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.
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 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 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:
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:
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:
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......
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.
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.
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!!
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 - seearticle online
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.
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:
