Createch-ing

I presented yesterday at SLIC Conference 2013 "iPads for bilingual education" in Canmore, Alberta. There was a lot of interest in the topic. It seems many schools are planning on purchasing iPads and teachers want to be prepared to know how to use them in a purposeful way.  This is a graphic that shows iPad content creation according to Blooms' Taxonomy. The creation would be the higher order thinking skill according to this classification.  All the stages are interconnected and according to the revised Bloom's taxonomy, they do not have to happen in a  determined order. But creation would be the most complex one. I advocate for the use of iPads as a tool, not as an end or as a repository of apps that substitutes teaching/learning time or that is understood as solely a game tool. I believe it is the task that generates the app, and not the other way round.We first need to think what do we want to do with our class, and then, think of the app that coul

Last week I tried using "Aurasma" in the iPads. Aurasma is an augmented reality app that uses a trigger image to show a 3d object, video or whatever you want to appear. My goal was to make a worksheet alive. As we work in a bilingual setting and we teach math in spanish, explanations are very visual but not all the students pick it up at the beginning. Some of them need further explanation, of course , whether it is their mother language or not. But I was thinking about homework and that moment when you are trying to recall an explanation but you do not remember exactly what the teacher said. And here is when the "virtual teacher" in a form of video appears when you put the iPad over the worksheet.  The application could seem very complicated , but in fact, it was easy to deal with since it guides you al l the time. You can create use one aura form the database, but I created my own one. I first did a video using "Doceri" explaining the

Last week we started with our evaluations ( it seems unreal but report cards are coming sooner than we think...) . One of our evaluations for Spanish was done using the iPad app "Showme" . Students first wrote in their notebooks six sentences using the verbs "ser" and "estar" and after they were corrected, they created a recording using pictures , their voice and also writing them on the screen. This technique known as "screen casting" is one of my favorite for content creation in a second language. It motivates the most reluctant writers to write well, because otherwise they are not able to go on the iPads... They used their creativity to the max, they were engaged and also they were collaborating to create their productions. And of course they're more knowledgeable about the difference in use of the verbs "ser" and "estar" in Spanish.  What more can I ask from one activity? Students using "showme" to demons

CHICOS! Nuestra clase ha salido en la televisión de España! Ha sido muy cortito y no salís todos pero estoy contenta de poder haber compartido con mi país como trabajamos en Canada, mis alumnos, mi aula y mi escuela. I am thrilled to be able to see you on tv. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.antena3.com/programas/ciudadanos/momentos/cmo-hacen-pases-dnde-presumen-sistema-educacin_2013100800090.html

NUEVO CURSO, NUEVOS RETOS Hacía mucho tiempo que no escribía en el Blog, he estado haciendo algunos cambios y escribiendo en otros blogs. Este año he incorporado algunas técnicas para ir poco a poco , dejando el papel a un lado . Me he "evernotizado" y ahora voy haciendo todas mis lecciones en Blendspace ( antes Edcanvas) . Blendspace me parece un sitio perfecto para crear muros digitales donde guardar y compartir todos los recursos que se utilizan para un tema. He estado también probando varias apps para crear screencast en el iPad. Para los profesores, me gusta mucho Doceri. Para los alumnos, Educreations o Showme me parece mas fácil de utilizar, aunque estoy por ver cual permite compartir en nuestra wiki con mas facilidad. De momento ahí va un ejemplo de un screencast sobre el Redondeo con Doceri .