Sheila Vine

Here I am with some of my students at my birthday party last year.




Hello everyone
My name is Sheila Vine. These are my two little dogs. I'm an EFL teacher from England but I work in Germany. I work in the Paderborn area in companies and Universities. I've worked in EFL for almost 11 years. I have also taught online and done some blended teaching but the Universities use of technology is still very much an added on topic and does not really make good use of the possibilities. I'm very interested in working with you all and I love the EVO sessions. Thanks to you all for setting up this course. I am a writer of course materials and very interested in collaborative writing ideas. Happy EVO all.
Sheila

Expectations- Gabriela Sellart

I am an EFL teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been teaching for more than 30 years. I've been struggling* to embed new technology in my classes for the last three years. Struggling. Yes. The institutions I work for still don't see much value in the new possibilities social media offer to build learning environments.

I work in a Secondary School and in a Language School and even though I started to use web2.0 tools as means to enhance my teaching, I soon discovered they were enhancing my own learning.

I'm always asking myself: What can we do now that we couldn't do before? Something we couldn't do before (at least not easily) was the production of a collaborative text overcoming space and time limits. Now technology allows us to do so. However, access to the Internet + use of collaborative tools -such as wikis or google docs- doesn't necessarily guarantee the production of a collaborative piece of writing.

I teach a foreign language, maybe it is due to that fact that I think writing is about finding your own voice. The thing is... what happens to your own voice when you are writing with others? How do you merge those voices so that the outcome is a new one? What is modified in you, as a unique subject, when you go through that experience?



I tend to search for questions rather than answers. I know the answers will eventually come in the shape of the new questions. New questions is what I expect to come across in this session. I strongly believe learning is social. Therefore, I know I will learn with you -my session mates, and with you -the eventual participants in the open environments of this session.


*link in Spanish
PHOTO: one of my last groups, photoshopped to preserve their identities, they are under 18.

Hi from Berta

I am Bertha/Berta Leiva from Venezuela where I have taught EFL English for about 30 years. I have a B.A in Modern Languages from Metropolitan University, Caracas, and a Master´s in Education (Policy, planning and administration) from Boston University, MA. I am also a certified public translator in my country.

I have taught EFL English in different settings (in-company courses in Italy and Venezuela, to professionals at the training center of the national oil company and at three universities). For the past 16 years I have worked in the Language Department of Universidad Simon Bolivar where I have also held different administrative positions (Coordinator of Freshman studies, Head of Department, etc.) I think I already mentioned to the group that I am currently associate profesor but just submitted my promotion thesis to full profesor on socioculturally oriented EFL writing by means of web 2.0 tools. It is still under evaluation and I owe all I know about this research area to EVO, and especially to the Webheads in Action.

When I saw this session, I got really excited and immediately signed up. I expect to meet colleagues from all over the world who would like to take part in international projects where students from different cities could be able to practice writing in a collaborative environment and to learn together about new possibilities in EFL writing teaching and learning in a sociocultural environment.

The photos? Too many, right? I am very visual and love pictures. My office on the upper right, collage of reading and writing students (in computer lab) last July, our main library building, student protest in 2007 in favor of democracy and against the present government, and finally two students with me during consultation hours last term.

I am bleiva2003 in yahoo, gmail, skype, messenger, delicious, etc.

I am excited to be here with all of you. Let the learning begin!!!