Summing up e-tivity 2

Notes from the blogosphere

Well, you all have found many things on the blogosphere! Let's see if we can bring your ideas together and sum up what you found.

Though in Italian, Enrico gave us a blog that will make you laugh as it posts things you probably never would have dreamt of doing at school. On a more personal note, for all of you interested in the real Erasmus experience, Pierpaolo has given us the blog of one of his friends studying abroad in France (and his own site if you want to know about the frustrations of studying at DEI in Padova!). If you like pets in general, and particularly cats, Christian has given us two fun sites for animal lovers. We've got computer geek blogs for Java and GNOME (Enrico), but maybe you have to be an expert to go there. If your passion is anime, Enrico suggested two interesting blogs.

Since we are in Italy, of course you found blogs on beauty (Ermanna), wine (Carlo, our group sommelier) and food (Letizia, our group cook).

Not all of you are so frivolous :-) some of you found very politically-minded blogs. Beppe Grillo seems to be a big hit (Giovanni Fois, Giovanni Vandala', Pierpaolo and myself). On a more local note, Nicola has pointed out a site for all bike riders in Padova who don't want to be killed by the rotaie for the new tram! Giovanni V., following an interesting consideration on the relationship between Internet and information, gives us a site where we can go to get all the information we don't get from mainstream media.

Finally, Mohammed has made us stop and reflect by offering us not only poetry, but audio as well! The blog he posted was in French, but the comments to his post found solutions to this linguistic barrier.

You all did a great job and it really looks like you enjoyed exploring the blogoshpere. I certainly discovered new worlds through you and thank you for it!

Keep up the good work!

Sarah

Blog List

Hello there everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I've created a bloglist here on the right-hand menu.
Personal Blogs: as you send posts with the address of your personal blog (e-tivity 3), I'll insert them here so that we can all easily visit each other's personal blogs.
Some of your favorite blogs: I decided not to put all of the blogs you suggested in e-tivity 2 but only the ones that seemed to spark the most interest. This way it'll be easier for you to navigate if you were interested in one of the blogs mentioned by your colleagues (let me know if you'd like me to include one I've left out!).

Keep up the good work :-)
Sarah

My anime blog is online!

When i decided to keep a blog about anime I though that I'd be the only one interested at it because Japanese anime is a very elitish subject. But I haven't announced it yet and I have already one visitor. Please take a look at my blog and enjoy it!

http://scanti.blogspot.com/

I own a Blog...

This is my blog... you can image what it is about.
http://venetianwine.blogspot.com/

Bye

Carlo

The blogs I read (and other sites)

One of the funniest blog I've ever found is 7 in condotta , which gathers tons of far-fetched black marks (="note sul registro") of things i didn't dare doing when i was at school. If you are a java fan like me please visit JUG Padova, that's where people from the Java User Group of Padova discuss; if you use GNOME, my favourite DE, go to Planet Gnome you will find the blog of the developers.
I take an interest in these two anime blogs too: the first one is Random Curiosity because it deals with "School Rumble Nigakki" (the comic is also printed in Italy) and "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu". The second one is Wakaranai anime Blog that i read because of"Blood+", a very famous horror anime.
If you want to know more about Japan and even learn Japanese try GiapponeGiappone , you can read news from Japan and Japanese lessons.

E-tivity 3: Developing your own blog

Developing your own blog

Thanks to all of you who have done e-tivity 2 so far. We have been looking around your favourite blogs and found them very interesting and appealing, you can tell you have really enjoyed in doing it, haven't you? Now keep going as well as you have so far, with enthusiasm exploring the blogosphere ;-) because it's time for you to work on your own blog! :-))

Some people define blogs as online diaries. In other words, they are places where you can write about you, what you do, what you think, etc. and share it with other people. This week we’d like you to develop your own blog. We think this will help you better understand the blogosphere (and be good for your English!).
Please read the E-tivity instructions carefully.
Have fun working on your blog, remember to sign your posts and please get in touch if you have any technical problems!!
Sarah and Lisa

E-tivity 3
Purpose: To start personalizing your own blog in order to start developing an opinion about what blogs are really about.
Task: Log on to blogger and rather than clicking on our courseblog, develop your own. You have the freedom to do whatever you want. Choose a style, change the colors, add some links and some images or pictures, etc, even an audio file. Please include at least a welcome message, preferably one or two entries as well during the week. Then come back to our course blog and make a new post giving us the address of your personal blog.

Respond: Read the other students’ messages in our course blog and go visit at least one of the blogs they have developed. Then come back to our course blog and reply (using the "comment" button) to some the one(s) you visited giving your impressions of their blog.

Timeline: Wednesday, April 26 – Tuesday, May 2nd

A look at language

First of all, thanks to those who got e-tivity 2 done by the deadline. I posted it late so I’ll wait until April 26^th to post e-tivity 3 to give you time to finish doing it and replying to each other.

In the meantime, hopefully you have all received the message below and the attached file you need to reply to this blog entry.

I will generally not “check” the language used in your blog messages because we will focus on language and grammar in our use of the wiki and in class. However, I thought it might be useful to just start taking a small look at language. I’ve corrected the language in your messages from e-tivity 1. It’s very important to remember that we learn a lot not only from our own mistakes but from other people’s mistakes too! Therefore, when you’re not doing an e-tivity, try doing this.

Read the corrections for all of the messages (in the .rtf file I have sent you via e-mail). In particular focus your attention on the comments on the right side of the screen. Read all the comments carefully; I have not repeated comments so some at the end of the file make reference to others at the beginning.

Reply to this message with a comment in which you write about 1+ things you learned about the English language from the corrections, and ask any questions you may have.

Make mistakes, learn, improve, make mistakes, learn, improve … this is our iterative process!

Sarah

Blogs and slow internet

I don't really know a lot about the blogosphere and I started to read blogs only last year because two friends of mine used it to share with the world their erasmus experience. I think one of them is very very nice and interesting because this guy (Piero) writes very well and describes places and sensations with an unusual accuracy. So...http://carovanieri.blog.excite.it.
Another blog I use to read very frequently is Beppe Grillo's blog, already mentioned by Giovanni. I find it very useful because it gives you informations which common newspapers do not give.
I also tried to make my own blog using the web space my department (DEI) gives me, but I do not have enough patience to actualize it and, most of all, I don't know a lot about programming in internet and so...the website is pretty awful ;). Anyway, the address is www.pierpaolomarcon.tk.
Finally, I have a big problem: in my apartment in Padova I don't have an internet connection and in Treviso I have a very slow one. So internet is still a source of information I'm not exploiting too much.

See you soon! Pier

Is there wine in your blood?

If you want to know something more about American and world wines.......
Look:
http://www.vinography.com/
Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world.

There are a lot of blogs which are about every topic in wine world.
Of course I like drinking wine, but I want t know the interesting world inside every glass of wine. I think drinking wine is a pleasure in our life and it's good for the health, but we always must have responsibility when we do it.
Anyway there are many stories and traditions inside every bottle of wine.

Bye

Carlo

Good Earth Day by Giovanni

Blogosphere is only a suburb of that big city with infinite possibilities, that is Internet.
I have begun to visit it only recently and there are some blogs I visit daily (perhaps not daily, but nearly).
The most important property of Internet (and consequently of blogosphere) is the possibility to search inusual or hidden informations and points of view. Information, as platonic idea, is a powerful weapon for our mind, because only through information it can to have a large and opened possible vision of our reality, of the truth and to form own ideas and own point of view.
There are several blogs that give reflection cues about different arguments, from ambiental to politic ones, but my favourite are Svolte epocali and Beppe Grillo's blog.

To follow e-tivity 2, I also search a blog about tech news and gadgets and I find a very funny blog about latest tech and gadget news: http://www.techeblog.com/. The most amusing things in this blog are the top 10 of several accessories, from home gadgets and Ipod accessories to Lego creations.

Good reading...

Listen to Kamilya Jubran
Safar

I walk in the clouds.
My horizon tinted dew.
Mirages are the myths,
My life has passed in vain
Looking for the true.

If a friend would ask me back
To the land of the sane,
I'd never leave the sands,
I'd never leave the track.

Thoughts stretch taut at night.
Desire is a light
That sparkles in the eye.
I am a mad song.
Like an echo, I fly.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hi!

I'm not a great blogger and I don't live in Blogsphere although I think that it is an extraordinary town where we can know, learn and doing so much virtual activities.
I've found out perchance this french blog Non Lieux ( http://nonlieux.blogspot.com/ ) and I find it really...cool!
Often I have moments where I want to be alone, because I need to imagine, to remind, to understand and, last but not least, to relax. So, I love this blog [Non Lieux ]because it is a "not" space where I could know things about the human contraddictions, that show how much fatuous are often the society, and read some poetry and phrase with "effect". It's original.

Have you listen to Kamilya? I find her voice very strong.

Bye!

E-tivity 2

Exploring the blogoshpere
Hello everyone.
Good job to everyone on setting up your accounts in blogger - I think it was pretty painless :-) Now we move on to exploring the blogosphere. According to wikipedia the blogoshpere is "...the collective term encompassing all weblogs or blogs as a community or social network. Many weblogs are densely interconnected; bloggers read others' blogs, link to them, reference them in their own writing, and post comments on each others' blogs. Because of this, the interconnected blogs have grown their own culture." Are there any blogs you particularly like? Any you visit on a daily basis? There are so many out there that there must be at least one that interests you! Let’s see if you can find one, or if the others in the course can help you find some new ones.
Please read the E-tivity instructions carefully.
Have fun blogging!!
Sarah

E-tivity 2
Purpose: To search the Internet for a blog that interests you in order to become aware of how large and varied the blogosphere is.
Task: Do a search in Internet, e.g. putting the word “blog” in a search engine like Google and then a word you like such as “rubgy”, and try and find a blog that interests you. Go to our course blog (http://unistudentspd.blogspot.com/) and make a post about the blog you have found. Give us the url and explain what you like about the blog and why you would recommend others visiting it.

Respond: Read the other students’ messages and go visit at least one of the blogs they have suggested. Then come back to our course blog and reply (using the “comment” button) to the student who suggested the one(s) you visited giving your impressions.

Timeline: Thursday, April 20 – Sunday, April 23

Inside this blog

Hi, I'm Carlo and I'm just in the Blog area. I study Mechanical Engineering in Padova and this year is probably the last one, because I'm already working for the thesis. I like very much my study, even if it sometimes is very hard.
I think I'm outgoing but sometimes too rational. As many of you, I like travelling and swimming. I went in some country of Europe but not enough for to know the Europe like I want. I hope I'm going to have many opportunities for going abroad. But I know that a good English is essential for to visit the foreign countries. This is one reason about why I'm here.
It's really a good idea to do a course blog, bacause we can do something more than a normal class.
See you soon.

Bye

Carlo

Good Easter by Giovanni

Hi! In the first place Good Easter to everybody...

My name is Giovanni and I'm 22 years old.I'm a student of master degree in electronic engineering; I like what I'm studying, most of all what is projected in future (near or far)... In this period I have begun my thesis on PCF, Photonic Crystal Fibers, a new kind of optical fibers with innovative and performant characteristic for telecommunication use.With this course I hope to dust my english...

I have only three passions: book, music and my girlfriend ;-)
I like reading very much; so I read a lot of book of several genre, style, period... A favourite of mine is the last I read: The end of Eternity of Asimov... While I read, I love to listen music. I played piano for several years, so I like nearly every kind of music from classics - I love Liszt and his advanced virtuosity - and operas - my favourite opera is Turandot of Giacomo Puccini - to masters of rock.
An author, who I like particularly, is Giorgio Gaber, for his ability to join music, cabaret, politics and satire.
About my girlfriend? She's fantastic!
In truth, there is another thing I love that there isn't in Padua: the sea...The reason of this love is that I come from Messina, in Sicily. (Yes, the town of the biggest bridge of the world, when ad if it will be beginned and ended... I don't want this "grande opera" for several reason: ambiental, economic, etc.) I return at home only during the holydays, so I can go to the sea, to swim and to fish only during the summer... :-(

During free time, I like going to the cinema, to Prato della Valle (the biggest square of Padua), drinking spritz (typical cocktail) in Piazza delle Erbe, walking for the Padua's streets and playing roleplay (I play Vampire: The Masquerade) with my friends.
In the last month I begun a course of Ninjutsu, the martial art used by ninja.

That's all!

Gio'

Hi to all ! Diego is online too!

Hi folks! I'm Diego and I'm a student of Master’s Degree program in Telecommunications Engineering. I will soon be starting my thesis about Quantum Cryptography, so the problem it's not "when" or "what", but "where". In fact maybe I will leave to Ireland to do my thesis work, but at moment a lot of bureaucratic problems have to be solved! Actually I don't know where I will spent my next months, and if I will be able to attend level 5 course. It seems very “cool” as English course with great technological feeling, but of course 6 months spent in Ireland are more more challenging!! Maybe Irish weather it’s not the best, but I prefer a rainy summer rather than the usual Italian hot summer!

Even though I come from Verona, if I remain in Italy to do my thesis I will spent all my summer here in Padua in order to graduate by September/October. Summer in Padua could be very boring and very hard. It’s well known that when students go away all the city’s activities turn off. The weather is hostile too: hot & wet. Terrible!! Moreover the worst flying animals get off in searching of our blood. Tiger mosquitoes as big as helicopters. The Piovego river runs smelly and unhealthy. If you think that is a good idea, to fight the heat, to have a swim in the Piovego read this before: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/leptospirosis_g.htm.
Stay away from it! Be careful! Raged “Nutrie” (Italian very very big rats) threaten us with their infected bites too!

Meanwhile I’m waiting to know my destiny I’m spending my time in a very constructive way: doing nothing!!! To watch tv on the sofa is my main activity.:-) I’ve just finished all my exams, and I think that after five hard years of engineering no one can tell me nothing!

bye, Diego.

here I am

Hi everybody!
my name is Enrico, I live in Strà which is the last city in province of Venice before Padova. I'm studying informatic engineering and after four (very difficult) exams I'll get my degree. I like using computer very much, I'm keen on Linux and a true OpenSource supporter. My other hobby is reading manga and watching anime. I watch most of them in their original language, that's to say Japanese, but subtitled in English; this helped me very much improving my knowledge of both languages. I recently started learning Japanese by myself even if I have little time to assimilate it. Sometimes in my free time I must help my mother at work as shop assistant, but I don't really like as I have to face customers and make gift packs with ribbons. When I was a child I went to England for 3 weeks for 3 years in a row in order to improve my English but it was useless: I 'd always speak Italian with my classmates and when i had to ask for an hamburger at “Burger King” I pointed with my finger and said because the person at the counter was pretending not to understand my pronunciation. I've also gone to the Dominican Republic a few times but I learnt only few words of Spanish, like “Descuento”. I don't like any sport, so I'm a bit overweight.
I like reading fantasy books like Tolkien's “Lord of the rings” or the “Dragonlance” saga, recently I've read Harry Potter in English.
I don't watch TV very often, but one of mine favourite TV-Program is “Malcolm in the Middle”.

There is SiMohamed

Hellllllllo to everybody!!!

My name is Mohamed and I'm very happy to join this english course. First of all, my english is only to the Pre-Intermediate level, hence I hope that all of you help me to grow my language because I would to be ready when I'm going to go to Sheffield in the next Semptember. Now I write something about me:
I'm not italian but moroccan, exactly I come from Casablanca where I lived until July 1992. Since 1992, I've always lived in Bassano del Grappa. I love travelling because I feel that to be a foreign means to be a traveller and I don't know what I would from the future because, simply, I wouldn't to know it. I study Structural (Civil) Engineering, last year, and the soujourn in Sheffield is (only) aimed to do the Thesis. I'm also a Cultural Mediator with the Intercultural Center of Bassano del Grappa. I love the "simplest culture": reading, writing, cooking, footing, playing, riding, sleeping...loving, etc, etc... I finish quickly if I write what I hate: Lega Nord ;-)
If you have many question, please don't hesitate to replay me.

Salamat
SiMohamed.

Welcome message from Pierpaolo

Hi to everybody, I'm Pierpaolo and study telecomunication engineering.
My parents live in Treviso, but I spend most of the time in Padova, studying and having a lot of fun!! :-)
I like very much what I'm studying, most of all what is linked with music; indeed, in the future I wuld like to become a sound engineering...let's see! Music is very important for me and until now has played an importan role in my life and maybe it will play a fundamental role in the future. I try to play guitar, but not in a professional way...I like calling it the "prato's" way, I hope you understand. ;-)
Another thing I love doing is socializing and speaking foreign languages. Last year I went to Valencia (Spain) with the Erasmus program and I lived there the whole year; I learned spanish but, unfortunately, I lost a lot of my english. So...that's why I'm here!
I hope to know you soon and to see you soon!
Bye!

welcome message from Lisa

Hi, I'm Lisa your tutor and I'm supposed to help you blogging around Blogger ;-))

I have been working as language assistant at the University Language Center of Padua since 2001. I love my job for it is stimulating, varied and involving! Relating to different people is what I like most of it, it is demanding but quite satisfying ;-)

After work, in the afternoon, I spend my time with my two little kids Sophia (6) and Francesco (3) that I really love much. In my spare time, I go to the cinema (when I cope to), I read any sort of books but fantasy. I like cooking, especially exotic dishes (fish with curry is my favorite) and swimming but I usually attend the "contemplative" swimming course ;-)

I hope to hear from you very soon :-)

Please, if you have any problem don't hesitate to contact me, we will try to sort it out!

Lisa

Welcome message from Sarah

Hi everyone! It's me, Sarah, your friendly English teacher :-)
To start this new experience we're all going to introduce ourselves, so let me start.

I'm American and have been teaching English to engineering students here at the University of Padova since 1995 (how time flies!). I love my engineering students and couldn't imagine teaching any other type of student now

As far as work is concerned I'm interested in how technology can be used to improve language learning and testing. I'm especially intrigued by anything open source or free or where there are virtual global communities of learners and hobbyists. In my free time, I play with my kids (legos, wrestling, cars racing), go swimming, study (don't think it'll end when you graduate) and like reading. I don't own a TV but I listen to the radio all the time, so if you make reference to TV programmes or stars I probably won't understand :-(

I can't wait to read about all of you!