Final reflection

In this final reflection I am going to explain what did I expected from this subject, what have I learnt and the impressions I have had during the subject. 

At the beginning of the subject, I didn´t know very well what to expect from it. I just imagined that  we were going to be taught into different technological resources to apply in our future classes as english teachers. In that aspect the subject has covered my expectations. We´ve learnt plenty of resources and now are able to create different materials for our future classes. However, I´ve had the feeling that we have been introduce to lots of resources, but in most of them we had´nt have time to learn them in depth. I think this subject has given us a huge list of resources for our future labour, but it is our task to go on learning on them by our own. 

During all this semester I´ve realized the importance for teachers of developing a good level of digital competence. New technologies are transforming our lives significantly, and we have to be capable of introducing them in our teaching practices. Our students are going to live in a society where new technologies are going to determine their lives. In that way, it is our labour to teach them how to use them, their infinite possibilities that they are going to have, but also the limitations and the good use of them. 

I have to recognize that I am not a person really interested in new technologies. But after this subject I´ve realized that I have to change my mind and try to learn and expand my knowledge in this area, because it is going to be essential for my future. 

About the time that this subject has required me, I have to say that I thought it was going to be less. There have been lot´s of small tasks and things to complete, and for me it has been a little crazy sometimes, that I didn´t know exactly what did I have to do, with which group, the death lines...  The timetables and classes have been a little confusing sometimes. However in the end, I have been capable of completing all the tasks correctly and I am happy with the results and with all the things that I´ve learnt. 

 Another drawback (not of the subject itself, but of my personal learning) is that I haven´t done my internship period this year, so I haven´t applied directly to the classroom all the resources that I have been learning (as my peers have been able to do). That means that my learning has not been as significant as it could have been. However, I will apply all that new knowledge next year when I do my internship. 

I want also to point out that I have really appreciated the effort the teachers of this subject have made for the telecolaboration project. It has been really difficult and we´ve had lots of problems to do it, but I think the idea of the project was very interesting. Contacting with other students and sharing knowledge is something very positive that if I have the chance, I will try to do with my students in the future. From this experience we also learn that new technologies have a lot of limitations too, and that we must be prepared and have always alternatives in case they don´t work. 

To sum up, this subject has allowed me to improve a lot my ICT skills at the same time I practiced my english. I am satisfied with it and my general evaluation is positive, with the only exceptions of the facts I´ve mentioned here. The knowledge I´ve aquired it is going to be very useful for me, and I consider it really important for my teacher training. 

Evaluation Rubric

For the assesment of the task we´ve created, we will take into account different aspects:

•  Participation: Level of collaboration and interest shown in the activity
• Language: Appropiate use of the Second Language 
• Content: quality and quantity of information 

Each of the points will be evaluated using a numeric scale with 1 (poor), 2 (satisfactory), 3 (good) and 4 (excellent). You can see the rubric here: 

We have assessed  our students in the following excell document: 

Task and activities (Group Work)

In this post I am going to explain the Task (a group of activities) that our group have created, using different ICT resources learnt in this subject. The topic that we have choose for the activities is prehistory. 

Contextualization 

We have created a task with four activities, designed for a group of 20 students between 8 and 9 years old. They have more or less the same english level (with small individual differences). In order to attend this differences, there are different kind of activities according to the type of grouping: some individuals (podcast) some pair activities (Mind Map) and some Collaborative (Quizlet). 

Objectives 

• Use all the new vocabulary related to the topic properly
• Recognize the different characteristics of the three main periods (Paleolithic Age, Neolithic Age and Metal Age)
• Use language creatively while they are doing their activities
• Develop the 4 skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking)
• Acquire basic knowledge about Prehistory
• Use new technological tools
• Organize their main ideas

ACTIVITY 1: Learning about prehistory 

In this activity we will use Quizlet, where students will be able o learn the new vocabulary related to prehistory. 

Prehistory exercises 

ACTIVITY 2: Prehistoric World (IWB)

Students will revise the new vocabulary doing a matching activity and a crossword. This will be done by the whole class together. 

ACTIVITY 3: Mindmap (Mindomo)

In this activity, students will read the information presented to them on a Prezi, and then they will have to create in pairs a Mind Map using Mindomo. 

ACTIVITY 4: Recording our voices

     In this last activity students will have to record their voices with audacity summarizing all the information in the mindmap, upload them to podomatic and comment their classmate´s podcasts. 

Week 9: Edmodo, WebPage design, Kahoot

(11/01/2016)

This has been the last week of the subject. In the theory class, our peers finished their oral presentation about the scoring rubrics.

Then, we continued learning different ICT resources. This time we´ve learnt about the platform Edmodo, which is a free virtual platform that allows us different possibilities to interact with our students. We learnt how to create a survey (which from my point of view was a little repetitive, as we´ve done this with different resources). We had a quick look on how this platform works, and how to use properly.

After that, the teacher showed us how to create a website with Webnode. This platform is an online website builder sistem. It allows us to create (completely free) websites, offering designing tools that end in very professional creations. It is also very easy to use and customize, and in a few time you can create a really interesting website. We made a few tryals on how it worked, but I did´nt have many time to complete a full website.

Finally, we learnt how to use Kahoot. This is a website where we can create fun learning games called Kahoots in a short time, made from a series of multiple choice questions. There is also the possibility of adding videos, images and diagrams to the questions to amplify engagement of students. Kahoots can be played in a group setting, so they are perfect for using them in the classroom. Players anwser on their own devices (tablets, mobiles or laptops). 

We tried it in class and we all ended laughing, it was so funny! This kind of games are really useful for introducing them in the classrooms, as they increase motivation in students. It is important to make them understand that learning can be a funny and motivating process, even it requires a little bit of effort. Resources like Kahoot help us a lot to make students get involved in their learning process with positive attitudes.

Week 8: Podcast as a didactic Tool

(21/12/15)

This last week we have learnt how to create podcast recording our voices in Audacity, and how to upload them to Podomatic.

Audacity is a free audio editor, that allows us to record audio files with a microcphone. With this program we can edit eassily what we´ve recorded, and add some effects to the audio. However, we just recorded one small extract to learn how it works, and we didn´t go deeply in learning all the features that the program has.

Here it is my podcast, in which I present myself, and say why do I think podcasts are useful.

Podcasting can be a very interesting tool for using in the classroom, as children can use it to improve their pronunciation and speaking.

Podcasts can be used in the classroom: 

• To develop reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills
• To acquire information
• To develop technology skills and applications
• To learn interactive ways to communicate knowledge to real audiences
• To develop positive academic self-concept
• To develop sense of audience and purpose when reading, writing, and speaking
• To develop a student ownership of language
• To encourage active participation and learner-centered focus
• To develop multicultural awareness

Some ideas for using podcasts in the classroom could be: 

• READING: Students read aloud a poem or another piece of text (stories, fairy tales, etc) and they record themselves and listen to it afterwards

• LISTENING: They record a piece of text including some questions. They listen to it and answer the  questions.

• SONGS: They record themselves a songwriting the lyrics in the description of the podcast. It could be a fill-in the blank activities.

• RECIPES: One student records one cooking recipe but some stages or ingredients are missing. 

• RECORDING: One student records one part of a text and another student continues recording the second part. Collaborative tasks. 

• ORAL SURVEY: Students record themselves asking some questions, then podcasts are swapped and students answer the recorded questions. They can record the answers as well.

• DESCRIPTION: some images are uploaded to the description of the podcast and they describe them to create a story.

Week 7: Quizlet and Excell

 (14/12/15- 18/12/15)

In the theory class of this week  we have learnt how to use Quizlet. 

Quizlet is a free website that provides learning tools for teachers, including flashcards, study and game modes. It allows us to create our own study sets with terms and definitions we want to teach our studients, so it is really useful to teach vocabulary. In addition, we have free access to millions of study sets that have been already created by other teachers around the world. It is really easy to use, and very motivating for the students.

We can use this website to work vocabulary, creating flashcards. We can use this flashcards in two ways:

1.Traditionally: Printing them and using them in the classroom

 We can print the exercise we have created, and we have different options:

• Table 
• Glossary
• Small
• Large 
• Index cards

2. Online: Using them in the web. We have different options: 

• Flashcard: They can see the images and in the other side the words.
• Learn: The image is presented and students have to type the word.
• Speller: They have to type what they hear, so they work litsening comprenhension of the words.
• Test: this section is to create an exam
• Scatter: This is a game where students have to match the written language and the image. Once they have done it correctly the word and the image will disappear. 
• Gravity: This is a game in which there are some asteroids having the images, that are going to fall into the earth. Before asteroids go down the students have to type the vocabulary to make them desapear. If the asteroid crashes, the game stops and the website teaches them how they have to write the word.

In conclusion, Quizlet is a very useful platform for teachers that can give them lots of ideas on how to work vocabulary with their students. In addition, teachers around the world can upload their lessons so other teacher can use them whenever they want. Is really easy to use, and its completely free.

In this theoretical lesson we have also learnt how to use microsoft excell for assessment purposes. I find excell a very useful tool to evaluate student, as with this program you are able to create tables where you can put all the evaluation criteria. It is possible to insert the mathematical operations you need to evaluate, so it can make the process of assessment much easier and faster. 

It might be quite tricky to use at first, but as long as you understand how it works it is very easy.

In the practice class, we have learnt how to use Survey Monkey, Podomatic and Audacity. 

Survey Monkey is a free tool for making easy Surveys, that can be really helpful in order to get information and have it classified and make stadistics. It provides us free customizable surveys, where we can create online exams for our students including different types of questions. The most useful thing is that we can recieve inmediate feedback, allowing us to evaluate student´s knowledge. 

 Podomatic is a virtual platform where you can upload Podcasts and have them classified. This website allows users to create, share and search podcasts about many different topics. 

I already knew some platforms that offer similar possibilities as survey monkey, and I had basic knowledge about how to use excell. For that reason, the thing that I´ve found the most interesting and that I´ve liked the most between all the things done this week is Quizlet. I think I will use it a lot in the future with my students.

Weeks 5,6: Interactive whiteboard

(7/10/15)(10/12/15)

This is the first week after the intership period. As there has been three days of holiday due to the festivities of December, we have only had one practical class of New Technologies. 

This class we have been talking about interactive Whiteboards. The corresponding group that presented the reading "Interactive whiteboards: boon or bandwagon? Critical review of the literature" informed us about the main advantages and disadvantages of the use of this ICT resource in the classroom.

An interactive whiteboard is an instructional tool that allows computer images to be displayed onto a board using a digital projector. The instructor can then manipulate the elements on the board by using his finger as a mouse, directly on the screen. Items can be transformed into text and saved. 

They are a powerful tool in the classroom adding interactivity and collaboration, allowing the integration of media content into the lecture and supporting collaborative learning. 

Some advantages: 

• Increases motivation in students
• They give flexibility and versatility to the teacher´s practice 
• They model ICT skills on students
• They give students the chance to interact and participate in lessons
• They are multimedia and multisensory presentations, increasing learning.

Some drawbacks: 

• They require a lot of teacher training and support
• There can be technical problems when using them. 

In addition, I´ve learnt some programs to use with interactive whiteboards, such as Notebook and Ebeam. 

 I find interactive whiteboards a really interesting resource that all classrooms should have, because it is very helpful for teachers and motivating for students. However, not every school have them in all the classrooms yet, because of a lack of economical resources. 

I´ve found this classes about interactive whiteboards really useful, because as future teachers we are going to use them in our everyday´s practice. It is important for us to keep on learning the new technological resources that being introduced in the classroom, in order to take profit of them. I really ejoyed learning about interactive whiteboards.