A Fantastic Journey!

  

Hello my friends from "Webskills",

Evidence: “It is 07:30 in the morning and I am in the language classroom sitting at the computer communicating, via internet with a software called Satellite, with another teacher 12 kilometers from here, I am asking her if there is a possibility for me to visit the primary school where she is working.

She says she will answerback during the first recess at 08:50, just a couple of seconds after the bell rings I hear a beep sound in the computer, the teacher´s answer is incoming: “O.K. Domingo, you can come next Friday and talk about Chile to my second grade students. See you then”.

Wonderful, don´t you think, this is not the future, this is right now, it happens every day, and it is now a common activity.

This great on line course from the University of Oregon is the proof that none of this tools or the possibility to meet teachers around the world would have been possible without the web or cloud. Today, technology plays an important role in many aspects of our lives; it exists at our offices, classrooms and homes, even with smart phones you can be connected every second of your life. All the readings in this course show that technology has been the greatest support to the whole world in communication, business, banking, communities and of course in Education. The most influential example is the way I present my classes from now on; I use the web and gadgets to provoke learning in my students. I know I am helping them to develop independence and autonomy in learning by offering them the opportunity to learn the way that suits their learning styles. It is a skill that I developed myself by exploring the many on line tools we researched during these weeks, specially the chance to create a webpage for my English classes that I am continuously updating with new tools.

 I believe that technology and Education nowadays are closely related, the same way students´ lives are connected to technology for they see it as routine, at school they are able to use it, learn and interact through it.

I feel more prepared and confident to use the technology in my classes and eager to continue learning, exploring, updating my web, etc.

Of course it is time to thank Courtney for her support and for being an excellent instructor during these weeks. Thank you University of Oregon, for this awesome opportunity  to be a part of this course and my friends and colleagues a big hug and Ihope we will be in touch to share our experiences in the the web.

Finally,I do believe that school should change their traditional teaching models oriented towards developing competences and skills in digital literacy and collaborative work model.

Best wishes for all

“One click can make the difference”

This is teacher Domingo from Arica Chile

 

Week Nine!

Another awesome week this time about MI connected with technology, that is why I summarized some techy terms corresponding to the different intelligences that will probably be useful with my students:

Verbal:  Doc and pdf files, mail, social network

Logical: On line data collection, webquest, spreadsheet, calendars

Visual: Comics, puzzles, scrapbooking, prezi, digital camera.

Kinesthetic: Video editing, plays, role playing,.

Musical: Sound and music file(wav, mp3),  Music composition software, music clips.

Intrapersonal: Video projects - record personal ideas, blogs.

Interpersonal:  blogs, conferencing, social network, ppt, prezi, padlet, games.

Naturalist: Audio and video cameras, Digital cameras, field trips Desktop presentations (Powerpoint) .

Existentialist: email, chat, teleconferencing, and other interactive communication tools to help students address questions.

This is to be able to plan taking into account the different posibilities my students have when they are learning.

We should plan to fulfill several intelligences, and accommodate our activities to MI.

Kids learn better when we present a class in variety of ways.

I am more aware about how my students are learning and I want to know more about them to lead them to better learning.

In the past we only took into account the verbal and mathematical intelligence now we should not ignore all the others presented this week. With all the examples given above there is no ecxcuse to  empower our students with a variety learning styles.

all in one place here in my laptop!!!

Best!

WOW!!! week eight

I know there are still more days to come, but it was an awesome week!

I explored and I learned how to create a web page to support my students using Google site and I reflected upon what tech tool is the appropriate to my project.

Several years ago when I took the responsibility to coordinate the use of the computer laboratory at my school, I researched on blogger to upload pictures of the student’s activities, of course I learned a lot about it and now this blog has documents pictures links and all the school community visit to update information.

That is why decided to explore Google site for the first time, and I consider that my project fits better in this, for students have all the instruction, information, extra material, the possibility to share documents etc., in one web page created for that particular class, unit or even a complete schedule for terms.

I also created a nicenet class and a drill of exercise using quizlet.

I have seen my students more engaged on the technological tools I have been showing them, and I see them more connected when they explore by themselves with just a little guidance from the teacher. I consider the developing of critical thinking when I give them the chance to make a personal research on the web, for they have to take decisions, organize time and form teams, hence they are promoting autonomy learning.
ps let me suggest another page for listening! http://voicethread.com/

Best!

week 7

week seven 

The best tool to work on project-based learning is the webquest design. But they need time to familiarize with this tool, they need to understand 100 percent. I see some students rather lost for they are used to work in a teacher-centered class, they are waiting for the teacher to explain in front of the class.
Once they learn how a webquest works, they get very enthusiastic, and they follow step by step by reading the WB from the net, but first they should be given some pre-activities using a fixed procedure to work on line,for example following instruction using the web,so that they feel free to work at their own speed. Checked the rubrica on line and comment   in a blog.etc.

On padlet, there are many actvities we and our students can do, I am amazed about how fast it is, we need connection to internet but it is easy to handle. it is very motivating to school kids
from a simple memo to complex activities, it is highly collaborative and easy to learn.