Dear Colleagues,

Have you noticed that when you hear a new word or a term or a concept, you suddenly start to spot it all around - in publications, on TV, in conversations?  This is what I have experienced with Skype, blogs, live journals, wiki, pbwiki, Facebook (Russian variant " V kontakte"), social networks (Ning, classmates.com- Russian variant "Odnoklassniki"), social bookmarking,  podcasts, YouTube, Web 2.0 etc.  I first heard these terms two years ago and now it looks like only lazy people don't use them :-).
Reports come from all over the world that teachers of English try to use
these tools in class to be on the same wavelength with their students.
Teachers are constantly pushing the limits of available tools, looking
for novel and interesting ways to use technology in motivating their
students. Here are some links that I borrowed from a new course of
Michael Krauss "Exploring Web 2.0: Tools for Classroom Teaching and Professional Development", that started on Monday, October 27th for 20 representatives of Russian Teachers' Associations: The Machine is Us/ingUs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&mode=related&search
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g ) and Web 2.0 and Language Learning
http://helennew.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/youtube-video-by-graham-stanley/

 (http://helennew.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/youtube-video-by-graham-stanley/).

Please find a few minutes to watch them, but remember you should
have the sound on and if you have a very slow Internet connection, it
will take 2-4 minutes to download videos.
This was just a prelude to announce news - Umbrella Russia now has its own website: http://eltrussia.ru

It was created for you; and your comments, news, requests are welcome.
If you are interested in creating a similar website for your own needs,
you will find directions in Point 4.
Enjoy!
Elena