Sunday 21 February 2016

My PLE and PLN for CLIL

This activity has been the most difficult to do until now because I did not know the meaning of PLE and PLN. Thanks to my teacher, María Jesús, who explained these concepts in class, and also the search I did on Goodle, I understood them and I was able to start creating my diagram about my PLE and PLN for CLIL. 

First, I thought about all the tools and resources that have offered me information about CLIL since I started my Degree and my Master's Degree and I organised all the information in a mind map. Once I had everything connected and I knew how to design my diagram, I started creating it using Easelly, a web tool to make mind maps in a creative and visual way.

I chose Easelly because it attracted me since the beginning and I thought that the templates were perfect to use for my own diagram. Because of that, I used one of the templates and I modified it with other texts, pictures and shapes, although you can do your diagram without using a template, creating everything by yourself. This web tool also offers a lot of pictures, text types and backgrounds in the free option and you do not have a limited period of time to use it.

I think that this activity has made me reflect on my own learning process about CLIL and organise everything in my mind and then share it in a visual way has been very useful for me. I consider that it is important that we know our background knowledge about something and how we have learned it. Moreover, Easelly has been easy to use since the beginning so the final product shows perfectly my reflections about my PLE and PLN for CLIL.

Easelly could be a great tool to use with children for example to summarize a topic they have studied, pointing out the main concepts they have learned and maybe what other aspects they want to know or reinforce in the future.

If you want to see my diagram for my PLE and PLN for CLIL you can find it in this link:

http://www.easel.ly/browserEasel/3298793

Learning by Twittering


Recently I have created an account in Twitter to share my thoughts and ideas about CLIL and ICTs with my classmates and also other people that I have started following. I am also using it to obtain information and ideas for CLIL lessons and how to apply technologies in the classroom.


I think Twitter is a great tool for teachers to be updated and keep learning about everything they are interesting in related to education, or any topic, as I have discovered that there are many    accounts about english teaching, CLIL, ICTs and so on. 

Besides, you can learn to use this tool very easily as you only have to know how to post your tweets and follow other people. Also, the retweet and likes buttons are very simple to use. It is important too that you show a picture of yoursef in your profile and that you have a brief biography.

Although I had previous experience using Twitter I have created my new account since the beginning and the process has not been difficult as I already knew how Twitter works. 

In summary, I think this tool is very powerful for teachers and it could be useful to use it in class with students, showing them how it works and using some of the resources and ideas shared in this social network. It could also be fantastic to make connections with other teachers, maybe from another countries, and that each class creates materials and activities together and they share them to the world using Twitter. 

Finally, here you can find my first tweet related to CLIL:


Follow me if you want to know more about CLIL, ICTs, Education and English teaching! 

Twitter handle:

@maria_collado92

Saturday 20 February 2016

3, 2, 1 Introduction

To design an introduction for my classmates, my teacher and the rest of the world I have used PowToon, a web tool to create videos.
 
PowToon offers a lot of possibilities to design your videos using different pictures (you can also upload your own images), text effects, animated characters and images, backgrounds, music... Also, you can use a template from a list of different ones, as I did with my video, or you can start creating it by yourself.

I think that this tool is very attractive and creative and offers basic resources to design a good introduction, that is why I chose it. 

While doing this activity I have realised that this tool would be very useful to introduce ourselves to students and they can also use it to create videos of themselves in a fun and motivating way. Besides, we can design videos with them in class for other purposes like presenting a project work, a group activity or a summary of the topic they have studied. It could also be great for shy students or those who have problems to interact and communicate with others, but not only for them as this web tool is great for everybody.

In conclusion, I totally recommend this tool because of its characteristics and the great possibilites that offers.

Here you can find the links to the Powtoon website and my introduction with this tool:

http://www.powtoon.com/home/g/es/

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/eOOB71yd2I2/3-2-1-who-am-i/#/