Reflective Blogging on Webcasts
Well, I think we could say that our English wiki course is characterized by a climax in exciting experiences! First the Tulane-Padova exchanges on skype, then the video exchange and now the webcast presentations! Each time more exciting, each time more difficult, each time something new.
As I had already mentioned in my final paper of the first semester, through this course with the excuse of practicing our English we got to know a lot of new things; and, with the excuse of concentrating on carrying out in the best way tasks we had never done before, we improve our knowledge of English without even noticing it.
This week we all had to prepare powerpoint presentations in groups of two or three on any topic we wanted, as long as a comparison between Itlay and the U.S. could be done. The topics chosen were National Celebrations, Eating Habits, Fraternities&Sororities and I, together with Svjetlana, chose to talk about Immigration. You can have a look at the slides on http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/FrontPage . We had a relatively short time to prepare them but we all managed to finish on time.
It was a group work and, even if Svjetlana and I did not know each other very well before this project, we had the same ideas and the same eager to get this job well done. Through the comments page on the wiki we took most of our decisions. We first gathered as much information we could on our topic and then began to draw a general outline of our presentation. Then we chose a part each and developed it making logical slides that could guide us and the audience throughout our speech. Finally, we put together our slides, corrected each others' and uniformed font and layout. But the best part still had to come!
On Monday 7th May we presented our powerpoint slides not only to our class but also to a class of advanced Italian learners of Middlebury College in the U.S. We were all nervous but really enjoyed the experience. You can listen to us at http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/Webcasts.
Through this experience we came once again in contact with the American people and culture. I noticed how encouraging they were towards us and how accustomed they seemed to be with this type of presentations and with the use of informatical instruments. I had the feeling they were older than us, more mature, and that they had a much bigger dedication and passion towards their university studies. It seemed to me that, contrarily to what happens in Italian universities, they have more space to express their ideas and to get into the subjects they study by working on them creatively. Perhaps here a literature teacher would have considered too foolhardy making a comparison between l'amore cortese and country music. Perhaps the teacher would be right in terms of literature criteria, but I think that intelligence is not fully fed and developed by a passive knowledge of facts; student's intelligence must be kept active through tasks which require creativity. This, in my opinion, is a part of the American university culture from which the Italian university should learn.
Well, I think we could say that our English wiki course is characterized by a climax in exciting experiences! First the Tulane-Padova exchanges on skype, then the video exchange and now the webcast presentations! Each time more exciting, each time more difficult, each time something new.
As I had already mentioned in my final paper of the first semester, through this course with the excuse of practicing our English we got to know a lot of new things; and, with the excuse of concentrating on carrying out in the best way tasks we had never done before, we improve our knowledge of English without even noticing it.
This week we all had to prepare powerpoint presentations in groups of two or three on any topic we wanted, as long as a comparison between Itlay and the U.S. could be done. The topics chosen were National Celebrations, Eating Habits, Fraternities&Sororities and I, together with Svjetlana, chose to talk about Immigration. You can have a look at the slides on http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/FrontPage . We had a relatively short time to prepare them but we all managed to finish on time.
It was a group work and, even if Svjetlana and I did not know each other very well before this project, we had the same ideas and the same eager to get this job well done. Through the comments page on the wiki we took most of our decisions. We first gathered as much information we could on our topic and then began to draw a general outline of our presentation. Then we chose a part each and developed it making logical slides that could guide us and the audience throughout our speech. Finally, we put together our slides, corrected each others' and uniformed font and layout. But the best part still had to come!
On Monday 7th May we presented our powerpoint slides not only to our class but also to a class of advanced Italian learners of Middlebury College in the U.S. We were all nervous but really enjoyed the experience. You can listen to us at http://tulanepadova.pbwiki.com/Webcasts.
Through this experience we came once again in contact with the American people and culture. I noticed how encouraging they were towards us and how accustomed they seemed to be with this type of presentations and with the use of informatical instruments. I had the feeling they were older than us, more mature, and that they had a much bigger dedication and passion towards their university studies. It seemed to me that, contrarily to what happens in Italian universities, they have more space to express their ideas and to get into the subjects they study by working on them creatively. Perhaps here a literature teacher would have considered too foolhardy making a comparison between l'amore cortese and country music. Perhaps the teacher would be right in terms of literature criteria, but I think that intelligence is not fully fed and developed by a passive knowledge of facts; student's intelligence must be kept active through tasks which require creativity. This, in my opinion, is a part of the American university culture from which the Italian university should learn.
posted by isaperini at 7:56 AM
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