#twima2 is live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The World Is My Audience 2: Dreams Around The World

#twima, The World Is My Audience, was a first attempt at gathering the world's classrooms for a collaborative poetry project. It was a huge success, not in numbers of downloads (yet), but in the impact it had on teachers and students making connections with classrooms worldwide.


#twima2 is the follow-up project. Again, the goal, from March to May 2015, has been to collaborate with the world's classrooms on a writing project. And we, at our Master's Degree Module on The Use of ICT and Web Resources for Primary Bilingual Education from URJC in Madrid, have been in charge of dreaming stories and making the interactive media for those stories, together with 28 classrooms from around the world.

The outcome is now live: a 700-page interactive iBook live and ready for your downloads!

But behind this digital artifact, there have been 3 months of intensive, enjoyable, international collaborative work, magnificiently led by @theipodteacher, to whom we are greatly thankful.

Our contribution to #twima2 has been sequenced along the two main stages of the 3-phase-project:

Stage 1. 3 to 23 March 2015

Step 1. Discussing dreams among peers. The dreams we wrote about could be personal dreams, actual night dreams, dreams for the world, dreams of our culture or dreams that related to academic areas we were currently part of.

Step 2. Placing these written dreams in a shared Google document, without forgetting the title of each dream and the full name of the dreamer at the end of each written dream, for authorship. These written dreams may include artwork or photos we created, always making sure we used our own artwork and photos, so that we avoided any copyright issues. If we chose photos from the Internet, it was absolutely necessary to be sure they were acceptable and copyright free.

And this was the actual outcome for Stage 1:

Your Dreams Start Here from Mª Jesús García San Martín

Stage 2. 2 April to 2 May 2015 

Step 3. Once the dreams by the world’s classrooms were submitted, we were passed the written work and we became part of the worldwide team who took those written dreams and turned them into multimedia for the iBook. These media could be videos, photos, widgets and much, much more. The sky was truly the limit. The only condition was to choose a dream from a chapter/page by a dreamer from a classroom in the world we had not met; read it, interpret it, and turn it interactive.

And here are our actual products for Stage 2:




Stage 3. 2 to 14 May 2015

Step 4. Host teacher, JonSmith, was using iBooks Author to increase the interactivity and ease of transferring work to the iBook, uploaded the whole collaborative iBook to iTunes and, after Apple approval, here we are the full iBook live! The #twima2 iBook is now live and ready for your free downloads.

Click the link below to download on your iPad or Mac.

View on iBooks

Thank you everyone for being part of the project, and my special congratulations to @MartaLFabero28 (one of my #ictclil_urjc students) for her extra contribution to #twima2 with her cover, which has been singled out to be the official cover of The World is My Audience 2.
We all hope everyone likes it and enjoys interactively reading it as much as we did while collaboratively designing it.

And, stay tuned for #twima3, as it will start up in the fall. So if you missed out this time, we will be back!

The connection between #moodlemooc6 and #ictclil_urjc

Last 7 May 2015 edition of the Master's Degree on ICT and Web Resources for Bilingual Primary Education came to an end, and it could not have ended in a more adequate way than connecting with Moodle MOOC 6, the massive open online course hosted by Dr. Nellie Deutsch at WizIQ and running until 31 May.

Why am I regarding this mooc as the best e-connection with #ictclil_urjc 2015 edition? Very simple, because for 3 months the pre-service teachers attending this Master's Degree at University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid have been crafting missions at their Moodle Virtual Campus and their outcomes are open e-publications which show evidence regarding how open blended learning that combines Moodle, social networking and blogging, all approached from a project based learning orientation, can help improving teachers' digital competencies.

The theme of #moodlemooc6 is collaborative learning, reflective practice, connecting online for instruction and learning, and peace through online learning.

A chance like Moodle MOOC 6 is the perfect scenario for these future teachers to have the chance, not only of disseminating their digital outcomes, but also of making e-connections, as they are presenting live in front of an audience of international educational leaders, experts and connected teachers.

Being the perfect match then, 7 May was D-Day and there they were, the group of 26 pre-service teachers, willing to explain about their e-publications for Primary bilingual learners, having collaboratively prepared their slideshow in advance, and looking forward to generously sharing The Challenge of Digital Crafting at Moodle for a 60 minute live online session, which was extended well into over 80 minutes in the end.

Apart from the common place last minute audio or video issues that we are bound to get some time throughout our presenting life, I must confess I am really proud of all their effort and how calm they rose up to the challenge of presenting in public, apart from being extremely satisfied with all those digital artifacts they have come up with after those three months of hard work and several puzzling moments.

Well done indeed, my dear #ictclil_urjc Moodle crafters!

Here you are the recording of the session:



After this first experience spreading the word online, all of them wanted to thank the organiser of Moodle MOOC 6 for the opportunity, so I do encourage you to read their memories at their e-publications to pay tribute to Dr. Nellie Deutsch and show her our acknowledgement and gratitude.

Thanks ever so much, Dr. Nellie, for being so welcoming generous with all of us!

And, of course, last but not least, I must recommend you to surf around the collection of digital publications by this group of pre-service CLIL Primary teachers; they are ready for anybody interested in Primary CLIL education to dive into and find tips, ideas, lots of resources for lessons, and above all, fun.

Are you an Educational Blogger?

Then, you've come to the right competition! 

The IX Espiral Edublogs Award is accepting runners until 3 April 2015.

If you write an educational blog, do not miss the chance to take part in this blogging initiative that the Espiral Association has been organising over the last nine years. 

Just check the award community for detailed information, requirements, categories in which to register your blog, as well as to grab your participant badge.

The information is in Spanish but blogs written in any language are welcome. Join the educational blogging award that acknowledges the creative writing value of students, parents and teachers that bet on a better education where blogging plays a key and still innovative role.



And, for further impressions of those peers who have already won the spinning top, stay tuned at #yotambiéntengolapeonza.

8 Reasons Why Open Badges Are Awesome

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

Join The World Is My Audience 2

After the success of The World is My Audience in 2014, we are ready to jump into The World is My Audience 2 - Dreams around the world.

#twima, The World Is My Audience, was a first attempt at gathering the world's classrooms for a collaborative poetry project.  It was a huge success, not in numbers of downloads (yet), but in the impact it had on teachers and students making connections with classrooms worldwide.

#twima2 is the follow-up project.  Again, the goal is to collaborate with the world's classrooms on a writing project. And those of us at #ictclil_urjc Master's Degree Module in Madrid, are in charge of dreaming stories and making the interactive media for those stories.

So, follow the steps to dream and connect with the world!

The stages we at URJC will be connecting #twima2 and #ictclil_urjc together are:

Stage 1. 3 to 23 March 2015

Discuss dreams with your peers. The dreams you write about could be personal dreams, actual night dreams, dreams for the world, dreams of your culture or dreams that relate to academic areas you currently are part of.

Place these written dreams in this shared Google document. Do not forget the title of your dream and your full name at the end of your written dream, for authorship.

These written dreams may include artwork or photos you create.  Please make sure you use your own artwork and photos, so that we avoid any copyright issues. If you choose photos from the Internet, please make sure they are acceptable and copyright free.

Stage 2. 2 April to 2 May 2015

Once the dreams by the world’s classrooms are submitted, we will be passed the written work and you will part of the worldwide team who will take those written dreams and turn them into multimedia for the iBook. This media could be videos, photos, widgets and much, much more.  The sky is truly the limit. We will be using iBooks Author to increase the interactivity and ease of transferring work to the iBook.

TWIMA2

Follow the project site: www.thetwimaproject.weebly.com. 

Like its Facebook page: facebook.com/twima. 

Stay tuned at Twitter: #twima2

Registration for EVO2015 begins today!

To register, go to EVO Sessions.

Registration for this year's Electronic Village Online (free online professional development sessions for EFL and ESL teachers) begins January 5, 2015. The sessions themselves run from January 12 until February 15, 2015.

Get more information about all thirteen sessions at http://evosessions.pbworks.com.


If you are having trouble deciding on which session to register for, please join us at http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/ (scroll down for instructions and technical requirements) for the EVO2015 kickoff webcast on January 11, 2015 at 14:00/2:00 p.m. GMT (your local time at bit.ly/1CaH6fq)!

Session moderators will be on hand to introduce their sessions and take questions.

Enjoy and be happy!

For a wonderful 2015, full of happy sincere authentic collaborative learning and teaching!

Thank you to all who, whatever the way, have been supporting me throughout 2014, which undoubtedly will always be a year to remember!

Recording of Flip, Blend and Wrap it all up! is ready now

Last 1 December, my peer Billy J. Ramos, @somar0209, and myself copresented together the third live session of the series entitled The EduPower of Blended Learning at WizIQ.

In this last session, we gave tips about surviving through face-to-face lessons, combined with a virtual classroom at Edu 2.0, and through collaborative project blogging challenges.

For those of you who could not attend live, here you are the recording ready now:



We are looking forward to gaining your feedback and reading your comments!

The World is my audience

As you all know by now, the Twima Project has been going on  for a few months, along the last term.
In previous entries here, we have been following it step by step, from scratch to its web launch, until now, when it comes to its end with a wonderful collaborative iBook compiled with the contribution of more than 170 writers from all around the world, being smoothly coordinated by @theipodtecher, who was the one coming up with this wonderful globally connected idea.

Our contribution to #twima from Spain comes hand in hand with the online teacher training course 'Digital Storytelling For Teachers', run by INTEF, and hosted by an awesome team of instructors, who encouraged and fostered their trainees to play a part in a collaborative chain story, which has now gone global. I sincerely thank them for that!

A chain story is an easy way to have students learn vocabulary and work with their friends to create a collaborative story. In a chain story, the teacher begins the story, student A continues the story, student B continues where A stopped, and so on.  The students have to listen to each other and understand each other so that the story makes sense and flows.

For this activity, trainnees contributed to a collaborative web chain story, using an online tool, Padlet. This tool allows you to click on the web wall and add text, images, videos, and more. Trainees did not have to register, but they were kindly asked to include their name. Of course, they can contribute on any mobile device with internet access or on the web.

We had over a hundreed online course participants, divided into five groups, to whom we provided the same beginning of a chain poem, and whose chained outcome can be read at the different group poems below:

Group A - http://padlet.com/majegsm/chainpoem_A 

Group B - http://padlet.com/majegsm/chainpoem_B  

Group C - http://padlet.com/majegsm/chainpoem_C 

Group D - http://padlet.com/majegsm/chainpoem_D 

Group E - http://padlet.com/majegsm/chainpoem_E 

To contribute to the poem, our trainees had to read the entire story up to the last post, contribute with a chunk that made sense and continued the flow of the poem as well as being related to the previous post, and adding multimedia elements to accompany their part of the poem, but involving an added snag: their contribution should be at least 100 words long.

The collaborative poems that they have come up with are now part of the #twima iBook The World Is My Audience, live at iTunes, free to download on all iOS devices and Macs.

Flip, Blend and Wrap it all up!

Join us for this free live session at WizIQ on Monday 1 December, at 6pm GMT+1

The experience about blended learning we would like to share with you all in this live session entitled 'Flip, Blend and Wrap it all up!' is a range of learning challenges that we have accomplished flipping and blending lessons and breainstorming with you about your own e-learning challenges, how to set them up step by step, and offering tips on digital tools and digital assessment.

Flip, Blend and Wrap it all up!

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

This is the third live session of the series entitled 'The EduPower of Blended Learning', a self-training online course in order to get ready for the Teachers Micro Teaching in Pairs series on WizIQ, hosted by Dr. Nellie Deutsch.

This live session is co-presented by @mjgsm and @somar0209.

Shape Your Online Classroom & Blend it with Hands-on Projects

Join us for this free live session at WizIQ on Monday 24 November, at 6pm GMT+1

The session entitled 'Shape Your Online Classroom & Blend it with Hands-on Projects' is aiming at sharing tips with online teachers about how to set up a virtual classroom using Edu 2.0, combine it with learning challenges, team e-projects and collaborative classroom blog.

This is the second live session of the series entitled 'The EduPower of Blended Learning', a self-training online course in order to get ready for the Teachers Micro Teaching in Pairs series on WizIQ, hosted by Dr. Nellie Deutsch

This live session is co-presented by @mjgsm and @somar0209.

Shape Your Online Classroom & Blend it with Hands-on Projects

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

Blend, Flip & Boost Your Teaching Online

Recording of the free live session by The EduPower Couple! at Wiziq on November 3 2014, as part of their public training for Teachers Micro Teaching in Pairs.



Thanks ever so much to all those who attended and shared with us!
Please join us for upcoming events,
@somar0209
@mjgsm

The EduPower Couple! - Collage of co-presenters

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

MicroTeaching in Pairs. The Premiere!

Part of the Teachers Micro Teaching in Pairs thanks to Integrating Technology 4 Active Lifelong Learning

Read about the Micro Teaching official opening on 5 November, join, and do not miss our premiere on 3 November, 6pm Spanish time.

View the recordings and learn about how to get started.

Blend, Flip and Boost Your Teaching Up!

Join The EduPower Couple! for a free live session at Wiziq on November 3 2014, at 18:00, GMT+1.

We are looking forward to sharing with you all at the kick off of our first ever micro teaching in pairs experience at WizIQ: The EduPower of Blended Learning.

This first live session in the micro teaching in pairs experience will be inntroducing blended learning through flipped classrooms, teamwork and project based learning methodology, all linked together via ICT.

We will be co-presenting about our practice with flipped and PBL methodology at University in Madrid, where Billy and I met as student and teacher, and how blended learning has allowed us to extend our relationship until becoming peer presenters and course designers.

Blend, Flip & Boost Your Teaching Up

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

This is the first tip about how blended learning might be the means for peer to peer teaching and learning. Or, would you rather think face-to-face sessions alone have the same power to keep students and teachers in touch in such a way as to start professional e-projects together after the classroom door closes?

If you'd like to share the answer with us, we will be more than happy to chat with you and all the attendees interested in having an interactive relaxed paired-up webinar.

The EduPower of Blended Learning

Brought to you by the EduPower Couple!

Course Highlights 

• Advantages and drawbacks of blending learning with ICT
• Blended learning using a virtual classroom
• Collaborative blogging and teamwork

Course Description

The aim of this series of three live sessions is to go through the advantages and drawbacks of blending learning with ICT; to show a sample of blended learning using a virtual classroom, collaborative blogging and teamwork.

The classes have been designed for teachers who would like to gain confidence when going into blended or e-learning or need to give their virtual teaching a boost.

The topics covered in this series include tips, advice and resources to set up an online classroom, craft blended learning challenges and show real examples of this type of teaching. Core teaching methodology followed is prompting participants with lively relaxed educational pills, keeping up casual conversation and inspiring interaction.

This course is part of the 'Micro Teaching in Pairs on WizIQ' sessions, within the 'Learn to Flip & Blend with Technology' MOOC.

Timetable of Live Sessions:

3 November 2014: Blend, Flip & Boost Your Teaching Up

Live Session Highlights:

Introducing blended learning through flipped classrooms, teamwork and project based learning methodology, all linked together via ICT

17 November 2014: Shape Your Online Classroom & Blend it with Hands-on Projects

Live Session Highlights:

Setting up a virtual classroom using Edu 2.0, combine it with learning challenges, team blogs and collaborative classroom blog

1 December 2014: Flip, Blend and Wrap it all up!

Live Session Highlights:

Surviving through face-to-face lessons, combined with a virtual classroom at Edu 2.0, and through collaborative project blogging challenges

The EduPower Couple! - Collage of co-presenters

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

We are looking forward to sharing with you all. Please come, join us and share!

Badges: Game, Reward, Professional Digital Credentials?

You are invited to join me for the free live class 'Badges: game, reward, professional digital e-credentials?' on October 4 2014, at 16:00 Spanish time.

Check your time around the world.




This free live class is part of the courseware of Moodle MOOC 5, hosted and coordinated by the team from Integrating Technology 4 Active Lifelong Learning from 1 to 31 October 2014, and I will be glad to share with you my experience and viewpoints on issuing and gaining badges at Moodle; connecting with your Mozilla BackPack, accepting your badges, creating a public collection and sharing your digital badges with the world.

Badges, Game, Reward, Professional Digital e-Credentials ?

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

My warmest thanks to Dr. Nellie Deutsch for inviting me to be a Moodle MOOC 5 presenter. I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. Looking forward to meeting you all there!

Recording of the free webinar 'E-connection are essential'

Last 21 September 2014 the Fall Blog Festival webathon, hosted by IT4ALL at WizIQ, took place for 12 hours non-stop.
I had the honour to be presenting 'E-connections are essential' then, and today I am humbly sharing the recording of that live session with all of you, hoping you find it interesting.



I would also like to invite you to view the whole series of recordings that IT4ALL have generously gathered together in this YouTube Playlist, so that you have the chance to revisit or visit for the first time, if you could not attend live, the blog festival event that showcased bloggers, their work, and valuable tips when blogging for reflective practice, work with students, business and other purposes.




Thank you very much to all that attended the live session, and to the hosters for their kind invitation, their warmth, availability and generosity throughout the whole festival.

Webinars for IATEFL YLT SIG

Join me on 28 September 2014 at 7 pm Spanish time for the free live session: The timeline of an e-connected story.












Check your time around the world.

This live session is part of the YLT Webinars and I'll be sharing the story of an e-connection that starts in a University classroom (URJC) from Madrid, with a group of future CLIL teachers taking a Master's Degree on The Use of ICT and Web Resources in Primary Bilingual Education, which spreads towards real CLIL classrooms from Colegio San Gregorio in Palencia (Spain) and their designing digital storytelling together.

The timeline of an e-connected story - YLT Webinars

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

Thanks to all my Master's students and to @somar0209, @javiramossancha and @julisanzmamolar, who have generously collaborated in this digital e-connected adventure that brought University and Primary Education together.

Read more YLT Webinars.

October is round the corner, and so is Moodle MOOC 5

 Moodle MOOC 5 starts on October 1, 2014 on WizIQ. The theme of the current MOOC is collaborative learning, reflective practice, connecting online for instruction and learning. 

The MOOC focuses on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching through Moodle, Second Life, Mahara, Google Drive Docs, and Google Apps, Mobile Devices, Virtual Classes, and other online learning environments for face-to-face, blended, and fully online learning. The live presentations include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and blended learning formats. 

Moodle MOOC 5 also includes Moodle for Teachers (M4T) courses for beginners and advanced Moodlers. The courses is asynchronous (Moodle) and synchronous (WizIQ) with recordings of live classes on WizIQ, YouTube, and Vimeo, just in case you cannot attend on the spot. 

There are two learning areas: WizIQ course area and Moodle for Teachers (M4T) Moodle website. The live online sessions and recordings, tutorials (courseware) and ongoing discussions (coursefeed) are available in the WizIQ course area. 

Unlike the traditional MOOCs that stress content and course delivery, Moodle MOOC focuses on active learning, reflection, sharing, and collaboration. The aim of the course is for the participants to learn through meaningful connections and social interactions. Participants who wish to receive a certificate of participation will be required to document their learning experiences by keeping a blog, wiki, website, or any other artifact that will include a description and reflection of the live sessions and/or recordings. 

Moodle for Teachers Learning Experience (M4TLE) is an asynchronous component of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on WizIQ for teachers and anyone interested in teaching online using Moodle, WizIQ, and other web technologies. 

The MOOC takes place from 1 to 31 October 2014. It is in the spirit of open education and completely free. 

Participants become acquainted with Moodle as a course and learning management system. They learn how Moodle can be used in fully online, blended learning, and the flipped class. 

The MOOC only includes asynchronous (not dependent on time) elements on a Moodle site called Moodle for Teachers. The rest takes place at WizIQ.

The MOOC is self-paced with ongoing discussions and facilitator and technical support are available.  It is coordinated by Dr. Nellie Deutsch and Tom Hodgers.

Enroll now and join an engaging MOOC. Do not miss it!

Free Webinar: 'E-connections are essential'

Join me on 21 September 2014 at 6 pm GMT+1 for the free live session: 'e-Connections are essential!'.

Check your time around the world.

This live session is part of the free webathon you may attend when you join the Fall Blog Festival at WizIQ.

e-Connections are Essential!!!!

Uploaded by María Jesús on WizIQ Tutorials

Read more about the Fall Blog Festival.