NAME AND REASON FOR LINKING:
1) Chris – developing my guessing skills with emojis
I admit it was fun and a pure pleasure for me to check out Chris’s choice of the TV show and actually recognize it. I also understood this Linking task better after I saw how Chris interpreted it.
My comment: Dear Chris, Thank you for choosing this show! I really loved it though it is not new, and that is why I recognized it just looking at the title. The plot is a fairy tale with the brightest colours possible. There is a lot of platonic love there and a happy dog Digby. I won’t give its name here for someone else to think it over. Again, I really appreciate your choice. Come and try to guess my show, will you? It’s quite modern. With best regards, Anna
2) Elizabeth – pointing out my technical weaknesses (networks of curation)
Pedagogy is easy for me – I have two degrees in Education, after all – PhD and Post-PhD. But anything technical makes me feel at awe. And though MET is not a technical training program, and they basically do not teach you how to use any particular application, here and there, from the teacher or the groupmates, you can get some technical advice to broaden your mind and improve your confidence.
Elizabeth’s post is teaching to me both in form and content. I frankly have no idea how to make my blog so complicated, with citations and pictures all skillfully integrated into a text. I have recently changed the background of my site to tender green and was proud of that for several days. So, some things are just not for tomorrow. At the same time, the analytics presented in the text is also worth considering. I probably haven’t studied what Elizabeth studied, and that is why it was hard for me to understand her logic. I am planning to return to her post in the future too if it is possible. So, I chose this post of Elizabeth because it is challenging for me.
My comment: Thank you so much, Elizabeth! This is the most thoughtful network interpretation I have come across so far. And this mixture of theory and practical application is truly impressive. Congratulations on a very nice and useful blog! Best regards, Anna
3) Lexie – making me bolder (mode-bending)
I really liked her relaxed way of recording videos and some technical advice shared. She is finishing MET, so her video felt like a Good-luck! from someone more experienced. I actually felt encouraged. Thank you so much, Lexie, for your kindness!
My comment: Dear Lexie, I checked out your video, and it was absolutely amazing! I liked both form and content of it. First of all, YouTube?!!! I wouldn’t dare to post my vid there for sure. Very courageous of you, my fearless classmate! And of course, I noticed your lovely and telling t-shirt! It suits you! Secondly, thank you for recommending TikTok; it’s actually wise to use the apps that are available. I just employed Zoom because I taught ESL with the help of it, but I should definitely broaden my horizons after your video. I think you were lucky to have this course at the end, Lexie. I’m in the middle of my MET road, and “Text Technologies” is the best that has happened to me so far. It is very modern, informative, and eye-opening. I wish there were more courses like this one. Whenever I did the practical part, I was like, “Constructivism, sweet constructivism!” I am really good with all those pedagogical theories, but I seldom enjoyed them as much as in this course. So, thank you very much for getting in touch, Lexie! I wish you all the best in your professional activities and life in general and remain, Sincerely yours, Anna from Toronto
4) Nataliia – redirecting my attention to the text and linguistics (voice-to-text)
Nataliia got in touch with me first and left a thought-provoking comment under my post about Dr. Bandura. When I reached her blog for this linking assignment, I was amazed by her productivity, easiness of writing and a lot of methodological and linguistic ideas in the texts. I am really sorry that her Twine story did not open. Again, Nataliia is an example for me how to combine knowledges from different courses and life experiences into one writing task. Way to go, Nataliia!
My comment: I commend you on a very nice analysis, Nataliia! Not bad from the point of view of linguistics and methods for teaching English. I am also impressed by your resources. I am not familiar with the secondary schools here in Canada, but in modern colleges they seem to ignore writing almost completely. And I once helped a student to prepare for his IELTS exam while this student was actually a Canadian university graduate. Yet he knew nothing about writing essays or any syntactic features he was supposed to demonstrate during the language test. He told me that his professors routinely utilized multiple-choice tests as a convenient assessment tool.
It felt a bit surreal to me, but I guess it’s life in all its diversity. I hope that your students will never have problems with writing though. I was secretly worried myself that as a MET student I would not write enough, and I am happy that it is not the case.
Again, thank you for the detailed review, Nataliia! It was a pleasure to read. Best regards, Anna
5) Richard – showing me how to use a Twine properly (Twine story)
Richard was the first classmate to create a Twine story for real. I enjoyed it a lot.
My comment: Fantastic! Richard, you’re the first person I have come across who actually created a Twine story. I myself took an alternative path while several Twine stories of our classmates cannot be opened. And your casual tone of writing is warm and welcoming! I also have to say that from my experience, for some students “no choice” is the best option possible. So, you didn’t create an illusion, you truly helped someone there. And I won’t even start on your successful integration of images and audio files into Twine – it is still a rocket science for me. Again, very well done and explained! Thank you very much, Richard!
6) Jacob – showing me different ways of mode-bending
I am grateful to Jacob for showing me how to be creative with just an audio tape. What we hear can produce images as impressive, colourful and detailed as any visual pictures.
My comment: Dear Jacob, I really like the way you changed the mode of your self-presentation. It’s funny, informative and meaningful at the same time. I wish I were as creative as you, but I just made a video instead of a photo. Again, kudos to your imagination! Best regards, Anna