Final PLE vs. Initial PLE

Let's see how my PLE has changed from September 2016, to December 2016.

On the first one you can observe all the sites I visited at that moment when I created it.

On the left side upper corner, I located the tools I used from Google (Google Drive, Gmail, Google+, Google Maps, Google Keep and Google). Also in that corner, you can see Dropbox and Hotmail. Then, Going down on that same side, one can see the tools I use to academic purposes (Microsoft Office, Google Scholar, Cambridge, UPNA, Miaulario, Wordreference, Dublin School, URJC, Nebrija, and RedEduca).

Moving to the right side, on the upper corner we can see the social media networks I use almost daily, like WhatsApp, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WeHeartIt, YouTube, Tumblr, Skype and Blogger.

And finally, down on the right I posted the tools I use to shop online. These are Amazon, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, Bershka, AliExpress and JustEat.

And this one is my Final PLE.

Starting again on the upper left corner, I added CiteThisForMe. Though it is not a Google App, I find it very useful to organise my references. It is a great webpage, as it helps you to cite things properly, and it storages your searchs. I think it is really going to help me with my TFG.

Looking down, we can find several new tools like Edmodo, Quizlet and StoryJumper. We have worked with this platforms in the ICT class at University. I think they can really make a difference when I become a teacher. This promotes the use of ICTs in the classroom, so it motivates students and it will be easier to engage them actively in the activities. StoryJumper could be use to introduce new vocabulary in a natural context and supported by images, what will make it easier for students to learn the new words. Edmodo can help you check how well your students are doing, and to upload the class materials in a page accessible to all the students. Moreover, they will be able to upload their homework there, so the teacher can correct it. And Quizlet will let you create some quizes for your students, also to check how well they are doing.

In this corner I added CPIP José María de Huarte, as it is the school I have done my internship period at, and I regularly check their webpage to see what is going on there. And two schools from England, where I might be going next semester to do my following internship. These are Trevithick Learning Academy and St Mary's Preparatory College.

Turning to the right on the bottom, we can see now Oysho, where I have been shopping lately. And also Tokio Restaurante, which has become my favourite place to have lunch. Moreover, my sister showed my PopCornTime, where you can see series and films, and now I use it.

And finally, on the Social Media corner, I have added 21 Buttons. It is an app where you can see other people's outfits, and you can upload yours, linking directly the clothes you are wearing to its website, in case someone else wants to buy it. 

And this is how my PLE has changed during these months!

Excel exercise

In this link you will be able to download an Excel spreadsheet I created with a hypothetical evaluation of some students. You can also click on the image to download my Excel spreadsheet.

Hot Potatoes activity 1

Here you can find my first Hot Potatoes activity. In case it doesn't work, you can find it in this link: carmenberrade.hol.es

Hot Potatoes activity 2

Here you can find my second Hot Potatoes activity. In case it doesn't work. you can also find it in this link: carmenberrade2.hol.es

Forests and oceans

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues!

Forests are home to over half of the world’s and . Trees clean the air and produce oxygen for us to .
We destroy more than 36 football fields of forests every minute and throw away thousands of trees in paper and card every day.
The are home to millions of marine . They absorb the sun’s heat, transfer it to the atmosphere and move it around the world.

Story Jumper

I have illustrated the "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" story with Story Jumper. I hope you enjoy it!

Reflection on the first part of the course

Welcome to my blog!

In this entry we are going to talk about all the things we have work throuout these weeks in the ICT course from the Primary Education Degree in UPNA.

Firstly, our teacher taught us how to link our email account to the university platform (MiAulario). I find this very useful, although I already knew how to do this. However, I think it would have been better if someone would have taught us this in the first year of the Degree.

Then, we used a wide range of websites to create mindmaps. I think this was a good idea, as we didn't know there were that many amount of different sites for this purpose, and this way one can choose the site that better suits their learning style. My group worked with Coggle.

The next step consisted in working with Wikispaces. There, we opened an account and joined the teacher's page, where we uploaded our opinion on the different webpages we have been using in order to create the mindmaps. You can read them in here, if you are interested.

After learning what PLE was, we created our own in Symbaloo. Here you can see mine:

If you don't know what a PLE is, watch this video! It might help you.

Using Symbaloo was really interesting, as I was able to see all the tools I use in my daily life. And it got me thinking that I might be spending a great amount of time online, as almost everything I do during the day is supported by some of this tools.

Then we learnt about a website where you can generate references automatically. It stores your searchs, so you won't lose your references. And another one called  Mendeley, but this one doesn't store your searchs.

Another thing we used was this webpage. It is a site where you can subtitle videos. I found this very interesting as I love translating texts, and it was easy to use, so I enjoyed it very much. Besides, I think it can be very useful when we become teachers, so as to scaffold videos to our students.

I already knew how Hot Potatoes worked, but I found challenging having to upload the activities to the net. So I have uploaded the HTML coding in the blog, and also the HTML file to a hosting site in case it didn't work properly in the blog. This way one can see it directly anywhere from the Internet.

Working with Story Jumper was interesting because I believe that it is going to be a useful tool for teaching English to young learners. You can support a text with images making it motivating and more understandable for them.

To sum up, the most useful tool in my opinion is going to be Cite This For Me, as we have to do lots of referencing this year on our TFG and it will definitely help us with that task. And the least useful one is going to be Symbaloo as we already have quicker ways to access everything we use these days. Though I still think that it is good to have one not to forget everything that might interest you. 

I found everything quite useful, and there was a huge variety of different tools, and I really think we are going to use much of what we have lernt in this subject in our future. But if I had to choose my favourite it would be the subtitling one (Amara subtitling). I really had a great time working with this site!