Week 10 Almost crossing the finish line

Week 10

During the past 10 weeks I learned to:

- feel the Web as a friendly place to browse through.

- listen attentively to my inner voice, recognizing limitations and possibilities.

- value cultural differences as a way of enrichment.

- decode my colleagues' messages from a constructivism perspective of teaching and learning.

- find some answers and pose new questions.

I am convinced that the essence of change resides on the ability of making things happen. We took the first step, let's keep on walking... the best is yet to come...

Hope to remain just a click away from all of you.

Best,

          Virginia

Week 9

Week 9

I can hardly believe we are already at the end of week 9, time has flown incredibly fast!

This week topics about learning styles, multiple intelligences and technology, helped me look at some “well-known” theoretical topics from a new perspective. The discussion thread was amazing, I added many links to my delicious, and learned a lot from my partners' contributions.

Project peer review was a very enriching experience. My partner's comments on my project plan were helpful and enlightening. Through her words I was able to see, from a different perspective, both good things and things that needed improvement. Thank you Evelyn.

I submitted my project plan. Developing this plan was quite a challenge, but I love challenges. It was not as easy as it should have, due mainly to some external factors (authorities, permissions, platform access, etc), to arrive to the final product I first imagined. However, as it is a plan, and I still have plenty of time before implementing it, I will go on working on it to improve it. I feel very committed to get it ready and to put it into practice, because it will have a twofold consequence:

a- unique on line learning experience for in English service teachers.

b- a pilot project model in order to develop further on line courses for teachers.

Week 8 Post 1

This week was full of great surprises! I'm enjoying learning about all this web-based tools, mostly because they demand us to give them a try and explore their possibilities “hands-on”. I really got hooked with some of them and time seemed to go by too fast, I was worried about not having enough time for so many great discoveries. Thus, I made a thorough list of the websites in order to go on exploring them during the next days.

I've downloaded Hot potatoes and created a very simple matching with synonyms. However I believe all the  possible options offered on Hot Potatoes have a wide potential for students learning. One interesting fact about them is that you can either use them on line or create printable worksheets.

I'm exploring http://www.toolsforeducators.com/. It has many suitable options  for Elementary School students, too.

Week 7 Post 2

I learned many useful things this week. Padlet is completely awesome!! I'm sure I'll be using it often, and students will love it. It is very user friendly and so intuitive that even younger students can use it successfuly

Reading about teaching with mobiles made me realize that we still have a long way to go regarding the pedagogical and didactic use of many technological devices. One issue in Uruguay is that mobile's services (messaging and internet connection through mobilles) are kind of expensive so many students  have their mobiles only to use it in case of need,

Regarding the Final Project Plan I had a good meeting with some of the authorities, and they are looking forward to read the Plan (by the way I have to translate it into Spanish for them).
I'm a little worried about the on line classroom because the platform manager still didn't answer my request, and I already need to access the virtual classroom.

Week 7 Post 1

Regarding the use of mobiles in teaching and learning I must say that in my country this is still an issue. 

Until last year it was almost forbidden, each classroom had a box in which students had to put their mobiles and they would pick them up before going home.

We are now undergoing a transition, as authorities and teachers are discovering mobiles can be friendly and useful tools to enhance teaching and learning. 

I'm very happy and excited about experimenting using mobiles to teach and improve learning. I will keep a thorough register of these experiences to share with colleagues and help demonstrate that mobiles are wonderful tools, and I hope this will be an important contribution towards including them in our teaching practices.

Week 6 Post 3




A lot of work and thinking done towards solving my Final Project puzzle. As I'm not currently teaching I'm writing a Project Plan to implement next year, starting hopefully late March or April.






As a begining step I sent e-mails to the Director of the National English Department, the National English supervisor and my own supervisor at Uruguay Educa portal to make them acquainted about my Final Project and ask the corresponding permissions to put it into practice. All of them are very interested and ready to help. We already scheduled a meeting for next week, to exchange opinions and discuss some details.

As I got my supervisors' permission, I asked the on line learning platform manager to open a virtual classroom, through which I will implement the on line course I'm planning. Managing and tutoring in service teachers in this virtual classroom is the NEW technology for my project: using a learning platform and delivering an on line course. I hope the virtual classroom will be ready soon to start uploading materials, getting ready the weeks' profiles and tasks, designing the different forums, etc.

I also started to write the Plan following the given template. I'm currently working on developing the plan timeline, distributing the course's content and tasks. As soon as the timeline is ready and the platform manager gives me access as a teacher I will be able to start developin the necessary materials. I'm really looking forward to this moment to come.

Week 6 Post 2

Interactive PowerPoint Presentations

Two very easy types of interactivity that can be included into any PowerPoint presentation are navigation and feedback. For navigation, you can use onscreen buttons and hypertext for a branching structure, allowing the user to visit the sections as they wish or to provide the option to gain more information on topics of interest.

 For feedback, slides can present questions and offer choices of answers. With proper scripting, when students make choices they are either given feedback on the slide or are taken to new slides which provide information. Benefits for the user of this structure include increased engagement, control, and interest along with immediate response.

        A more common application of non-linear PowerPoint presentations is in reviewing knowledge. With just a little practice, you can create quizzes. In these slide shows, students are asked questions and then click on what they think is the answer. If the answer is correct, the show moves to the next question. If the student answers incorrectly, the show moves the student back to re-answer the question or, if the question is of the True/False variety, explains why the answer was incorrect before moving them on to the next step. 

The student participates by not simply clicking in one direction but makes choices that affect what slide comes next: making the presentation interactive and non-linear. The movement between slides is not one-way, not linear, the pathway is determined by the student's interaction with it.