The Pleasure Is All Mine

Last Monday we shared our last ECO meeting.

I was really nervous because we presented our Pecha Kucha on "Our perceptions about some of the tools we have been working with".

It was no mean task, as I said in my later post, preparing a Pecha Kucha takes time because you have to take many things into account - the text, images, intonation, etc.. 

But I think we did a really good job! Lol (I'm in love with some of the images and their descriptions )

Some of the ones I'm really proud of are:

Edmodo

Yes, Edmodo tries to be Facebook, that's our theory. But, there you post assignments, boring stuff!

Pecha Kucha

After so much talk about this new presentation format, the day we have to actually do one has almost come. In case you don'tknow much about it you could read some of my classmates' posts. Vanesa an Aldana have devoted a post to explain a little bit about it.

We have been preparing one for Phonetics IV so we are more or less acquainted with what it implies, and this is what I'd like to do in this post.

► First of all you need something to say. In this case, we were asked to choose our topic. We worked on error analysis.

► Then, we tried to narrow the topic by considering only one author (it is impossible to talk about many perspectives in only 6 minutes).

► After that, you should decide what is going to be said in each slide, leaving at least two for an introduction and 2 for a conclusion.

► When you know what you have to say you can start a draft with your potential speech, you have to think in terms of drafts because only after you actually try to say what you want in 20'' you are able to assure that it will work. You must be flexible about this, because sometimes it is not only length that you have to consider but also the  kind of words you include, the rhythm of your speech, etc.

► Giving a visual image to your speech is the next step, and you have to be very thoughful while doing it. The images should be fun and related to what you say. And sometimes it is hard work finding them. You might even find yourself editing pistures in order to make them match your aim.

► Now, it should be ready but it is not because it is high time you practised. This is also a very important step and it's no mean task, you could realise that there are even more changes to be made... and you have to make them. This is particularly important if you share the presentation with more people.

We have done all these. Therefore, the only thing we have to do is to actually present it. 

Let's hope it is not as difficult as making it! 

Webquest

Since some time ago, I'm interested in webquests as a format. The reason why was that I didn't know what they really were and I think that although this might not be preying on your mind, you could feel the same as regards its definition.

To make it short, its main characteristic is that the teacher provides his/her students with online resources to achieve a set task. The format is in some way similar to a website (this is my personal opinion). Some sites give you a kind of template for you to fill and the webquest is automatically produced, but I've found another one which is more appealing, at least for me and Brian, and with which we have been working for our third practical work.

Zunal.com is the name of the site. It is free to login and create as many webquests as you wish. It is also good that we could access to other users' webquests and in that way learn from their styles. As every webquest it has an introduction, task, process and evaluation section; you can also find a conclusion and teacher page section but those could be hidden.

Teachers' Day

Profesorado de Inglés Instituto Alte Brown: Día del Maestro: “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

2.0utside the classroom

  Going back to one of the websites we analysed as part of our first practical work (Discovery EDUCATION) I found some interesting information about Web 2.0 Tools. As part of the description of these kind of resources, they mentioned: user-friendliness, creating and sharing, editing, all these anytime anywhere because another characteristic is that the content to be generated is online. Taking this into account, and the fact that in this way it's much easier for the teacher to create a sense of community among his/her students, my opinion is that it would be great to use some of these Web 2.0 Tools in our classrooms.

  However, we have to be aware that not all schools in our city have the resources one needs to work this way. BUT. As one of my students during my Teaching Practices told me (in a derogatory way) after my saying that I wouldn't ask them to work with computers or with the Internet because I knew that not all them have those at home, "There are places to go and pay to use PCs!"

  Later on I realised that he was right, the second week they even made me part of their Facebook group and I could keep in touch during the week with all of them!

  And that last thing I said is also important to consider. We, as teachers of English, might only meet our students once a week and having some other medium to do it several times after that is quite an opportunity, one we shouldn't disregard.

  I was thinking particularly of edmodo. This website I was talking about at the beginning characterises it as a Community Tool because it enables 'teachers and students to communicate, collaborate and share work.' What we do for this subject! And now with the new version that is going to be released the possibilities offered are going to enhance our work even more.

References
http://web2012.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools.cfm
http://blog.edmodo.com/2012/09/04/introducing-the-latest-version-of-edmodo/

Another option...

  As usual, another boring Sunday passed and I was surfing the net and going over the link with the 150 websites that I attached in my post Summarising when I decided to try Go!Animate. It reminded me of the tool Aldana wrote about: Voki. They are similar in the sense that our students could benefit from not being them who have to go in front of the whole class to present, for example, a text they've produced. Even though, they can record their voices to make it even funnier and better for teachers to see the progress students make.

  This tool allows you to select out of 2 templates and 4 different characters among a specific topic. I don't know exactly how it works because I haven't got the time to do many things but I think it is another nice alternative.

  It also has a paid version from which you can get much more things to do, but I think that as it is could be easily implemented with a course of kids, adolescents, and why not, adults... here you have the topics you could be using: http://goanimate.com/videomaker/quickvideo.
  And for you to see what you can do, I've created my own video!
  http://goanimate.com/videos/0TjMA7MIN8iM/1 Hope you enjoy it!

Anywhere, anytime.

Surfing the Net (a Sunday I was bored), I came across this video on e-learning. I found it really interesting, even though I don’t like much the Spanish accent, because I think it makes reference to many things we have been working with. This is the video:

What is e-learning?

Generally speaking, it describes briefly how is it that a person learns and how the implementation of the Information and Communication Technologies has changed this process. That is why, it will make reference to the use of the internet to say that now a days we can have lessons in a virtual classroom, for instance, and therefore, we, as learners and teachers, can access to the information anywhere, anytime… and this would be e-learning.

Summarising

This year, before we started to have lessons, I took part in a workshop about the implementation of ICTs in the teaching of English. We (teachers of English from different provinces in the country and I) participated cooperatively for this workshop in the virtual classroom of educ.ar. This platform is very similar to Moodle, it is really user-friendly, but, in my opinion, nicer.

During the five weeks that the workshop lasted, we worked with other people and we got to know many interesting tools, because that was the idea, to enrich our knowledge about softwares and websites that could be use in the classroom with or without access to the internet.

One great finding was this link: http://docentesytic.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/150-herramientas-gratuitas-para-crear-materiales-educativos-con-tics/,

On Our 2nd Practical Work

Here I am, writing about PowerPoint again. This time because our next practical work is about a lesson plan in which we have to include a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation. As my classmates, Ma. Fernanda and Vanesa wrote on their blogs, it will be hard work, but it is also true that we are willing to try and go on discovering!

Besides, I also agree with Santiago on the fact that it much depends on the topic you work on how much you can do with a presentation of this characteristics, and since we have to make it for possible students I'm sure it'll be fun!

Impossible Is Nothing

Today, I'm writing to show you my achievement!
 

I've edited this picture with Photoshop. You might be wondering 'How? She cannot even work with PowerPoint!' 

Which one do you prefer, PowerPoint or Prezi?

   Last week, I was preparing the lesson I was to deliver. As part of it, I thought of doing a brief and simple presentation of the topic I wanted to work with so I decided to use PowerPoint to fulfil my task. After struggling to do it, I thought of trying Prezi instead. I knew of this software because a teacher of mine once taught a lesson using it and I found it really eye-catching; when the opportunity came I used it. Now, as regards the title's question I think my answer is already given. It is really hard to me to make a PowerPoint presentation look visually attractive. However, these two tools have their own pros and cons... 

Some interesting and free info!

I've just arrived from a really interesting workshop delivered by Deborah Healey.

Here you can find some information about her and the two presentations she is going to give tomorrow and on Saturday at the 'ARTESOL 25th Anniversary Conference: The Dawning of the ELT Digital Age':  http://www.artesol.org.ar/deborahhealey.html 

And here it goes her website: http://www.deborahhealey.com/ 

There she posts a lot of links that might be very helpful since they all are resources for ELT and they are free! 

Welcome, welcome...

 This is my reflective blog! 

 I have never used Blogspot before, 

 that is why, to me, it's really interesting to discover its many possibilities 

 working at the same time on materials design and ICTs! 

 See you around!