Videos Online

The other day I watched a really nice video on Edmodo about our lessons and I thought that this was a good way of summing up what we did in class, what we learnt and what experiences we have gone through. Since I found the video really interesting I tried the tool (http://animoto.com/) and I found that it is wonderful. With this tool, you can create videos with images and videos you upload or grab from your accounts on different social networks; moreover, you can add music and text. Finally, you can share it, embed it or download it.
Here, the video I've created...

 

A Wonderful Experience

Reflection... Now, Voki speaks for me!

Linking!

A school links project is a project carried out by schools that are far-away. This project may have different purposes, but for me the main goal is connecting students with others that may have a different way of seeing the world.

There are different web tools that can help us develop a school links project. Some of them are eLanguages, ePals and iEARN. When carrying out a school links project, it’s important to bear in mind the aim of the project and the learning objectives.

I think school links projects are important since students can relate with peers from other cities or even countries and share their ideas about different topics. Students from both schools can develop their language skills in a non-traditional way that may be of interest for them. I’ve thought about school links projects before because I’ve attended a summer course in Greece in 2010 to learn Greek language and culture. This experience was really important for me and sharing it with other people made it even more significant. Since then, I believe that sharing a learning experience with other people that are learning too can be great fun and have excellent results for all the learners and teachers!

Hello Technology!

The course...

Técnicas Informáticas Aplicadas a la Enseñanza de la Lengua Extranjera helped me understand that technology can be applied to the classroom in different ways. Including technology doesn’t mean asking students to hand in a narrative printed or just listening to a song in class. Technology can be really interesting for students and for teachers. It can help us deal with different topics; there are a lot of web tools that can be used for it; games can also be part of a lesson and it doesn’t mean our class will be a mess. During this course, I’ve learned lots of things; I’ve realized that technology can help us develop a different way of learning; lessons don’t need to be boring or just rely on a course book. Now, I am in a position to re-think about my future practice and how I want it to be. We live in the 21^st century and technology is part of our lives, so why shouldn’t it be part of our lessons? If I keep exploring the different tools technology provides, I’ll probably learn lots of things and apply them to my lessons. There are many experts on the web that share their knowledge about technology in the class... This is really interesting and profitable, like the course!

I’m looking forward to learning more and incorporating ICT in my classes!!

ICT and the Curriculum... Everything can change!

This experience took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A teacher from a private school analyzed feedback from teachers and students, and felt that something needed to be changed in the way English was taught. She said that the problem began on the reliance on a course book when it came to deal with the subject. After a lot of reflection about this and consensus, the course book was abandoned and teachers began to design their curriculum and materials, taking into account the students' needs and interests.  This change was also aimed at integrating technology in the curriculum. The teacher implemented a project about digital storytelling that then was published online. Different web tools were used in order to carry out this project. For example, students selected some famous paintings and wrote a narrative "that linked the stories together." Then, with Windows Movie Maker, they created an animated slideshow and recorded the soundtrack for it. Another example is the recreation of part of "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare using different tools, such as animated movie-making software Zimmer Twins.

In this case, TPCK was applied to change the curriculum. The topics (content knowledge) did not change; some of the activities (pedagogical knowledge) did change because of the addition of technology (technological knowledge). When it comes to SAMR model, we will see that the Redefinition level was achieved since the tasks that are given can only be accomplished by the use of technology (the teacher maybe thought of them before implementing this curriculum – she encouraged the use of technology in class - but because of the total reliance on the course book, they could not be put in practice.

Pigeonhole, Label, Neaten…

A PLN (Personal Learning Network) is a network of websites that you use for developing your learning. This can help you to be in contact with colleagues or even experts; find information of your interest in a simple way; and be up to date. On the Internet, we can find a lot of information; we should try to turn this information into knowledge by evaluating it and reflecting about it.

My PLN is relatively new but I’m finding it really useful! It consists of a blog, an account on Scoop.it and another account on Diigo. I think that it’ll expand since every day I learn about different web tools and websites that can help me!