Looking back and reflecting

Time for a 3x1 review !

After finishing this course, it is time to reflect about it, and in so doing, I am going to give a 3x1 review.


What is a 3x1 review?

A 3x1 review consists in mentioning 3 things that I absolutely loved about this Master's Degree Module, and 1 thing that I consider should be improve.

In order to indicate these things, I created a poster with Canva to illustrate them in an original way, so I hope you like it.

ictcourse de Lucía Carrasco 

On the one hand,  let's talk about the best 3 things:

• The partner search, since I learnt a lot about collaborative movements and how to elaborate an elevator pitch.
• Prototyping an OEP, as I learnt to apply what I knew about it on my own project, how to structure it, and think globally.
• Creating learning missions, since I collaborated with colleagues and we put ourselves into our students' shoes. Moreover, preparing the activities was extremely significant.

On the other hand, 1 thing that could be improved. In this case, it does not have anything to with with the subject, but with its schedule in the Master's Degree, in the second term. On account of this, we had a considerable workload that we would have managed with more time, if it had been placed in the first term of the academic course.

All in all, to be honest, this course has been extremely significant, meaningful and interesting, although I have to say that it required too much time, work, and effort. Despite these things, this course has been absolutely worth it. I would never forget it.

And finally, to end this course with a bit of humor, let's take a look at this meme I generated with a tool called Image Chef. 

Hope you enjoy !

                                                          Generador de Memes Creado por: Lucía 


See you later, collaborator !

My first online conference. MM10.

I am on cloud nine writing a post about the fourth of May, when I took part in my first online conference, thanks to the invitation of my ICT teacher María Jesús García @mjgsm, who allowed us to participate in MM10.

First and foremost, let's clarify some concepts.

What is Moodle?

Moodle is a free and online learning management system for educators and institutions. It was designed to allow teachers to create their online classes and extend their knowledge.

What is MM10?

As regards MM10, it is a course for teachers, from Moodle, in which educators get together, so as to instruct, learn, integrate technology in daily teaching,  collaborate, exchange cultural aspects, be facilitators, etc.

What was the conference about?

The conference was called Open Educational Digital Projects for CLIL Primary Education, it was aimed at talking the audience through the experience that each one of us had concerning the ICT course from the Master's Degree in Bilingual Education, at Rey Juan Carlos University (Vicálvaro-Madrid), including the learning diaries we created.

Who was the person in charge of the conference?

Nelly Deutsch @nelliemuller was the organizer of the conference. In fact, she organizes MOOCs (Moodle and Second Life) and free online conferences among other things. 

Who were the attendees?

The audience was composed by all my colleagues from the Master's Degree and educators around the world.

The run-up to the conference

Two weeks before the conference took place, we had to prepare the conference. First of all, what we had to do was complete a presentation from Google Drive designed by my teacher, so that we prepared our slides to support our speech, which was uploaded to Slideshare. In so doing, we had to mention our learning diaries, and our Open Educational Projects. Apart from that, I included some of the challenges I overcame, which had to do with the elaboration of the Open Educational Project, and I also mentioned my twitter handle.

Here you can take a glimpse of our slides for the conference.

Open educational digital projects for clil primary education from Jefe de Área de Formación en Red y Redes Sociales. INTEF

Once I had the slide prepared, it was time to prepare the speech itself, which had to last around five minutes. In order to do so, what I did was go back to all the learning diary entries, and try to compile the information provided in each post, in several sentences; therefore, I focussed on explaining the aim of each challenge, alongside its development and what I learnt from it.

By the time I had a clear idea of what to talk about, I started drafting it, by opening an online document in Google Drive. I structured the speech in seven parts: an introduction, the CLIL Private Detective, Prototyping an Open Educational Project, Next mission: partner search, In charge of creating learning missions, Elaborating a Rubric for Assessment, and a conclusion.

Once I finished my speech, I uploaded it at Issuu

Then, I was ready for the online rehearsal  with my teacher and colleagues, which took place on the 27th of April. In order to practice it, we met at WizIQ, which is an online delivery learning platform intended for instructors, to deliver their interactive teaching lessons. As a result, we practiced our speeches, as well as the management of audio and micro settings.

After the rehearsal, what I did was just practising the speech, taking into account looking at the lens of the camera and the intonation.

The big day 

The 4th of May arrived and we participated in the online conference, which started at 4 p.m. It took place in WizIQ, as the rehearsal. 

Firstly, Nelly Deutsch introduced the conference and our teacher, who gave an introduction and was in charge of allowing us permission to appear on the spot and talk. So, off we went. Due to the fact that the platform included a chat, while we were talking, we were encouraged to provide the URLs of the learning diaries of our colleagues through it. Likewise, the chat was used to pose questions and comments about our explanations. Besides that, we were spreading the world on Twitter #moodlemooc10.

Here you have my screenshot from the conference !

                                        Screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtSBDWzqPWw

And... here you have the video of the conference, hope you enjoy it !

Feedback on the experience

To tell you the truth, although I was as nervous as a cat, while waiting for the conference to start, I must admit that I was elated. Actually, as soon as the conference started, I felt really comfortable. It was the first time I participated in such event, and I highly recommend it. By doing this kind of activity, you notice the power of technology, since it brings together people from all over the world, by a click. Furthermore, it was extremely motivating, as we were able to present our Open Educational Projects to the world, and receive feedback from it. Moreover, I learnt from my colleagues, since I took some notes on catching activities from their projects, which I will be able to adapt and apply in my future classroom.

I am of the opinion that this kind of activity was idyllic to practice our summarizing skills, since having to explain briefly the learning journey throughout this ICT course implied stepping back and thinking about the challenges that were significant as for the elaboration of our Open Educational Project, explaining it in few words and also reflecting about our experience with ICT and this course in particular.

Taking part in this online conference made me be looking forward to learning about how to use this platform called WizIQ, in order to deliver online classes in the near future, and be able to join other courses and participate in more online conferences.

On account of all this, I thoroughly recommend it. Moreover, to my eye, students will like it, too, since for them it will be a motivating challenge, and they will like to watch their peers on the screen, and then be able to look at the recorded video and analyse aspects concerning ideas, language, intonation, organization, etc. In fact, they could carry out a self-assessment. Furthermore, by participating in this kind of activity, students are going to work on the skills that the 21st century demands, the likes of: capacity to present yourself to the world, to be precise and brief, to try to convince the audience, to make them be interested, etc; therefore, this will be a starting point to develop such skills.


Conclusions on my learning throughout the course

The amazing knowledge compiled in this learning diary started on the 2nd of Februay, when this subject began. I remember that day, since I spent the whole presentation of the subject just trying to access the computer, since I did not know why it did not work properly, so it was not a good start; however, a wonderful experience and learning were waiting for me.

I remember the first thing that I had to do, which was filling in a questionnaire concerning what we knew about certain aspects of ICT. Even though I knew I was not good at it, this questionnaire made me reflect on what I learnt throughout my school years and the fact that there are far more interesting and useful tools to work with, and apply them to our primary classrooms, which is the most important thing.

Something that I learnt in this course is the fact that digital identity is utterly important. Consequently, we have to pay attention to it and take care of it, since it is like a cover letter from us to the world, and I did not use to pay attention to it, until I started this course.

Then, it was time to create a twitter handle, although I had one, I decided to create a different one for educational purposes. Alongside the twitter handle, I designed my blog, actually, it is my first one and I have to say that I am on cloud nine with it, since it served me as a self-reflection space about my learning progress.

Well, with the learning diary I was equipped to embark in the voyage of the ICT learning process, so off I went, and the first thing I had to do was a flipped introduction. I had not heard about it before, and it was quite enjoyable. With this challenge I learnt to use Powtoon.

Then, it was time to learn about Open Educational Projects, by analysing one and paying attention to what makes a Project-Based Learning worth it. This time, I learnt to use Genially.

Once I had a better understanding on OEPs, I designed mine. In this challenge I learnt to use Youtube Editor and discovered Issuu.

After I had explained my OEP, I was asked to create a visual metaphor to illustrate it, so I decided to create one focussed on the path I will follow from where I will start, to where I will go. During this task, I learnt to use Canva - of which I am actually a big fan.

Moving on to the following challenge, I had to look for a collaborative partner, and it made me realise the huge variety of movements to join and have the opportunity to connect with teachers all over the world, learn from them and join efforts to try to make learning more enjoyable, while students develop essential skills. In order to look for a partner, I had to record an elevator pitch, something that I had not heard before, and I have to admit that I really like preparing and recording it. I had a blast recording with Ana Márquez @ana94mqz and Álvaro Antón @PEPO65 , so thanks for it.

Then, I was in charge of turning flat activities into super learning missions, this challenge was extremely significant, since I collaborated with two colleagues. This definitely made me think about the importance of collaboration among teachers, particularly among teachers from the same course, in order to share ideas and think about ways of creating catching missions for students, missions in which not only do they work on content in a cross-curricular way, but also essential skills that they will use in their adult life. This time I learnt to use StoryboardThat and IMovie. I had a whale of a time recording the video, I remember having to stop and record again, since we had a memory like a sieve, or not pronouncing a word properly. Besides that, we were excited wearing our foulards. So, I will like to thank Ana Márquez and Carmen Olmedo @CarmenOlPas for collaborating with me.

Once I had the learning mission, I had to create a rubric and I have to say that this was extremely important, since assessment needs time and reflection, so as to choose the one that we think is better for our students, and also create a rubric for students to practice self-assessment. I learnt to use Quick Rubric and Pixton.

Finally, the 4th of May arrived and we had to face our last challenge - an online conference. This was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.

At this point of my conclusion, I consider necessary to thank my teacher María Jesús García, since if it had not been for her, this could not have been possible. Thanks María Jesús for your dedication, for being 24/7, for giving us advice, for encouraging us to not despair, for motivating us, and for providing us with scores of tips and tools. I will never forget the strategy you used to choose the partners for the flipped introduction, which consisted on matching different shoe sizes, I will use it in my classroon, for sure. I also remember the time we had to write a letter to be Genially Ambassadors and we were decorating the blackboard to take a photo.

Likewise, I would like to thank all my colleagues, since they have been giving feedback on my posts and also helping me with any doubt I had.

This is not a farewell, since I will continue working on my digital skills as a 21st century teacher, and I will definitely apply what I learnt in my future classrooms.

See you later, collaborator !