LEARNING MANAGEMENT SITE (LMS)

A learning management site is a kind of CMS (Content Management System) created for educational purposes: teaching and learning online.
If we take a look to this site, you will find some basic information in some languages. It is a little guide of different situations: go shopping, how to introduce yourself, etc. Here you can find the most common expresions or vocabulary you might need for instance if you are going to do a trip to an specific country. You can find also some basic grammar or activities in order to practice.
In my opinon, this site could be improved to be used as a Learning Management Site by adding some resources in order to have feedback. It would be useful some forums where you can askquestions to teachers or partners, or where you can find som people who is interested in practicing the language.
This site would  also need more grammar and lessons according to the different level of the students and a syllabus, because the learning process needs to follow the correct steps. So it should have a starting point and the necessary tools to control the progress of the students.

CMS examples

I have been checking several sites from schools which have been created with different CMS, such as Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, PHP-Nuke, SPIP, Zikula (mostly in Catalonia), Mestre a casa (offered by Conselleria of Valencia) or Moodle.
All of them seems to me quite interesting, and I am sure all provide to creators lots of possiblilties to make alluring websites.That's the main thing in my opinion. In first instance,web pages should catch the atention of visitors with amazing photos, colors, drawings, etc. It is also important to show at first sight a general idea of the information that the site can offer you and it should be very aesy and intuitive to find the information you are looking for.
By that reasons I would like you take a look the websites of Navarro Santa Fe and Doctor Balmis.Here you can find sites using wordPress and Joomla respectively, but the CMS you use is not as important as the contents and the appearance. For instance, in Doctor Balmis' site the last news are from five days ago, and this is an important issue if you want to keep the interest of visitors..

CMS

A Content Management System (CMS) is a simple way to create web pages. If you would like to create one you will need a database and templates.
There are a lot of positive aspects: it is quite easy to install and to update information and activities, and it could be a good tool for education.
However, it seems to be easy, but of course you would need some knowledge about HTML, CSS, etc, and it is necessary to have enough time to update it in order to avoid security problem or to avoid being obsolote.
By these reasons I think that is a useful tool to use in education if you are a part of a good team or department. This team would be necessary to share all the work needed and should be interested in web pages to make the subjects more alluring to pupils. It could be use, for instance, to share  photos,activities and works done by pupils every year. Thus new pupils could get ideas from previous works and they could try to improve them.
One of CMS you can use to create web pages is JOOMLA. It provides you lots of extensions you can use in your web page. I would like to share this extension with you,  it is a solution to create your own flexible petitions and collect the signatures as easy as possible.

Newsletters

I would like to recommend the newsletter from the website ScienceDaily. This website allows you to receive newsletters about Science, Health, Technology, Society, etc. And if you are interested in several fields you can recieve the top news or the most popular stories.

Some comments about applications

I would like to comment my favourite apps and lesson plans I have shared with you:
App for tablet: Macrocosm 3D: This is an app teachers can use when they are teaching contents related to the Universe and the Solar System.With this app students can see amazing cosmos views, 3D models of galaxies, planets and stars, and they can learn more about the size of some celestial bodies such as the hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris, or the huge distances among some different parts of the Milky Way.
Tool for computers: Robolab: This is an interesting program teachers can use when explaining some robotic components and what they are used for. Pipils can build a vehicle with LEGO and they can control and program the movements of this vehicle.
Lesson plan for printing: The Earth in the Universe: This is a lesson plan I have found in the Junta de Andalucía website. It is already prepared to Spaniards who are learning Sciences in English with CLIL methodololgy. Pupil can find several activities, and in the spoken activities it is also provided  some useful language that pupils can use in order to ask for clarification or for expressing one's opinion.
Lesson plan for whiteboard: Severe weather lesson, Hurricane,tornado:This lesson includes information about Hurricanes,Tornados, etc. Teacher can use this tool while teaching the Earth's atmosphere and what factors affect climate. You can find there video links that bring the severe weather right into your classsroom, so I think pupils will find it quite interresting.
On-line publications: National Geographic kids: Here kids have an amusing website where students can learn through videos, photos and news some more things when studying living things, vertebrates and invertebrates.

Apps and tools for class

Apps, tools and applications

Hello everybody. Today I would like to share with you a link that addresses to LINO. You will find some apps and lessons I have found in the Internet for tablets, computers, lessons plans for printing, lessons plans for whiteboard and on-line publications. 

After hours looking for them, I must say that these are only some examples and you should try first all the apps, tools or applications you will use in the classroom. Only if you use them you will really know whether they are useful or not.

CLOUD COMPUTING: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Today we are going to take a look to the cloud computing.

First of all I’m going to try a definition of the term cloud: the cloud consists in servers that are available to everybody in internet, so you only need to be connected to internet to access to the files that you can storage in them. Software is also available in these servers and you don’t need to have it installed in your devices.

These are some of the advantages and utilities of the cloud:

•   You can access from anywhere if there is available an internet connection. You can access with several devices: laptop, tablet or smartphone.
• Not only your files but also all the software you might need is available in the cloud. This means that you don’t have to install this software in your devices and you won’t need to worry about the upgrades of the software as your cloud provider will make it for you
• A same program is shared by several users so you don’t need to pay for a single license. As all these programs are executed in the cloud and you can also storage the files in it, you don’t need a powerful computer, so you can save in hardware and software.
• Maintaining servers is carried out by your cloud company so you should have less computer problems.
• If you need more capacity for your files your company will provide it to you immediately 

Some of the disadvantages are:

• There is only storage availability up to  a quantity, it depends on your company cloud, and you need to pay an amount every month if you want more storage
• The lack of privacy and security: At first sight the servers of the cloud seem to be safer that a personal computer, but on the other hand the benefits that a hacker can get from a server with information about many people, is much greater than from your computer. For some companies it is very difficult to trust their research or economic data to the cloud if there is no absolute certainty in the privacy of it.
• If Internet is not available is impossible to access to your data
• Servers can be in any country of the world, so if there is any problem it isn’t clear what law should be applied
• Your company cloud could go bankrupt and your data might be lost.
• The information about the customers is in the servers and it might have problems about the owner of these data, for instance if the costumer would want to change the cloud company.
• If everyone use this technology we will be in the hands of these companies, and in the future they could charge to us what they want. Only competition between companies might ensure a fair price, but all these companies are in several countries, so who is going to judge them?

There is a lot of information you should read before choosing your cloud company. Here you have some links to know more about it. Pay attention, these are only opinions. Only after reading these or other opinions you will be ready to choose one of them.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226845

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-choose-the-right-cloud-computing-service-pr.html

http://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Cloud-Choices

Interaction in class

Today I am going to write about interaction in class. I would like to become a teacher of secondary school and I think is necessary to use methodologies based on cooperative learning to motivate the students. Some of the things I would like to do:

•        To encourage the students to make work in groups, and then they should explain the other students what they have learned, what it was the more difficult and why. The work should treat about issues related to the subject, issues that they can apply in their real lifes.

•        The groups should be heterogeneous to foster that all the members give their opinions. The discussions will be longer and it will allow them learning how to express opinions and to respect the opinion of their partners.3

•        The teacher can form the groups, or the pupils can do it themselves. It will depend on the ages of the pupils but it is necessary to avoid that they choose according to their academic performance.

•        The teacher can give the material to the students like a puzzle. The purpose is that every student work in a part of the puzzle and then he must explain to the others to make a whole, where every member have to collaborate.

•        The teacher must notice the interactions and he has to work as an advisor when the problems come.

•        The teacher must assess the work of the group and which it has been the input of every student to the work

•        Finally the teacher should listen the pupils to see if they like the way of working and what they will do to improve the performance

Word Maps

I have done this word map with this application: http://www.wordle.net/.

You can see some of the terms the students have to study in first course of secondary school in Natural Science.

Corpora

Sometimes it is difficult to understand a group of words when they are written together, but you identify them when they are written separately. So you would need to see them in another text to check the meaning. Corpora are compilations of texts (oral or written) that offer several options of use of these expressions or collocations. For example, I have looked for the group of words “put up with” in the British National Corpus: http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/.

If you type these words in the gap you will obtain a list with examples about texts where this group of words has been used and the kind of texts: oral interview, essay school, newspaper, political law, etc. You can also see the percentage of use in any specific context in which the expression have been found. Try it!

But in this internet page you can’t see the translation of the expression or group of word, so is useful to see useful pages as http://www.linguee.es/ where you can see the translation of the expression like you would find it in a common dictionary, and several texts in English and their translation. Let’s try again with the same expression “put up with”: http://www.linguee.es/espanol-ingles?query=put+up+with&source=english

Thesaurus

Thesaurus are dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms. Now I have chosen a new word, in this case “counterfeit” and I have looked for it in http://theasaurus.com. Here you can consult the result:

http://thesaurus.com/browse/counterfeit

As you see, it is shown two lists with synonyms and antonyms of this word. At first, the words are shown in a list where the more accurate synonym or antonym appears at the beginning. You can stand out a word from that list according to its complexity or its length because there is a tool for it. You can also know which of the words of the list are more common or are used in informal situations by clicking these options. Finally you will choose your option taking into account all these variables.

For example, in the sentence “Its terms of service forbade stolen goods and counterfeit currency” the word “counterfeit” could be replaced by the word “false”, taking into account that is not an informal situation and is a common word.

Comparison of Dictionaries

I have chosen a word (conceal) and I am going to look for it in several dictionaries. Here you have the results I have got online:

Oxford dictionary: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/es/definicion/ingles/conceal

Webster dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conceal

Word reference: http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=conceal

Webster dictionary for learners: http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/conceal

In my opinion Oxford dictionary and Webster dictionary are quite similar but I find it that Webster dictionary is lightly more complete because you have synonyms, antonyms, rhymes and examples without any additional click.  I Think the sentences that are provided in this one  are easier to understand, which is pretty important, otherwise you will need probably to look for another word! The negative point in Webster dictionary is that for listening the pronunciation of the word another tab must be opened (and I couldn’t hear it) whilst you can hear it directly in Oxford dictionary.

The last definition I found belongs to Webster dictionary too, but it is made to English learners,  so there are less resources but they are written in a easier way.

Students' Needs

Hello everybody. I am going to choose a level of secondary education, see the contents that are required and the linguistic changes that would be necessary to teach them in a foreign language.

I have chosen the subject Natural Science which is taught in First course of secondary school (ESO)

According to de Decree 112/2007 the contents of this subject are:

This course begins with the study of the Earth in the Universe. After beginning with an overview of the universe, the Earth as a planet, and also the characteristics of matter are studied. Then it continues with the introduction to the knowledge of the geosphere and the study of the diversity of living things that inhabit it.

There are four main blocks of study:

Block 1: Common contents: It is seen the main characteristics of the scientific method and how new technologies can be used to find out information about Nature.

Block 2: The Earth in the Universe: Physical features of the Earth and other planets of the solar system, the movements of the Earth (rotation and revolution), geocentric and heliocentric theories.

Block 3: The atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere.

Block 4: Living things and their diversity

Of course it will be necessary to do some linguistic exchanges to teach the subject:

Firstly the pupils need to know some useful language which will be provided it to ask for clarification, repetition or non-comprehension.

An important thing is that pupils will use the language to learn whilst they learn to use language, so they must be encourage to participate and it is necessary a methodology in which pupils can interact with her partners to learn the contents by using the language: learning by using.

The resources need to be chosen very carefully in order to be accessible to them and it would be important that these resources contain visuals to develop their skills in listening and reading.

It would be advisable the first weeks to make activities to complete in relation to a text accessible in order to improve their confidence.

And illustrative video

Here you have a video which shows the new challenges that teachers have for the future and how and why they must adapt to the new needs of learners. Also we can see that learners must decide along all the available information and if it is suitable or not, and it is shown a good example to see it. 

What's a blog?

These are the blogs I have watched and their aims:

1. Infantil 2013 http://patricianaiara12345.blogspot.com.es/

This is a blog that shows how to use some of the new information and communication technologies to teach in pre-primary school. Seeing the structure and the way it is explained it seems to be a university students’ blog where the students show some tools to make for example Christmas cards by using several programs which are mentioned.

2. English Language teaching global blog (Oxford University Press) http://oupeltglobalblog.com/

This one mentions how  blogs can be used to create web-based courses, how the blogs have changed in last decade, how  traditional blogs can be changed into sophisticated blogs, which platform can be used  and how the teachers can adapt their methodology  to the changing needs of learners.

3. CLIL  for success. http://clilforsuccess.blogspot.com.es/

It is a blog for teachers interested in developing their CLIL skills, and where you can find experiences, researches, resources and ideas for it

4. Poesia infatnil i juvenil http://bibliopoemes.blogspot.com.es/

This  is a blog with nursery rhymes and some poetry for young people. Poetry can be  found in Spanish and Valencian.

I like very much the third one because is related with the job I would like to do in the future, but I find it more useful the second one because there is a lot of information, advice  and resources I could try use.

After seeing all this websites and resources I would say that a blog is a website where you can give, regularly or not, your opinion, share photos, articles, etc. It can be also used for example if you are a teacher as a tool for your classes: to provide homework, extra explanations, interesting information or links. If it is used for teenagers is important to show them some rules and boundaries that they must follow to make it a safe tool and  to avoid some bad experiences that lately are occurring by misuse of new technologies.

Here you have some sites that explain what a blog is and their uses.

http://www.affilorama.com/internet101/what-is-a-blog

http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33510/12-Things-You-Should-Be-Using-Your-Blog-For-Besides-Blogging.aspx

Hi Everybody.

My name is José Ángel Espinosa, I am Civil Engineer and I have been working thirteen years in the construction of roads, bridges, storm drains and I even took part in the construction of Terra Mitica. But, like many of my colleagues, nowadays I am unemployed and this is the reason why I have come back to the university so as to become a teacher of anything related with Science in secondary school.

Now I am doing ' capacitació' in English in order to improve my skills in this language (above all speaking and listening) and I am waiting for knowing the result of First Certificate exam that I did last month.

My knowledge about computers is related with the type of job I ve been doing as engineer, as I needed to use programs for technical drawing, excel, word and internet searches but I am not habituated in using or creating blogs, so that is a good chance for it!

Of course, I have a Smartphone, but I only have had one since five months ago because I used to use the mobile phone to work and I spent much of the day talking and I didn't need to use whatsupp. I was fed up the mobile! Now I use it for pleasure and I have another point of view.

I don't have tablet because I think it's enough for me to be connected with others with my Smartphone, my computer and my laptop and sometimes I wonder if we need all these things (iPod, tablet, smart tv) or our needs are created by others.

I usually use Internet for looking for a job,to consult the weather and to know the last news about the world and sport.

Here you have a photo I did the last time I was in London. I am sure you know where it is!