Monday, October 15, 2012

INTERNET-BASED PROJECT WORK


   Last Thursday we got in teams of 10 or 11 persons and together we read some copies about:
INTERNET-BASED PROJECT WORK

   We had to pass in front of the class to talk about this topic but we were the last team and we didn't have time. But here is a small summary about all.


         As a teacher, you have to have very clear what you want to the students demonstrated, make them understand everything, what they have to search and what they have to do. When students look information they have to understand what the internet is saying, for make sure the information is understandable for them, they have to do a mind-map to put their ideas together and after that make a final presentation. Also, they always have to divide the work, learn how to work in groups. Is very useful to use websites, internet can motivate students and gives you more confidence to do the work. A very useful thing is to implement projects in real-life and organize all, when you have something to do an activity in your school, a project in your home, a trip with your friends or whatever, you can make projects of all for have a better organization with the people, with days, with your money, etc. Talking about projects, web-quests are mini-projects, it can be teacher-made or student-made. There are two kinds of web-quests: short-term web-quest and longer-term web-quest. And now, a web-quest creation does not require much detailed technical knowledge, it is easy if you use some modern word processor and it just needs a little skillset; you can be able to cast critical eye over the resources you do find when searching, to combine text, images and web links.. A web-quest is a site where you can share information, a clear example of a web-quest can be basically like a blog.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A Better Learning Environment

        In today's class, we discussed a very important issue that many schools deal with. This discussion was about how we as students can change the learning environment and improve it. In the class we decided that the infrastructure of our school / class rooms were not very well built, the infrastructure was a disaster. We brainstormed about some possibilities that we could change from the school and we came up with many different ideas. Some of these ideas were funny, for example someone said that having sexy teacher would improve our willingness to learn more. Some of the ideas were very important like having our own classroom, since we don't have our own classroom we get switched every now and then making it stressful for us because sometimes we don't even know where the class is, and some arrive late due to this matter. Another idea that we had was to try and get teachers that are more passionate about teaching, that they are there to teach not just work and go home. Teachers need to be productive and sometimes even tutor us, but instead we have teachers that don't give a single PINEAPPLE about the students. Another idea was to add some color to the walls in the classes. I believe that if you stay on a room for many hours and that room's color is dirty white or some boring color, then the students feel bored all the time, we need bright colors to wake us up and increase the awareness in the classroom. There were many other ideas that we discussed and implied, but just having an idea is pointless, so we need to unite and speak up to the coordinators and presidents of the school if we really want a change.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Educational Technology in my own words.

       Educational Technology is basically using technological components to your advantage of studying. For example if your teacher tells you to write a report on how do plants use photosynthesis to survive, then you are going to use technology to research that topic. By using a computer, a laptop, or an e-tablet you can find out more about a certain topic that just using a book in a library, plus it also saves you time and you get to share ideas with other people around the world.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Welcome! Educational Technology

Hi, Welcome to my Blog. My name is Gustavo, I am a student in Centro de Idiomas studying to be an English teacher. In this blog i will be posting my experiences in Educational Technology class as well as share ideas on this subject. You are welcome to join this blog to share ideas on what you think about my experiences and to give advice. I will be posting very soon and keep everyone updated, thanks.