EFL537, Cohort#3,
Day #8, November 11, 2009

Good Morning and Welcome to Day#8.  It's hard to believe there are only two more days of class after today!  I'm very satisfied and proud of the progress you have made in such a short period of time.   Today we are going to begin with a few chat activities, then (for those interested) explore social networks a bit, and as always you can follow your learning passions by working on whichever Week#2 assignments you'd like. 

I'd like to begin by meeting everyone in the EFL537 Chat Room.  Please go there by 9:10am and change your nickname to your actual name.
We will then do a few short  chat activities.

Social Networking - connecting with people online - sometimes for professional collaboration, sometimes for learning purposes, and sometimes for fun.  Since several of you have expressed interest in learning more about social networks, I have created some additional information to help you in your explorations.  None of the tasks described below are 'required', but I hope you will at least try commenting on your classmates' blogs and giving Twitter a try. 

Blogging is a form of social networking, especially when it's interactive (when people comment on others' blogs and respond to posts with their own posts).  

Today, I'd like you to comment on each other's blogs, but first let's make it easier for people to subscribe to your blog and see recent comments. Follow the instructions on the Blogger Tweaking Guide. 

When you've finished that, then visit some of your classmates blogs and leave a few short comments (in English or Vietnamese).
To leave a comment, click on 'comments' or 'nhan xet' as shown to the right.  

Another fun way to connect with people is Twitter.com.  This is a bit confusing to most people when they first begin.   To start, create an account.  Add your Twitter account to your EFL537.com profile by clicking My Account/Profile.  You can then see your classmates Twitter accounts on the Profile Page. 

For Twitter to be interesting, you need to find interesting people to follow.
To follow people, make sure you are logged in to Twitter and when you click on someone's twitter page, click 'follow'.
More details on the Twitter Tips page.
Places to find people to follow

Another way to find people is to use http://search.twitter.com/  Search for any topic of interest and see who's tweeting about it.

Ning
http://ning.com/  allows you to set up your own social network site.  Here are some examples of  EFL and education related Nings.

• EFLClassroom 2.0
• EFL University
• English Companion Ning
• Classroom2.0
• EFL Nng Search
  

Here's one that  Loan Tran set up
http://loantran.ning.com/

Feel free to join any of these, make comments, ask questions, or create your own.

Facebook is a  very popular way to stay in touch with old friends and classmates.  There are also many Facebook groups that you can join.

Assorted Facebook Groups

• ESL Group
• Community for Twitter users in Hanoi
• Vietnam English Teachers Network
• Hanoi University
• Webheads

You can sign up for Facebook on the main page at: http://www.facebook.com/.  You can then search for friends and groups to connect with.

The rest of Week#2 Assignments can be found on the Assignments page