140 holy characters

Again, Twitter.

This time I want to highlight the power this tool has, since it is being used everywhere. At first (and now more than ever), it was a powerful tool for journalists. Then, it was used to tear down the censorship wall in Egypt, bringing down the Mubarak regime. After that, people started to open accounts in order to try to communicate with famous people, or to get a vote during Big Brother's nominations, on TV.

In this blog, some time ago, I wrote some lines as regard the use of Twitter in the classroom. You can read it here: http://www.santiagoeco2.com.ar/2012/08/what-little-bird-can-tell.html

So, I don’t have any new comment about Twitter as a tool for learning English. I just want to share a piece of news that caught my attention:

 So, my reflection this time will be:

Twitter is everything,

So listen, and listen well:

Twitter is in Heaven.

Twitter is in Hell.

So if Twitter is everywhere,

Underestimate it, you shouldn’t.

If the Pope and the Devil use it,

You can use it with your students.

WIX - A free webpage

I found a very interesting tool when it comes to creating webpages. This site is called “WIX” and it has a wide variety of templates that you can choose from to create a dynamic, visually attractive, free webpage. 

Registering is very simple: you have to provide your email address, a name for your account and that’s it.

When you are working with the editor, you can see that it is a user-friendly tool and allows you to include photos (slides, grids…), videos, applications, links (to other sites, to Facebook, Twitter), your location in Google Maps, buttons, other shapes, an online store, etc… and you can design several pages, linked to each other through buttons or menus (and submenus).

The Purpose?

Well, that’s up to you. Maybe you can share photos of the school you are working at or you can publish videos and activities to be carried out in your learners’ laptops. In that sense, being the site so visually attractive, students can feel motivated and willing to work.

Here you have an example: http://santiaguitoibarra.wix.com/brown

In this case, I just uploaded some photos and I created a second page with the location information (see the "Visit us" section).

Hope you like it! (sorry for those who were "burnt" -in Spanish- in the photos). ;)

Our last meeting

Finally, we presented our Pecha Kuchas in ECO2, giving the subject a nice closure. The special guest: Prof. Adriana Díaz.

In general, the three presentations were based on the tools we worked on during the year. We spoke about the web 2.0 tools, office software, platforms, activity generators, and some advantages and disadvantages when it comes to using these tools in an EFL classroom.

I think I can speak for the rest of my classmates when I say that we found this subject highly profitable, not only as regards technology but also about working in group in order to present a final product. And I’m not saying working in ‘groupS’, because, all in all, I felt like we were one big group, working together and learning from each other. 

Now I’ll share here with you the final Pecha Kucha that we presented together with Aldana V. and Fernanda. You can download HERE a file containing the presentation and the script, just in case you find it useful. 

ECO2 ends now, but I have promised to myself publishing here from now on every time I find some interesting information that could help you (he, she, they, we, me, even it) in the classroom.

 

Words are flying out like endless rain into a paper cup...

This is a reflective blog, right? I think it is about time to some catharsis here.

I don’t have much to say actually, good or bad. I just felt the need to write ANYTHING while I’m working on the final Pecha Kucha. I’m a little bit tired of trying to memorise the script and the words seem to slip away more and more as I go on with the slides. I feel we didn’t have much time to prepare it. Well, there WAS time, but there were so many other things to do too, so…

The bright side: we could write the script and find images more easily than when we had to do it for Dicción. I guess we learnt how to prepare this type of presentation. Maybe the next one could be done in a day or two! Who knows!

We had fun doing this kind of group work, no doubt about it. Finding funny images and trying to fit 20 seconds with something to say is a great exercise for our poor little brain. However, for the actual presentation you need good memory, and I think that ‘memorising’ is something that, at this time of the year, already went on vacation. 

An "alive" Pecha Kucha

We spoke all throughout the year about the ‘Pecha Kucha’ presentations (how to pronounce it? HERE) and we had the chance of trying them in front of the Practical Issues audience.

We all know now that a Pecha Kucha presentation has its particular way of presenting a topic: you have to do it while showing 20 slides and each of the slides has to be on display just for 20 seconds. That gives you a total presentation time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.

Marilí (http://marilimaldonado.blogspot.com.ar), our Phonetics teacher, gave us the opportunity to present a Pecha Kucha there, in Centro de Idiomas, for Practical Issues. Many of us couldn’t do it live because there wasn’t enough time to prepare it. Luckily, I was part of the group who could do it.

My classmates Fernanda (http://icttherewego.blogspot.com/) and Aldana (http://aldanamviano.blogspot.com/) - and I - worked on one of the possible topics that Marilí provided us: “How to make sounds memorable”.  We had to propose a set of guidelines that could be useful for teachers when they have to show their students how to produce certain sounds. Moreover, we tried to give tips on how to make students remember the way these sounds are produced. 

The experience was great. Apart from the feeling that we were contributing to English teaching, we also felt, in a way, loved. We received displays of affection from everybody there. People we didn’t know were encouraging us and saying very nice things to us, as if our work was good! We knew it was a 'special edition' of the Practical Issues because there was going to be a tribute to Daniel Fernández and María Isabel Recamán. In addition, our teacher, Marilí, is about to retire so we tried our best to make her proud of her students. And she said she was!

 

We ended up really tired (I got ill!) but, in all, it was a wonderful Saturday. Plus, we enjoyed our teachers’ presentations, which were excellent! They gave us lots of ideas as regards technology in the classroom and they even showed some of our blogs and the work we are doing in ECO2.

Now we ‘are supposed to’ design another Pecha Kucha presentation for ECO2. I hope that previous experience helps us to do it a little bit faster than before!

Anyway, if there is someone out there that would be interested in presenting the topic “How to make sounds memorable”, he/she can download the presentation –in Power Point – and the script. Just click HERE and good luck!

Time for presentations

Again, we had to present a lesson. This time we were supposed to use web 2.0 tools in order to adapt an already planned lesson or a future lesson that we could use. I paired up with Aldana V. (owner of http://aldanamviano.blogspot.com.ar/) and, since she’s about to teach the “has/have got” structure, we decided to plan this lesson thinking about what she could do in her near future.

I will present here this lesson as we did in the classroom.

As aim, at the end of the lesson, students are supposed to create a family tree in Popplet (www.popplet.com) representing their ideal families, that is look for famous people (in Google Images) and say what position they could take in their family tree, and how old they are (searching this date on Google.com). I believe that this could be considered as a mini-webquest.
Level of students: Beginners, 7th graders (12 years old).
The function will be describing their ideal family.
The topic, “Family members”, and the grammar: has/have got.

As the first step, the teacher presents the topic of family members with a video functioning as a visual aid. In this video, Homer describes the members of his family.
Since we didn’t find a video in YouTube in which Homer describes his family, we tried to do something similar. We prepared a text and I recorded it with the Audacity software. Then, we downloaded many videos from YouTube and a couple of pictures and edited them with a program called Ulead Video Studio, which is similar to the well known Windows Movie Maker. The result:

After watching the video, as a second step, students are asked to complete the Simpsons’ family tree in Popplet, stating the relationship between them as they heard in the video, starting from Homer.

As a following step students will be focused on the written form of the text that was presented first as a video. They will be asked to fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verb “has/have got”.

Hello. I'm Homer Simpson. I__________ a son named Bart.
Bart __________ two sisters: Lisa and Maggie.
My wife is Marge, and she _________ two sisters: Patty and Selma.
Their  _____ is called Clancy and their _____, Jackie.
My parents are Abraham and Mona.
DOH'! I almost forget it. I ________ a brother. His name is Herb.

They will be given the chance to watch the video again if they have doubts. Once the activity is finished, the teacher will draw students’ attention to the different forms of the verb “have got”, asking them why they think the verb changes.

As a final step, they are supposed to create a popplet representing a family tree of their ideal families. So first they will need to look for images of their favourite famous people.

In the popplet, students will need to insert the image of the celebrity, write the name of the role they are representing and how old they are.

I hope it works!

About Web X.0 (being X = 1, 2 and 3)

We were talking in class about the terms “web 1.0” and “web 2.0”; even “web 3.0”. You could think that there are some other instances in between, like web 1.5 or web 2.2, but so far there are not such things. Let’s stick to the real terms and try to see their differences.

Web 1.0 was the beginning of the World Wide Web to the general public. People surfing the net in its 1.0 aspect are considered to be passive consumers. They just can read information, maybe download it, print it, but there are not many other types of interaction. The most common format in web 1.0 is HTML (HyperText Markup Language), which allows users to link information to any other information over the internet. As an example, here you have a capture: the official website of Les Luthiers.

Web 2.0, obviously, would be one step ahead. Users are not just retrieving information but they are also creating, sharing, storing data, and so forth. They may also have control over some features. Nowadays, the most popular example of web 2.0 is social networking sites, such as Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, video storage like YouTube, blogs, wikis and many others.

Here you have a map of social networking (you can open it, otherwise you'll need a magnifying glass).

We are not dealing with web 3.0 yet… I mean here, in ECO (or in this blog!). Let’s just mention that it is about artificial intelligence, computers generating information rather than humans. It is called “the Semantic Web”.
You can search for further information on the internet, of course, and if you happen to discover what “web 2.2” is about, please leave your message at http://aldanamviano.blogspot.com.ar (she will be glad).
Soon we will be exploring web 2.0 tools and how to use them in the classroom.

What the little bird can tell...

I was thinking about social networks and how we can make use of them in the classroom.

We already got familiar with Edmodo, and consequently with Facebook (since the former is an ‘educational version’ of the latter, which almost everybody knows these days).  

Another very popular social network that is gaining attention in our country is Twitter. 

I was wondering ‘what can we do with it?’ so I searched the net looking for answers. The one thing I thought we can do with Twitter was there: to write collaboratively in order to create a story.

Once upon a time, I saw in Twitter a contest sponsored by a mobile phone company in which they wrote the first line of a story and people had to attach a hashtag(*) (for example #MobileCompany) followed by a possible next line for the story. Every day, the most attractive piece of story was chosen by this company and in the following day, people had to continue from there. It lasted a week, or two. It was a short story and it was very interesting to read all the alternatives that people could think of.

Imagine that activity in a classroom. It could be very profitable for language. Students could have the option of registering in Twitter with nicknames, so they won’t have any kind of inhibitions and they will feel free to write. You could choose one line every week and by the end of the year they would have written a short story that can be published, at least as a set of copies to be used in their school. That would be the goal. They will feel motivated knowing that they can be authors of a piece of writing that will be there, in the school library, for everybody to read.

There are some other activities that I found on the net.  This list was taken from Powerful Learner Practice (http://plpnetwork.com/)

1. Announcements. Post information regarding upcoming projects, deadlines, and activities to stay engaged while on break from school.

2. Research. There is a wealth of experts on Twitter who are eager to share their knowledge. MLA now outlines how to properly cite a Tweet.

3. Host a Book Study Twitter Chat. Create a hashtag chat for students to discuss a novel they’re reading.  Use open-ended questions regarding the author, plot, characters, etc. to encourage students to respond.

4. Start a monthly/quarterly Twitter Chat with parents. Encourage your parent/teacher organizations to co-host twitter chats about issues of interest to them (bullying, relevance/amount of homework, grading procedures, etc.)

5. Debate.  Encourage students to defend their position and use appropriate responses for their classmates’ arguments.

6. Vocabulary.  Encourage students to tweet a sentence using their vocabulary words.

7. Alphabet Study.  Have families take pictures of objects from their environment that start with the letter of the day.  Have them post on Twitter and include your class hashtag.

8. Teach Effective Searching Techniques.  Post a daily question on Twitter that requires students to search online for the answer(s) using effective searching techniques.

9. Use Backchannels.  Encourage students to post comments, questions or ask for clarification during classroom instruction and presentations.

10. Promote Class Blog. Create a class blog that showcases the work of students.  If students are older have them create individual blogs.  Then encourage others on Twitter to leave comments for students.

11. Encourage Learning.  Keep curious students stimulated by pointing them to additional research and learning opportunities.

Here you have a video that shows how students use Twitter in the Roosevelt High School, in Minneapolis.

There are many, many other things to do with Twitter (not to mention the 'engaging' part!). We just have to take some time to think and ideas will come up. You can even come across with contests like the one I told you and adapt it to your lessons. If they are selling mobile phones with that, ¿why can’t we use it to ‘sell’ language?

(*)Hashtag: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. More information:  https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols

An online magazine

Who doesn't want to write a magazine?
I was always thinking about how to do that, till I came across a site that allows you convert your Word documents into an online magazine.
You are even able to turn over the pages just as if you were reading a real magazine!
It is free! (Very important!). You just have to register, login with your username and password, and upload your Word document.
Easy! Right?

Here you have a sample. I did it with some of the entries of this blog.

http://bit.ly/eco2magazine

I think it is useful for presenting texts to your students, or maybe ask them to write a school magazine -that could be very motivating-. You can even write your reflective journals directly into this new format.

I hope you find it interesting. I know I did!

A couple of extra tools

Last month we had the chance to enrol on a course on ICT in the classroom called "TIC y Lenguas Extranjeras - Relaciones de Colaboración y Autoría". It was carried out by the teachers Flavia Bonadeo, Viviana Basano and our ECO2 teacher Letizia Russo.
We shared these meetings with people from Profesorado de Francés. We did this in the computer lab, though one of the lessons was held at Centro de Idiomas. We had to go there in order to be able to learn how to use the interactive board.

We were able to communicate with each other through the Edmodo platform, just as we do it in Eco. We have learned how to create new posts, upload links, etc. It was no news for me thanks to Eco, but then I (together with my classmates) could experience working with some new software.

One of the lessons was about ExeLearning and Foxit Reader. Both of them are software that are included in the netbooks from Conectar Igualdad (yes, those netbooks that maybe we will never get to see!).
ExeLearning is somehow similar to a web page. It is an open code edition software for web pages without having to be an expert in HTML code. It has very attractive options for you to design tasks and exercises. You can even insert videos and images.
Foxit Reader, also taught in Eco2, is the alternative PDF editor to Acrobat Reader.

Another lesson was devoted to the Mimio software for the interactive board. Viviana showed us all the features that this tool includes and we followed her with our notebooks.

Finally, on the last lesson, we had to present (in groups) a didactic sequence that would include at least two of the ICT tools that we saw in class.
We planned a lesson that involved the using of three of them: Mimio, ExeLearning and Edmodo.

First, we used Mimio and the interactive board for presenting "the possessive 's".

Then we went to ExeLearning for a "filling in the blanks" exercise in order for the students to revise the family members.

After that, we went back to the interactive board with the idea of creating the Simpsons family tree. In order to do that, we first have to show the students the complete family tree with the character's names and then we ask them to build it themselves, giving them guiding questions.

The final task: homework. We used Edmodo to create a quiz where they are supposed to complete sentences that include the relationships between the members of the Simpsons family. Once they have completed them, the answers would be automatically sent to our email address (and even the correction can be automatic!).

I personally believe that this course was very enriching and our teachers were great at showing us how to take advantage of these tools. Maybe we won't find easily many schools that have the infrastructure to use the software, but just in case we did, we will be perfectly prepared.

A break

I want to share a joke I've read (well, not exactly a joke) that reminded me of that topic about digital immigrants and digital natives.
Hope you like it.

__________________________________________________

Un presumido estudiante que se encontraba asistiendo a un partido de fútbol se tomó la molestia de explicarle a un señor mayor, sentado cerca suyo, porqué le es imposible a la vieja generación comprender a su generación.
"Usted creció en un mundo diferente, realmente casi uno primitivo", dijo en voz lo suficientemente alta para que lo escucharan alrededor. "Los jóvenes de hoy crecimos con televisión, internet, aviones jet, viajes al espacio, el hombre caminando en la luna. Nuestras sondas espaciales han visitado Marte. Tenemos naves con energía nuclear y carros eléctricos y de hidrógeno. Computadoras con procesos de velocidad de la luz.. y más"
Luego de un breve silencio el señor mayor respondió lo que sigue:
"Tienes razón, hijo mío. Nosotros no tuvimos esas cosas cuando éramos jóvenes..... así que las inventamos. Ahora, dime, ¿qué estás haciendo TÚ para la próxima generación?"
¡El aplauso fue atronador!

__________________________________________________

Presentations... ✓

Practical Work Nº2 is over now but it gave us a lot of things to have in mind as regards presentations.
We all had to share our work to our mates, and we had the opportunity to learn a lot more about what you can do with Powerpoint and Prezi. This is the good thing about collaborative work: everybody learns from everybody. Plus, we had so much fun!
I attach here the links for you to be able to download the lesson we designed and the two presentations that you need for its development.

The lesson: http://bit.ly/lessoneco2
The Prezi presentation: http://bit.ly/preziweekend
The Powerpoint presentation: http://bit.ly/powerpointweekend

We had to prepare the lesson based on the topic "a typical weekend", which is what everybody is impatiently waiting for. And it's only Tuesday!

Luckily, we did it alright and our teacher Letizia gave us a very positive feedback on our work. Here you have the notes that she took down:

- You took into account the topic you were supposed to deal with in your lesson,
- you made great use of images,
- you used attractive templates,
- you downloaded, adapted and customized games,
- you even designed your own games,
- you recorded your own material and integrated it into the presentation,
- you used humour and music,
- you used animation and gifs,
- you combined technology with more traditional material,
- you created texts: dialogues, diaries and short stories,
- you contextualised the material to the experiences and realities of the secondary school learners,
- you designed tasks that promoted interaction among learners,
- etc., etc., etc...

So, let's keep on working! (I insist... waiting for the weekend!).