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!

SELFIES in the classroom. Really?

Hi everyone!

Last monday, my mates from ECO II and I attended an interesting workshop developed by Mathilde Verillaud. She's from the United States and she's staying in Rosario for a year, attending different conferences and giving talks about an important aspect teachers and students teachers must take into consideration when entering the English Classroom. I am using one of the titles of her presentation because it really called my attention.

She talked about how to use a newly teen fashion action (Selfie) as a fast track to boost students' motivation, using students' contexts to help them learn English.  She taught this workshop in China and told us what the project was about.

First, as she did, I will introduce the definition of 'Selfie' to all of you who may not know the term.
According to Oxford Dictionaries, a Selfie is: a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.  
In 2013, 'Selfie' was chosen as the word of the year by Oxford Dictionary, and The Guardian and The New Yorker agreed with this.

Just in case you still have doubts, this is a selfie!

You may take a selfie only of you, with a camera, smartphone, etc, or using the mirror.
You can also take a selfie of your shadow using the sun or water.
And you can take 'Selfies' together with your friends of family.
Here are two of the most famous funny 'Selfies' we know...

Monalisa posing for a 'Selfie'.

 'Selfie' of famous Hollywood stars taken at the Oscars 2014 ceremony.








According to Mathilde, this tool of the Y generation will help students learn about themselves and will help teachers connect to their students by facilitating this self-discovery process and speaking their visual language.
As a teacher, you can start by introducing some photography vocabulary and show famous selfies to your students to discuss their impression of the photographers from their self-portraits.
You can also brainstorm with your students the infinite possibilities of taking a 'Selfie', for instance, the different contexts that they can show and what would make the 'Selfie' unique and reflect their personalities. And now, you can ask them to take their own 'Selfies' for this project, including objects that show something about themselves.

Then, you can practice acitivities with the 'Selfies', but first, you MUST set some general rules if you intent to play a game with students or if you ask them to describe their mates' selfies. If not, some could use negative words or comments to describe some mates' selfies and it can be a bad experience for them. Remember we are dealing with teenagers, it's a difficult age and their inhibitions are high so as to protect their ego, you have to be careful and encourage them to show some aspects of their personalities by taking selfies and create a cheerful environment. You MUST also talk to students about the use of social media and posting their selfies on the web.

Some of the activities proposed by Mathilde are:
1) Higher order ranking questions: describe what they see, what is going on, what is the person thinking or feeling, etc.

2)Gallery walk: exhibition in the classroom. 10 minutes to go from photo to photo and write descriptive sentences. The group with the most correct descriptive sentences wins.

3) Description games: one students orally describes a picture to his/her partner. The other students says the same thing in a different tense, or in the negative.

4) Every photo tells a story: pick one photo and write a quote about the person in the photo. Pass the photo to your left and repeat the action.

5) Let's draw: two students leave the classroom. The rest of the class is divided in two groups and is given the same photograph. Each team has to orally describe the photograph to the student who was outside the classrom in order for he/she to draw. Both students who left must draw following oral descriptions. The student who draws more similar features to the photograph wins.

6) Writing activities: a descriptive text, dialogue or poem about the photo.

I wanted to share some details of this very interesting and useful workshop of Mathilde with you! I hope you have the chance to attend some of her workshops.
Thank you very much,
See you soon.

What we MUST consider when including... Presentations in the classroom.

Hello everyone!

This time I want to introduce a useful way to deal with a topic in the classroom. I will talk about including Presentations in the lesson and what we must take into consideration when using tools to present a new topic or ask our students to create presentations to share what they have learnt. Before I start, I will show you pictures of two of the tools we use to present nowadays: POWER POINT and PREZI.

                            

The first thing you need to analyse is the topic or theme you have to teach or ask your students to present, considering linguistic contents like grammar and vocabulary and what aspects of the topic per se would you like to show them or your aims for this project. For example, when planning ECO II presentations, my mates and I chose to talk about CINEMA and helped students to create a PREZI presentation about their favourite movie or actor/actress. The presentation included a mini-biography of the actor/actress and sentences about why they chose this actor or movie. As our main aim, we expected students to talk about their favourite actor/actress and their favourite movies. As contents, we had to teach past simple with regular and irregular verbs and adjectives; and we needed to include vocabulary related to films and adjectives to describe movies. Once we analysed all the content we chose to introduce the topic using a PREZI presentation, showing some details of a new movie 'MALEFICENT'.  

Click to see PREZI of Maleficent.     

Then, if you are introducing a new topic, you need to make your presentation appealing to students' interests, and you can also include something about you in the presentation. For example, for ECO II presentations, some mates decided to record their own materials or share their likes/dislikes/routines and photos; it creates a positive reaction from students and they can be encouraged to tell you something about them. Also, it is better to work with authentic contexts and authentic materials, encouraging students to think about the target language by focusing on cultural components or think about their own culture. 

You also need to take into account ways of providing support to students, by showing them a video about how to use a resource, presenting guiding questions, monitoring, suggest websites, etc. 

Finally, some considerations that you MUST NOT forget are... 

How the use of technology will help or affect your presentation? You definitely need to consider what each application will allow you to do, and analyse the resources you will use in a deep way. You can choose to use different applications, but they may not correspond with what you need to teach and in the end, your students switch off because they are not appealing enough. 

Consider the time each activity takes and the time of your presentation, also take into account the level of the students to design your presentation. Or if your students are the presenters, the presentations should not last more than 10 minutes considering the amount of people. 

And as I said before, KEEP YOUR AUDIENCE INTERESTED! 

That is the most important aim! 

Thank you very much and comments are welcome. 

Bye!