Look at the school board from the virtual world

Today in the Kori’s class we used the online presentation about Earthquakes through the very interesting service which provides prezi.com.

I wasn’t familiar with vocabulary about Earthquakes but I could keep the presentation on the prezi.com and repead it later.

After this class I checked some features “Present online” with two computers. These are what I noticed:

1.) The 1st computer (presenter) could run (manage) the presentation.

The 2nd (participator) followed. Participator was able to change slides separately but when presenter changed slide, this slide appeared on the 2nd PC.

2.) Presenter can give a permission to run the presentation clicking for the avatar of participator and choosing the option for it. Only this participator can return the permission.

My opinion about using Prezi:

The benefits for teachers: possibilities to prepare class, keeping early created material etc.

The benefits for students: this is next step for integration online technologies to the real life. We used to see what the teacher says on the board (in the real classroom) and now this option is available in virtual classroom.

In addition:

1.) We can see video from Youtube together exactly in the same time (it means that teacher can stop video for every students, explain last episode and continue revie).

2.) We can find on prezi.com thousands of the pesentations and use them without breaking copyrights (we can copy them if autor gave us the permission for copying).

Thank you Kori for that great class. You can see the presentation here http://prezi.com/telxglozxypv/earthquake-survivor/ . You can also watch video there clicking on picture of the video inside slide “Seismic Energy”  there.

Anatoly

Kori's class Creative Writing Cowboy's life

Kori's event Business Complaints 2004 2013

Writing in English: Creative Writing

This is a writing exercise which was made by me at the school of languagelab.com 13/04/2013

Teacher (Kori Blaisdale):

She  looked at the photograph, it had been so long now, but she felt like it was yesterday. The emotion stirred up in her as if it had just been yesterday but the photo was frayed at the corners. How could such a small thing have such a big impact? She decided it was time to do something about it, this had to be dealt with now or it would dominate his/her life forever. She finished her drink and stood shakily up, It had to be now or never.

Task: to continue writing

Anatoly

She lost her money after the last financial crisis, it had hit everyone hard, but her, especially so. And when she saw Dorothea Langes's famous photo in this newspaper, she was afraid for her future. It seemed to her that all the world around her had become a hostile place to live. The view of the women on this photo reflected her own anxieties.

But ... She remembered some facts from the history class she had taken long ago. After the Great depression, when this photo had been taken, the USA became the richest country in the World. It meant that the future for the children in this photo had been, in fact, very bright. It means that after the darkest hour life turns a corner to the brightest day. It meant opportunity, he could start a new business. In the long run, it would mean happiness.

Kori's event Business Complaints 1304 2013

How to become more clever (English city's anecdote)

Our task was to resolve conflict in the following situation:

I (Anatoly) was a manager of a pharmaceutical company and we were in a trial study for a pill that is supposed to make people more intelligent and more clever). Tracy agreed to it knowing the side effects were mild. However when she did the study the side effects were severe and it had a detrimental affect on her life. Tracy should complain to the pharmaceutical company that caused her some problems and I should refuse a guilty (deny any wrongdoing/not accept responsibility/not admit to being guilty/deny any culpability) in the beginning of our conversation and find compromise in the end.

The problems could be:

mild side effect - headache

severe side effect - migraine

Here are some phrases we can use to make your point stronger when you complain:

Look, this is absolutely ridiculous!

You have an obligation to me as a customer.

I can’t believe you think this is acceptable.

Would you (eat/try/do/drink/ accept) this?

I’m flabbergasted that you think this is reasonable!

you’re being unreasonable.

This is simply unacceptable.

You can’t be serious!?!

I demand you do something about this.

How dare you speak to me like that!

Have you not heard of ‘the customer is always right?’

You have no right to treat me like this.

I want to speak to your manager.

I want to know what you’re going to do about this!

If you don’t resolve this, I’m going to take it to the press/ombudsman

Here is our dialog when Tracy came to the office of my company.

Tracy:

I had a headache yesterday and I think that the reason was your pill. Today I feel that my deals are going wrong, and I suspect that the consequences of the pill could be in the form of not just mild side effects but severe side effects.

Anatoly:

Can you remember what you did before you took the pills? (I tried to avoid paying compensation).

Tracy:

Nothing. I only woke up in the morning and took the pills.

Anatoly:

Had you eaten something?

Tracy:

Just one piece of toast and a cup of tea.

Anatoly:

That is the reason. I read in the special magazine that tea could be the reason for the headache! It would be better for you to drink a cup of coffee.

Tracy:

But this is absolutely ridiculous!

Anatoly:

It was a joke. I can offer you two options:

1.) lots of apologies but no money or;

2.) no apologies and $1000.

What is your choice?

Tracy:

I choose money.

Anatoly:

It means that our medicine is very efficacious, you are so clever. And … You haven’t reasons for complaining. We did a conflict resolution.

This anecdote was written after Kori’s class (event) “Conflict Resolution”.

Anatoly

Kori's classes 0604 2013

Elain's IELTS class Flower Markets

Pebbles class She is electric

Pax's event Travelling to the moon