Biography


 

Skype Me!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 Biography          

 

Occupational field

 

PhD in Modern Literatures and Philological - Linguistic Studies (specialities: Social Networks, MUVEs, Speech Analysis tools).

Secondary School teacher of English.

Secondary School teacher of Italian L2 and FL.

Secondary School teacher for students in special needs.

Media Education Expert in RL and VE.

E-tutor.

Web enhanced learning environments trainer (Certification IET - Innovative Educational Trainer).

Carmela Dell’Aria is currently a teacher of English and Italian as Foreign language and a specialized teacher for students in special needs in a secondary school (S.M.S. “R. Franchetti”) in Palermo (Italy). She has been teaching in public schools, at all levels, for about 20 years.

She has  also a PhD  in the fields of virtual world use in teaching and learning.

She has been a contract Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Palermo from 2007 to 2009 where she investigated the potentials of MUVEs for foreign language learning, as well as the factors that impact the learners’ language performance and  promote the Intercultural  Communicative Competenze as part of her Action Research project with the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari .  

She designed training courses and taught online language activities in 3D virtual worlds, particularly in Second Life, for students of the University of Palermo.

In July 2007 she started her virtual learning at Languagelab beta English classes. Then she went on collaborating with Languagelab for a teacher training while she was experimenting her personal project Cafè Italia for BABEL Project: The Economy of Dreams (by Paulo Casaca and Ana Alves).

In 2009 she attended an online postgraduate course, Teaching and Learning with MUVEs , gave a course Giochi di società e strumenti didattici in SL for training Italian teachers from ANITEL, set her home in Virtlantis where she gave classes and public events, gave a workshop Educational tools for language classes: games and quizzes for the WIAOC 2009 Second Life Strand, Tesol’s Electronic Village online (EVO) 2009 and Second Life English Community.

She also designed two pilot courses of Italian for the foreign institutions involved in the pilot, the Duke University (North Carolina, USA) in 2008 and the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland) in 2010. 

In 2008 she gave a workshop with Anna Begonia, L'Italiano nel Mondo, and in 2010 there was another workshop, Discovering Italian Renaissance,  on how to use a Sim for educational games for the TESOL Electronic Village Online participants.

In 1998 she was a language assistant at King Edward VII Upper School in Melton Mowbray (UK), a school regarded as a national and international leader in the use of ICT with networked hubs in each subject area.

In addition to her teaching qualification she completed a certificate in Teaching Languages with Technology (validated by Trinity College London and by the Departament d’Educació of the Generalitat de Catalunya), an international post-degree course in Teaching and Learning with MUVEs (validated by the University of Macerata, Menon Network EEIG, the University of Reading, King's College London, Florida Centre De Formacio C.V., Scienter, Institute for Innovation in Learning FIM New learning and Agence Departementale Numerique 64), a Master in Advanced designing of Italian FL and culture syllabus (University of Venice Ca’ Foscari) and some employment experiences in the media and communications industry.

In accordance to this, she  has taken part in two editions (the 5° and 6° edition) of the call "e-Talents in e-Learning" organized by ASFOR. She has been one of the winners among the best university thesis (in 2012 Master thesis and in 2014 PhD thesis, 3rd position) addressing the issue of e-Learning and e-Innovation.  

She has worked more directly with students in a teaching role and make a positive difference in their lives, using social technologies to promote motivation and inclusion of students with different skills and to improve oral production through emotional engagement. 

She has participated in a range of education-related experiences in government schools over many years. These experiences have enabled her to develop her skills in planning and implementing meaningful learning experiences for learners within the context of Italian curriculum guidelines.

From her practical placements, full-time work and voluntary work she gained a great appreciation of the importance of the role of teachers at all levels of education.

She is a self-motivated and enthusiastic person with a strong passion to develop her career in secondary and adult education in an intercultural environment.

 

Professional sites

 

Inton.It@: a public wiki for the PhD pilot project in Modern Literatures and Philological-Linguistics Studies drawn by Dott.ssa Carmela Dell'Aria (conception, management and tutoring) from the University of Palermo (IT) in patternship with the National University of Ireland, Galway (IE). This project is granted by LLP - Grundtvig Visits and Exchanges 2012. http://intonita.pbworks.com/w/page/62210546/Frontpage

Diploma in Italian (online): E-tutor e co-creator of the syllabus for the first Diploma in Italian at the National University of Ireland, Galway, A.A. 2012-2013.

http://www.nuigalway.ie/italian/_online_diploma.html

Lingu@Drama: an Italian language course based on Moodle.

CALL&SLingua: a computer assisted language learning course based on Moodle.

CALL&SLingua: a blog on how to teach languages in the 3D  virtual worlds . (Blogger) http://call-slingua.blogspot.ie/

CALL&SLingua: a wiki for a collaborative work among the students of the Lab CALL at the University of Palermo.

The Story of my teaching and learning with MUVEs: a personal blog on my experiences about teaching and learning with MUVEs during the International post-degree course in: “Teaching and Learning with MUVE’s (Multi-Users Virtual Environments)”. [Involved institutions: University of Macerata, Menon Network EEIG, University of Reading, King's College London, Florida Centre De Formacio C.V., Scienter, Institute for Innovation in Learning FIM New learning e Agence Departementale Numerique 64]. Competences in: Teaching and learning with Multi-User Virtual Environments; Analysis, evaluation and design of hands-on workshops in MUVEs; Sloodle for educatiom.

Cafè Italia: a wiki as a support  for  teaching and learning Italian in Second Life.

Management of blended courses Programmi Operativi Nazionali (PON) “Competenze per lo sviluppo” e “Ambienti per l'Apprendimento”,  delivered by the Italian National Educational Agency (MIUR).

Publications 

 

               

               Carmela Dell’Aria, 1992, “Graduatorie per le supplenze nelle scuole” in Giornale di Sicilia

               Carmela Dell’Aria, 1992, “La veloce di Sciacca pronta nel ‘93” in Giornale di Sicilia 

               Carmela Dell’Aria, 1992, “Sosta selvaggia in via Cavour “in Giornale di Sicilia

               Carmela Dell’Aria, 1992, “Bollette in ritardo?” in Giornale di Sicilia

               Carmela Dell’Aria, 1992, “Non ricevo più il giornale” in Giornale di Sicilia

 

 

  1. Dell’Aria, C., McLoughlin, L. (2013) “Developing phonological awareness in blended-learning language courses”. In: Proceedings EUROCALL 2013, Évora , Portugal, 11-14 September  (forthcoming). Abstract.
  2. Dell’Aria, C. (2013) Integrating the real and virtual world for academic language  education in Second Life (pages 514-529), Copyright © 2013 (16 pages) DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2122-0.ch045. In Pumilia-Gnarini, P., Favaron, E., Pacetti, E., Bishop, J., & Guerra, L. (2013). Didactic Strategies and Technologies for Education: Incorporating Advancements (2 Volumes). DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2122-0, ISBN13: 9781466621220, ISBN10: 1466621222, EISBN13: 9781466621237.
  3. Dell’Aria, C. (2012) Soluzioni innovative nell’e-learning: l’insegnante “in ruolo” nelle comunità virtuali. In Conference proceedings Bollettino Itals, Novembre 2012, Anno X n. XLVII (supplemento alla rivista ITALS, registrazione numero 14/2003 R.P. del 6.03.2003, Direttore Responsabile: Paolo E. Balboni), Convegno dei Diplomati del Master Itals di 2° livello, Venice 5-7 July 2012.
  4. Dell’Aria, C. (2012) Metodologia ludica per la CAD: e-Teaching ed e-Learning  con i MUVE a supporto della didattica tradizionale per l’apprendimento dell’italiano LS. 3° classificata nella categoria Alta Formazione - Concorso ASFOR e-Talenti dell’e-Learning (V edizione).
  5. Dell’Aria, C. e Nocchi, S. (2010) Will Second Life Help Me Survive in Italy? In Conference Proceeding, International Conference ICT for Language Learning
    3rd Conference Edition, Firenze,     Simonelli Editore-University Press, ISBN 9788876475696.
  6. Dell’Aria, C. e Nocchi, S. (2010)  “Will Second Life help me survive in Italy?”, conference paper at IMMERS[ED] 2010: the Second National Workshop on Teaching in Immersive Worlds hosted by the School of Computing & Intelligent System, University of Ulster, Magee, Ireland, 22nd October 2010.
  7. Antonino Di Sparti e Carmela Dell’Aria, 2010, Stagionalità del Web e processi d’apprendimento.  Insegnare italiano L2 con Second Life. In Caon F. (a cura di), 2010, Facilitare l’apprendimento dell'italiano L2 e delle lingue straniere, UTET Università.
  8. Margarita  Pérez Garcia, C. Dell’Aria  et al., 2010,  A Collection of Educational tools for Second Life. MENON Network Publishing: Belgium. SBNs: 978-2-930429-18-2 (Paperback colour) and 978-2-930429-19-9 (Paperback B&W).
  9. Margarita  Pérez Garcia, C. Dell’Aria  et al. , 2010,  Pedagogical Practices for Virtual Worlds. MENON Network Publishing: Belgium (2010) ISBs: 978-2-930429-20-5 (Paperback colour) and 978-2-930429-21-2 (Paperback B&W).
  10. Berriolo, A., Dell'Aria, C., & Warburton St, 2010, Managing a mixed skill class. In Design Patterns for Education in Virtual Worlds.
  11. Dell'Aria, C. et al., 2010, Dealing with interruptions in text-based chat session. In Design Patterns for Education in Virtual Worlds.

 

Conferences and online events

 

         multimediality and podcasts. Abstract