Valuable or not valuable? That is the question!

photo by Google images

The evaluation of sources: it’s a “boiling issue” all of us have had to cope with several times in his/her scholastic career. Sarah definitely hit the bull’s eye: the reliability and the trustworthiness of our master thesis will greatly depend on the consistency of the material we will collect and on which we will base our line of reasoning. Therefore, it’s vitally important being prepared to judge carefully what we happen to read, not to run the risk of including poor and incoherent information.
I read the tips given in the three websites Sarah suggested and I found them extremely clear and useful: they were undoubtedly written by people who experienced themselves the difficult “struggle” against rubbish news! I use such a term because for me the search for reliable sources can be compared to a real fight to the death, especially if you decide to surf the Net: to type the keywords and to start the search engine is to open Pandora’s box! You are literally overwhelmed by thousands, even millions of answers to your question and you necessarily have to find a way to identify what is really worth reading.
While looking for more information about this topic, I came across another remarkable website (Module 3 Evaluating) containing smart guidelines not to get lost in the “tsunami” of suggestions and links the Internet offers you. By and large, it says the same things as the sites I previously mentioned, but it also highlights the importance of checking the last part of the url (“top level domain name”) of the pages you would like to visit. Sarah, too, pointed out this criterion of selection in class and it is the first strategy I adopt when I judge online sources: the information you can get from a website run by government agencies (.gov), non-profit organizations (.org) or education institutions (.edu or .ac.uk.) is certainly more valuable than the news you can spot in essay banks, blogs, chat rooms and personal webpages. In this cases, as the article from the University of Essex clearly explains, “you know nothing about who the authors are, or what authority they have for expressing a view on the subject”. If you want your work to be serious and taken into consideration by the people who will read it, you can’t refer to what an unknown, sometimes even anonymous, author has written on his page: the website could contain just his opinion, groundless conjectures he developed on his own. Then, your teacher could think that adding to the bibliography of your thesis the url of chat rooms and blogs is not very professional!
The main problem is that looking for valid and useful news is always tiring and time-demanding. In the past we used to turn over the pages of piles of books to carry out our works of research: it took a lot of time, but at least we knew (or we hoped!) that the authors were experts in the field; many of them had written other articles, essays, books, so we had the guarantee that what we read were thoughtful reflections and theories. Now books have become old-fashioned, everything you are looking for is on the Web: it is true, but we also learnt that the right way to follow is often hidden among many dead paths. Finding it demands time and people are not willing to waste hours and hours to make sure of the validity of the information Google has first displayed on their screen. In the website I mentioned above there is an interesting survey about the way people carry out their research: you can answer yourself the questions and then check the results. The data are stricking, I report them here:
- to start a research paper the 66% of people look for websites;
- the 48% spend less than five minutes to select the source;
- to determine if information is factual the 47% simply assume that what they read is probably true.
This is why bad written and unreliable essays are so common and plagiarism is such a current issue.
In order to screen the list of returns search engines give you, using specialized search engines could be a good idea: I tried myself Mamma (what a nice name!) and it greatly reduces the number of links you can check by providing only the most relevant returns from the other search engines it searches.
Once you have checked if the website and his/her author are really trustworthy, there is one more question you should ask yourself: when was the page last updated? As you can read in the article from Purdue' Online Writing Lab, “some information becomes dated when new research is available, but other older sources of information can be quite sound 50 or 100 years later”. It is important to keep in our mind what kind of information we need to decide if a piece of writing is outdated or not (in respect of this matter, the website I suggested you was last updated in 2003, but you can still answer the survey, so the results are reliable!).
This long process is another clear proof that the Internet can make our life easier, but in order to use it properly we have to resort to our criticism and to accept the fact that we have to spend some of our precious time.

YouTube rocks!!!

What an exciting and stimulating universe I’ve been losing for years “thanks to” my slow speed Internet connection! My friends often send me e-mails containing the url of a video from YouTube and they describe it as the funniest and oddest and craziest thing that they have ever seen in their whole life…and I’ve never been able to watch one of them!!! Poor me!!! It’s really frustrating not to have the proper tools to take advantage of all these new opportunities to learn English online. Unfortunately, changes seem to happen very slowly in my family: I’ve been begging for broadband for months, but there are still no traces of it in my house. By the way, I didn't give in: what we watched on Wednesday aroused my curiosity, so I managed to go to an Internet point to surf the Net a little bit. What did I find out? Well, if you thought that in YouTube you can only find freaky videos to impress your friends, you definitely need to broaden your horizons, otherwise you could miss the chance to exploit what this technology can really offer you. For example, in TeacherTube, you can find an unlimited collection of materials that people from all over the world uploaded with the most different aims: helping other people to overcome a problem in the learning process, bearing their witness about the usefulness of a teaching method, explaining the latest discovery they made in their works of research. You know, what impresses me the most each time I use the Internet is the unbelievable amount of people ready to spend some of their time simply to place something they consider somehow useful at others’ disposal: social bookmarking, Wikipedia, podcasts, the blogosphere and now YouTube are very striking examples of how people can benefit from communicating and sharing.
Yet, as we all should know by now, there is also the other side of the coin: since everybody can have access to these tools, they can easily become a means to spread something that is not worth watching at all. I’m clearly using a euphemism now: recently, the Internet has become sadly known as an example of how men can turn technologies into something we have to worry about (let’s think about the websites in which paedophiles entice children or the videos showing episodes of guys bullying at school). We cannot ignore what is going on: our criticism is fundamental to make wise use of the Web and its resources.

I decided to add a couple of videos to my blog.

Video from spastik0827
The first one is just to make you laugh and to let you know something more about me: it is a short extract from an episode of “Will and Grace” and it represents the kind of series I prefer. I can’t help splitting my sides with laughter when I listen to Jack’s quips and I believe it could be a relaxing and pleasant way to get in touch with contemporary English.

Video from MadridTeacher
The second one gave me the chance to put myself in a teacher’s shoes. The speaker, who has been teaching English for a long time both to children and to adults lists the main obstacles to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning: students don’t have time enough to seriously devote themselves to their homework; they can hardly accept difficulties; they soon get tired of the tasks they are asked to do; they don’t want to talk in class. Therefore, teachers always have to find new ways to incite them into taking part in the activities and have to take into consideration their personality not to hurt them…what an effort! It made me smile because I have to admit that Stephen says the naked truth: we students are sometimes a very demanding audience, but I think we can also reward a teacher’s devotion with our hard work. What’s your opinion?

Do you podcast???

photo by Google images

Here we have another brand-new technology that makes me feel like I had lived in a cavern up to now: podcasts! Actually, I had already heard about them before Sarah explained the meaning of this word last Wednesday and I thought – how naïve I am - I knew everything which was worth knowing… “Podcast” is a term created by joining the words “iPod” and “broadcast”: basically, an audio broadcast is converted to an mp3 file so it can be downloaded and played back in your own computer or in a music player, such as the iPod (you can find the exact definition on Pcmag encyclopedia, but I knew it before reading it, I swear!). By the way, I believed that podcasts contained only music and that they offer people the advantage of listening to their favourite songs wherever they were, simply bringing with them that magical “matchbox” and earphones. This was all I knew about podcasts and I must admit it was enough to leave me dumbfounded…! I just couldn’t imagine that this tool could be used to multiply the occasions to practice English! I should have foreseen it, though: since I started my scholastic career, the technologies at the learner’s disposal have kept on changing and improving and I’m quite sure that iPods will be soon substituted by something even more time-saving and futurist! Audiocassettes and videocassettes are just a vague recollection by now: today CDs and DVDs lord it, they are used in every school to allow students to get in touch with spoken language. But they have to watch out: podcasts are at the gates! By downloading free mp3 files, you can collect on your pc, mobile phone, digital player the broadcasts you prefer and find useful to keep your listening skills in form! On the train, walking down the street or on the bus you can listen to, for example, BBC news. It’s impressive, isn’t it??
On Wednesday I also discovered that, thanks to RSS technology, podcasts are available as news feeds as well! So if you find a website that offers the kind of listening exercises you are interested in, not only can you bookmark it in del.icio.us to retrieve it more easily, but also you can save its url in your feed aggregator and any update will be automatically sent you! It seems to me as if the tesserae of a mosaic are going to in their place: feed aggregators, del.icio.us, podcasts…everything squares!
I started surfing the Net full of hopes but after a short while I was overcome by despair: the world of podcasts is even wider than the blogosphere…and more chaotic as well! I can’t even remember how many websites I visited to find something that was really worth suggesting, but most of the times I got disappointed: either they were rubbish or they didn’t publish RSS feed, so I couldn’t save them in Bloglines! Here you have the three websites that impressed me the most:
1) podcasting news: it is the directory with the largest number of links that I found. I surfed around it for a while and I think it has quite good an organization. On the right, you immediately find a list of sub-directories that you can click if you already have an idea of what you’re looking for; scrolling the page down, there are links that enable you to take part in various fora and articles containing useful information both for neo-podcasters and for advanced users. On the left, other links lead you to some funny podcasts that you can listen to if you have some free time. The website is organized as a blog, so everyone can add his/her podcasts to the lists or post a comment on one of the articles.

2) Englishpod: this is a very interesting website for those people who are a bit clumsy in everyday conversation (like I am!). As we all know, in our over-crowded classes there isn’t much time to practice speaking and we tend to ignore those social rules that are the basis for communication for English people. We are worried about getting the meaning across and don’t pay attention to the shades of that meaning. What would we do if we had to say something unpleasant to somebody? Would we just say “I’m sorry, honey, the skirt you’ve just bought is simply awful”? Well, I don’t think so!! In this website there are some useful tips to learn how to use language in everyday situations: you can listen to podcasts that show you how to be polite and diplomatic, how to present a project of yours to a public, how to use modals in Business English to communicate your ideas and make other people accept it. Interesting and original.

3) English stories: it’s a website that people keen on “soap operas” MUST bookmark! Here you can find podcasts containing the episodes of a story, “Missing person”: every week you will receive the following part, but it is always interrupted at the most awkward moment, so curiosity and suspense grow week by week! In the page there is also the transcription of each audio file: I think it is a good way to check your level of comprehension. Don’t be scared if you read that the website is thought for advanced learners of English: I listened to one of the episodes and the speaker reads the text in a very clear voice and quite slowly; maybe you could need to look up some words in the dictionary. Don’t miss the chance to visit it and enjoy yourself!
I found the link to the last website in a page that has no RSS feed: learn-on-the-go. However, I suggest you to go to it all the same because it’s a starting point where you can find many interesting websites that I’m sure you will appreciate.

That’s all for now!

I'm sorry, I'll be late...

photo by Google images

I'm sorry, girls, I won't be able to complete e-tivity 6 until Monday afternoon... The reason? Well, guess what? I still don't have broadband, so for me it is impossible to play the podcasts I would like to suggest you! Martina and I tried to go to the Lab last Thursday, but we were not lucky: they were closed. The only thing we can do is going back there on Monday: Sarah reserved Lab B for us, so I'll listen to the audiofiles and send my post on my blog by the evening. I apologize for compelling you to write your comments at the last moment!

Elena

Another "del.icio.us" surprise from the Web

photo by google images

I can’t even express in words my growing astonishment, so maybe the picture you see on the left can help you to imagine my expression during the whole of Wednesday lesson! I still have difficulties in realizing how many things that I couldn’t even think of do exist out there! When I say “out there” I mean in the Web: the more the weeks pass, the more it seems to me that the Internet is actually a top hat and we are becoming some sort of “techno-conjurers” able to pull a rabbit (and the whole farm!) out of it!! This time the new “trick” has a very nice name: “del.icio.us”, and it is for real! Let’s try to summarize in few words how this innovation works.
First of all, as you can read in Wikipedia, it is an example of what is called social bookmarking: ”In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share”. Maybe you are thinking that there’s nothing new: one of the first things you learn when you start surfing the Web is to bookmark your favourite websites so that you can have them at hand whenever you need. However, those pages are saved in your own pc, so what happens if you use a different computer and you don’t remember their url? You will have to look for them by using a search engine, wasting a lot of time, and finally you’ll give it up. Well, that will no longer happen if you subscribe to del.icio.us: you simply have to save the websites you find remarkable in the area “your favorites”, tag them with some keywords that can remind you their content and you’ll always find your way back to them wherever you are! What a brilliant idea!
But the best is yet to come! As Sarah explained us, your bookmarks are public and not only do you share them with the other subscribers, but they share theirs with you as well; this means that if you need to know more about a topic, you can visit the websites that other people consider interesting. I think it is an amazing advantage: instead of checking the thousands of pages Google would list (many of which are often completely useless and unsuitable), you limit your search to those websites that have already caught other users’ attention. In sum, the best of the best! You can also create your own network, that is a list of the people whose suggestions you are more interested in, so that you can easily check their bookmarks. Simply unbelievable, isn’t it? :-o

photo by pdonaghy

I had the proof that this new tool does work when I tried to have a look at what my friends had saved as their favorites. Compliments, girls, you all did a great job! I checked some of your suggestions and immediately understood the power of sharing! I noticed that many of us saved a link to an on-line dictionary: they could seem a bit old-fashioned compared to what we have been learning for about a month, but they are irreplaceable! The Free Dictionary Giovanna found also has special sections to look for medical, legal or financial terms; it contains a Thesaurus and many others interesting information such as “the quotation of the day”, “this day in history”, “today’s birthday” and so on. And what about the irreverent Slang Dictionary and Translator? My brother bought it for curiosity’s sake, but now that I found it on line, I don’t need to steal it to him, thanks Marta! Get ready, girls, from now on I could write in my messages something like “l8r”: I’ve just discovered that it means “see you later”, how cool! I invite you all to visit My language exchange too: as Sara explains in her description, it is a community where the members help each other to learn and practise a language. You draw the profile of the partner you need and the community will find a person corresponding to your description, it is a sort of virtual tandem learning! If you need to improve your listening and speaking skills, you can click on “voice chat”: there you will find a link to download Skype or Paltalk and enter the challenging world of face to face communication! I think I will definitely add this website to my favorites! I will also include Classic Short Stories, one of the websites that Martina saved: it provides a long list of short stories that can help us to rediscover the pleasure of reading. It includes not only English authors’ works, but also Spanish, Russian, French writers’ texts and the link “Bibliography” enables you to find more information about them. I think this page is very well done and useful for a literary thesis.
Oh my goddess, another interminable post! I’m sorry, there was so much to say…
CUIC (see you in class)

Halloween: are you for or against?

This discussion happens at the right moment: I talked about this festivity with a friend of mine few days ago and we wondered when it began to get a footing in Italy and why it was introduced in our country although it clearly belongs to the Anglo-Saxon tradition. We don’t even know what the word “Halloween” means and nevertheless we are ready to carve tons of pumpkins and dress up as devils or witches to celebrate “the night of the spirits”. It doesn’t make sense, does it?
While I’m writing these lines, I can’t help thinking of Linus, one of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts. When I was younger I didn’t lose one single episode of their exhilarant adventures and thanks to them I got to know about Halloween: Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, Lucy and all the other members of that gang went door by door asking ”Trick or treat?” and received candy, gum, apples, cookies, popcorn balls, and even money from their neighbours (Charlie Brown always got a rock, it was hilarious!!!). Linus didn’t accompany them: he spent the whole night sitting in the middle of the “the most sincere pumpkin patch of the town” and wait for the “Great Pumpkin” to come and bring him happiness and gifts. Of course his hopes were regularly disappointed! Well, I wish I were part of that group and enjoyed myself like that every October 31st, but up to some years ago there was no such tradition in Italy: on November 1st people used to visit the loved ones they had lost to pray and keep in touch with them, no mention was made of ghosts, monsters and horror films.

photos by google images

I don’t know how it happened or who decided to “import” witches and wizards from the USA, but now everything has changed and if you have exhausted the chocolate and sweets supplies, on Halloween evening your house could become the target of hordes of angry children! I’m joking, but I’m afraid that our culture has welcomed this festivity simply because it is another occasion to spend money going to parties, buying gadgets and hiring videocassettes and DVDs. Last Monday we discussed what the word “culture” means and many of our definitions contained the terms “history”, “traditions”, “habits”: Halloween is an expression of American culture because it's a festivity rooted in the past of that country; although I’m one of those who look forward to wearing a witch hat and having fun with her friends, I have to acknowledge that the Italian version of “Trick or treat?” is just a rough copy of the original festivity. I think that the attempt to spread one country’s habits for economical purposes makes us lose the capacity of seeing and appreciating the beauty in the difference.

Thanks Heaven, there is something called "feed aggregator"!

Well, people, now I know for sure: this English course has been created with the exact purpose of astonishing me week by week! First the surfing of the blogosphere, then the development of a personal blog and now…the discovery of feed aggregators! When Sarah pronounced these words for the first time last Wednesday, I could hardly figure out what she was talking about: the closest thing to a feed aggregator I could think of was the little shelf you can see on the right (I apologize if I didn’t use the right term to define it, but I don’t even know how to call it in Italian!!!). (photo by padday)
Once again, I realized the world has moved forward without telling me: now there is an ingenious technology that enables you to have to hand all the news you are interested in and it is called (guess what?) feed aggregator! I have to admit that at first I was really sceptical about the usefulness of this tool: I mean, to check the aggregator you have to connect to the Internet, so why don’t you simply visit the websites to look for new information? What’s the point of resorting to this complicated (I thought it was!) technology?
Maybe I thought we were still in the Middle Ages, when scholars wasted hours and hours looking up something they hadn’t read before in huge dusty volumes, which probably had not been touched for decades…Well, until last Wednesday my situation was not so dissimilar: I –the scholar of the new millennium :-) – checked my favourite websites each time I needed to learn something new, without even knowing if they had been updated since my last visit; therefore my expectations were often disappointed and after reading all the pages through and clicking all the links I realized that nothing new had been added recently. “Great”, I thought, “I wasted half an hour and I didn’t find anything, I will have to check again tomorrow…how boring!”

photo by somefool


I was sure that I would be condemned to this agony for the rest of my life, but now I have to change my mind: no more afternoons spent surfing pointlessly the Net, the feed aggregator is working for you! You simply have to subscribe to the websites you love the most and the update will be sent you automatically; you don’t even need to look for it scrolling up and down the page because the aggregator selects the new pieces of information and display them on your screen, thus bringing your effort to naught! That’s what I call “smart technology”! What’s more, you can also create your personal playlist and catalogue your subscriptions by category. For example, thanks to my friend Martina’s irreplaceable help, I divided the websites I chose into groups:
- Group B: containing my groupmates’ blogs;
- My friends' blogs: containing other friends’ blogs;
- My interests: containing everything I'm more keen on (recipes, travels...) and some websites where I can find useful information (such as BBC and CNN news, National Geographic).

As you can see, I abandoned my scepticism and I’ve become an “aggregator lover"!