Thursday 3 May 2018

Closing doors and opening doors...

Image by Alex Molina. CC0 Creative Commons License

Hello visitors!

Today I'm not going to say anything, I leave this space to my teacher friend Alex, who is going to reflect on the super learning process during this ICT journey. Here's the tweet with the link to the presentation.



And here you can see my final digital artifact summarizing the process:
And this is what I've learned in 14 steps...


STEP 1:
Create a learning journal. Here you can write your reflection on educational matters. It can contain thoughts and questions that come to your mind, inspection on how you have achieved your goals or show your experiences. This learning journal was made using Blogger, that I strongly recommend to create your blog in a snap, but there are other digital tools like Tumblr or Wordpress.

STEP 2:
Use an avatar. An avatar is in charge of catching your attention and be your digital identity. My avatar was created using Bitmoji after some experiments with other tools like Voki but here’s the final result. You can choose between different body features and outfits, it’s really funny. There are also other apps like Tellagami, Doppel me, Portrait avatar maker or Rawshorts where you can create your own. Finally I created a video presentation of my avatar on Powtoon, that was challenging because every slide only allowed 20 seconds of audio, so I had to rush to fit the time available. Exhausting!

STEP 3:
Be careful with the use of contents that are not yours, you have to credit the author, that’s called attribution. Make a responsible use of the contents, and when using your own’s it is advisable that you use a free licensing tool like CreativeCommons to define how your work can be used. Get a CC License on your learning journal and select the license that fit your needs. In my journal you can see that I’ve got my CC license, too.

STEP 4:
When you search for content you need to filter the information, organise it and once you’ve got what you need, compile your favourite sites into one visual interface. I have learned that this process is called Content curation. Gain access to your selected information in a very fast way. I have used Symbaloo, with just one look you can have all the content you need. You can do the same with other tools like Pinterest, Pearltrees or List.ly. Here’s my Symbaloo ICT webmix about this learning process. I’ve been using Symbaloo for years and I will continue using it in the future.




STEP 5:
Use slideshows in your lessons to catch your students’ attention and add some motivation to develop their imagination and creativity. I have created a slideshow to motivate my students to write their own stories, mixing music and visuals. There’s also a video showing the activity. And here’s one of my favourite digital tools: Genial.ly. This was my first time creating a slideshow with this tool, and after that, I have created more for different subjects, even this one as a final activity. You can choose between different online tools like Googleslides, Prezi, Powtoon or Biteslide.

STEP 6:
Use comics to help students express themselves. It’s an engaging and powerful tool and in some activities are more meaningful than just reading a long and boring text. Your students can create their own stories and share them through digital tools like Storyboardthat, which I used for my creation, Pixton, or Creaza. They can help develop creativity and use the features the tool offers to picture different situations. I chose Storyboardthat because of its great variety of  characters, landscapes and props available, but the main problem is that after the free trial period of 15 days, you have to pay for it.

STEP 7:
Use mind maps to create a visually appealing presentation of a project. Mine was designed using Creately, where you can quickly connect the different shapes to create your mind map. My topic was Japanese culture so I could manage to deal with the different features to create this project but it can be tricky for the students. I think I will try other tools like Coggle, Mindmeister, Mind42, SpiderScribe or Bubbl.us for my next mind map.     

STEP 8:
Infographics. They are graphic visual representations of information and present them in a quick and clear way. My infographic was made using Piktochart, which I find it very easy to use and offers lots of preset templates and different elements to place in your infographic. My creation was about some UK facts. Other tools to create infographics are Easel.ly, Canva, Smore, Mural or Padlet. But definitely, Piktochart is one of the tools I’m going to use again.

STEP 9:
Use Podcasts in the classroom to create projects that go beyond its walls. It’s a great tool if you want to start a radio project, and podcasts allow your children to express themselves and improve their oral skills. Play with the sounds, work on intonation and pronunciation, add audio effects and enjoy the result. My podcast activity was part of a bigger project about theatre and I used tools like Audacity, to record and edit the podcast and then Soundcloud to upload it and share it. I’m a great fan of these tools and of course, I will use them in the future. Other useful services for audio storage are Ivoox, Podomatic, and an alternative to Soundcloud is Spreaker.

STEP 10:
Use storyboarding to plan an educational video. In this case the project was about a flipped classroom video about Climate Change and Global Warming, but first we planned the storyboard on Google Docs and Storyboardthat, to design step by step the different scenes that appear in the video and writing the script. After recording the scenes using a chroma in the Ministry of Education, our group met using Skype video conference where we could share the creation process all together. That was the first time I knew about the possibility of sharing my laptop screen and my system audio signal with my classmates while we were using VegasPro, a video editing software. We could share the process of creating the video in real time and was very helpful, besides we had a lot of fun, and of course I will take advantage of this feature very soon. It was really challenging to deal with Vegas Pro, but finally we could manage to produce our video. I think I will edit more videos using this software, there are so many features that perhaps I need to follow a tutorial.

STEP 11:
Attend live webinars. If you want to be good ICT teacher you should attend webinars, where you can learn about mobile learning and digital competence for education as we did in a webinar carried out by Maria Jesús García San Martín, our teacher. We were told about the different online learning tools offered by the Ministry of Education through the Aprende Intef website. A must if you want to acquire, develop and improve your digital competence as a teacher. Time for getting down to work has come!!

STEP 12:
Participate in educational collaborative projects. We were told to participate in a twima project to share our personal stories through video contribution. It was a rewarding activity where we could learn about other classmates experiences and share them worldwide. I recorded my video and uploaded to Flipgrid, a video discussion platform used both by students and teachers around the world.

STEP 13:
Share it with the world. Using Twitter to spread the word about your projects, your learning process or your interests. I must say that some time ago I signed up but I quit because I didn’t like it. Then our teacher told us to create a Twitter account and tweet a tiny story. That was fun but I must confess that Twitter is still one of my unresolved matters. I don’t know if I will make peace with Twitter sometime. By the way, this is my Twitter account: @Alextchr

STEP 14:
Do your best!! If you want to be a good digital teacher keep trying and you’ll see the results!! You can do it and remember to stay updated!!

It's been a very challenging experience. While it is true that my intention is keep using some of the digital tools we have seen during this term, there are some others that for different reasons haven't meet my expectations. But the most exciting part is that I'm already thinking about the many projects in which I will apply the knowledge of some of these tools. Another pending task I'm planning for the near future is to improve my digital competence and enroll in the online courses offered by Aprende Intef. My backpack is empty and needs to be filled up with badges 😅😅. Oops, I forgot to say that I will try to use my Twitter more than I'm doing now.
I'd like to thank my classmates for their patience and my teacher Maria Jesús García for all the knowledge and the resources provided and also for having opened the doors of the Ministry of Education to us.

See you here very soon!!
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