On the road

When you see the finish line many  feelings assail you.

The happiness of reaching the goal and the sense of emptiness that leaves you an accomplished mission. It’s not this the case.

As I learned during the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the journey is the destination. Currently, I see myself at the start line, ready to go and enjoy this new baggage that I made during the last two months. My digital skills were already enough good and  I already had some experience with learning online, but I think this last one has involved me more than others.

For me the main reasons are the Google+ community and the problem based learning.

This two aspects made me feel particularly involved. We had a variety of articles, books and videos that we could use to learn about the different topics, but what made the difference, compared to other MOOCs that I attended, is the learning environment created by the use of the FISh model and the meetings in the community. I learned from the literature, but I developed deeper concepts through the discussions with my peers. This special learning environment has facilitated the resurgence of prior knowledge and the ability to see solutions from real situations.

I had, as teacher, used the problem based learning method with my pupils in the past. I carried on some project to promote the integration of an autistic child in the class. They have been successful. I knew that it enhanced pupils skills and allow everybody to give his/her personal contribution. Everyone has stakked his intelligence and learned from the others.

The same happened to us in the PBL group. Everybody contributed with his own point of view to create a perspective. I particularly apreciated the cultural mix, I think thhis is an aspect that we cannot understimate, confrontation with other cultures force you to reconsider your position. The multicultural/international aspect of e-learning is to me a strong motivation to go on with a course. I consider it a personal and professional enrichment. In a context like that of the PBL group relationships have been created which go beyond the mere participation in a course,  encouraging  connection and collaboration.

Of course everything worked because it was all well designed. Facilitators, co-facilitators, webinars, tweetchats and a solid pedagogy behind are the perfect alchemy.

I think this elearning environment is very challenging and engaging and I want to introduce it in my class. I want to go beyond the walls of my classroom. I want them to be thirst and open to the new.

1 May 2016 by verdevero 1 Comment

E-learning design

Design an e-learning environment requires time and knowledge. I realized, following different MOOCs, how the pedagogy behind the design of a course is important. There are several models available from which we can find the one best suited to our course.There is a plenty of digital technologies that can be applied in a course. But I think the “human” factor is much more important. I consider the role of the facilitator fundamental. Knowing that at the other side there is always somebody ready to welcome our questions, managing the relationship in the group gives a sense of security. Many learners leave a course because of the few guidance that they receive.

Another aspect not to overlook is a clear description of the course plan and what is required to students. The aim of the course has to be clear and shared by all. Deadlines, outcomes and responsibilites have to be declared from the beginnnig.

This requires the ability of the teachers to try to understand the needs of students before starting to design the learning environment. I found very interesting the 7Cs of Learning Design (Conole, 2015).

According to this theory when we want to design a learning environment we have to follow this path:

Conceptualise: creating a vision for the course or module being designed. (thinking to the nature of the learners)
Create: articulate what learning materials and activities need to be created.
Communicate: methods to facilitate communication learners/tutor, learners/learners, community-social media.
Collaborate: fostering mechanism to enable collaboration or group work
Consider: which ways in which reflection and demonstration of learning achievements can be promoted.
Combine: Teacher/designer can look back and reflect on the design process to date and look at the design from different perspectives.
Consolidate: implementing the design in a real-life context and evaluating its effectiveness.
Conole says that when teachers design a learning intervention, they often focus on CONTENT, drawing on their own experience of learning; the 7Cs framework shifts the focus away from content to activities and the ultimate learner experience.The design is visualised and can be shared and discussed with others. It goes from a belief-based approach to a design-based approach.

 References:

 Conole, G. (2015). The 7Cs of Learning Design. Download as PDF (In press).

1 May 2016 by verdevero 3 Comments

Don’t close the door

When I started teaching, about 10 years ago, I was working in a small primary school, one of the 5 schools composing one of the many Comprehensive Institutes in Italy.

In many classes teachers were using the “Alternative library” instead of the common class books.

This means that  teachers were creating their own teaching materials, lessons, exercises and tests coming from their experience, knowledge, other colleagues or books.

I remember that once we tried to make a common library for the whole institute.

We didn’t succeed.

I think sharing is (maybe was) still a big problem among teachers.

Which reasons push teachers to close the door to sharing?

Is it about being jealous? Ashamed? Unsure? Fear to be seen or judged? Or what else?

I think we can make a list with many many reasons, but we cannot find any good.

Sharing is a great opportunity as well as for a  teachers as well as for students.

Nowadays, sharing is even easier, the digital era made distances and the  possibility to collaborate a piece of cake.

But still, at school, our outcomes are kept like a treasure, hidden in the classroom. In light of what I just said, my question is: are we, primary school teachers, really able to work with and understand how to use Open Educational Resources? Or do we have first to strengthen our skills and have more confidence in ourselves?

I believe that a strong push can come from internationalization. The opportunity to exchange ideas with other colleagues, all over in the world,  to compare the different realities, is, from my point of view, a solid foundation for the start. We have to open our mind, to accept the challenge and give ourselves the chance to change.

Leave the comfort zone and enter the world. This is still difficult in the primary school, but possible. As teachers, we have thousands and thousands of texts, exercise books, tests accompanied by software for interactive whiteboards that make our life very  very very easy! To buy, of course. But, what about creativity? Aren’t we saying, every day, to our pupils to be creative? Do they believe in us? Do they trust us? Teaching is to me, making the difference, teaching the uniqueness, create and give life to our projects.

OERs is a matter of effort and get in the game.

OERs is not just sharing, is learning, building capacity and growing.

 

 

 

 

 

28 April 2016 by verdevero 2 Comments

Flexible and mobile learning

How can I make my classroom flexible and mobile?

Easy. I have to re-move my limits. I have to reverse the traditional educational arrangement, I have to deliver instructional content outside the classroom.

This is called Flipped Classroom.

And of course, as teacher, I have to leave the stage (though I have never been that kind of teacher, actually we are always on the stage together, my pupils and I, see http://www.hocus-lotus.edu, the method I use to teach Italian and French).

My place is on the side, next to my pupils.

How does it work, a flipped classroom?

Lectures are flipped from “in class” to a video format that students watch at home at their time. Ok, nice, … so, what do we do in the classroom? Do we talk about the weather? Do we drink a tea?

No, of course. A flipped classroom give the possibility to the teacher to engage students with workshops  challenges, activities, and above all, she can give individual attention.

The relationship teacher – learner has lots of benefits. There is more classtime that allows to built meaningful relwtionships. We can plan personalized learining activities according to the different learning styles. We can invite students, considering the ammount of time we have in the classroom, to show practically what they learn, we can give an opportunity to those who are always struggling, to express themselves.

You an organise small group problem solving activities, stimulating discussions and logical skills.

Flipped classrooms have a lot of advantages: they give opportunities for easier differentiating, to better support strugglers, to minimize parents frustration, to increase students engagement, and no homework!

But not all that glitters is gold. A flipped classroom can have also many disadvantages.

The first obstacle arrive if students don’t have access to internet at home, and although we are in 2016, this is still happening.

Students can learn at their own pace, but motivation plays a big role. A student who is not high motivated risks to do less than in a traditional setting.

The teacher will spend a lot of time in preparing the videos, but  he/she can’t be sure of how much are they and if they are used in the right way.  In a traditional lesson a teacher can have immediately feedbacks from her/his students, and undestand if they understand and if the interest is high. This is something that you are going to miss in being a teacher of a flipped classroom.

These could be some of the reasons, that together with the lack of expertise with new technology can discourage teachers to try this new methodology.

 

 

 

10 April 2016 by verdevero 2 Comments

E-learning communities in primary school

E-learning communities in primary school are not so common. One platform hosting communities of primary and secondary schools students is eTwinning, a free and safe platform for teachers to connect, develop collaborative projects and share ideas in Europe.

ETwinning offers rooms to students where they can develop projects or have chats.

Anyway, the primary schools schools using e-learning communities are not so many.

The reasons that make primary school  teachers unsure to use e-learning communities to teach and learn can be different: the need to use a foreign language to commiunicate, the safety in the internet invironment, computer skills, permission of parents, etc.

Well, actually, nowaday, introducing e-learning communities in our teaching methods can only make it easier for teachers and interesting for pupils.

Motivation is the key word.

First of all teachers have to be motivated and being able to see the potential of such a learning method, though we know that often frustration  takes over. Some weeks ago I was attending a course about Collaboration and ugmented reality and I had to opportunity to learn new apps. I tried a variety of useful apps for challenge and chats that you can easily adapt to different subject and topics.

I think this is the future of education, a mix of in presence and online learning, we ave to open the doors of our classroom and allow ideas to circulate. I have a need to refresh and enrich my teaching metho primary education teaching using occasional e-learning activities to raise and maintain pupils’ activities.

We have to choose carefully  the technology we are going to use, it must be in line with the curriculum and our students’ learning needs and goals. The same is for the tools, we have to find the best tool that will support our lesson and our students’ learning. We have to design a lesson that keep the focus of our pupils on the topic we are teaching and not on the technology we using.

As teachers we should continuously be learning, implementing, refining, and effectively integrating technology to enrich and extend the curriculum, to enhance and accelerate the types of learning that support the development of our students’ proficiency in the era of creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, leadership, and communication.

3 April 2016 by verdevero 1 Comment

Visitors and Residents

Back from one week in the Future Classroom Lab at the European Schoolnet in Brussels (Belgium). I attended a course about Collaboration and Augmented Reality.

I have to say I feel a bit proud I was the only one to know the words and the meaning of Residents and Visitors.

During the course we were discussing about collaboration online and about the different ways people approach online tools and of course we spoke about digital natives and digital immigrants.

I shared with my colleagues what I read on the article of White and Le Cornu “Visitors and Residents: a new typology for engagement online”.

I strongly agree with the authors, in fact the way we engage online is not static anymore, we can change from a status to another, we can be visitors and residents, it’s up to us, to what is our main interest and our goals.

This going and coming back generated also a kind of incertitude about our “identity” online, but I think like everything it’s a matter of time. We are now probably in a time of transition, it’s not yet totally clear to everyone who approaches the net how to protect his own privacy and individuality.

Probably, according to Jim Devine (Open Education 2030, contribution to the JRC-IPTS) by 2030 we will recognize and be able to implement three core levels for each individual:

• “Monitored me”: where we understand that our interaction and activities are being logged and can be subjected to analytics.
• “Qualified Self”: all manner of technologies and biometrics will assist and enhance our individual lives, health and wellbeing. However, data generated will be private to the individual, unless they choose to share it.
• “Unqualified Self”: we will have a sophisticated understanding of “time off”. This will include being entirely offline and unmonitored, but it will also include a particular form of digital engagement that is ‘freestyle’, i.e., leaves no trace.

Only 15 years to go …

13 March 201614 March 2016 by verdevero 3 Comments

The PBL group

This week starts the action.

Last thursday we had the first meeting of the PBL group 9.

Exciting. The first meeting took place in Adobe,  we could see eachother and start to familiarize.  In the PBL group, Problem Based Leaerning group, we are supposed to collaborate together to different topics following the FISh model. Ok, it sounded quite new for me too. FISh is the acronimous for Focus – Investgate – SHare.

 

PBL is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem. Students learn both thinking strategies and domain knowledge. The PBL format originated from the medical school of thought, and is now used in other schools of thought too.

The FISh model has been developed by Chrissi Nerantzi & Lars Uhlin (2012), image designed by artist Ellie Livermore.

 

 

 

28 February 2016 by verdevero Leave a comment

ENTERING THE ONL COURSE

Entering the Open Networked Learning course.

Why?

Why not!

I am a preprimary and primry school teacher of foreign languages (Italian and French) and I am totally fascinated by online learning spaces.

During the last two years I have found and attended several MOOC’s. I’m very satisfied about what I learned and also about the contact with people like me participating in courses.

I learned to use many new tools and I enjoyed sharing my work with others.

This new course is a great challenge I couldn’t miss!

I want to know more about how to get involved in a open networked learning, so … looking forward to get into the net!

Source of the photo: wikimedia.org by Lumaxart

21 February 2016 by verdevero 5 Comments