Alice in Wonderland

Italy vs USA

2007-05-10T17:14:00.000+02:00

Dear all

have you read the subject of this post? Yes, you've read correctly: ITALY vs USA. I'm not talking about the challenge Luna Rossa vs Oracle, even if it would be comprehensible since there is the America's Cup in Valencia...at all. I'm talking about the power point presentations my classmates and I gave on Monday afternoon through Internet with the Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. Are you wondering how is this possible? But thanks to the webcast technology!!! Ok, I stop doing the know-it-all and I will tell the truth^_^. I had no idea of what a webcast technology was before Sarah, our teacher, explained it to us...and let us know what she had the intention to do.

The fact is that Sarah loves using us as guinea pigs... A webcast is an online presentation where the voice of those giving the presentation can be heard and their presentation slides seen on the screen. The even more interesting thing is that the audience can intervene using a text chat making for example asking for something they didn't understand. Unfortunately, Sarah wasn't able to organize this experience wth our American peers from Tulane...what a pity since we already knew them. But, she didn't give in... so, we webcasted with a class which is an Advanced Level class in Italian Literature at Middlebury. We gave our presentations in English and they gave theirs in Italian. Their theme was about how women are presented in Italian literature and the different representations of love, whereas our general theme was a comparison between Italy and USA of some cultural aspect. The purpose of this experience was to listen and give constructive feedback each other in terms of language and content.

It has been a very exciting experience and I really enjoyed it! ^_^

The topic of the presentation I gave with Susanne and Maria Chiara, as I probably already wrote in a previous post, was a comparison between American fraternities and sororities and the local 'Goliardia'. If you want to see my presentation just click Photo source

I'm back!!

2007-04-26T19:21:00.000+02:00

Hi people!

how are you? I'm really sorry but last week I had a lot of problems both with my pc and with my work so that I was not able to write my reflective blogging...what a pity!! My internet connection suddenly stopped as I was editing the wiki page on Water resources in USA but luckily now everything is ok...or at least it seems to be ok... sometimes I really hate technology and if there were a webcam on my screen everyone could see me shouting and getting angry with my pc...a really amazing show, or terrifying...it depends from the points of view!!!! ^_^

Anyway, now here I am again.

Last Monday my classmates did our last skype exchange with our American peers but unfortunately I wasn't there because I was working...what a pity again! However my friends Susanne and the other classmates told me it was very fun having a visual contact with people you had only had on phone before...

This week I'm preparing with Maria Chiara and Susanne our final presentation. It will be about American fraternities and sororities compared with Italian 'Goliardia'. It is a very interesting topic and I'm working on it very hard: I spend very much time in Internet searching for websites which contain interesting information and photos.

For the moment that's all, but as long as my work of research goes on and my presentation takes shape, I will write another post...it sounds like a promise, but I think that it's more a threat... ^_^

Cheers

Alice

Photo source

Talking about water

2007-04-15T14:51:00.000+02:00

Hi people

here I am again after the Easter break. Last week I spent two days (Easter and the Monday after Easter) eating and drinking with my family but especially with my friends. We went on the hills near Padova and we had a lot of fun playing and laughing together. And you, did you enjoy your "Easter break"?

After this brief introduction, let's now talk about serious things...^_-

As usually this week too I had to contribute to a new topic in our wiki project concerning WATER resources in Italy. This is a very interesting topic because in this way you have the opportunity to stop for a moment and think about the importance of water as a resource of life.

As all my friends already know, I am not a very good writer when it's time to express my feelings and emotions (or maybe I'm just a little bit lazy...), so I decided to quote someone else's thoughts and statements...clearly dealing the topic of this week: water.

I'm not going to explain the reason why I chose these statements because I would like to think about them by your own.

Heraclitus said:

" The sea is the purest and the foulest water; it is drinkable and healthful for
fishes; but for men it is unfit to drink and hurtful. "
(Fragment 36,Clement Strom. VI, 17, 2)

Water is the most important figure in all T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and during the whole poem it is the most desired element, as we can notice in this part:

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer
and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses
If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

(T.S. Eliott, "The Waste Land", 1922, part V. "What the Thunder Said")

There would be many others works I could quote, but I want to close this post with one song of my favourite singers, Damien Rice.

Cold, cold water surrounds me now
And all I've got is your hand
Lord, can you hear me now?
Lord, can you hear me now?
Lord, can you hear me now,
Or am I lost?

Cheers

Alice

(Photo source 1, photo source 2)

Having fun with Skype

2007-04-02T10:40:00.000+02:00

Hi people!

how are you? A new week has just begun...I hope it won't be too hard to face...^_^

This afternoon we're going to speak again with our American friends...it's really cool because last week I enjoyed it very much. Last Monday Lucrezia (a classmate) and I spoke with Francesco (typical American name isn't it?) and it was very very cool. In fact Francesco (as you can all understand) has clearly Italian origins ans he speaks Italian very well...do you know Filippo Nardi (he participated to Italian Big Brother and to another show, Le Iene, some years ago)? Our American friend speaks like him and I like it very much...^_-

We were supposed to talk about alternative sources of energy and at the beginning we did it...but after ten minutes, more or less, we began talking about our lives in general and about stereotypes ^_^. So, we asked him if he is part of a fraternity and he answered he is not and he added he doesn't like people who are in it because in his opinion they're very arrogant and too snob. In fact, Susanne (another classmate) told me that Anthony, the guy she was spoking with, was in a fraternity and he is quite snob.

We also asked Francesco if he knew some stereotypes referring to Italy. Come'on... guess ... you've got them: MANDOLINO, MAFIA and PASTA. So, I asked why he didn't mention PIZZA and he answered that American are convinced they were the first in the world inventing PIZZA...WHAT?! I was very surprised hearding it...PIZZA IS OURS, PIZZA IS ITALIAN !!! ^_^

That's all for the moment

Cheers

Alice

Photo source

Cooperation

2007-03-26T10:10:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone!

I know I'm late with my reflective blogging, but I had to work this weekend and I was very tired yesterday.

Anyway, in this topic I'm going to talk about cooperation. Last week in class Sarah (my prof.) read the post I had written in my blog (the previous to this one) and if I had to be sincere I was a bit disappointed because nobody commented what she read. I mean, at the end of that post I had written that in a wiki it's not important ONLY what you write but ALSO how it is written concerning the structure. I only hope that my classmates didn't get angry for what I wrote because I didn't want to play the role of the teacher but I was only giving some pieces of advice.

In order to create and edit a good wiki page the most important thing, in my opinion, is COOPERATION. You don't have to add something that is already written in the page only in order to show that you've added it but you have to correct what in your opinion is bad written. As I've already said many times, in a wiki a structure is very important and I think that when you write something you have to care about form too. I mean, when you finish editing a wiki page, check out the structure too and if it's not like the rest of the page (in font, colour etc...) go back and edit again and don't wait that someone else do it for you.

Linked to what I've just said I have to say that I'm happy because even if my classmates didn't comment my post in class, this week they gave an eye on structure too and not only on the content...well done!^_^

I know that this post is not adressed to my classmates, but if anyone should create or edit a wiki page I hope this little pieces of advice could help.

Cheers

Alice

Photo Source

It's wiki-time

2007-03-16T18:06:00.000+01:00

Hi guys and girls!

How are you?

The topic I'm going to talk about this week is our wiki project. Last week I was so excited because of the skype exchange that I forgot talking about the wiki we are building on...^_^

The subject we are dealing with on our wiki is RECYCLING. If I had to be completely sincere I'd have to tell that is not my favourite topic, because as I have already told you in my indtroductive post my favourite topics are soprt and TV, BUT (pelase notice that I've written it in capital letters) I want to add that thanks to this project I'm learning a lot about recycling.

There are two pages: Recycling in Italy and Recycling in the USA

In the Recycling in Italy page we collected a lot of information about how recycling is organised according to the different regions or towns in Italy. We also wrote about recyclable and non-recyclable materials and how these materials can be re-used. At the beginning maybe I didn't appreciate very much the topic we were supposed to talk about but now I'm satisfied because I learnt a lot of things that before I didn't know about how to recycle.

In the Recycling in the USA page we collected the information our American colleagues gave us during our skype exchange. Unfurtunately last Monday I had another lesson so no skype for me...T_T. BUT (again in capital letters ^_^) I contributed to that wiki the week before. Thanks to what our American friends told us we have been able to write a quite good Wiki page withe a lot of information...

It is very fun and interesting to contribute to a wiki page BUT (third 'but' in capital...) there is one thing I can't stand: why someone has the power to "destroy" what I have done If I did it for the whole group? For example, last week I was trying to give the wiki a good structure and after a hard work I succeded in dividing the page in sections and put all the text with the same font and it came out a well-done job (not only because it was my job...^_-). When the following day I checked out if someone had edited the page, I discovered that the adjustments made were not in the right section and with another font...I've found it very annoying because it is not for my pleasure if I work in order to give the wiki a comprehensible structure but for the whole group...SO please, pay attention to these "little" things too and not only to the content of what you are writing.

That's all for now and I hope nobody will get angry for what I've just written...I hope you will read it as a constructive criticism...^_^

Cheers
Alice

Padova University logo source
Tulane University logo source

Let's have a talk

2007-03-08T13:13:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody!

How are you? I haven't written on my blog for many time but it's all because of the exams I had to take...but now I'm back. ^_-

Last Monday during my English class my classmates and I all had the opportunity to talk with our American peers on Skype. This experience has been very exciting and I'm looking forward to doing it again, and again because it is very useful both from the cultural and the linguisitc points of view.

I talked with Lea, a girl from New York who studies Italian at the Tulane University of New Orleans. So, since she speaks Italian and I speak English we decided for a compromise: she talked in Italian and I talked in English. I am a very shy person but when I began to talk with her my shyness disappeared and I didn't care about the mistakes maybe I was doing while I was talking. Since in class Isabella, the girl next to my pc, didn't have a correspondant to talk to we began a three people conversation. What a cool thing! ^_^

I also have to add that I feel lucky because Lea was the only girl (or just on of the few pepole) of the American group who tried to talk with me in Italian and not only in English. I really appreciated it very much!

The topic we were asked to discuss was recycling so we began our conversation talking about the situation there in New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina. Lea told me that recycling should be compulsory but only a small number of students in the campus use different containers for rubbish (or garbage if you are talking to an American person ^_^) and nobody checks if people do it. So in theory there are rules for recycling and there should be sanctions too for those who don't respect these rules but in practice quite nobody respect the law and there are no sanctions for them. I was wondering the reason for that and at the end I understood that maybe there are more important problems to face such as the reconstruction of New Orleans before thinking about recycling.

It is very useful to talk to girls and guys who live in another country because in this way you have the possibility to compare your culture with their and to learn a lot of new topics as well.

Cheers
Alice

P.S. if you want to see why we did it, let's have a look on our Wiki project!

Photo source

The travel around the wiki world continues...

2006-12-18T13:39:00.000+01:00

Hey everybody!

I'm very very proud of the work we did in Edutech wiki... It's surprising to see that now I am able to do things with my computer I didn't even imagine I could do before starting this English course...^_^...it's really stimulating for me!

But let's come back to the 'wikisphere'. This week we went on working on Edutech wiki. We were supposed to improve our contributions to the articles we had chosen dealing to what we discussed in class last Tuesday. Sarah (our teacher) wrote a post on our course blog with a lot of useful links in order to help us in this difficult work of improvement. For example if you want to learn more about quoting sources, paraphrasing, summarizing and how to cite your sources, just visit these links:

As I had already said in my previous post, contributing to an article of the 'wiki world' is very useful but at the same time very difficult because there are many things to learn. The most important rules you have to follow if you want to give your contributions in a good way are:

write a clear and concise text;
paraphrase and summarize the source text;
avoid long quotations;
quote someonelse's words only to uphold their theories;
where it is possible, make internal links to other pages of the wiki
cite the sources correctly;
put the key words in bold in order to catch the reader's attention;
make a clear paragraph division in order to make the reading easier.

Besides this list of "rules" I've discovered that contributing to a wiki is not all a bed of roses. The biggest problem I have to face is that of originality: it's very difficult to add new thigs if your impression is that everything you thougght to add has been already written! Another point is that of quoting: it's hard to avoid quotations if the quotation in question is really well written and you don't know how you can write this idea in a better way.

But when all is said and done and you look at the result of your work you can only be satisifed...^_^

Cheers

Alice

The wiki experience

2006-12-10T12:29:00.000+01:00

Good morning everybody!

The picture I put in this post says that Wiki is an easy way to collaborate on the web...
Well, this sentence summarizes very well my impressions about the wiki experience.

I think it is very useful for me but for other people too. For me because using it like a learning method I have the possibility to "train" my writing skills by editing some articles. For other people because by writing an article I offer my knowledge to the world...cool isn't it?

This week for my e-tivity I had to choose an argument in Edutech wiki and then contribute to it by editing the article. I decided to work on e-tivities with Chiara and Marco. We explained in our article why e-tivities are useful and how they are structured. Then we also put an example of an e-tivity we did during our course (the podcasts one) just to give a concrete example of the way an e-tivity is structured. So, if you want to see our work just click on the "e-tivities" upper link and then comment us!

Cheers

Alice

Wiki's world

2006-11-30T15:38:00.000+01:00

Hey people, how are you?

The topic chosen for this week's e-tivity is the genre of wikis. Before I begin my analysis, let's explain what the word wiki stand for. Wiki means "quick" or "informal" in Hawaiian and is a type of interactive website or better, to use Matthew Buckland's words, "is a collaborative article that is updated with new and improved information submitted and published by the audience, not just by an author or authors".

I've explored some wikis I've found on the Net and for my analysis I've chosen Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit (as it is said on its main page). This wiki is maybe the most famous but I've observed that there are many others which are very interesting and well-constructed, as for example Wikihow, PBwiki, Library Success or Wetpaint, just to mention some.

Purposes
There is not an intended audience for Wikipedia because everyone can collaborate, the only request is that you are supposed to know what you are writing about when you contribute to the drafting of an article.

Language features
Wikipedia is available in many languages. Dealing to English I think that the language is more formal if compared to blog's one but not too formal to be understandable only if you have a dictionary with you ^_^. In other words, is not as formal as the language we usually found on the encyclopedias we have at home.

Characterisitcs
The articles are divided into different sections (for example arts, history, society ... ) and in each article there are lots of hyperlinks which allows you to verify what you don't know just by clicking on it.
Moreover there in the Help section you can find explanations on how to use the website and answers to your more usual questions.

Summing up...
Wikipedia is very useful because you can widen your knowledge and it is especially helpful for those people like me who are students of a foregin language because through the reading or the editing of an article you can improve your comprehension and writing skills.

See you soon

Alice

To "podcast" or not to "podcast"?

2006-11-22T09:23:00.000+01:00

Hi my dear blog friends!

This week's e-tivity is dealing with podcast. What does this strange word mean? A podcast is a multimedia file (either audio or video) and it can be downloaded onto personal computers or mp3 players so that users can listen to or watch it whenever and wherever they want to.

I've explored the "podcastsphere" and I've found some interesting websites which provides you a great number of helpful podcasts if you want to imrpove your language skills and I've bookmarked them on del.icio.us.

The first is Ello. Here you can find a lot of podcasts and activities which help you to improve your English grammar and vocabulary. Moreover, there is a very interesting section called "English by Region" in which you can explore the different accent of English.

The second website I've chosen is spotlight. Lots of audio and multimedia files are available and downloadable here. If you explore the website you will also find that in the section called "Learning English" there is a very good archive full of activities to do by your own.

The third and last link I give you is very useful for English Foreign Learners because there are lots of activities and excercises to make.

What else can I say about podcast? Click here and just listen to my impressions about it.

powered by ODEO

Cheers

Alice

Let's talk about the genre of websites

2006-11-17T12:08:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!!!

The e-tivity of this week is dealing with the topic of genre. This French word is strictly linked to the concept of communicative purpose. In other words, is the language conventions used to talk with other members of the same community.

There are a lot of genres, as for example business letters, scientific papers, diaries, novels and so on. Since Internet took place in our lives new types of genres have developped: I'm talking about e-mails, blogs and websites.

Moreover there are different kind of websites and they distinguish from the others because of the language they use, the audience they address to and many other features.

I have visited two different websites I had bookmarked in del.icio.us and tried to analyse their features.

The first website is about games and quizzes to learn English vocabulary. Here you can find different levels of learning and sections (vocabulary, maths, history, health...) in accordance with what skills you want to improve.

Purposes
The intended audience of this website are both teachers and students. Teachers because if they use this method of teaching, students will improve their skills in a different way and maybe they can enjoy themselves thrugh a learning process. The creators of this website studied it both for native speakers of English and for people who want to improve their knowledge.

Language features
Most of the sentences are simple noun phrases. The title of the section identifies what topic you want to improve (for example geoghraphy, maths, history, vocabulary...). The title is followed by a brief descritpion of what you can find in the section. For example the section called "Vocabulary Games" is described by the use of imperative forms: "Improve your vocabulary and boost your SAT / GRE scores. Master the 720 most frequently tested vocabulary words with these free web quizzes" It is a sort of advertisement.
There are lots of hyperlinks and some of them are external to the website.

The second website I have chosen for my analysis deals with doubts about English grammar and vocabulary. There is a list of the most common mistakes people can make while writing in English.

Purposes
Like the other website I analysed, this one is studied both for native speakers who have some doubts dealing with grammar and students of English as a second language. It can also used by teachers as a source to help their students learning what are the common mistakes in English.

Languages features
Most of the site is organised through links: you just click on the common mistake you usually make and you will be addressed to its grammatical explanation. At the beginning of the homepage there is a link which you can use if you want to read about the book version. There you can find a section with descriptive language and not only simple prhases informing about the book and its author. Moreover at the back of the homepage there are other useful links which address the reader to other good resources.

Summing up...

The two websites I analysed were very different concerning to their organisation but the audience they address to is the same: teachers and students. The first one is informal and descriptive whereas the second one is more formal in the explanations it gives. The main difference between the two websites is that the one with games and quizzes is interactive and so the reader partecipate in an active way with it whereas the other only gives information without the possibility of interacting.

That's all for today.

Cheers

Alice

(Source of the photo)

Discovering del.icio.us

2006-11-13T15:00:00.000+01:00

Hi guys and girls

Last week in class I discovered another very interesting website: del.icio.us. I already knew what bookmarks were but I didn't know the existence of a website like del.icio.us which allows you to save the adressess of your favourite websites and share them with other people in the community.

In Internet you can find everything you want but it is not certain that what you find out is good, as our teacher usually says. Del.icio.us is more or less like Google but there is a very important difference which distinguishes one website from the other: Google is more wasteful than delicious. Since del.icio.us is a sort of community it is more probable that what you find there is more interesting and relevant to what you are loooking for because other people examined that website before you.

I went through my colleagues' bookmarks and I think that some of them are very useful for our English course, as for example Svejtlana's link about punctuation... it is really cheering to know that there is someone else in my class (besides me) who has serious problems with punctuation ^_-

Another interesting website is about language tools. Here you can find "the basic tools for writing, reading or translating a language" as Gio83 says in her description.
Dealing with Grammar , there is a very inviting website in which you can find information about word analysis and other Grammar topics.

One of my biggest problems is the search of synonims...but now, thanks to francesstar, I've discovered a website which will help me: http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?r=20&q=%20synonym.

In my opinion social bookmarking is very functional because you can share with other people links about topics you have in common with them.

I'm learning more and more about the world of Internet and I'm aware that there are still many things to explore.

Cheers
Alice

(photo source)

My first two weeks of blogging

2006-11-01T22:49:00.000+01:00

How can I say...the blogsphere is a really interesting world and I find it very attractive. I only knew it because some friends of mine developped their own blogs but I have never tried before to develop one by myself.

First of all it is interesting because here you can share your idea with people you don't even know and you are free to express what you think without any fear of being judged.

From the language point of view is really stimulating because you can learn a lot of expressions that teachers usually don't teach you. Here at the university I have learnt a lot of grammar and all (or most of ) the classes concerned with grammar or accuracy in writing but a very very small part of our teachers worried about your abilities in communicating in English.

With this strange but in my opinion very effective method I'm sure I will be able to improve my skills in spoken language because through reading colloquial English in blogs I will learn a lot of expressions that I would never know if I didn't explore the world of internet. I'm aware that lots of these expressions don't come from English natives but maybe some of them... ^_^

And what about my writing skills? I'm sure I will improve this aspect as well thanks to the work we do in class with Sarah and my "collegues", as for example the correction of the mistakes we find in our blogs.

I think formal English is useful, of course, but colloquial English is necessary if you want to be learnt by other people, especially if they're not expert in English grammar and they talk a different language from yours. So don't panic if you don't know how to express yourself and just try...this is what this experience with blog taught me...at least till now ^_^

Cheers
Alice

The Queen of Hearts welcomes you to Wonderland

2006-11-01T18:16:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody!

I'm Alice -not the blonde one from the Disney movie- and I'm glad to welcome you to my first blog ^_^

I'm an Italian girl 25 and I live in a small town near Padova, which is near Venice.

What do I like to do in my spare time? I spend MANY HOURS watching TV, especially TV series and sports...I'm addicted!!

So as you have probably already guessed what you can find in this blog is me chatting non-stop about these topics ^_-

Bookmark me and come and visit my blog whenever you like!

Alice