miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2020

Reflection on my learning


Hello everyone!  How are you?

Today I am going to tell you about everything  I have learned in the ICTs subject in the bilingual  master's degree.

The first thing we did was to create a learning diary, a blog to write on it everything we were going to learn, reflect there our thoughts about the resources we had use, and tell what we like  and what do not  like about them , and also decide  if we would use it in our classes.
Moreover, we created an avatar with bitmoji to represent us but protecting our identity.

After that, we learned about creative commons. We have  learned what is a creative common , how to license our work and how to use other authors’  work appropiately . In my opinion,  this is one of the most important things that  I have learned in this subject , because you can be doing something illegal without even knowing it  and there are a lot of people that still doing it.

Furthermore we learned how to do effective search in google and we learned how  to curate content with pinterest. I already knew this tool because I have been using it since a long time. In my opinion it is very useful to organise your ideas and now I am using Pinterest for educational purposes.

In addition, we opened a  twitter account to  tweet and interact with other peers.
Some time ago I had an account, so I already knew how to use twitter . What I like most about twitter is that you are immediately informed of the latest news and you can also follow educational and official accounts that informs you about courses and other important data.

After that, we learn how to create attractive support lesson sideshows.  We learn how to use genially and without doubt this is one of my favourite tools. The possibility to integrate a great variety of resources such as images, videos, icons, links, sounds and so on, makes this tool a very useful and  motivating resource for our lessons.

Later , we learned how to create comics, mind maps and infographics. I used pixton to create a comic and I really enjoy  the results. This is also one of my favourite tools and  I am 100 per cent sure that I am going to use this with my students.
I also created a mindmap with mindmeister. What I found interesting about this app is that it is collaborative , therefore everyone can contribute with  their own ideas.
I had never created an infographic before but with the Esel.ly I found it very easy and entertaining.

Moreover , I created a podcast channel and my fist podcast with ivoox . For me this was the most difficult and time consuming task, because it was not easy learning to use audacity to add the background music, however I really  like the final result.
Then , Irene and I planned a video step by step  and then we  recorded it. The app stop motion studio made this process easy and in my opinion it is very motivating for our students.
Regarding the app flipgrid,  it is honestly the one that  I liked the least, but it can be interesting now  for distance education.

I have really enjoy discovering new tools,in just a few months we have learned to handle many tools.


miércoles, 6 de mayo de 2020

FlipGrid

Hello teachers ! I am glad to be here again!

Today I am going to talk about FlipgridFlipgrid is a  free online app for social learning where you can propose activities in which for the answers you can create and share short videos.

To use this app you have to sign in, and then you can join to a group through a code. This app is easy to use for both the teacher and the students. You can add icons, drawings or images to your video. In less than 7 minutes you can have your video finished . 

Flipgrid can be a very interesting tool for teachers now due to the coronavirus.
The basic idea of Flipgrid is to hold video discussions on a proposed topic. However,  some students may feel embarrassed and prefer not to participate in the activity.

I would use this application with students in grades four to six. 
Here you can see my video.


Stop motion


Hello Teachers! How are you? Today we will learn how to create a special video: a stop motion video.

Do you know what stop motion is? It is an animation technique that consists of simulating the movement of static objects by using a series of consecutive still images.
In my opinion this could be very interesting and motivating for our students.

Let’s find out how to create this kind of video:
We have already made the storyboard that will help us with the organization to create the video. You can see the storyboard in the previous blog post.

The first thing you need to do to create the video is a technological device, for example a mobile phone  or a tablet and then you have to download the app Stop Motion Studio.
Stop Motion Studio is a free app that allows you to create movies frame by frame with Timeline .It is easy to use; you can add text, filters, effects and sounds among other things. 
One thing that I would improve in this app is that to use some of these options you have to pay, but the price is affordable.

We as teachers can create this kind of video to explain some topic, but in my opinion is better if we teach to our students how they can create it.

I would do stop motion videos with fourth, fifth  and sixth courses of primary education, because I consider that for the lower courses it can be difficult.

In this case, we have created an example of a stop motion video in which you can see how a pulley works. It is made for fourth grade because they are studying the simple machines ( the lever, the pulley and the inclined plane). In groups students can choose a machine and create a video in stop motion and explain to their classmates how it works for the Natural Science subject
The video is called The ants and the pulley and is made by Irene  and me.





We have never made a stop motion video before, therefore to create this video we had to practice several times and move the pieces little by little to get the best possible result. The app Stop Motion Studio makes it easy to assemble the photos, the music and the visual effects.

With this activity we can achieve two objectives that the students learn to create videos in stop motion and that they understand how the lever, the pulley and the inclined plane work.
Nowadays we believe that it is essential that students learn to handle new technologies from an early age.


Storyboard

Hello teachers ! How are you ?
Today I am going to talk about storyboard. 

A storyboard is a graphic representation of how our video will be, shot by shot. It’s made up of frames with drawings or pictures representing each shot, and notes about what is happening in the scene. Some storyboards are simple and others  include more details such us  the music, characters, dialogue, script and so on .

You can create storyboards in different ways for example you can use Storyboardthat and make it as sort of a comic book version of your script. You can also do it with a template; you can use some templates already done or create your own template. In this case I am going to use a template that has been adapted from ShellyTerrell.com, Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0., who originally had adapted it from Lukas Henne’s template

Teacher Irene and I decided to create a storyboard using the template  because you do not need internet connexion.

In this template we have included the title, the authors, the genre and a description, then in each frame we added a description about what is happening in each shot, the audio and the effects. We did not add dialogue because it is a silent movie. With this video and some activities, students will learn how a pulley works.

Creating a storyboard helps us to visualize the final result of our work.