I started blogging when I was doing some Moocs online some years ago.
I am still blogging about education and the use of technology in my job.
I am a life-long learner and love doing what I do.
MM7: Introducing Trello for Community Building with Mbarek Akaddar Webinar held on 22nd November 2015 The webinar recording can be accessed online : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkwxWck5xcI
Like many other webinars I have watched in the Moodle Mooc course which I did - MM7, the one about Trello was the introduction to an interesting tool on line, free and useful: https://trello.com/.
The presenter made a clear explanation of its use and showed how it could work. It is a system that enables you to organize your work in a collaborative way.
What Trello is
- a collaboration and management tool that organizes projects into teams - a board You need to register in order to work on it: and then you can see how to organize the board. - create a board and then a list - people who are in the list need to have registered and have an account too
The following picture is a screenshot of the presentation online- the tool can be used with any device:
How you can organize the board
It is also possible to have a link with Google Calendar for planning activities
VIDEO TUTORIAL ONLINE
Are there other tools like Trello ? Yes, check online and you will find more
The tool seems to be nice to use but I realize that it requires a good internet connection and people who are willing to work online. Ideally it could be an interesting tool for working with adults. I like the idea of the boards but in my teaching situation I could not work with my students and I need a tool which is simpler to use and does not require any registration. But I will try to see how it works, maybe I could plan an activity my students could work on.
MM7: Kahoot and Socrative as Online Tools for Testing with Marijana Smolčec The webinar was presented by Marijana Smolcec on Sunday 22nd November 2015. I could not follow the presentation but I watched the recording online. Link to the webinar https://youtu.be/qMNCIPuE77A I could learn a lot about two tools which are new to me and might be interesting for my students, especially the ones who are very lazy or do not love learning English.
Features of the tools presented: they are free, they are easy to use and students can have fun.
The first web link is for teachers who need to register, the other is for students.
You can ask questions but also you can add videos and share the quiz or send the link.
You can only have multiple choice questions and if internet doesn't work it is a problem to use it.
For further information about the tools write to or get in contact with the presenter:
The presentation was great and I think that Kahoot could work with my students of English, what I liked was the idea of not having to register the students. Only the teacher has to do it and this makes the tool a great one for checking not only content but also grammar. I only wonder what might happen in a class if the internet does not work. You need to be ready with a warm-up activity and this implies that you need to plan carefully your lessons. But it might be worth trying it. We might all have some fun while using English.
This is a useful list of what tools have been recognized to be the top ones. I have used some of them:
I love Twitter because it enables to be connected and to share information with other teachers.
Youtube is a great source of videos to explore and to use when I want to upload my own videos- but I have just started. I have also used Google search, Google docs/Google Drive for my activities online and when I do not have my PC. I must confess that also Dropbox is a tool which I use for keeping my files online. I will try to see which other tools are worth trying as the world of web 2.0 tools is changing.
The webinar took place on 5th November 2015 and the presenter was Dr. Rachel Sale.
Email for contact : saler@lincolnu.edu
Using the power of embedded content can help organize your lesson content and increase student engagement in your online classroom. I have started embedding my presentations online in my websites and blogs so I was curious to learn more. And she explained what I am using now when I am working online. Some ideas to teach our students so that they can also work online.
The presenter explained how she began, she had not been trained to become an online teacher. But now she can work online by using videos, social media. She is an expert in instructional design.
What she showed us were simple ideas that belong to a specific language of the web, based on HTML. Key ideas for educators and teachers expressed by the speaker in the webinar:
- create your own content
- think about the potentiality of Youtube
- use the web and move it into your class page
- embed anything that is in the web based on html
- google slides can be embedded into a slideshow, many activities in the google suite can be now used in your teaching situations and also in many LMS
Thanks for the lesson, I have learnt something more about a language which is new to me but I have used in my websites, blogs and also in many courses online on Moodle.
MOOCs: How they are changing our way of learning and also teaching
I started my first Mooc course in 2013 - it was a Mooc course by the platform Futurelearn - www.futurelearn.com - the course was " England in the time of Richard III". I really enjoyed it: it was my first experience online as a learner and the course was provided by the University of Leicester. It was a six-week course and we had a two- week break during the Christmas holidays. The videos and the links provided were really the ones I was looking for, in particular, I loved one of the activities as we were asked to think about the time and the life of a person living in England at the time we were studying. We had to post the activity and we had to share ideas about other students who were doing the Mooc. It was a great Community online!
I continued in the next two years with my CPD online and now some of the course I did are shown in my profile https://it.linkedin.com/in/tiziana-angiolini-72b34077.
Meanwhile, I discovered new Mooc platforms and also interesting courses ranging from Literature to History, English Language and TEFL and Professional Development and New Technologies. I must say that a lot of useful courses which I finished have helped me develop my CPD and also my way of working as a teacher. The Framework of a Mooc course
The pattern followed by the educators was this one:
- enrollment online and no fee payment
- course introduction and students' self-presentation online
- scheduled activities with videos and materials online to be checked and also downloaded
- questions and sharing ideas online in the forums
- searching for further information to be shared online
- forums and debates online
- for some courses we had to upload or create online activities to be evaluated
- peer evaluation and self-evaluation
- tests in the different modules provided online for some courses
- a mix of tests and online activities for other courses
- social forums and interactions on Twitter, FB
- videos are often uploaded online on the Youtube Channels that most of them have already opened
- feedback and a list of useful links for further studies
In order to get a statement of achievement with Coursera or Edx.org or other platforms I had to finish most of the activities and to get a score for passing.
For others, for example, Futurelearn I had to do at least 50% of all the activities but we were required to pay for the certificate.
What most of the Moocs have in common:
free access to courses after you have registered and have created your own account
English is the language of most of the tutors
the opportunity of having access to materials in English and working in English, interacting in English with the teachers or the other students.
When you do a Mooc course you get access to courses run by universities from all over the world: the first Moocs were developed by Coursera, an American platform which offers courses designed by other universities from Europe and also Australia. Today we also have European Moocs courses: http://platform.europeanmoocs.eu/ this is known as Emma
http://www.europeanschoolnetacademy.eu/ - this is a European network that provides online courses for teachers.
See also http://www.eun.org/academy where you can find a lot of interesting resources.
This is their presentation online :
"The Academy is a platform where you can learn about innovation in the school and classroom through online professional development courses for teachers in primary and secondary schools.
The courses offered on this platform are completely free of charge ".
The focus of most of the courses they have run is on digital skills and e-learning in education.
A new Mooc platform is Federica http://www.federica.eu/, this is based in Italy- Università Federico II in Naples- and they provide courses in Italian and also in English. I have not done any courses yet.
There are courses that are running now, others are to be announced. See for example what is presented online on the website: http://www.federica.eu/c/digital_culture_visions_and_legacies/
What is missing
Maybe they should plan courses that run for longer periods: I realize that this must be a great effort in terms of involvement on behalf of the professors and the costs.
The last course I did was with Futurelearn and it was a course about the Holocaust: I was able to catch up as the course was split into two courses and the platform remained open and will remain open. The course was a very demanding one and a lot of students are still working online to finish watching and reading the materials which were provided. I am working on the materials online to make a short module about the Holocaust with my students of the fifth year in my school. See my post in http://educationalandissue.blogspot.it/2015/12/the-holocaust-mooc-course-by.html
What makes or made me love this type of courses
I have built my learning network - my PLN- as virtually I have met people like me who love learning. They live in different parts of the world and share the idea that learning is a great experience. Some of them are teachers, others are retired people: we have become friends, virtually, and shared ideas online in some Google Hangouts run by the Professors who were working on some Moocs or we just shared ideas in the Virtual Learning Environment thanks to the posts in the Forums.
I have learnt online and I have been guided by great professors who have provided me with free courses about different technologies and also about some Literature in English which I had not studied when I was at university:
I have learnt about new web 2.0 tools and digital skills which are needed by teachers and students in the XXI century.
If you are interested in them and in Moocs, have a look at the following documents and links: What are Moocs? They are changing but they all share similar frameworks
What people are still discussing about are matters about the quality of the courses and how people learn online: it is true we work online but anyone can do the course. They are called Massive Online Open Courses ( Moocs). Some courses are for people who have a university degree, others are open to any person who is willing to learn.
They will not replace university courses but they can provide us with online learning and in English so that you can undestand why some were really successful courses.
In an interesting blog post Nellie Deutsch wrote about the importance of contact and love in teaching and in education http://nellie-deutsch.com/why-are-moocs-loveless/. I agree with what she wrote in the post but I would add that free education and sharing knowledge and education can help a lot of educators too. I live in Italy and love working online because I can choose when to work online and I can deepen my knowledge into new paths. Most universities do not offer online courses in English for teachers who need to be updated and most of the courses are not related to my field and interests: education, professional development ,e-learning and literature and history.
Just think about people who cannot afford to travel and attend face-to-face courses and need to continue their professional development. Working 5 days a week and not being able to do a course in English implies that I cannot continue my learning path as an educator in my country. Thanks to online learning and Moocs I have updated my toolbox.
People who need to learn about new web tools- people like me- have now learnt how to use modern technology thanks to the help and advice provided in the courses which were run by Coursera and Futurelearn. I am aware that I do need to continue learning, but I have also learnt how to teach by flipping the classroom,blended learning is not an unknown word and I can manage.
In February I will start the second part of the course about Blended Learning via Futurelearn and I hope that I will learn how to implement my teaching and to meet the needs of my students who are now citizens of the digitalized world.
MM7 Charles Goodger : "The Power of Action Songs." Monday 23 November 2015
The webinar took place in the Moodle Mooc 7 and I could watch it live but I could not watch the whole presentation because I had problems with the internet connection. So I had to watch it again and this is the reason why this post is written in December. First of all,I would like to provide information about the presenter: Charles Goodger. He is the founder of FunSongs Education speaks six languages (including Latvian) and writes language-learning action songs. He has a modern languages degree in French and
Spanish from London University and an RSA TEFL
teaching certificate. As well as running FunSongs
Education, Charles has permanent tenure as
a Collaboratore Esperto Linguistico at Bologna
University in Italy.
Charles Goodger is an English teacher, teacher
trainer, text-book and digital materials writer,
playwright, songwriter and entrepreneur.
Online we can have access to his book, Music and Mime, Rhythm and Rhyme., which can
The webinar was an engaging presentation and it showed how Charles is a lover of his way of working. I must admit that I like songs but I have never been trained in using them for teaching English. Most of the books that I am using do not have songs: I teach ESP and cooking so my students must have listened to songs in the past, when they were younger.
Some important tips from the webinar and ideas:
Why are action songs important?
They can create a sort of a magical situation in learning: students are encouraged and engaged. He also referred to total physical response: I just checked online and found this article as regards
In some ways I agree: learning can happen also with songs. I particularly liked the final motto of his presentation: "When people commit emotionally,learning happens." This is the link to the website with the ideas about the activities presented: http://www.funsongs.co.uk/
Finally here is the presentation which was uploaded for the teachers of the MOOC and for anyone who might be interested in learning more about this approach.
MM7 Culture of Learning Transformative Sunday 29 November 2015
I watched this webinar online presented by HalinaOstankowicz. She offered an interesting overview about culture, and about the way it is changing or rather it has changed as we have been influenced by the new technologies in education too. She has created a vision of learning for the future that is developing and is achievable. People grow up in a new world which is in relationship to technology and they can learn in a different way, furthermore, they can also become more engaged. And I must add that this is important as we are asked to continue learning through our life. Some key ideas expressed in the webinar:
The main issues in the webinar were the ideas of culture and learning, thus, she presented the concept of Transformative Learning Culture:
The new and innovative way for providing a better learning experience is the FLIPPED CLASSROOM:
Education is not the old school and it is a virtual learning environment together with the old school where the learner is more and more important and he/she is the great " player". They can choose and become " more engaged". For more information you can also watch this video which was shared by the presenter of the webinar.
MM7: Teaching to different learner types with presenter Marjorie Rosenberg 21st November 2015 The journey into my reflections on the webinars is continuing this week I could see this webinar online which took place on 21st November2015. Marjorie Rosenberg has made a great presentation about the ways we can teach by taking into consideration the different students we are teaching. It is sometimes difficult to cope with differences but we do need to. I have already done a MOOC course about this topic and I found her analysis and her tips really great and very helpful for any teacher who needs to face " differences among learners".
If we know our learners we can make our teaching and approaches more aimed at them:
we have VISUAL LEARNERS
we have VISUAL TEACHERS
Similarly, we have AUDITORY LEARNERS and AUDITORY TEACHERS
An important definition she presented was for KINESTETIC EMOTIONAL LEARNERS : these learners need " to put their emotions aside".
I am a teacher who is " kinestetic and emotional" and thus I relate learning to real-life experience and I never sit, most of my activities are based on movement and physical activities, I also love pair work. I want my students to think and do.
When planning activities we do need to take into consideration that our learners are different and thus we do need to cope with their learning styles and find the best ways for helping them learn.
Reflecting on what we carry out in class and in during our activities is,therefore, the great message that the presenter has left us: there is no perfect lesson or activity. It is up to us to think about the best ways for enhancing learning.
The slide and the video will help you find your best ways for learning! Thanks to the presenter who made such an interesting presentation.
Webinars Connect Webinar held on 13th December 2015
Last Sunday I could see the final webinar presented in the MOOC course which was in November and which I finished after doing some online activities using MOODLE and watching webinars.
The event was a sort of a general overview about the importance of online connections.
The Mooc course which I did was a great experience online in terms of personal reflections, learning from the others and sharing ideas and opinions about the new way of learning that MOOCs and online courses can now offer us.
The Professor of the MOOC , Nellie Deutsch, presented her long list of events which she had done, from the beginnings when she started working online. The main focus was on the relationships and the connections that we can establish also by working online thanks to the use of modern technologies.
I have been working online for some years now, mainly with MOOC courses and I have also worked online by following some courses for my professional development. In most cases what I liked was the idea of getting in touch with people who were doing a similar course like me and were interested in learning. I could interact with people online and use the forums for asking help and for finding new ideas and sharing links, online materials.
Webinars can be a really engaging online experience: you can follow them from your home at anytime of the day while you are doing something else at home. You can listen to the speaker and in many cases you can speak to him/her if they ask you to take part in the webinar. This is a very nice way for talking to many people and getting to know them too. I have done webinars for over 4 years,mainly in ELT and in new technologies and I must admit that I have made some friends online. I have not met them but like Nellie Deutsch said in the webinar, in some way when you talk to people that you have been familiar with online, you establish a close relationship that has to do with your interests and you will meet them virtually in many other webinars.
I agree with the ideas expressed in the webinar, it is a new way for learning and getting engaged but it is something we should all become familiar with. Because the world of education is changing and is undergoing changes.
I wish to thank the teachers who worked in the MOOC and shared their ideas in the webinars which were presented by Nellie Deutsch and also the teachers who took part in the MOOC as attendees.
It is an international community that embraces different languages, cultures and educators but what is in common is the use of the English language, the idea of discussing and sharing ideas and a great love for teaching and learning.
I will continue learning and I am going to become a more active learner as I have learnt so much from educators who have given me " input" and " new ideas" in the world of Education.
WEEK 4 AND 5- MOOC COURSE ABOUT BLENDED LEARNING I must confess that I enjoyed week 4, it was my practical session week where I could use the tools and create some activities online by using Padlet, Zaption and videos from Youtube. A lot of ideas and many new things which I need to revise and check again. In February we will continue with the new MOOC and I hope I will learn more. Thanks to the tutors and for what I could learn. This is my summary about what I have done in the last three weeks.
The webinar was the 39th on the list of webinars presented in the list of webinars of the MOODLE MOOC 7 which was organized by Nellie Deutsch for this important session about Moodle.
I watched the webinar live. It was last Sunday and I was at home so I could watch this webinar and more webinars on the same day. I could get some nice ideas and learn from other teachers who shared their ideas with us.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER OF THIS WEBINAR
The presenter :Karin Heuert Galvão is an EFL TEACHER. She is a Director at i-Study Interactive Learning in São Paulo (Brazil). Karin discussed the topic “Social Media & Teaching: Friends or Frenemies?”
Social Media are getting more and more important and FB is now part of the life of people and adults.It can be used also in teaching and she showed us some activities she did online in ther groups.
The webinar can be accessed online as it was recorded and uploaded on the YouTube:
The presenter asked us about our life and what social media we followed, most of the attendees said that they were on FB. I am not on it but I use Twitter and Linkedin and Google+ so in some way I also know about the importance of the new tools and I am aware of the benefits we can have. But we do not share FB or other media with our students in my school, most of my students have FB but it is only used for private chatting.
In the webinar I found some teachers like me who were doing the MOOC online and we just shared our ideas about their use in education both for teachers and for students.
What was really interesting in this WEBINAR were the ideas the presenter expressed by focussing on the importance social media have in our students' life and how we should make students aware of the importance and the risks they can have.
Here are some conventions which should be followed when posting and communicating online:
when posting your opinion be respectful
think before writing and when replying to posts
use emoticons to promote a friendly atmosphere
when posting your opinions avoid capital letters- they can be a sign of a person who shouts
be aware of overusing abbreviations
An important discussion was about FB and the issue of working with groups in FB.
If we have closed groups,FB can work well but we must also teach our students how to work on social networks.
For teachers FB can be a great tool:
it can be used to communicate with students
it can be used as a tool as announcements
it can be a tool that can engage our students in discussions
I am aware that FB can be a great tool, but I prefer working online with other tools. For example, I use blogs and Google doc for sharing materials and ideas with my students.
What the presenter underlined in the session was the importance of using social media to learn from and share ideas with other teachers. This is a reality that I am now part of.
FB, Twitter and other social media are a great source of information. I agree that I could not work now if I did not have connections and I did not learn from others.
I am on Twitter and use most of the services that are provided: there are communities of ELT/ESL teachers online and I am learning and following a lot of people.
Social Media have now replaced other ways of learning: for example she shared the hashtag for ELT- which is really important for me too: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ELTchat?src=hash
This is a thriving community that works online every Wednesday.
Twitter is a community of educators also and I like it. I also follow some FB pages of important publishers or the British Council, but I have not applied to become a member of them.
The debate online was engaging and teachers shared their opinions, I liked the way we all interacted and also think that we are growing and the teachers are building new communities and sharing great and inspiring ideas about the best practices.
I liked the level of engagement of the presenter for what she was presenting us, she is a keen lover of what she does when teaching. The final slides were great and I am sharing them with you.
Technology can help us work better
But we must be aware of what we are doing
online so this advice for students should be part of our teaching and we should teach them digital skills and more skills:
For more ideas about social media in education we could also check this link:
I am thinking about the way I could work online with my students by opening a TWITTER account for my classes and use hashtags for classes, the private account will be used for my professional development.
I will try to search more communities online to share ideas about teaching and learning languages and using modern web 2.0 tools.
Thanks to the speaker for the nice ideas and the love for teaching she shared with us!!
This evening I watched the great presentation in the webminar on line which was carried out by Sophia
Mavridi.
She is a great and engaging presenter who shared her experience on Edmodo and she made some examples of the use of it.
Edmodo is a safe virtual platform that can be used by teachers to promote DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP and how to use technology.
We all know that technology has entered our everyday life and students need to be
" equipped" to know how to deal with their safety online and privacy.
I have not used Edmodo yet but I know that it has a lot of great supporters.
This is the video she suggested seeing as our students are connected most of the time and should know that they might risk losing their privacy.
USEFUL IDEAS
What I learnt while she presented Edmodo and how useful it can be :
- Edmodo is a Learning Platform where students and teachers can share notes, links, files and resources.
- Teachers create virtual classroom and students can participate in online discussions, view grades and communicate with teachers and students
She made us see an activity online carried out by her students dealing with the topic digital footprint.
- Edmodo can be useful because we have a DIGITAL COMMUNITY and then we can think about it.
- We can interact online, we can choose when we want to interact, the teacher can save time too.
Students can share links, files and documents and they can learn and think about copyright, plagiarism.
An interesting activity suggested is the WEBQUEST. This is an example of what she presented :
- The teacher should develop fair use skills and introduce Creative Commons License .
I agree that these are the main skills our students should be able to have as we are responsible for what they can do and what they might risk if they do not have a correct use of the digital tools in real life.
- Edmodo can be used to communicate with parents, in addition it send alerts and reminders for students .
It is a great webtool which is helpful and creates a real learning environment for families and their students.
Conclusions
The presenter has made a good presentation and I think that I might try Edmodo with one class, the problem is that not everybody in my class has internet. But I hope I will try it , maybe next year. I would really like to have it to share materials with my students!!
To the next webinars....................................
