Social bookmarkers and the use of social networks in education

After few days of rest I'm just updating the blog with the tools we were working on the last day of he course.
One is Diigo, an social bookmarking site where you not only can have your favorites pages organized but share them with the comunitiy. As we had seen with the blogs is very important the use of tags. This allows you to look for rellevant information at the same time you keep your resorces organized. In that sense, Diigo becomes an alternative searcher when you look for specific information, as they have been filtered by the community. You can also create your lists and your groups, who you can share specific resources with.

We also learnt how social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter can become both a resource of information as a teacher and a means of communication with your students. In Facebook you can create groups of interest, where your students do not have to become your friends or you can use the great potential of the instant and actual communication of Twitter. This network can be also used as an alternative searcher tools looking for specific information.

Multimedia tools

Today we've gone through multimedia tools. Using audio in the English class is a good way to improve our students' oral skills and web 2.0 have a lot to offer. Podcasting is one example. It's no only that you can upload audio files to the cloud but also subscribe to audio content. For example, you can subscribe to BBC podcasts with a learning purpose. You may have to use the iTunes software and have regulary the programs ready to listen in your mp3 device. You can also subscribe to podcasts and bring them to your blog, as you can see in the right bar of this blog. There are other tools you can use to work with audio in your classrooms. One is the well know Audacity, a software you have to download in your computer, but which has lots of editing possibilities. An interesting tool I just discover today is VoxoPop, an online audio forum which you can use to set discussions, practice descritions, build up creative stories, make a quiz, keep a diary...

Other tools related to audio we've exploring are Voki (you can see an example in the right bar of this blog) and Divshare, a good place to save your audio files and have them ready to use for different purposes. 

Multimedia tools would allow our students to create stories by integrating image, video and audio by using mobiles, cameras, pictures, music... You just can use a presentation and then add audio recording and music or use other online tools, such as Storyjumper, Little bird tales, Animoto, Goanimate or Voicethread. You have just to explore their particular possibilities. 

Finally we made up a group story coming from our anger as teachers living hard times. You can read it by clicking on this image. Enjoy!

Tools to collaborate

Hi again,

today we've been learning about some of the tools that web 2.0 provide us to work collaboratively, such as Wiki and Google Docs.
The first aproach to Wiki, which was an unknown resource for me, was a bit disconcerting. We coudn't find proper examples where the collaborative idea was shown. We found plenty of Wiki spaces where the teacher provided contents and resources rather than promote the children participation in an network enrivonment. After struggling a bit to create our first-simple Wiki project I think I could grasp the great possibilities the tool ofers us as a teachers. Now I know I need more practice in this tool.

When working with Google Docs with the purpuse to create a collaborative presentation the feeling was another. We could experiment how easy and useful the tool can be. We easily could explore its possibilities and create a shared product quite quickly. Here you can see the results....

Let's get started!

But a good 21st century teacher needs muche more than a pen now...

In this blog I'll try to explore the possibilities of the web 2.0 tools in order to meet my pupils' learning needs. It has the purpose of both keeping a record of what I'll be learning in this course and practising their teaching potencial. I'll be also glad to share my work with my class mates to enrich my experience.

In this video some of our students' needs are shown. Personally I the main reflection I take from it is the necessity to educate them to think, be critical, be creative... But how can we help them?



I found this interesting blog called "A CLIL TO CLIMB" which is full of resorces for teachers, as well as reflections and class experiences. And also this one form IH Barcelona, mainly adressed to teachers to develope their skills in techology applyed to ELT. You may like to have a look!

Hello!

Hi, this is me. My name is Lola Pérez and I'm taking this course about web 2.0 tools. I'm an English teacher in a State Shcool in Rubí. Future is quite uncertain and I'm not sure if  I'll be teaching in the same school next course, but I'm very concerned about leaning new ways of teaching and learning, not only applied to the foreing language field, but also as a class teacher.

I like using my pen but I'm aware that today it's not enough. I also love being in the clouds. I feel I really need to learn about new IT resources to better arrive to my pupils at the same time I become an active part of the new ways of learning and teaching. I'd like to be fluent in using web 2.0 tools to easily incorporated them in my teaching task, so I can engage pupils and give them a learning framework according to their expectations and their skills.