ALESSANDRA'S WORLD

Xchange 6th week

2008-04-21T12:38:00.002+02:00

Another exchange, another topic to develop with my dear American peer and another more Italian girl, who is going to work with Artem, Sara and I in the final project. Last Wednesdays in group, we decided the topic of our project, and after a little debate we all agreed to deal with death penalty. I was the first in the group who proposed that topic; I perfectly know that it's a very sad topic to talk about but, on the other hand, I think that it's interesting and unusual, too. Research materials about it will be helpfull to understand differences between American and Italian Laws on death penality, different opinions about its validity and if death penality is still usefull to prevent or punish crimes. As far as Italy, death penalty was substituted long ago with the “ergastolo”, that is life imprisonment, but the nowadays situation is getting worse after the last law of the government called "indulto"; it's the opportunity that normally the Italian president gives to those inmates of prison after a determinate periopd of time. After this government decision the number of murders and crime is increasing and the sense of fear is being rampant across Italian society. So, at that point of view it will be interesting to analyse which is the best solution to solve that situation, according to people opinions and ideas. We will see...

In the second part of the conversation we started talk about immigration, which was the week topic we were supposed to develop togethet in the lab.

In this case Arty was an important source of information for us: he comes from Ukraine, so he could descibe us the American situation and behaviour towards immigrant and immigration in general. He explained to us that he doesn’t consider himself an immigrant because he’ll be staying in the USA just for four years to complete his studies and then he’ll come back home; What is more in his personal opinion American has a open- minded on this topic, thanks to the important role that American universityie play inside the society, too, They are sort of “melting pots”, taking in people from all over the world so the help them to integrate themselves in American ordinary life, without making anykind of discrinmination. However, despite this positive situation he added also that the American society tends to treat immigrants in different ways according to their nationality and – above all – to their financial conditions. He said that there are deep differences between people that come from the South of American and those who come from the North,or even people coming from Europe are usually far better accepted than immigrants from Latin America and other poor countries. Artem reminded us that there is a great number of Italian immigrants in the USA and they are treated in a better way than American poor people which are terated are immigrant as well.

Then we tried to explain him our Italian Situation but he was already well- informed about that becouse he studied it during his scholar years.

The discussion was very interesting and useful for me to understand a different point of view, but, during this exchange experience with American people, I notice that there are not so much differnces in the way of think or behave, between America guys and we, as Italin students that live in the North of Italy. I think that this could be a good starting point for our next covesation with Arty.

see you...

Xchange, 5th week

2008-04-14T12:17:00.004+02:00

Hi friends....

Today is Monday again, another week is starting and I'm already tires -sigh-. Sorry for the late of this post, but during last week end I didn't feel very well; on Friday I did a little surgery to my teeth and I was litteraly obbliged by my doctor to stay at home. But I'm used not to follow good instructions, Friday evening I went out with my friends and consequently, on Saturday morning I woke up with temperature. Todai is getting better and also my teeth are getting better too, but now I bitterly in late with all my works.

Anyway, last Wednesday during our Skype exchange, we were in 4: Artem, Sarah, me and a new Italian peer: Alice Violato who joined our chat. After a little presentation between Arty and Alice we went on speaking about elections and differences between Italian and American election system. Honestly we were a little bit boring to talk about that topic; first of all because we don't like that topic very much, and secondly because, in these days, we are "bombed" by media about politics and political elections. So we decided to change the topic and we spoke about immigration and after that Arty was curious to know why in Italy there is the distintion between "terroni e polentoni". After that crucial question the discussion changed its direction and we started analyse a little differences between Northen and Southen people.
There was a little confusion in our conversation, but It's was all the same interesting and nice...
See you soon...
cheers

Xchange, 4th week

2008-04-06T17:44:00.003+02:00

Hi guys, how are you??

What about me I must confess that the previous week was very difficult and heavy … Maybe because there was the time changing and I’m still trying to conform myself with this new time, but I feel very tired and sleepy; as an Italian saying goes “Aprile dolce dormire”, it seems to be perfect to describe my physical an psychological state…
What is more the amount of homework that we have to do at university seem to become more and more heavy, exams and final projects are pressing on us and I become more and more nervous too.
Anyway, now it’s time to sum up my last Skype conversation. My fourth discussion with Artem and Sara was really interesting and intense too. We immediately started talking about what is happening in America and Italy during there political elections. First of all Sarah and I asked Artem how exactly America political system works and he explained us in details the differences between American and Italian political system. Then the discussion moved to our nowadays Italian situation and, inevitably we started speaking about propaganda and the 2 Italian videos that Sarah published in the blog. He admitted that he had had a very strange reaction when he watched them in YouTube, but he stayed completely astonished and shocked when we explained him Berlusconi’s video. He didn’t recognise that at the end of it, there are a group of young people that have as a background a terrifying building: the palazzo Della Civiltà Del Lavoro. It’s placed in Rome, was built by Benito Mussolini’s regime and is considered to be the symbol of fascism for the world.
Then Sarah and I expressed our political ideas and we both tried to explain them to Artem, mentioning also an interesting book that describes the political reality in this election period.

Then the discussion became lighter and we talked a little bit about music and plans for the weekend and finally we gave him the precise recipe to prepare Italian famous spritz!!!
I’m very happy of this exchange because I’m getting more and more involved on it and Artem, Sarah and I are creating a great feeling in our weekly discussion.

That's all folks!!!

2008-03-30T10:34:00.002+02:00

... and now let's talk about YOGA...

Oh, no... it is not my last hobby; YOGA stands for "Your Objectives, Guidelines and Assessment" form. This week we didn't do our weekly Skype exchange with our American friends, and so Sarah proposed us to do a different work. We were supposed to reflect and examine the developement of our intercultural communicateive competence (ICC or Intercultural Competence, for short). We were supposed to fill a test and use it as a kind of self-evaluation guide. As the explanation of the test says, this document should help us to critically examine our intercultural objectives, serve as guidelines while undergoing an intercultural experience, and provide an assessment tool at variour stages of intercultural development.

The test is divided in 4 sections called: awareness, attitudes, skills and knowledge, and each of them is divided in 4 levels too, educational travel, sojourner, professional and intercultural/ multicultural specialist. I decided to complete the first and the third part, because these are the two that applied directly to my experience. The competences as "educational traveler" are linked with the experience that I had 5 years ago when I went to Edimburgh. I lived there for one month in a campus and I attended a summer school class with other international students.

It was my first time abroad and it was a great opportunity to develop my intercultural competences. Then, in filling the third section, I took into consideartion the experience that I had in January when I worked as interpreter during the Gold Exhibition in Vicenza. Then to fill out the test, I considered my experiences as a foreign languages' student and as a professional as well. I thought of my language competence in general but with an eye on English culture, which is the one I experienced directly.

I think that YOGA Form, first of all, is a good opportunity to sit down and reflect on my progress in intercultural competence. Most of the time we undervalue the importance of reflection on our developments in languages. We are used to study and practice them, without taking into account if what we are doing is useful or not for our everyday life and job's experience. In fact, while ackonowledging that contact and experience with people of other languages and cultures in a positive setting provide excellent opportunities to provoke ICC development, it is also clesr that once the process has begun, its develpoment is an on-going- often a lifelong- process. So, answering the questions, I found out some interesting things about my awaress and attitudes towards languages and cultures differences.

As far as my "educational traveler" experience I demonstrate awareness of differences across languages and cultural, how a specific context alters my interaction with others and I am viewed by members of the host culture. I demonstrate a willingness to interact with members of a host culture, try to communicate in the host language and to behave in "appropiate" ways and also try to deal with the emotions and frustrations caused by my partecipation in a host culture. About skills, I demonstrate flexibility in interactions with people from the host culture and I develop strategies for learning the host language.

Filling out the test, however, I notices that I had the most improvement in the "professional" field. I demonstrate willingness to grapple with multiple ways of perceiving, of expressing myself, and behaving; to engage with others and to try to understand differences in their behaviour and attitude. As an interpreter I tested my languages skills too, and I realized that i can use several cultural frameworks to improve my professional interactions,nad I can communicate effectively with people from various cultures in a range of social domains.

But, in both sections, I even noticed that I have a low competence in the knowledge of the essential norms and taboos of the host culture in general. In my opinion the reason is because during these years at university I more concentrated on studying grammars and theori concept about languages, without paying much attention to the real content of "culture. Having a full knowledge of what "culture" really means, must be essential if we want become great af efficent Mediatori Culurali.

Isn't it???

Xchange, 3rd week

2008-03-25T11:17:00.004+01:00

Hi guy..
I hope you have enjoyed this Easter break and that you have time to restore and recollect you energies :- )
In my last post I wrote that I was very happy because of the start of spring; and, of course, in the following day the weather was a disaster; wind, cold, rain and also snow... It seemed as we were in winter...
I didn't do anything interesting in this break, exept eat chocolate, cakes and sleep a lot, but I was sad everydays because of the weather that damaged my Easter's plan..

Anyway, last week the Skype exchange didn't as useful as I expected. I think that the reason was because I didn't have the opportunity to speak with my previous American classmate, Artem. At the very last second Sarah changed the pairing because we Italian students were less than American ones, and so I spoke with a new girl: Michelle. She's very nice, but we spend most of the time to speak about ourselves, to introduce each others and we didn't focus enough about our weekly topic: terrorism and "anni di piombo".

Anyway, about this topic she told me that after September 11th, the situation in USA is completely different. People have become aware of the existence of a king of terrorism that they didn't know before. I asked her something more in details about that day, but she answered me that she hasn't now a vivid memory of what happened because she was too young. But when I asked her about the nowadays situation in USA, her answer caught my attention so much, because she said that now America people are not so much scared and worried about future attacks. They seem to be quite prepared; even better, they are conscious of the possibility that something else in the future could happen, but, on the other hand, they are still living as usual, because, in their opinion, this is the best way to face up too this problem and avoid panic in every-day life. I was very surprise by this consideration.

Fortunately she didn't ask me anything about "anni di piombo" or terrorism in Italy, because I wasn't so much prepared on this topic. I clearly explained her that this topic is not so much analyse during High School education because it's considered too recent by the Educational Minister, and so teachers decided to focused more on the First and the Second World War that the last years of the XX century.
Then our conversation finished without any kind of useful conclusions.
I hope that next time the topic will be more interesting...

See you on Wednesday the 1st...

2008-03-23T10:52:00.001+01:00

Happy Easter to you all

Cheers

Xchange, 2nd week

2008-03-17T12:05:00.006+01:00

Hello peers!
How are you? I hope you're all fine. Sorry for the late of thi post but this weekend my computer at home decided not to collaborate with me and with my scholar activitives, so I had to postpone the updating of imy blog until this morning.

Anyway.. Have you seen that, at least, SPRING is coming (very slowly,actually), but it's doesn't matter. This morning I'm very happy because walking from the railway station to the university, I saw that trees are already in blossom and the rays of light appared beyond the clouds. It was a wonderful moment. Despite the fact that spring is not my favorite season ( it's summer the best one for me), I think that spring it's a moment of "revival" and "refreshment" from the sadness of winter. It's a source of energy, that will help me for the last months of classes here, at university.

Anyway, about our Skype Exchange, unfortunately I have very few to say. Last Wendnesday, in the Lab, we didn't speak with our American collegues because they had Sping break and so it's a long time since of I hadn't news from my "little" Artem (my American peer). I wrote him a brief message but I haven't had any answer back, yet; who knows, how did he sent these spring holiday?? (maybe I will ask him the next Wendnesday!!!).

Despite this failure of contact with our American friends, last Monday in class we had the pleasure to know Chiara Olivi. She is one of the girls who makes the exchange with our in USA, and last week she came in Italy to meet her parents, that live near Padua. It's was really a nice experience: first of all because Chaira is a very pretty and sweet girl, and secondly because we had the possibility to pose her a lot of questions and discuss about everyting (hobbies, activities, Americal school system, "campus" and also she tolm us her impressions about Italy and our univerisity). I hope that she will take with her in USA a good impression of our group!!!!

About our weekly task, it was quite easy: we were supposed to discuss in our group and to come up with one question to pose to the Americans. After a lot of difficulties to come in contact with my Italian peers, and different opinions about the final question to create, we decided to ask them something more about the Americans' view of Italian lifestyle and in particular how much their view is influenced by mass-media. All our questions were equally interesting but my peers were right. As Martina noticed in hers blog, the question about the influence of mass-media could be a good starting point for a lively general discussion.

Ok guys, now it's time to attend the lesson with Sarah; I'm curious to discover which will be the topic of today!!!

See you soon!
Bye!

Xchange, 1st week

2008-03-08T15:15:00.004+01:00

Hi guy,

This second semester is started and another exchange is started too. I wrote in some posts before that the first experience my class had with the Padova-Albany exchange totally failed, and so I was very exiting to start this second semester with its big news.

So last Wednesday, during our usua lesson in the lab, Zara and I had our first Skype exchange with Artem, a really sweety American boy from the University of Dickinson. I think that we all three enjoyed very much, we created a wonderful group of work and found this activity very interesting. What is more, we discovered that in our future discussion we will speak not only in Italian and English, but a little bit in Russian and Romanian too, it's great.

At the beginning Zara and I were very shy and scared too and we hadn't no idea about how start the conversation, but after few minuts we became more confident and we started to talked a lot (in fact at the end of the call I apologised with Artem for my talkativeness :-) ). It was great to discover how interesting and usefull could be this kind of experience. First of all we have the opportunity to speak with a real native English speaker, to listen his pronuntiation and to check our own mistakes. Secondly, by using Skype (it was the first time for me), I understood how easy and simple can be come in contact with people very far away from here.

About the topics of our conversation, we briefly introduced ourselves and than we started with the topic Sarah proposed us for this firts week: American-Italian educational systems, American-Italian lifestyle. It was very interesing speak about them also because Artem said us that he is not an American native boy; he comes from Ucraina, but lives there for three years, and so we had the opportunity to see these various aspects under another point of view: that of a foreing student who lives in American and can easily combine them together.
Zara asked Artem about the costs sustained by Dickinson student to follow the courses. 45,000 dollars per year, but he adds that in the America foreign students normally have financial aids (similar to our "borsa di studio") that allow them to pay the college. After some other little explanations about Artem's preferences, the content of the discussion changed because Zara started to talk about the present political situation in US. I'm not very interested in this topic so I left Zara went on with this topic and I stayed quite for some minutes. Fortunately we decided to discuss about elections next time, and I hope that within one week Zara can forget about it :-)

After that we talked about Italian lifestyle as well. We discovered that Artem is a very soccer addicted (he loves the team of Milan so much ) and so we said him that he' s going to have a lot of soccer-addicted friends next year when he'll live in Italy. He is a very funny boy, educated and very interested in this exchange as well. We tried to speaks Italian too; he had some difficulties but Zara and I were very good Italian teacher for him.

To sum up I can say I had a very positive impression about my American peer and about this starting too. I'm very enthusiastic of it and I'm waiting for the next second "round"

Alessandra

2008-02-11T11:34:00.000+01:00

"...the time is coming..."

Dear guys...

It's seemed one year ago that I did't write you someting and so I want to apologise for having abandoned this blog for a long period, but exams have started and the time to spent to this wornderful activity is not much... (as many of you have already noticed in their blogs!!!).

I'm a little bit nervous this week... on Thursday I have my last exams of this section: Global Comunication... It's quite nice, but the amount of notions to learn by heart is too much and I'm extremely tired too to feel quite and secure... so.. sorry for my brief disappearance, but I promise you that I will come back as soos as possible...

Good luck for you exams...

SEE YOU SOON

2008-01-08T10:20:00.000+01:00

Hi Guys!!!

How are you??

First of all I want to wish you all HAPPY NEW YEAR, and a wonderful 2008!!!

Secondly I must to apologize being completely disappeared during the last two weeks, but I decided not to work on my computer during this Christmas holidays, taking time to relax and thinking about my next future. But I must to confess that miss you a bit. I'm used to check blogger every day to read your messages and it became a pleasant habit.
I spent wonderful and relaxing holidays, doing practically nothing. I stayed at home, with my parents and grandparents, and what is more, I spent a lot of time with my closer friends. During the last year we spent little time together because our studies or jobs, so, during these holidays, we decided to make up for lost time and meet together anytime it was possible. It was great!!!!
I had the possibility to restore my mind and "recharge batteries" too, so now I'm
I just read one Laura's post, where she suggested us to send each other our mails for better making feedbacks of our last activity. I think, it's a wonderful idea; I write here my mail, so please, write to m a comment with yours.
Hearing from you soon.

Bye Bye

ps: lino.squaquara@tin.it

2007-12-09T14:31:00.000+01:00

During our last lesson in the Lab, Sarah talked to us about the PLE (Personal Learning Environment). Luckily for us, it's not a tool or another technological "engine" provided but the Net! No, it doesn't. As Sarah explained, it's simply an idea, a kind of project that a group of researchers developed to help students thinking about "new approaches to using technologies for learning".

According to these studies (Cross, 200) the majority of what we learn is "informal learning" (80%); it means that this process takes place outside institutional contexts in different periods and in different way of anyone's life. Every kind of learning (language learning as in our case, but there are other innumerable things to learns) takes place in different contexts and situations, and I think that it's completely wrong to limit our knowledge in a "formal learning".

Therefore, it's time for me to start thinking about the ways I used to learn languages up to now and organized my previous experiences in an orderly manner.
Therefore of my PLE (see the ink below) is divided in 5 categories with are, more or less, the 5 main contexts where I usually come in contact with languages in a "incidental way"(sorry or this expression; I'm not so sure if it's correct in this context!). There are:

Contacts;
Materials;
Experiences;
Self-production;
Personal curiosity.

Each of these groups has several "subgroups" and some of them are then repeated in other categories. This means that the PLE is not a static and close scheme of learning skills, but an "attempt" to link experiences and tools for learning together in a structured way.

Anyway, in my opinion, the most important "category" among these I select, is the one called "contacts". I think that, especially for foreign languages the best way to learn something is oral practice. Grammar rules are useful only at the beginning but only with a constant interaction with the foreign culture; the learner can test himself and improve his language abilities.

2007-11-29T20:03:00.000+01:00

How to judge online sources???

Hi guys!!!
Luckily this week in our e-tivity we won’t learn how to use a new tool but we will have time to restore our poor minds and reflect on and discuss what criteria we use to evacuate the “almost limitless amount of information” we have come across on the Internet during our previous e-tivities. Usually when I need to research something; I prefer to use Internet because it’s easier and it “will give you absolutely everything”. But, on the other hand, I perfectly know that when you decide to work on Internet you must be aware that you have to make more efforts that with a simple research in the library.

First of all you have to select and “filter” information you really need from others that are simply “rubbish”. Then you have to pay attention to the authenticity of the materials and check if what you find out inside the blogsphere is true or not. So, at the beginning, the fir step you have to do is “the judgement of online sources” and after that you can take them as the main material for your works. I liked too much reading a definition, which I found in Internet, which compared the “evaluation sources” as a kind of DETECTIVE WORK!!!
What about me, I haven’t any strategies to filter information from the Net, but I tend to be more critical as possible in my readings. Most depends on what kind of information one is looking for. If I’m looking for facts, historical events or news reports, I think that some sites or sources need not to be checked because they are so popular and well-known that anyone could trust them – I’m referring to sites as the BBC or the CNN networks or the site of “Il Corriere della Sera”. I think that no one could doubt the validity of the materials that these sources presents (I mean, I’m speaking about the validity of the site and not whether the content is right or not; that’s another crucial point!).

On the other hand, if I’m looking for personal opinions about a specific topic, further researches or studies about an issue or simply out of curiosity, I tent to check the author and the publisher. The way in which information is presented is important as well; it should be accompanied with a list of further explanations or with an updated bibliography on that topic.

Anyway, in my opinion, the most important thing when someone search something online is to have a lot of patience and to read the more s possible about that particular topic; in this way one has the possibility to compare different opinions, noticing points in common or in contrast, so finally one can chose properly.

2007-11-25T21:50:00.000+01:00

YouTube

I'm thinking about a way to describe our English course and the first image that flashes through my mind is a kind of jigsaw. Every week in the lab we have added a new piece to this jigsaw and during the last lesson we definitely completed the work with the final piece: YouTube!!!

I think that anyone, who has even the smallest experience of computer, has visited this site at least one time in his life. YouTube is the largest on line videos sharing tool and maybe the fastest-growing tool on Web 2.0. In my opinion YouTube is a distinct site from the others that you can fine in the Net, with the only difference that all the information you need are given by videos or images and not only in written form.

In YouTube you can really find whatever you want: videos that inform you on what's going on in the world, videos that you can use to learn something or even practice English (as in our case), and videos that you can watch just to have fun or to relax.

But, if on one hand this huge amount of material represents a great potential for YouTube's development, on the other hand it's its great limit too; because of when you open YouTube you're literally overwhelm of everything, what it is difficult and "danger" is to be able to filter and select what is useful to your purposes from what are simply "rubbish".

As regards our English purpose (if YouTube is really useful to improve English skill) I totally answer: YES, IT CAN!!!
First of all the majority of videos you find surfing the YouTube are in English and so you can "dive" into English language in an easy way. Then, I think that you can learn more if the information you need are accompanied by videos and images; they will remain better engraved in your memory if you learn them by having fun!!!

I decided to add a couple of videos to my blog to show you how opposite things one can find in YouTube:

The first one is just to relax, after this exhausting experience on the Net. It's a little scene, taken by the movie "Pride and Prejudice" that is the film that by far I love the most. It's the moment when Mr.Darcy proposes to Elizabeth Bennet for the second time and she finally accepts.
How a romantic scene!!!

The second it's one of the innumerable videos that I found searching for "Learning English". It's from MadridTeacher and this man gives us some good advices to improve each own English level.

Look at those videos... they are very interesting!!!
Bye bye guys!!!

WITH PODCAST YOU CAN !!!

2007-11-19T11:49:00.000+01:00

This time it wasn't so difficult to understand what the new tool, introduced by Sarah during the Lab's lesson, is and how it is supposed to be used.
At last, "podcast" has joined our BloggingEnglish and it has already produced it positive effects.

But, what is a PODCAST??

It's a multimedia file (audio or video) distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds. These files can be downloaded onto computers and mobile devices, like mp3 players, so that we can listen to and watch the podcast whenever and wherever we want. I already knew what a podcast is before the lesson of last week, because my "hi-tech" friends shown me this wonderful tool sometime ago and try to explain how to use it as well. But, I want to be sincere... up to now I've never thought about the possibility to use podcast to improve my English skills, downloading English materials. And now, while I'm surfing the net, I'm discovering huge and incredible numbers of sites and podcasts to practice my listening skills. I want to share this material with us. Here below I describe 3 podcast that most have caught my attention:

The first is the BBC's podcast, I have already use it when I created my personal social bookmarking; however, I think that this site is multifunctional. In my opinion every English student should download in his mp3 player a "radio" in English to constantly be informed about what happens around the world. Its URL is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/globalnews/;
Then I was curious about the fact that some Universities, like Stanford or Duke in the United States, as Sarah informed us, offer many lectures online in the form of podcast. So I try to visit one of their sites, and... Surprise, surprise... it's true!!! Entering in those sites, you can download courses, faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports and than play this material onto your iPod or pc. Think a minute about that... it's great!!! You have the possibility to follow in videoconference, lessons or other activities and to see how foreign universities work...oh, oh...stop a second... my head is spinning!!! The URL is http://itunes.stanford.edu/;
And finally I decide to find some useful podcasts to improve my English pronunciation. Many times I find myself in difficulties because I don't know how a word must be exactly pronounced. So, don't worry... now podcast can make your English study easier and quicker. One of those sites is http://howjsay.com/. (I've noticed that also Alberto, one of my peers chose it. Well-done, Alberto!!)

Social Bookmarking

2007-11-10T15:03:00.000+01:00

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING: is it really useful???

Dear guys,
Another lesson in the lab, another adventure inside the blogsphere, so now I can definitely say that this English course is a sort of "work in progress", which is serialized week by week. We have started three weeks ago with the surfing on the blogsphere, then we created our personal blogs, next week there was the discover of feed aggregators and this week we can add another word in our technical English dictionary: Social Bookmarking!!!
As feed aggregators, I've never heard about bookmarking before and so, when Sarah pronounced these words for the first time last Wednesday, I could hardly figure out what she was talking about.
But I must to be sincere; after her explanation too, ideas in my mind didn't become clearer! Maybe because she compared "bookmarking" with the most common Italian tool " Preferiti", and this is exactly the problem: I have never used it before and I didn't know its purpose, so you can clearly understand that at that moment my mind still continued to be blank.
After the same old problems with registration and confirmation, I started to manage this new tool and I have to admit that I was, and I'm still sceptical about its usefulness. I mean, I used to write down in pieces of paper the URLs of interesting websites I found on the web and for me this is the easier way "to build up a repository of information and websites"- as Sarah wrote in a post. Maybe I have to gain more experience with "bookmarking" and I'm still waiting to see its advantages in my English improvements, but up to now, "social bookmarking" remains a sort of "blackhole" in the universe of my mind.
Concerning my classmates' choices, I've notice that they are more or less related to English learning, as mine. The website we have selected more is the BBC's one, and it's used for various tags, such us sport, English listening, media, networks and so on. It's a multifunctional and updated site and we agree with the fact that it doesn't miss to our social bookmarking.
However, I've noticed that none of my classmates decided to add to their tags some online English Dictionaries. I believe that they are essential tools for every student.
Anyway, now I'm curious to know what will be our step inside the blogsphere and I hope I will be easier to manage and understand that the last one.

See you soon!!!!

2007-11-07T15:16:00.001+01:00

And now I want to write a little reflection about the topic that we are going to discuss in class on Monday; the question is

Should Halloween be imported to and celebrated in Italy or not?

I think that this tradition is unuseful here in Italy for a various reasons:

It's something that doesn't belong to our Itanian tradition and so we ceLebrate IT without a specific reason;

It's only a waste of time and a matter of business;

I can't stand (as also Claudia in her blog wrote) Italian children going along the streets, shouting and knocking on the doors, without knowing what Halloween really is;

In my opinion this tradition should be celebrated in Italy only by those people that really know what it is and agree with its meaning. I admit that I don't know exactly where it was born, why and because, and so, why I have to celebate it without a specific reason?
So, briefly, I think that Halloween should not be imported in Italy and become part of our culture, because it's something that doesn't belong to us. Anyway, becuase of the increase of globalization, I believe that Halloween can co-exist together with our Latin culture, but it should be treated not as another occassion to waste money, but as something that belong to another culture and must be celebrated only by those who really believe in it.

2007-11-04T09:22:00.000+01:00

Hello!!!

It's time to update my blog.
In the last lesson that we made in the lab I discovered another important tool inside the intricate and endless blogsphere. With the help of Sarah, I learnt how to use feeds and feeds aggregators. They are tools that inform blogger about every single "movement” that the other peers of the group do, without opening each time their blog. At the beginning of the lesson I was completely scared about this new aim to reach, I haven't listen about feeds aggregators' existence before, and so, it was a little bit difficult to follow the instructions of e-tivity 4. But when I started to use them I realized they are really useful and not so impossible to use as I thought. As usually, I had some difficulties in opening "bloglines" and register myself there, but after this obstacle I became more and more confidence with this tool and I start to use it properly. Even now, before writing this comment I "took a glance" at bloglines to read my peers' new comments; it was easy and It's took me less time instead of opening all their blogs and read their comments there.
So, finally, I can say that my impressions about this new experience are positive. I'm really satisfied with my improvements and I start to realize that the use of computer and technology in general is less complicated and terrible that I thought; all one needs is an open-minded disposition.

2007-10-30T12:07:00.000+01:00

Hi guy!I
spent more or less an hour and an half to visit all the blogs that appeared on the screen when I select “fashion” as field, but finally, after a long search on the web, I came across a couple of blogs that I want to recommend to you:

1. the URL of the first blog is http://www.psfk.com/category/fashion

This is composed of posts sent by people from all over the world who share the same passion for fashion, trends and new ideas for future collections and cloth creations.In my opinion, this blog is well organized and simple to visit: besides the bloggers' posts, on the right side of the page there is a list of all topics that bloggers can speak about (for example Brands, Technology, Designers, T-shirt, New Collection, and so on). But what impressed me more are the wonderful photos and captivated advertisement that one can see opening the blog. I have always loved reading and watching all the advertisement along the streets or inside newspapers, but to have the possibility to have all them collected together is a wonderful experience for those, like me, that are fashion’s addicted. Obviously, people who write in this blog share their opinions about fashion, write about what they like and dislike and make comments on other opinions. I think that these kinds of blogs could be useful also for fashion’s brands and designers to know consumers’ tendencies and preferences. What about the language, it’s informal but sometimes comments contain some specific terms to describe products and cloth.

Then I changed the field and I chose a more “serious” one: Jane Austen

2. http://austentatious.blogspot.com/3. http://janitesonthejames.blogspot.com/

I love English literature, especially Jane Austen’s works! I think that books as “Pride and Prejudice”, “Sense and sensibility” or “Emma” are the perfect examples of how the love should be. The site that I want to recommend to you, caught my attention because it’s built in an old-fashion way. Colours, pictures and style, all put back the visitors into the 18 centuries life and romanticism. I think that the way in which this blog is created is very important because it catch the reader attention, make him comfortable and help him to enter in that past world. In the same way, also this third blog, always about Jane Austen, is interested and very romantic too. The white background of the first page and the picture of the swan remind a deep sweetness and harmony too.

As regarding the language used in the blogs, it‘s vary and closely linked to the topic they deal with. In all blogs the vocabulary and the register reach the aim pursued in the blog, so the language must be clear, simple, colloquial and informal, as it is in a usual conversation. Sometimes there are technical terms, but they are perfectly comprehensible for those who will visit them.

2007-10-17T15:21:00.000+02:00

Hi guys, I'm Alessandra...

I spent a lot of time choosing the right image that could describe who I am, and finally, after an hard work, I selected this wonderful beach.

I love travelling all around the world, I'm exciting when I come in contact with new cultures and people from other countries. I think that one can learn a lot from the contact with other people. But, what I appreciate more is spending my holiday in a place as one in the picture. I think that it's the best way to relax, far from the everyday life, and reinvigorate oneself, before starting a new adventure or a new experience in another place. What is more this photo represents a part of me because of the vivid blue colour of the sky and the sea.

Also the presence of the waves helped me to choose this picture, because sometimes my life and also my mind become stormy, messy and chaotic as the water of this sea.

What about the websites that I usually visit, I suggest you to have a look at:

http://www.fuerteventura.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

http://www.lettere.unipd.ir/

The first website contains a lot of information about the Island of Fuerteventura, a wonderful place where I spent my holiday last summer. I totally "fall in love" with this place because its landscape is a kind of mixture of mountains, beaches, woods and volcanic stones.

The second one is the BBC's website and in my spare time I like visit it to be informed about what happens around the world.

The last one is a well-known website among all students of the University of Padua. Everytime, when I start work on my computer , the first thing I do is to open this site and check if there are new information about courses and timetable's changes.