3. INTRODUCTION
This portfolio is organized into five sections. On the one hand, the first four
ones makes reference to electronic resources used for teaching which have been shown
in the ICT subject, coursed at the Public University of Navarra. On the other hand,
the last part is dedicated to express my internship experience and, in particular, my
observation and viewpoint of the use of New Technologies inside and outside class by
my tutor.
Not only I am reflecting on how the Information Age has created a knowledge-based
society, but I also try to share different digital programmes which play a central role
in education. Therefore, the best way of making use of these educational tools is to
include them in my blog.
Regarding the development of teaching techniques through electronic tools, in my
view, these can make classes more efficient giving access to other informative
documents which help you to learn from developing new ways of teaching. This
could not be possible without the contribution of millions of advanced users who
create and share information to learn and teach.
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4. MY FIRST COMPETENCE WITH DIGITAL COMPETENCES
According to the first theory and practice class, one can realize about the
technological changes developed in the 21th Century. Digital competence is the most
recent concept describing technology related to skills. As future teachers, we must
take into account technical skills to use digital technologies in a meaningful way
for working, studying and for everyday life in general. Furthermore, we have to be
able to select them appropriately depending on our purposes to reach our educational
goals.
Apart from that, I think that we should enable the growth of this interesting
World participating in digital culture. We could use and learn from different points
of view over a same thing to understand how others think and this contribution to
get a better education. Sincerely, I did not used to be keen on learning about new
technologies; I just worked as an intermediate user who was not worried about
overcoming that level. As a matter of fact, I was not aware of the wide range of
opportunities to research, select and create new content online. However, nowadays I
have changed my mind and I am really interested in learning further information
about this unknown world.
At the beginning of the new course, I was afraid of the quantity of content to
assimilate. However, at the moment, I am really motivated to know about Common
Framework of teaching digital competence. Therefore, I decided to search for
information about all of the knowledge which I had no idea. For example, which does
TPACK, CALL, PLE, PLN, VLE mean? I felt completely lost.
I discovered that Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is
a framework that identifies the knowledge which teachers need to teach effectively
with technology. But, what is it exactly? The following picture can show us the
complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy
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(PK), and Technology (TK).
This approach goes beyond seeing
these three knowledge bases in isolation.
TPACK also emphasizes the new kinds
of knowledge that is obtained from the
intersections between them, representing
four more knowledge which is applicable
to teaching with technology:
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK),
Technological Content Knowledge
(TCK), Technological Pedagogical
Knowledge (TPK), and the intersection
5. of all three circles, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). In other
words, this picture shows visually what we can obtain when we share knowledge and think
of the main parts which are necessary to make it more complex.
In addition, there were other unknown concepts to look up as PLE, PLN, VLE,
CLE and PWT. However, it was a bit complicated to find out and understand the
meaning of these confusing terms because I knew that all of them have in common
some aspects, but I did not ensure how they are connected. Therefore, I have chosen
this picture to explain them clearly.
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Personal learning
environment is based on
collaborative learning and social
networks within communities of
practice. Attwell. Barnes, Bimrose
and Brown, (2008) said that a
PLE should be based on a set of
tools to allow personal access to
resources from multiple sources,
and to support knowledge
creation and communication.
Personal learning networks (PLN) share a close association with the concept
of PLE because a person makes a connection with another person with the specific
intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection, deriving
knowledge from a personal learning environment. In this way, you will be able to
use personal web tools that help you to be an advanced user.
Furthermore, It has relation with CLE, because is an autonomous system
owned by any educational institutions. The academics or learners are the users of
some cloud based services, who all equally share the privileges like control, choice,
sharing of content on these services. However, VLE, Virtual Learning Environment
is an online educational platform. In this case, academics and the institutions have
the most control on this learning environment.
The major impact of the uses of new technologies and social networking for
learning is to move learning out of the institutions and into the society. The
Institutions should rethink their role as part of community and offer networks
supporting learning and collaborative knowledge development.
In this subject, we have had the opportunity to create an account in Symbaloo,
which will be a continuous process to evaluate at the end of the subject. It is an online
bookmarking tool which is useful to have access to all your habitual websites with
6. one click. I am really interested in developing and experimenting with this visual
tool properly. I think that its colorful structure make us spend time exploring it.
Moreover, you can separate some websites from others depends on their use. Therefore,
it gives us the possibility to organize them in our mind, too.
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7. HOW DO WE USE DIGITAL DEVICES?
The 2nd week was dedicated to learn the dimensions of digital competences,
to realize which sub-competences we are used to using, to recognize if we are a
foundation, an intermediate or an advanced user and to know the meaning of an
advanced user. To answer these questions, we had to search for information to
analyze the meaning of these concepts in groups. Each group had to prepare a
presentation to explain to the rest of our mates. It was useful to listen what they have
concluded, because sometimes we say the same, but in a different way.
To know other concepts like “digital resident” or a “visitor”, and the academic
and social use of internet in Thailand compared with Spain, we had to read a survey
and answer some questions. When we shared opinions, in class, most of us
considered that we are digital resident because we tend to use the web in many
aspects of our lives. Although some people said that they are digital and visitor
resident because sometimes they use the web as a tool for achieving specific goals as
needs, but it is not a venue for conducting her social life.
According to the use of digital devices by
Thai students is similar to Spanish students in
some aspects. Most of us usually spend between
5-6 hours online. We do not know the exact
percentage of Spanish students who owe
technological devices, but we supposed to be like
Thai students in this aspect. Due the 75% of them
said that they have smartphone, 70% have
desktop and 35% tablet or iPad.
In relation with the use of smartphones
and tablets for social purposes and not for education, we all do agree that we mainly
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8. use smartphones for social purposes and laptops or desktops for educational purposes.
Furthermore, we usually have a smartphone on.
However, the use of English in online gaming it is more frequent in Thai
students, because 61% of them use English in section E, and 48% in section D. From
my point of view and my experience, as Spanish language is one of the most
common language in the world we have the opportunity to play in our mother
tongue. Nevertheless, if you play with foreign people you will talk in the most
important language, the English.
We can compare this example with the importance of a second language in
films and TVs programmes. It is also remarkable to conclude that those countries
which did not have translation of films and TV programmes were bound to learn the
English basically because they needed to communicate in a single languge.
Nevertheless, we are used to watching them in Spanish, although nowadays we get
used to using English in digital devices, in general.
83% of Thai students consider that the use of digital devices help them to
practice English outside of class, and I think that it is the same than in Spain,
because we are improving our English due to the
access to use digital devices, outside and inside of
the class.
In the last environment, inside of the class,
the use of digital devices to learn English gives us
the chance of learning real word language. Moreover,
it provides us meaningful interactions because we
can create platforms and share opinions and
interests with students from other countries.
The fact of using English as an official language with digital devices has
caused the need of translating some words to understand the real meaning.
Therefore, it gives notable importance to choose the right translation programme.
Nowadays, teachers and students are aware of the potential of internet for accessing
to real English. However, most of us need to have more experience to learn The
English with digital devices correctly.
To sum up, we finished the week analyzing the good points and the bad
points of some webpages with educational purposes. Also, we had to realize; if those
were suitable for the age and the level of our students and If we can use them for
many topics and subjects like resources. Taking into account these ones, we had to
choose other two websites, to work and to include in an educational context.
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9. DISCOVERING NEW PROGRAMMES
The third week has been dedicated to learn about creating powerful activities
using different educational programmes. I was not used to creating activities with
this kind of tools, but I am expected to use them from right now. For example, the
first programme learnt this week it was “Hot potatoes” which is easy to understand
its functions correctly, although sometimes you can have difficulties. It offers
several ways of developing our instructive aims, using interactive multiple-choice,
short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill
exercises. We had time to experiment with the programme by ourselves and we were
able to do three activities in the same class including a picture in one of them. From
my point of view, it is really helpful for our role as teachers, although we have not
discovered it yet properly.
According to the inclusion of videos in our work projects, I can say that I
knew about Movie Maker, Video Cuter and aTube Catcher because I had ever used.
However, I have learnt that everyone can download a video from YouTube without
any download programme and that it is possible to cut videos from Movie Maker and
Power Point. For the English Didactic, in the 3rd degree, my group chose the topic of
“San Fermin” for the final project and each one had to create their own lessons. In
my case, I decided to introduce my first lesson which was the first one of the project
with one video created by myself. The main aim of that video was to give an example
of working as a TV presenter, because the students would have to present something
using correctly verbal and non-verbal language as a competent TV presenter.
Therefore, I tried to present the common places in San Fermin in an ordinary day
comparing with another video in the same place, but in this international festival. It
was complicated to make it by myself, because I had never done anything like this
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10. before and it took me long time, but it was worth the effort. Nowadays, I can use it to
compare with my current English level and to share it in this blog. It was two years
ago, so I do not look like the same person.
Another programme to create videos is “Animoto” which it has a wide
variety of styles to use. You can join different videos and clicking play, you will
enjoy watching that collection. From my point of view, I think that its main aim is
to attract completely the attention, and it encourages you to create new videos.
Finally, we have had the opportunity to transcribe one video through
“Dotsub” which it is a programme to subtitle a video between the groups of the practice
class. This task is for the next group and it consists of the following steps, each
group has to transcribe 2'10''.
· Firstly we have to download the video from YouTube.
· Secondly we cut the video in Movie Maker.
· Finally, we need to listen the video several times to transcribe it using
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“Dotsub”.
This is the result of our work and effort. Click in the link: Reading &
Spelling teacher training section 5.3
The last task is really difficult for me because my worst skill in English
is the listening and it was necessary to write word by word, so you cannot invent
that the video says. In general, it has been a week really enjoyable, although
sometimes new technologies provoke us headache.
11. MEAGNINFUL RESOURCES
The fourth entry is based on explaining several digital programmes which are
really effective to include in our educational resources. In the theory class, some
groups gave us an explanation about the following programmes: Subtitle horse,
subtitle workshop, camptionatube, youtube, overstream, dotsub and amara. They had
to take into account the main advantages and disadvantages of them, to summarize
the relevant points.
Regarding the presentations, I think that we got a great impression to apply
them for different subjects, because, in this moment, we are aware of their conditions
and we can use them with different purposes. After that class, I had a look at these
programmes to investigate by my own. As a result, I think that I would not be able to
use them correctly, till I will have practiced seriously.
In addition, my group has used “dotsub” to subtitle a video about “Reading
and spelling”, and we have had some problems to upload the video, to save the
transcription, etc. In other words, to be an expert of using these programmes we need
to practice and to make a lot of mistakes.
Another task to perform in the theory class, it was to experiment with
programmes related to mind maps, in groups. We had to compare “Text 2 mind map”
and “Stormboad”. The first one was very similar to Cmaptools, although I prefer to
use Text 2 mind map, because in cmaptools when you add a box to write down, it
appears two boxes and sometimes you do not need both and you cannot eliminate one
of them. Furthermore, I would use “Text 2 mind map“because the appearance is more
remarkable and you can choose different styles of writing, colors, etc.
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12. 13
Stormboad has too many
templates to use with different
purposes, although it is necessary to
spend time discovering all of its
tools. I am sure you will find that
you are looking for, because it has
meaningful resources. Therefore, it
will take you time to get the right
template due to its wide variety. It
is really difficult to choose one
because they are completely
different and the use of them can be orientated to different purposes.
The practice class was very interesting because we have discussed about the
differences between memory test and practice test. Teachers have been using memory
tests to evaluate students for decades, but they did not realize that type of test is not
use checking if students have acquired the content required for that unit and if that
learning will be applied for their real lives. Because that results give us evidences that
students are learning by rote and that does not make sense.
We have to help students to be competent in different contexts and to develop
cognitive skills which will give them the opportunity to solve real problems. As my
blog’s title says, everyone needs to learn by using, because it is the only way to
acquire the knowledge properly. Mostly, if we learn something memorizing, we will
forget it quickly, but if we use that knowledge in a specific context, it does not
matter if we make mistakes, because we will remember what we do not have to do, so
we will not forget it easily.
According to the assessment, it is necessary to make the points to be
evaluated clear. When we were students, we weren't notified of what we had to know
exactly to pass the exam or to be an excellent student. If we were good at something,
any problem, but if we were bad at studying history, for example, what could we do?.
We could spend too many hours studying, but if we were not sure about what we
needed to know, we were losing our time. As a matter of fact, if we have clear how
teachers are going to evaluate us and what I need to know, we would focus on that
and we would do it successfully.
13. Rubrics are meaningful resources to assess. Because these are divided into
different sections like content and language written, and in each one, there are
different grades of acquisition of that skill. In consequence teachers and students
use these grades to be identified in any of them, and to take into account what they
need to achieve. It is easier if we make everything clear from the first time, we will
take advantages of every minute.
THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN MY INTERNSHIP
By the end of the internship we were supposed to have an idea of the use of new
technologies in the classroom to teach foreign languages, its use outside class to prepare
digital resources and for organizational purposes.
What I have seen during my internship is that all the classrooms have an
interactive whiteboard, but teachers are not used to making the most of this powerful
tool. Actually, this happens because I know that such is a new digital challenging
resource.
My teacher usually makes use of the interactive whiteboard to start the unit
with a power point. She also explains and practices theoretical concepts using games
and activities online. Furthermore, she means to listen to songs and activities either
watching pictures or videos.
However, the interactive whiteboard is used as a projection system. She tends
to use the blackboard to rely on an outline, as well as to make the content clear
and finally write the activities'key down.
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14. Apart from the resources have I seen my tutor uses for a teaching purpose in
the classroom, she also designs some activities in Microsoft Word and Power point.
These are targeted to students' learning.
Indeed, not only are new technologies been used for these purposes, but they
are also used for organizational ones. For instance, she uses Microsoft Excell to
create different schedules and so for, organize the course of the
units. Furthermore, she makes use of this programme to carry on with the
assessment. Regarding my tutor, I think that she could exploit new technologies
better.
To sum up, in my view, I think that the school should provide teachers with a
specific training on how bring new technologies into the classroom. I would
suggest to use Cmaptool so as to create a diagram and the use of concept maps at the
same time. Another remarkable tool to carry through the teaching process is the
useful programme VUE. Not only is possible to create concept maps in this, but it is
also beneficial because when you create a mind map, you are connecting them with
digital resources. You can have a look at the following website: http://vue.tufts.edu/
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References:
Dhabi, A., (2007). What is CALL?. United Arab Emirates. Retrieve
from: http://advanceducation.blogspot.com.es/2007/04/what-is-call-computer-assisted-
language.html
Edublend. (2013). Technology Enhanced Active learning & Team Based Learning
UK HESTEM community launch. United Kingdom. Retrieve
from: http://edublend.blogspot.com.es/
Llomäki, L., Kantosalo, A. & Lakkala, M., (2011). What is digital competence? EUN
Partnership AISBL. Retrieve from:
http://linked.eun.org/c/document_library/get_filep_l_id=16319&folderId=22089&
name=DLFE-711.pdf
Koehler, M. J., (2006). What is TPACK?. Retrieve from: http://www.tpack.org/
Jarvis, H., Digital residents: practices and perceptions of non-native
speakers. University of Salford, UK.
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The following WebPages:
· www.dotsub.com
· www.animoto.es
· Movie Maker programme
· Hot potatoes programme
· www.youtube.com
· http://dotsub.com/
· http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1319 /
· https://www.stormboard.com/
· https://www.text2mindmap.com/