My mini-action research project presentation

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What you can see now is my mini-action research project.
I teach English in a secondary school in ITALY: I teach general ENGLISH  and also  ENGLISH for BUSINESS and  for BUILDING and CONSTRUCTIONS.

The project is aimed at my 5th year class of students of  BUILDING and CONSTRUCTIONS.
Their level of English is lower intermediate but they are required to  make presentations in English and they are used to working together for school projects in many school subjects.

They are going to be guided by me in making presentations on line about  architecture and great Masters of Architecture of the XX-XXI century.

The teacher sets rules about   TIME for on line presentations and WHO/WHAT they are going to present by using  Google.
They need to have  an internet access from home and  a Gmail account.
They already know how to use e-mails and  GOOGLE-DRIVE.
They will have to work in groups  by collaborating and using  Google for their presentations. They need to be able to use 
GOOGLE Drive, GOOGLE Docs and  GOOGLE presentations.
The teacher will follow their  activities on line : 4 people in each group . In my class there are only 16 students and so it will be easy for me to monitor them and how they are making progress. I might have to make  a lot of suggestions and help them  with their English descriptions in the slides.
Google Presentations is good : you can write texts, use images for your  presentations by using  Google and  also adding  VIDEOs from the YOUTUBE.

The research will be guided by the TEACHER who will provide them with websites to use while they are searching on line for more information.

Possible problems:
-  internet cannot  be  fast and not everywhere in my area  they can work well and they are expected to work from home in the afternoon
- not everybody can work well with schoolmates
- students need to know how they will be assessed 


What's next?
If the presentations on line can work well I will continue working by using  presentations on line so that they are more engaged and like what they are doing, maybe next time I will make  presentations by using   Thiglink or Prezi and teach them how they work. Since  Google is free and  quite easy to use  I decided to use it.  As a teacher I like the way it can integrate a lot of  tools.

My presentation on line explains  how I have started to work and what type of problems may come to my mind in the next weeks. For sure I would like to have their presentations on line and presented in my blog or  in the school website.  
           

More about WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Some Interesting   Tools you might  like to use when  working on line to make your lessons better and create a better learning  environment for your  students  :

An interesting  Tool for  Collaboration and  also  Brainstorming  ideas and   organizing  activities     PADLET

  

Visuword  for  languages: you have a dictionary on line based on a visual presentation. A  great Tool for teachers of Languages!!! 

SYMBALOO FOR  ORGANIZING  YOUR  CLASSROOM AND MORE  FOR YOUR PERSONAL LIFE  . You need to register and have an account      

Meetingwords for  writing and collaboration. The best Tool for helping your students write and  create texts on line 

http://piratepad.net/front-page/
A great  Tool for collaborating on documents!
The same can be done with this  tool: you do not need to sign up!!
https://titanpad.com/

https://quip.com/about/tour 
I have just come  acroos  quip, it is something similar to Google doc but it is easy to use as you do not need an e-mail and  people can collaborate ............ it can be used with pc, smartphones but not all the smartphones.......   just have a look at it ...
Another interesting Tool:

http://www.plotbot.com/

With Plotbot, you can create private screenplays to work alone or with invited friends, or you can create public screenplays to find new friends. All changes are tracked to each writer, and you can revert to prior versions at any time.

A nice Tool for creating  a journal on line , or your diary on line, you just need an account  and then  you can write............just think about the many possibilities for your  students........  You need to register and have an account.

https://penzu.com/

http://www.wordle.net/

This tool enables you to write nice word clouds ...... and  you can use your imagination ..........   

WORDITOUT

http://worditout.com/

Another  tool : this  one  helps you create word clouds and you can share  them thanks to a link.   You can choose the size and the colours of your word clouds.                                                     

More information can be found on line or  by following this  link                                                                                                     

 http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/02/word-it-out-like-wordle-with-more.html                                 

ZAPTION

https://www.zaption.com/                   

This tool enables you to create video-lessons by choosing videos and  then creating a lesson  about the topic/or a listening/video activity   based on what you  have   presented. Videos can be  shared  thanks to a link or embedded .  

This is my first presentation :    this is the link 

     http://zapt.io/t79t7mub

To create such videos you need to have an account : you need an  e-mail and  then a   password which you can choose.

Have a look at what I  created... it can be  better ... but I liked it.                                                                                                     

                                              

GOOGLE  HANGOUTS   : an interesting Tool for chatting and  having   discussions on line.............you  just need to have an account with  Google +and   then you  start.......  and get connected with everyone from anywhere in the  world.                                                                                                  

https://tackk.com/

A tool which enables you  to create webpages and add videos, it can be used for presentations and for photos.                               

Once more  look for information  and see how  useful it can be :

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/04/tackk-create-webpages-for-announcements.html                                         

MORE ON  COLLABORATION ON LINE....................


These are  just  a few   tools, but  you will fall in love with  them because   they make your life as a student much  better ...................and  also teachers will be  much  happier.

TO BE  CONTINUED....................................

#ADBledMOOC Weeks2-3-4 and final considerations

"ADVENTURES IN BLENDED
  LEARNING "
  MOOC Course : what  I  learnt  this year

Reflecting on my learning path as a life long learning  teacher................. into the modern technologies

The Mooc took place in the first part of the year 2015 but what I did in the next months was also based on the interesting ideas I came across while doing this Mooc.First of all I did more Moocs on  new technologies, web 2.0 tools and digital skills.

I  followed the course " ADVENTURES IN BLENDED LEARNING" but it was  so rich in terms of news, links and special guests meetings on line that I could not  cope with all the deadlines.  Working at school and  doing a Mooc with  lots of  deadlines makes your life very busy, with  6  classes and  more than  100 students you feel that  it is too hard to follow what has been  going on.


What I liked : the interesting  videos and the people  who shared their ideas about  a different type of   work for teachers and  also  students.   There is a new  world that  is  going to change the world of  education as we have  seen it so far.

Most of the experiences are based on an American  situation and the context that was  different from mine. First of all, they have more technology in schools  and more money is invested in education.

However,  I have learnt  that  also  in Europe and  in most  countries the great  shift has  begun.

                      INTERESTING VIDEOS  ON LINE
I liked  Catlin Tucker's interview and her enthusiasm for  making lessons more engaging.   I feel that  as educators we should all bring more into our Learning environment and  she has done  great  work.
Her motto : " THINK   BIG , START  SMALL!"

Carri Schneider - Director of Policy : interview on 26  January  2015

Dr. Anthony  Picciano : someone who   knows a lot  and  can   suggest something for  studying and  getting  into   BLENDED  LEARNING   

Good ideas about  collaborative  Learning and  use of  blogs for   sharing   ideas  

                                                                                                                            (14 January 2015)                                                                                                          

      Moocs    and Blended Learning    

                                                                        

Jeff  Sandefer: an interview

Self-Blended Learning?  Towards a new  route

The end of the journey: I was a bit late  but I managed to post two activities online and got 100% for each one. I think I should say  we have now reached the beginning of new learning   time where  students and  learners are   more important.

What am I going to do in order to face the new year  ?  To look back and see what nice  experiences there are  and try  to  build the first step for  new projects  for my  students.  This year I am working in a more difficult situation and my expectations are not similare to the ones I had two years ago..............                   

I am sure that the new technologies will help me to develop  learning paths where my students can be more engaged and where  Learning  does not only depend on me but on their  interests and choices   to be  better learners .

Thank you  to the people who  shared their  ideas  in the course and to  Dr. Bernard Bull......................    I will continue  my journey into the new planet of  education!!!     

"...... if educators can instill in students that learning is about the process of doing the work and not about the grade, they are sure to hold students’ attention. "

Jeff James - assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Montgomery County Schools in Troy, NC.

From: http://smartblogs.com/education/2014/11/03/student-engagement-in-the-21st-century-blended-learning-classroom/

USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN TEACHING - MY REFLECTIONS ON TWITTER used for communication with students

I am following  an interesting  MOOC on line  dealing with the new WEB 2.0  TOOLS.  You can find more information about it by  following this link: 
https://www.coursera.org/course/newtechtools

The course which is organized by  COURSERA  has  just started and it provides us with more information about  the WEB 2.0. 
I must confess that  I am eager to learn more because  students need to be engaged while they are learning and   teachers should try to be  good  facilitators and follow their  interests!!
This week  I had to think about  one of the many web 2.0 tools which can be used for getting in touch  with  students, families and also when working  with classes. ( MODULE ABOUT  TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATION)

I had to analalyze a lot of interesting tools but some seemed to be too " difficult to use"; the topic was  how to communicate and  I thought that my  TWITTER account could help me to be connected with my students and to provide   them with help in a fast way. I must admit that  I  use Twitter  to be in touch with people  who work in ELT and  for some webminars which I am following on line. In some way it is good for  self-development and professional development on line.
Also the MOOCS  that I am doing  have a TWITTER  account and I usually check their tweets.

I was right  when I thought  about  this  idea of Twitter  and when I  saw last week's conference on line  with young and  good students who  presented their  activities while using  twitter, I told myself  that working with students needs changes also in Italy:  please follow this  link

http://studenttechnologyconference.com/page/recordings2015

All the  webminars were run by students and  I was able to follow an interesting  presentation  
by  students who  clearly said that  SOCIAL NETWORKS like  TWITTER  can help classroom activities.

I have uploaded my  video presentation for  COURSERA this week and   I would like to know which other tools can be used by  students and teachers.  For sure  you may mention  Face Book and also  GOOGLE.
Twitter is nice and good because you  need one account, an e-mail and a password and then you  can tweet or follow  hashtags(#). A good teacher needs to know that  Twitter can be followed by most of his/her students since they just need a  computer or a smart phone.
   

#ADBlendMOOC week 1

Beginning a new  journey into    BLENDED  LEARNING  and  TEACHING and LEARNING  in the  21st Century

      New Year and  a new course on line : this time it is about  BLENDED LEARNING.  I have just  started the course, it is a MOOC and  Professor  BERNARD BULL is running  it.   It is interesting to see how education is being  taught, discussed and presented in the  MOOCs on line.   So far I have  followed three courses and  they have all  dealt with  education and its future, and  the term BLENDED  LEARNING  has been used by all Professors, teachers and  people who were discussing this issue.

You can  reach the new MOOC  by  using this link:

 https://openeducation.blackboard.com/mooc-catalog/courseDetails/view?course_id=_211_1

I have watched  and  listened to the videos of the first module.
I found the defintions the  Professor used for BLENDED LEARNING were interesting and in some cases new for me.  I have also searched the web and found a lot of information, as a teacher of English I feel that  BLENDED LEARNING   offers many  interesting  advantages and I am going to discuss and learn  more about them.  I realize that  there will be  difficulties but every teacher should be aware of  it.

 

I have  also watched this  interesting  webminar in German: it is worth  seeing!                                                                                                                               

                                        

TEACHING ENGLISH  and   BLENDED LEARNING  : WHY WE SHOULD ALL LEARN ABOUT  IT

If you have  time  you should watch  this   interesting  video: 
Blended learning: Frank Baxter at TEDxManhattanBea     
(  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k5myOclBTI).

Another video which I feel guides  us into this  journey is this talk : 
Creating classrooms that work: Esther Wojcicki at TEDxBeaconStreet

And as a teacher  I feel that  more time should be spent on teaching and learning in a different   way, we cannot leave  students  behind and  what's more in the  21st century you need to give  more  value to the  experience of  education.  I like her ideas : technologies can be  the key to success and teachers should be able to use them and feel that  there is no good education if we  lose  our students.

#edcmooc REDIFINING THE HUMAN

                          
                                 WEEK 4
                              Redifining the Human
Once more I am  late for writing my blog  this week  and  I have just finished   watching  the  final activities before the course  ends.  However, I have my ideas about the different conditions of   human and non-human creatures. 
HUMAN  BEINGS  ARE  DIFFERENT.
The videos present  different  situations, but again I am optimistic and  I believe that human beings   will cope with technology and will learn to live in symbiosis with new tools while at the same  time they will make progress  at work, at university and  also at school. We do need to believe that the technological  revolution has already started and the process will continue but  teachers will continue  working with students and be great  tutors and  helpers for them.

WHY  HUMAN BEINGS  CAN MAKE  A DIFFERENCE

We have feelings, we have eyes and special sensibilities that cannot  make  us   become like robots; artificial intelligence will not  be brighter than us. 

I   have seen that  thanks to technology  education is now  a global village where we are teachers who continue studying, learning and  developing new skills while  we work  from  home and at school................and  we can say that  now we can rely on our  students' help. Yes, they can make a difference , but we should trust all of  them and base our  work on  collaborative activities, teaching  them how to work in a different environment.  Collaboration on line should  be shared by most schools and teachers because  we can  learn more if we  can work together. Thus PBL( Project Based Learning) should be one of the most important  activities at school.

EDUCATION AND INTERNET

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

The article presented on line is  interesting and  it  has made me think a lot : it is true that  today we read and study in a different way but I would also like to say that if we have the right  tools and we have taught our students how to use them education and internet and computers can make a great job together. 

I was born in  the XX century and my education was based on books, pens and paper. I learnt to use the typewriter, then the first  computers more than 20 years ago, I am still learning how to use new tools for teaching in a better way.

I like what  BILL GATES wrote in his blog  http://www.gatesnotes.com/Education/Education-2:

"I believe a lot of good teachers could become truly great teachers if we can get better at identifying and measuring effective teaching, investing in helping teachers improve, and rewarding excellence.

I also believe technology can help teachers be more effective and make learning more interesting. "

I would add that teachers  are responsible  not only for teaching the skills  and the subjects they have  studied and  are specialized in : they should be able to teach students how to use the new  tools  in education. Internet and  e-readers  ,e-books should make  our  work and study  much better and  a life-long process into life. Because  EDUCATION  is life.

This is my final  presentation for the  ARTEFACT  I have been working on  in the last  ten days: I chose an old library to start with then I worked on the idea of education in the XXI century.

E-learning and  Digital culture can  open new ways to us as teachers and  students. We are  entering a different  period in the life of  men but once more we are responsible or  our process of  learning and  we can  have  fun.  I   chose  the  short story by ASIMOV to tell everybody that  the characters in the story were a bit fed up with their situations  in the school of the future . Today in our schools we can  work on line and also off line in a better learning environment and also teachers  can   now  improve their competences thanks to  the websites. And we have interactions with our  students : FB or TWITTER  and also  a lot of  discussions with them. Because we care. 

Human relationships will not disappear but  technologies will make our life  different and we  will choose  WHAT, HOW and WHEN  to study.  Critical thinking skills will remain  the most important  skills we should all have and  it is the role of the teacher, as a guide and facilitator to help his/her  students to become better citizens of the world.

29 November  2014                   English  Language Teacher   

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#edcmooc BEING HUMAN- REASSERTING THE HUMAN

                                                                      WEEK   3
                 #edcmooc   BEING HUMAN
                   REASSERTING THE HUMAN
Interesting videos: human beings  are different  from machines and  robots  and they share the features of  belonging to a special group, they have  feelings. They love, they suffer, they are afraid and  are not like a machine. I feel that technology is a tool, it can  facilitate the life of men but at the same time  it is not  the only part of the life of a man.  I feel that  technology will not be  too powerful to make the human beings  less human. It will not  control us to make us  tied to it. It will change  part of us , but  we are  individuals and want to be " thinkers", people who can  decide, say things in a different way.
We share life with other people, we love, hate, get into troubles, thus we are different.

The language of human   beings   makes them  different, because they can create. We  have  hundreds of  languages and we   get in touch with people by using  different idioms.  We can create  masterpieces   of art, in architecture, we  can  write poems  and we can  do  a lot of  activities that can help human beings, I just want to mention  the great job made by  Strada with  EMERGENCY or the many  educators in the world who are working to create a learning  environment  in the poorest areas of the world........................                                                                                                     

   

             

I am a bit late with my post, week 4 has just  started but  I have worked on line with other interesting MOOCS. I am a teacher and a life-long learner. Thus  you will understand why I liked some  topics discussed in this part of the  course . The readings about  education  were  great because  they presented the problem of education in terms of  human beings and how  technologies  can  change the life of students.

TECHNOLOGY WITH A HUMAN  PURPOSE

Interesting and positive for me was this article presented in the  RESOURCE  SECTION :

Monke, L (2004) The Human Touch, EducationNext  in      http://educationnext.org/thehumantouch/

Monke stated that  wired schools cannot offer  a solution in education because   students and  children need to be in contact with reality, they need to think about  what they are learning and  not  only  have  access to lots of information.  Passive learning in front of the computer cannot be  the right solution, What I liked was his ideas about  technology awareness. Education is changing but  teachers and educators should teach  their children and  students how to cope with technology so that they will be able to use it in the right  way from school, from home and at work. This is a competence  for our  children to be acquired from school and it should help them to possess the new skills  for their  future life.

Technology will help to provide  education on line : a good example is the use of   videos  or   webminars by using  special technology like with  Skype  or  GOOGLE HANGOUTs, in general most of adults will  like this use of modern  technology because  they will have  contact with other people and their teachers  and you will continue sharing the  educational  path and will not  drop out.

Thanks to technology I could follow a great event on line and  off line : 

I was part of this  group of teachers and educators in the world who could learn, meet  on line  teachers who presented their projects  and I realized  how education  is changing.  To conclude  I have  met new  teachers     and I have  virtually   shared my experience with them thanks to modern technology by  using internet and sitting in my room. I have met the world..............