Friday 26 February 2016

The license I have chosen for my blog


Hi!

Did you know about the importance of the licenses in a web?

Honestly I was not concious about it and I thought it was not important at all, however, internet is just like real life...

I have chosen a license for my blog in which I allow readers to copy, share and redistribute my posts, images and ideas for any purpose (even commercially). Readers may also adapt my work as long as they recognize the original author.

I believe that we must share with other collegues what we create so we all can benefit from other's ideas. However, if someone does not allows it, everybody should respect it and do not share it or use it with out permission.

When teaching students how to surf on the internet and write their own academic writings, it should also be taught the importance of being respectful with others projects, studies and ideas from the very beginning so as to avoid plagiarism and attribute someone’s work.

Some situations can be stablished to make students understand that copying without naming the original author and the source of information means stealing an idea that belongs to someone else and it is considered a crime.

In order to motivate them, apart from evaluating the content or language structure of the student’s writings, it should also be assessed the way in which they make reference to sources and authors.

Students have to be aware of the importance of respecting others work and when they can or cannot make use of it.

Do you have any other ideas to make students conciuous about linceses? Come on, leave me some comments!

Monday 22 February 2016

Learning by twittering

Good afternoon again!

In this week we have been asked to create a Twitter account to share will the entire world different challenges, tasks and interesting information about the field of education, specially bilingual education.

Twitter is a free network in which you can share with other users information in just 140 characters of text. Users may follow people of their interest and keep in touch with the entire world! I will do so with some CLIL information or interesting topics related to education.

If you want to keep up with my updates, I invite you to follow me on my twitter account: @celialancharro

Moreover, my classmates, my teacher and I will be using the hashtag #ictclil_urjc so do not think it twice and search it!

So as to inagurate my Twitter account I have published a tweet about CLIL:


Come on, follow me and do not miss any tweet :)

@celialancharro 

Creating mind maps!

Hi everybody :)

Here I am to share with you the second challenge we have done in ICT's. Honestly, I feel very happy to be learning tools that are new for me! I am sure that at the end of the course I will have a long list of online resources with which I will be able to work with at class. Isn't it practical?

Well, the second challenge consisted on visualizing our PLE and PLN and organising it in an online diagram.
For it, I have used Easel.ly.

Easel.ly is a free website, its purpose is simple yet extremely useful, it allows us create and share an eye catching mind map or a graphic. 

Before creating my final map, I tried different tools such as Popplet or Coggle but I decided to create my mapping e-project with Easel.ly because I found it easier to work with it.

So as to create your own project with Easel.ly, you can choose between different backgrounds, styles, charts, shapes, banners or you may use your own images. It gives you the opportunity to begin with one of their models or if you want to be more creative you can try to do your own, starting with a blank background.

I have done mine using different shapes and using some images which I had to upload. I used this Easel.ly to organize my PLE and PLE for CLIL.

It wasn’t until I started to study the master course on bilingual education when I started to learn about CLIL. The vast majority of things I have learnt and I am still learning are a consequence of the master course I’m taking, social networks, online platforms, and Google.

Through this mapping e-project I wanted to organise my learning on CLIL and reflect on where did I learnt about it.

I divided my map it into two types of learning: PLE (Personal Learning Environment) and PLN (Personal Learning Network):

PLE:

To organise and share information: Dropbox and Google Drive.

To search some information: Scholar Google, Google, Moodle (Aula Virtual urjc), Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

To obtain information: Master course and Moodle

To create: Voki.

                                                                     
PLN: Twitter and Moodle.

How can we use this tool in the classroom? It would be wise to introduce this tool to young learners in order to plan their own writings, to record results of an experiment or to present a project.

This is my final result:



I am sure that these mapping will be much bigger at the end of the course.

I recommend you to give it a try!

Self introduction with Voki

Hello everybody! As you already know I am a pre primary teacher studying a master course on bilingual education and through this blog I am going to share with you the different challenges I will do through ICT's subject.

The first task we have been asked to do is a self introduction, explaining 3 things you should know about me, 2 of my favourite activities in the world and 1 dream occupation if I weren't a teacher.

I decided to do this 3 2 1 Introduction with Voki as it catched my attention since the first look.

Voki is a free website with which you can create an avatar and give voice to it. You may choose between different characters and you may if you wish change different features such as: hair, eyes and skin color, or the size of the head, nose or lips. You are also allowed to put on some complements (sunglasses, ribbons, etc) or choose between different clothes.

Users can also modify the background setting and choose between many options (indoors, outdoors, night time, day time, etc).

It can be used for many purposes: giving a lesson in an exciting way, explaining a certain topic or presenting yourself.

You may also take advantage of it using it's classroom service, in which you can follow student's progress, set deadlines and verify their submission. If you wish you may also share the different projects with the rest of the class, parents or even on the school's web site.

I have chosen a human female avatar and I have changed everything I could to make her look like a teacher.

So as to put voice to it, you can type the text and they will read it for you or you may also record yourself and put your own voice. In my view, this the most exciting part, as you can ultimately see how the avatar speaks (moving her lips) with your voice.

I highly recommend you take a look to it and try it yourself! If you do, I am sure you will be happy with the results.




As you can see is a very easy web to use and the final artifact can be impressive for the students! You may also choose an animal or even an alien, wouldn't be funny?

I would like to share with you an idea that has come to mind. It could be novel and effective at keeping children quiet in class. You could create an avatar with a voice asking students to keep quiet and whenever they are messing about play it. 

If you think of any other ways of working with it, please share them!

Here you have my final result!

I hope you like it, I certainly did.



See you in the next post!