wide open spaces : About

I’m Barbara Dieu , EFL educator involved in international collaborative/ exchange projects since 1997. I am presently consulting, presenting and developing projects using social tools and international networking to advance language learning, multi-literacies and professional development. I am particularly interested in how participatory media in ELT can be implemented in the different learning contexts, what issues block innovation and what is needed for educators to open up to global participation, innovation, creativity and change in local contexts. My nickname online is Bee (just a coincidence - I used to sign my letters B. and a friend sent me the Bee Buzz avatar , which I have now been using for years). A little bit more about me in this photostory I made for a workshop.

I am Bee Kerouac in SL (I know the surname dates me chronologically and politically…but I am not part of that generation…just suffered some influence years later). The SL avatar and the weblog Wide Open Spaces name choices are more intentional - I chose Kerouac because while blogging and networking in cyberspace, I somehow identified with how the book On the Road was written and Wide Open Spaces…well…I live in a country where these are a reality so I have grown used to roaming in them - cyberspace offers me the same possibility and I have always felt claustrophobic and constrained by systems, people, groups or structures that fence me in.