Naír Carrera's Learning Diary'Creative use of tablets in education' MOOC, European Schoolnet Academy. by Nair Carrera Martinez

About me

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-04 17:10:48 UTC

Hi there! My name is Naír Carrera and I've been working for the educational world for the last 8 years. I have worked as a teacher of Spanish/English/French as a foreign language and more recently I have worked as an intern in the Department of European Projects at INTEF (National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training in the Spanish Ministry of Education of Madrid, where I was involved in different projects and supported the eTwinning National Service.

Module 1, Q1: Why do I want to (or already) use tablets in my teaching?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-04 17:36:28 UTC

I truly believe that using tablets in education has a great deal of advantages although it may have some disadvantage as well. On the one hand, it is important to take into account that today students are ‘digital natives’ experienced on the use of ICT tools, so it would be really important to introduce them in our daily practice. This would not only get them more engaged to class, but also it would imply a much more effective learning. Besides, it is a fact that the Bring your own device (BYOD) practice is becoming more and more popular, so it is a great opportunity for teachers to take advantage of this so as to extend it to their teaching practice and thus get the students more involved in their learning process. It is also important to notice that having a tablet allows the students to work at their own pace. Last but not least, the use of tablets in education is important as it allows students to develop and improve their digital competences. On the other hand, although the use of tablets in education is gaining more and more importance, it is a fact that not everybody can afford to buy a tablet or any other digital device, so the learning process may be delayed for those families. Moreover, many teachers are not familiarized with the use of these devices within the class, so more teacher training in ICT would be important to positively succeed when introducing tablets in education.

Teaching context

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-04 17:37:30 UTC

When I worked as a teacher of Spanish as a foreign language, I worked with 12-18-year-old students and also with university students. This gave me the opportunity to meet new teaching approaches and to broaden my experience to all kind of students. For the last year I have worked in the Department of European Projects, where they help teachers and schools to introduce ICT in daily teaching practice. The most relevant experience I have been involved with is to support the eTwinning National Service, where I was able to become closer to a wide range of new and effective educative tools. You can find below the eTwinning NSS web

Module 1, Q2: What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-04 18:52:38 UTC

When using tablets in education, we should face several challenges from which I have selected the ones I consider more important: the first challenge to be faced is the technical problems that may arise when using tablets in education. Not every school has a proper internet connection, which can clearly affect the students learning process. Besides, I consider there is no government financial support in the use of tablets in terms of curricula, but also in terms of ICT training. Moreover, it is also a challenge to avoid the risk of students using tablets when you ask them not to, as it not easy to control every student. eSafety is also a great fear for every teacher and particularly for the families, as they are afraid that their children’s information may be used improperly. I guess this may be a common fear among teachers when the think about using tablets or any other digital devices at school. I would address the introduction of tablets in any school with a task based approach, from which I had the opportunity to learn a lot when evaluating the eTwinning national projects.

Module 1, Q3: What classroom challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-04 19:14:14 UTC

I definitely think that a bad connectivity is really a great challenge to be faced, as not every school is able to provide a good connectivity to their community (particularly schools placed in rural areas where connectivity is really bad or it does not exist) I also think that teachers’ roles are quite important to succeed in introducing tablets in education, as they are responsible for their students to make a good use of digital devices; however, it is important that teachers are able to count on their student’s families. If everybody is involved in the learning process of their students/children, success will be a reality.

Educational web tools and mobile apps for teachers and educators

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 16:26:04 UTC

Quote III (Diane Bannister)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 18:47:08 UTC

One of the best forms of professional development, is observation

Module 1 Q5: Edmodo

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 19:15:35 UTC

I have never had the chance to use Edmodo in school, but it really looks like a very useful platform. However, I think it is more appropiate for older students than for younger ones, as for the latter I think it would be quite difficult to follow. I consider this platform to be really useful when doing PBL activities, like for instance for following the students' progress.

I have found this video which may be useful. It gives you 20 ideas to use Edmodo with your students:

Parent's Guide to Educational iPad Games

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 22:40:48 UTC

Quote II (EUN website)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 22:43:45 UTC

Only by reflecting on how we teach and learn (and by seing how others teach and learn), can we truly develop our own practices.

Quote I (EUN website)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 22:45:42 UTC

Bringing tablets to schools "just doing it" does not work. A lot of things need to be thought through for tablets to provide a real added value to our teaching and learning

Webbinar "How to involve parents in the use of tablets in education" (EUN)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 22:52:41 UTC

Benefits of using tablets in schools (Creative Classroom Lab)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 22:54:29 UTC

Quote IV (Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 22:55:59 UTC

Teachers will not be replaced by technology, but teachers who don't use technology, will be replace by those who do

Module 1 Q4: Tablets in classroom

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:08:53 UTC

A lot of things should be taken into account when integrating tablets in schools. However, there are a few of them which I find more important, such as the methodological approach, the design of activities (it is important to realize that ICT open a new world to us, and so we need to improve ourselves as teachers and design the activities accordingly) and also think carefully about the evaluation process and some rules that may be followed by students in order to achieve a proper use of the tablets at schools (talking to the students, establish some rules together with them and also, why not, have students trainers (as Diane mentioned in her video).

And you, how do you learn?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:28:49 UTC

Quote V (Diane Bannister)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:40:03 UTC

Tablets should be used "for learning". If students are not using the devices for learning then that will be breaking the rules.

Quote VI Diane Bannister)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:43:16 UTC

Before embarking on a large-scale tablet implementation programme, it is recommended to carry out a pilot programme with one or two classes

Module 1: Additional resources (EUN)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:49:50 UTC

Tablets use in Belgium (in French)

It is always enriching to see other colleagues using tablets in education, thus fostering a peer-to-peer collaboration

Literature Review on the Use of Tablets in Education (EUN)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:53:28 UTC

I have just had a look to it, and this is really worth reading

Top 10 reasons to use technology in education

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-06 23:55:26 UTC

Module 2 Q1: Learning Scenarios

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 00:42:07 UTC

I have never heard of the 7 phase learning scenarios before. However, I used to put it into practice when teaching, although without knowing what I was really using. I find this a good concept to follow, as pupils learn by doing and so the learning process is positively satisfied. I have had the opportunity to visit the Future Classroom Lab in European Schoolnet a few weeks ago, and I think it may be related to the 7 learning scenarios and the FCL Learning zones. The Future Classroom Lab is formed by six different learning spaces, where each space highlights specific areas of learning and teaching. You can have more information by visiting this page:

http://fcl.eun.org/learning-zones

(Image from EUN website)

What is a learning scenario (Katja)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 01:13:23 UTC

A learning scenario is a vision for the future classroom that addresses trends and challenges that school faces.

The 7 phase learning scenario

Module 2, Q2: Content creation with a tablet

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 16:56:53 UTC

As I am a teacher of Spanish to foreign people, I am thinking about an activity to use with my foreign students. Therefore, I think a good activity to create with tabets would be to design a project for students of Spanish to know about "El Camino de Santiago” and so a lot of tools would be used for that: for instance, we could use thinglink with apicture of the Cathedral of Santiago so as to explain different historical facts; students could also do some research about the different ways to arrive to Santiago using google maps. Then, students could collect all sort of information about it (places to visit, different possible routes, kind of food in each community and so on). Later on, all the information could be used in a free publishing platform so as to publish digital magazines, interactive publications and online documents.

Image: Alfonso Román Muñoz

Quote VII (Katja)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 17:52:25 UTC

With tablets, students learn how to create their own content. By becoming producers, students learn about the processes and pitfalls of designing and creating content in an authentic problem-solving context.

Image: Devon Christopher Adams

Module 2, Q3: Resources/Apps

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 18:23:36 UTC

Image 1: Tools to create

I don't have any sample of my students creations with tablets, but I would like to share with you a mind map that I did some time ago for a teachers training workshop, where I tried to collect as many tools as possible to use them with students at schools. Nevertheless, I am afraid I am going to have to re-make them again (as in the learning scenario) to add all the new tools I am becoming familiar with after this MOOC. I had to divide the image into three different images so as to make it clearer for you. You can see the first one below.(I created the mindmap by using 'Creately', but you have a wide range of interactive tools). You can find more examples here:

http://www.aulaplaneta.com/2014/05/21/recursos-tic/seis-herramientas-para-crear-mapas-conceptuales/

Module 2, Q3: Resources/Apps

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 18:45:33 UTC

Image 2: Tools to create

Module 2, Q3: Resources/Apps

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 18:47:16 UTC

Image 3: Tools to capture and record

Module 2: CCL Teachers‘ favourite Apps (Creative Classroom Lab)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 19:21:50 UTC

Socrative, GeoGebra and NearPod

Quote VIII: (Katja)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 19:38:55 UTC

The content creation process needs to include reflection on plagiarism, copyright, privacy issues, and online sharing

Quote IX: (Katja)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 19:40:13 UTC

The goal of a successful content creation process is a product that fills a gap, is accessible, makes appropriate use of technology, and can be used and adapted by teachers and students

Module 2, Q3: Creating content with Kahoot

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-07 19:45:50 UTC

I would like to share with you this activity that I made with Kahoot, which I find a very motivating tool that students use to enjoy a lot, as they have to answer the questions as fast as possible (and we all know that students love competition). Hope you like it

Quote X (Katja)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 21:45:07 UTC

Collaborative learning scenarios can support students to develop a number of XXI century competences such as communicational skills, interpersonal skills, cooperation and so on.

Quote XI (Helen Keller)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 21:52:23 UTC

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

What is collaboration so important? Don't miss this video

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 21:57:38 UTC

CCL Webinar: Collaboration and Assessment 27 April 2015

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 22:12:40 UTC

Module 3, Q1: How do you form groups of students for group work and why do you take this approach?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 23:21:25 UTC

Whenever I worked in groups, I tried to chose the teams randomly, as students usually want to meet with those they get on well better. However, in every group I try to include a different kind of student. That way, if I have a student who does not work a lot and who usually drifts away, I try to put him together with another one who can help him out. I think the group is stronger following this principle.

Module 3, Q2: Based on your experience what strategies of forming groups work and which do not work? Why?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 23:21:56 UTC

I think that when we are working in groups we should take into account that not every student learns the same way. Thus, it is important that different students (with a different learning approach) mingle with each other to learn from their colleagues in peer collaboration.I really think that heterogeneus groups work better that homogeneous ones.

Module 3, Q3: How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects? How do you ensure all students contribute to the task?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 23:41:07 UTC

Whenever I have worked in groups with my students we always had a time set to finish the tasks. If those tasks were not finished on time, then the group itself failed to do the activity. That way, responsability for finishing the activities is divided among all the members, and everybody should finish his/her individual task so that the group finishes the project successfully.

Module 3, Q4: What strategies have you used to assess group work? What are the main challenges for you when it comes to assessing group work?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 23:47:10 UTC

I guess the main challengues to assessing group work is the fear I feel that I might not be evaluating them correctly. As every student collaborates with each other, all the work should be taken into account, and this is always difficult to track if you have a large class with 30 students, as you can't be controlling all the groups at the same time. However, I try to plan some "common activities" that they should all do together, but also some "individual tasks" to be done; that way, I think the assessment is more balanced.

Module 3: What are the success factors for a school-to-school collaboration project?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-08 23:56:18 UTC

I think the most important factor for a project to succeed is communication. All the partners involved in the project should be in constant communication, so that ideas, thoughts and concerns are often shared and solved out. On the other hand, every partner should be aware of their obligations within the project, so that every school knows what it is expected from them. Finally, we can't forget the school connectivity, as if any of the partners fail to have a good connectivity or resources, then the project will not succeed.

Module 3: Collaborative tools

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 00:02:38 UTC

I am not an expert on collaborative tools, but I have experienced with a few of them such as google documents, glogster, padlet, titanpad or drawitlive. I would like to try team up and power league with my students some day.

You can have a look to the mindmap I made (Module 2) of different interactive tools. All of them can be used collaboratively.

This is collaboration (1)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 00:10:41 UTC

This year I had the pleasure of working along the eTwinning team in Spain. I learnt a lot from them, but more important, I discovered some real examples of project collaboration. Here is one example of an eTwinning project I consider really amazing and definetely a great example of collaboration. They made up this song, which was played independently (each person was in his/her own city playing and singing the same song) and then they all put the song together. This is the result: "Song across the borders"

2015 eTwinning European prizes

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 00:28:30 UTC

If you want to know the winners of this year's eTwinning prizes, you can have a look to this link. There are really motivating and inspiring projects. It is worth knowing them! (The information is in Spanish)

And if you have never embark upon the adventure of doing an eTwinning project, I strongly recommend you to do it. You will never regret it.

Being an eTwinner, being a winner

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 00:34:41 UTC

If you have never had the chance to participate in an eTwinning project, I strongly advice you to do it. Once you have tried it, you could never stop :)

In the following link you can look for other partners, contact them and even join eTwinning just by clicking on "inscripción"

10th eTwinning Anniversary

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 00:40:09 UTC

Yesterday we celebrated the 10th eTwinning Anniversary. Don't wait another 10 years to join this beatiful family :)

This is collaboration (2)

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 00:49:22 UTC

I would like to share with you another piece of collaboration made by the same schools that made "Song across the borders"

I always loved Pippy Langstrump :)

Very useful

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-09 01:11:22 UTC

I found this in Ria De Wilde's Learning Diary, made by Luís Filipe, from Portugal, and I think it is really useful. Great work Luís!

And you, how do you learn?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 15:22:28 UTC

Module 4, Q1: How do you know what types of learners there are? What are good strategies to identify this?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 15:57:15 UTC

Whenever I want to determine my students' kind of intelligence, I try different activities each time.

1. To develop the logical or mathematical learning, it is useful to do activities so as to practice logic, reasoning systems, problem solving, critical thinking and sequences.

2. To develop the social or interpersonallearning, I like students to play games in team groups and collaboration.

3. The intrapersonal learning calls for individual games where students can reflect about their learning style.

4. In a visual learning, students like to play with diagrams, pictures or images, color signs and so on.

5. To develop the Physical/kinaesthetic intelligence, it is useful to propose theatral games, objects to manipulate, using the corporal language or something where students have to play with their own hands.

6. In the musical/auditory learning, students like to play with songs and rhythms,

7. To develop the verbal intelligence, words are the strongpoint. That way, you can work with debates, words games or team reading.

Module 4, Q2:What other ways can you think of how tablets can be used to personalise the learning experience of your students?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 16:41:36 UTC

Tablets in school to personalise learning can be used in several ways. Some tools I am thinking of are the following: Simple mind and Pollaris Office (to look for information), Picsart to create cards, Pigscollage( to create collages), Tagul (to create word cloud art and place it on your web page), Class dojo (for positive classroom management) Stopmotion or Wix and Kahoot to evaluate the student's progress.

Flipped classroom community in Procomún, the open educative resources network of the Spanish Ministry of Education

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 17:12:34 UTC

If you are interested in the flipped classroom approach, you can join its community in Procomún, an OER network where you can share your works and opinions with many other teachers (Spanish)

Module 4, Q3: How would you start to implement it in your school and classroom context?

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 17:20:17 UTC

I have never tried the flipped classroom model before. If I were to use it for the first time, I think I firstly reflect seriously on it to see if it fits my students's needs. If so, a good way to start flipping the classroom is the following: first of all, you can choose the topic and surf the web searching some useful videos. Then, ask the students to watch them at home. The next day, when the class begins, you can make them questions about the video you asked them to watch and work with it. That way, all the time during the classes goes to answer the students' questions and help them with through their difficulties. Therefore, the time class is much more productive than in a traditional classroom.

Technology for Flipping the classroom

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 17:33:28 UTC

Two american libraries, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the American Library Association offer this pdf document with serveral links to different tools to use the flipped classroom. It is really worth reading if you want to discover more tools to flip your classroom:

21st Century Learning Tools : Flipped Class Conference 2011

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 17:40:36 UTC

100 tools to flip your classroom

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 17:41:45 UTC

In this website, you can find up to 100 different tools to flip your classroom:

Module 4, Q4: Key challenges when implementing the model of Flipped Classroom

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-11 19:54:42 UTC

I think one of the main challenges when implementing the flipped classroom model is time, as not all the teachers have as much time as needed to prepair the class according to this model. Besides, the rol of teachers change significantly, as they change from being the usual teacher who just stands in the class and gives the lecture to somebody who is there just to support the students, and he is more like a guide who helps them through the learning process. Besides of that, many teacher are afraid of the change and this uncertainty may lead them not to try this new learning model. Last but not least, the flipped classroom model needs a good internet connection and a good training of ICT tools, that not every school/teacher may have, and which undoubtedly makes the change more complex.

Module 4, My lesson plan

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-12 16:05:52 UTC

For this activity, I have decided to use the "content creation" scenario with tablets. In this lesson plan, students have to work together so as to create a collaborative project dealing with Spanish culture by using different tools for content creation (Padlet, Kahoot, Masher and Calameo).

Module 4, Q6 Tools for personalized learning and flipping the classroom

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-12 17:52:10 UTC

Some tools I know to work with personalized learning are padlet, google drive, google docs, prezi or animoto. I have never tried socrative, showbie or aurasma, but they seem very interesting. I will try them as soon as possible.

Review done by: Juan Luis García Díaz

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-13 23:18:26 UTC

You have done a great job at collecting resources from many different sources. I like how you have built yourself a catalogue of apps that you plan to use and how you have copy and pasted interesting comments from your colleagues on the course. Congratulations for your work! I agree with you and I think that flipping the classroom will take a lot of time to teachers, but this change can take more than one year, so, why do we try it? And about some teachers that they haven`t skills with ICT tools, the Administration has to take part in this problem and offer solutions. Regards from Galicia.

Review done by: Diana Ladariu

ncarreramartinez — 2015-05-13 23:19:35 UTC

Wow! This is just an amazing diary!!! Lot of useful information. Really reflects the importance of using tablets in school. Great work!!! Congratulation!