Blended Learning

Blended learning is a new way of learning which combines traditional face-to-face classroom lessons  with online learning instructions.

Some advantages of this new approach are:

• Students have more time to spend on working at home.
• Students have the opportunity not only to interact with their peers in the classroom but also online.
• Students have the opportunity to find authentic up-to-date materials available online.
• Students have the advantage of taking part in class when they feel more at ease, i.e. that they can choose to participate in face-to-face environments or online ones.
• Students can receive more feedback from the teacher.
• Students can personalize their learning experience.

Here is a web page from Walden University, where they explain Hyflex Blended Learning

Dolos Reig at UNL

Some weeks ago, we attended a lecture about TIC (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación), TAC (Tecnologías del Aprendizaje y el Conocimiento), and TEP (Tecnologías para el Empoderamiento y la Participación) presented  by the social psychologist Dolors Reig at the Paraninfo UNL. 

She presented how technology is becoming more and more important in everyday life. 

 She explains that we need to be constantly connected with others and that is possible through technology. Moreover, technology could make us become superheroes or super villain, i.e.it is depending on how we use technology so as to do things correctly or not. We, as future teachers, have to be aware of how to use these devices and how to teach the use of them appropriately. 

Another issue that she points out is that, generally, we remember 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we watch; 50% of what we hear and watch; and 90 % of what we do and interact with. That is why, it is important to engage our students in the lessons in order to learn better.

It was an interesting seminar where we learnt about the way in which technology and social networks are taking part of our daily basis.

Here is a prezi presentation that I found on the “el Caparazón”, it is a summary of the topic Reig talked about

 TIC TAC TEP e Innovación social, nuevo Prezi

Web 2.0 vs Brain 20thC

I consider myself out of what Prensky calls "Digital Native"; I would like to explain why. To begin with, my first contact with a computer was when I was 8 or 9 years old, I remember these big PCs with white and black screens, and a little turtle that appeared when the computer was on; It was called "LOGO". I cannot recall what we were supposed to do, but I think we were taught how to write. I also remember when I saw that screen, I felt astonished, confused. 

(this is an example of the programme)

Later, at Secondary school, when I was in the last years, we started having Computer Studies; in those lessons we learnt to operate "Windows 98", only Microsoft Office programmes as Word, Excel; Access; Paint and very little of PowerPoint. We didn't have Internet connection. We used those programmes to make practical works, and presented them to our teachers, but we didn't share them online.

Nearly 2002, I  created my email account!! I was really happy! In those days we used to send and receive forward messages with PowerPoint presentations about jokes, moral messages and the like. Later, when I started studying at the virtual classroom at UNL University, my mail account became more "educational". Here we started to share some information in forums and small chatting groups.

During the last ten years, I realized that the use of computers, Internet connections and technological devices has increased; as it is known. I think that we need to be constantly updating our knowledge in order not to "get out-of-order". Sometimes this is a bit annoying and many people feel frustrated and overwhelmed by the increase of variety of devices because they cannot use, understand or know everything related to them.

Here I share a photo about the first computer (similar to) I usedto have at school.

 

Using technology in the classroom

Trying to figure out when and why it is important to use technology in the classroom, I discovered a web page that presents different articles that may help future teachers to know the value of this device.

I would like to highlight the three tips that are presented in one of the articles that you can find in the page which I am going to post at the end .

The article refers to "three tips on Integrating Technology", it claims that teaching with technology, it is not go to the classroom and turn on a computer, the teacher needs to have an intention and prepare the task beforehand. 

The first tips are:

 Plan ahead; the writer said: "the teacher has to be involved in planning, and takes into account the three T's; how teaching can be improved, what technology will be used, and how time will be used more efficiently."

Try something new: It is importat to use different devices and pages to engage students.

Become an educational designer: "teachers are more like designers, who get to choose and develop what kinds of content their students access and which technologies they use."


Here is the link where you can read about this topic and many more:

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2012/01/25/3-tips-on-integrating-technology-in-the-classroom

Learning Present continuous with The Simpsons!

Some months ago, we were asked to prepare a lesson plan including a presentation; we were free to create PowerPoint presentations, Prezi or another device. We also have to decide how, when and what we would like to use. 

My partner and I have to deal with Present Continuous and some vocabulary related to neighbours, so we prepared two PowerPoint presentations and a video.

In one of the PowerPoint we introduced the vocabulary; we made a survey in order to practice speaking. In the other one, we made an activity in which learners have to choose what the correct sentence was.

Finally, we made a video. It was really interesting to invent it. The process was like this; first, we downloaded some videos by The Simpsons, then we used Movie maker to paste them all together; and  finally, we wrote the headings and the credits. The aim of the activity was that students could watch the video and said what these characters were doing. They only had a minute to write down or memorize what they watched. 

 I showed the videos to my students in order to check whether it is engaging or not, and they really enjoy watching it! 

In conclusion, I think that using this kind of devices can help your students to learn English in an unusual way.

Here it is the video. Let's have fun!!

Learning through Presentations!

Nowadays as Future Teachers, we need to bear in mind how to engage our students in the classsroom. As we have been saying, our students belong to the category of "Digital Native"; that is why sometimes it comes difficult to prepare activities or games they would enjoy. For that reason, I would like to highlight why a presentation (Power Point Presentation, Prezi) could be a good method to help our learners get involved in the lesson.
When creating slides you can make colourful, attractive designs according to the age, level and topic that you are dealing with. Also by adding sounds and/or videos your presentations can become eyecatching and  really interesting! Moreover, you can use these devices to teach grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and even pronounciation; and you can use it at any time of the lesson.

  I would like to share this link, where I found Benefits, Drawbacks and some tips. Hope it would be useful!!

 
 

Web analysis

 The goal of analysing pages is to identify what  purpose the page or site has, what the domain is, for example if it is governmental, commercial, educational, or others. Moreover, this helps to identify who the author is, whether he has a specific view point; if the material presented in the site or page is appropriate for your learners, how old it is, when it was updated and more. 

Considering that kind of information, it is useful for teachers to identify what is the best page to use in order to design material and find different activities.

Following careful instructions and some questions to guide our analysis, we decided to investigate "MES-English" and the "BBC page". 

What I found interesting in MES-English is that you cannot only create flashcards, boardgames, crosswords and many fun activities for children,  but also the drawings are humorous and they are divided by topic, for instance: adjectives, daily routines.

As regards The BBC page, what I like about it is how they present a wide range of vocabulary activities,  listenings, videos all related to the news of the day. 

As a result, we learnt a lot about different pages and now we are ready to choose the best one that can help us to plan our lessons.

To conclude, if you want to discover what the best page to use in your class is do not forget to check its credibility, appropriateness, authority, clarity, and others.