Gunita - My Learning Diary by G

About me

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-16 17:06:20 UTC

Hello! My names is Gunita. I'm a teacher of Nature Science and Social Studies for 5th - 6th classes, also I'm Deputy Director of Balvi Primary school (Latvia). My motto - “eTwinning opens the doors of classroom to the world”.

1.1. What are digital skills?

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-16 17:09:41 UTC

The digital skills are very important in many aspects of our life. So I completely agree with the 10 items from the website Mashable. Children should be taught digital skills as a core skill alongside maths, native language, English, Science etc. School is the most important place in order to acquire the digital skills, but are schools ready to teaching these digitals skills?

http://mashable.com/2013/05/06/digital-skills-college/#2HYqvSMiJskh

1.2. The future of work

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-16 18:07:10 UTC

I really like this presentation about future of works (causes many reflections about this topic). Technology is already transforming our homes in ways we could not have dreamed of, and technologies are also re-making our workplace and how we work and interact. I love to use different ICT in my lessons to make my lessons interesting and diverse and I really want to learn more about developing students' digital skills, but I think the ability to work with others cooperatively toward a common goal - being a "good team player," must be at the top. We need to help the students to prepare for the challenging work requirements in this digital future and for this we need to create a motivating learning environment in schools. In my recent course I learned about this scheme about 21st century skills.

1.3. Jobs of the future

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-16 18:54:48 UTC

Very motivating words - The future lies in the person who holds the job. I think that future jobs will be robotics experts, nanotechnology specialists, environmentalists. But we must remember that the labor market creates new jobs whenever it destroys some old ones. While certainly many jobs that exist today will not exist in the next 10 years, it’s also quite easy to see many new jobs being created.

I love this picture by comment from Francoise Altamura

1.4. Accessing future jobs

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-16 18:55:53 UTC

I haven't had an online interview and I don't use my LinkedIn profile and also our school doesn't do online interviews but it sounds interesting. During discussions with my students about accessing the jobs in the future we usually speak more about internet safety and picture-posting rules on different social medias:

1) My good name & my reputation online are created or destroyed by my digital footprint.

2) In the digital age my character and personality will be judged:

•By my words; •By my actions; •By what others say and post about me. 3) Understand that the internet is a public place not a private place.
4) Everything I post is:

a.Searchable: anyone, anywhere, anytime can find it.
b.Forever: anyone (even Granny & Grandad) can find it today or 30 years from now.
c.Copyable: once found it can be copied, changed & shared.
d.For a global invisible audience: I can’t control what “friends” will share or how they will edit my photos or words or who will see it.

1.5. Future thinking

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-16 18:56:04 UTC

I agree with Ollie’s analysis. We really should focus on:
- Values;

- Resilience;

- Embracing changes;

- Innovation;

- Remaining positive.

We have no idea of what the world will look in future, but we need to prepare our students for life in future. Schoolsshould work with a project-based curriculum, engaging students in real-world problems. Teachers should help students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. Technologies should be tools students use to create knowledge and to create personal and social change.

Module 2 starter activity

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 15:12:17 UTC

I think that I can easily find different materials, ideas on the internet and I love to create online activities using www.learningapps.com to my students. Expecially I like to use ActivExpression student response system that is designed to promote full-class participation and engagement throughout lessons.

2.1.a. Searching the Internet - types of search engines

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 16:07:31 UTC

I usually use Google search ( links, photos, maps etc). But sometimes I use Bing or Yahoo too. Wikipedia is one of my favorite website for searcing correct information. But I really didn' t know how many search engines existed. I tried www.searchengineland.com and it seems very interesting.

2.1.b. Searching the Internet - improving your search

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 16:20:43 UTC

Thank you for very useful video ( specially - gorilla part!) and searching tips! In one local course we also used such tips for googling:

Use specific words rather than generic categories.
Use quotation marks to search for "certain phrases".
Use synonyms.

2.1.c. Searching the Internet - advanced search

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 16:47:50 UTC

Thanks for so many advanced search tips! I use quotation marks a lot to find exact phrase or short key words, but I didn't pay attention on this icon for advanced search :) In the future I will definitely use the advanced search and teach it to my pupils.

2.1.d. Searching the Internet - hidden gems

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 16:57:30 UTC

Wow, the website of my favorite musicians U2 in 2000! Also other exciting ideas - searching gems ! Thanks for very useful resources!

2.1.e. Searching the Internet - searching the future internet

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 17:11:07 UTC

I have never heard about Google Alerts, but I think it is a very useful tool! I just set up 1 google alert about my school and I'm curious how it will work! Thanks for interesting idea! I'll recommend it to my students too!

2.2.a. Content and Copyright - reliability of digital content

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 17:22:02 UTC

It's really a big problem, because there are no real restrictions for publishing information on Internet. Anyone can publish positive / negative opinion or false information / photos. I teach my students always to compare the information that they find on Internet with other information sources ( books, magazines etc.) But I'll need to speak about it more using questions in video.

2.2.b. Content and Copyright - 7 things you didn't know about Wikipedia

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 17:41:50 UTC

Wikipedia is also one of my

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not

2.2.b. Content and Copyright - 7 things you didn't know about Wikipedia

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 17:41:57 UTC

Wikipedia is also one of my favorite website. My primary school students like to use Wikipedia facts too because they can find necessary information very quickly. Ollie's tips are very simple, thanks for them! Creating a book - sounds interesting!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not

2.2.c. Content and Copyright - understanding copyright

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 17:51:22 UTC

In my classes we definitely discuss about the copyrights (specially for eTwinning projects), e-safety and ethics rules ( for chatting, using different social medias). I talk about Creative Commons license ( from eTwinning educational course) to them and I teach them about websites with free pictures, music etc.

2.2.d. Content and Copyright - digital plagiarism

gunitapugeja — 2015-09-27 18:01:52 UTC

In my lessons during research works pupils have to write down their sources (website, books etc). And I can very easy see if material is just copy- pasted. But in common - yes, plagirism is а problem in school. For many students the Internet is endless storage of information, pictures, videos what, in their opinion, they can use as they wish.

Modul 3 Start Activity

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 17:22:04 UTC

I think that my weakest digital skills are fowards coding and game design. I’ve made one very simple game using scratch. I use twitter just a little because I’m not keen on communication through social media, I prefer communication via e-mail or face-to face. Today there are so many ICT tools that I would like to learn more.

3.1. Writing for the Web

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 17:33:59 UTC

My students usually work offline, but we’ve published most interesting works on our school’s website. For projects I usually use online communication using TwinSpace , Google Docs, Padlet. During the Comenius project all partnerschools had created a website on WikiSpaces where we shared our work done by pupils.

But I'll absolutely agree that online discussion is going to need:

- an effective prompt;

- preparation;

- practice;

- effective facilitation.

We really must think about purpose of publishing. My students are quite concerned about using Youtube for video publishing (privacy).

3.2. Collaborating Online

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 17:56:44 UTC

With my students I’ve used padlet, google docs: for testing and getting answers to inquiries, collaborative writting. In my school I use google docs, sheets and slides as aplication forms for teachers' courses and evaluation. But also I think that ideas suggested by Ollie are very useful, so I’ll try to explore them!

3.3. Audio and Video

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 18:09:29 UTC

Thanks for the interesting video – I’ve had so many ideas! We use Photostory3 to create digital stories, Moviemaker to make videos. I will definitely explore some of Olie's suggestions. We’ll use Skype sessions for our NordPlus project at first and if we’ll succeed also for Erasmus+ project.

3.4. Website Design

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 18:20:43 UTC

I’ve used wordpress.com for my blog but I haven't used it with my students yet . In my school we have an idea that we can use the school website (anazana) to create separate pages for events in classes. Let's hope that we will succeed. Thank you for inspiring suggestions!

3.5. Games Design

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 18:30:53 UTC

Usually I use games in class that are created by others. But I love to make simple games using learningapps.com. I think that using digital games in school helps to engage and motivate students. They help students to work towards achievement of

goals, provide helpful feedback. We can use digital games to teach facts, problem solving, to to provide practical examples of concepts and rules that would be difficult to illustrate in the real world.

3.7. OPTIONAL Activity: Submit and review digitally created content

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 18:41:19 UTC

This online activity on website www.learningapps.com I made for our eTwinning project "Christmas is coming again". The idea of this project was to create an international online Advent calendar. From the first to the 24nd of December the children can open every day a new “door” filled with input from one of the partner schools. I love learningapps and I've made different activities there in my native Latvian language, for example, millionaire game about nature in Latvia (students in my school really liked it). For this one activity students made Christmas drawings (copyrights) and I put them in little game. http://LearningApps.org/1202849

online calendar link (many thanks to fantastic project coordinator from Germany, I've learned many ICT tools from her)- http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=26201254

Thanks to Erato Karakonstanti for very nice review!

I really like the game you created. More specifically, students get involved to the creation of the game as they draw the pictures themselves. This helps them improve certain skills on the one hand and on the other, they get motivated as they set a certain goal. So, not only do they create the game but they also have the fun to play it, afterwards. Really smart, isn't it? Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Live Webinar lead by Edgars Bajaruns

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-07 18:54:04 UTC

I have attended educational courses lead by Edgar. He is a fantastic teacher! Thanks for great ideas!

Module 4 Starter

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 15:55:23 UTC

I have enthusiastic students, responsive colleagues, but the most I love 3 basic values of our Balvi Primary school: belonging, responsibility, cooperation.

4.1. Coding - Getting Started

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:04:01 UTC

At this moment in our country students acquire subject „Computer Science” (basics in Computer Science, Office programms, Internet safety etc ) in Grade 5 – Grade 7 ( 1 lesson per week), but not as separate subject in primary level.

I think that coding is very important skill in future, but most of our schools and teachers are not ready for teaching coding in primary school. Starting from this school year there is new pilot-project in some schools. Schools will be able to choose to integrate the teaching of basic computing skills and also coding in almost all subjects from Grade 1 till Grade 3, but it will not be compulsory.

4.2. Coding - Pair Programming

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:12:19 UTC

Great video and wonderful idea! I didn't have to use this method because I don't teach coding related topics. But i'm thinking about using such method in my next project about healthy food.

But till today I have another experience. During previous eTwinning project students learned about partner - countries. Their tasks were to find information both in books and on the Internet and then set up a small poster. At first we spoke about good / bad communication examples. Then Students collaborated in pairs: jointly sought the information, images. They presented the work done. In this long process the children learned to work together and they got to knew a lot about the partner countries.

4.3. Coding - Links to other subjects

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:17:32 UTC

I've never used coding related topics in my lessons, but I teach Nature Science and Social Studies which are very easy to link with ICT. Recently we spoke about healthy food in Social Studies, we used http://www.twofoods.com/ etc. At the end students filled the Padlet. And of course, eTwinning projects because they integrate itself many subjects, using of English and ICT.

4.4. App Development - Getting Started

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:23:15 UTC

Very interesting video! I think that ideas for apps really should made by students, but maybe we together can to create app for organization of students' time-table, home-works.

4.5. App Development - Touch Develop

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:34:15 UTC

Unfortunately I have no experience with Touch Develop but I should personally learn it first before using in classroom. I'd like to use it my Nature Science and Social Studies lessons.

4.6. Educational Robotics - Introduction

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:41:33 UTC

We don't have any robots in our school, but I'm sure that robots can be used in many subjects for different themes. For example, beebots can be used in teaching traffic rules, safety etc.

4.7. Educational Robotics - Getting Started Activities

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:43:02 UTC

I don't have experience of using robots. But I've been on eTwinning seminar in Denmark where we visited local school with special Lego robots classroom. Children were really proud of their work and it was very interesting! Also thanks for nice ideas in videos! So it's worth to think about it in future!

4.8. Internet of Things

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:45:29 UTC

A video that makes us think more deeply ... I think that Internet has many pearls and just as many monsters. ICT is wonderful tool not a goal. We, teachers have a lot of work so that students would be able to use the Internet wisely.

Module 5 Starter

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 16:57:40 UTC

Not so good technical equipment and quite bad internet access, especially WiFi . Some teachers would like to have interactive whiteboard in classrooms, not just computer and projector ( they have many interesting ideas for using ICT). But also some teachers don't want to acquire using of ICT tools for making lessons more interesting.

5.1. What is Social Media

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 17:06:26 UTC

Today social media is very important part of society. Our students are constantly on Facebook, Twitter and other social websites. Social media can be a useful tool. The teaching process is more effective if it contributes to the participant's active involvement, discussions, exchange of experience. But we also have to be very responsible about posting information on Internet.

5.2. Social Media as a Learning Network

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 17:16:45 UTC

I use all three parts suggested by Ollie. The face to face community is my school - work with the students, the parents and the colleagues. The closed digital community is eTwinning and TwinSpace (it's really safe for students). But as the open digital learning Community I sometimes use Twitter.

5.3. Social Media in the Workplace

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 17:22:43 UTC

We take a part in interesting eTwinning projects that integrates effective and responsible use of social media. We use TwinSpace for uploading our materials, communication with other schools.

5.4. Internet Safety and Responsible Use

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-18 17:31:58 UTC

I think that we should start talking to children about e-safety at first in family because many preschool age kids like to play games, to view videos on Internet etc. But at the my school I encourage teachers to talk about these problems even from 1st Class in Social Studies.

In Latvia we have a wonderful website http://www.drossinternets.lv/page/53 There are many ideas, worksheets, videos in Latvian language how to speak with pupils ( in all age levels) about e-safety rules.

Specially I love to play together with children game about e-safety http://www.drossinternets.lv/spele/ or ethics on using Internet http://www.wildwebwoods.org/popup.php?lang=lv

Module 6 Starter

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-19 18:28:33 UTC

Thanks for very interesting course! I've got so much information to think, to explore, to use! Of course, I need more time to try all new ideas. But for beginning I would like to do different activities using Google Docs, Pair Programming, Padlet, wise Internet Search tools, maybe even make a blog for our eTwinning project about healthy lifestyle.

6.3. Peer Reviewing

gunitapugeja — 2015-10-22 17:59:05 UTC

I think that possibility to share experience and to receive evaluation from other is absolutely wonderful thing. I've observed the lessons of colleagues. I love to use in my lessons also the students self-evaluation and peer-evaluation methods. I think it's very important.

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gunitapugeja — 2016-12-30 15:15:16 UTC

Thanks for wonderful educational course!!!