ICT use: My experience as a student

As I have not done my internship period this year, I am going to base this report on my experience as a student, and how ICT has being used in the different centers I´ve studied in. 

ICT (information and communications technology) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, including: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing. Regarding to education, worldwide research has shown that ICT can lead to improved student learning and better teaching methods. It has different advantages: through ICT, images can easily be used in teaching and improving the retentive memory of students; teachers can easily explain complex instructions and ensure student´s comprehension; and teachers are able to create interactive classes and make the lessons more enjoyable, which could improve student attendance and concentration.

In my personal experience, the use os ICT was nearly inexistent in my Primary Education period (2001- 2007). During the firsts years of primary,  I remember that the lessons and the methodology of the teachers followed a very traditional approach of education. They based all their teaching practice on text books and in general,  students had a very passive role in their learning. Classrooms had no computers, neither projectors, and we just went once a month to the computer´s room, where we had to share computers in pairs and we use to do some exercises and games. 

When I reached the third cycle of primary, I remember the use of ICT having more presence than before, although it was very poor yet. We used to go more often to the computer´s room, and we even did some projects in which we recorded us with video cameras. 

Some reasons for this lack of use of ICT on my primary period were that, as a public school, it may not had the economic resources for including more technologies in the classrooms. In addition, we have to take into account that it was more than a decade ago, and technologies for education were not as developed and generalized as they are nowadays. 

When I changed to high school for my secondary education period, I could notice more presence of ICT: most of the classrooms had a projector and there was an audiovisual room and two computer´s room that we used very often. However, the methodology was still very traditional and the teachers didn´t had a high level of digital competence, so they didn´t know how to include the ICTs on their teaching practice on an efficient way.

I remember one english teacher that was very aware of the importance of teaching us on the use of new technologies. Thanks to him, we learnt how to use a Virtual Learning Platform (moodle). We also learned the basic aspects of video edition creation programs, and we used one blog. However, this teacher was the exception, and during all my secondary education period the only new technologies that I used were really basic, such as the use of Power Point presentations, or Microsoft word. 

It has not been until i´ve started the university that i have felt the necessity to incorporate new technologies on my every-day student practice. Here in university, and specially in my degree, the presence of ICT is notorious, and students need to know how to use technologies to pass the different subjects. For me it supposed a big change on my way of studying, but a very interesting and motivating approach to learning. 

Now i´ve realized the importance of ICTs in education. I feel that as a future teacher, I have the necessity to develop my digital competence, learning and exploring about the infinite possibilities that ICTs and the internet provide us for improving the teaching practices and ensuring a good education for our students, so they develop the necessary skills to face the technological world they are going to live in. 

Week 4: Dotsub and Story Jumper

(21/9/15-25/9/15)

This week we´ve been introduce on different online resources such as: Dotsub, Story Jumper, Pow toons, Voki etc. 

Dotsub is an online platform where you can subtitle videos in an easy way. I didn´t knew any platform like this before, and I find it really interesting for our future work. As english teachers, we will need use a lot of times videos in our classes, but these videos may have difficult vocabulary or may be difficult for our students to understand. To solve that problem, we can use a platform like Dotsub and add subtitles to the videos, so the students can understand them more easily. 

At first I thought it would be quite tricky to use, but once you understand how it works it is really easy. However, subtitling a video is an activity that requires a lot of time (depending on the duration of the video) and a little patience. 

But the resource I´ve found even more interesting than Dotsub is Story Jumper. It is a website that allows us to create stories online. We can use it as teachers to create stories for our students related to the contents we are working on. However, a more interesting way of introducing it into our classes is letting the students create their own stories. They will develop their imagination and creativity, at the same time they develop their lenguage and digital skills. 

Here I add the example of the Story that I created in class with my peer Beatriz Armendariz: 

Finally, the reading of this week was The effect of electronic books on enhancing emergent literacy skills of pre-school children. 

The resource I´ve found the most useful, and the one that I´ve liked the most is Story Jumper, as is a really interesting platform to use with the students and develop their creativity and other skills. 

Read this free book made on StoryJumper

Week 3: Hot Potatoes and Telecollaboration

(21/9/15-25/9/15)

On this third week of class, we have been working on some new resources, such as Hot Potatoes. This program includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web.

It is a completely free program that I guess is going to be very useful for me in the future. When you learn the basics, it is very easy to use and to create different types of activities depending on the objective you have. 



This week we have also started with the telecollaboration with some students of the Cisneros University of Madrid. The task consisted on commenting with them the answer of a questionaire that we completed about CLIL basic concepts via Skype. We had to record the conversation with debut (a video capture software). 

We had a lot of problems to do this task: internet connection failures, problems setting the cameras and the microphones, difficulties with timetables with the students from madrid to set up an hour to do the activity... etc. Finally we could do it. I find this experience very interesting and I think I will do it in the future with my students if I have the opportunity. In my opinion, connecting with other students enriches a lot the learning. 

However, from this experience we have also learnt that New Technologies have a lot of limitations, and as teachers we must be aware of that and have alternatives to use in our classrooms in case they don´t work. 


The reading of this week was titled "Computer assisted English language learning in Costa rican elementary school: an experimental study". It was about a study carried out in Puerto rico with different groups of students using computers in class. 

To sum up, the only resource that I had used of all the things done this week was skype. Is for that reason that it is the part of the class that I´ve found less useful, as I consider nowadays almost all of us know how to use this program. 

 I didn´t knew Hot Potatoes, neither Debut. Both of them are very interesting, but the one which I find the most useful is Hot potatoes. I think as a future teacher I will use a lot this program, as it allows me to create different kind of activities and evaluate their skills and knowledge. 

Week 2: Digital Competence and Symbaloo

(14/9/15-18/9/15)

We have started this week with the presentations on the digital competence dimensions. (The video is included in the previous post). The presentations were interesting because they made us realize our level on this competence. None of us has an advanced level, what means that we must go on improving it for our future practice. 

To asess the presentations, we used a peer-evaluation survey: 

This week we´ve also been learning different webpages and resources to use in our classrooms. We´ve analyzed them in order to see the advantages and disadvantages of each one in two ways: pedagogical, and technological. Thanks to this task, I have realized the importance of having a critical view on the websites we use in the cassrooms: not every website is useful, and the teacher need to analyze and select the sites carefuly before using them with his/her students.

Each group analyzed some pages, and then we created a collaborative document putting all the pros and cons we´ve get from them. In that way, now we have a very useful document that we can check whenever we need. 

I´ve used my symbaloo to add all the resources in a new webmix, so I have all of them organized in one place. 

In addition, this week we´ve been also taught  the basic aspects of Microsoft Word, and how to use the program with different proposes.

With the reading "Digital residents: Practices and perceptions of non-native speakers" by Huw Jarvis, i´ve learned the difference among the concepts digital resident and digital visitor. A "digital resident" can be defined as someone who spends a significant amount of time online, usually using a range of programs or apps not only on devices such as computer desktops and laptops, but also with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. We are living in a society in which almost everybody is now a digital resident. We have to be aware of that, and know how this fact has an influence in our lifes. 

I already knew some of the things that we´ve done this week, such as the use of Microsoft Word. However, I didn´t knew some of the functions of this program, and I´ve learnt them this week. With the digital competences presentation, I´ve also improved my knowledge of this concept, discovering the different dimensions that it has and the importance of reaching a good level as teachers. 

The analysis of the webpages is the thing we´ve done this week that is going to be the most useful for me. With the collaborative document we have created, I can have all the resources organized and analyzed for whenever I need them. 

Week 1: Introduction of the subject

 (7/9/15-11/9/15)

In this first week of the subject, we have been introduced to what the course is going to be about. We have met the teachers and have been informed about the evaluation criteria and how the subject is going to develop. 

As an introduction we have been working on the concept of Digital Competence, differentiating its five main dimensions and what do they mean.

In order to do so, we have analyzed different documents, such as the DIGICOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe. 

Digital Competence is a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required when using ICT and digital media to perform tasks such as solving problems, communicating and managing information, collaborating, creating and sharing content, and building knowledge. 

Each team worked on a specific part of the competence, to prepare a presentation explaining it. Our group analyzed the "Problem solving competence". The result can be seen in this video: 

Here you can see the final presentation explaining the competence.

Through the reading "Technological change and future of CALL" by Mark Warschauer, we have learned about basic concepts such as CALL, VLE or PLE.

Regarding to the last one, PLE´s are systems that allow students to take control of their own learning.

In order to create our PLE, we have been introduced in the Symbaloo platform, where we will be from now adding all the resources and webpages we use to learn, and for personal purposes.

This is my initial Symbaloo:

This week has been an introduction to the subject, that has allowed us to get in contact with some basic concepts regarding to New Technologies. The thing i´ve found the most interesting is discovering the platform of Symbaloo. It is really useful, because it allows me to have all my resources organized in just one website. Its a great way for classifying all the web pages I use normally, and all the interesting resources I may need to use one day.