teaching for mores than 20 years. This year I am teaching in

the center of Portugal, in Loures, Lisbon.

I am interested in learning how to integrate new tecnologies in

my English classroom.

Date of birth: 15.12.1964

Hobbies: Reading and music.

This course can give the opportunity to start a new project next year depending on the type of school/classes I will have. It can be a one-month project or a longer one.

At this school the majority of the teachers are traditional. The biggest problema here is social and students don't bring rules from home and don't respect the basic rules. They have problems in accepting each other's opinions. Most of my teaching is effectively "training" them.

With technologies their motivation will increase and this could be a good start for them to learn of how to collaborate.

But do all teachers work as a team and collaborate? Sadly sometimes they are not open to new ideas and prefer the Comfort of the tradition.

Why are school and teachers so reluctant to

integrate them in the learning process?

I think all can profit with the advantages 

they can bring, motivation and collaboration, for example.

It is a challenge for me to change my teaching practice.

At school we have a projector, a computer on the  teacher`s desk and

a wi fi connection.

Students are not  allowed to use mobile devices but they wanted to. We have

neither computers  nor tablets for at least half of the class.

in the centre of the city. It represents a rural worker from the past.

Reflection about my own reasons why I want to use tablets in my teaching and learning

- learning is more interesting and creative;

-more communication, learners become more independent and can do more creative work in the English lessons;

- we are preparing our students for tomorrow and technologies will be very important in whatever they will do;

- students learn on how to reflect on what they produce because they are more engaged: critical thinking and peer reflecting learning will be useful for lifelong learning as well;

-technology must be simple and reliable and provide access to learning;

-tecnology must be not only a tool for the consumption of information but also a

tool for the creation of learning and information as well.

As a teacher I should think about my own context of the pedagogical use of tablets as a tool .

Also according to researchers there is also evidence that there is a social gap between social strata, between families of diferente economic levels and between individuals of different levels of digital literacy or its absence. These factors lead to extreme opinions regarding the use and potential of technologies.

Digital divide

1:1 means 1 tablet per 1 student

BYOD - bring your own device

Main issues

Access to technologies and content

to use technologies safely and with a purpose and ability to support

Teachers  of the Creative Classroom Lab project say that

- personalised learning

- apps for content creation and visualisation: the vídeo and photo cameras can be used

- flexible teaching

- more collaboration

- students get feedback

Students of the Creative Classroom Lab project

Why are tablets a good learning resource?

- they are fun

- allow to work ans save things

- develop different skills: strenghten competence in the mother tongue,

visualise foreign sites making reading more enjoyable and learn a foreign language, work in various group projects.

After  reflecting  about this what I would like  to achieve with the tablets taking into account the local situation at my school and in my country, the main reasons are:

- improve motivation to learn

- improve students' communicative skills in English as a foreign language

- get students involved and more engaged in their learning process

- bring technologies to classroom as their mobile devices make part of their everyday lives

Whole Schools Issues

1. Challenges for lots of schools are time and money : curriculum, examinations, other activities, school holidays

Need of planning implementation: objectives, activities, access and evaluate

- a team work, involve my colleagues, and not na individual work

- a strategy and a shared plan

- implemente a pilot programme with some teachers and students

2. In the beginning I should  document my evidence and process:

- New ways of teaching & learning

- Student outputs

-Teacher feedback

- Assessment

3.  - 24/7 teacher access

     - teacher collaboration with tablets

     - defined list of apps ( a step-by-step process)

     - sharing best-practice

     - School to school collaboration

The greatest challenge for me when using tablets in school is to change the learning environment (flipped learning), to tackle with issues like the virtual communication, eSafety, technical support and to convence Directors, colleagues and parents.

It is possible to create groups, assign homework, give feedback, assess, do classroom polls and quizzes, collaborate with other teachers, it is free and available to smart phones as well.

https://sites.google.com/site/praticaoportugues/

This first experience was very useful as my students could work together and visualise their work. They weren't allowed to use smart phones or tablets at school which was a rule at school. This was an extra tool after classes.  

Last year the blog for a Reading purpose:

http://conquistaaspalavras.blogspot.pt/

They are in Portuguese as at that time I was teaching Portuguese in Switzerland. Sorry!

Two apps : little birdtales for story telling for children and movie maker to a book trailor

Last school year I had a group of 2nd/3rd grade learning Portuguese in Switzerland and after reading a tale they did this project work: drawing, writing sentences and recording their voices. It was a great experience and they were really engaged.

http://littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/42258

Also with movie maker it is possible to work on a book trailer. It is very easy to work with. Students can work in groups to choose images, the sound, to record voices and write sentences summarizing a chapter/book.

Sorry, it is in Portuguese.

Collaborative learning requires planning and guidance by the teacher. T

Roles of students and teacher

Role of tablets

Organising the process

Facebook vs. Edmodo

Twitter vs. Edmodo

Blogger vs. Edmodo

•  students gain necessary knowledge before class, and 
• teachers guide students to actively and interactively clarify and apply that knowledge during class.

This approach supports iteachers playing the role of guiding their students to deeper thinking and higher levels of application. A flipped class keeps student learning at the center of teaching.

Interaction increases and students learn from one another.

Students work together applying course concepts with guidance from the teacher. This increased interaction helps to create a learning community that encourages them to build knowledge together inside and outside the classroom.

Teachers and students get more feedback.

With more opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and therefore demonstrate their ability to use it, gaps in their understanding become visible to both themselves and the teacher.

Some disadvanteges

In my country, Portugal, school finishes at 6.30 pm and students complain that they don't have enough time to do their homework. But with some reasonable work/time this can not be a problem.

Teacher needs planning to  prepare and identify the content students should engage and prepare at home.

The charts in the folder cover the following categories of
tools:

There is research to support this new educational trend. http://www.techsmith.com/flipped-classroom.html Check out this site:http://www.fi.ncsu.edu/project/fizz/pd/lecture

The greatest benefit of flipping the classroom is not the vídeo but the in-class time that every teacher must evaluate and redesign. Because our direct instruction was moved outside of the classroom, our students were able to conduct higher-quality and more engaging activities.

From my past experience as a teacher of English in a Vocation School in Porto with the Lingua, Socrates and Comenius projects that involved exchange study visits and being a host/guest family, with no ICT or Apps at the time, the enrichment and collaboration waas high-profitable both for students and schools/teachers.

I hope in the future I will work with e-twinning and other classes via skype on a project. I hope my school next year will allow that with resources and interest in technologies.

I have never tried this tool but I think this app is for IPad only. It seems great to give assignments, instructions and resources for the students. Then students submit their work and the teacher gives feedback, by adding annotations, voice notes and text notes directly on the students' work.

The Khan Academy -  it is an excellent resource to find educational videos that you can use with your students. This safes you from preparing new content yourself. While most videos are still in English there is an increasing amount of content available in other languages, too.  They also provide a lot of supporting materials for teachers to use Khan Academy in the classroom.

Socrative is a great tool to personalise the learning for your students by gaining valuable information about the understanding of each of your students.

And finally, Aurasma was mentioned as a tool to use for augmented reality instructional videos to personalise the learning.