Miriam Tapia´s Learning Diary for the Creative use of Tables in Schools. by Miriam TP

Teaching Context

miriamxtv — 2015-04-15 15:06:27 UTC

Last Semptember I started working as a Secondary teacher in Florida Secundària, a high school in Catarroja (Valencia). I teach English to students in 3rd ESO and I have around 100 students. I am also a "linguistic helper" in the rest of courses. The main objective as a linguistic helper is getting that students speak as much English as possible. We know that it is sometimes difficult to achieve that all students practise their oral skills in class, specially if we have groups of 30 students. Pupils take lessons in partners or in groups of three and they just practise their speking and listening abilities. Florida is a multilingual school where students can take lessons since they are in first of ESO until they finish Bachillerato. It is a school concerned about the importance of using innovative technics and recources. All students have free access to one of our computers lab. For instance, in English, we have established one hour per week to work with computers. Our philosophy is trying to be as close as students´ reality so we make use of online platforms or social networks to communicate with them.

http://www.floridasecundaria.es/

Question 1.2 - Why do you use or want to use tablets in your teaching?

miriamxtv — 2015-04-18 11:48:22 UTC

There are many reasons that lead me to consider the use of tablets in class a good bet.

One of these reasons is that It is essential to keep in mind that we are teaching students from the 21st century: teenagers and children that are used to work with this type of devices and furthermore, they are willing to do so. By making use of new technologies in our lessons, we come closer to our pupils´ reality, to their world.

Devices as tablets or laptops allow them to create and investigate, not just copy from textbooks. Tablets undoubtedly increase curiosity, innovation and motivation. With tablets, our pupils become the main characters of their process of learning.

This, of course, does not mean that notebooks or traditional books have to disappear from classes. They are as essential as any other resource, in fact, many of us have just studied having them as the only resource. However, we should try to start considering textbooks as sumplementary resources, not just the most important ones.

In addition to that, many competences are being worked while students are surfing on the internet or while they are making use of the apps, such as the diital competence, learn to learn competence, linguistic competence or autonomous competence.

Question 1,3 - What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets? Which of these do you think will be the most challenging at your school? And how would you go about addressing these? Can you give other course participants advice on how to address some of these challenges?

miriamxtv — 2015-04-18 12:55:34 UTC

As we have already checked watching the video by Diana, there are many challenges when trying to implement the use of tablets in a school.

In the school where I work, Florida Secundaria, we are going to start using these devices next course. Our planning consists on starting the implementation in 2nd course of Secondary school and then, follow the rhythm of the first tablet-users. Even though I consider that our high school has many facilitations and we work with the latest technology, I firmly believe that there will be some challenges next year,

For instance, all our teachers must be convinced about the benefits that the implementaton of tablets would bring to the learning process. Working with staff that do not believe in what we are doing would be detrimental and it would cause these perople´s own frustration. In addition to that, we must be sure that all teachers know how to work with tablets and that we are going to be supported by technicians that will help us or our students when facing technological problems. The school will also have to invest money in course trainings, insurances or to improve even more the access to Internet. I also believe, as Diana has explained, that we must work as a team and decide which are the best applications and which are going to be the rules that we expect our students to follow when using their deviced.

It seems difficut but I have no dounts that it will be worthy!

Question 1.4 - What classroom challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets? Think about the areas addressed by Diana in the video above. Which of these do you think will be the most challenging in your classroom? And how would you go about addressing these? Can you give other course participants advice based on your own experiences?

miriamxtv — 2015-04-18 13:34:36 UTC

Focusing now on challenges to face in class when using tablets, The following ones quickly come to my mind;

1. Battery: What would happen when one of my students runs out of battery or if he or she has forgoten to charge it the night before?

2. Replacement tablet: If one of the tablets gets broken, what would happen while it is being repaired, will our students be able to use one replacement tablet?

3.Behaviour: It is necessary to be prepared to control that our students are using the tablet as an educational resource not just another machine to play videogames. They must be responsible.

4.Internet connection; It must be a fast connection and available to everyone.

The best way to adress these possible challenges is reaching an agreement with the rest of teachers and establish a sort of behaviour code that our students will have to respect and follow in al subjects.

Question 1.5- App for Teaching: Edmodo- Are you using Edmodo in your classroom? How is it working for you? What advice can you give to other teachers? If you are coming across Edmodo for the first time, based on Craig's introduction how could you use it in your classroom? Share any thoughts, ideas and resources here.

miriamxtv — 2015-04-18 13:50:13 UTC

I am using Edmodo in my English classes and I strongly recommend this app. It is a very good online platform and it is really easy to work with. Edmodo allows us the opportunity to communicate with our students and with their parents, to assign tasks and to post the marks in a private way. Students can contact us whenever they need to do it. I really like the fact that students can download the app in their mobile phone and they can be informed whenever there is something new posted. My students are quite happy with it too.

Edmodo, for me, is always a good choice

Question 2.2- What kind of content can you create with your class?

miriamxtv — 2015-04-20 13:22:51 UTC

Working with tablets and laptops is, as we have checked, very enriching for all subjects but I specially believe that it is extremely useful when the subject is a foreign language like English. During this course I have asked my students to work on different projects that they have had to create. For instance;

-Glogster; They have worked with glogstesr in the unit that they were dealing with food and restaurants. In this glogster they had to create their own restaurant, the menu of the restaurant and the advertisement, Furthermore they had to record a video in which one of them was the customer and the other one the waiter or waitress.
http://edu.glogster.com/?ref=com

-Digital Storytelling; I love digital stories because they area resource in which students can punt into practise a lot of skills: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation... Once the basic verbal tenses have been taught, I have asked them to choose one cultural topic related to one of the English Speaking countries and create their own digital storytelling. You can check our results in; www.digitalstorytellingshowflorida.blogspot.com.es

-Infographic: Literature is an aspect that sometimes is forgotten when teaching a second language. I strongly believe that culture and language are interrelated and they must be taken as a whole so I like to introduce my students to some of the best classic readings of Engish and American literature. One funny way to do so, is asking them to create one infographic after having worked on the authors http://piktochart.com/

-Comic: in ordr to work literature in a different way, students can create digital comics by means of applications or online websites like https://www.bitstrips.com/create/comic/

-Graphical facilitations; It is a very innovative way that consists in recording the scheme that you are writing and drawing at the same time that you are explaining the concepts. This is going to be used to make a brief summary of the books that my students are reading.

Digital Storytelling

miriamxtv — 2015-04-20 13:53:46 UTC

Infographic

miriamxtv — 2015-04-20 13:59:17 UTC

Digital Comic

miriamxtv — 2015-04-20 13:59:34 UTC

Glogster

miriamxtv — 2015-04-20 13:59:56 UTC

Graphical facilitations

miriamxtv — 2015-04-20 14:01:22 UTC

Question 2.3 Content Created

miriamxtv — 2015-04-21 13:01:06 UTC

Online Postcard

Students wil have to ceate their own postcard using the online tool http://www.kerproof.com. They will be given an scenario, in this case they will be living in a desert island and they will have to write a postcard in order to know if there is someone else alive. By doing this, we would encourage them to use their creativity, to produce real language and practice their writing skills as well as working cooperatively.

Question 2.3- Content Created

miriamxtv — 2015-04-21 13:04:27 UTC

Video- Represent one scene from a short story

The idea is to ask pupils to represent one of their favouite scene from a short story. In this case the story selected is "The Way Up to Heaven" by Roadl Dahl. I have done the content in order to put it into practise. The scene that I have chosen is one in which Mrs. Foster decides lo leave to the airport without her husband. I have used "Go Animate". I would use this activity as a post-teaching exercise in order to make students go deeper into the story and make them use their creativity.

Video "The Way Up to Heaven"

miriamxtv — 2015-04-21 13:12:26 UTC

Online Postcard "Desert Island"

miriamxtv — 2015-04-21 13:16:24 UTC

Question 2.4- Apps for content creation

miriamxtv — 2015-04-21 20:35:31 UTC

-Educreations: It is a sort of digital whiteboard in which you can write, draw, insert pictures and record your voice at the same time. It is really useful for recording explanations. You can also find explanation from other people!

-Puppet Pals: It is an app to create animated videos. Students can practise all kind of linguistic abilities, being innovative and creative and having fun!

Question 3.2: Collaborative Work. How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects? How do you ensure all students contribute to the task?

2015-04-29 08:46:35 UTC

It is sometimes difficult to keep our students focused and on track during collaborative projects. With this type of projects, the main risk is that not all students contribute to the task and some members take profit from others who are hard workers. In order to try to avoid this, what I normally do is trying to work on projects where the different members of the groups can specific roles so that, if someone does not work on his part, nobody will do it for him or her. I also make us of self-assessment rubrics in which each member of the group must evaluate the work and attitude of his/her colleagues. The fact of ensuring that all members of the groups know what they have to work on is essencial.

Question 3.3- Success factors of school-to-school collaboration project

miriamxtv — 2015-05-01 17:06:13 UTC

Although I have not worked in Etwinner yet, I have realized by means of this course that it is a very useful tool when trying to work cooperatively among different schools. Participating on school-to-school collaboration projects can be a very nutrishing activity. Some of the advantages can be the exchange of methodologies,ideas and knowledge, the motivational sense and the communicative approach that this type of works means. Among the success factors, I believe that it is essencial for both schools to have the same goals, similar ways of working, codes and rules for working on this project and good communication.

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 07:52:32 UTC

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 07:54:18 UTC

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 07:58:01 UTC

Question 3.4- Assessment & CollaborationAfter participating in the webinar or reading the case study report (link above), what other strategies have you used to assess group work? What are the main challenges for you when it comes to assessing group work?

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 08:18:05 UTC

I have really liked the case study report about collaboration and assesment. It is without any doubt inspiring and nutrishing. I have already made use of some of the strategies mentioned. I find self-assesments really useful, as well as teachers´ observation. The main challenges are the facts that due to the high rage of students (around 30 or more here in Spain), sometimes it becomes difficult to observe how all the groups are working.

CCL CASE OF STUDY COLLABORATION & ASSESMENT

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 08:19:49 UTC

http://creative.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=6027aaa7-2bfc-4d9d-ba7d-1e61154abf4b&groupId=96459

Question 3.4- Apps for collaborative learningShare any apps for collaborative learning here.

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 08:27:18 UTC

I really like these applications and websites;

-https://mural.ly/

-Padlet

-www.socrative.com

-Team Up

-Etwinning

-Edmodo

-Google Drive

Question 4.2- What other ways can you think of how tablets can be used to personalise the learning experience of your students?

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 09:12:31 UTC

Since in my school the implementation of tablets will not be done until next course, I have not a lot of knowledge about Apps for personalising the experience of students. Nevertheless, http://www.naiku.net/ is a very advisable website and App to be used in class as it makes easier the task of work collaboration, common assessment. Working with tablets is a synonym of personalisation as each students work with this personal device. I have really liked both videos and listening to students´ point of view about the use of tablets. I have been really impressed by the App "Aurasma", it seems to be amazing!! Furthermore, working with Edmodo is something that I already do. Undoubtlessly, Edmodo allows students to keep in direct contact with teachers and be aware of any possible stuck that they might suffer.

Question 4.4-Have you tried out the flipped classroom model already? If so, share your experiences here. You've never heard of the model before but are curious to try it out? How would you start to implement it in your school and classroom context?

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 09:32:30 UTC

The video "Flipping the classrooms" is an excellent explanation of the importance of implementing tablets at school and the variety of benefits that they can mean. I have not had the opportunity of trying flipping clases but I´m looking forward to be able to do it. In my school we are on the way to get it! We have already one hour per subject at the computers lab what is approaching us to this model.

Question 4.5- Challenges of the Flipped Classes. what do you think are the key challenges to implementing the model in classrooms?

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 09:45:30 UTC

Flipped classes are in my opinion, very advisable. As some of the teachers that appear in the videos, students can have access to the explanation whenever they need to, in class at home and this is a very good aspect.

I believe that some of the key challenges when implementing this model in class can be;

- Technological problems: Some problems can appear when working with tablets like running out of battery, broken tablets... In addition to that, technological problems can become an excuse for not doing the tasks.

-Internet connection at school: School must have contracted a wide Internet service.

-Lack of digital competence: both students and teachers may need extra time to learn how to work on different applications.

Nevertheless, I have no doubt that these are not BIG challenges.

4.6- Share any other apps and tools you know about for personalisation and flipping the classroom

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 09:59:34 UTC

Amazing tools mentioned in the videos from this module.

I really like Socrative and Aurasma. One idea that comes to my mind is that it can become a problem or a mess for our students if we use so many different Apps. I would advise to try to select the ones that better meet our needs and just work on them.

Another one can be

-Classdojo

4.8 LESSON PLAN: BRITISH CULTURE

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 11:15:29 UTC

Module 4

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 11:27:28 UTC

Tablet Course in Social Media

miriamxtv — 2015-05-04 11:31:58 UTC

-Twitter: hashtag #tabletcourse

-Facebook Groupo: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CreativeClassrooomsLab/

avesoodla125 — 2015-05-05 17:21:32 UTC