New year 2017

Ending the old Year and Beginning  a New one 

Yesterday night I was online and I was watching the fabulous webinar presented by  Shelly Terrell: I am a regular viewer of her Friday webinars and I would suggest watching them as they are uploaded on Youtube. She made a great presentation and provided a lot of ideas for the coming new year and our teaching activities.

We have reached the end of the old Year and in a few hours, we will be starting a new one.
As educators, we are required to work on our goals and on the goals of our learners. The presentation which she made was a good one: reminding us that the learners need to be supported and helped to develop their learning.
Here is the slide which she shared with us: plenty of tips which will help me in the new year.

Goal Setting with Learners from Shelly Sanchez Terrell


Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. (Kofi Annan) 

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_education.html

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. Kofi Annan
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_education.html

When I think about the old year I must admit that I am proud of myself as I have strongly believed in what I was doing and in spite of the many difficulties  I have tried to be a supportive teacher. I have faced difficulties due to the social conditions of many teenagers I have taught and who are not willing to learn, which is a pity.

I have now moved to a new school and I am working on my self-development and on the students' language skills. I have begun a new life and in spite of the low levels of some of my students I am trying to be a teacher who cares.

Working in today's schools is an adventure: every year we meet new students and we need to care as each student is different from the others. Sometimes it is hard and when you finish your day at school you need to relax as we teach in old schools-  we do need new learning environments which can support us while working on projects and more interesting activities.
The Internet can help us but we need to rely on the students' smartphones sometimes, the connection can be very poor at school.

Thinking about  a different Way of Working

Today we can rely on new technologies for enhancing learning and language teaching: therefore I  will  try to work on new approaches and work on the  Flipped Classroom  Model.

I will guide my students to work from home and watch some videos or read some documents and we will later discuss the issue in class.


Professional Development on Line in January

As a teacher of English I will also do some  CPD  activities online like  EVO 2017  starting in  January: http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/113559169/Call_for_Participation_2017

Last year it was an engaging experience for me as I could rely on the support of the best tutors who worked online and for free.

I will enroll in the next days- I will work on the listening skills while teaching  English and on new technologies. I am happy I did four courses last year as some are not available this year.

I wish every Italian teacher could do one of the courses in  EVO (Electronic Village Online) as some of the best educators are sharing their ideas and providing support and feedback.



Happy New Year!!

Integrating Newly Arrived Migrant Students in Schools Week 1-2

The third  MOOC bout educators and  newly arrived students began in November on  28th  November and it is going to end by 18th December.
As usual, it has been an interesting MOOC with lots of ideas and interesting  resources which have been shared by the tutors.
This MOOC was a sort of follow-up as we had already done the previous ones but it was also interesting as we were asked to think about what we would do in order to face the newly arrived students in our schools.
It was more about the refugees and how to deal with them at school.  Hopefully,. I have not had to face this problem with my students in class but I know that in some areas of Italy  schools have children and young students who have just arrived and need to forget their past life and the atrocities they left behind.  Most of  my students who are not Italian  were born abroad but they  have been studying in Italy for some years.  I think that with refugees schools need to act and do their best but a good team of  educators and  also financial help is needed.  Living in a land where you do not speak the language is  a stressful situation, sometimes  other  people are not ready to help you. In addition, you want to forget and need to start a new life. Families and children need to enter the new society but it is hard.
I have devised a short  Action Plan  as a final task- I am asked to  present it and to share it and some peers will have to provide feedback.  I will also have to provide feedback to two more teachers in the Mooc.

Here is my learning diary with the final task:

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The resources which we were given   underlined the importance of welcoming the new students and presented  the activities which can help  them socialize.  P.E. activities and  language input were important to make the  young learners start a new living.

I would like to underline that although we have  a lot of economic problems in our region- EMILIA-ROMAGNA  we have been  working with a lot of immigrants  and there was  special conference in December.
Here is the link to the materials which have been shared by educators:

  http://istruzioneer.it/2016/12/07/materiali-15-novembre-giornate-di-studio-integrazioni/


Twitter has provided interesting documents and more  ideas about the best ways we can face  our students and their needs:

It is important to remember that every child ,  every teenager, every man  has a right to education. We do need to support them and  think about how we can enhance their living and studying in the new land. 

Tools and free materials for educators

The web is now presenting us   plenty of  tools and resources which we can use for free. While working on line I came across these useful web links  which I am sharing with you.

I have also discovered a new tool which helps me be connected online in video conferencing with a maximum number of people and I don't need to be registered.
Here is the list I have prepared for this post: you will find information, guides and a lot of free materials which you can use in your lessons and with your students.    

Free books, courses and materials online:

http://www.openculture.com/free_k-12_educational_resources

Unesco Free Resources

http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/resources/publications/elibrary-themes/teaching-and-learning/directory-of-free-educational-resources-for-teachers/

Free digital story-telling tools

https://elearningindustry.com/5-ways-boost-your-workforce-performance

Free tools

http://www.edutechchick.com/teachers-tech-tool-kit-top-picks-for-2015/

Web tools for  Teachers

http://www.edudemic.com/best-web-tools/

Free guides to be downloaded

http://www.edudemic.com/guides/


https://convertio.co/it/                A free tool to convert documents 

Top Ten Learning  Tools for  2016   : source   http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/

Top 200 Tools for Learning 2016 from Jane Hart



A free  Video  Chat  &  Conference  Tool : Appear.in
In order to be able to connect with the other people in the room you need to have  Chrome or Mozilla  browsers. It is very easy to use. Just see the tutorial:

Elt and Technology : useful tips and ideas shared by Nik  Peachey  thanks to  Slideshare:

Online Tools and Resources for Teaching Young Learners from Nik Peachey

Empowering Teachers Through Self Publishing from Nik Peachey



Free Professional Development online : webinars

https://www.youtube.com/user/atesol


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBQ58amRJh3anfDtob6sBSQ    ( American English) 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu378IVA2__mBS_AO5197FQ    ( Common Sense Education)

Raising Awareness about the Situation of Newly Arrived Migrants Reflections Week 2

The journey has continued, we have learnt from other teachers and  we have created a lesson and learnt about the best ways to approach the theme in our  classes.


It must be difficult but  it is  a " must do " lesson.

Also in my  region and the area where I live we have a lot of  immigrants and some refugees have arrived. They also arrived in the past.  We do need to know about them and their stories.


A more detailed overview is in my  website:  https://sites.google.com/site/thenewworldoflearning/learning-english/teaching-english



This is my learning  diary where I have shared some materials and more details about the topic: we have been informed and given some tips about the best ways to teache how to present and discuss the issue.  Learning can happen in different ways, by bringing the real world into our  classes and by helping learners to learn about  what is happening around us.

Raising Awareness about the Situation of Newly Arrived Migrants Reflections Week 1

I have already started a journey into diversity: this was two months ago and now  I am continuing it thanks to the MOOC which is run by the European platform  Teacher  Academy - check it on line:  http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/pub/teacher_academy.htm

This month we are going to discuss an interesting topic "  Raising Awareness about the situation of Newly arrived Immigrants", by the end of the month I will have finished it and I will have started the third MOOC -  Integrating Newly Arrived Migrant Students in Schools

This is the presentation for the third MOOC which I am going to do next:

                                The Hashtag  :  #diversitymoocs                                                                 
Tweet riguardo #diversitymoocs

The week has started with lots of information about the present situation and in particular we have read and learnt about the problems of refugees in the Mediterranean area. As I live in Italy, I am aware of the great problem of thousands of immigrants who are trying to escape from wars and conditions of poverty in their lands. This is due to the fact that Italy is one of the nearest places where they are arriving or where they are forced to remain as some countries are not  ready to accept them. 

Teaching and Learning: what  other teachers and educators have  shared about  the issue .
DIGITAL STORYTELLING can be an interesting way for introducing the  topic in our  lessons.

Sway used in education

"Sway is a digital storytelling app for work, school and home that makes it quick and easy to create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. " This is the presentation which can be found online if you check the website .

I was a bit curious about it and so  after seeing a nice presentation created by a teacher who was working in a Mooc I decided to find more information about it.

Here is what I have learnt: it is easy to use and you can  make presentations in just a few minutes and what you have done can be shared and also embedded in websites and blogs.




References online to learn more about it:

https://sway.uservoice.com/knowledgebase

https://office-watch.com/2015/sway-privacy-and-offline-concerns/

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/microsoft-office-sway-online-tutorial

What some educators have done with their primary school students:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/sway-for-engaging-online-presentations/

‘Microsoft Sway – what it is, how to use it in the classroom, and how to create one’ by Fiona Beal from Schoolnet SA

Comparing the tool with what has already been  used in making presentations online: Emaze and Sway:

http://theprezenter.com/presentation-tools/sway-vs-emaze



More information about   Sway can be found in my  Tackk:

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Adobe Spark - a new tool, easy to use

This year Italian teachers are continuing their  professional development and learning more about  new media and new tools.
I have just learnt about  Adobe Spark as we are working on bettering digital competences in my school- Liceo Artistico G. Chierici in Reggio Emilia.The aim is to train teachers and later to use the new tools with our students.

Here is the  video presentation  I found on line about the tool:

Adobe Spark Overview part 1 from CreateEDU TV on Vimeo.



Here is my  Tackk where I have collected what educators have  written about it:

View Adobe Spark..... an interesting tool that can be learnt by anyone and it is useful for students for making presentations and narrating their stories . It's a tool teachers must " know".by Tiziana Angiolini full version on Tackk
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This is my first  attempt online:





Finally,  a nice video created by using   Adobe Spark- a nice document which I think is worth sharing:

Professional Development Autumn 2016

October and  November   2016

Professional  Development  for  Teachers 

From the Europenschoolnetacademy webpage to other  platforms we  have interesting webinars and courses   which can enhance teachers' development: learning online is now part of most of us - life -long learners.
Here are just a few  Moocs or courses:

• Collaborative  Teaching  and  Learning  

     starting on 24th October   2016

   http://www.europeanschoolnetacademy.eu/web/collaborative-teaching-and-learning

• Raising Awareness about the Situation of Newly Arrived  migrants   starting on 31st October 2016    

       http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/it/pub/teacher_academy/catalogue/detail.cfm?sid=26037

•  Teaching your  subject in English     starting on   31st October   2016   https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/cambridge-teach-in-english

I have been so impressed by some platforms that I cannot but try to do more courses. Most of these courses have the same  framework:
- weekly modules
-  a list of sources and  shared  materials by the teachers
-  working on an online activity to be evaluated by peers
-  videos and interesting  lessons online which can be assessed at anytime of the day
-  FB or Twitter chat
-  end of course  certificates
-  badges for the  activities  students have finished


I really think that  Moocs  will be the future of  education as most of educators  are workers and need to work on their self-development and chose when to do it .  Every month we can find new ones, some are good quality while others provide educational opportunities to people living in different parts of the  world who cannot afford to work and study abroad. In Italy we have started some platforms but I think that the most reliable are still the institutional platforms that can offer many  Moocs-   Coursera and Edx are really good and they are trying to specialize more......

More links can be found online   https://www.mooc-list.com/

Are all the  MOOC courses  free?  Yes, .... but.................in some cases if you want to showcase them you need to pay for the certificate of attendance. Futurelearn can offer free courses but  people will always have to pay to get the statement of accomplishment.
I think that we will have to pay for courses online also in the next years: how can universities  provide " free courses" to anybody? The cost of running a platform can be high and I have also faced problems with technology as sometimes we had problems with the assessments or they had to extend the time for assessment as the platform was not  accessible.

It is not the end of  MOOCs but .............we are moving towards a new  generation of courses and MOOCs as  today people are willing to study  from abroad and  I think  that this is a great business.

Competences for the 21st Century Schools

Teaching in the XXI  century


I have just finished the Mooc which was run by the European Platform  Schooleducationgateway.
It was an engaging activity online where I had to read and to watch videos about the issue of 21st century skills and education today.
I have learnt from the other teachers and we have shared ideas and learnt together: we are a community of  teachers who are learning and we are trying to better education in our countries.

Here you can find  the hashtag which they had on Twitter.


Tweet riguardo #21skillscourse


I have also written my learning diary about what I have learnt.  I am still learning and I feel that I will have to work on rubrics and  new  tasks to work with my students.
In particular we have to work on activities that develop specific  skills while at school we still teach content and students do not work on their knowledge and work on projects  like  PBL activities.
It is important to develop the skills the students will require at work and when they become older as today what we learn at school is not always useful in the working environment.
Critical thinking, creativity, learning how to work in team, making  decision and collaborating are just some of the competences which we need to teach our learners. Today we are more aware of the complexities of the society and the use of new web tools can also enhance our learning.


I am still  trying to better my knowledge and I hope I will become  a  21st century  teacher!!

View Competences for the 21st CENTURY SCHOOLS 19th September- 16th October 2016                   My Learning Diary                     by Tiziana AngioliniTeacher of English and German in Italy full version on Tackk
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Cultural Diversity in your Classroom Reflections 2

What I have learnt in the last two weeks

I will post my lessons and projects for the MOOC which is going to finish by 2nd October. We need to find strategies that help our learners to think about the importance of dialogue and being open to other cultures. This is really important as more and more societies do not seem to be  ready to integrate and learn from other cultures.

We are human beings and the recent events dealing with a huge number of refugees and immigrants moving to Europe are the biggest problems in our societies. Wars and economic  problems are influencing our choices: Europe, the USA and other  countries are facing such problems and the solutions are often building " walls" to stop the invasions from people who are just escaping and trying to find a place where to live. We should not be afraid . However, many people are afraid of diversity, some are old while others are very young and are against integration because they feel that people are threatening our " society" and " our way of living". 

I like to think of the poem by John Donne who wrote " No man is an Island": we need to design tasks, to work on projects to teach our  learners that

                         No man is an Island

You can read the poem online too: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-man-is-an-island/

I have collected my favourite websites which have inspired me in designing my lessons:

promoting respect for cultural diversity is one of the main objectives we should all share -
see article online 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/promoting-respect-for-cul_b_1187683.html

Here is my  Thinglink with the most important web links which I have used for planning and learning about best practices and tips:
Here is my learning diary where I have shared what I have done in the last two weeks:in  the next post I  will describe my lessons/module.

Created with Padlet

Cultural Diversity in your Classroom Reflections 1

The beginning of a new school year-
Learning and Sharing  Ideas about the best Ways for enhancing cultural Diversity in Class 

I have had a great opportunity for my  CPD this month: the European platform Schooleducationgateway has presented an interesting  MOOC - " Cultural  Diversity in your Classroom" - just check online
http://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/it/pub/teacher_academy/catalogue/detail.cfm?id=20861.
I have done it and I am going to write about it and what I have learnt.

The course is followed by thousands of teachers, most of them are European educators  but we can  also find  teachers living in other parts of the world. It is a  challenging project as teachers are guided and can learn from experts about the importance of designing lessons, modules and  activities that support cultural diversity and teachers of different  subjects can  integrate this topic into the activities which they run in class.
In Europe we have had a lot of immigrants moving from  areas where  civil wars and wars have created sufferings and families and children are now trying to escape to safer  places. Some of them want to live in the north of Europe, others are hoping to find home in the USA or  Canada. Among the many stories I have heard about or read we have  families with children and some of them will become our  students.
People who are involved in education are the first ones who can  meet these children and students in their classes.The problems related to the issue of migration are manifolds and involve immigrants and their children  but  also the students living in the richest parts of the world need to learn about the importance of Cultural Diversity and  everybody should be aware of such values when meeting people from other cultures as they can be enriching. We should all be aware of the challenges but also  take advantage from what these people can tell us about their culture and start  meeting them and sharing ideas.

Some of the best students I have taught in my classes have also been from another country. They arrived in our primary schools and they became part of our communities.  Education is therefore important for them and they can also help their families and parents to become more integrated if we are open to them.

I live in Italy and in my classes I have always taught students coming from other European countries but also a lot of  immigrants ' children  who tried to escape poverty  and find a better world in Europe.
They came from China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, and other African countries. They wanted to find a land where to live in peace and be given more opportunities of freedom.
We have always had a " melting pot " in our classes, as teachers involved in teaching  students coming from all over the world we were  faced with language and cultural diversities, sometimes their families did not get in contact with the educators and needed the help of people who spoke their languages.
As a teacher I have faced a lot of difficulties but I have also realized that many of them felt they had not always been integrated and language  difficulties made this a greater problem.
The Mooc has run for two weeks  so far and we have had opportunities for sharing what we have done: Twitter and webinars are the main tools which we have used.
I have already seen some interesting learning diaries shared by the teachers who worked online and each learner/teacher has had to design a lesson about what we have learnt.
Twitter and FB are social media which have been used by teachers and if we check online we will see a lot of information about this interesting topic.
Tweet riguardo #diversitymoocs





                                                                  Ideas  for educators

In a post which I wrote on a webinar online I had come across the theme of students  coming from other countries- culturally responsive teaching was the title of the webinar and then I wrote about it the other blog which I  keep for my personal reflections:

http://educationalandissue.blogspot.it/2016/08/culturally-responsive-teaching.html

I will present my  Learning Diary in my next post and will write about my ideas about how I would like to teach Cultural Diversity in my school.

The issue of Copyright

                                    
   
                   COPYRIGHT ,FAIR USE   and    PUBLIC DOMAIN



 In February I worked on line about this important issue : COPYRIGHTS and FAIR USE as I did the  EVO SESSION  2016 that dealt about it.

I have already  described about the  interesting sessions which   were presented, I also  took part in some of them and  I felt that the  topic about   COPYRIGHT  is a bit  complicated for us. Educators have a great responsability as  most of our life as educators and the life of our  learners  are online-
see my post  in the other blog where I  described the tasks we did - it is vitual to learn how to work when we work online:

http://educationalandissue.blogspot.it/2016/02/evo-2016-educators-and-copyrights.html

 More and more we work by using Youtube, search the web and we use materials ,pictures and videos but  we  do  not know how to give  attribution and if we can use them.
Often our students carry out  researches on line and they do not work correctly as they do not respect the rights of  creators, writers and  people who took the pictures.
I continued my research online and could find interesting materials about the way we can search pictures, videos and also how to give  attribution if the  materials have  have been shared. When materials, music and  documents  are  under copyright we cannot use them in our work as they belong to owners.

We have Creative Commons  which can help us  share  materials by  providing attribution to the creators and to  the titles and weblinks but we do need to respect their rights.

We can also use our own pictures and decide to look for images or documents which are in the Public  Domain, But we must know what these words refer to.

Here you  can find interesting  documents which have been shared online to explain the complexity  of what happens when we want to use materials which have been  created by others and what is copyright:

                                                                            CC

OER and Education 

Here is the link to an   interesting presentation which was presented in  a webinar on  August 6 2016                                                                                                                                                 

by  Lyn Hilton   and which  was about   Copyrights and  Creative Commons     - SimpleK12   special session                                                                                                                                      

        https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KUA6B1dmIy3PxcWGOr3bp_1EjdD3VVO-MZfhvTJOkPQ/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.g35f391192_00          

More links about  the issue about  Copyrights can be  found in the  LIVEBINDERS of  April  2016  in the Saturday webinars run by CLASSROOM 2.0 Live   where you can  find an interesting   session  with the  presentation which was made  on line by  Royce  Kimmons   - title of the presentation :  Copyrights, Fair Use, Open Licensing                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                              

Classroom 2.0 LIVE April 2016

http://k12techintegration.pressbooks.com/           ( link shared by Royce Kimmons)


For educators: how to teach  FAIR USE  and  COPYRIGHT  - a video

How to cite pictures in a blog, in an article and online: 

http://writtent.com/blog/the-honor-code-of-a-noble-blogger-how-to-cite-pictures/

Here is an interesting article about copyright and what learners and teachers should know : 

http://ditchthattextbook.com/2016/04/04/14-copyright-essentials-teachers-and-students-must-know/

Useful guide online for educators by  Kathy  Schrock and  Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

http://www.schrockguide.net/intellectual-property.html

And finally  I am presenting the collection which I have  made so far as regards the topic : I am bookmarking more information as I feel that with most of the works we do now we really need to teach them how to use documents, pictures and photos. Attribution is important when we talk about CC. Hopefully we can find a lot of material which is not copyright.


OER, by italianteacher

 More information about  pictures and free photos can be found here - free pictures are the ideal ones for students' work so we do need to know where to find them : sometimes it is easy to use pictures which are shared and do not need attribution!!


IMAGES AND VIDEOS, by italianteacher

MMVC16 Vance Stevens and Teacher Professional Development

7th  August  2016
Day 3
Webinar  by   Vance  Stevens

Abundance in Teacher Professional Development: More than meets the eye

I could see the webinar online this Sunday: Vance Stevens -like many other important educators who were online this weekend-  is someone who works hard and he presented an interesting list of conferences and events online which are worth checking.

I was sure that the presentation would be useful and  engaging - I was not wrong as I have followed  him  in his events online -   you can find them on his  website :  https://learning2gether.net/ .  Lots of opportunities for discussing online on Sunday  and  many interesting people we can meet online and become  important in our life as educators. I cannot but say that my list of interesting web pages  has become longer and longer and I have bookmarked so many so far.  My Pocket is now full but  I am adding more !!
When I saw his presentation I could not but think about the many changes which have taken place in education: yes , I must admit that I am pleased to be living in this century and to be offered so many opportunities for learning thanks to the use of modern technology.  An event like  MMVC16 would not have been possible thirty years ago!!

When I first entered the world of education I could only fly abroad in the summer or take part in conferences which were held in other cities in my country. I am a teacher of English and I wanted to learn more and be more updated.  But our life is also long hours spent at school and planning and  sometimes  you cannot leave  school to take part in conferences. The costs can be high: webinars and conferences online can really make a difference. What we have been offered can sometimes be cheaper than going abroad.

Today we have plenty of opportunities, most of them are also  free and we just  sit in front of our  tablet, smartphone or computer and then we become   part of a learning  community that shares and discusses ideas about  education, the use of  modern technologies and new projects.

This is fantastic as we learn together and can enrich our way of working and sometimes we can find solutions to our difficulties.

What was really interesting was his list of events which he  had collected for the next weeks and months:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/187pdWJxImKvaNoRTUjGw3dU78AXDCzWFtXAWhOBGWss/edit?usp=sharing

I have entered some of them in my  Google Calendar and I am going to check more and share any I have  found interesting and are worth  watching. It is sometimes hard to follow such events as speakers are in the USA, Canada or in the far East while I live in Europe  but what is really good is the opportunity of meeting  virtually and we can share lessons, ideas, and tips. Materials are uploaded online and sometimes we are given the opportunity to choose and to see  the recording!!

I cannot but say that  Vance  Stevens is doing a great job as he is providing us with the " tools" to get access to knowledge and to learn more.

After watching live the webinar  I wrote down some important events in my agenda:  one will be in September  - it is  a new event  EduPassions free web conference  on 3rd September 
weblink http://www.edupassions.org/

Don't miss the #EduPassions free web conference, 9.3.2016 https://t.co/hScjHzu2TG #edtech #edchat #pretchat #tesol pic.twitter.com/JPzDpfS42N

— EduPassions (@edupassionscon) 23 luglio 2016

I am also going to follow more  Tweets  and follow important educators as the web is an important source of information about free events  which are  run by  people  like  Nellie  Deutsch  , Vance Stevens or groups of  teachers who are interested in sharing their projects and support other learners.

The future for me  

I would like to work on projects in education so  I feel that working and learning online can support me by providing ideas. Among the chats we were suggested in the webinar we were given ELT CHATS , I checked online and found not much but then I googled the word and I could find this interesting article by  Shelly Terrell  about  hashtags for  ELT teachers:

http://blog.esllibrary.com/2016/02/02/the-ultimate-hashtag-guide-for-english-language-teachers/


What would I like to research now?

I will see what other educators have already published and I will start writing too about the new
 " motorways" that can help us develop as learners and teachers.


You can find here the slides which  Vance Stevens has  shared online with us.  A precious  document which I have shared online too.

Abundance in teacher professional development: More than meets the eye from Vance Stevens

MMVC16 Flocking birds of different feathers

7th  August 2016
Day 3 MMVC16
I could see the presentation online by  Azmira Amran : the title was " symbolic"  and I feel "catching" for the educators who were following her online while she was speaking about the world of
education today and what we are expected to do or rather what we should do:

"Flocking   Birds  of  different  Feathers"

The presenter is a young educator but has acquired a lot of  experience by learning and studying about educational issues. She is currently studying in Europe and has interesting ideas.

               The presenter worked on an engaging topic: educators working in the XXI century. What she focussed on were ideas related to Dewey and the complexity of approaches to the world of education by underlining the importance of  collaboration.

Educators should not work on their own but they should rely on a network of educators and work together.  Professional Development is today  a must for everybody who is involved in the profession. But the world of educators should be a network of different people who work in different  fields and share ideas about the complexity of teaching and working and  know what should be taken into consideration as the real world is part of education. 
I found the link to Dewey was great: his ways of thinking is still important today!!   

Monodisciplinary collaboration has  some limits :

I really  appreciated the approach to the links among educators, society , social media and technology in today's reality: we can study  Shakespeare or  the cells but we do need to find the best ways for teaching and working on collaboration by helping our learners to develop critical thinking skills, working online and collaborating with their schoolmates. 

Going beyond collaborations with educators:

There is a need for different tasks and she underlined the importance of  collaboration in education and in activities based on problem-solving. 

We must learn how to create  more engaging and meaningful activities in class and I agree with what she said in her presentation.More tasks should enhance collaboration and should based on PBL . I feel that  a lot of projects and CLIL activities are now popular among educators who are trying to follow new ideas about education. The approach is complex but this is similar to the complexity of the world in which we  live and work .Our students are expected to be working in their life after they leave school and we should never forget this.  

        An interesting point she covered was about  collaboration : a new model involving different   " participants": the real world is now part of our world of educators.


I feel that it is a new approach as  it implies  inter-collaboration and new ways of learning and working.

These are the main ideas which she underlined in the webinar online.
When I was online I felt really engaged in the discussion as what she was saying was based on the changes that education is facing in the XXI century.
Personally I think that the issue needs a lot of reflections and as educators we are involved in re-shaping our activities.
However, I must admit that in my country a lot of teachers in the secondary  school  system do not have any connections with the outside world. Teachers of Latin or Maths sometimes lose the contact with the real world and continue working in the same old way.
As a teacher of  Foreign Languages I feel that we are in some ways ready to start collaborations and we often rely on the support of the IT teachers. A lot of projects are now presented in English or other foreign languages in Europe and also abroad . I am sure that  most of  language teachers have already started working in a different way.
I was pleased to learn that other educators are re-thinking the way we can collaborate and work together to better our teaching. Good examples have been presented also in this conference online.

Any challanges?  Not for me, but  maybe I will have to work with my friends and suggest them more formal and informal meetings :  we should all be aware that the old system in education is going to end and it is up to us to choose how to change our systems. 
Meanwhile ,we have online virtual conferences where we can interact and learn from the others. Hopefully the UE has many projects that can support our teaching and my great hope is to start working for some of them. I live in Europe and although we are facing a lot problems due to the bad financial situations we can enhance our best practices by connecting and working together. The community is growing and we are learning together!!
I have also found an engaging community online and sharing ideas and following the great thinkers can help me develop in terms of  self- professional development.

If I could ask a question to the speaker of this presentation, I would like to ask her this simple question:

           How  can we spread these ideas among politicians?
Educators are ready to learn and start a new way of working.

It seems to me that educators are now working and are aware of the steps we do need to follow but we need to rely on world wide events which can reach more people. I wish we could all have more events like this where we discuss, share ideas and try to connect to learn more.


Link to the presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBWqO_o1894

MMVC Using QR codes in education

6th  August 2016
  
Day 2
Webinar by Sibel Taskin Simsek

       "  Using   QR codes in education "

An interesting presentation was made by  Sibel Taskin Simsek and I could see it online.
She presented the use of QR codes in education. I had the opportunity to see  QR codes in a seminar in Italy this spring but I did not think that they could be so helpful. This webinar made me realize that education has really changed and more and more new technologies and apps can help us reach any learner. 

Sibel is an expert in the use of modern technology and she explained to us  how she could use QR codes with her students, who are older than mine ,while learning online and sharing materials for studying. Tablets and smartphones are now a reality and  she teaches at university, so she has to face fewer problems than us in secondary schools.
Here you can find a short introduction to the biography of the presenter who is  a modern teacher of  English while she is also an expert in technology. 

The webinar focussed on the use of  QR codes  and how people   started to use them in the auto industry in Japan:

http://www.qrcode.com/en/history/


Today  QR codes can be used in different  fields, not only in education and industry.

She made a nice presentation of  what we need to have installed in our browsers or in our  devices, mainly  smartphones  and tablets today :
we do need some apps that can scan and read  QR codes and we do need to have  a tool online that helps us create the QR code:

Online we can find easily  a service that enables us to create  a   QR code:  it is a free service  and we can  easily  share documents and links:  http://goqr.me/


 Why  should we use   QR codes?  Because they are simple and they  enable us to provide  links to materials which we cannot  upload in emails and which can be  easily  read online thanks to the apps which we have in our devices.


They can also facilitate the task of the teacher who will share the bar code with all the links that might be useful for homework, tasks to be carried out from home and in groups.

  Here are some useful tips for  ESL/EFL teachers which we were given online:

This webinar was really challenging for me: I thought I had  learnt a lot before I did this online conference and that QR codes would not be necessary in my teaching situations. I was wrong : most of my students have smartphones and use the new apps so they will facilitate my teaching too.
I felt interested and I must say that I have no words  how to thank
Sibel as she was a really good speaker and made a lovely presentation with clear ideas about the best practices she wanted to share with us!! 
The challenges for me
I need to use bar codes, they are so easy and simple and they can meet my students' needs who are looking for new ways of learning and working.
I have already downloaded the apps for scanning and reading bar codes in my browser - Chrome- in my desktop and in the notebooks which I have. I will see what to do  with my smartphone as I have a simple one, a Windows phone - just need to check if I can find the apps.

The future? I will try to work with the new devices and create  new activities. I really loved what I saw online.

Further research about  QR codes and  education

I have already started searching online and it seems that abroad more  and more   teachers are working with them:

http://nikpeachey.blogspot.it/2015/09/20-things-you-can-do-with-qr-codes-in.html

https://educationqrcodes.wikispaces.com/QR+Code+Generator

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/QR-codes-teaching-andrew-miller


http://www.schrockguide.net/qr-codes-in-the-classroom.html


http://www.emergingedtech.com/2014/12/25-ways-to-use-qr-codes-for-teaching-learning/


http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/qrcodes2



Useful videos  to share with other teachers:

To conclude, I would suggest using them to teachers and learners as they are very useful and do not require any special training- just some tutorials and then a lot of practice  :