Accomplishing the goal Support Learning with an App

The latest goal in The 30 Goal Challenge on tour has landed in Brazil, where the English teacher Raquel Gonzaga is proposing to support learning with an app.

This is an area of teaching and learning that I am really fond of, and I try to use apps and turn ESL and CLIL learning into mobile learning whenever I can in my lessons, so here I am, showing several practices some of my students have carried out using Aurasma, QR codes and mobile devices.

The first series of classroom practices I would like to share were designed by a group of CLIL teachers I used to teach in the North of Spain, and what they did, to put it in a nutshell, was to design a presentation of an item of their syllabus, which they wanted to show their own students, so as to flip their own lessons, using Wix, which they later turned into a videoclip and hid behind a QR Code. Thus, their own students could scan the code, view the teacher's presentation, grab the explanations and focus on hands-on work when in the face-to-face classroom.
Our goals, consisting of fostering the four skills when learning ESL and encouraging CLIL teachers to use ICT and mobile devices in their own lessons, were successfully achieved after several sessions working with Wix, iMovie, and Unitag Qr Code generator.
Here you are the links to their final outcomes:

• About Melinda Gates. By a Citizenship CLIL teacher; target audience: Secondary Education students.
• Structures. By a Vocational Training CLIL teacher; target audience: 13-year-old students.
• A Sonata Form. By a Music CLIL teacher; target audience: Secondary Education students.
• The World in Shapes. By a Kindergarden CLIL teacher; target audience: 3-year-old students.

The second ESL activity to support learning with an app I would like to share is an Aurasma weekend mystery, Augmenting The Union Jack: an Augmented Reality blog activity regarding a famous flag and some issues around it, by which a bunch of Secondary CLIL teachers who were my students in 2013, were shrunk-brained over a whole weekend while posting comments to solve the mystery hidden behind the flag and using their Aurasma app until the puzzle was finally sorted out on Monday morning and they were all very happy to have found out the answer and at the same time to have practised reading and writing skills in ESL, which was my ultimate goal anyway.
The online activity was posted on the classroom blog by a Thursday evening and consisted of an augmented image of the Union Jack, together with an overall question: 'If you were told to think of songs that have something to do with this flag, would you be able to hum at least one?'
Besides, we started a face-to-face discussion in class about flags and anthems, and the reflection proposal was left open for them to keep up the debate through blog comments after they had left the classroom: 'What is wrong with the flag and what it hides?' Of course, one can only find out what the flag hides by scanning it with the Aurasma app and then, once the tip is grabbed, there was the open debate, intensive and online from that Thursday night until the following Monday morning, when I finally posted the solution, following the thread of the students' own blog comments.
It was a very rewarding activity as it turned out really stimulating for the students, who were supported in their ESL learning skills with the Aurasma App.

And finally, I am also proud to share a sweet activity to support Primary students' learning with an app, although this time, I think I can talk of supporting connected teaching and learning with an app, as it is a virtual interview that a group of 11-year-old students from Alicante, in Spain, challenged me into by using FaceTime from iPad to iPad, lead by their enthusiastic teacher, @blogmaniacos, who had to borrow the Head of Studies' device in order to be able to open the door of her rural classroom, full of highly ICT skilled kids, and let me in. I was actually taught a wonderful virtual lesson and felt these kids had supported my own learning with app. 
It was a warm May afternoon, full of emotions, virtually crossing the country thanks to an app (I was in Asturias, Northern Spain at the time), which proved that even without means, one can connect, teach and learn if one wishes to do so: an example of how technology and apps do not only support learning but also bring people together: Video Conference with Blogmaniacos.

Join The 30 Goals Challenge Community and our Facebook Group! You will find loads of goals to accomplish and be able to follow the virtual world tour.

MMVC14: In and Out of Moodle

Join the 4th annual MMVC14 August 1-3, 2014, and let's learn about teaching with technology.

Free Online Conference by Educators for Educators.

Over the whole weekend, 30 presenters from various countries in the world will be delivering live sessions on a wide range of topics such as:

• Teaching and Learning Online
• Live Online Presentations on WizIQ
• Mobile Learning
• Sustainable Future
• Blended Online Learning

On 3 August at 3pm, Spanish time, I'll be delivering a live class entitled 'In and out of Moodle'. In this presentation I will showcase various online teacher training courses on Moodle, where the focus is at an active schedule of activities aimed at having teachers produce digital materials and resources that they can put into practice in their own classrooms almost immediately, as well as engaging them in social networks and professional virtual communities.

MMVC14: In and Out of Moodle with Maria Jesús García San Martín

Uploaded by Dr. Nellie Deutsch Founder of IT4ALL on WizIQ Tutorials

I am looking forward to welcoming you all to the class and hope you enjoy an intensive elearning weekend!

MM4: Exploring Facebook Groups for learning

Here goes my last reflection for Moodle Mooc 4. At last, I have managed to find time and view all the required webinars out of the incredible high number of live sessions delivered at this MM4 that ended on 30 June 2014 and so reach the end with a certain feeling of having been able to get things done.

The session I am reflecting about today is Exploring Facebook Groups For Learning, presented by Lenandlar Singh at WizIQ on 29 June 2014, where all attendees, either live or not, I am pretty sure were able to gain a wide range of tips and prompts.



Thank you to MM4 organisers and the presenters for a fine enjoyable session!

Reflections on MM4: Moodle Tips and Tricks

Reflections on MM4: How To Manage Your Courses With a Simply Beautiful Visual Library

Great presentation by Sylvia Guinan on 30 June 2014, the last day of Moodle MOOC 4, about How to Manage Your Courses With a Simply Beautiful Visual Library, emotionally hosted by Dr. Nellie Deutsch at WiziIQ.

I had to do with the recording this time, as the live session went on at 3pm, Spanish time, and that is working hours, but still I was able to connect with the presenter, the host and other peers through the event page itself.

Sylvia gave a great bunch of ideas, tips, resources, pieces of advice on a friendly active online course instructional design which I regarded as very valuable, as I totally agree with her opening statement: a simple, creative, visually attractive online environment is going to make students feel at ease.

The content of Sylvia's presentation fully relates to my area of online instruction, and I saw eye to eye with her approach, Feeling at ease in class, either face-to-face or online, has clear beneficial consequences when taking a course: you are more prone to enjoy learning, and so you engage in the course more quickly. Thus, you are bound to be more successful and happier. When talking about online teaching and learning, it is even more important to find yourself at ease, to enter a friendly classroom, since you don't see your teacher for real, but a virtual teacher and the more humane and close you manage to make your classroom, the better.

I especially liked the idea of having a BBQ classroom. First of all, who doesn't like barbecues? Everybody is ready to go to one; it is a synonym of relax, easy-going chat and a gathering of friends.

Secondly, all that involves having a BBQ also has online teaching/learning connotations: you need a place to cook, that is, the learning platform. You need cooking utensils, that is the tools. You need ingredients and you need to know how to mix them well so that the barbecue is a success, that is your creativity, imagination, energy and positive attitude towards teaching/learning. You need spaces so that the guests to your barbecue can mingle, that is, the forums, social networks, collaborative sites.

Then, you are ready to cook international recipes. Good luck. Teaching is a time consuming, incredibly rewarding experience!

Sylvia is a great BBQ host and an incredible cook, so her event made me feel as if I were at her place in sunny Greece and my thoughts were immediately engaged in the kitchen she was opening for us: Tackk.

Over the years I have had the chance to cook at several kitchens, such as Static Web Sites, Blogs, Moodle, Google Drive, and more recently Edu 2.0, Edmodo, or Haiku Learning, but Tackk? No, I have never come across the chance to enter that kitchen, so that is the challenge now: mixing ingredients and adding a pinch of visuals and interaction here and there to open a new teaching/learning lab, I guess, looking for ways to link other kitchens together (that is the first step to take to resolve the challenge).

How are my future students going to feel at the new venue? That's the question I have to look into now the recording is viewed and MM4 coming to an end.

My conclusions on MM4: Moodle for CLIL EVO

Moodle for CLIL EVO is the latest live session from Moodle MOOC 4 I attended at Wiziq, on 30 June 2014, nine in the evening, Spanish time.

It was a nice presentation by Letizia Cinganotto and Daniela Cuccurullo, who took it in turns to explain about the Moodle course they held for CLIL EVO (Electronic Village Online) and how they had approached the training about Content and Language Integrated Learning for their Italian teachers.

The added value of viewing this live webinar is that you can connect with other peers that are either into CLIL teaching already or that wish to start, and using the chat of the session room as well as the session page itself is a nice means to get to know others and interact. But, if you don't have time, you can always view the recording later on, as every MM4 session is available after the event has finished.

While I was listening to Letizia and Daniela, one of the questions I was wondering about is how come that we have been releasing Science, Maths, PE, Arts or you-name-it teachers out to the classrooms to approach their subjects in a second language, mainly English or French, without the adequate training. Is this fair, both on the teachers and the students?

My thoughts, not only regarding the session, but regarding the so called CLIL methodology that has spread over a wide range of European bilingual school systems, always spin over my head to land on two ends of the scale: 

On one end: I am an ESL teacher myself and I wonder what I would do if I was forced to teach any other subject in English. Even though I am a proficient language user, how could I manage to teach Science, or Arts, or whatever other subject in English? I simply wouldn't be able to, and the basic reason is that I do not have adequate CLIL training. I know the language, but I lack the contents.

On the other end, just the opposite: I am a PE teacher, just to name but one, and I am forced to teach PE in English, but my level of the language is poor. How would I manage? I simply wouldn't be able to; I know the contents, but I lack language skills.

From the beginning of the session, I could sense that in Italy, as in Spain, CLIL seems to have become a current key issue for teachers whose field of education is not Languages but other subjects taught in a second language, a methodology that has already been well adopted long ago in other countries with a rooted tradition of bilingual education, but which still needs consolidating in our country or in Italy, according to the speakers, both of them native Italians.

And this feeling transmitted by the presenters' words, examples, explanations, resources and best practices, brought me once again to the ends of the scale, and to come with a further matter for reflection: after all these many years of bilingualism, hasn't any educational stakeholder or decision maker realized that good CLIL training should have come first, before bilingual schools or classrooms were even considered?, Isn't this putting the cart before the horse?

MM4: Moodle for CLIL EVO (Electronic Village Online)

Uploaded by Dr. Nellie Deutsch Founder of IT4ALL on WizIQ Tutorials

Well, it seems that some Educational Institutions, such as the Italian Ministry of Education, where Letizia works, or the Spanish @educaINTEF are walking in the right direction now, as they are launching online training courses for CLIL teachers, or those to be, with the aim of actually using the methodology in the bilingual classrooms in an active way.

Better late than never, I guess!

The challenge is still big: combining high level language skills with good knowledge of the subject to be taught in the figure of one teacher is not an easy task to tackle, and it is only fair on students to be guided by an educator that knows his subject perfectly and speaks the language perfectly, too.

It is our responsibility, from whatever end of the scale we are, no matter which educational staircase and landing we have our flooring on, to shape up well-trained CLIL teachers, who are also proficient language users, in order to guarantee that our CLIL students will become truly bilingual citizenships with truly integrated content learning.

The key to success lies in engaging balanced online teacher training courses! CLIL EVO is one of them, and so is The Use of Open Educationl Resources for AICLE.