Talking about the course...

The semester is over, so it is time to look back, So, let's collect and evaluate how much I've learnt in this course. 

Firtsly, let me point the importance of the ICT's for Primary education. Nowadays, technology permits us to explore beyond than  our imagination can expect, so it is an useful tool for educational experiences. Imagine you can travel all around without moving from you desk or you can build up a house in your own laptop... Everything is possible, and that is what will take our students attention and let us to improve their knowledge and their experience.

Secondly, the best part of this subject is the practical application it has, since any other subjetc is built up from the theoretical aspect, this one is based on every day practice.

Finally, I consider this subject basic for the correct development of a didactic unit, not only for its importance in education, but for the compulsion of being aware about the changes and evolution of teaching.

Thanks for out attention and for everything!

Hot potatoes

Hot potatoes includes six applications, which enable you to create interactive activities, such as:

1. Multiple-choice
2. Short-answer
3. Jumbled-sentence
4. Crossword
5. Matching/ordering
6. Gap-fill exercises

They can be uploaded to the World Wide Web.

JQuiz:  We can create multiple-choice, true-false, text-entry or short-answer activities. 

JCloze: We can create gap-fill activities.

JCross: We can create crosswords activities.

JMix: We can create jumbled-sentence activities.

JMatch: We can create matching and ordering activities. 

The Masher

It is a tool for automatically compiling Hot Potatoes exercises into units. Imagine that you have five Hot Potatoes exercises that form a single unit materials. you want to build HTML files from all the exercises, with the same colours and appareance settings; you also want to link the exercises together using the navigation buttons, and create and indez file for the unit.

JMatch

The JMatch program creates matching or ordering exercises. A list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), with jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation.

JQuiz

JQuiz an create four different types of question: multiple choice, short-aswer, hybrid ( a short-answer queston that turns into a multiple-choice question after several attemptions), multi-select (in wich the learner has to choose  several of a set of positions, then check the choices).

JCloze

JCloze program creates gap-fill exercises. Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap and the student can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is algo including. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every new word in text. 

Screenshots and screencasts

Screenshot

It is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device. You can record the whole screen on par of it. 

That image is converted and saved to an image file such as JPG and PNG format. 

Screencast

It is a digital recording of computer sreen output, also known as a video scren capture, often containing audio narration. 

The term screencast compared with the related term screenshot, whereas shcreenshot is a picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a use sees on a computer screen, enhanced with the audio narration. 

Software

• Camstudio: Open Source Softewate
• For windors
• Output formats: AVI y SWF
• Jing
• Capture an dimage of what you see on your computer screen. 
• Select any window or region that you want to capture, mark up your screenshot with a text box, arro, highlight or picture caption, and decide how you want to share it. 
• Jing videos are limited to five minutes for instant, focused communication.
• Videos can be shared through social media. 

• Wink
• Open source software.
• Several output formats
• For windows
• You can capture screenshots, add explanations, boxes, buttons, titles etc

• BB Flashback express
• The free vversion just allows just swf and avi files
• For windows

• Web-based
• You do not need any external software
• Just go to the web page and record
• The recording can be shared in social networks.

• Screencast-o-matic
• Direct recording
• Different resolutions can be selected
• Sound is also available. 
• Direct upload to the internet.

Screenshots

It is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device. Yoy can record the whole screen or part of it. 

Screencast

It is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot. 

IWB for the teaching of English

It is a devise used in classrooms as the traditional Blackboards, but it can be interactive as its name claims. It has a lot of functions.

As there is a screen, it has to include video connection (HDMI, RCA,VGA), USB or WiFi Connection. 

It has a great use for the creation of interactive activities, An you can set a lot of kinds of it to present during the lesson. There are a lot of application such as the magnifier or the focus. 

Animating Objects

Every object in the activities can be touched, so they can produce a feedback on the child. The could:

1. Appear and vanish
2. Turn around
3. Get bigger and shorter
4. Get closer or further    

Images, sounds….: Copyright?

As we use files from PDF to PNG, we must respect the copyright. Using images, sounds and videos in the classrooms is not the same than using them in a formal presentation.

 

IMAGE

AUDIO

VIDEO

For video edition Animoto is a great website, where you can find patters for video creation. There you can pick a style for the video, then customize it with photos, videos and text, and to finish you can produce and share. your creation.

Massher is another option which can provides us of what we need for Video creation. 

Most recent approaches

"The study for and study of applications of the computer in language and learning" is what defined the best what CALL (Computer-assisted language learning) is. It embraces a wide range of applications and appraches tto teach and learn foreign languages.

It also extends to the use of the interactive whiteboards, computer-mediated communication (CMC), language learning in virtual worlds, and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). There are many parts of Spain that couldn’t afford TV or internet connection, so they have to go to another village to get that...

CMC/IWB

Many people are too focused on watch their mobile phones that they miss thing on real life (Instant message, facebook, emailing, social networking), moreover they don’t even know that their information can be caught. Not everything must be based on technologies. 

FLIPPED CLASSROOM

This method consists in a change of mind for those teacher who think education must be found in books. A flipped classroom demands significant learning, so children should be in contact with the topic itself. This idea is a challenge for teacher, due to the difficulties it takes to bring the real world to the classroom. What is the solution? Let's get the children out of the class and let them to see the real world. So this method has the following characteristics:

1.       Flexible environment where teachers create adaptable sites where children can choose when and where they learn.

2.       Learning culture, where the pupil is the centre of the learning process.

3.       International content.

4.       Professional Educator based on feedback and complete evaluation of their tasks.