Girl Meets Online World

The main reason for my absence in the discussion group and synchronous sessions is due to my thesis. It has been an intense couple of weeks and I am proud to say it is now finished and approved by my advisor. In addition to that, I submitted my abstract to present it at the University of Pittsburgh in the Seminar of Cultures of the Lusosphere. I was terrified of showing my work to the world - the world in this case being students and professors from outside my Alma Mater -, but it all worked out fine. I decided to cut the theoretical background off the presentation since the Seminar was heavily focused on how research shows the Portuguese speaking population around the world. Hence, I felt that the adult learning theories were not essential to the presentation and I was given 15 minutes to talk - which was no easy task! The main focus of my project was to analyze how Brazilian English teaching professionals used a particular Facebook group page to work on their professional ...

Being anchored in the learning theories of Dewey, Lewin, and Piaget, Kolb (1984) defines the nature of learning as being a holistic integrative process. He explains that learning will take place to resolve some form of friction, conflict or disrupter. For Dewey, such conflict derives from impulses that need to “be transformed into high-order purposeful action” (Kolb, 1984, p. 22). For Piaget, the dichotomy happens between accommodation versus assimilation, whereas Lewin sees room for friction between abstract and concrete concepts. Kolb developed a learning cycle model in a reaction against reliance on behaviorism to understand learning by examining the role of cognition. The four quadrants are formed by linking a perception pole (concrete experience and abstract conceptualization) with a transformation pole (reflective observation or active experimentation). Ideally, learners should carry a balanced amount of all four quadrants and learning abilities grow out of these four str...

Here is the link to my attempt at using Animoto: https://animoto.com/play/XGlSEpceftveH1JkERartQ I first heard of Animoto about ten years ago. I was in the beginning of my teaching career and starting my first real job at a private language institution. My mentor at the time was showing me some tools they would use to work with kids and teenagers and Animoto was one of his favorite ones. He would create slideshows to be used during his class' graduation ceremonies. I feel this is a great tool to be used with our students' collaboration too!

When I recorded my introduction video on Flipgrid, I mentioned that I'd had several unsuccessful attempts at engaging in online learning. I could only think of a couple courses I took recently and of how dissatisfied I was with their structures (or lack thereof). While I stand by what I said, it was also unfair to reduce my experience with online learning to events that only happened in the last few years. Being inspired by "The History of Online Learning", I am trying to dig deeper and create my own timeline. My journey with online learning goes hand in hand with my journey of learning the English language and American culture. English language instruction has always been deficient in Brazil and since my family could not afford enrolling me in a proper language institution, it was up to me to develop my skills elsewhere. As a kid, picking up English was never intentional. At 11 years old, I was too busy listening to boy bands and pop divas to rationalize the importa...