Moodle MOOC 4 (MM4). Starting a new massive online learning adventure

Today I have just begun a new online learning adventure: taking part in the brand new Moodle MOOC 4 (MM4) that Dr. Nellie Deutsch has just started providing at WizIQ, with the help of Thomas Hodgers, facilitator of the course.

The MOOC actually started last 1 June and will run until 30 June; it is free, and instructed in English, and I am late, I know, but I am trying to catch up and view some of the session recordings I have already missed (only 5 out of the 34 live sessions offered).

Among those missed live sessions it is the Opening Ceremony, brilliantly conducted by Dr. Nellie Deutsch, where she surfed through the learning spaces this MOOC is taking place in: Moodle 4 Teachers (Moodle 2.6) and WizIq.
The combination of these two learning spaces is very intelligent in my opinion, as the former offers you a practice area where a sandbox of resources and activities is available for MOOC participants to analyse thoroughly and actually set up, whereas the latter gives you the chance of attending various live sessions or their recordings if you are short for time, as well as having access to the whole courseware.
Besides, both spaces are linked thanks to the WizIq plugin for Moodle, which makes it quite easy to swap platforms and actively interact with other peers, MOOC providers and facilitators. On top of all that, the actual word spreading and outcome sharing goes on the cloud, e. g. sites, social networks, blogs and so forth, where one is expected to show artifacts and reflection, that is, learning evidence. Thus interacting and connecting are key issues when boarding this MOOC cruise.

Dr. Nellie Deutsch gave a clear outline about the MOOC presenters, how to view presentations, attend live sessions, accomplish the tasks, gain course badges and obtain the completion certificate, making special emphasis on the active learning methodology the MOOC implies.

I am pretty sure it is going to be an engaging collaborative learning experience that will prove highly beneficial for my future Moodle course management as well as pretty motivating from the personal side, and the first show is a sweet surprise I was given just after my first MOOC day:

Right after introducing myself to the group of MOOC participants, I received a welcome SpeakPipe message through this system I have embedded in my blog long ago.
It was a message by David F., a peer MOOC participant that audio-introduced himself in Spanish to welcome me to the course.

'How come!', I just thought, 'and how caring of him to make the effort to welcome me in my own language, without even knowing me!' And then, again, as it quite often does lately, came to mind the fact that all this would be absolutely impossible without ICT or the Internet; that is the beauty of team learning, of learning in collaboration, of sharing. Out-of-the-blue gifts like this voice message is what really makes you stop and learn, whatever it may be, but learn together.

If you are interested in Moodle, either for beginners or non beginners, you are welcome to join this new learning experience and get advantage of learning by doing while you meet over one thousand elearners from all around the world willing to be there for you.

Thanks, Nellie, for another awesome learning adventure!

Thanks, Thomas, for the support!

Warm thanks, David, for being my first MOOC peer connection!

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Ready for Breaking Science? - Question Time

How much Science do you know?

The Science Breaking team of future CLIL Primary teachers at URJC are challenging you with a quiz. 

Let's see how many questions you can answer correctly!

If take the quiz, @ScienceBreaking will love to hear from you. 

Comments and feedback welcome!

Cross-posted from Breaking Science

Bringing Colegio San Gregorio and Book ME-Library together!

This is the beauty of e-connections and how taking advantage of ICT resources and social networks can bring peer teachers with alike interests together around a common rewarding mini-project that turns out to be an e-connected means to foster reading, writing and digital skills among Primary Bilingual students.

The story of this e-connection starts in a University classroom (URJC), with a group of future teachers taking the Master's Degree on The Use of ICT and Web Resources in Primary Bilingual Education, and approaching Challenge Based Learning through the development of various projects, which will enable them to embrace this methodology with their own students when having the chance to teach real, but at the same time, seeking for project testers, that is, current teachers looking forward to putting the projects into practice in their own ongoing lessons.

One of those students is Billy Ramos, working on the Book ME-Library project to encourage reading and writing skills with mobile devices.
As soon as he is ready for his creations to be tested, I start my Twitter engine and post several calls there as well as in Facebook, where the overall experience is now part of the 30 Goals Challenge and we have become inspire leaders for other teachers around the world to accomplish the eStudents Connecting and Creating goal.

Among many other collaborative colleagues, to whom I am sincerely thankful, Julián Sanz, from Colegio San Gregorio, in Palencia - Spain, responds willing to integrate Billy's assignments into his We Are StoryTellers eTwinning Project for sixth graders, together with Carmen Pérez, a colleague of Julián's.

I quickly e-gather them so we collaboratively plan, schedule, organise, exchange ideas together with proposals, and, as Billy often says: 'We are on it like white on rice' very very soon.

Billy starts with a sweet video introduction for the kids to get to know him better and have a glimpse of the upcoming episodes from Book ME-Library.



Julián, from his end, starts presenting the mini-project to the educational community:



And ... Off we go! The kids from Y6 San Gregorio are looking forward to learning how to become digital storytellers, and there is Billy, in Madrid, to show them the essentials of any story: introduction, nub, ending.





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Meanwhile, in Palencia, Julián, Carmen and their teams of sixths graders, with the help of Billy's tips, are writing scripts and storyboarding trips, tsunamis, monsters, fantastic creatures and loads of other digital storytelling adventures that they share and edit in Google Drive until ready for the final design.

And, there is a new decision to be taken, which tool to use for the digital creation. The winning tool is ... collaborative Storybird, so Billy comes into action again and with his superpowers, efficiently screencasts a how-to tutorial about the artful tool.



On top of that, Billy heartedly creates a sample story with Storybird: Who is bigger than me?, especially dedicated to the Y6 kids from Julián's classrooms, which hides an augmented personalised gift; to open the gift you need the Aurasma app in your mobile device, follow the Book ME-Library channel and scan the book cover with the app.

You wouldn't expect me to spoil it for you, would you?




Now, the sixth graders have all the ingredients to cook and serve wonderful digital stories, feel they are storytellers and have the spirit of e-connected students at the same time. Here you are some of their outcomes, and don't miss the authors' pen-names!!!

And this is the ending of our own e-connected story or perhaps it is the beginning, who knows? But one thing is sure: "We taught and learned happily ever after".

Density Experiment - Breaking Science!

The Science Breaking team of future CLIL Primary teachers at URJC have a new experiment they'd like to share with you all!

Ready for the new challenge? Watch their video clip, listen and practise!

If you are a teacher and ever carry it out in your lessons, or at home if you are a student, @ScienceBreaking will love to hear your feedback!

Cross-posted from Breaking Science

#DoNowAbstract #DoNow_urjc

Storifying the sixth twittering participation of the students at URJC Master's Degree for The Use of ICT and Digital Resources in Primary Bilingual Education in #DoNowAbstract.

Related posts: Where do you find Everyday Art?

QR Storytelling

Billy Joel Ramos, CLIL Primary Teacher and member of the Book ME-Library URJC project, is presenting a collection of English e-stories for young learners.

He has designed them along his Master's Degree at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, putting into practice what he has learned in his own lessons, with his students at Colegio VillaEuropa, where he has taught them how to enrich storytelling with their own voices.

Here you are their QR code format outcomes, so get ready, scan them and enjoy storytelling!

Fat Cat on a Mat

Big Pig on a Dig

Ted in a Red Bed

Hen's Pens

Shark in The Park

Crossposted from Book ME-Library

Adventure Picture e-books for Primary Bilingual Readers

Jacob Welcker, from the URJC Book ME-Library team, is the author of these two adventure picture e-books aimed at fostering digital reading skills among 8-12-year-old young learners.

If you are a CLIL Primary teacher, or if you teach ESL to young readers, like his stories and ever use them in your lessons or recommend them to your own students, the whole Book ME-Library team will love to hear from you.

Run your mouse over the cover and click to flip pages. Comments and feedback are most welcome!

Crossposted from Book ME-Library.