FINAL REFLECTION

My Final Reflection on the Course

I liked the way we worked over the subject in groups and through reflection and sharing personal experience. I believe integrating technology in the classroom is far from easy, particularly when the resources are limited. 
A short anecdote: two weeks ago I intended to work on a video session with my students at school. I had the file in my stick and when I was trying to watch the video there was a problem with the computer, which did not work well, and I 'wasted' 20 minutes trying to fix this, fortunately, with some help. In the end, we managed to watch the video and the lesson turned out alright. 
Technology integration takes time in every sense of the expression: it takes time to be incorporated and it takes time when the resources are not best quality, just as when the teacher is not perfectly trained to work with it. 
That is another aspect of technology: in many ways it requires training on the part of teachers! That is nothing to object, but again, it takes time, which very often we teachers lack. 
Despite the possible drawbacks, technology is an interesting way of integrating knowledge, content, pedagogy and activity, while engaging students with more real-like tasks. 

I am happy to have had the possibility of taking this subject and learn as much as I have, and I believe this is only the beginning of my long way in teaching and, in particular, when it comes to technology integration in my profession. 

Thank you for having visited my blog and I will certainly keep you posted on my further discoveries!!

PLN: Personal learning network

Why do I need to build a PLN? 

Networks fulfill many purposes, one of which is, for example, to keep you posted on issues in a certain field-- an example of this is the Facebook group for our teacher training college.

Here we can get updated information on courses and many other current affairs at school.

Personal Learning Networks are highly useful because not only do they allow you to concentrate your content, websites, bookmarks, and your own creations (i.e blogs and webpages), but it also allows you to share this with other people in your network. Thus, you have your own PLN, which is part of a larger network, with other members who share their information and content with you and who learn from you, as you learn from them.
For teachers, a PLN is a most interesting tool to enhance and make constant learning easier, as well as providing a great opportunity to contact other teachers and learn from their development.

I have recently found a site for creating PLNs, called The Educator's PLN. Here's the link to it:
http://edupln.ning.com/
I have just created my profile and I am still awaiting confirmation, so most probably I will update my post later on, when my account is confirmed.

Technology in the ELT classroom: Take a chance! : Listening and Speaking skills. Check Laura Manzanedo's post!

Technology in the ELT classroom: Take a chance! : Listening and Speaking skills: When it comes to practising listening and speaking skills, there are several webtools that can be used. I’ve decided to try Vocaroo ...

My reflection on the course.

Record music with Vocaroo >>

A Case Study: Digital Storytelling in Argentina.

Hi everyone!
I am working with one of the case studies in chaper 2. I have designed a mindmap to explain the basics of the case (problem and solution) and will give more details below. For this, I have used a programme called BUBBL.US, which I found useful for making mindmaps (the only drawback is that you need to register to save your production).
Here is the screenshot with the information and the site for you to visit.

One example of Vicky's work in the classroom is Digital Storytelling. Vicky tried this with a group of 17-year-olds. One of her projects was called "Art Stories": students worked in groups to choose famous paintings and they wrote a narrative that linked the paintings together. They used Windows Movie Maker to create a slideshow with a soundtrack recorded by students to go with the images.

Why is digital storytelling motivating? 

• it gives students a voice 
• it gives them freedom and creativity 
• it can be shared online with parents, friends and even people they don't know, from around the world. 

Thus, students will develop  DIGITAL LITERACY, defined as the ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment. 

Another example of technology enhanced learning is MALL: mobile assisted language learnning. The mobile phone is a valid device for 

• content delivery
• field work 
• data capture 

How does this interact with TPCK and SAMR? 

Content-aim: developing digital literacy, practising speaking skills, working with real-world tasks. 

Pedagogy: a narrative was elaborated and recorded by students, in relation to works of art of their choice. 

Technology: Windows Movie Maker was used for the students to link pictures and recorded text. 

As regards, SAMR, I believe this would be close to the Redefinition stage, since the students would be using technology to perform activities that otherwise would not be feasible: the recording of the text to go with the images in a slides presentation. 

This is a most interesting case study! Here's the link to the teacher's blog: http://vickysaumell.blogspot.com.es/

Digital Play

To be absolutely honest, I'd never considered gamifying my class, since I'm not a player myself. Still, I do agree with the idea that games engage learners more than other activities may do, and their integration into our lessons may positively surprise as well as enthrall learners of all ages.

The game I've tried is HeroMachine, which I believe is useful for SS to create their Hero and use it later for different classroom activities. Almost as a sort of Avatar. My hero is TechnoWoman!
http://www.heromachine.com

On Content Curation

I've just opened my account on Scoop.it. Here's the link to it: http://www.scoop.it/u/agostina-spinella-trapani

It's my first experience with content curation and I'm still exploring Scoop.it. I think it's a useful way of following experts in different areas of interest and get their latest updates.
I'll be able to comment on this more extensively once I've become more acquainted with content curation.