PLE

I didn't know where to start…but once I found the way I could have written million things!
I'm really happy I edited the Informal learning page on Edutech because I feel I brought forward something which will turn to be useful for my future.
We are always so busy in doing things that thinking about us, what we feel and think is difficult!
I think that you never finish learning and if you want to keep your mind flexible and active you can't stop learning, no matter how!
Our mind is a precious good we have been provided with and it is important to be aware of how to use it in the best way.
This year we have been given the chance of learning English in a practical way and I'm sure we all realized that although we grew up in this century we were cut off from the online world we have discovered lately. I found this last etivity rather stimulating and coherent with the course objectives.

So, first of all, I took notes to draw my concept map and at the end I realized that I learn by doing! As I wrote in my final paper, I learn more when I do things step by step and within a relaxed context.
In my map in fact there is a big space dedicated to people. I have friends all over the world and I learn a lot from them about their language and their culture! At the end there must be a reason why I decided to study languages, I'm talkative and curious!

First of all I divided my map into two main sections: formal and informal; I put into the first section everything related to uni (teachers, uni-mates, books, classes, lectures, labs, seminars and conferences, projects). I put into the second section all I do by myself such as reading books and magazines, watching films, satellite tv, listening to music and radio, writing emails, instant messaging, talking (on the phone or face-to-face), travelling, internet, blogs, wikis.

I made an interesting consideration: I put all the tools learnt during this course into the informal section and the reason is that during this last year we learnt as a group but I think also that we developed personal skills.

Poto from http://www.flickr.com/

Edutech Wiki

I imagine the Tulane Wiki as a sort of preliminary experience for us. It made me think to the driving lessons one takes before getting the driving license: during the first semester we got familiar with the Wiki-world; we get familiar with collective writing; we learnt how to edit other's pages and we slowly accepted other's contributions in our pages; we learnt how to organize our ideas according to the typical Wiki structure, we learnt how to quote and write references, etc.

In brief, during last semester we've been training to cope with a pubblic Wiki!

I must say that it hasn't been easy for me to add and modify information on the page I chose to edit together with Tania (Informal Learning).

First of all Edutech Wiki is no longer the "protected place" where only people from our language course could directly intervene. On the contrary, there are experts and very competent people who contribute with their knowledge.

EduTech Wiki is a very reliable source - it has been created by people working at the University of Geneva - and if you contribute, what you write has to be of some utility, besides being supported by factual evidence (references).

You can write your own opinion as well, but I suppose that this is a prominent personalities' privilege. I felt ridiculous when I wrote "According to Elena Birolo.." . I wanted to add a personal touch to the page but I think it didn't work as a classmate suggested me to remove that sentence!!!:-)

While editing on Edutech Wiki I had the impression that its official character makes you feel a bit uncomfortable about your own contributions but also more responsible for what you add, modify, or delete. Even references and language used are chosen more carefully because you want to be on the equal footing with all those experts!

In our Wiki there were few people (us) contributing and what's more, we personally knew each other. To a certain extent the context was familiar, while Edutech Wiki is much more formal. Although we had to be impartial and objective also in our Wiki, last semester I wrote for us and for our peers in New Orleans, here I add my contribution for anybody will need to find out something about Informal Learning!

(photo from Flickr)