Friday, August 17, 2007

Class Project

What is the difference between a group of students and a community of learners?

"In a community of learners, teachers and students together construct a culture that values the strengths of all participants and respects their interests, abilities, languages, and dialects. Students and teachers shift among the roles of expert, researcher, learner, and teacher, supporting themselves and each other." AĆ­da Walqui, West Ed, San Francisco, California

I think one of the strengths of our class is the possibility of learning form each other's knowledge and experience. Although this is exactly what we've been doing since the very first day, the aim of the present project is to create a collection of mini-lectures on specific academic topics related to your fields of study and close to your hearts. Topics that matter.

The start couldn't have been more powerful. Delivered with great clarity, passion and commitment, Maxi's presentation aroused great interest on a topic that is both too important and too painful to be forgotten.

Remember you can read a summary of his presentation on the wiki and you can also give your feedback or ask more questions there. Each presentation will then contribute to a kind of TOEFL iBT wikipedia we are building together.

I look forward to the rest of the presentations!