Video Skype

Here I am once again!

Last week our Skype exchange was quite “particular” since it was a Skype exchange with video included!

Students from Tulane University many kilometres far from us were able to see us sitting down at the laboratory. And we could see them even if with a lower quality of image and sound. (Our technician is great!)

It was a strange sensation. It had been less private and simple than the previous ones.

I looked forward to see Timothy and Nichole, my exchange partners, but when I had the opportunity of talking with them (especially with Timothy) I said nothing at all!
As often happened to me, I let an opportunity slip and I cut an international poor figure.
Anyway, American students explained us some aspects of the tragedy occurred some weeks ago in Virginia.
Talking with Lara, we found that since we spoke for weeks with Tulane students we were living this event in a different way. The fact that we were becoming more intercultural competent helped us in reducing the distances between them and us, giving us the sensation that such a dramatic situation could happen in Italy as well.

The second part of our exchange focused on questions and opinions.
Talking by Skype you may not pay too attention to the person you are talking to, because you are simply conveying ideas; moreover you select carefully select the words you want to say. You can’t see one’s gestures or facial expressions, you can only guess what one is feeling. On the contrary, in a video exchange the feedback you can retrieve is immediate and you focus more on pronunciation.
However, as I have already said, it was less confidential than usual exchanges, because the camera shown only the person who was making or answering a question to the whole class. For this reason, I felt I was being watched by lots of students who could judge my English level or how I was dressed : ( and, as a consequence, all that was rather discouraging.

Anyway, apart from my silly shyness, this experience was really exciting.
We had the possibility of discussing about violence, an actual problem in both of our countries and making a list of questions in order to integrate our presentations.
Furthermore, we were able to practise our speaking and listening knowledge and to open our mind towards different culture and habits.

It was a fun way of entering a culture without stereotypes.


Francesca

Trying to reflect on final presentation

Hi folks!

The end of the English course is coming…

This week my Skype exchange was with Lara and Tim.
What can I say? It was great, as usual! : )

Tim had finished his course with a team work on water resources in Italy, focusing on Vajont disaster and Mose project, so he was not very interested in talking about energy in general.

Before starting the exchange, my group decided to “exploit” the conversation in order to gather information on our final presentation topic. And so we did.
At the very beginning we wanted to deal with blogs and wikis applied to the learning of subjects at university: thanks to Tim we found out that we (Sarah and Latifah’ s students) are in privileged conditions! I mean that we believed that social softwares were quite popular in the United States and Italy, as usual, was tail-end.
This time we got wrong, Tim granted us that he came into contact with this technology for the first time during Latifah’s course.
So, we are part of an experiment, (it sounds strange) maybe, an experiment that impressed me much because of its topicality and utility.

Our exchange with Tim helped us to find the right topic: food.
Food is a basic need for everybody but the various meanings it’s able to convey are something that goes beyond the plain idea of nourishment. Food is an aspect of a culture, an element that can distinguish one culture from another, even stressing the presence of subcultures into a big one.
(Now, I’m realizing Sarah’s projects… She wanted us to become more intercultural competent, giving us all the tools we need: language, topic, and comparison.)

After having chosen the topic and the structure of our wiki page, we had to look for information.
We didn’t want to obtain a neutral issue that everyone in our class can make by finding interesting sites on the Net and “flinging” words on the page.
As Tim was really kind and helpful, we kept in touch with him by mail, so that he could communicate us which his and his friends ‘eating habits were.
Now, we just have to complement his suggestions with Internet searches!

Personally, I prefer such a job because we have to give our colleagues an overview of a certain aspect of American culture and a native speaker’s opinion, that is the point of view of a person who really knows how sides that we consider to be of secondary importance are perceived in his country, is more suitable.
Furthermore, the fact that Tim inquires about essential differences in our cultures helps us to reflect on our own culture and draw conclusions we did not think about before.

So, I look forward to start writing on my group wiki page.
It’s going to be a project shared by friends… and one of the many final outcomes of this course.

See you soon, guys.

Francesca

Next Skype Exchange and wiki page..........

This week we had no course because it was Easter time!
However, my blog e-tivity goes on.

My last Skype exchange with Nichole was great because we had no topic to talk about.
I was happy because I felt that I was able to talk in English freely without having to follow a list of questions.
My peer had some troubles to express in Italian since she wasn’t supposed to discuss a topic. So, our exchange was mainly in English. Sometimes I tried to speak Italian because it was an exchange that means that both of us had to benefit from it; as a consequence it would be useful for her language knowledge to hear a native speaking Italian. I speak quite well Italian, despite my venetian accent!

I really like Skype, that’s why I decided to install it at home.
I think it should be considered as a social software because it allows students to practise their language. However, considering it like that could be a short-sighted approach because people all over the world use Skype just to communicate with old and new friends: they have no interest in social softwares!

What about wikis?

Now, I feel more confident with wikis.
At the very beginning I was totally scared of destroying my colleagues’ products because I didn’t know how wikis worked; then I get used to log out, to wait in order not to steal lock information and other important tricks.
I succeeded in taming the technology! (I hope:)
Writing wikis is important for plenty of aspects.

• They teach students how to collaborate.
• To collaborate means to learn how to respect people’s work and how to modify it without erasing their efforts. The difficulties lie in analyzing a certain topic from different points of view, trying to achieve an exhaustive and complete work.
• Students learn how to retrieve information and how to quote their sources, avoiding plagiarism and becoming aware of their responsibilities.
• With wikis students manage to understand the importance of some graphic details such as layout, fonts, headings, etc. All these elements are essential because they can be seen as indicators of the quality of the information conveyed.
• They allow students to enlarge their vocabulary and their general culture as well.
• They allow students to compare American behaviours to Italian ones, developing their cultural competences.
• Working both on blogs and wikis highlights the differences in register and style, helping students to achieve a high level of knowledge.
• Wikis improve reading, writing skills and reflective thought.

I think I could find other reasons to justify wikis’ use…
However, now I have thought too much and the results I could obtain wouldn’t be so spontaneous and truthful.
So, for this time, you have to be content with these remarks.

See you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Francesca.