Final Reflection

Even though this is the end of the course, this is not the end of our learning. What I liked the most about the subject was the fact that it was very practical, since the teacher made us apply and experiencethe ideas she provided us with. Also, another interesting fact was that we weren't asked to present our assignments in hard copies, but online. 

I believe that what distinguishes this subject from others is the fatc that whenever we have a doubt or want to learn more about a specific topic, we can contact the expert online and talk (or chat) with him/her, as we did with Graham Stanley and Ozge Karaoglu.

This subject made me convince myself that the key to a successful educational system is pedagogy + content + technology + appropriate context + (most importantly) commitment, which is the reason why I think this course shouldn’t be optional but compulsory in every teacher training college.


Below you can see how I used one of the webtools we learnt to illustrate the most important concepts of the course. Hope you like it!

Our Personal Learning Network

Building our own PNL (Personal Learning Network) is essential for teachers. PLNs are networks or connections that you can have in order to connect with other people or experts of the field you are interested in, share ideas and learn from them and help others. You can get in touch with different people by creating your own Personal Learning Environment, which consists of different webtools that the owner of the PLE makes use of. PLN are highly important since the learning comes from connecting with other people, in this case, online. Thanks to our PLE you can get in touch with other schools abroad and start school link projects that can enrich our students’ (and our own, why not?) learning.

Thanks to this subject, I’ve created my own PLN, which consists of several webtools for different purposes and I have also learnt how to curate the many websites I come across. This will work as a springboard to later enable me to develop professionally by getting in touch with content-area specialists and learn about new technology and how to integrate it into my teaching: my students, grateful!

Social bookmarking: organize your online library!

Do you save the links to the webpages you like in “Favourites”? But what happens when you use your friend’s computer and you want to access your links in your Favourite folder? That’s right: you can’t! The solution to this is the use of certain webpages that work on the concept of “Content curation”. Content curation (aka Social Bookmarking) is the process of collecting, organizing and displaying information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest. The special characteristic about these websites is that you can save the webpages that you like but not in your computer, but online! You have to create an account on these special websites, such as Diigo or Delicious, where you save your favourite websites. You can access your “online library” whenever you want, no matter whose computer you are using. You can also organize your websites and add tags to them, and even highlight whatever you consider important, and save the website with your highlightings!

These are different bookmarking websites. I already have an account on “Diigo”, and I have just created another one on “Scoop it”: you’re more than welcome to have a look at them! This is the link: My Scoop it. Its content has nothing to do with teaching :P sorry!

• Diigo
• Delicious
• “Scoop it”: you can see part of the websites that you have in your folders, because of its special layout. Here you also get the content. People who follow you can also write comments on your links.
• “Pinterest”: the focus is on the images.
• “Livebinder”: You create a binder about a certain topic and students can go and click on the links.
• “Pearl trees”: a graphic organizer and the branches are the sites.
• “Mentormob.com”: You can create a playlist here, where you can put all your separate accounts you have in Diigo or Scoop it, for example.

Listening and Speaking skills

When it comes to practising listening and speaking skills, there are several webtools that can be used. I’ve decided to try Vocaroo out. In it I recorded an idea to use to practise modal verbs. Check it out!

Record audio or upload mp3 >> 

  

In the following list you will find several webtools that you can used in your classes to help your students  practise listening and speaking skills. If you click on the name of the webtool, you will go to the webpage: choose one and try it out!

-          “Audioboo”: you can record only one audio, otherwise you will have different links.

-          “Vocaroo”: same as Audioboo. 

-          “Voki”: a talking avatar.

-          “Fotobabble”: free webtool, it's a talking photo: you upload a photo (or a drawing) and you record yourself talking about that image.

-          “Blabberize”: another talking photo

-          “Present.me”: you upload your power point presentation and you record the explanation of that presentation. Try to use simple layouts and no animations for the presentation.

-          “Petcha Kutcha”: you select 20 images and you have 20 seconds to talk about each image. People usually use this webtool to present anecdotes or things they like or hate, they tend to be funny, not formal, for example: how to be a nasty teacher. You can find examples of this on Youtube.

-          “Brainshark.com”: you upload your power point presentation and it turns it into a video. You can also record your voice.

-          “Voice thread.com”: you can record a message, upload an image and make comments.

-          “Voxopop”: you create a folder and students record themselves. You can create a collaboratively story, because you can have several audios together.

-          “Go animate”: to create a comic strip, where you can also record your voice.

-          “Sound cloud” or “Podomatic”: a space to store voice recordings. You cannot comment. Students can record their queries, or questions, and other students can record their answers.

-          “Woices”: for guided tours, to give directions. 

Have fun!! 

Gaming in class

Gaming in class: a must or a waste of time? Definitely a must! Students spend thier free time playing video games at home, so why not consider video games an educational tool? There are lots of advantages to using video games to teach/learn not only Language but also life skills. The list below are the advantages of gaming and how playing video games can help people succeed in school, work and life (taken from the article "The seven games of higly effective people" by Marc Prensky - 2004).


Be proactive: This is the habit of doing, rather than waiting. Any game player soon learns how important this is – you don’t beat a game by waiting around for things to happen to you. You have to be there making decisions, testing strategies, defending, attacking and pulling information from the players and characters you meet.
Begin with the end in mind: This is the habit of having a clear goal from the start. This habit gets quickly absorbed by game players, since it’s pretty much impossible to succeed at any game without it. In fact, the essence of game playing is creating strategies to reach goals, and then executing them successfully.
Put first things first. This is the habit of not neglecting the “important” for the “urgent.” All game players quickly learn that while you are doing the immediate tasks such as arranging pieces, fighting and building, it is always necessary to be thinking about and doing tasks that support longer-term objectives.
Think Win-Win: Although the popular press often stereotypes game players as “solo killers out only for themselves,” the reality of today‘s multiplayer gamers is quite the opposite. You can’t complete a mission in Battlefield Vietnam without a group of others whose complementary skills support the team. These teams require and foster mutual support among players.
Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood: Communication between players is at the heart of today’s game playing, whether through chat or voice. Successful players make sure to understand the needs and motivations of their fellow players (as well as those of potential opponents) before committing themselves to any particular team or course of action. Players who don’t listen first and do only what they want are highly unsuccessful at multiplayer games (and, of course, at life).
Synergize: To synergize is to find new combinations or strategies that make the union stronger than the sum of its parts. Game players continually experiment, create and come together in ways that the game designers did not anticipate.

There are lots of different kinds of games that can be used with different purposes. You can learn more about language learners and video games by watching this presentation by Graham Stanley and Kyle Mawer, or by visiting their blog Digital Play.

Wiaoc2007 Games May 2007 from Graham Stanley

The game I decided to try is called Dark Visions. The players must solve the mystery of a murder in a mansion. It's super engaging because there is not one only way to solve it, you can freely move around the mansion searching for clues. In class you can pause the game while playing, you can have students tell what they are doing, describe the different scenes, work with unknown vocabulary (there are lots), work with the game's walkthrough, etc: the possibilities are endless!

Twister!

Twister is a webtool available in the website ClassTools.net 
Twister is a fake "Twitter" which allows you to create fake tweets. After reading a story or novel, students can write tweets as if they were in the main character's shoes. They would have to ask themselves:

What would the character's comment be about it?
What particular keywords would he or she use within their comment?
What hashtag could he or she maybe use at the end of the message?
What nickname would he or she have / could we invent to use as his or her username?

This is a twister I created about Nik Peachey.

And this second tweet about Rubén Puentedura. 

In ClassTools.net you can also find several other templates, for example, for Facebook.  

My own Diigo library!

Diigo is a social bookmarking tool, which allows you to organize the websites you like under tags and lists until you build your personal library. Diigo also allows you to highlight whatever you consider important from a website, add sticky notes to it, and save the website with all these changes! What's more, you can share your library with your colleagues, friends, etc.
Here's my personal library, hope you find it useful!
Laura's Diigo Library