My name is Carmen Gómez and I am an English teacher and headmaster in a Secondary School in A Fonsagrada, Lugo, Galicia, Spain.

I love gadgets and also am an Apple fan.

I live in Lugo, a city in the northwest of Spain. These are some photos of my city:

We are on the Primitive Way to Santiago, so I'm working on a project to help pilgrims locate and find the most interesting places and things to see and do in the area. I'm doing it with a small group of students and we're doing it with our mobiles, because we don't have tablets. Let's hope next year they are here for us!

Regarding my school, there are several challenges that can be difficult to overcome. First of all, the Internet access in the area is very poor (we are situated on a mountain area, rather isolated) Another problem would be the lack of financial resources,the state supports centres, but common expenses take all of the budget, and we cannot ask parents for money, because the area is rural and they are mainly small farmers. Another problem, even more difficult to cope with is some teachers' unwillingness and inability at working with ICT.

First and second challenges are only a matter of money, as soon as we find the funds, they should be easily solved.

The third challenge could be more difficult to cope with, but I have the hope that as soon as these reluctant teachers find out the things they can do with tablets in their class, they will be willing to use them. I think giving information is a must, because we fear what we don't know . Knowledge can help them start working.

In my case there are mainly two challenges I think I will have to face when using tablets:

First of all, the problem of space in schools is an important one, it will be difficult to find learning spaces for tablets. Besides, as we don't have a specific classroom for each subject, here it is the teacher who goes to the students' classrooms, several teachers share the same class, and finding a classroom layout that all of them like can be hard.

Secondly, I don't know how we can face the assessment challenge. As students can learn in different ways, the evaluation can turn out to be very difficult.

In my opinion, if students have to give explanations to other peers, they keep focused. One strategy I sometimes use is swapping students from group to group, telling the others what their original group is doing and what and why they are doing it, and why it is important in the whole of the activity or project. When you have to give an explanation, you get prepared and you pay attention to what you have to tell the others!!!

This way, all the groups know what the others are doing, and adapt their work to the work of the other groups, and they all contribute to the task.

I am no etwinner yet, however, I think that students love sharing what they do, showing their work, and more if they work with other schools in other places.

If this kind of collaborative work can be done in a quick way, with a mobile device that helps them get easily connected with peers all over the world, the better.

First of all, I observe students in class, trying to make flexible groups because normally they adapt their role in the group with their way of learning.

I don't think we should ask our students what type of learners they are: most of us are not aware of the type of learner we are, and that does not prevent us from learning.

Adapting our teaching to their learning? Maybe in some cases it is positive, but the student should concentrate and acquire the necessary skills to learn in nearly all ways.

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