Final Reflections

Since the creation of our blog we have travelled a long journey in the world of the information and communication technologies through the discovery of some fantastic tools.

We started creating a blog (Blogger) in which we upploaded everything we did during this course. The second step was creating an avatar to identify ourselves using, in my case, the App Bitmoji.

After that, we discovered how to protect our work and how to include other´s works in ours respecting the property license (Creative Common License). This was a great discovering because I didn't used to take it into account in academic tasks before this course.

Then, we learnt how to create some information organizers using a wide range of tools to make maindmaps, infographics, slideshow presentations.We also learnt how to create a comic strip using online generators. I think this was the most important part of our learning with regard to the educational purposes in that knowing tools to display content in different ways is extremely important for teachers,

Finally, the last sessions of this course were focused on the creation of audivisual elements. First, by learning how to create video recordings and uplading them to a host server (Podcasts) and then, discovering how to create and edit videorecordings. I really enjoyed this part, especially the creation of the stopmotion video that I chose to do.

I finish this course feeling that I have learnt a lot about applications and tools that can be used in classrooms. I really liked the activities chosen to be carried out during this course. Although I would have rather preferred not to upload everything to the social media. Perhaps, for the next years it would be a good idea to use a social platform just for the students of the course.

Finally, I attach here my video presentation about my journey through this course.

My flipgrid

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to tell you my experience sharing a story using the ICT tool Flipgrid. It is an app that allows you to record a video and share it with a comunity (The world is my audience) . In my opinion is not a good tool, because took me several attemps before I could get a proper video. The app have a lot of errors, such as, stucks, random cuts of the video, conection errors and the unability to go back. The only good thing I could mention is that all the videos uploaded are in the same place so you can see what other people have done. 

 On another hand, apart form the creation of the video, to be part of an educational collaborative project worldwid is a great experience, because you can see the experiences of other teachers and share yours. 

Finally, although I am not a social media person since I only have Facebook and I hardly use it, I find it a very interesting tool to share knowledge and opinions.

This is my video, I hope you like it:

Stop Motion video

Hello students! Today we will learn how to create a stop motion video.

Stop motion is an animation technique that consists of simulating the movement of static objects by using a series of consecutive still images.

In the fourth course, we are now studying the simple machines, specifically the lever, the pulley and the inclined plane.In groups, you have to choose a simple machine and create a video in stop motion and explain to your classmates how it works for the Natural Science subject.

We have already made the storyboard that will help to organize ourselves to create the video. You can see the storyboard in the previous blog post. 

https://irenesicts.blogspot.com/2020/04/storyboard-video-project.html

The first thing you need to have to create the video is a technological device, for example a mobile phone  or a tablet, and then you have to download the app Stop Motion Studio.

Stop Motion Studio is a free app that allows you to create movies frame by frame with Timeline .It is easy to use; you can add text, filters, effects and sounds among other things. One thing that I would improve in this app is that to use some of these options you have to pay, but the price is affordable.

Here you have an example of a stop motion video in which you can see how a pulley works.

The video is called The ants and the pulley and is made by Irene and Mirian:

 

We have never made a stop motion video before, therefore to create this video we had to practice several times and move the pieces little by little to get the best possible result. The app Stop Motion Studio makes it easy to assemble the photos, the music and the visual effects.

With this activity we want to achieve two objectives that the students learn to create videos in stop motion and that they understand how the lever, the pulley and the inclined plane work.

Nowadays we believe that it is essential that students learn to handle new technologies from an early age.

Storyboard a video project

Hello everyone, Today we are going to learn how to storyboard a video project. The topic of this week are the simple machines (pulley, inclined plane and lever). To work on this topic we are going to create some videos to undersand how these machines work. First of all, we need to create a storyboard to explain how our video is going to be (type of movie and genre, scenes, characteres,  dialogues, backgrounds, music effects and visual effects) . To do this, you are going to use the following template:

 

Remmember that the tool that we are going to use to create our stop motion video projects is Stop Motion Studio App. It is an excellent tool to make this kind of videos in an easy way. We will see this tool in the next session.

Here you have an example of a storyboard that I have created using this template:

Cultural week. Relevant women throughout history. Podcasts Project.

Hello students, today we are going to talk about the cultural week.

During that week and the previous one we will develop a full project on relevant women throughout history creating podcasts.

In the following document you will find all the information about the cultural week project and the podcast creation.



Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.

Here you have the chanell of this subject (Irene´s ICTs):

Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.

I addition, I have created a playlist Called “Cultural Week Project” where we will upload all the podcasts about relevant women throughout history:

Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.

Finally, I have created an audio to welcome you and give you some brief instructions about our project. In the document that I have uploaded (at the beginning of the entry) you have all the information about the project and the podcasts that I explained the other day.



Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
Song by Ketsa music.


My podcasting experience (for teachers).

Learn how to create a podcast was a hard a process because the tools that I have used weren´t intuitive at all. I had to see several tutorials to understand how to do the things that I wanted to create. In addition, it is important to mention that I hadn´t worked with audio editing programs before, so the choice of programs has been a bit random. Because of this, I chose the virtual classroom programs and those recommended by peers.

I had to see several tutorials to understand how to do the things I wanted to create. Almost all the problems arose with the manipulation of the audio recording and the background music. Audacity is a professional program that needs a small learning curve before carrying out any project.

Thanks to the following videos I understood some basic tools such as reducing the sound of an audio little by little, how to reduce the volume in a selected strip of audio and how to trim an audio track.

These are the tutorials in Spanish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ovBvOey2eo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhQgAq2OWzE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_amOmI1ogiU

About the SoundCloud tool, I think that they will improve their website including a tutorial about how to start using it, because it was a little bit confusing at the beginning. 

If you want to know the steps I have followed, go to the document at the top of the entry. It includes all the steps to follow and the programs or tools to carry them out.

To conclude, working podcasts with students is a difficult task since there are many elements to take into account to carry it out. It is not impossible, but it is necessary to be clear about all the steps to follow and to simplify the instructions and tasks to be developed as much as possible.

Vertebrates: How to create an infographic.

Hello students,

Today we are going to learn the main characteristics of vertebrate animals.

To do that, you are going to create an infographic about each type of vertebrate animals: mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds.

What is an infographic?

It is a visual representation of a content or knoledge. It is a combination of pictures that is easy to understand and transmit. 

With this tool you are going to learn and memorize the main characteristics of vertebrate animals in a very easy way. To select those main characteristics of these animals, you will have to choose an image that represents them. So, you will have to think about it carefully. I am sure that when you finish your work you will know all the characteristics of vertebrate animals!

How to create an infographic?

To create an infographic we are going to use an ICT tool called "Piktochart".

Link: https://piktochart.com/

"Piktochart" is an ICT tool used to create visual representations such as presentations, posters, flyers or infographics.

You can create your infographic from the scratch or from a template. There are some really good templates. The only obstacle is that you have to adapt them to your content, but if it is not tedious for you, you will have found a good working tool.

Also, you can include different elements using the panel on the right side of the website such as, pictures, shapes, texts, backgrounds, links, etc.

Below you can find an example of an infographic on mammals. You can use it to make yours or customize it as you want.

Investigation about chemical reactions and mixtures. Mindmaps

Hello students,

today we are going to review the steps to carry out your investigation about chemical reactions and mixtures.

To present these steps I create a mindmap using an ICT tool called "Bubbl" that is very useful tool to present information .

Link: https://bubbl.us/

"Bubble" is a great tool for creating mindmaps and displaying the main information of a content  in a few minutes and without having to learn too much.To create your mindmap the only thing you have to do is form content bubbles and link them to each other. In addition, you can customize those bubbles by changing their colors, font size and adding images. The only thing I don't like about this tool is that it only allows you to create 3 mind maps for free. From there, it is necessary to pay. And, I do not think it is worth it, as it is quite basic and doesn´t offer a great customization.

However, maindmaps allow us to observe the elements and structure of a content in a general and complete way. In addition, creating mindmaps helps to understand and memorize the content we want to show. This is because when we make a midnmap, we have to collect the main information and, to do this, we have to understand this content. Therefore, the hardest part of making a mindmap is deciding what information we have to include and how to do it. But once this is done, the process is quite fun.

Take a look at my mindmap to see how they are done and follow the steps of the investigation. When you finish, you will have to make a mindmap to explain your research.

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