The wordpress project :|bapractical action research experience

Tesis (Profesor de Inglés para la Enseñanza Básica y Media y al grado académico de Licenciado en Educación)The aim of this study is to promote and implement the use of social media resources in English-as-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. In addition, the investigation intends to advance our understanding of this issue through examining the perspectives and a digital-immigrant teacher experiences. According to identity and the socio-cultural theory literature, we realized that there are teachers who are seeking to be innovative in their practices by using social media tools. This study pretends to portray that Internet and different social media tools, especially WordPress, are becoming essential for teaching purposes. The results reflect that social media tools were helpful for this teacher and what were her perceptions about the process and the implementation of Social media tools (SMT), in her EFL classroom.El objetivo de este estudio es promover e implementar el uso de los medios de comunicación social en las clases de inglés como lengua extranjera. Además, esta investigación pretende avanzar en nuestra comprensión de este tema a través del examen de las perspectivas de una maestra considerada como inmigrante digital, y sus experiencias. De acuerdo con la literatura sobre identidad y la teoría sociocultural, nos dimos cuenta de que hay maestros que buscan ser innovadores en sus prácticas mediante el uso de herramientas en línea. Este estudio pretende retratar que Internet y sus diferentes herramientas, especialmente WordPress, se están volviendo imprescindibles para propósitos docentes. Los resultados reflejan que las herramientas de los medios de comunicación social fueron útiles para esta profesora y cuáles son sus percepciones sobre el proceso y la implementación del proyecto en su clase

Transforming pedagogy using mobile Web 2.0

Blogs, wikis, podcasting, and a host of free, easy to use Web 2.0 social software provide opportunities for creating social constructivist learning environments focusing on student-centred learning and end-user content creation and sharing. Building on this foundation, mobile Web 2.0 has emerged as a viable teaching and learning tool, facilitating engaging learning environments that bridge multiple contexts. Today’s dual 3G and wifi-enabled smartphones provide a ubiquitous connection to mobile Web 2.0 social software and the ability to view, create, edit, upload, and share user generated Web 2.0 content. This article outlines how a Product Design course has moved from a traditional face-to-face, studio-based learning environment to one using mobile Web 2.0 technologies to enhance and engage students in a social constructivist learning paradigm. Keywords: m-learning; Web 2.0; pedagogy 2.0; social constructivism; product desig

Media Culture 2020: collaborative teaching and blended learning using social media and cloud-based technologies

The Media Culture 2020 project was considered to be a great success by all the partners, academics and especially the students who took part. It is a true example of an intercultural, multidisciplinary, blended learning experience in higher education that achieved it goals of breaking down classroom walls and bridging geographical distance and cultural barriers. The students with different skills, coming from different countries and cultures, interacting with other enlarges the possibilities of creativity, collaboration and quality work. The blend of both synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods fostered an open, blended learning environment, one that extended the traditional boundaries of the classroom in time and space. The interactive and decentralized nature of digital tools enabled staff and students to communicate and strengthen social ties, alongside participation in the production of new knowledge and media content. For students and lecturers, the implementation of social media and cloud platforms offered an innovative solution to both teaching and learning in a collaborative manner. By leveraging the interactive and decentralised capabilities of a range of technologies in an educational context, this model of digital scholarship facilitates an open and dynamic working environment. Blended teaching methods allow for expansive collaboration, whereby information and knowledge can be accessed and disseminated across a number of networked devices

O uso do blog aliado ao ensino de ciências para a formação dos professores dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Acompanha: Formação de professores para o ensino de ciênciasThe teaching of science is incipient in the early years, and it is barely explored and worked in the school context due to the lag in teacher training directed to this area of education. A strong demand for the continued education of teachers emerges from this problem. In this context, the educational blog may become an important tool for the continued education of teachers regarding the teaching of science. Thus, the aim of this work was to present the contributions that the educational blog may offer to courses of continued education of teachers and the implementation of science education in the early years of elementary school. Regarding the methodology, we opted for the quantitative and qualitative methodological approach with exploratory nature. The research involved four different stages, in which: at first, a survey of data, by means of questionnaire, occurred with the participation of 25 students, who are studying in the 4thyear of elementary school. In the second stage, we applied a questionnaire to 50 teachers of municipal schools seeking to know the needs and difficulties that these professionals have to mediate the knowledge in the area of Science. On the third stage, facing the investigations conducted with students and teachers, an educational blog was created and a course of continued education articulated with this technological resource was proposed. The data that emerged from the first and second stages of the research were useful as guidance for the preparation of the proposal of an educational blog for the continued education of teachers. The fourth stagecame in handy to verify the effectiveness of the educational blog regarding the teachers who attended the course for continued education in science, in which the proposed training tool was used. The developed product was a manual of guidelines for the creation of a blog, which enables teachers and other interested parties to obtain information to create a blog according to the need. After the approval of teachers, the main results indicate that the use of the educational blog as a resource allied with the continuous training of teachers, contributed to greater effectiveness and greater improvement of teachers.O Ensino de Ciências é incipiente nos anos iniciais, sendo pouco explorado e trabalhado no contexto escolar, em função da defasagem na formação dos professores direcionada a esta área de ensino. Emerge dessa problemática, uma forte demanda para a formação continuada de professores. Neste contexto, o blog educativo pode-se configurar como uma ferramenta importante para a formação continuada de professores no que tange ao Ensino de Ciências. Desse modo, o objetivo do trabalho foi apresentar as contribuições que o blog educativo pode oferecer para os cursos de formação continuada de professores e para a implementação do ensino de ciências nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental. Em relação à metodologia, optou-se neste estudo pela abordagem metodológica quantitativa e qualitativa de cunho exploratório. A pesquisa envolveu quatro momentos: No primeiro momento, ocorreu um levantamento de dados por meio de questionário junto a 25 alunos que estudam no 4º ano do ensino fundamental. No segundo momento, aplicou-se um questionário a 50 professores da rede municipal de ensino buscando conhecer as necessidades e dificuldades que estes profissionais encontram para mediar os conhecimentos da área de Ciências. No terceiro momento, diante das investigações realizadas com alunos e professores, foi criado um blog educativo e proposto um curso de formação continuada articulada a este recurso tecnológico. Os dados que emergiram do primeiro e segundo momentos da pesquisa, serviram de orientação para a elaboração da proposta de um blog educativo para a formação continuada de professores. O quarto momento serviu para verificar a efetividade do blog educativo, junto aos professores que participaram do curso de formação continuada para o ensino de ciências, em que a ferramenta proposta foi utilizada. O produto desenvolvido foi um manual de orientações para a criação de um blog, o qual possibilita aos professores e demais interessados, obter informações para criar um blog de acordo com a necessidade. Após a aprovação dos docentes, os principais resultados indicam que a utilização do blog educativo como recurso aliado à formação continuada de professores, contribuiu para maior efetividade e maior aperfeiçoamento dos docentes

A reality check: Taking authentic e-learning from design to implemntation

Tampere University of Applied Sciences has developed a postgraduate certificate program for teaching in higher education that is currently being implemented at Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates. In the design of the program, the principles of authentic e-learning (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver 2010) have been used as a guideline. This paper examines how the design principles have been transferred into practice and how the elements of authentic learning have been realized from the student perspective. The experiences of the students have been mapped in a survey conducted after the first semester of the program. The data was analyzed with the help of the authentic e-learning framework in order to identify the challenges and successes regarding the implementation of the elements of authentic e-learning and thus draw guidelines for future development

Collaborative pedagogy and digital scholarship: a case study of 'Media Culture 2020'

This paper presents an educational case study of ‘Media Culture 2020’, an EU Erasmus Intensive Programme that utilised a range social media platforms and computer software to create open, virtual spaces where students from different countries and fields could explore and learn together. The multi-disciplinary project featured five universities from across Europe and was designed to develop new pedagogical frameworks to encourage collaborative approaches to teaching and learning in the arts. The main objective of the project was to break down classroom and campus walls by creating digital learning environments that facilitated new forms of production, transmission and representation of knowledge. Media Culture 2020 was designed to pilot a novel mode of ‘blended learning’, demonstrating a number of ways in which ‘Web 2.0’ networked technologies might be adopted by academics to encourage open and collaborative modes of practice. The project utilised a number of social media platforms (including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Google Hangout, Google Docs and Blogger) to enhance the learning experiences of a diverse set of students from different cultural and international contexts. In doing so, Media Culture 2020 enabled participants with a diverse range skills and cultural experiences to develop new working practices that respond to the convergence of digital media and art, as well as the internationalisation of media production and business, through the use of open, interactive software