THE BIG PICTURE

During my last three years of Primary Education degree, I have been taught the general ideas about planning a teaching sequence. However, I had never studied in depth the steps that I need to follow to plan a project, and even less, the steps needed before implementing a project enhanced by technology. Hence, I really appreciate all the material provided by our professor related with planning a TEPBLL, because I strongly believe that it is really useful for my future as a language teacher. 

From my humble point of view, I can not highlight one specific theoretical aspect that was new for me because everything helped me a lot to understand the TEPBLL concept that has appeared in my mind so many times since I started this subject. That's why I have created a powerpoint explaining step by step, the process that we should follow before implementing a TEPBLL (based on the materials provided in the blog, the discussions in class and my personal thoughts).

False alarm!!!

This was my face when Melinda told us: "Today, we are going to do an exam" 

 ( A SURPRISE EXAM!!! ).

 My main feelings at that moment were:

When I had the exam in my hands, I started to feel a little bit more relax and happy (just a bit!) since I read the questions and I realized that I could answer several aspects that were asked. So that, I felt somehow proud of myself because all my previous work had a positive result in my learning process. But I still felt nervous...

Suddenly, we were told to make pairs in order to continue with the exam and try to widen our answers. I was really surprised because everything was really strange!! But at the same time, I started to feel more relaxed and happy. When I was with my mate doing the exam, we were really concentrated on the questions and I felt self-confident. We had a lot of ideas thinking together and we made a lot of effort in order to fill in all the questions of the exam.Thanks to this type of interaction, I made a big effort  thinking in all the contents and it helped me a lot to finally embraced several aspects related with the big picture. Moreover, the ideas and thoughts of my mate were really useful to widen my knowledge. So I actually think that it was really useful!

These are some examples of the exam questions that we could answer after a fantastic discussion between us:

Finally, we were told to make groups of 4 in order to continue with the exam. In that moment, I realized that it was a "false" exam. At that point, my mates started to feeling demotivated because we detected that each pair had the solutions of the exam of the other pair and vice versa. So that, I began to feel really bored. Referring to this type of interaction, I strongly believe that it was not as useful as the previous mentioned.

 THEN, IT WAS NO MORE A CHALLENGE... 

"Although this false exam got on my nerves, I believe that it has been really useful to embrace several aspects and realize that I am actually LEARNING"

 

Jibjab

Last day in class, I had the opportunity to explore this fantastic tool called Jibjab. I did not know about this program before and it really impressed me. I strongly believe that it is a good tool to use for telecollaboration, as it highlights the social factor.

If we are implementing a TEPBLL that involves partners from other parts of the world, Jibjab can be a good tool to present ourselves to our peers in a funny, motivating and creative way. Thus, in spite of making a video of presentation, we can elaborate an eCard choosing the topic or the characters thar we prefer, adding a message to this card and sending it to our mates. Moreover, it could be used to wish a happy celebration such as Christmas, Halloween, birthday, etc.

Furthermore, it could be a fantastic tool to create a warm atmosphere between the two groups of pupils since the can put their faces together in the eCards, so they are not actually together (they only see each other through a screen) but it seems so.

The only disadvantage that I can find is that the majority of videos or e-cards are not free. So that, if we want to create something free, we will have very few and limited options to choose.

Now, you will see an example of an e-card that I have created to wish a happy graduation:

Stressful moments

 I need to recognize that I've had days of stress and frustration, and today is one. I believe that the main problem is that I am used to traditional methods that are teacher-centered. Thus, the teacher explains the lesson and the theoretical aspects, and then we practice it. However, this course is totally different since it is student-centered. So that, we are responsible of looking for the information (which is normally on the blog) and understanding it. In other words, we are responsible of our learning process.

I am not against of this methodology, but it makes me feel frustrated, stressed and sometimes lost, because if I don't have a professional who explains me the theoretical part, I feel insecure. I don't know if I'm understanding everything well or if I'm missing some important aspect. Furthermore, I would like to point out that my intention is not to underestimate the moments where we share knowledge with our mates, because they are really useful to organize the ideas and meet other points of view and opinions, but for me it is inevitable to have these kind of feelings sometimes.

Nevertheless, I hope that I'm going to get use to this methodology during this course. I need to trust more myself, and believe that I'm going to achieve all my goals. 

Uni Collaboration Website

I strongly believe that this website can be really useful for language teachers who want to implement intercultural exchange projects, because it provides  lots of resources and materials about a wide range of tasks, projects and sequences. Moreover, you have the opportunity to find a partner through this web to collaborate with. If we want to implement a TEPBLL project, we have to bear in mind that it is really important to meet and know our partner before starting planning.
 From my point of view, even if you don't have so much experience in this world (as me), it is really easy to understand the concepts presented and guide yourself through this webpage as it is really well explained by the professionals. 

In order to illustrate all the aspects that this website provides, I have created an ad using Glogster in order to show it in a creative way, and to engage people to visit this fantastic webpage!


Please, visit this link: http://cristinuski.edu.glogster.com/uni-collaboration-website/

Virtual Worlds

In this image, created using "Cacoo", I have shown the steps that I followed to learn some theoretical and practical aspects about VWs. Firstly, I was a little bit nervous when I had to read the text because VWs were new for me, so I did not know if I was going to understand it. However, while reading the text, I started taking notes of the main points and I realized that it was easier to understand than I expected. So that, I started to feel more relax. 

In order to show the key points that I embraced of this article, I have created a video using "PowToon".

After two weeks, I had to explain these key aspects to my peers in class. Although I had to make a big effort to summarize them because we did not have so much time, I felt really self-confident as I could explain everything and my mates understood it. This activity made me realize that I truly understood the general idea of the article. Moreover, when I had to explain it, I embraced better all this theoretical part about virtual worlds. 

Then, my peers had to explain me the key points of their articles. While I was listening, I took notes about the aspects that interested me the most and were new for me. 

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After several weeks of having published this entrance, I have had my first contact with second life world. I had a great time in class creating the avatars and interacting with our mates. I strongly believe that it is a good tool to help pupils to acquire new language and to practice communication, but the problem is that normally you have to pay in order to create a secure and private island in second life. Furthermore, many pre-tasks are needed to teach children how to use it, how to move their avatars, how to communicate, etc. However, the mentioned before can not stop us from introducing VWs in primary schools, because instead of making students create an avatar and interact with it, we can use VWs to introduce our projects in a meaningful way through avatars in order to engage and motivate students.  The latter was introduce in Sant Jordi school from Mollet del Vallés with kids from 7 to 8 years old, and was a big success! 

To see more information about the TEPBLL carried out in Sant Jordi school, please click here.