Final Project

Hi you all!

Our adventure is coming to an end... It is time to say "see you later alligator". It has been a year full of challenges and overcomings. I have learned a lot!!

We started the subject creating a learning diary and an avatar (done with Plotagon -one of my favourite digital tools). Now my blog has got 13 posts and my avatar has become one of my "best friends".

Blogger is a great tool. I've used it to self-reflect in my own learning as a teacher and also to show everybody my progress. I saw many tutorials to learn to put a clock on it, a counter, a list of blogs, etc.

After that, I added a Creative Commons Attribution- Non-Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License to my blog.

We learned to respect copyrights and to cite, attribute and license usable images. That is something we have to teach our students as well.
I designed a CLIL activity where images from Pixabay and Pexels appeared but if you don't find the wished picture on these, there are other open images repositories that you can use.
Digital citizenship implies the responsible use of online images or videos, among others.

Then, we learned to filter, organize and curate information. The tool I have used to curate content is Pinterest. But there are other tools like Symbaloo, Pearltrees or List.ly.

After that, we created an account on Twitter as we should show the world what we were doing. Through Twitter we also create a tiny story. It was really fun and we did it together!

Then, we learned about different tools and apps to create support slideshows. Genial.ly, Google Slides, Prezi, Powtoon or Biteslide were some of the examples. My students loved the slideshow about Magnetism I made for them. I taught them how to use it and now they use it each time they have to do an oral presentation.

The next thing we learned in class was to create online visual artifacts. We learned how to create comics, mind maps and infographics. These artifacts are incredibly useful in English but even more in CLIL subjects as they help students to make the content more memorable. I used StoryboardThat to create the comic, but I could have used Pixton or Creaza.
To do the mind map I used Creately although I could have used Mind42, SpiderScribe or Bubbl.us. Primary Students may find it difficult to use Creately, even though we could help them, so this app is useful for teachers, but we cannot expect them to use it correctly.
These are tools to create single mindmapping but there are other apps to create collaborative mindmapping like Coggle, or Mindmeister.
To do the infographic I used Picktochart. Easel.ly, Canva, Smore, Mural.ly, and Padlet are other examples you can also use.
I loved designing my own online visual artifacts even though it was very time-consuming. These visuals help students to memorize and understand the new contents. So it is worthy to spend the time on these.

Then we started the unit 6 called "Broadcast it!". We learned how to podcast and how to create an educational audio project. I enjoyed this unit so much that I made an educational audio project in my school. It was very rewarding. The online platform that I used was SoundCloud. I had already used it so it wasn't difficult to do the task.

The last topic we saw in class was unit 7 called "Flip it". Here we learned about inspiring educational video projects worldwide (The World is my Audience- Twima8) and we learned how to design and edit educational video clips (using iMovie, GarageBand, Pixabay, and QuickTime).
Unit 7 was my favourite one. We learned a lot, we worked cooperatively with our classmates doing the Chroma project, we visited the Future Classroom Lab and we shared our personal stories in FlipGrid!!!It was really moving!

Appart from all we learned in these units, we attended a course by INTEF in AULA-IFEMA about the Digital Competence Portfolio.
We have also attended a webinar on Mobile Learning (given by María Jesús García San Martín) and about all the possibilities INTEF offers us (click HERE for more information).
And we heard an inspiring speech about eTwinning when we went to the Future Classroom Lab.

I cannot be more grateful to MªJesús for having taught us so many things and to my classmates for having been such a great support all this year.

I finish this post with my final artifact. It is a Prezi presentation. I wanted to use a different tool from the ones I had used as I have not found the time to try all the tools MªJesús has taught us.

Prezi has given me the opportunity to show you what I  have learned along this course and now I am aware that it has been a lot!

In my slideshow presentation, I have described my learning process throughout this course and I have shared the evidence of my learning with some screenshots of my outcomes and artifacts.

In the "Farawell slide" or under the Prezi presentation, there is a video where I explain what I liked the most, the least, what I found more and less useful, what I intend to use in the classroom from now on; a key idea that I have taken from the course and a reflection on what the participation in the course has meant for me. I hope you like it!


  

#Twima8

Hi you all!

Have you ever thought about the story of your life? I am sure most of you have not thought about why you are the kind of person you are now.

Our life is the result of the choices we have made. Becoming a teacher is the best decision I have taken. And you? What is the story of your life?

Today I am going to present to you a new app! It is called FlipGrid. FlipGrid is where social and emotional learning happens!. It is designed to promote open discussion among all students within your classroom.  So, for me this app is very useful as teachers can post topics, videos, or links for discussion and students can respond to the prompt and to each other with short video reflections. Besides, recording the video is quick, easy and funny and helps to improve students' listening and speaking skills. This app it is free and you can use it online on your computer (as I did) or you can do it on your mobile phone as it is available for iOS and for Android.

I have already used this app to participate in a worldwide collaborative video storytelling project called "The World is my Audience" (8th edition) and I loved it! I am sure our students would also love to participate in a worldwide project!!!Doing this activity would help them to improve their cultural awareness as well!



Participating in a worldwide collaborative project was scary at first. I am very shy and it is difficult for me to be in front of a camera knowing many people could hear me speaking in English and about my own feelings. However, I found the topic very appealing so I decided to do it. I had the idea of what I wanted to say but I knew it was going to be hard to deal with all the emotions that would bring me to talk about the teaching experience that changed my life. I had to record it several times as I was very moved. I am glad I did it. I feel very happy to have shared this story with the world.

In my video, I talk about a hard teaching experience that finally became a life lesson but you can hear more stories in #twima8-We all have a story. For me, it is restorative to listen to other people who work in the same job as you do.


How did I do it? First, I wrote in the browser: https://flipgrid.com/83c385. Then, I pressed the green bottom and I recorded myself. Your video can last up to 5 minutes. Next, you take a picture of yourself and if you wish, you can add emojis or stickers on it. Finally, you write your name and your email account and you publish it! Super easy!!!!

Here you can hear my story! I hope you like it!





And here are some of my classmates' stories. Enjoy them!

Channel 4 (II)

Hi you all!

You cannot imagine how excited I am to show you the final outcome of the Chroma project! Today is THE DAY! But....you will have to wait a little bit until you can read about the video production process! I know you want to watch "Channel 4: The News"....but be patient!

For those who have not read the previous post (click HERE for more information) I will tell you that my group and I (students of a masters' degree in URJC) had to flip our classroom and record ourselves.

We went to the Future Classrom Lab of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports on the 19th of April with our classmates. There we heard an inspiring speech about eTwinning and  then recorded our video.
Here you can see a picture of all of us!

We recorded the scenes several times and it was pretty fun! It was great that there was a big green wall to do the Chroma project there, and there were those fabulous "future chairs".

The recording was a success! Then at home, my classmate Soraya was in charge of editing the video.
How did she do it?

First, she used QuickTime to cut the videos to avoid unnecessary sounds or gestures. We used this app to cut the video, but it also has other tools for recording your voice, your screen and your face.

Then, she used iMovie to edit it. It was not easy for her to do it, because she had to watch many tutorials to embed the music, the headlines, the background photos and our videos. But, she did it! And it looked great! Thank you Soraya for such a great job!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the background images were from Pixabay and the sound effects were from GarageBand. Soraya told me that she loved that these apps could synchronize themselves.

And now that you know how we did it...enjoy the video!

Thank you Dani, Soraya, Jennifer and Silvana for being such a great team! Thank you Mª Jesús for sharing the Future Classroom Lab with us and thank you readers for reading this long post until the end.

Doing this project was very inspiring and I am actually using Chroma and iMovie to record my 6th graders' graduation video. All of their teachers are participating in it and I am sure they will love it!!!

CHANNEL 4 PROJECT (I)

Hi you all!

Today I’m going to tell you about the best activity that I have done so far in my ICT classroom in URJC. 

There are 31 students in my master and all of us have created different video projects.

I had the pleasure to work with Silvana, Dani, Soraya and Jennifer (best teammates ever) on a new video project based on the TV news. We became TV reporters who work for “Channel 4”.

After choosing the topic of the project and the title, we divided up the work. Each of us had a role and a task to fulfill.  

Then we created different sections for our news program:

-Natural Sciences news: earthquake

-Social Sciences news: Brexit

-Cultural news, linked with Arts and Crafts: Saint George

-Physical Education news: new sports

Soraya was going to be the TV presenter who was going to introduce the different sections and the rest of us had a topic to work on.

Here you can see the project in detail.

The idea of recording us was to use the video with our students, ‘flipping the classroom’.  Students would have to watch the news and write down the questions after each piece of news. Students would split in groups and each group would be in “charge of one section". They would have to investigate and answer the questions proposed by “their” TV reporter. Then, they would present their final project with the tools they wanted.

I will tell you in the next post how we recorded the video and how we edited it. I am very excited to see the final result!

Now, I am going to finish my post talking about the apps and tools we are going to use:

-iMovie: An app that is used with Chroma, a technique that changes your background. You record yourself with a green background and later you add your own background.

-GarageBand  is going to give us all the sound effects and Pixabay all the background pictures.

-GoogleDrive: to create a GoogleDoc where the draft of the plot is.

I hope you are as excited as I am to see the video! See you later!

MOBILE LEARNING

Hi you all!

Today I have attended to a live webinar on mobile learning and digital competence for education. The webinar was given by María Jesús García San Martín and organized by Institut de Formació Contínua- IL·Universitat de Barcelona. Click HERE for more information.

María Jesús works for The National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (INTEF), an institution belonging to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD) of the Spanish government. She explained us all the possibilities we have to improve our digital competence though mobile learning thanks to INTEF.

Before explaining all the online courses available I would like to mention a truly important document for teachers: The Common Digital CompetenceFramework for Teachers (CDCFT).This was published in January 2017 by INTEF. This is a reference framework for the diagnosis and improvement of the digital competences for teachers. These competences are defined as those which teachers need to develop in the 21st century to improve their teaching practice and for their continuous professional development. The Common Digital Competence Frameworkfor Teachers is made up by 5 competence areas and their 21 competences defined in 6 proficiency levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2).

Each competence provides a detailed description as well as the descriptors based in terms of knowledge, ability and attitude.

HERE you can see all the possibilities INTEF offers.

1) EDUPILLS: 

It is a free mobile app for Android or iOS that offers short educational training courses (5 to 10 minutes) focused on teachers or any interested person that want to improve quickly and easily their digital competence. It can be used at anytime from anywhere through your mobile phone. These pills are organized in the five areas of the Common Digital Competence Framework for Teachers (CDCFT): 

Area 1. Information and data literacy

Area 2. Communication and Collaboration

Area 3. Digital content creation

Area 4. Safety

Area 5. Problem solving  

Each pill focuses only on one competence of the desired area.

Every Friday at 11 o’clock new pills are ‘launched.’ So don’t miss them! They are addictive! Lots of knowledge in short time!Can't wait to try it!

2) INTEF NOOC: Nano Massive Open Online Courses

A nano massive online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. The duration of the INTEF NOOC is of 3 hours. Through these NOOC users don’t get a certification, but they receive digital badges. These NOOC are opened for 10 days but materials are always available. In each NOOC appears the general description, the course number, the start date, the last day, the estimated effort, objectives, the author/facilitator, requirements to participate, and recommended courses.

If you participate in a NOOC you must open a learning journal.
Who don't want to get badges? Very inspiring idea to apply in class! So excited to start one! 

3) INTEF MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses

A massive open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. INTEF offers MOOC and they last between four and five weeks. Through these MOOC users don’t get a certification, but they receive digital badges.

Through MOOC users can work in a complete competences level.

In each MOOC appears the general description, the course number, the start date, the last day, the estimated effort, objectives, the author, the coordinator, the facilitator, requirements to participate, and recommended courses.

If you participate in a MOOC you must open a learning journal as well and all the materials created will be always available even though the MOOC has finished.

I love online courses, but I don't think I have the time to start one of these right one...but hey! did you know they will be available during summer?

4) INTEF SPOOC: Self-Paced Open Online Courses. 

In each SPOOC appears the general description, the course number, the start date, the last day, the estimated effort, objectives, the author, help to participants, requirements to participate and recommended courses.

If you participate in a SPOOC you must also open a learning journal.

Participants can rate the course throw NPS (Net Promoter  Score).

Definitely SPOOC was created for me and for many teachers that have lots of staff to do!

5) THE DIGITAL COMPETENCE PORTFOLIO FOR TEACHERS 

This is designed to acknowledge and improve the digital competence of teachers through continuous self-assessment and the up-to- date recording of teaching, learning and training experiences.

The Digital Competence Portfolio For Teachers has been developed by the National Institute of Educational Teachnologies and Teacher Training (INTEF) and primarily promotes the acquisition, development and improvement of the Digital Competences of Teachers. The  Common Digital Competence Framework for Teachers is the foundation for this Digital Competence Portfolio. The Digital Competence Portfolio has the following structure:

BIOGRAPHY

The Digital Competence Biography describes users’ personal and professional data.

SELF- ASSESSMENT.

Users can self-assess their level in the five areas of the Common Digital Competence Framework.

DOSSIER

The dossier offers users the opportunity to organize and label those evidences that they consider illustrative to endorse their digital competence, in order to complete the information provided in their biography. For example, badges, labels, certificates, degrees, projects, experiences inside and outside school with students and by students, prizes, awards, digital artifacts, OER, publications, etc.

PASSPORT

The Digital Competence Passport shows the level of digital competence users have achieved and provides an overall perspective of the evidences that endorse it, according to those users have included in their dossier. As users update their biography and dossier, their Digital Competence Passport will also be updated. If users wish, they can make it public and share it on their social networks. In addition, they can download it in a printable format; the most recent update date will be included.

6) CONVERSATIONS- COMMENTS

Here you can find real comments of participants, authors, coordinators, of the online courses.It is very useful to know in advace other participants' opinions.

The methodology used in the online INTEF courses encourages collaboration, social learning, the creation of professional community webs and the production of learning evidences, helping in this way to the development and acquisition of digital competence.

Taking this into consideration, and after having heard María Jesús I am sure I will participate in more than one! This mobile learning course was truly inspiring and all the available courses gives us lots of opportunities to keep learning!

OUR AUDIO PROJECT: "THE WALL OF FAME"

Hi you all!

Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.

The problem we proposed in class was called "The Wall of Fame". We brainstormed to find out which famous painters they already knew. Then, I wrote these artists' names on small pieces of paper and I gave them to several students at random.

Students were instructed to do a drawing based on a famous painter (Picasso, Banksy, Frida Kahlo, Piet Mondrian, etc). In order to do so, the students, first, had to investigate about their artists and then do the drawing.

Afterwards, we displayed the drawings in the corridor. Students could see  their classmates drawings based on the works of famous artists. Some of them knew a few of the artists' names, but they didn't know anything about their lives. Some students proposed to continue the project as an audio project. I found this really interesting as they were very excited about the idea.

Students had to record themselves talking about their assigned painters' lives without saying their name. Then, they had to give me the audio tracks, so I could upload them in SoundCloud.

The sound used in the podcast intro is by Kevin MacLeod. "New theme" CC BY 3.0.

Once I created the channel, I added all of the tracks to a playlist called "The Wall of Fame". Every Thursday since then we have been listening to one of the student's tracks. Students are told they must guess who the artist was.

The students enjoyed the audio project and I am sure we will do another one next year.

Using SoundCloud was very easy. First, you have to sign up, then upload the track recorded with your mobile phone and create a playlist. Then, the program gives you the option to embed the audio tracks in your blog post, etc. You can choose the way you want to display the layout of the track as well.

Here you can see the project in detail.



Here is my channel.

Here you can see and hear my playlist. I hope you like them.

Here is my welcome audio.

I hope you found this post useful. If you liked it, don't forget to follow my blog.

Infographics are great!

Hi you all!

Today I would like to share with you the infographic I designed for my 5th graders. It is about Spanish population.

Infographics help learners to understand content because they can visualize and contextualize the content. They are a very visual way of representing and transmitting knowledge via the web. This type of means to transmit information is key, attractive and engages students.

There are many tools we, as teachers, can use. Here are some of them:
-Easel.ly
-Picktochart
-Canva
-Smore
-Mural.ly
-Padlet

The tool I used was Picktochart. This is a web-based infographic application which allows users without intensive experience  as graphic designers to easily create infograpics and visuals using themed templated. The app is very intuitive, so it is very easy to use.

If you want to try it, you just have to create your own account (it's free!). Then, on the left, you will find a menu  in which you can select different features to create your own infographic. For instance, you will be able to choose  different lines, photos, symbols,backgrounds, shapes, letter font and sizes, etc. If you don't like the available pictures you can choose your own ones or create different graphic organizers, as I did.
Another advantage of using Piktochart is that is very easy to share and embed.
I couldn't find any disadvantage. In fact, it is a tool that I will use with my students in the future. As I said before, it is VERY intuitive.

Here you can have a look at my infographic. The topic I chose is 'Spanish population', which I personally find it very boring. I hope my students find the topic more interesting thanks to this infographic.

I hope you found this post useful. If you liked it, don't forget to follow my blog.