Ambientes Persoais de Aprendizaxe e Redes Sociais na Educación: Reflexións Finais

Parece mentira pero xa van alá dous meses desde o inicio do curso de formación do profesorado “Ambientes persoais de aprendizaxe e redes sociais na educación”. Eu que teño boa predisposición para aprender comecei coa convicción de que algo de proveito seguramente ía sacar, pero para a miña sorpresa, as miñas expectativas víronse claramente sobrepasadas.

http://aukera.kristaueskola.eus/entorno-personal-aprendizaje-ple/

E iso foi así desde o minuto un, no que todos os participantes tivemos que esquematizar o noso propio ambiente personal de aprendizaxe. Qué importante é reflexionar sobre un mesmo de vez en cando! Deime conta de que o pé do que coxeaba o meu PLE era o da administración e clasificación da información. Xa non volverá a ser así.

O segundo gran impacto chegou no intre no que se me fixo ver que a estas alturas da era tecnolóxica xa non ten sentido falar dos nativos e inmigrantes dixitais. O que sí compre é distinguir entre os que residen na rede e aqueles que a visitan simplemente. A distinción púxolle nome a algo ao que levaba tempo dándolle voltas, e é que nunca estiven moi segura de querer deixar unha pegada moi fonda na internet, ou posto de outro xeito, de que a miña vida, privada ou profesional, estivese totalmente exposta. Seguirei dándolle voltas, seguro, pero sí que comprobei todas as vantaxes que conleva residir algo máis nas redes para a propia aprendizaxe.

E o terceiro elemento clarificador foi o da colaboración. Sempre fun moito de compartir e Google Drive leva sendo o meu gran aliado neste cometido desde hai ben anos. Pero creo firmemente que un aprende moito máis cando o fai con outros. Por iso, resultoume tremendamente interesante o emprego de Pinterest como ferramenta colaborativa, así como a posibilidade de crear grupos como profesor en Diigo. Ben seguro que ambas formarán parte da miña práctica docente no futuro.

Como xa dixen anteriormente, a aprendizaxe tende a ser máis plena cando é compartida e, precisamente por iso, foi un pracer ter a sorte de compartir este curso con tantos profesionais de tantos eidos tan diversos. 

Content Curation

In the midst of the information overload that the Internet has brought to our lives, personal and professional, the idea of content curation becomes a must. But what is it and why is it relevant for teachers?

Source: https://danielmiessler.com/blog/curation-for-the-win/

The figure of the curator dates as far back as the 16^th century, when the first documented use of the word is recorded by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, as someone who is in charge of the care and supervision of something, especially regarding exhibits, such as in museums or galleries. But the advent of the Internet has brought about a new use for the term that was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary in September 2011. The meaning of curate was extended to cover the selection, organization and presentation of content, especially online. The funnel metaphor provides a very clear representation of what curation involves.

The first step is, therefore, looking for information. Information gathering is something we all are quite good at, but using online tools (such as Feedly or Trap.it) to systematize the search will facilitate the task considerably. However, filtering information is just the beginning. After the selection process comes the human touch. It is here that the job of a good curator becomes more noticeable. It is the time now to compare and contrast information from different sources, to connect it to the needs of a specific audience, to comment on it. That is the hard part of the curation process, but also a vital one. According to Joshua Merritt, without this, there is no curation.

The job of a content curator is, by definition, social, because their work is aimed at an audience. That is why sharing is an inherent part of curation. To do it, there are multiple tools available, some of which you can see in the infographic below.

Source: Katie Dunn at http://dailygenius.com/6-great-tools-content-curation/

And why is this relevant for teachers? The list of reasons is endless. Among the most important is the fact that our “digital resident” students may be well learned in the access to digital information, but they do need someone to guide them in the use and interpretation of that massive amount of information. Turning our backs on that need, we are missing a precious opportunity to optimize our students’ potential.

Halloween and Samhain: one tradition

Long time no write! It was high time I caught up a little on my blogging!

Yesterday many schools around us here in Galicia celebrated Samaín (you can find ideas for primary and pre-primary on the CEIP Pintor Laxeiro website, for secondary on the IES San Paio website or our own pumpkin carving workshop and contest at EOI Pontevedra - A Estrada), whose English language version would be Samhain. Honestly, I was quite surprised to find that my students were not aware of the close ties between Samhain and Halloween. They tended to think of the latter as highly commercialised and rather banal, whereas the former was seen as a more deeply-ingrained tradition, representative of long-held cultural values. Who can blame them, though?

So I thought I might as well throw a little light on the connection between the two celebrations with an interesting article and the video below, both of them tracing the modern celebration back to Celtic times (the link seems pretty obvious now, right?).

Some food for thought

Yet some more looking into the spread of English as an international language and the potential downsides of this trend.

A World of Englishes II

And just to show you that you were right and English is not always easy to understand, however good your listening skills are, check the following video. It will show you that your pronunciation is not as bad as you thought.

A World of Englishes I

Have you ever stopped to think how widespread English is? Yes, we are all used to hearing how English is the international language of business, science, commerce and whatnot. And we're all also used to hearing how speakers of English as a foreign or second language are shaping it. But English is already incredibly rich and varied as a first or official language, as you can easily imagine if you consider the map below.

Welcome!

Come join me and take a plunge into English!

Learning languages has never been more readily available or more fun, so let's make the best of the world of resources we have at our hands!