Blogging by the Nile

What makes Sudan a unique country?

2010-05-08T23:03:00.001+03:00

I decided to make two of my students join an international project with international educators who play as facilitators to their students to create blog posts about what makes their country unique. This project, about "what makes Sudan a unique country", has been done by 2 students, Anas and Mohamed Babiker, in their second class at Computer Science College, University of Science and Technology,(Al-Tagana). They used "Ulead VideoStudio" . I uploaded the video to YouTube.Read the comments of teachers on Anas and Mohamed's blogs.Very Well done boys!!

Today's lab and Farewell photos!

2010-01-07T11:05:00.004+03:00

Hi students,
I would like to thank all of you who attended today's lab. You have done a great job, for helping each other and working hard together to complete your tasks. Well Done!
It's a pity that some of you were not present today. We missed you while we were taking the farewell photos. Don't worry, as the camera will be available on our next lab session. Don’t miss it!
On our next lab session, we will be submitting the group projects and I would be saying goodbye for a fantastic group of students. Thank you for participating in this research!
See you tomorrow in class:-)

Wrapping up our course:-(

2010-01-02T21:45:00.001+03:00

Dear Students,
I am sad and happy at the same time! I am sad because our course is coming to an end. I spent great time working with you at the lab, jumping from one PC to another, yelling at those who are making errors, feeling frustrated together when there were no Internet access. We really had FUN, hadn't we?
I am also happy when I see all the hard work you have done and all the improvement you have made in your writing skill and on using blogs, wiki and the YG. Well done boys and girls:-)))
What are your tasks now? None!! YEEEESS!
But only one thing:-) Your projects should be on my table on Thursday, before lab time!!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T11:57:00.001+03:00

Group 1 Project: What makes Sudan a uinque country

2009-12-16T19:28:00.008+03:00

Well done, Anas and Mohamed Babiker! You did a wonderful job!
Anas and Mohamed project was added to an international project called Multicultural Uniqueness with teachers and students from Argentina,Brazil, Canada, Dubai, Japan, Kuwait, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Boys, I am proud of you!

Blog chat area

2009-12-02T15:43:00.003+03:00

Dear students,
On your right hand side, there is a chat area in yellow. Please use it to inform me about completing your tasks, or if you have any other questions.
P.S Tasks 3, 4, and 5 should be submitted in a week from today (check the date of this post).

Eid Mubarak+ Due Tasks

2009-11-27T14:44:00.005+03:00

Dear students,
Enjoy your Eid! Don't eat too much meat!!!:-)
Tasks 3, 4, and 5 should be submitted in a week from today (check the date of this post). Please make sure to inform me on the yellow chat area on your right hand side of this blog.
Enjoy your eid:-)

Posting on our blogs!

2009-11-11T16:56:00.002+03:00

Now, we are on week 2 in blogging. Congratulations for all who managed (easily?) to create their blogs! Please make sure that by next week you would have posted three posts on your blog:
1.About me.
2.How do I use the Internet?
3. About a famous person/place.
Check the weekly tasks and the the checklist.
Keep up the marvelous work guys!

Introduction to Blogging

2009-11-05T13:14:00.002+03:00

Today, we will create our new blogs!
I hope to see all your baby blogs born after the session ends. I will be adding all the URLs (links) to the blogs to the sidebar of this class blog. You can see Anas and M.Baniker's blogs are already here.
Let's start blogging!

New Term, New Blended Learning Group

2009-10-05T12:58:00.001+03:00

Hello students!

I would like to welcome all the new students who will participate in our new project: Blending English writing 2009-2010!We will be using this blog, the pbwiki linked in the latter sentence and our Tagananet Yahoo Group.
I hope you will enjoy learning with the new tools here and the most important thing is to have FUN!

Another sad loss!

2009-10-04T12:44:00.001+03:00

Last term, we lost another dear student for all of us: Amer. Amer has passed away in a terrible car crash on his way home with another 24 passengers. It was a terrible and a very sad loss to all his friends, colleagues,teachers and his family.You can read his final assignment with Tagananet group.
Allah yar7amahu wa yaj3al mathuahu aljannah.

Yarhamak Allah ya Rudwan!

2008-10-16T02:17:00.001+03:00

انتقل الي الخالق الاخ محمد احمد على رضوان "حبيبو"رحمه الله
والذي استشهد غرقا"ىوم الاربعا 8\10\2008
When I read the news on the Tagananet e-list, sent by Mohamed Osman, my eyes froze on the screen. A recorded film strip began to move in front of my eyes. Mohamd Rudwan, or just Rudwan, as I loved to call him, was one of the students that I used to miss in class. Do you know what this means? When a teacher misses a student when he is absent means that he/she adds to the class. Adds what? Student presence. Everything. Even if he doesn’t say a word, his being there watching you, listening attentively to the lcture, helping his colleagues with exercises and spreading his love to the class. This WAS Ruwdan for me.
I have always felt that his friends, Hisham Salih, Ahmed Osman, Alsareef, and others, miss him in class, as I do.
I happened to get to know Rudwan close when he joined the Internet Group back in 2007. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tagananet/ I remember his childish big, black, rounded eyes when asking me about something he didn’t know, or when he submitted his homework. . He had a funny type of teenager’s “Istihbal” that you couldn’t but laugh at when he gives you his back. He was so confidant of himself. He used to tell me that “Ok teacher, everything will be done soon, no problem”. Nothing will be done now. No Rwdaon anymore. He drowned on Wednesday,October 8,2008, when he went to swim in the Nile River with one of his friends,going deep into a dangerous area in the Nile, fear of nothing even if he doesn’t know how to swim well, that’s typical Rudwan , the guy full of confidence. He thought he could do it. This last time ..he couldn’t.
Hisham called me three days later, telling me they found his body at Aljabal, after four days. I told him I will come to offer my condolences to his mother. I just couldn’t! It’s my first time ever to lose a STUDETN. I told my kids about him. Maybe my words were so true that my elder daughter kept telling me for three days that Rudwan picture was always in front of her eyes, asking to show her his picture. I refused.
Today, I miss Rudwan, my student, the one who was so young, so full of life, full of hope, ambition, energy, enthusiasm and much more that I don’t know about. Loved by all his friends, they called him “Habibo”. Anick name means “His lover”. Allah yarhamak wa ya3awid shababk al Jennah.We will always miss you! I will keep you in my Duaa, forever!

Mujahid and Group (3)

2008-04-23T12:40:00.002+03:00

At last! This is the work about smoking.You may find the sound not very clear.It is more clear if you watch it on YouTube website.
Cool sound Mujahid!

Muhanned's Gang ( Group 2)

2008-02-22T16:48:00.006+03:00

This the work of Group (2).It is about University of Sciences and Technology It proves that students can teach their teachers when it comes to technology:-). I love your work guys!
You can also watch it on YouTube video.

Eman and the Gang! ( Group 1)

2008-02-17T03:37:00.005+03:00

Excellent work group 1!!Your photos also look great!
Click on this badge and listen to Emy and her group.You can also go directly to the Podmatic page:

GREAT job Emy!!

Click here to get your own player.

Girls of Group ( 1)

2008-02-17T02:34:00.003+03:00

Welcome Tagananet Group

2008-02-16T03:29:00.004+03:00

Hello students and welcome back!
This semester we will move to our new Ning blog! Before we do that, we will have a competition between the three f2f groups in using computer or Internet tools to improve English Language.
Let's see who will win the prize!
Good luck!

A Farewell Photo of Group3&4

2007-05-09T12:24:00.000+03:00

To the students who missed the last lab meeting!!!Here is a gift for you!
I love all of you guys!

Ending our course with Podcasting!

2007-05-06T09:36:00.000+03:00

This is not the end..it is only the beginning!
Our Show should come to an end,only for this course, but not for you! I enjoyed working with you and I wish you all a bright future, full of success, happiness, blogs Wikis and podcasting!!!I will miss you!Congratulations on your first,but not last, podmatic blog.It was not that difficult, right?You did just GREAT!

Click here to get your own player.

A Shining Angel

2007-05-02T19:59:00.000+03:00

One day, Monadel told me he was inspired by the use of blogs to publish one's works online.He had some poems and short stories which he kept in a safe place.Then, I told him about what a "portfolio" is and that it would be great if he could collect all his work and tried to have an e-portfolio using Blogger.com.
Before we reach the end of our course tomorrow, I have this surprise from Monadel today with very sweet words that will twinkle forever on my inbox!!.Thank you,dear Monadel.Your words have made me day!!!I have just left a comment.I invite you all to visit his "shining Angel" and let him know what do you think about his poem.
http://ashiningangel.blogspot.com/

Free Hugs Video

2007-04-14T16:58:00.000+03:00

" Controversial story of Juan Mann, a man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their life.In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal."
"As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign Banned. What we then witnessed was the true spirit of humanity coming together in what can only be described as awe inspiring. "
On Eman's request, who asks to have YouTube "Free Hugs Campaign" our class blog, I thought of adding it to the sidebar so as not to slow the uploading of the blog.Scroll down the page and the video is there, Eman, just for you!
How about having the lyrics here? I know some of you loves singing, rap and jazz music. It will be nice to sing and read the lyrics. Play the video at the bottom of the page and Right click on the lyrics to open on another window.
Here are the Lyrics

Happy blogging and happy singing!

Leaders of Human Network in Tagana

2007-04-08T20:47:00.000+03:00

What will you be when the first online course is created at our university? You will be the leaders who could show, tell and explain how to interact, design and participate in a blended course.Watch this film and keep working hard!
Computer-human interaction

Spell with Flickr

2007-03-31T09:23:00.000+03:00

Did you like it? You can get one from Flickr here

What is a blog?

2007-03-23T21:36:00.000+03:00

Please watch the video and listen carefully as many times as you want.Then, on the comment area, list three uses of blogs that were mentioned on the this video.
This video is copied from my friend Jennifer Verschoor's class blog .

Your first reading assingnment

2007-02-13T11:19:00.000+03:00

By now, you have an idea of what is a wiki and what is a blog. During your week vacation, please read here about the differences between them, in addition to comparing them to discussion forums. We went over dicusion forums at the lab, remember?
Then, on YOUR wiki page, answer these two question:
1.Which one do you prefer and why?
2.Which one are you going to continue using after the course finishes and for what purpose?
Good luck with your exams. I will miss you all:-))))))

Say " I am a Blogger Now "

2007-02-13T02:43:00.000+03:00

Now, it is time for creating your own blogs!
I will put two simple tutorials for you to help you.The first one is a tutorial found here, by one of my dear friends, Jane Petring.It was Susan Marandi, an Iranian professor and also a dear friend, who reminded me of Jane's tutorial.Thanks Susan!The second tutorial is for you to use when you join Blogger. It is their Help section which is very useful and easy to follow.
NOTE:
1. Open the turorial on another window.
2. Google will create an account for you with the same email you have.No need to change your email.
3.Go to the second tutorial after you become a mebmer of Blogger.com
Happy Blogging!
See you after your exams.

Challenging a Teacher

2007-02-10T13:54:00.000+03:00

Hi students. Hello brave Elia :-( This will be our second week which will end up with each one of you having his own blog.Yes, and his own SlidShow, I know your next question!
As you will be having your final term exams on the 24th, , you will busy for almost 20 days, on which you will be studying hard. However, Elia Magdy, said that you are ready now to take the first step on our blended language ladder wiki without my guidance!!!! Do you all agree? If no, you do not have to take the challenge with him and his group.I posted the first step on our YG files area.Our first meeting will be on 17^th of March 2007.Our Wiki will be launched by then and we will continue stepping upwards!
Good luck with your exams!

Hurray to Autonomous Learning

2007-02-10T09:14:00.001+03:00

Muhanned, who keeps on impressing me daily, has his blog up without any guidence from his teacher!Congratulations Muhanned!It was REALLY a surprise.You made my day!now you can add posts and let it grow to be a BLOG!

First Meeting Groups 2&3

2007-02-08T22:29:00.000+03:00

Today was our second meeting.It was also a success!I will not write in detail, because I will ask you to write your comments and sugeestions on the comments area below.You have done well.I am very proud of you. A big " thank you " goes to Muhanned, and the others , who helped their colleagues around our YG and blog!

The Show Has Started

2007-02-06T23:32:00.000+03:00

On Thursday, 2nd of February 2007, I met with group 1 at Lab (7 Center (1).When we started, half an hour late, we found that most of the computers were not working properly. I felt that it will not work! Then I moved to Plan B( I will tell later about it), which proved to be very useful and we went over how to introduce yourself part, how to move around in our YG with some screenshots provided. After that, we tried again to log on and it worked. I showed those who are already members to do the poll and add their data on the database section with those who did not join yet listening. After I finished from those, to my surprise, I found some students, like Elia, Salamaha and Ashraf were helping the others in logging in.Then everything went very smoothly.
At the end, we took photos with my camera, agreed to speak as much English as we can when in the Lab asking for help.Everybody was happy!!! I am so glad that I started this group, hoping my smart students will be using it to improve their English language

Welcome to Our Blog

2007-02-04T23:35:00.000+03:00

Hello.This is a blog created for CS1 students to establish a web presence by interacting and exchanging information, comments and personal interests.I hope it would be a seed for many other blogs to grow!Let's start blogging!