Saturday 30 June 2012

Creating an animation

My first and very shy experience in the world of creating animations... First step, watch out the shots you get ;) Now, I know that! rsrsrs... New photos and Adobe Photoshop here I go.
Thank you, Nuno Dias. You can see real work @ his to be a barabucho.


Thursday 28 June 2012

Euro 2012 is over for Portugal...

Credits: João Galhanas for Pixabay

Portugal has been eliminated from the 2012 European Championship, falling to the World Champion Spain on penalties. There were 93 minutes of normal time, during which the momentum ebbed and flowed but neither side was sufficiently incisive to muster up a goal. Portugal did far more than contain our neighbours, who were decidedly off the boil until late on, but in football’s cruellest psychological lottery, our Seleção came up short. The Seleção set about their work with purpose and, crucially, cohesion, in a first half display that largely confounded the World and European Champions. The early pace was ponderous, which suited Portugal’s counter-attacking stylings.
The other major talking point in the build-up to the match had been the proposition of Pepe, Fábio Coentrão and Cristiano Ronaldo coming up against a number of their club mates. The latter was of course given particular attention, and with twelve minutes played, the Portugal captain entered the game, surging down the left flank and forcing an interception from Iker Casillas. At the halfway point of the first half, the Seleção were very much ahead on points.
It was then that the asphyxiating possession for which Spain is famed began to increase. Although Portugal continued to present a live threat on the counter, Del Bosque’s side were able to control the game to greater effect during the middle period of the half. Yet Portugal was anything but willing to simply soak up the pressure, and responded once again with an incisive move of their own on the half hour mark. Spain’s riposte – a pair of mis-hit passes from Piqué and Silva – provided a neat illustration of the half: Portugal assured and controlled, Spain (even with some questionable decisions from the Tukish referee Cüneyt Çakir) seemingly harried, and some way short of their best.  Portugal continued to persevere, without ever losing their shape or throwing caution to the wind. And so, to penalties: football’s ultimate revenge on those foolish enough to pin their hopes and dreams on the fortune of 22 men chasing a spherical object around a field... Which is to say, all of us! At such a time, nerves are all that matter. Portugal lost 2-4 on spot-kicks but we are all VERY, VERY PROUD of our SELEÇÃO! They did their best and fought like HEROES.

THANK YOU!!!

Tuesday 26 June 2012

New Learning Paradigms

found pic @ Educadores Inovadores FB page
The New Millennium Learners (individuals born in the early 1980s or later) grew up surrounded by digital media and that implies significantly different learning styles from previous generations. Several terms have been used to describe this generation of learners: “Digital Natives”, “Net Generation” or “New Millennium Learners”. They have also been dubbed the Homo Zappiens, for their ability to control different sources of digital information simultaneously. 
Not all people born after the early 1980s display the “typical” properties of NML (while some individuals born before do) and there are profound discrepancies between different countries and within different countries, reflecting prevailing digital divides.
Compared to previous generations of learners, they are digitally literate, they think more visually and in a non-linear manner, they practise multitasking and give preference to  multimedia environments. They are continuously connected with their peers  and “always on”. In learning environments they are easily bored, need a variety of stimuli not to get distracted and expect instant feedback.
To come to terms with the information overload of the digital era, they need to employ  learning strategies that involve searching, managing, re-combining, validating and contextualising information.
According to various studies on the use of digital communication technologies among university students confirm that the generation of NML can be characterised as:
(i) connected and mobile;
(ii) skilled at multitasking;
(iii) social and interactive;
(iv) results oriented.

To cope with the abundance of information available, students have to develop new skills to "survive" in the knowledge and digital society:
i) stay focused in important tasks;
ii) connect with each other to be informed;
iii) think creatively and critically.

These are the reasons why the teacher of this new digital era must explore new tools in the educational context, bearing in mind the digital literacy and e-strategies. The whole educational process is now student-centred, giving learners the necessary critical thinking ablity to overcome the danger of globalization and manipulation.
It is crucial to stimulate curiosity and enthusiam, so that students can be full digital citizens. With this change in learning and teaching paradigms, the role of the teacher must be to incentivate learning and thinking and to promote collective intelligence production. The information flood won't stop, so we will have to teach our students to "swim" or even better to "navigate".

Sunday 24 June 2012

MDNA Day


Her Madge(sty) is in Portugal today for what we expect to be the show of the year.
Off I go to Estádio de Coimbra, after waiting for almost six months for the Queen to express herself in this MDNA TOUR!
Just in case you are curious about this tour, have a look at the official website and store.
It began last May 31st in Tel Aviv with tickets sold out. Then, Madonna and her crew headed to Abu Dhabi, Istambul, Rome, Milan, Florence and a couple of shows in Barcelona. Today, this Girl gone wild is in our country!
As youalready know I’m a fan, so it will be a huge lifetime experience. Hope I can get into the groove and strike a pose together with some of my Pine Tree workmates, who will be there, too ;)
There is no betterplace to be tonight than Coimbra…Music really makes people come together...
High timeto go and turn up the radio ‘cause MADONNA DOES IT BETTER!!! 

Saturday 23 June 2012

São João @ Porto

Every year, on the night of 23rd June, my city - Porto - becomes lively and crazier than ever. Thousands of people come to the centre and to the most traditional neighborhoods to pay a tribute to São João Baptista, in a party that mixes sacred and profane traditions.

The festivities have been held in the city for more than six centuries, yet it was during the 19th century that Saint John's day became impregnated in the city's culture and assumed the status of the city's most important festival.

In fact, the party starts early in the evening of 23rd June and usually lasts until the morning of 24th. The traditional attractions of the night include street concerts, popular dancing parties, jumping over flames, eating barbecued sardines and meat, drinking wine, vases of swet basil with rhymes (manjericos), releasing illuminated flame-propelled balloons over Porto's summer sky and hitting people in the head with small plastic hammers (martelinhos) or with wild leek (alho porro).

At midnight the partygoers make a short break to look at the sky at Saint John's firework spectacle. The show is increasingly sophisticated with the fireworks being associated with themes and multimedia shows.

The party has sacred roots but is also mixed with pagan traditions, with the fireworks embodying the spirit of tribute to the sun.

One could expect the firework to be the climax and mark the end of the festivities. Yet, it is quite common for us to keep celebrating until 3 or 4 in the morning. Younger people take it even a step further. They walk from Porto's riverside core - Ribeira (for instance the parish of São Nicolau up to the seaside in Foz or to Matosinhos where they wait for the sunrise near the sea! So, let's go because I'm expecting this weekend to be memorable!

Friday 22 June 2012

British Accents

I have already written about the amazing online resources of the British Library for English Language Teaching last May (cf. British Library), but now I found a new one and I couldn't resist posting it...
Sounds Familiar is a web page, provided by the British Library, about British accents as the UK is abundant in regional accents and dialects, a strong and live evidence of local history as far as continuity and change are concerned. The great thing about this page is that you can click different regions of the UK and immediately get the pronunciation of different words across the UK.
As it is explained on the page, "You can listen to 71 sound recordings and over 600 short audio clips chosen from two collections of the British Library Sound Archive: the Survey of English Dialects and the Millennium Memory Bank. You’ll hear Londoners discussing marriage and working life, Welsh teenagers talking with pride about being bilingual and the Aristocracy chatting about country houses. You can explore the links between present-day Geordie and our Anglo-Saxon and Viking past or discover why Northern Irish accents are a rich blend of seventeenth century English and Scots. You can study changes in pronunciation among the middle classes or find out how British Asians express their linguistic identity."



Wednesday 20 June 2012

Learn English by singing

Subingles is a Spanish collaborative site that encourages you to learn English through videos and especially by singing. It has a wide range of songs in English and all sorts of videos with subtitles. Users are invited to contribute with their own videos for their cyberlibrary. You can have access to language exercises and to a live chat. Subingles also suggests different ways of interacting with the English language by giving us links for:
- News from Reuters and SkyNews;
- Radios, such as, Rpadio Vaughan and CNN;
- Class videos;
- Chatting about specific topics;
- English symbols;
- Children songs;
- Blogs to learn English.

Monday 18 June 2012

Blended Learning

Blended learning combines face to face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities to form an integrated instructional approach. In the past, digital materials have served in a supplementary role, helping to support face to face instruction. The goal of a blended approach is to join the best aspects of both face to face and online instruction. Classroom time can be used to engage students in advanced interactive experiences.  Meanwhile, the online portion of the classes can provide students with multimedia-rich content at any time of day, anywhere the student has Internet access, from school to the coffee shop or the students’ homes. This allows for an increase in scheduling flexibility.

In addition to flexibility and convenience for students,  there is evidence that a blended instructional approach can result in learning outcome gains and increased enrollment motivation.


The following scheme, from the blog Free Technology For Teachers, sums up how an educator can take advantage of using tools, such as a blog or a wiki, as a complement of traditional ELT:
Credits: Free Technology for Teachers

Saturday 9 June 2012

GO, GO PORTUGAL!!!

UEFA Euro Cup 2012 has begun yesterday and I must confess I enjoy watching football. In more or less 3 hours, Portugal is going to play its first match against Germany. It's a tough challenge in a very difficult Group B (Portugal - Germany - Denmark - Holland). 
Case to say: all together now!!!! We are going to need it but WE CAN DO IT!

Thursday 7 June 2012

In 50 days' time...

English 4 All


English For All is part of the Cyberstep project funded by the United States Department of Education "to meet the challenge of creating and distributing multimedia learning materials for the hardest-to-serve ABE (adult basic education) and ESL adult learners". It was developed by the Division of Adult Career Education (DACE) of the Los Angeles Unified School District. It consists of five stories divided by four episodes each one full of audio, video, and grammar exercises.
You can sign in to have your progress registered or enter the course as a visitor (no registration needed). But if you are a teacher you may register yourself and create a class, then you will receive a password to give your students so you can follow their progress and print some material as well. Let's ALL learn English!