Evaluating our progress!

You can see some tips here too

As we have already seen before, one relevant aspect during this journey through digital media is to evaluate ourselves. It is essential to look at our progress and assess our participation and our actions. Therefore I will now evaluate my entries on this blog following some of the aspects I mentioned on the 18 of February:

First of all, the grammatical or spelling errors are rare, the entries have structure and are formatted to enhance readability, for example with separate paragraphs. The posts contains relevant and useful links tightly related to the entries, but I think I should include more images or videos with their proper source named to enhance readability a little bit more and also make the blog more attractive.

Secondly, I believe that my posts show insight, depth and understanding. The entries are relevant and link with the supporting materials. I also share my opinion in an appropriate way, respectfully. Moreover, although I am proud of this blog, I know that I could write more regularly as there are many important activities that I do not journal. I should set some time aside to take care of my blog. Finally I could also take more advantage of the tools like gadgets to make my blog more completed. From now on, I will stay updated with my blog, I will link more relevant information and I will keep showing insight!

I now encourage you to asses your own progress on the world of digital media! And keep finding new tools and methods to make your experience the best one!

Educational uses of a blog

We have talked about the importance of creating digital tools to become competent teachers in the 21th century, but let's now make a deep analysis on some educational uses of a blog:

1. Student Portfolios
A digital portfolio can be a useful way to use a blog for students. By writing about their learnings, insights and new discoveries of digital resources, students will be able to see and analyse their progress more carefully. Additionally, the blog will present and organize the students work in a stimulating and inspiring way. Moreover, by sharing their progress with peers and teachers, the learning will be cooperative.

2. Discussion 
Creating a class blog for discussions is a really interesting resource for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom, in a more relaxed situation. With a blog, every student has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions with no fears. Furthermore, students have time to be reactive to one another and reflective. Finally, teachers can also alayse the progress of the discussion more carefully and take part on the reflections to make them more fluent or highlight some aspects of it.

3. Share teacher resources
This kind of blog is not for the students of the classroom, but for the teachers and citizens interested on educational issues. Creating a blog for sharing teachers ideas, knowledge, strategies and experiences can be an extremely worthwhile idea. A blog of this nature will ease staying up to date on what people are talking about in the education space, and consequently, new ideas will arise from this enriching exchange.

And here are some examples of blogs for teachers:

• Mindshift: http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/

"Technology is revolutionizing the world of education – replacing familiar classroom tools and changing the way we learn. MindShift explores the future of learning in all its dimensions – covering cultural and technology trends, groundbreaking research, education policy and more. The site is curated by Tina Barseghian, a journalist and the mother of a grade-schooler."

• Teachthought: http://www.teachthought.com/

"TeachThought’s mantra is simple: learn better. Our mission is modest enough–to create a modern enlightenment that results in healthy communities and truly interdependent citizens."

Hope you put in practice this educational uses of blogs and also different ones!

Break down your barriers

Today I want you to think about yourself, let's be critical and constructive!

-Are you really literate on digital media?

-Do you know how to find trustworthy information on the internet?

-Are you afraid on building your digital footprint?

-Where do you set your limits in going digital if you have them?

In my case, I can consider myself a digital literate, although there is a huge number of resources, abilities, and techniques that I still need to learn. For example, I just realized that when looking for information on the Internet I need to be far more precise on my research. Here I leave some sites to use for accurate search on educational issues:

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.es

Dialnet: https://dialnet.unirioja.es

Educación 3.0: http://www.educaciontrespuntocero.com/recursos/buscadores-especializados/17205.html

Moreover, it is not about being afraid on building my digital footprint, but I do not feel exactly save when creating new profiles in different social networks, because I am aware that I am leaving my footprint in all this sites, and anyone will be able to get to know me from this information. This is about privacy, and its new concept... And here start my limitations.

But today I encourage you to break this limits, crack your chains and cut your fears out! The Internet is full of useful tools to learn and share limitless and amazing knowledge! And unless you make an awful use of it, it is save. Furthermore, the ones who are going to be teachers, need to know as much as possible about these digital media, because new students are a generation born with smartphones and tablets on their cots. For this reason, last Thursday I created my Twitter account. I would have never imagined creating one, but hey, it is stimulating indeed!

It's your turn now! Do you accept the challenge?

Some useful hashtags for Teachers:

First Step!

Today we are going to see the first example of how to adapt to the New Society, a society of change.
First of all, we need to raise our voices establishing a digital presence, for example creating a blog. This blog is for me my digital platform to share interesting ideas and new conceptions of education. But creating this blog is my first step to become a competent teacher in the 21th century because this represents my first contact with the tools I will need in my future profession.

When it comes to the creation of a blog, there are some steps we must follow If we want to reach some quality. Firstly it is important to take care about the image of it. If we go to the menu, there is a "templates" option and there, if we click "personalize" we will be able to change the appearance of our blog, like the typography, the back and other important things. We can also add gadgets to provide a huge variety of different tools, like translators, calendars and useful links... Anyway creating a blog is a good chance to develop our curiosity, so let's keep looking for useful tools to make our blogs look interesting and reliable!

Finally I want to highlight the importance of writing it correctly. We must check twice that there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes, that the entries are coherent, have cohesion and are appropiate. The posts must show insight, depth and understanding. They must be relevant to the subject of our blog and it is better if we can add some links or images related. Finally we must note to  make new entries with regularity, unless we want our blog to look abandoned!

Need some help with your blog?
https://support.google.com/blogger/?hl=es#topic=3339243

Be the change

Our education system has been the same for 50 years, but our society has changed. We need to change the old-fashioned schools where teachers speak and students have to memorize, but they do not learn. Schools must be places where children are willing to go and learn, a place where everybody feels comfortable. Let's make this change. Let's discover how the new technologies can help us to transform our lessons with creativity, innovations and fun!

Let's listen to the voices of the young ones, the ones who, like me, are studying to become the teachers of the future!