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.
How many of us have thought or think about these verbs? How can we implement our way of working?
Food for thought for many of us . It may be true that we still work in old schools but we need to train learners to become better learners who can deal with digital skills and are able to work in a complex world.
Here is the tutorial which I found online and was shared to present it.
How can we use it ?
For discussions, for assessment and also in Literature Circles . I think it will be helpful for my ELT lessons too.
I just need to find a task I would like to work on with my students. I will see what basic account offers and if it is worth paying for upgrading. I am now collecting some examples online to see what I could do in my lessons if I had it.
The idea of blogging with my classes was influenced by some blogs which I saw online and which made me think that my students should use more English and follow some activities and tasks from home.
When we finish school we do not have much interaction with students and this is a pity. By using a blog we can choose a topic, create a presentation and discuss together after researching, deciding the research and working on it while using the language.
Blogs can be used in different ways, they can be created by students too but in EFL teachers can enhance learning by providing a platform where students can share their ideas:
i. reflecting on what they have read about or use the blog as a classroom discussion
ii. investigating and reporting online about what they have learnt about
iii. using the platform to record activities and projects
iv. talking about shared activities
When we learn online we can also use images and for this reason I am going to use the blog to get my students more engaged by using pictures and images they can discuss and make comments on:
I teach in a liceo artistico in Italy and my students are working on art, paintings : we are required to search for images online which we can use for descriptions.
Posts can be grouped under different categories : here is mine about Ireland. More posts will be added during the school year and will be grouped depending on the Language levels of my learners.
TES : how to create lessons online in just a few minutes
It is one of the fastest tools for creating lessons and you can choose how to create lessons for your students by using images, videos and adding your texts.
I just tried it last week and after having checked my account was working I could work on the lesson by using the tool online which helps you look for resources which you can use in your lesson plan.
It took me less than ten minutes. Good quality and good materials online.
Once you are ready you can share it with your students or embed it on your website.
Why should everybody try it?
It's fast and it is free. You can also find a lot of materials which are shared by other educators. Sharing is caring and so you can find a lot of materials which you can use or also pay for. What I liked was the idea of integrating the lessons with Google Drive too.
On 17 July I was online and could see an interesting webinar about the importance of digital tools in the life of the teachers who develop their own PLN.
The webinar was run by Cambridge English Language Assessment and provided some ideas about how teachers can develop.
The two presenters , Sally Matson and Anna Lloyd interacted with the teachers and educators who were online and provided some tips about how we can learn together other educators and how to develop and share ideas, materials and interact with other teachers.
I am focussing on some key ideas which I feel everybody involved in teaching should be aware of.
Teaching today requires a lot of efforts in terms of self-development and thanks to the internet we can easily learn about new ideas and share tips and learn about what the others are doing.
PLN
The term refers to PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK and defines an informal network consisting of people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from. The term is used to define what you create, develop and maintain.
I think that like many teachers I have felt alone for years as it is not easy to work with the others in some schools . I wanted to share ideas and tips but often I had to cope with their opposition, it seemed to me that some never wanted to work together or discuss about their work and methodologies.
Ever since I started working online and met likeminded teachers things have changed. I also enjoyed working with other teachers when I was in Dublin some years ago: it was a European project for teachers and I realized that more and more teachers want to work together in projects.
Today we have global communities of teachers and we can easily work together also online, thanks to modern technologies we learn about them and we can share ideas.
What the two speakers underlined in the webinar was the importance of developing a reputation online.It is possible to meet virtual friends and educators who love discussing online and work with others as they feel that education is not a national issue but it involves educators, families and teachers.
While in the past most of the ideas were discussed in conferences and meetings , now we can have a global audience thanks to social media. Youtube, Linkedin,FB and Twitter can enable learners to find , share and create online resources. This implies that learner can control and manage their learning.
An important aspect of the connected educators is the relationship with their writing and blogging is becoming more and more important:
Blogging
The main focus was only on the main platforms but I must say that we have great bloggers that can help us learn about ideas, approaches and also new web tools.
Blogging is also useful for teachers when interacting with their learners.
The Digital Teacher
Teachers have a variety of resources they can rely on for learning: Moocs but also dedicated platforms which have just been created. The Digital Teacher can be one of the first website to check if you are beginning to work with modern tools.
It is important to get organized and to start following important people in education and also events. Twitter or FB can help the learners and the teachers to become more involved in learning about the new events and modern tools can help them to become organized in saving what they need to read about and reflect on:
The webinar ended with encouraging words : Join In!
The event was a good introduction to what we mean by connected educators today and how teachers can develop online.
You can watch the recording online dealing with this event .
MMVC17 My posts and my reflections online by Tiziana Angiolini
After being part of the online community of educators who saw the webinars which ran from 4th to 6th August I had to write some posts and to prepare my reflections in a video. I posted a video for 10 webinars and a video as an introduction to this experience online.
Here you can find my videos online and the links to the all the posts I have written so far: this is my homework for getting the Certificate of Attendance as Dr. Nellie Deutsch requires us to write posts and to make some videos for reflecting about the events.
My Presentation online about MMVC17 with links to posts and also links to the videos
I was online on 6th August and I could see the great webinar where the speaker presented her ideas about Leadership Management. Quality and Innovation: she speaker focused around leadership and transformation towards UNESCO SDG goals 2030 and the 4th industrial revolution. She focussed on the way technology is playing an important role but what is more important is a strong leadership that can enhance initiatives in education and interdisciplinary work. The main message was about the need for a systemic change. What we should do: THINK OUTSIDE. Ask questions. Great leaders need to be creative. Great words in the final slide: CARING IS SHARING, SHARING IS CARING. The main focus was on providing key ideas about this concept:
It was a great presentation, well-focussed and interesting but I did not connect as I was following the speaker and her interesting ideas. When I watched the session I realized that we are still looking for leaders who have passions and can motivate. I liked the world CREATIVE VISIONARIES. I did not ask any questions but I thought the content is relevant to me. In addition, I would add that we should try to become visionaries to build and develop a better leadership.
I felt a bit worried about the world of education now as I believe that a few people are so passionate: I agree that people like Nellie Deutsch are doing a great job but we should have more people. The challenges and the steps will have to be shared among other visionaries . I will have to try to rely on the people I know in my country and on the international community.
I will have to continue follow people like Ebba , Dr. Nellie Deutsch and people who are aware of the importance of education and how leadership is crucial to develop a better learning community.
I have already done a Mooc about the importance of Mentors and Leaders in Education and I will try to learn more about what innovative steps can reshape Education. It will be a Group Work shared among people.
Resources shared in the webinar : the Presentation
