Favorite Web Page

 FAVORITE WEB PAGE

From all the web pages that we had to analyze, this is my favorite one, for several reasons:

First of all, I would like to highlight that from a technological point of view this web page is divided into sections, and once you click in each section it opens a new one, so it is easy to follow, it is very easy to use and under each subtitle it says the number of resources you can find in each one. And, from a pedagogical point of view, this web page offers us a huge color variety, also you can find everything that is needed in order to learn a language (in our case: English), it has catchy images and multiple games.

I would also like to mention that this web page can be easily used by students of primary education, and may be it would be suitable for students of childhood education if they are with an adult that could help them.

And, finally, I would like to ad that as a childhood education teacher, I also would use this web page but with all the class together, especially to review vocabulary, play some games and also to pay attention to pronunciation and intonation.

A great example could be using this web page in order to teach grammar. You have plenty of games and videos where you can listen the sounds that are important and then, play an online game to check that you have understand the theory. This example is very useful to work on with suffixes.

Hot Potatoes

 HOT POTATOES

Hot Potatoes is a web pages where I, as a future teacher, can do a huge variety of exercises, like creating interactive multiple-choice activities, short-answer, jumbled-sentences, crosswords, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises.

In class, I have created a matching activity, where students should match the correct word to its photograph.

Here, I put a picture of what it looks like

Word

 WORD

For homework we had to create an automatic index with word. Personally, I had never create an index using word, but it was easy to do it and the final result turn out well, so definitely I will use it again. 

The index turn out like this:

Mysimpleshow

 SIMPLESHOW

I really loved this tool. Every time I watched this kind of videos that the tool is able to create, I always wondered how people were able to do it, and finally I know how. Personally, I think that is a perfect tool, because it has everything: you can't get lost because for everything you want to create, the web has a video which explains detail by detail, and it helps a lot. You can choose from a variety of topics as well as images that you can change from a "image bank" that the tool offers to you. It is true, that once again, if you want to do more changes, like for example, adding your own voice to the story, you have to pay for it. But the basic free version is perfect for beginners like me.

With this tool, I have made a simple story about Spain, in which I have included the culture, the population, the economy and the location. I created like a "first try", to see how it works.

Dictionaries

DICTIONARIES

My group had to analyze several dictionaries, that were kind of special because they could be useful for teachers, not to students. Some of them were very difficult to use and others were not aimed at children because the slang was not appropriate for their age. So, I think that we should have to take them into consideration if we are doubting on how to spell or pronounce a word correctly (Cambridge Dictionary), to know a little bit more about how people use a specific word in a daily basis or every day use (Urban Dictionary), or to have a clearer mind about some topics that you want to be more specialized in (Ted Talks).

1. Cambridge Dictionary 

2. Oxford Dictionary

3. Merriam Webster

4. How j say

5. BBC Learning

6. British Council

7. Urban Dictionary

8. Ted Talks

The Use of Blog

 THE USE OF BLOGS

We can use the Blog tool in Primary Education as a Portfolio, in order to register the different activities that the students are goin to perform during the course; and, for Childhood Education, this web could work as a connection between families and the school, because teachers can upload in the Blog what they have done in class like for example: drawings that children have created, excursions we have made to a forest, photos of them performing activities, etc., so families are aware of what their kids are doing and learning at school.  

Padlet

 PADLET

Padlet is a web page which is amazing and very colorful to do a lot of educative things. You can create from a list of important items that, for example, you have worked in your class, to a chronological image where you can work, for example your student's life.  I have done a chronological padlet about the planets of the Solar System, because in my opinion, I think is a theme that kids love to talk about and know more of it. 

The only limitation that I can observe is that you are only able to create 3 padlets in the free version, if you want to do more, you have to pay in order to do it.

Canva

 CANVA

Canva is one of the tools that I new before. Is a wonderful device to create posters, instagram pics, presentations, documents, etc., in a original and creative way. Thanks to Canva I have produced a bunch of different covers for many assignments for the University, and all of them turn out beautiful.

A great advantage of Canva is that you can edit anything you want: the type of letter, colors, images, titles, etc. And also, it offers you a huge variety of templates for creating anything you want with a specific theme. Below, I want to share some of my favorite covers I have done.

Mind Map-Advantages and Disadvantages

COOGLE

The page that we used to create out Mind Map about digital competences was Coogle. We did a list of advantages and disadvantages of this web page, that could be useful for someone who is looking for an online page to do a mind map.

1. Advantages

• It is a wonderful visual image.

• It helps to understand where each thing comes from.

• The mind map can be shared and it can be modified by many people at the same time. 

• It enables us to organize the information in a really clear way.

2. Disadvantages

• If you want to modify some items, such as the color of each branch or the format of the text you have to pay.

• There is a limitation when it comes to adding more branches from one item.

• At first, it may be quite complex to use because of the complexity of the branches and the items.

This is a photo that shows how it looks the principal screen of the web page

Web Page Analysis

 WEB PAGES - ANALYSIS

Web Page 1: Using English

1. Good points of the web from a technological and pedagogical point of view

Technological: 

- Easy access to the information as it is organized through links.

- It is well organized by a lot of sections.

- It has additional information to the one present in the webpage (articles).

Pedagogical

• It has a color pattern which makes it easier to understand the organisation of the web page (blue: links; black: titles).

• There is a section specially for students and another for teachers, which makes it more specialized for each one.

• It involves everything that a student needs in order to learn a language (grammar, phrasal verbs, tests, etc)..

2. Bad points of the web

• The absence of colors makes the webpage less attractive.

• The lack of visual support such as images, videos, cartoons…

• It is not an appropriate web page for nursery students because it does not promote an autonomous work for younger students because they do not know how to read in lowercase letters.

3.  Level and age to be used with

In our opinion it is suitable for Primary students as of 7 or 8 years old (that is to say 2nd or 3rd course) because for using the web children need a basic understanding of the language as well as knowing how to use a computer.

4. How you would use the web in your teaching practice

As a childhood education teacher I would not use this webpage because it is not suitable for their age, but as a primary education teacher I will only use the teacher’s section in order to get some material or resources. 

Web Page 2: MathsWords

1. Good points of the web from a technological and pedagogical point of view

Technological

• Each concept has an individual document.

• It is alphabetically organized.

• It is organized by columns which makes it easier to find each group of concepts.

Pedagogical

• Very complete. There are concepts for each mathematical issue.

• There is an index for easier access to the concepts.

• Once you enter the web page you can see if it is useful for you or not by reading the subtitles.

2. Bad points of the web

• It is not attractive as the information is very condensated (when you enter to the web you see all the name of the concepts)

• There is a lack of colours, so it is not visually attractive.

3. Level and age to be used with

More suitable for secondary education.

4. How you would use the web in your teaching practice

We would not use it either with childhood students or primary students because the concepts that the web page is explaining are above their competences.

Web page 3: Essentials in English

1. Good points of the web from a technological and pedagogical point of view

Technological

• Each title has a link in which it appears the information is more explained or it tells you where to buy the book.

• Easy to use.

• It is very visual and well-organized.

Pedagogical

• It is complete as you can find all sorts of subjects (maths, science, languages…).

• The titles are in green and they are bold, so they are easy to recognise. 

• It has all you can need to learn a language: vocabulary, grammar, dictionaries, etc.

2. Bad points of the web

This web page has to be used by a teacher in caso of childhood education or by primary students who are advanced in reading skills. So, it does not provide autonomous work.

3. Level of age to be used

As we have mentioned before, we think that this page has to be used by adults who can control if the resource that the web page is providing is good or not or maybe it also can be used by primary education students who can read well and have a high understanding of English.

4. How you would use the web in your teaching practice

As a childhood education teacher I may use this web page to have some ideas about which books/resources are good in English and take from them especially vocabulary of some interesting topics. And, as a primary teacher I may used this web page to look for information about suitable book to use in my classroom.

Web page 4: BBC-English

1. Good points of the web from a technological and pedagogical point of view

Technological

• It is divided into sections, and once you click in each section it opens a new one, so it is easy to follow.

• Is very easy to use.

• Under each subtitle it says the number of resources you can find in each one.

Pedagogical

• It has a great colour variety.

• You can find everything that is needed in order to learn a language (English).

• It has beautiful/funny images/pictures.

• It has games.

2. Bad points

We cannot think about any bad points to highlight about this web page.

3. Level of age to be used

This web page can be easily used by students of primary education, and may be also suitable for students of childhood education if they are with an adult.

4. How you would use the web in your teaching practice

As a primary teacher I would use this web page because it is very visual, it has a lot of images/pictures and it is easy to use. And, as a childhood education teacher I also would use this web page but with all the class together, especially to review vocabulary and to pay attention to pronunciation and intonation.

Digital Competence - Mind Map

 DIGITAL COMPETENCE

Mind Map

Because the image is too small to be able to see it, I have created a directed link, where you are able to apply zoom to the image and read better the information that has been written down.

Digital Competence - Summary

 DIGITAL COMPETENCE

Summary

Our group, group 1, had to read and then do a mind map about Information and Data Literacy related to students but also to teachers. Both groups have three competences: the first one is related to browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital competence; the second one is about evaluating data, information and digital competence; and the third one is about maning data, information and digital content. And also, inside each one of the competences, we can find two different levels: intermediate and advanced.

And now, I am going to do a summary about these three competences mentioned above and how they are related to teachers and students. First of all, I am going to write about students.

Students

• Browsing, searching and filtering data
• Intermediate 

• Browse internet to locate information, data and digital content
• Organize different ways to express information needs
• Know how to select the information, data and digital content
• Advanced
• Be able to use a range of strategies when searching for information, data and digital content
• Know how to filter and manage information, data and digital content

• Evaluating data, information and digital competence
• Intermediate
• Know how to compare different sources of information, data and digital content online
• Advanced
• The person is critical with the information, data and digital content that fins and also knows how to contrasts its validity and credibility

• Maning data, information and digital content
• Intermediate
• Know how to safe and tag data and have a personal strategy storage
• Know how to retrieve and handle previously saved information and content
• Advanced
• Know how to apply a wide range of methods and tools to organize different data
• know how to implement a range of strategies to recover the data have been organized and saved

Teachers

• Browsing, searching and filtering data
• Intermediate
• Express information in an organized manner
• Browse information and digital resources in different formats
• Select the appropriated information
• Resources are adapted for the educational use
• Advanced
• Use advanced tools and filters
• Be able to designed a strategy for searching and filtering information

• Evaluating data, information and digital competence
• Intermediate
• Know which licenses allow the reuse or the distribution of resources
• Asses the quality of educational resources
• Advanced
• Be critical with sources of information and personal profiles
• Have a clear, effective and efficient procedure for evaluating information

• Maning data, information and digital content
• Intermediate
• Know how to save and tag files, content and information
• Know how to have my own storage strategy
• Know how to retrieve and manage information/content that I have saved
• Advanced
• To have a social strategy, a connection with students through digital media
• Have an appropriate methods to organize and store information for educational use
• Combine local storage with cloud storage

Initial Symbaloo

 

SYMBALOO SCREENSHOT

In this second entrance of my Blog I am going to show a screenshot of how my Simbaloo front page looks like. As we can see in the image, many of the tools that appear on it are there because the program puts is, but not because I am able to use them or like them. As we go throw the course, I am going to adapt, eliminate or add web pages.

Introduction to the Blog

 INTRODUCTION TO THE BLOG

In this Blog you will find a series of entrances in which you can read all the items we have been learning through these two months. I have uploaded every single web page or tool that we have used, and the presentations too. In some of them, I put my recommendations, as well as directs links to the activities I have created a bunch of photos that shows how the web pages look like in case anyone has any doubt or how the activities that I have done looks like.

Also, I have added all the web pages that we should have done during the course, even though we haven't have time in class because I did not want to miss any of them in case they were useful to me as a future teacher.