I am a member of EVO (Electronic Village Online) sponsored by the CALL Interest Section of the 40-year-old, 14,000 member TESOL organization. Every January/February there are free workshops which each last 6 weeks. It is not necessary to be a member of TESOL to participate. The sessions are all powered by volunteers, mostly Webheads, and include experts in many fields related to EFL / ESL. Last year, I helped moderate the Video workshop, and this year I am one of 318 members of a new group called Images4Education (Also a must-see  http://images4education.ning.com/ )

Be sure to see the summaries of all the workshops at http://evosessions.pbwiki.com/Call_for_Participation09 

This is clearly the best year for EVO workshops, with so many competent experts and facilitators taking the time necessary to do great work.

This video is my first contribution to the session I joined. One of the tasks for the first week in Images4Education is to introduce yourself and to add a few words about your general use of images for education. One member of the team of moderators had the idea of asking all participants to post a picture of the view from their window. The results show that this was a brilliant task for all of us, a pleasure for all concerned, as we see at
http://images4education.pbwiki.com/Week1#Task1SessionExpectations
and so many other URLs!

 This video is my way of completing this task. I could have used photos and text instead, but I had this idea…

CHORUS
Webheads – all over the world
Webheads – we’re all over the world

24/7 – we’re online
It doesn’t really matter – whatever the time
Someone’s there to answer the CALL

CHORUS

You want to know how to do it right
Or maybe you’re lonely in the middle of the night
Someone’s there to answer your CALL

CHORUS

You want to join your class up across the world
Or you want an expert to talk to them live
Someone will answer your CALL

CHORUS

You’re going on a journey to a foreign land
Want to meet a friend there to show you around
There’ll be someone there to answer your CALL

CHORUS

Learning together – sharing our views
Living together – sharing our news
Always someone there – on the same wavelength

CHORUS

By Michael Coghlan

I updated an Introduction to the Webheads for those of you unfamiliar with us.

Who are the Webheads? What do they do?

Founded by Vance Stevens, “Webheads in Action” is the most active online community involved with computer mediated communication in the field of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Members from nearly every country on the planet are represented. Its 700+ active members represent the most robust online manifestation of the 40-year-old, 14,000 member TESOL organization. There are so many links and so much information on the internet about and by the Webheads, that it all seems a bit mind-boggling at first. In my opinion, the best way to get started is to subscribe to the main Webheads Yahoo Group and lurk for a few days to get a feel of the daily life of this community. You will find beginners and experts on various topics all mixed up in one exciting  thread after another. It’s also a very tight, caring group. Friendships run deep amongst members, so you will find almost as many personal messages as professional ones, which seems a bit strange to those who are familiar with more traditional forums. Don’t sign up if your aim is to promote a certain product or service. You probably won’t be blocked or removed in such a case, but you will be ignored. This is a place for serious self-help and professional development, with mutual sharing of resources and ideas, the more experienced always helping out the less experienced in any particular specialization, whether it be a question concerning Web 2.0 places of interest or how best to use software in the classroom…   A large percentage of members are ESL/EFL teachers, perhaps nearly half of them native speakers of English. 

Teresa d’Eça has compiled an historical account of many important moments in the life of the Group, as well as an Index of Webheads’ sites and blogs.

So if you’re a teacher interested in discovery, experimentation, and self-improvement in the realm of computer mediated communication, this is definitely a community you will want to explore.