lunes, 18 de enero de 2016

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. 



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.