Week 10

It's time to say goodbye my dear online friends. Thank you for sharing your views on different topics and reading and visiting my posts. Thank you Sean, you were supportive and active.



Frankly speaking  at the beginning of the course I felt overwhelmed by the amount of tools we had to use: blackboard, google sites, wikispaces, blogspot, nicenet and e-mail account. As soon as I got to know about the organization of the course I remembered Bridget Jones' diary and wrote my resolutions on week 1. Now that we are almost finishing I can include on my list:

•  Read the weekly tasks on week 1

•  Start participating as soon as you finish reading part of the materials

•  Participate in Nicenet discussions

•  Interact with your classmates

•  Follow other participants' blogs

•  Customize your blog: include a blogroll, tags, audios, videos, photos.

•  Reflect

•  Read additional materials

I tried to follow these ideas and did my best. I found the course very useful. All the contents were interesting and there were many sites I didn't know which I'm planning to share with my students next year. I loved the organization and the fact that we could interact with guest speakers such as Donna and Jeff.

One of my students in ICT for ELT created this online video after attending the subject and as a student I somehow feel the same way.

Final reflection by laucascone on GoAnimate

 

My final reflection part 2 by laucascone on GoAnimate

As regards the readings from this week, I've been using technology for a lot of time. When I started working as a teacher I used different tools to prepare handouts. Students were rather passive in the sense that they were not using the tools.
Nowadays I think I'm at the Transformation Level. I encourage the innovative use of technology tools. I try to be creative and flexible. In the case of the final project, I started using multimedia e-portfolios and students set their goals and rather than completing assignments and they reflected on their learning process.
University of Southern Florida: The Technology Integration Matrix


State of Washington: Tiers of Technology Integration
I can say I'm at Tier 3 because my students are actively engaged in using technology esp. in Materials Design and ICT for ELT. Students create their own resources such as online quizzes, videos, etc. They participate in collaborative activities in google docs and wikispaces. What's more,  they share and publish their work online.

All in all, it was a great experience. I learnt about other contexts and how to integrate the interactive web. What else can I say?

This is a new beginning. Good luck my friends!

Learning styles/Multiple intelligences

This week I read about learning styles and technology tools for multiple intelligences. The article Tech tools that support multiple intelligences was very interesting because it includes information on multiple intelligences and how technology tools support classroom activities for each of the 9 intelligences identified by Gardner. I participated in the discussion in Nicenet and included web tools I know for each intelligence:

Verbal/ Linguistic: people learn best through language including speaking, writing, reading, and listening which means that we can use most of the websites we saw. :)
What's more, students can prepare interactive Powerpoint presentations and complete tasks created in different authoring tool programs such as Hot Potato. They can use audio recorders such as Audacity and Vocaroo.

Logical/Mathematical: people learn best through numbers, reasoning, and problem solving. For example, they can use graphic organizers such as Cmap tools and Cacoo and webquests as we created.

Visual/Spatial: people learn best visually and tend to organize their thinking spatially. I have mentioned some and I'd like to include online comic creator tools such as Toon Doo, avatars like Voki and talking photos like Fotobabble. I included some examples in previous blog posts.

Bodily/Kinesthetic: people learn best through physical activity such as dance, hands-on tasks, constructing models, and any kind of movement. QR codes treasure hunts which I included in Paddlet seem to be a good option. Students can go on a field trip use their mobile phones to take pictures, record videos and audios and then prepare a presentation.

Musical/Rhythmic: people learn best through sounds including listening and making sounds such as songs, rhythms, patterns, and other types of auditory expression. I'm thinking about David Ferlazzo's post on week 3, using radio programmes and video clips and speaking lesson plans at one stop English. 

Intrapersonal: people learn best through metacognitive practices which means that creating a reflective blog in Blogspot or an e-porftolio in Weebly where students write about their learning process and goals apart from showing their work can be of great help.They can also use blipfoto if they like posting photos. Blipfoto lets students share their photos one day at a time and write about them. It's free and easy to use. It's like a daily photo journal.

Intrapersonal: people learn best through interaction with other people. For that reason, students can participate in forums, work in group in wikis or google docs, participate in key pal or school links projects, comments on each other's blogs, etc.

Naturalist: people learn best through the interactions with the environment. This may include using QR codes for treasure hunts, the mobile phone for videorecording and taking photos to prepare a presentation of a field trip, google earth, woices to upload photos and audios about a school trip, etc.

I also read the article "Learning styles and strategies" by Felder & Soloman which explores the impact of different learning styles on classroom performance. Teachers must understand the fact that students learn in different ways and plan lessons which suit their needs and learning styles.

My final project

I'm happy to know that my final project is ready after 9 weeks of hard work. It took me some time to put all my ideas and resources together but in the end I could publish it. It was a good idea to follow different steps:

1) I analyzed the students who were attending the course "Materials Design" at IES en Lenguas Vivas Juan R. Fernández in Buenos Aires.

2)  I wrote my reflections on the course "Materials Design" and described the issues that technology might be able to help improve.

3) I wrote about the  technology-related change that I was going to implemen.

4) I started to implement  that technology-related change in the course "Materials Design". I keept a log to record what was done and what happened.

5) I wrote a draft report about what happened when implementing the project and shared it with Olga who commented on it.

6) I used the checklist that Olga completed when she commented on my draft report and wrote the final version of my project. Then I uploaded it onto out wiki and Nicenet.

 Here's the final version. Hope you find it interesting!

Anvill

This week we had the opportunity of meeting Jeff Magoto, the director of the language center at the University of Oregon. It was a great idea to have access to Anvill developed by Jeff who explained to us how to use this course management system and the different tools it provides.

Here's a video about Anvill.

So I decided to open a teacher account and to create a course in Anvill. You don't need to request for membership. The course is called "Trying ANVILL: Materials Desing" (Group Registration Key: 2447) and  is open as you can see in the above screen shots.

 

 

Then I created a lesson plan based on a presentation by Nik Peachey delivered at IATEFL 2013. After watching the presentation, students have to complete certain tasks. As a follow up activities I created a voiceboard and a forum.

Edilim

Last year I got to know about Edilim and decided to try it out. It's a frees oftware that can be used to create different activities. It's user friendly, free and provides a variet of options.

 Last term, my students created a multimedia e-book in Edilim which included 3 activities. In this case, I want yo show an example.

Viviana Grieco designed 3 activities for 7 year-old-students. On the first activity, students have to solve a puzzle about pets. On the second page of the e- book, they have to solve a memory game and say the animals aloud whenever they find the pair. On the last page of the e-book, kids read and find the corresponding pictures.

 

 

Hot Potatoes

When I was a student at the Teacher Training College I was introduced to Hot Potatoes. We created activities and tried to customize them. We changed the background, the fonts, the colours and the feedback. That was in 2002. Nowdays, I teach students how to create activities in Hot Potato but they don't like it much due to the fact that its layout is not very attrative. Yet, it's free, you don't need internet connection and it's user friendly. You can create different types of  activities and even design a menu with links to them.

 

These are screen shots of a set of activities I created in Hot Potatoes. After reading "Chapter 2: A model for the design and development of multimedia projects" from the book Multimedia Projects in Education by Ivers & Baron, students will complete 4 activities.

The menu includes the four activities I created. 

1. Students complete a graphic organizer based on the DDD-E Model.
2. Students match concepts and definitions.
3. Students choose the correct option for each sentence.
4. Students put in order a paragraph.

Project Plan & Peer Assessment Checklist

This week we had to present the first draft of our final project. The good thing about it is that we've been working for 7 weeks on this project which means that we have to collect the information and reflect on what happened when implementing the project. I like the fact that the project was organized into different steps. We explored projects from former students, we had access to rubrics and a peer assessment checklist, we characterized the group and the setting, the problem and planed a possible solution.

In my case I worked with Olga. We both exchanged our project plans and completed a checklist.

Click here if you want to read my project plan

In my case I read Olga's project which was very interesting. Her learners are master students working on their theses. Wow! They're studying at university and improving their presentation skills. I completed the checklist and made some suggestions.

Seventh's week reflection

I read some of the online articles about learner autonomy, one computer classroom and mobile devices. I shared my views on how to help develop students’ autonomy and shared a lesson plan. 

I posted two links on our paddlet class site. This is not a new tool for me though I must confess that I use Lino it more than Paddlet. Both of them are online walls where you can post multimedia messages. You can use them to collect students’ responses, capturing knowledge at the end of a lesson, debating, sharing information, etc.

Created with Padlet

And here’s the link to a lino it I created this year. Students shared their course expectations in a creative way. 

Lino it Sample

I started to implement my project plan and got together with Olga. We will both share our project plans. Cool!

Teaching with laptops- Using Comics & Avatars in the classroom

The following lesson plan that I want to share with you was carried out in September 13’ following a 1-to-1 laptop programme. 

In 2010 the Argentinian Government developed ConectarIgualdad Programme aimed at bridging the technology divide and encouraging ubiquitous learning.  Netbooks were given to students and teachers at run state high schools and teacher training colleges all over the country. For that reason my students have netbooks and use them in class.

Who  are the students? Trainee teachers attending “Materials Design”

Duration: 8 hours

Behabioural Objectives

• After reading about “Comics, Manga and Avatars in the classroom”, students will post at least one coment/quote based on the reading they did on the class paddlet site.

• After exploring websites to create avatars, students will choose one site, create their avatar and post it on the class paddlet site in at least one post.

• After exploring comic online creators, students will choose one site, create a comic and review the webtool which they will present in a multimedia poster (glogsgter) or infographic (piktochart) on the class paddlet site.

Procedure:

1. I will give a short presentation o the topic 
2. Students will read some online articles and discuss in small groups why and how comics, avatars and graphic novels can be used in the EFL classroom. 
3. Students will post at least a comment/quote after the discussion 
4. Then students will explore some web tools to create avatars and comics. 
5. Students will reviewed at least one tool and present it in an online poster (glogster) or in an infographic (piktochart) 
6. Students will create an avatar and a comic strip. 
7. Students will upload their work and inserted in at least two posts on the class paddlet site

Rationale:

When planning these activities, I wanted my students to explore different web tools, give them the opportunity of choosing the sites and how they wanted to present the information. I also thought it was a good idea to do this on a class paddlet site so that all of them could see and read their productions. I plan activities which foster critical thinking, decision making and independent action. Students were eager to participate and wanted to share and tried different tools. They were involved in the tasks which were mostly done in class. My role was that of a facilitator, guiding them in the learning process and making suggestions.

Created with Padlet

Developing Learner Autonomy

This week we discussed different topics: learner autonomy, one coputer classroom and mobile devices. In this post I want to share how I encouraged students to work on their own, make decisions, take responsibility for their actions and reflect.

I used to work in a primary bilingual school. I was in charge of a literacy programme aimed at promoting learner's autonomy and reading habits in 9-12 year-old students.

Three authentic children's novels were selected for each form and the different literary genres explored. Students selected which novel they wanted to read first.

I designed tasks around those novels which were adapted according to students' age and command of the foreign language. In other words, tasks were graded and novels were authentic.

Students visited the school's library and read during 30 minutes in silence while completing a task every 3 chapters. Some tasks were written and some were oral. For that reason, these tasks included different instructional practices which supported a variety of reading strategies.

I monitored students' work and helped them whenever it was necessary.

This program supplemented their language and literature classes. Students developed different reading strategies and learnt to ask questions and worked on their own.

Altough this Prezi is in Spanish you can take a look at the novels they read and how they worked.

Weebly for e-portfolios

I've been using this idea of creating e-portoflios. If you want to know more about the topic, here's a canvas I prepared. But what about Weebly? In order to explore this tool for creating websites, I first introduced the topic of e-portfolios, their advantages and disadvantages and samples of students' e-porfolios.

Canvas: E-porfolios

Last Tuesday we watched Valerie's Burton webinar and explored all the links she shared. Now students must ope an account in Weebly.

Using Weebly to publish e-Portfolios - TCEA 2013 from VR Burton

Project Step 4 & 5

As a lecturer in "Materials Design" at the Teacher Training College, I always try to encourage them to create materials for their lessons. Sometimes they don't see themselves as materials writers. They are good at using online resources, they have access to different teaching materials but they don't produce much. I want them to be use technology to develop handouts, technology enhanced lesson plans, digital materials, etc. In other words, I want them to develop instructional materials which cater students' needs. Many students find this a challenge and the use of technology challenging. So I must find ways to show them the benefits of using technology to create their own teaching materials which they can use during their teaching practices.


So far I've been using DIIGO and created a close group to share some links with my students. I also created a classroom in Edmodo to communicate, share other resources and for them to upload their tasks. For collaborative work, we use google docs and wikispaces. We have explored teachers' blogs, handouts,  projects and used different websites and Webtools.

Now students can start publishing the instructional materials they are developing and reflect on them.


Possible solution:

1)   E-portfolios
I found a talk in classroom 2.0 on the use of Weebly by Valerie Burton and the potential of using e-portfolios. I also read some articles by Helen Barrett so I thought that students could create an e-portfolio and share the teaching materials they have been developing.


2)   Video conferencing
Each month we can have a Skype meeting with a teacher or expert from another part of the world so that students can have access to more examples and actually learn about other contexts and how teachers overcome difficulties.

This year  I will start working on the use of Weebly and next year I'll work on video conferencing due to the fact that we are almost finishing the school year.

Interactive PowerPoint

I created my first interactive Powerpoint in 2002. In those days I was attending ICT for ELT at the teaching training college and the task was to create an interactive presentation in pairs. Since then I created different presentations and improved their quality. I learnt how to insert audios, videos and hiperlinks.

This time I want to share a PPT I created for a group of  students aged 10 who were reading about amazing adaptations. The way the information was presented in the textbook was not appealing so I thought they could learn more about those animals and some others.

The presentation starts with information about chamaleons, sloths and giant anteaters. While reading about these animals, students will complete a graphic organizer. Then they will visit Oakland Zoo website and select 2 animals they want to learn about and complete the chart.

Here's the link to the ppt presentation

Here's the link to the handout

Alternative Assessment

This week we learned about "Alternative Assessment" esp. about rubrics. I usually find rubrics a fair alternative to assess my students' work. I'd like to share with you a rubric I use for multimedia projects. I started using this rubric las year. It took some time to created by it worked really fine and that's why I continue using it. It takes into account all the phase of the multimedia project: Planning, Design, Developments, Technical Aspects and presentation.

Context:

Creating a multimedia project involves careful planning esp. if you have to use mobile devices such as webcams, mobile phones and netbooks. In this opportunity, future student teachers worked collaboratively in order to create short video clips to be used with EFL learners. They created a story start to trigger the writing of a spooky story; three story endings to inspire learners to write a story that matches one of them and an adaptation of a children's book for very young learners to work with a story.They were divided into three groups and used Ivers and Barron (2002) model based on 3D and an E (decide, design, develop and evaluate) to plan their project. 

Hope you also find useful!

Link to rubric.

Webquests

I'd like to share a Webquest I created for 4th graders based on the novel "dinosaurs Before Dark" by Mary Pope Osborne.

Students will benefit from this project because they will be able to connect fiction and non fiction. After reading the novel, they can complete the following Webquest and learn more about dinosaurs.

To read the lesson plan, click here. 

Project Based Learning

This week we read about project-based learning (PBL) and Webquests. I've been using both in some of my lessons and taught my ICT for ELT students to develop a Webquests.

I first read the articles "Alternative Assessment" and "Less Teaching and More Learning". Then I explored the sites "Web Learning Projects" and "Resources for Assessing Project Based Learning". Finally I answered the questions posted by Sean and shared with my classmates my experience in using rubrics and developing projects.

How can PBL be used to help motivate students more?
PBL are great tools to motivate students to work in groups, produce a final product and help develop language skills in meaningful contexts. In my case I've been developing different projects. The outcomes were great and students were proud of their work. I used to work in 3rd form in a bilingual school. We didn't use textbook, i.e we created our own teaching materials. I remembered a project named "The deep blue sea". Children learnt about different sea animals and they prepared their oral presentations. We also read a reader and they created an audio book. They all participated even the shy students. This reminds me a lot of the projects explained by Susan Gaer.


How can PBL be incorporated with technology in your class - or alternatively what limitations are there to using PBL in your class?
I read a lot about PBL and the use of technology because last February I had to give a presentation on that and it's part of the content of a unit in ICT for ELT. For example: schools links projects are great options. Students interact with others though video conferencing, they can also create a blog to share their work.

Thanks to Evo Session, I met a Brazilian teacher in the Webheads course and contacted her. This year her students from Brazil and my students shared posts on the use of technology at the teacher training college. When I was a student I participated in a key pal project with students from Texas. It was a great experience. We exchanged e-mails on different topics: our food, touristic destinations, the school system, etc.


What is the role of rubrics and/or alternative assessment within PBL?
Rubrics play an important role when assessing students' work because even if it is not easy to develop them, students get fair information on how they will be assessed. So then if they want to get a good mark, they know what they have to do. You just established acriteria and create a rubric. Students' performance is then judge against the standards that you established.

Although you can find generic rubrics, I'd prefer creating specific rubrics.

I usually use analytic rubrics which mean that I include different categories and give different weights to different dimensions. But I also include a personal comment at the end. For example: I make reference to specific aspects, if the group was not working well or they had a problem, etc.

After reading the article about "Alternative Assessment" I think I have used multitrait rubrics because I included other aspects which are not the common ones and closely aligned with features of the task. For example, for oral presentations, I considered content, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, posters layout, poster presentation, etc.  

 I found this video in Edutopia very interesting. 

I also recommend this article: Using Project-Based Learning to Teach World Languages.

Fourth Week's Reflections

This week is coming to an end and fortunately I managed to complete all the assignments.

First, I explored reading and writing websites and found many interesting sites. I posted my views in Nicenet and decided to share some of them here.
I also included some links in Delicious https://delicious.com/garciamarialaura

If you want to work with news articles, you can use one of the following tools.

News in levels 
Breaking News English
News articles are divided according to your proficiency level.

Teaching and Learning with the New York Times
They include authentic resources, lesson plans and a variety of activities to do with your students. News articles are divided according to topic.

What's more, Maida one of my classmates, shared a site full of short stories and recordings. You can choose a short stories from a list and listen to it. Teachers can prepare handouts to work with those stories.

Short Stories for ESL reading

Second, we prepared a technology enhanced lesson plan. Sean gave us a template and posted some samples for us to get more ideas.

My lesson plan

Finally, we worked on Step 3 from our project. We idenitfied some problems and posted them in Nicenet.

It's been a busy week but we are learning a lot and the good thing is that we have access to resources and samples. So far so good.

Third week's reflections

During this week we worked on Oral skill- building websites, social bookmarking and explored projects developed by former students.

I read different articles about CALL for listening, speaking and pronunciation and explored websites which can be used by teachers and students in class to develop oral skills. I participated in the discussions in Nicenet and checked some links and web tools. I found the online speaking lesson plans interesting and varied so the teacher can adapt those materials to suit students' needs. I included some websites on my blog and bookmarked some others in Delicous. As I mentioned in Nicenet, I opened an account in Delicious last year but I prefer DIIGO because it gives me the possibility of highlighting websites, including comments and sticky notes.

It was a great idea to show sample project reports from past Webskills classes. I got an idea of what we are expected to do and shared my views with my classmates.

All in all, I think this week was full of resources and I'm learning a lot from my classmates. This is what I call a learning community. Happy to be part of it!

Developing speaking skills

This third week we had to visit a number of sites designed for English Language Learning. In this post I'd like to comment on The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English by Larry Ferlazzo. As a teacher, I have tried many of them. Let's take a look at four examples:

Voxopop: this tools allows to create "voice chatboards". Students can record themselves talking about a topic and respond to one another. Teachers can leave speaking assignments or even reply to students recordings. They can also create chain stories or even present different topics. Here's how I used it:
 
After reading a book chapter on language learning, students record their opinion and how they would apply the concepts discussed in their own teaching practice. In this way, students practised their oral skills, used voabulary related to education and integrated theory and practise. For these students, this task was useful because they needed to practise speaking skills (fluency, pronunciation, accuracy) as they were undergraduate Early Childhood students who would be teaching English to very young learners.

Babblerize: I'm a lecturer in Materials Design and as part of their e-portfolio, students recorded some final thoughts about the subject they attended. One of my students, Marilú Rodriguez, chose this web tool which allows you the possibility of creating "talking photos". Here's an example:



Fotobabble: by using this tool you can also create "talking photos".  After exploring the use of visuals in the classroom, my students chose a royalty free image, edited in Photofunia and created a talking photo. They included their reflections on the task. Take a look at this example by Celeste Fernandez Goncalves:

                      

Vocaroo: after discussing the use of podcasts and authentic materials in the lesson and the use of editing software such as Audacity, students used Vocaroo to record a message about the integration of digital audios in their lessons. In this example you will listen to Roxana Da Silva talking about that.

Audio recording software >>

Listening & Speaking Skills

During the third week we were introduced to some articles about Teaching Oral Skills. In this post I'd like to comment on the article Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsey Miller which focuses on the importance of using authentic materials to teach listening skills. As I wrote in Nicenet, I agree with the fact that "listening skills" are valuable and often disregarded by many teachers who focus more on "speaking skills". I'd also like to highlight the importance of using authentic materials with our students even if they are beginners. As Miller mentions, the aim of listening lessons is to foster students' autonomy when confronted with listening to the foreign language in a real world context.

Here's a list of some websites which may be come in handy when you are looking for podcasts and radio programmes:

BBC World Service  In this website you'll find different radio programmes and if internet connection fails you can download podcasts.  You can choose podcasts by genre or radio station. I personally like "The English we speak" and "6 minute English". They are short digital audios which focus on a specific feature of the English language: everyday English phrases and information on different topics with examples and explanation.

VOA Voice of America is another great option. I discovered the section "The classroom" which includes videos and audios with explanations and examples about the use of idioms and how to pronounce certain words in American English. You can also find lessons and words and their origins. Let me share "Dress to kill"

If you want to work with videos, you can find good resources at English Central and Teacher's Tube. I also found some useful ones to work with my students on Teacher's TV which are now available on You Tube. These are video clips to develop creative writing.

Second weeks's reflection

This week we reviewed different search engines and analyzed them in terms of use in our classroom. I explored many of them and wrote about their advantages and disadvantages in 3 posts on Nicenet and here.
I also visited my classmates' blogs and posted some comments. I can see we are all working hard to keep updated and we share information about the places where we work, our students and what we teach. We work in different contexts which is great because we learn from each other.
I described one course for the final project in Nicenet. In future posts I'm planning to upload pictures and videos to share more details about the group of students, technology available, the setting, etc.
I learnt about ABCD behavioural Model and tried to write some objetives following that model. I like the way our tutor usually presents the objectives and all the examples he posted so we could write the objectives correctly.

Web Searching. Part 3

Many of my classmates mentioned the use of search engines such as Google Scholar, AcademicInfo and Infomine. 

I have used Google Scholar frequently and it is one of the best options but then I tried the other search engines.

What happened?

I first tried AcademicInfo. I typed "transmedia" which is a topic that I'm starting to read about and got no matches.  So then I went to Infomine and typed the same term. I got access to an e-book.

Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games. From Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Marsha Kinder. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

I  also typed "transmedia" in Google Scholar and got 7,920 result. Too broad. I can narrow down my search by being more precise and look for specific dates and authors.  

Web Searching. Part 2

This week we focused on the use of different search engines. To my surprise the list is never ending but useful. So I continued trying other search engines. 
If you're working with kids or if you're actually one you can try:

• http://www.kidsclick.org/ Here you'll find information about different curricular areas such as Geography and Science.
• http://es.ask.com/  Kids can post a question and get different answers. In general the first one is the one that matches the question.
•  Yahoo kids was another option but unfortunately the site is not loading. 
• http://www.kidrex.org/ powered by Google, kids can search for kid-related websites. Have you tried it?

 I also found more search engines in this blog post.

5 Search Engines for kids

Web Searching. Part 1

One of the topics we're going to work on this week is "Web Searching". In general we tend to use Google and Yahoo but what about using other search engines? When we're looking for general topics they are good option but what happens if we want something more specifi, academic information?

In this article you'll find useful web searching tips by Debora Healey.

I selected Choose the Best Search for your Information Needs and tried "controversial issues":

1) IDEA Portal: I typed "global warming" but didn't get interesting information to be used in debates.

2) GLEAN Comparison Search: I first entered "global warming" and then selected pros and cons. To my surprise I got a list of useful links that can be used as input to prepare a debate.

Blogging

Altough this is not my first blog, it is the first time I create a reflective blog. That's why I started exploring other course participants' examples and reading what Sean posted about the topic. Some aspects I must remember to include:

• What I did.....
• What I learned....
• How can I apply it to my teaching?

I'm currently using a class blog at the Teacher Trainning College. It is aimed at students who want to be Portuguese and English teachers. It is in Spanish because that is the language we share although we also use Portuguese and English and we added the option "translate". Students are authors and publish their work which includes the use of technology in their teaching context.
The link of the blog is:
http://lenguitastic.blogspot.com.ar/

Week 1 tasks

It's very important to anticipate and organised one's time.  Let me share with you what happened to me:

One of the first things I did was to take the survey because I knew this would give our tutor a picture of the group. Then I waited for the course to start.

On Monday I got up very early and started exploring the different tools. I entered BB but found the course was not activated. Then I explored the google site and Sean's wiki. I also entered Nicenet.

On Tuesday I started reading some articles about "Reflective blogs".

On Wednesday I couldn't do much so I started on Thursday to take part in the discussions. As a consequence, I missed part of the discussions. That's why I think that I should start participating before and checking every now and then because I believe we learn from exchanging ideas and sharing experiences.

On Friday I published my blog and starting posting. I also checked most of the my classmates' blogs and samples from previous students. I participated in the different discussions and finally I think I have completed my pending assignments.

Hello

After reading all class participants introductions, I thought it was a good opportunity to share this video.

Although we belong to so diverse contexts and work in different places, we are all passionate learners.  

Good morning!

First week's reflections

It's been a hectic week. At the beginning I felt overwhelmed by the amount of tools we had to use: blackboard, google sites, wikispaces, blogspot, nicenet and e-mail account. It usually hapens that the first week in an online course is not so active as it has been this one. The "typical" activities that I did for the fist week of an online course were: explore the virtual classroom, read the schedule, mark important dates and write a post introducing myself. But this time things were different. For this reason, I decided to organise myself and I came up with these first week's resolutions:

I will
Read the week tasks every Monday
Start participating on Day 1
Also partcipate on day 3 and day 6 

I will not
Fall behind 

These resolutions reminded me of Bridget Jones. Do you remember when she wrote about her New Year's resolutions? I thought I could do the same and start with my First Week's resolutions.

My first post

In this blog I'll share my thoughts, ideas and views about what I'm learning in the online course "Teaching Webskills through the Interactive Web"

Let me share with you my avatar: