Wednesday, 6 June 2018

The Neverending Story

Hello for the last time this year!
The end of the school year is approching so it is time to look back what I have done during this course on ICTs.
For that reason I have created a video in which is shown all the progress and material I have made. I did not know what to do to show the whole course in one artifact but while watching a YouTube video it hit me. In the video the author apperas in one small window at the rigth bottom corner and meanwhile he speaks we can see a screening video of his computer. 
I decided to do the same so do some research looking for a software that allow to do it. Eventually I found it. This software is called Bandicam. It has a free version in which yo can record a video that last maxium 10 minutes. After downloadin the free version one just have to click on screenrecording and to activate the option to have a small window where appears the webcam video recording. Fianlly you just have to click on the record button and star filming. 
Afterwards I edited the video and uploaded it to YouTube  and heres is the final result:




Block 1 - First things first.

Creating a blog. Create my blog with Blogger and my google account.
Create your own avatar. To create my avatar I used Voki. It is important to have a digital profile and having an avatar helps to build that.

Block 2 - Respect for authorship.

Image attribution for a CLIL lesson I have never used Creative Commons licences before, but I will always take it into account now. I was not used to respecting copyrights when using images and resources found on the Internet but it is how things should be done to respect authors.
The attribution of the image for a CLIL class. I carried out the activity directed to the learning of ecosystems through images found on Pixabay


Block 3 - Content Curation and disemmination

Content Curation. I’ve made a compilation of educational resources related to the human body that I think that are very interesting thanks to Pinterest. Afterwards and combinign two content curation tools I created a collection of resources with Pearltrees.
Twitter. Through this social network all my classmates and me created a Tiny Story (#tinystory_URJC), it was a very fun activity and inspiring. The same thing could be applied with primary education students.


Block 4 - Think, design and present.

Educational Slideshows. In this activity I used an incredible tool as it is Genial.ly. With this tool everyone can create their one presentations because it is as easy as PowerPoint, but much more attractive the the latter. With this tool I created an interactive image about our Solar System starting from a simple image.

Block 5 - Visualize and share.

Comics. The activity consisted in creating a comic in which feelings will be shown. To complete this task I used StoryboardThat. I was suprised and amused by the amount of different characters offered. I have enjoyed the process of editing the scenes in order to adapt the characters to what aI wanted to transmit: changing characters postures and gestures and adding details to each scene.
Mindmaps. Some time ago I had made mind maps with Microsoft Word but never before had done  it the applications I have discoverd during the course For this activity I first used Creately, This software allow to create several sorts of diagrams, mind maps and so on. I created what I thought  it was a good mind map to present a project to students. But actually it was not. Since I had to start over, I decided to start from scracth a change the software. In this second attempt I used a collaborative online mind mapping software called MindMeister.
Infographics. To create such material I used Piktochart. I knew this software and I had used before so I had no problems to create the final material. I have seen children using it so it has to be said that is one of the easiest and more attraive applications to create infographics for educational purposes from my point of view.

Block 6 - Podcast it!
Podcasting. For this activity, I had to first build up my project in Google Docs, then I recorded my podcast whith my cell phone and exported it to my computer where I upoloaded to my Soundcloud profile. Then I created a playlist with my podcast a some podcast I found in Soundcloud that fit the purposes of the projects. 

Block 7 - Flip it!

Group Work
Storyboard a video project. The task was to create a flipped classroom for our students. It was time consuming but so rewarding when I could see the final outcome. We did this project in small groups. My group was named Teacher Tubers, it was formed by Ramón, Beatriz, Alba and Jaime and every one of us had one job in this team. Mine was to be the Commnity Manager of the Group. Throughout this activity we use Pixton (storyboad), Google Docs, (script) and Twitter (share photos).
Record your video clip. The activity was done in INTEF where we had a chroma to record our video which was later was edited by Beatriz and uploaded to our Youtube channel.

Individual Work
#twima8. It stands for The World Is My Audience, an it is its 8th edition.It is a Flipgrid in which you can share your own or story with other teachers around the world and exchange with them your experiences. I shared my story of how I became an Englis teacher. The activity was great because I could see the experiences of classmates and know them a little more.
Webinar. It was an online seminar in which Mª Jesús explained different aspects and courses related to the digital competence for teachers that INTEF for free and with several possibilities depending of one's life circumstances.

Block 8 - Farewell
Artifact. Is the post you are reading right now. That is, a summary of all those activities that we have carried out, the materials we have creates and the tools we have learned to use.
Goodbye Forum. It is the last activity, in it we had to choose three tools that have made us improve our digital competence and create our own meme about the subject.

I believe the way children learn have changed over the years and it will keep changing in the future so that is why teacher should adapt themselves to this constantly changing society  so they do not become obsolete. For that reason I would like to thank Mª Jesús for her  huge effort to make teachers be trained and digitally competent since the tools she taught  us during the time this course lasted made us be a bit closer to be proper XXI Century teachers. I will keep on learning and adding more things to my trainig on ICTs because I believe the future is here and we have to be prepared.

It has been a pleasure!
See you!

Teacher Peter

Flipping the class! Part 1: Our Storyboard.

Hello my brave bilinguals!
Here we are again with a project that it was so fun to carry out. In this case, we are going create a flipped classroom for our students. It was time consuming but so rewarding when I could see the final outcome. First things first, we could not do this project alone so we got in small groups. My group was named Teacher Tubers and every one of us had one job in this team:

Pedro Luis Álvaro - Community manager.
Ramón Estruch - Assistant Producer.
Alba Pérez - Drafter.
Beatriz Pedrazuela - Editor.
Jaime Rayo - Recorder.

After having decided everyone's role in our team, we have to decide the topic of our flipped lesson. After some brainstorming we all decide to choose Children's rights as our central topic. From there we started to create a storyboard about how we will record the video that we will show to our students.
Aims and purpose of the project:

  • To introduce the topic of the Human Rigths.
  • To be able to recognize the importance of rigths and duties.
  • To know the process leading to the creation of Human and Children's Rights.
Here you have our storyboard:



During the process of creating this storyboard and as the community manager of  Teacher Tubers I shared our progress via Twitter. Here you got some of those tweets:



Stay tuned for more news!
Teacher Peter. 

Webinar: Online Learning and Digital Competence for Educational purposes.

Hello again! It is my Teacher Peter!
in this post I would to talk you about a webinar I attended on May the 24th. A webinar is a seminar that take place on the Internet. The one I attended to was given by Maria Jesús García San Martín our ICT teacher at the university. The topic discussed was "Aprendizaje en línea y competencia digital educativa".
To have access to this webinar you have first to enroll in it previously. After one is enrolled an email is received where instructions to attend to the online conference are given. It is neccesary to download a programme and add a extension in Google Chrome which is really easy to do.


The conference took about an hour where María Jesús talked about the following aspects:

First, she explained what INTEF is. INTEF is a website with a great variety of digital courses for teachers in order to improve their digital competence. There different sorts of course depending on the needs, time and difficulty. Some of them are short for those people who do not have enough time. Others are very complete. And there are a lot of different topics that you can work. All these couses are online and, the most important thing, free.

The different types that María Jesús mentioned were:

Edupills: it is an app to improve your digital competence with short tasks of 3-7 minutes. This is "micro-learning" from basi to intermediate levels.
NOOCINTEF: they are "nano-experiences" that take more time than a edupill but not more than 3 hours. This activities are only opened during 10 days. One digital competence is developed completely though interaction and cooperation.
MOOCINTEF: here you need to spend more time than NOOCINTEF. These tasks take among 3 or 5 weeks. They are also colaborative and they are aime for more autonomous learners.
SPOOCINTEF: here the learner is free learn when he has time. They are opened and you can complete the different tasks step by step without preassure.
This courses are not going to certificate training hours but you are going to get an digital badge of your digital knowledge that would be stored in yout Badge's backpack
After this it was explained what is called Common Digital Competence Framework For Teachers
Here you can do assess your level on digital competence and depending on the result it will be given to you an training itinerary to follow .
The name of the levels are the same of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, from A1 (lowest level) to C2 (higher level).
Finally, María Jesús explained a project that has been developing with her team for a lot of time. The  Digital Competence Portfolio for Teahcers. In this site you will find this structure:
Biography: with a brief description of your personal and your professional data.
Self-assessment: here your digital competence will be assessed and it will be given to you your level according to the Common Digital Competence Framework For Teachers
Dossier: to organize and label the pieces of evidence of your digital competence: a blog, courses...
Passport: it shows the level of digital competence you have achieved.

I found this webinar both useful and interesting, some of my classmates had the possibility to go to Aula and had the possibility there to learn some of these things before this conference. As I could not go since I was working, I needed some information about all these courses and services that INTEF  offers to teachers and this webinar gave me all the information I needed. The courses made me think about my digital competence and now I know their existence I cannot be more grateful to all the people who create them because now I know I can develop my digital skills and competence for free and taking the kind of courses I like according to my needs and circumstances. This will help me in my future professional and personal life with any doubts.

In my opinion to be a XXI Century teacher you must be compentent in Information and Communication Technologies. The future is today, the world has changed so much in the las 20 years and it will continue changing at the same pace or even faster. Thats why teacher should be trained enoogh in this technologies an thats why this courses are so valuable. They are adapted for every teacher's circumstances so each one of us can keep on training and adapting to this changing world. Kids nowadays do no learn as 90's kids and they won't learn as kids in 10 years time, it should be compulsary to have the skills and abilities to teach them and engage them in their learning process, unless we do so, education will fail and it woul be teachers fault, our fault.

Teacher Peter.


#TWIMA8

Hello everyone!

Today I want to share with you a great, fantastic and wonderful experience I had with this educational tool.
Its name is "#TWIMA8" and means The World Is My Audience, the 8th Edition. It is worlwide project which uses Flipgrid where you can share your own or story with other teachers around the world and exchange with them your experiences.
The purpose written by the creator of this grid is the following:
"For the last 6 years I have been working with students to create and share digital stories with the world. Our students have a global following from an early age except in one place...school. Writing and publishing those books with students has changed their audience from a single teacher to the whole world. It has made all the difference. Instead of writing a book, this grid will focus on oral stories. I hope you join me in this adventure! #twima"

Here you can find a tweet of mine about this amazing project!

Tuesday, 5 June 2018

Flipping the class! Part 2: It is time to film it!


Hello!
It is time to get back on track with or flipped-classroom porject! We, Teacher Tubers, had done our storyboard and completed our script as it is shown in the previous post. Thata was the moment to star filming our clip. The most fun part. For this, we needed a chroma. A chroma is a green or blue background that is used in the audiovisual to replace the background with the image that we want. To do this, we were to the Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y Formación del Profesorado, INTEF, where the Future Classroom Lab is and there is chroma in the classroom. 

There our recorder Jaime  used a gimbal to stabilize the video and a condenser microphone to improve the sound quality. Beatriz was in charge of editing the video afterwards and helping  Jaime  to record everything while me with our partners Alba and Ramón  acted in fron of the camera. Actually Alba could not attend to the Future Classroom Lab so she did her part filming himself and call us via skype so she can give some advise and help us during de creatinon cof the clip.
It was a great experience for all of us!
During all this long afternoon I tweeted some pictures of the process of filming:






Here you have the final result.


This video has been recorded for students of 5th grade of Primary Education. We are work with it in the subject "Values". Our students should find out about the rest of Children's rights after watching the video.
We chose the rights of the people because we think it is a complex issue but all students should know, through this video we seek to achieve the following objectives:

Objectives
  • To know Children's rights. 
  • To know we all have the same basic rights, but not everyone enjoys them equally. 
  • To respect opinions and evaluations of the rest of the classmates.
  • To work cooperatively. 
  • To use ICTs.
Flip teaching offers students more freedom to do some research and therefore to learn how to do that research a filter the vast information we all have at the reach of our fingers nowadays. Besides, it gives the central role to the students the most important elements of their learning process. Videos are very visual for our students and they feel more motivated. Furthermore, they are learning in an inductive way, what helps them learning.

Personally, this task was the mos fun of all up to this moment. Gruop work is always an enriching activity since it makes you see things with differents scoopes and therefore it it widens your horizons  by learning from equals. Sometimes, teamwork migth be difficult but I think that my peers and me have worked perfectly and solved all the problems that we found . It has been a pleasure work with them. Furthermore, as I visual learner, i think these would really help students to learn about the topic we chose. I had never done a project like this before but I mus say it has been a great opportunity (though it was challenging) to improve and develop my teaching skills, I think that I am going to apply the flipped classroom on some of my lessons. 

Teacher Peter.

Podcasting stories!

Hello everybody! wlecome to a new entry of our blog!

In this entry I am going to explain you how to easily create a podcat to later on use it in your class.
First things first...What is a podcast?

According to Wikipedia:

A podcast, or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download and listen to. It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player.

How to create a Podcast on SoundCloud?

If you haven’t created a SoundCloud profile, create one. 
Remember to use an active email address. When asked to enter the name you want to display on your profile, use your podcast title, then check your inbox for a confirmation email before proceeding.
Afterwards you will be able to upload your creation, share it with the community and take from it hundreds of songs and podcast avaible on the platform.
You can arrange all these resources in playlist so, so you can have them sorted by theme, topic, style, etc.
We can use podcasts in audio projects such a school radio. Podcasts are highly recommended resources beacuase we can use them in any kind of subject. With these kinds of activities, students can work individually, in pairs or groups. 
This resource will help them to develop their autonomy and responsibility since doing podcasts involves the use of different materials and ICT resources. Students will learn to handle different digital resources and tools by researching and selecting information,  making drafts, writing script, recording audios, licensing, e
Recording Your Podcast.
To record a podcast, you’ll need a microphone plugged into your PC and an audio recording software such as Audacity or as I did just recorded with a mobile phone and then export the audio to my computer. Click here to find out more. 


 I have embedded my Project so you can see it.


Here you got my Profile.


Below you will find my Podcast.


And down here you have the Playlist in which the podcasts will appear.

Creative Commons License

In my Opinion, there are several prons and cons related to podcasting, but it is necessary to highlight some of the latter to enhance teaching practises.
Podcasting can be used by teachers to provide or receive information from students. However, a disadvantage could be that it is really time consuming. For instance to create this artifact it takes me more less 4 hours, including the brainstorming the script wrting process and finally the recording part. All the time I consumed to create a podcast that last just 1 minute makes me think if this is worthy enough to use in the classroom. 
Furthermore this kind of activities involve technologies that not everty student would have, specially when teaching very young students.
All in all, I believe this could be used with older students but it becomes way more difficult to use it with first or second graders, but that is only my humble opinion.

See you soon!

Teacher Peter.

Infograhpicing

Hello ICT friends!
Welcome back to my blog! In this post I am going to show youhow to create an infographic to use it later on with your students. To create such material I used Piktochart.
The first thing you have to do to create your infographic is to sign up in this software. As many webpages and softwares if you want the full version you must oay for it, but for the matter that concerns us, I don really believe it is necessary. 
Then, at the dashboard you must click on create new infographic and you will the chance of choosing a templete or starting form scratch. I decide to do the latter since any template fit my purpose.
There are plenty or resources using the free version as images, gifs, shapes, backsgrounds as well as a search bar in which you can look for for resources on the internet to later on embed them into your infographic. Using those resources you have billions of possibilities. 
As I previously known this software it was quite easy to use for my and it did not take much time to create an infographic. I believe this software is useful and it can be applied with children because I have witnessed durin my internship. On the contrary, I must say that at the beggining, you may find lost because Piktochart it is no as intiutive as other softwares I have used before but the results one get from it are worth, it is just a question of getting used to it.

Here you have my infographic about the water cycle:

Creative Commons License

I used a video embed in my infographic. Here you got the link:
The Water Cycle | The Dr. Binocs Show | Learn Videos For Kids

I personally enjoyed this challenge because I like this tool. The thing I like the most was the process of creating the infographic itself. Sometimes doing what we are told to do could be desperating but not this time, while creating the infographic and searching for the appropiate images, fonts on Piktochart I had a great time. I believe this is because of the quality and the queantity of resources one can choose using this platform. As i was doing it, I could not wait for the next step so I could see the variety of items I would have the chance to use. On the other hand I did not like, as I said before, that sometimes while creating the infographic I got stuck a certain points because i was not used to the software I was using, but I guess that happens to almost everybody at the beggining.

Personally speaking I think I have learned to create a good infographic, still there some things that could be improved, but on the whole I believe I would be able to creatte my own materials to be displayed in class or on digital support such as Pinterest or Pearltrees. Now I know what should be included in an infographic: title, body (including visual information), a bit of explanatory text along  the visuals, etc. The question that arises know is: Does every topic fits with an infographic? I do not think so, in my opinion this tool should be used when appropiated not for every topic you may find across the curriculum.

Teacher Peter.

Mind mapping!

Welcome back to my blog! 
Today I want to show the work I made creating a mind map for educational purposes. To create this mind map, the first thing I did was to think of a main topic for a project. Around this central topic different content areas will be developed. The main topic I chose is learning strategies. I chose it because it is something students are really familiar with and they are a useful tool to make their learnig more effective and efficient Then I thought in the different parts of the project suhc as the contet it should be included, the competences that would be developed, how is was going to be the assesment and so on.

The software I used in my first attempt to create a mind map was Creately. This software allow to create several sorts of diagrams, mind maps and so on. at the very beginning I was kind of weird to use it and some moments it became desperating but finally I get used to it and created what a I thought  it was a good mind map to present a project to students. But actually it was not. Since I had to start over, I decided to start from scracth a change the software I would use.

In this second attempt I used a collaborative online mind mapping software called MindMeister. It is so easy to use, I would say is easier than Creately. Students of all ages can use it to study more efficiently. The only thing that you need is a google account and internet connection. It is so intiutive, you have a tool bar on the right side of the screen where you can add a vast amount of resources to your mind map, such as videos from different webpages, images, emojis, etc. All these thing will help you to make your mind map way more attractive. As well there tools te customize bubbles and different parts of the mind map.

I wish I had known all these apps during my degree. I remember one taks in which I had to create several mind maps and since I did not knoew these apps I had to do it with Microsoft Word...IT TOOK ME AGES to finish that task and it was tedious and I swore I will never create I digital mind map. Then here I am, I changed my mind, I personally enjoyed this challenge, in fact at the very beggining I was not very enthusiastic in it but after going through the task I realized that I only had a bad experience with mind maps and they are useful and easy to create if you have the appropiate tools.

Here you have the final result:

Creative Commons License
 Teacher Peter.

Monday, 4 June 2018

Emotions' Exam

Hello once again!
Now I bring you an useful educational resource: Comics.
They are attractive for a very wide age range children, from toddlers to teenagers. I want to show you how to create your own stories through comics with an online tool. It's called Storyboard That.

Firstly , you must create a storyboard, where you choose the number of cells is going to have your comic. Then, add the backgrounds and characters the software includes of each cell. This software offers the possibility to add your characters or backgrounds for your cells, but if you just don't want to waste too much time the software has lots in its resources bank

I was suprised and amused by the amount of different characters offered. I have enjoyed the process of editing the scenes in order to adapt the characters to what aI wanted to transmit: changing characters postures and gestures and adding details to each scene.

Afterwards you just have to add the text to each cell usin text tables or speech and thought bubbles.

Finally, with Storyboard That. you can export your creation in different formats (PDF, png, zip or pptx). You can print or embed it to your webpage as I am doing now, but for this you will need to make your comic public. It also offers managing your students and assignments, so it's a great tool to work in class. If you are worried about students' privacy, by default all storyboards are created under a private educational account.

Here you have our comic called Emotions' Exam

The Solar System in just one image.

Hello again!
This post is one i have enjoyed most up until this moment. This is because I learnt how to use  a tool that, in my humble opinion, is one of the most useful ones I know. I am talking about Genially. With this tool everyone can create their one presentations because it is as easy as PowerPoint, but much more attractive the the latter. With this tool I created an interactive image about our Solar System starting from this image:


Image by Comfreak Creative Commons License

Here is the presentation.
To see the information about the Sun and the planets the only thing you have to do is placing the mouse cursor over them and click on them . Enjoy it! ;)
Feel Free to use it if you want!

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


I decided to use this support element because I believe it is interactive so I can make the students participate during my presentation. It is also neat and attractive. By using a simple image of the planets you can make a journey through all the Solar System explaining some features and curiosities about all the celestial bodies. It is also easy to use when it comes to present it, and It would much more easier if you are provided with an interactive whiteboard.

The song I added using SoundCloud is the following:


As I could not attend to class to present it I have recorded myself doing so.
Here you got it!


During this process I learnt how to embed and add different things in a presentation and how to create an interactive image itself, which in my opinion could be less time-consuming than a proper presentation made with PowerPoint or Prezi but equally or more effective than thes two. I decided to use Genially not only because it was recommended but also because I would like to learn to use a different way to create presetations. What I liked about this software is that you can add almost whatever you can imagine from different webpages, besides your own material of course. There is a huge variety of resources such as GIFs, videos, music, sounds, icons...
The main problem I had was I spent lot of time looking for the tool to change the size of the image so it could fit on a screen to present it later on and when adding music to my image, with SoundCloud, I could not arranged to make it start at a certain point of the song and to play automatically when the presentation starts. I think that if Genially add these features it would be great.

Teacher Peter.

Pinterest: The world's resources bank!

Hello everyone!
I woul like to share with you some banks of resources we can find on the Internet when we search for our projects.
There are lots of websites which offer you many resources, and tools to curate content. These tools are made to facilite the research of many resources already used.
Some of these tools are:
I have chosen Pinterest as a curation tool. I had used it before to look for information and ideas to develop a project. I believe it is a worldwide known social network, and because of it, millions of people post their ideas there so lots of resources can be found really quick. It is also very intiutive and easy to use; the first time a face Pinterest took me no more than thirty minutes to know how to use it.
Here I want to show you my Pinterest profile in which you can find different boards and pins related to education. 

I recommend having a look to the board called The human body. There you may find interesting resources to use and apply when teaching contents related to senses and the systems that made up the whole human body.
I have also created a collection with Pearltrees, in which I have included my board The human body amongst several resources that could be useful when building up a didactic unit on the different organs, systems, senses, etc.
In my opinion the perfect curation tool will be a mixture of these two:Pinterest and Pearltrees.
I thought it was a good idea combining both of them. These two curation tools have different advantages. The former is a worldwide socila network so the quantity of resources one can find is huge, on the other hand it was impossible to embed the board and, personally speaking, it isn't as clear as the latter. With Pearltrees yo can have tons of items in one single collection so you can access to each one of them easily. This software is really simple, you just have to sign up and create a collection, then add as much resources as you want from differen sources: webpages, your own materials (images, files, notes) from your Google Drive, Dropbox and your social networks. Then you can share your collection so easily too to you your Facebook or  Twitter profile or embed it in a post with HTML as I did.


The human body. CLIL, by pedroalvaros93
I hope you enjoy my profile just as mush as I like all those resources I collected!
See you around! 

Teacher Peter.

Image attribution for a CLIL lesson

Hello everyone! For this topic I have chosen the following images related with the different kinds of ecosystems you may find in nature.

I have chosen these images because they clearly show the characteristics of the different ecosystems so they can be used as a visual support to reinforce the contents learned during the lessons, and they can also be used to spot these characteristics on real images which could be way more meaningful and interesting than doing the same activities with diagrams or made up pictures.






  
A suggested activity could be to stick some flashcards or write the name of different parts or characteristics on the images projected on the white board.
They can also be used as a starting point of the lesson or the unit to do an initial assessment on student's previous knowledge.
A follow-up activity could be to make students look for similar pictures and create a display which later on can be presented by students, or to study these content. These displays would be hanged on the bulletin board of the class and by taking pictures of them we can create a digital board using Pinterest.
The starting point of this task is Pixabay. There, one can find tons of free images. As I decide to look for ecosystems I just typed the word ecosystems and chose the images I liked the most. Then I save the links to these images and to their authors webpages in wordpad. Aftewards I created this entry of the blog and insert the images into it, placing the links to the sources an authors of each image just below each one of them. Finally I created the Creative Commons licence (CC0 public domain) for the images and placed at the footage of every image using HTML.
At first I thought this tasks was going to be really simple, just search on google for images I like with the educational purpose I wanted, but then I read all these things about licences, citting and attributing. Even thought I could be a time-consuming activity and sometimes tedious, it is how things should be done. I personally hated writing HTML, I felt confused every time I faced an HTML page but thanks to this task I got used to it, I am not and HTML master but I can use it proficient enough to create blog's entries.

Stay tuned for more updates!
See you soon!

Teacher Peter.