Susan Marandi's blog and welcome to it!

Hi, everybody! After a looooooooooooong silence, I'm back again! :-) Just wanted to call your attention to the following announcement. I especially hope that many of my MA students will sign up; it's a wonderful opportunity to learn about CALL, especially. Enjoy! EVO Call for Participation : "The Electronic Village Online Sessions For six weeks, participants can engage with ESOL experts in collaborative, online discussion sessions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions will bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by the four-day land-based TESOL convention and will allow a fuller development of ideas and themes of the convention or of professional interest in general. The sessions are free and open to all interested parties. You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate."

After reading whatever I could find on adding links to my posts (including the help page) and still doing it wrong, I was convinced I'd continue to fail until I learned html. (Not that I don't want to learn html; actually, I've been thinking about it for some time now, but I just don't have time for it yet.) Anyway, I'd stopped trying for some time, and what was worse, I didn't feel up to trying out newer ideas either until I'd tackled linking. Today, I finally braced myself to give it another shot, but I was so dead sure it wouldn't work that I just sent my previous post without checking to see if the link actually worked. And of course, you know the end of the story: It did work! And I lived happily ever after ... until my next experiment, that is! So, what are the morals of this story? 1 - I'm not as stupid as I thought I was (and I dare you to contradict me!). 2 - I'm probably stubborn enough to classify as a webhead and weblogger! ;-)...

I'm back, and experimenting again with blogging, bloglines (thanks to some help from Graham and Mark), and links (which will finally be my downfall ;-) !!). I've added my blogroll to the sidebar (can't figure out how to give it a title without messing around with html, though), and now I want to give links a try once more. >Sigh Anyway, back to experimenting in the dark: my website Oh, I know it's funny; and I'm so glad you're enjoying reading my blog, but don't you think it might be just as fun and maybe a tiny bit more constructive if you'd just stop laughing at me for a moment and help me out instead? ;-) No? I thought not. I'll make it there, though, never you fear. (I think I'm going to have a heart attack from joy if I do it, though, so it may be my last post ... Susan Marandi's blog: Rest in Peace.) Wish me luck! (I'll need it.)

For days now, I've been trying to catch up with my work for the two EVO 2005 sessions I've signed up for; namely "Becoming a Webhead" and "Blogs in ESL-EFL." And while I've been learning a lot (and yet never quite catching up!) and finding a lot to interest and amaze me, nothing I've learned so far amazes me as much as the people I've been meeting over the past 4 weeks! I've constantly felt overwowed (if you can come up with weird words like "wiki" and "blog," please don't grudge me my "overwowed" ;-) !!) by all the wonderful possibilities of technology and Computer-Assisted Language Learning, *but* put all those beside the amazing people I have met and they become pretty insignificant! Like usual, I'm too rushed to do justice to the effect you people have had on me, but I just couldn't disconnect today without sending a few words out into cyberspace and asking you all a question: Is it just tha...

wild_flowers Originally uploaded by susanmarandi . Hello, folks! Just trying to see if I can send photos to my blog. (Didn't think I meant it when I said not to bother reading this, did you? They do say curiosity kills cats and bloggers!) More later, Susan

LLT: Computers in Language Testing... : Hi, everyone! Since I'm very much interested in both Computer-Assisted Language Learning *and* in language assessment/testing, I was wondering if any of you are interested in computer-based tests? This article by Brown seems to be a good intro, in case you are. Here's the abstract: "This article begins by exploring recent developments in the use of computers in language testing in four areas: (a) item banking, (b) computer-assisted language testing, (c) computerized-adaptive language testing, and (d) research on the effectiveness of computers in language testing. The article then examines the educational measurement literature in an attempt to forecast the directions future research on computers in language testing might take and suggests addressing the following issues: (a) piloting practices in computer adaptive language tests (CALTs), (b) standardizing or varying CALT lengths, (c) sampling CALT items, (d) changing the difficulty o...

Blogging, one two three! Blogging, one two three! Still trying to create links, do you read me? %-( ">Link "> Reminds me of the good(?!) old days when I was using DOS commands instead of Windows! (How is it that this is still so user-unfriendly?!) %-(

Today I've been trying to learn how to add links to blogs, and the only thing I've been able to do so far is this: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=734 > http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=734 $>"> http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=734 > Only to learn it doesn't work! And anyway, I wanted to learn how to add interesting links to my blog, not just to a posting on a blog, so even if it did work, it's not exactly what I was looking for. :-( Guess I'll finally have to go learn html ... Susan Marandi from Iran %-(

I've been attending all the discussions I could possibly find these days. (Believe it or not, today I simultaneously attended Michael Coghlan's talk at YM for the baw2005 group **and** the Tapped In session by Dana and the others for the weblogging group, because I was determined not to miss anything. I just hope I didn't sound too confused, trying to keep up with both!) Anyway, my point is this: In most of these talks, discussions, and conferences, I've received the impression that "teaching" is nowadays a no-no, and that classes should be run differently so as to encourage student empowerment, decision-making, etc. Of course, all our textbooks say the same, so it's no surprise to me, and to a large extent I agree, **but** I have to be totally honest and say that when I look back on my own learning experience, a lot of my best teachers were exactly that: *teachers* (in the traditional sense). I mean, they were authoritative and the center of the ...

Hello, everybody! I'm going to be very brave and post a couple of questions which have been blugging me for the last week or so: (Sorry, I meant ... blogging? Buggling? No, that wasn't the word either, but strangely enough, I can't remember what it was ... ) 1 - Do you have some secret weapon which helps you do all this quickly enough to keep up, or it just my brain which is blogging? (Oops, boggling ... I think.) 2 - Do you see blogs everywhere, or is it just my eyes failing me after being online too long? (Oh my Blog, there's another one! Help!) Bloggest wishes, Your confused correspondent from Iran, Susan (Blogger) Marandi %-D

Hi, everyone! Thanks for your help, but what I meant was that when I *edit* a message, about 10 centimeters of empty space appears *between* the title of my posting and the posting itself! And I don't know how to fix it. Can anyone tell me what to do? Susan :-)

Why is it that whenever I edit a message, it for ever after slips down to the bottom of the page and cannot be hoisted back up? To edit or not to edit, that is the question ... :blushes and apologizes for her French! ;-) Oops! Looks like I was in Tapped In too long today! A pity I don't dare edit! (No offense to the French, btw! If you'd prefer, I can apologize for my Persian or my English! We have lots of interesting stuff in Persian, too! >:-> ) Best blogs, (Seyyedeh) Susan Marandi from Iran @>----;--

Thanks so much, Alfredo, Ale, Graham, Nancy, Second Thoughts, and Rashunda, for your encouragement and support! I really didn't think anyone would check out my blog so soon when there are 166 to choose from!! I think I must be doing something wrong, though: Shouldn't navigating thru the different threads on my blog be a little easier than they are now? Am I missing something? Better check out Alfredo's message again ... Yes, Graham, I will definitely sign up for the collective blog (as if I had a choice! ;-) and Rashunda, it was great to "hear" my native language! I think you're doing just fine with your Persian; where are you from? BTW, how can I check out your blogs? Bloggingly yours, Susan @>---- (By the way, this is a rose in case you're wondering! No, I am not a Martian, and my last name isn't @>---- ! ) ;-) Susan Marandi Azzahra Uni, Tehran, Iran

I intended my first message as a kind of a welcoming (whining/wondering?) message, to appear at the top, but now I see that my messages are standing on their heads, first last and last first! :-( I guess I'll just have to grin and bear it! @>----

To be totally honest, though, I love "blogging" already as far as writing in it goes! (I've always been a writing/diary nut!)

Well, folks, here I am, eyes glazing after being online for over 6 hours, going thru first one website and then another, trying to find out what 'blogs' and 'wikis' are as part of my efforts to learn how to incorporate CALL in my EFL classes! ("Blogs" and "wikis"! Sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book to me:) "And they're hanging their stockings!" Wiki snarled with a sneer. Tomorrow is Christmas! It's practically here!" Then he growled, with his Wiki fingers nervously drumming, "I MUST find some way to stop Christmas from coming!" For, Tomorrow, he knew ... All the Blog girls and boys Would wake bright and early. They would rush for their toys! And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! ;-) (Sorry for the interruption! I had to blow off a little steam, I guess!) And although I've decided to trust all the experts out there saying that they are reall...