... Thank you for this first semester together and...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy holidays,

c u next year!!

Personal Learning Environment

Hello Group D!
Well, it was quite strange to think about my way of learning… I mean… When you have to study something you just do it without worrying too much about the method you use. However, reflecting on PLE I realized that it’s very important to know how to organize your own learning. This is true especially for language students: we have to practise and practise otherwise we forget; we have to pay attention to any kind of ‘input’ in order to make improvements and to keep on learning in an effective way. That’s why I find some activities really useful for my English learning: grammar and vocabulary exercises; listening practice; reading texts aloud; doing translations.
When I want to learn a new word or expression I write it down on my notebook, I check its use in the dictionary and I fix it in my memory linking it to some examples.
Of course, it’s important to attend lessons, to take part in discussions suggested by professors, and to speak with your colleagues at university.
Finally, making comparisons between my work and my peers’ one is very helpful: you can learn from mistakes and you can appreciate other styles of writing and different ideas... Very stimulating!

I’m sorry…My picture is not very good… However, I divided my mindmap in 4 macro groups called HOW, WHERE, WHO and GATHERING INFORMATION.

I hope u are able to read something!

Bye bye

Laura

web sources

Hi everybody!
In this post I'm going to discuss sources of information and how they should be evaluated.
We should always evaluate a source of information whether it comes from the web or from a newspaper or a book…we should find out more information in order to understand if the document is reliable or not. This is why sometimes I just think books are much easier and much more trustworthy than pages that are available on the web. Anyway as nowadays the role of Internet in the field of politics, economics, news, literature and basically in every area of interest is becoming more and more important and used by anyone, we should set some criteria to follow when doing our research on the web.

Personally whenever I use the internet to researching a piece of writing such as an essay I always follow several golden rules. Firstly only trust a source if it has come from a recognised and reputed source such as an E-Journal or electronic library. Secondly, when using sources that have been taken from online newspapers make sure that the story has been printed in paper form by a national or regional paper. The final rule is to take any other sources that you find on the internet “with a pinch of salt” i.e. don’t believe everything you read and most certainly don’t base your entire essay around unverified sources. These criteria are fundamental for me, but they definitely need to be combined with the advice I found on the web pages of some Universities.

I hope you find my post useful!

See u!

YouTube

Hi everybody!

The world of YouTube is really huge! Exploring this new tool and searching for something interesting I realized that it provides videos for any purpose: you can watch videos about music, world news, travel or just have fun and relax thanks to many funny sketches. Moreover, YouTube can be useful to learn something new about a specific topic and for our English language learning too!!! The potential of this tool is that watching videos you have the advantage of seeing what you are listening to and better following the development of videos… Actually I think that images and written words are the best way to fix in your memory much information and this is really helpful in learning!
Another great feature of YouTube is that anyone can upload their own material and share them with other surfers. You can comment on those videos you find interesting and rate them so that the maker of the video can improve or update it.
YouTube is simply fantastic!!



This is the video I chose: Cat Stevens singing “Peace Train” during a live concert in 1976. It’s a song against war… It’s sad but hopeful.
Listening to a song can be a good way to improve our listening skills and learn new words… Do you agree?

I look forward to hearing from you!

C u!
Laura