Turning another flat activity into a super learning mission

Hello everybody!

Continuing with my last post, I will explain our second super learning mission.

If you do not remember my last challenge, click here.

My second flat activity consists of shooting a video about plants summarizing the information that students learnt in the previous sessions. If you do not remember them, click here. 

I did a poster to explain the curricular facts about the mission:

Creating a video de Carmen Olmedo

Students' roles will change. Now the roles will be different:

• Role 1: one student will be the Flora detective.
• Role 2: another one will be the Tourism expert.
• Role 3: other pupil will be the Producer, who will edit the video and embed the pictures into the background of the video.
• Role 4: the last one will be the Climate advocate. 

To explain the instruction to our students we will use the following slideshow:

Learningmission2 from Ana Márquez

Once students have created their comic and planned their video, they will have to proceed and shoot the video. To do that, a green paper cloth will be placed on the wall and students will be able to shoot the video in front of it. Why a green paper cloth? Using that green background, students will be able to embed pictures or videos into the green background of their video. This paper cloth is cheap and can be bought in any shop.

First and foremost, students will write the full script for the video in Google Drive. After that, they will shoot the video in front of the green paper cloth on the wall using a tablet or camera. Learners will have to shoot a video for each scene that they planned in their comics. Once they have all their videos, they will have to edit them using their desktops in order to embed the pictures.

My classmates and I wanted to see if this crazy idea will work, and we proceeded to do it. We looked for an illuminated place where we could shoot our video. We placed the green paper cloth on the wall and started to create the video. We did eight videos: two videos for the opening and ending part; three videos in which each of us explains the content of Indian culture, its climate and its flora; and other three videos to explain the forecast of yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

It must be mentioned that we had written previously the full script in Google Drive. 

Furthermore, we use some colorful scarf to dress up like Indian women and we painted a bindi in our foreheads. In this way, we felt like native girls from India. 

Once shot the videos, we used the tool iMovie to edit our videos and embed some pictures related to India into the background. We add background music and some transitions to make the video more eye-catching. It was handy to be able to use iMovie since we have that tool in our laptops and the results always seem pretty professional. The result was the next one:

As learners have to write the script, shoot the videos, and edit them, we will use two sessions to do this super learning mission. 

When students finish the whole process, they will receive their corresponding badge, in this case they will get these ones:

Created by Lucía

REFLECTION

This challenge was so fun since we dressed up and we were in a Hindi's shoes. At first glance, I thought that this activity will be tricky because I did not know how easy to change the backgrounds of videos using iMovie is. I had used many times iMovie to edit videos, but I had never used this option: embed a picture into a video with a green or blue background. As well as that, we did not need a professional studio to do this video, just a simple paper cloth. As far as I am concerned, the result was almost professional. It will be a good activity for children, they will love watching their final outcome. It was funny even for us! 

I reckon that it can be difficult for students to edit the video, but with the help of the teacher they can do it. They just need to embed the picture into the background of the video (music and transitions are not necessary). 

We used iMovie which is intended for Mac but other tools can be used for this purpose if you have a Windows, such as Sony Vegas, Touch Cast, or Tech Smith. 

I have to say that this super learning mission is perfectly aligned with my Open Educational Project since it includes a part about plants (flora in India). In addition, it is linked to the collaborative project I am collaborating with, 30 Goals Challenge (revamping a lesson) because the lesson was transformed into a learning mission, we added a technology component, and we made the lesson more hands-on. Furthermore, we are also collaborating with another goal from that web site: recognize with a badge. This is the one Lucía is collaborating with, that is why students will receive a badge based on their roles in both learning missions. 

Retrieved from:  teacherrebootcamp.com

It was a pleasure to work with my two classmates Lucía and Ana H. in order to create two super learning missions which are cross curricular. Collaborating is vital and we go further when we do it. We have achieved these two super activities which are cross curricular, in which children collaborate and use ICT tools. Additionally, we are collaborating among us and with the worldwide projects we joined. Thanks to all that, we are enriching our Open Educational Projects. 

Firstly, we thought that it would be impossible to join our three projects, but eventually we did it and I feel so proud of us. 

Doing this activity, learners will practice their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills and they will use past, present and future tenses while they are explaining the weather forecast, so I consider we achieved a pretty complete activity. 

Well, that's all at the moment. 

See you soon and remember,

BE CLEVER, BE GREENER!

Elevator pitch to find partners

Hello everybody!

These days I was looking for partners to join them and contribute with my Open Educational Project (OEP). I looked among lots of projects such as The other kids EDU, the ESL times, the Twima project, Maderas que son violines, Piratas y Libélulas, No me cuentes historias, ¡dibújamelas!, etc. Then, I asked myself: where could I fit with my project of natural science about plants? Then, the 30 Goals Challenge caught my attention. It is a web site carried by Shelly Terrell, an enthusiastic and active teacher trainer and e-learning specialist. In her web site I found a challenge about Revamping a lesson. The goal is "improve a lesson plan or activity to create a meaningful learning experience for your students." So, I took the challenge and I revamped my whole OEP following her suggestions to do it: 

Retrieved from http://www.30goals.com/

• "Transform the lesson into a learning mission. 
• Add a technology component.
• Add some humor to the lesson.
• Bring your textbook to life.
• Make the lesson more hands-on.
• Get students moving.
• Change the environment.
• Start the lesson in a new way."

Then, I decided to take all her ideas and incorporate them into my OEP. Moreover, taking into account that one of the challenges was "bring your textbook to life", I remembered visiting the project InfoEDUgrafías which encourages you to use computer graphics. Computer graphics are visual displays of data made on a computer. So, I thought that doing computer graphics could be a way to "bring the textbook to life". 

Retrieve from http://infoedugrafias.blogspot.com.es/

PROCEDURE TO JOIN A RUNNING PROJECT

As a consequence, I revamped all my OEP, I changed all the activities that I had planned for my students. If you do not remember my OEP, click here. So, I have summarized my new lesson plan in a document that I uploaded to Issuu again. How you can show your documents once you have embedded them in your post is wonderful. I highly recommend Issuu to upload documents. 

According to my work about infoEDUgrafías, in my OEP, I do not use any textbook because I will use some computer graphics that I made using the web site Piktochart, which I find so useful for learners and teachers. It is so easy to use specially if you have used Genial.ly previously, because the web page template, tools, and options are so similar. Perhaps the greatest benefit of it is that you can download your infographics. Here you go an example that I created to my OEP:

Once done all the changes to fit with a partner/s, I decided to do an elevator pitch to catch the attention of my future partner/s. An elevator pitch is a short discourse which will lead to a deeper dialogue about what you can offer. It should last no longer than a short elevator ride from 20 to 30 seconds. 

To do it I did a draft about my discourse since I just had 20 seconds, a short period of time in which I wanted to tell many things about my project. I follow the next ideas to do the draft:

• Make a catching start point using questions to catch the attention of the audience. 
• Define the problem of my discourse.
• Explain the solution and the main point of my project.
• Tell what I pretend with my elevator pitch. 

So, taking into account that, I did this draft that you can see here. I used GoogleDrive to do it. 

Here you go the result. 

To do the video I used the tool iMovie again. Firstly, I used WeVideo which I found a pretty good program although it is free just 90 days. Despite that fact, it offers many options and special effects to add to your video. However, the final video had a big watermark which distracted the attention and covered part of my face. So, using iMovie was the right idea because I have it and to do an elevator pitch is perfect: easy to use and with eye-catching results. Anyway, an elevator pitch should be short and simple, so I just needed to add my blog in order that my future partner/s will be able to see my project. I strongly believe that iMovie is excellent and I recommend it. 

Eventually, I wrote some positive feedback to my hopefully future partners InfoEDUgrafías and the 30 Goals Challenge in their web pages.

REFLECTION

Doing this post was quite challenging because I had to incorporate different types of collaboration in the classroom as well as the requirements of the goal (which were about 8 different challenges). I started this whole project two weeks ago, even before than doing my previous post or challenge. Now I am feeling quite proud once I have incorporated all that issues into my project which I thought I would be impossible, but I planned different activities taking into account all those ideas and techniques. Actually, it was like a jigsaw. 

My elevator pitch might seem quite simple but it took me many rehearsals to get to the final discourse. I memorized my draft which also took many minutes but I consider I spoke about all the main points of my project. Furthermore, I believe that it is quite attractive. On the other hand, I realized how difficult is to prepare an elevator pitch since at first sight it might seem easy to speak just 20 seconds, but when you were working really hard on your project, 20 seconds is not enough at all. 

I must admit that elevator pitches are a great idea to do with students because rehearsing is essential in order to improve thinking and language skills. 

Without my being aware of it, I created a project which will fit in two of the running projects that I have mentioned above. As a result, I feel so satisfied with it. Now I hope they accept my as a partner because I tried to do my best. 

Finally, I would like to add that it was a pleasure to discover wonderful current projects with awesome teachers who are changing the education system right now. I was not conscious about all this. I have to admit that I am so impressed and hopeful. 

And do not forget,

Be clever, be greener!

Prototype of an Open Educational Project

Hello everybody!

Are you becoming greener and greener? I hope so! But today my concern is another one.

Last week we analyzed an Open Educational Project, and this week we created one!

First of all, I would like to present my prototype of an Open Educational Project with this video:

I also create another video to explain my prototype deeper than with PowToon. Here yo go the key points of my prototype about Plants. 

The process to create the prototype was the opposite:

Firstly, we use a template as a guide to create our open projects. We could change as many times as we want the template but we had to make it easy in order to change it when somebody proposes an improvement. I created a didactic unit about plants which is intended for 4º graders.

Once created the prototype, I made a video to present it, which I think is appealing. I used the tool PowToon, which I believe it is funny and so easy to use. However, I preferred to show my video first, since it is an eye-catching presentation about my prototype.

Then, I uploaded the documents that I created for the didactic unit about plants. I use Google docs, a website so useful to upload your documents and share with just your friends or everybody. Here you go the documents (and also the prototype if you would like to download it):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3GFZ04HBCEAZks0bmQwcFpfT1U

This time, I preferred to use a different tool than a video on twitter, that is why I chose PowToon also, because it was something different for me and so eye-catching. It is a rudimentary tool but much more fun than if you record yourself (I did for another challenge also). Anyway, I wanted to shoot a video about the key points of my prototype so that their are easy to find. Apparently, it seems easier for the human being to watch a video than read a document.

To share my prototype, I use Issuu a website to share documents. This website is great so that your publications look great. It is free and you are allowed to watch everybody's publications or magazines. I had not used this website before, neither I knew it, but I like the way in which my documents are presented so as to embed it to my blog. 

With respect to Google docs, I used it before since it is great to do collaborative projects with your peers, but I have never uploaded many documents in order to share them with everybody. It is a good initiative so that each teacher can share their fresh ideas and can read about new ones also. In Spain, teacher are worry about sharing content since most teachers think that they do not want other people to use the material in which they spent so much time. Nevertheless, it is about taking advantage of the sharing and improve our teaching methods and resources. Our main goal as teacher is to help children to learn content, develop skills, and help them to be better citizens, right? So, teachers lets share! 

In my prototype, I will use iDoceo which is an application for iPad. It is not a free app but you will use it daily if you are a teacher. So, it is worthy. With this application you can evaluate your students through rubrics, it also has many tools such as notes, contact list, etc. You can share the students' mark with their parents and also with them. In the case you meet with parents, you can also show them only their child mark following the teacher's standards.

Example:

Screenshot of my Ipad by Carmen Olmedo

Besides, the teacher can see the mark average of the group of students and in which standards students fails or got good marks, for instance:

Screenshot of mi Ipad by Carmen Olmedo

Finally, my last post was about analyzing an open educational project and it was time-consuming but easy to do it. Now that I created one, I realized that it is more difficult to create one and also to evaluate your own prototype!

In my prototype, I want students to make an online poster about taking care of the nature. If they can, you can. 

Remember:

Be clever, be greener!

Flipped introduction

Ana Herrera

Picture by Carmen Olmedo

This is Ana Herrera, my classmate and friend at the Master in Bilingual Education at the Rey Juan Carlos University. 

Today it is time to know more about her, that is why I interviewed her. I recorded a video to show you the interview about Ana. 

Here you go the video:

PROCEDURE

Now that we have learnt some facts about Ana's interests and life, I will tell you how I did the 3, 2, 1 introduction:

- First, we found a relatively peaceful place where to interview Ana, since we were in class and it was too noisy.

- Secondly, I recorded the video using our laptops camera. I used the app Photo Booth included in my laptop.  

- Thirdly, I edited the video using the app iMovie since I have a MacBook and iMovie is included when you buy one of them. In my humble opinion, iMovie is a pretty good application to edit videos because it is easy to use and it offers many awesome effects to include in your video. I have never used this app before and I found it easy and useful when you get used to it. If you do not have iMovie or a MacBook, you can use Movie Maker for Window, which is so similar to the one that I used. 

I would like to add that I used in the video a free right song from the webpage http://freemusicarchive.org/ .
The song is called "Soltanto un attimo". In addition, the pictures are from the webpages https://www.pexels.com/, where it can found pictures with no copyright. 

REFLECTION

As I see it, I think this kinds of activities are useful to know more about ourselves. Ana and I are close friends but we were aware of new likes or facts for us. We live in hectic paces of life, and we do not stop to think and ask about our likes and past life. It was a nice activity to think about what I can ask Ana in order that people know fundamental aspects of her life. 

Furthermore, I have used for the first time this useful tool to edit videos. We can use iMovie with videos, pictures, photos... and you can include your favorite songs and include innovative transitions between pictures or videos, also write comments and etcetera. It offers a great range of options. So, finally I took advantage of my laptop!

Last but not least, I had to interview Ana because our teacher paired us with respect to our shoe sizes, which I had not seen before. I have to admit that it was funny! Useful way to pair children also!

Be clever, be greener!