Final Reflection on the Course

I have created a Voki for my final reflections on the course.
Hope you like it: 

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=9002759&height=267&width=200

Since the Voki has a characters' limit, I created a second one: 

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=9007898&height=267&width=200

The course gave me different ideas and tools which I believe are very fruitful for my profession. 

Thanks a lot for your time!!!
Read you soon,

Laura.

:)

Case study 2.3: Digital storytelling in Argentina

In Argentina, at Instituto San Francisco de Asis, the coordinator of the English department found a need to integrate technology in the English classes as a way of engaging and motivating ss in their learning process. Viki, the coordinator, saw that the department was relying too much on fixed coursebooks because they did not want parents to complain about having lost money if they decided not to use them so often. Therefore, the department decided to abandon coursebooks all together and to begin designing their own material and curriculum. 

The reasons for this change was to make the class more student- centered and less teacher-centered paying close attention to the needs of the 21st century. To start with, teachers opened a Wiki (http://isfa.wikispaces.com/) to set projects and to keep a record of how they were done.

One of the recent project of this school with 17-year-old ss was a "digital storytelling". The idea was to combine telling A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare by using different multimedia tools. The final version was uploaded on the internet so that parents, classmates and digital visitors would profit from their creations. 

Analysis of this case study according to TPCK model:

- Context: Argentina, San Francisco de Asis school. Project done with 17-year-old ss from secondary school.

- Content: One of the projects was based on A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play written by Shakespeare. Another one involved learners creating their own story.  

- Pedagogy: The animated story had to be done collaboratively. Ss had to choose different famous painting and to connect them somehow in a story. They also had to record the story to go with images in a slideshow. A second project, similar to this one, was done by ss taking pictures of graffiti and connecting them into an animated story. 

- Technology: The technological devices used here were Movie Maker to create a slideshow, digital cameras to take pictures of graffiti and Zimmer Twins (www.zimmertwins.com) to create animated cartoons (for A Midsummer Night's Dream).

SAMR model:
At the level of  "substitution", this school had been able to integrate technology to create tasks that were inconceivable before, so this lead to the second level, "modification" for tasks were redesigned because of using technology. "Augmentation" was also accomplished for technology was the tool to perform the different tasks. And "substitution" also took place here for technology substituted ordinary ways of performing tasks.  

Personal Learning Network, or "PNL"

As Nik Peachy says, teachers need to keep on learning all the time... 

It is true that teachers had gone through a learning period at their teacher training collages until they became professionals. But even if they have already graduated form these institutions, they need to keep on learning. That is so because there are many new things, devices, theories, techniques educators don't know of and can help them become better professionals. One way of keeping up with their educational developments is by having personal learning networks. 

                                

There are many social networks that can help teachers develop their personal learning networks such as these:

                             
The ones I use are Facebook, Twitter, Diigo, Scoop.it, and Blogger. I have other social networks too, but I don't find them as useful for my personal learning as the ones I have mentioned.
These are some people, groups and pages I like/follow on different social networks:

• Facebook: I like different pages which share interesting ideas to teachers and I am also part of different groups: English is Fun (https://www.facebook.com/EnglishIF?fref=ts), APIBA (https://www.facebook.com/apiba?fref=ts), EDAPI (https://www.facebook.com/edapijvg?fref=ts) and Cursando en el Joaquin (https://www.facebook.com/groups/222818077730892/?fref=ts) and Multimedia Applied to ELT (https://www.facebook.com/groups/233562783450728/?fref=ts).
• Twitter: I follow Krashen (https://twitter.com/skrashen), Nik Peachy (https://twitter.com/NikPeachey), Graham Stanley (https://twitter.com/grahamstanley), Esol courses (https://twitter.com/esolcourses), and many more. 
• Diigo: I follow a group for Mobile Learning ( https://groups.diigo.com/group/mobile-learning), and a group I share with other colleges who have taken a course on Multimedia (https://groups.diigo.com/group/multimedia-applied-to-elt)

Personal learning networks help teachers to access information and evaluate them. Later on, after having evaluated the info, teachers can decide how to apply the new things they have learnt in their own classes. 

(Nik Peachy's framework for PNL: http://goo.gl/pwz1Sg) 

Games and Language Learning

Have you ever thought about gamifying your lesson?
Gamifying lesson implies using games as a way of teaching language. Ss have been born in the digital divide, which means that they are full immersed in the digital era, and gadgets are just part of ss' daily lives. So, the idea of gamifying lessons is to actually overcome this digital divide there exists between us, teachers, with respect to ss.  Therefore, using games can be a fantastic tool to motivate and engage our learners in their learning process. 
I have tried some games proposed by Graham Stanley in his site (http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/category/game-plan/). The one I precisely liked the most is called Vortex (http://www.mousecity.com/games/point-and-click/vortex-point/).

Since my fifth-grade ss have been learning "will" for predictions and different past tenses, this will be a great game to make them practice these complicated tenses, while they have fun too. Besides, if ss like playing it, they can even try it at home. 

This is how I would like to apply this particular game into my classes:

First ss can think on what this story will be about and discuss this orally between their classmates. Later on, they can plunge into the game properly. While ss are playing the game, they can stop at times (or the t can stop it in case they refuse to) and ask them some questions as regards the plot, such as "what did he do? What did she say? What was she doing?" They can answer these questions orally and they will be practicing their speaking skills as well. After playing the game, ss can write a short report of what they did and if they enjoyed this experience or not, and why. Or they can even write a summary of the story's plot. In this way, you would have checked speaking skills, tenses, and written skills as well.

I have also found this link very useful... Here you can find many interesting games: http://www.mousecity.com/

I hope you find my ideas useful. Fell free to add any other suggestions :)

Speaking Skills

I have chosen this web tool (Blabberize: http://blabberize.com/) to explain how I would use it in my lessons . You can listen to it by clicking this link: http://blabberize.com/view/id/1038242

<object classid='clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000' codebase='http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0' width='275' height='495' id='Blabberize.com_Player' align='middle'><param name='allowScriptAccess' value='sameDomain' /><param name='movie' value='http://blabberize.com/swf/blabberembedp.swf' /><param name='quality' value='high' /><param name='scale' value='noscale' /><param name='salign' value='lt' /><param name='bgcolor' value='#ccffff' /><param name='FlashVars' value='id=1038242' /><embed width='275' height='495' src='http://blabberize.com/swf/blabberembedp.swf' FlashVars='id=1038242' quality='high' scale='noscale' salign='lt' bgcolor='#ccffff' name='Blabberize.com_Player' align='middle' allowScriptAccess='sameDomain' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' /></embed></object>

I particularly liked this web tool for I believe it is a good option for ss to practice their speaking skills in a funny way. I believe that this tool will particularly engage my ss for they will have fun watching how their mouths move while their faces stay put.

Another interesting web tool for practicing speaking skills is Present Me (https://present.me/). I have a crowded class of 10-year-old ss and, as you can imagine, I don’t have enough time to check all of my ss’ speaking performances. I have been teaching “will” for predictions at school and vocab. on “gadgets” so I was thinking that ss, in pairs, can design a future gadget  and describe it. They can record their descriptions and upload their recordings on Present Me, together with a drawing of the gadget they have invented. In this way, ss can listen to themselves and record their audios as many times as they like until they get a final version.

A third tool ss can use at school, but now in my Literature lessons, is Go Animate (http://goanimate.com/). I was thinking that instead of ss writing boring summaries on the different chapters from the book we are reading, they can make videos using this tool. They can summarize the chapters read in class and design the backgrounds of the different scenes plus adding a recording for the different characters’ speeches. They can even do this activity in groups so that there is negotiation of meaning among ss.

Content Curation

Curation is a great way of organizing and sharing information you might like on a particular topic. You can even organize your stuff under different labels, and you can also follow experts you admire and like. 

 

You can share the info you want with other people. There are different web tools that help you curate stuff such as Scoop.it or Pinterest.  

Here is my Scoop.it account: http://www.scoop.it/u/laura-delahanty. Feel free to come around!!

Evaluating web-based tools, by Nick Peachy

Nick Peachy's talk on web tools is very interesting. You can watch it here: http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2013/sessions/2013-04-11/evaluating-web-based-tools-language-instruction

Many of the tools he mentions are very interesting and worth trying in the classroom. There is one I particularly liked, Tellegami. 

This is the link to my Gami creation: https://tellagami.com/gami/5WX8HS/ 

I liked it because it is a great app that can be used for an introductory class… Ss can create their Gamis by choosing the hairstyle they like the most for their character, the voice they want it to have, the clothes they want it to wear, and even the background where the Gami is. Shy ss can profit from this activity/app because when introducing themselves, they can make this app speak for themselves, and they can even describe their Gami and explain their choices.

I will try to apply the criteria Nick uses when choosing the apps for his classes. To start with, although Tellagami is for free, it is available only in Apple devices. So, if you are planning to use it in your classes, you have to make sure everybody has an iphone, ipad or ipod , or you can always lend your ss your own device for them to make one. (This can work well if your class is not crowded.)   

It is an interesting app that ss can use later on during the academic year. I was thinking that maybe they can create other Gamis representing the characters from the books they might read in their Lit lessons.

Another positive characteristic of this app is that it doesn’t take much time to create it, or to learn how to use it. Here again, if they don’t have an Apple device, it might take them more time (if you decide to share your own device with them).

What do you think? J

TPCK: Case Study 1.3, cross curricular story writing

In Istambul, Ozge, an English teacher as a second language, decided to create with her 5 or 6-year-old ss a talking book based on same imaginary characters. The aim of this project was to make ss practice the vocabulary seeing in class.

This was a cross-curricular project, which means that other departments were also involved in it. For example in “art lessons”, ss had to design the characters of this book and their animations.

The idea here was that ss could integrate the vocabulary learnt in class by recording and writing a narrative for the story.

Later on, these ss published an e-book with the characters they had invented. Besides, they produced an online game with characters of their e-book in order to help other ss around the world practice the vocab from the talking book.

Analysis of this project according to TPCK model:

-         Context: Instambul, at Terakki Foundation School.

-         Content: Vocabulary learnt in the English class.

-         Pedagogy: Ss were asked to write collaboratively a narrative integrating learnt vocabulary. Besides, these ss were asked to design games where they could practice the new vocabulary contextually.
There was collaborative work throughout the project.

-         Technology: One of the technological devices used here by ss was the “sound recorder”, which was used by some ss to record the narratives they had written.

Personal reflection:

This case study was a great example of how technology can be integrated in the classroom in a meaningful way and with a clear pedagogical purpose behind.

This project, then, proved that TPCK model is interested in the learner, his/her needs and most importantly, how to make him/her overcome his/her difficulties using technology in a significant and relevant way.  

Social bookmarking: Diigo

I have been using this social bookmarking for 3 years now and it has helped me a lot. I can bookmark sites I like and I can even highlight stuff I find interesting and/or useful.

Have a look at my account: https://www.diigo.com/user/Lauradelahanty

Hope you find this site as useful as I do!

Twister: message # 2

This is my second Tweet.You can try this site in order to start using this class tool: http://www.classtools.net/twister/

Twister: message # 1

I love this class digital tool. I already knew about templates and even used them in my lessons, but I made them myself with different pictures taken from Google images. It was hard work and time consuming. 
I will definitely use this template in my lessons from now on. 
There are other tools I've also tried, like "faKebook", which is as great as this one. 

SAMR Model

Trying to find information on the SAMR Model, I came across this web page which summarizes pretty much the main concerns of this theory: http://teachingwithtech2013.blogspot.com.ar/

Even though I strongly believe teachers should use more technology in the classroom, I don’t think it is always a possible thing to do… Mainly because not every student in our country has the possibility to acquire a technological device of his/her own because they are a bit expensive. Besides, many teachers are not fond of technology and so because they are afraid of it, they don’t use it and they don’t let students use technology either. Still, I believe that students belong to the digital era, and so teachers should try to do their best to overcome this digital divide.

Hi, there! Welcome to my blog!!! I'll be posting  my reflections and opinions about using techno in the classroom.

Here's my avatar. I chose this format because I love Monsters, Inc. Hope you like it too!
I think that using Avatars in the class is a good way of fostering motivation in students for they might be eager to express themselves and their likes in a different and funny way.