The final exam is coming!

Hi everyone!

Next week, I'm going to sit for ECO II final exam, together with one of my classmates, Melisa.
I feel rather nervous because we have to make a presentation called Pecha Kucha (20 slides in 20 seconds) including images.

This short video will help you clear your ideas about Pecha Kucha!

I'm already feeling nervous with any final exam, but I can't cope with nerves thinking about this ECO II exam, I need to manage time to say everything in 20 slides and avoid overlapping my voice to that of my mate. Also, memory is a key factor to be coherent when saying the texts of the slides, That's why we have been rehearsing together with Melisa so as to feel more relaxed, anyway, I will try to enjoy this experience!

Goodbye!

The importance of Blended Learning.

Hi everyone! 

Nowadays, we are getting used to hear about this new term in the field of learning and teaching... but What is Blended Learning? Let's just say it's the mixture between online and in-person learning experiences when teaching students. Students might attend a class taught by a teacher in a traditional classroom setting or independently completing online tasks and working at home, both experiences would parallel and complememt each other. 

Here I attach a short video showing some important aspects of Blended Learning, of course, there are many others, always taking into account the context in which we are teaching. 

During this year, we have learnt a lot about including technology in the classroom, and the benefits we can find for our students' learning. Blended Learning goes beyond all we have seen and a key factor of this kind of learning is 'collaborative work', since teachers can ask students to do some research about a certain topic at home and then share it online or during the lesson, promoting interaction among peers to accomplish specific purposes. 

I strongly recommend teachers to do some research on this new field of teaching and generate online activities for students to complete at home. You can post your opinions about B-learning below. 

See you!! 

WEB 2.0 - Didactic Sequences

Hello!

Some time ago, our ECO II teacher asked us to create an imaginary didactic sequence including one or more web 2.0 tools. We organized the sequence around a central task and then we presented the outcomes to our classmates during a lesson, showing what we would ask our students to do. The grammatical contents to revise were Simple Present, there is/there are and has/have. The vocabulary was 'places in a city' and the functions to teach were describing a city, convincing, inviting.

My mates and I thought about including videos in the lessons, so we came up with the idea that students, in groups of 3, would have to create a video showing their imaginary favourite city. The aim of the video would be to convince their mates to go to that city by describing it. 
After researching into some web 2.0 resources, we found 'Stupeflix', an interesting tool to create videos using photos and adding special musical effects or songs. 

We started the lesson by showing students images of Santa 

Fe city and  describing some places, so as to activate 

squemata, they had a worksheet to match the corresponding 

pictures to the names of the places as they listened to us 

describing those places. We checked comprehension by 

asking questions, for example, Is there any bakery in Santa 

Fe?.
Then, we presented posters of places that are and are 

not present in Santa Fe and in pairs, students had to write 

sentences telling what places there are and there aren't in 

the city. The pair who wrote more sentences in 5 minutes 

was the winner of the competition. We checked by having 

the pairs reading their productions and asking their mates to 

say whether those sentences were correct in terms of grammar and meaning.

To finish the lesson and introduce the final task, we showed students a video about our own favourite city; a city we have created with all the places we like.We showed them our production on stupeflix while telling them about the city. Then, we asked them comprehension questions, for example: how many churches are there in our city?.We also asked them if they would go to our city, what they like/don’t like about our city. After that, we told them they would have to make a similar presentation but with their own imaginary favourite city. We asked them to make their city interesting so as to convince their partners to visit it since once presentations were over we would vote for the best city to go to.

Our city was called PARACITY, a city to spend our holidays, and this amazing resource allowed us to create a video using text and photos... you can try this tool www.stupeflix.com and tell me what do you think...

See you!

Let's play Word Clouds!

Hi everyone!

In ECO II, we have been trying 'Wordle' (http://www.wordle.net/) and making our owm Word Clouds! I already posted some word clouds in previous posts, but this time I would like you to try this tool.
It's a fantastic way to teach vocabulary and topics, specially to children and teens.

You can create and play guessing games by providing all the related names from a category and your mates have to guess what the category is, for example: the picture of the eco car is made of words related to ecology.

You only need to enter www.wordle.net and go to 'Create your own', then you paste your own bunch of words and press 'Go'. You can choose colour and designs, it's really fun!
Also, for word clouds' shapes like the pictures shown, you can visit Tagxedo word cloud creator.

Although if you want to play a guessing game, try not to use so many words...

See you!

Web 2.0 Tools: Tech tools and trends for teachers.

Hi again!

This week in ECO II we talked about Web 2.0 Resources and the new tools in technology that can be applied in teaching a language.

Today, I came across this website called DISCOVERY EDUCATION and I could expand my knowledge on today's new technological tools for Communication and Education. (http://web2014.discoveryeducation.com/)

I would like to quote this paragraph from the website that is really interesting for teachers: "As our students become more entreched in technology, we need tools that can help us keep up with the ever-changing online landscape. Simple new tools make it easier than ever to plug in. From blogs and wikis to incredible presentation and video integration tools, nothing is too cool for school. This collection of Web 2.0 toold and online apps will have you talking and teaching tech in no time".

Then, within the same website, you can explore 20.14 tools online, from 'Presentation tools' to 'Related links'. You can also learn about different Tech tips and Intenet safety, so it is a well-designed and complete website to visit.

Now, going back to Web 2.0 Resources, you have to know that a Web 2.0 tool or app allows people to interact, communicate or collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators in a virtual community. We can use different applications and resources, from social networking sites, to blogs, wikis, video sharing and web apps.  Here you can see images of web apps. I am sure that most of you are acquainted and use some of these apps.

I hope you can try these new apps if you still haven't try them, you only need to create an account and it is very easy to learn how to use them.

See you soon!

SAMR and TPACK models for Education Technology

Hi everyone!

In this opportunity, I would like to intruduce two important models SAMR and TPACK to include technology in the classroom. We learnt about these models in ECO II when we created presentations and I have to confess it was a bit confussing at first. But you can find a lot of information on websites or watch many videos on youtube to have a clear idea of what these models are used for.
For example, here you have two of the videos I selected for SAMR and TPACK explanations. The first video is made of by students and the second is uploaded by Candence M.

As you have seen, the videos are easy to follow and they give you a general idea of what these models are created for.
As I said before, SAMR and TPACK models can be hard to understand at first, but I consider these models to be valuable because they can help us introduce technology in our lessons without forgetting that we are teaching a language, and therefore, we must take into account the way in which we should teach and how technology will help or collaborate in learning a language.
If you want to learn more, visit these articles

http://www.ipadbootcampforteachers.com/samrtpack.html
http://www.edtechcoaching.org/2013/11/ed-tech-frameworks-why-i-dont-use-tpack.html

See you!

What to take into account when preparing a presentation?

Hello again, I will take this opportunity to expand on a previous post about including Presentations in the classroom, but this time I would like to add some tips for creating and delivering an effective presentation.

After preparing and delivering a presentation for ECO II pw, my mates and I with the help of our teacher could reflect upon some things that went well, and some other things that did not go that well. So this is a nice opportunity to share those reflections with you.

One of the things that you must consider when preparing a presentation is how much are you going to include. For example, if you choose to work with Power Point, it is better not to present whole texts in slides, because your audience may get bored and switch off your presentation, also you may get nervous or get confused when reading from the slides. Sometimes, they pay more attention to reading the texts before you switch slides than listening to you presenting. It would be better if you include only the main ideas.

You also need to take into account the design of your presentation, the colours of the slides and the size of your titles and words. For example, if you are presenting a new topic to children, it is good to have a colourful and cheerful presentation, with cartoons or multimedia content, but working with teens or adults is different, and they may think your presentation is not serious enough or pay more attention to the colours of the presentation instead of listening to you.

Moreover, when planning the presentation, it is good to rehearse a bit, because it will help you with time management and you will avoid overlapping with the other members of the group you are presenting.
And last though not least, using some tech support like videos or soundfiles will also require a bit of rehearsal, especially if these take an important role in your presentation. You need to check whether these work well before you start to present.

That's all for presentations, See you!