The Image Conference Presentation - Transforming Sins into Virtues in Design for Learning

We had a great Friday event - The Image Conference, organized by the BRAZTESOL Brasilia team, with the support of the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and Kieran Donaghy, the one who started the Image Conference in Barcelona.

After such an intense day and weekend, I haven´t had time to put my thoughts together in a blog post with the ideas and resources I presented, but Graham Stanley, one of our keynote speakers and amazingly fast and efficient blogger did it all and saved me some precious hours!

You can read about the whole idea of the presentation at
http://blog-efl.blogspot.com.br/2013/10/carla-arena-transforming-sins-into.html

Graham is really amazing! And nobody can beat him when it gets to blogging! Thanks, my friend.

Learning is About Understanding Relationships

The power of Rita Pierson's words still echo in my mind. What a wonderful, powerful, inspiring talk in which she pours her heart in a call for educators to make a difference, to connect and to be part of their learners' worlds. I can't think of anything more brain-friendly than that.




Are you doing your share to make a difference? How?

mLearning Activity - Trending Topics and Classroom Bonding

Trending topics, those hot topics of the day or sometimes the hour, are everywhere on social media. They represent what is ruling the world for different tribes.

So here's a very simple activity I've done with my students that has long-lasting, impacting effects in our classroom because of the emotional connections it enhances.

Trending Topics Activity
Students can use their cellphones or tablets note taking app.
Before you start, ask if they know what trending topics are, where you can find them. They will probably mention Twitter.
Then, tell the that they should write about the trending topics in their lives. They can even use the hashtag (#) and key words for their hot topics.
When they are finished, they partner up with another student and find things in common in their trending topics and ask each other more questions to expand on them.

Some Follow-up Suggestions
You can ask your students what they found out about their partners or their trending topics that they didn't know about.
You can write on the board students' trending topics making two columns: one with the ones you know; other with things you've never heard of. Students can, then, teach you about ythe key word you have no idea of.

In my case, I asked the students to email me their trending topics. In the following class, I made a list of common trending topics of the class and we talked about them as a group. I also posted some hashtags that were mentioned only by one student to give me a chance to personalize the activity and learn more about my students' interests.

My Teen Students' #trendingtopics

The fact that I've kept those trending topics mean that I can use them to give meaningful examples to students, look for resources that are suitable to their interests (music, movie clips, sitcoms segments) and, most importantly, connect to them in very personal and meaningful ways. I am closer to their world, they are teaching me things from their world. By doing that, I am making my teen classroom a much more emotionally-friendly environment where we ware not simply learning a language. We are using English to talk about our lives and what rules our world.

Variations of the Trending Topics Activity
Ask students to guess what the trending topics are in Twitter at that moment in different places of the world. Then they check if they got any similar to Twitter and discuss why those hashtags are trending topics.

Another possibility: use the topic that you are studying to build a trending topics wall and transform the into a word cloud, using Wordle, for example.

So, do you know the trending topics in your students' lives? What are your trending topics?

Unmissable Professional Development Opportunities

January 14th. A date to remember for two very good reasons. It is the launching of #etmooc , with an amazing line-up of organizers, the wonderful team of "conspirators " <http://etmooc.org/sample-page/course-conspirators/. My expectations are high and besides the discussions on the Ed Tech field and the connections, I'm always interested in how these online experiences are organized, mainly to enhance conversations, discussions, distributed in online spaces. I'm always in the look for best practices of how conversations develop and our non-linear co-construction of knowledge unfolds with the help of platforms and well-thought strategies for connecting the pieces. And these guys certainly know the drill. 

In the first weeks, etmooc will overlap with the Electronic Village Online, also a free online professional development opportunity for educators all over the globe, with sessions ranging from digital storytelling for young learners to neuroscience in education - http://evosessions.pbworks.com . This last session is one I'm moderating with a wonderful team of educators.

All too exciting for our beginning of the year! etmooc and EVO - Two amazing possibilities for educators who understand that the only possible way to thrive in education is to keep connecting and learning.

Educators as Designers

I've always had a deep fascination for what was aesthetically beautiful for the eyes and pleasing for the mind. Design has always mattered for me, and it has guided me personally and professionally as a principle of good living an a people connector. I've always believed in its engagement power. And unconsciously I understood that through design, you could express to a group a sense of belonging, being part of a community with shared values.

I remember that from the start of my role as an Ed Tech Supervisor how I'd worry about the simple things, starting from a well-design poster inviting teachers for professional development opportunity. I felt that through design, I could show in a way that I cared for them and that I valued their presence in our training sessions. It was not just a simple announcement on the wall, but a call for action, for meaning and connections, and all of that had to be transmitted visually.

When I think of design, though, it is not only about its aesthetics aspects. Instructional design has permeated my role as an educator. Again, when we are aware of the power of certain rules of good practices and processes, learning sticks, the experience of constructing new knowledge holds meaning, engagement, excitement. It takes the learner to the next level, where he/she feels the thrill of experiencing that urge to move forward, to keep learning.

It is also through instructional design that an educator builds community, makes a tribe thrive as a group, considers effective instruction for differentiated learning. If

If, when we make our lesson plans, we start seeing ourselves less of teachers, but more as designers of experiences through creation and exploration with our learners, then we transform the way we teach and learn. We will then realize:

- the meaning of flow from one activity to the other;
- the need for blank spaces to leave room for creation, questioning, experimenting,; and not cramming one activity after another with no space for thinking or wondering:
- the power of a carefully planned lesson with a variety of activities that engage and not bore, but letting serendipity and surprise have their role in the learning process;
- the significance of considering your audience and its specificities to design experiences that make sense and bring on board layers of knowledge construction that are solid, meaningful, and long-lasting.

When we think os ourselves as Designers of learning experiences, we are enhancing the art of possibility and wonder. We become the catalysts of the so-desired change in our classroom microcosmos.

Post-itING - Make Post-Its a Living Learning Object in your Classroom

Think of three ways of using post-its in your classroom to enhance learning.

Write them down in three different post-its. Then, try to come up with two more ideas based on the first three ones and add them just below the three first ideas.

Do you feel how they can come alive for learning?

So, how about starting a post-itING movement. Adding the idea of action and movement to very special, gluing pieces of paper?

What if you took this idea to the teachers' room and shared it with your colleagues, challenging them to keep adding more ideas to the three original ones? Endless possibilities, right? And if you try it, how about adding in the comment area your ideas or an image with your post-its coming to life?

For inspiration, check these 7 ideas to transform Post-Its into learning centers.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Surfing the Waves of Change in Education: No Action is not a Possibility

Serendipity is one of the strengths of a hyperlinked world in which the network is always providing us with learning moments and reflective checkpoints. As I was browsing my wonderful Pinterest network, I came across, by chance, this clean, unpretentious blog http://thingsigrab.wordpress.com/, and I couldn't help but start browsing it, scrolling down, with my eyes glued in interest for the variety of topics and simple interestingness. Powerful.

All of a sudden, a click on the video Surfing Waves of Change, which is mainly about socio-economic change. However, the message is totally applicable to our changing roles as educators and the daily challenges and stages of change we face every single day.

The video zooms in to the need of our being resilient to become catalysts of change. It evokes the power of communities and networks to overcome the hurdles we are challenged with. All with the surfer's metaphor that learns by doing, by getting into action, learning to go with the flow and understanding the waves movements, all relying on how own guts and other surfers for information, support and learning. The main message: a surfer cannot learn how to surf if it isn't by doing, falling, and standing on the surfboard again. It is not about being taught how to be resilient, how to change and become an active player, but getting there and doing it, connecting, collaborating, experimenting...Then, we can become catalysts of change. No action is not a possibility.

This is a video worth sharing, watching together and deciding for ways in which we can catalyze change in our own communities of learning.

Three Ideas to Foster Self-Directedness through Learning Playlists

Good teachers don't teach or preach. Good teachers guide learners into becoming more independent in their learning process. Though we've heard it a thousand times, we still find it hard to put into practice what we call autonomous learning. Sometimes it is just easier to tell our learners what to do or to do it for them rather than guide them through self-discovery, a bit of chaos and autonomy. We are generally too busy, too tired and on a tight schedule, so excuses abound for taking shortcuts, but shortcuts don't make the citizens we are so much in need, the problem solvers who creatively find their way out when challenged. We need to be diligent in trying to find ways in which our learners have choice, a voice and many possibilities.

Mentormob is an effective starting point towards learners' choice and independence. Students can be guided through creating their learning playlists, giving them time to think about the many pathways they can take and the different perspectives in relation to a certain topic. Of course, there are many digital tools that do the trick, but I just loved the clean layout of Mentormob, as well as its collaborative-enhanced platform.

So, here are three ideas for you to use Mentormob to its best use and most powerful use for learning.

1. Students find their favorite resources on a certain topic and create their learning lists to share with the classroom;
2. If they are practicing a certain Grammar topic, they can find examples to create their playlists;
3. Encourage students to create learning playlists related to The best videos of ..., The most exciting places to..., The top 10 sites to..., What is..., 10 things you should know about..., 

By letting our students create, share and learn about others' playlists, we are on the right pathway for digital citizenship, self-directedness, and learning autonomy.

But, before they start, what would be your first learning playlist?

4 simple steps to join the mRevolution

For long, we've been talking in our circles of students as producers, not simply audience, and students finding their own voice. Educators know how important it is to move from our classrooms industrial production-like type of education. We've realized that there's much more potential in networking, in giving back to students the control of their own learning. We do know, however, that this is much easier said than done.

students in charge

This is a time of production, way beyond the passive-receptive mode of education. For some time now, we've had powerful tech tools around for the shift, but new devices, which are smaller, portable and in the hands of our learners are bound to give us the support we need for this active, exciting passionate movement towards meaningful learning. The world is more MOBILE than ever before. And we should grab this opportunity to make the move, to experiment, to learn with our students and to give a step forward.

So, here's what I've been doing that might give you some hints of what you could do to start an mRevolution:

1. Give your students a chance to teach you new trick using those portable devices. They are experts! They know cool apps, they are into cool features that you don't even imagine they are there in cellphones, cameras, tablets, netbooks.
2. Don't ask your students to turn off their devices. Ask yourself how you could use them to have exciting, dynamic lessons that tap into students' creativity and make students smile and enjoy themselves while learning. 
3. I've been reading as crazy about mLearning, downloading apps to my tablet and cellphone, testing things out. The most important thing in this first step is to keep a record of all that, using a very visual curation tool, Scoop.it: http://www.scoop.it/t/elearning-mlearning and being closer, interacting with educators interested in the topic:
4. I've been fearlessly trying mPossibilities in my classroom, which requires a lot of planning, but it is totally awesome when you see the positive results and the students' excitement. I had an adult group last year, and I tried different activities with them using the power of what they had in their pockets: cellphones. I had the idea that if they, who were not so aware or comfortable using those gadgets for learning, could profit from the experience, imagine the younger gang! The most important aspect of the trial part is reflecting upon it and keeping a record. So, blogging was an essential part of the process: http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/search/label/mlearning

This is just the beginning of an exhilarating world of new possibilities in which our learners are truly in charge of producing something meaningful, of becoming active participants in their own learning process. 

What would you add to your mRevolution list?

In the meantime, here's a show I'd recommend following:

Listen to internet radio with Techchef4u on Blog Talk Radio

mLearning - from Apes to Apps 2

The mLearning course at the Consultants-e is in full steam.

One of the highlights of the week is Gavin's video of some exciting iPad apps. I do agree with Gavin that real apps, not the ones specifically created for education, are much more exciting and full of potential in the classroom. It seems that publishers and app developers in the educational field are too far apart from what really makes apps an amazing tool for learning. Most of the educational apps lack flame, the alluring possibilities of the touch technologies. This market should really look into the apps kids love, the highly popular games and apps to give them clues to what really makes a difference when developing an app.

In my opinion, Flipboard is still one of the apps that makes use of the capabilities of the iPad to its fullest. Love it. Now, need to explore some that Gavin mentioned. How about you? Which app is your favorite? Which one would you like to give it a try with your students?




Here are the apps Gavin mentions:

Flipboard

Pressreader

Zinio

storyboards

strip designer

popplet

iThoughtsHD

Moodboard

Slide by slide

iGeopix (Flickr Creative Commons and Google Maps)

FlickStackr

viewfinder

sonicpics

Cork (sticky notes)

art authority

Monet HD

Articles for iPad

Shakespeare Pro

Star Walk for iPad

The World Factbook for iPad

wikihood plus for ipad

underscore notify

Phatpad

writepad

Pages, Numbers and Keynote

Penultimate

Goodreader for ipad

m-Learning for Kids

If you are considering using tablets with the young ones, this guide from Laura Wright is an excellent start:

Open publication - Free publishing - More education

m-Learning in the EFL Classroom

More and more, I've been interested in finding and testing possibilities of using mobile devices in the classroom - flip cameras, smartphones, recorders, tablets - everything which is at a student's reach. When I had a group of teens, it was simply natural to explore what was at my students' fingertips, as for them it is just part of who they are and how they use the devices on a daily basis.

One of the results was this very simple, but extremely rewarding class project I had with them. I brought a Flip Camera to class, we were working with relative pronouns. I told them about my international friends' interest in learning Portuguese. So, they decided for the words they wanted to teach my friends, they wrote sentences with the definitions of those words, they recorded it and we posted on a Voicethread. Then, I invited my friends through my Twitter network to learn Portuguese and work on their pronunciation skills. My students were marveled to see that their work was valued and used by an international community.

Here's the result:


http://voicethread.com/share/525514/ 

What does this mini-project show?

• m-Learning is not a distant concept. We can start profiting from it with what we have now in class. Just look around and ask your students what devices they have that can be used for learning and connecting to others.
• Project-based learning doesn't mean year-long project. It can be a one-class hour project.
• Engagement means choice. Give your students as many choices as possible within the learning framework you've established for the project.
• Projects can be truly simple and productive.
• Give up control, guide, and let the students be the producers of content.
• Stop underestimating your students' abilities to produce content.
• Let them be the owners of the language they are studying through hands-on activities.
• Remember that learning is not a passive act, that our attention capabilities are triggered by movement and not stillness.
• Start small and get more ambitious as you get used to using the mobile devices.
• Start exploring the online references about m-Learning, tablets, smartphones...

Here's my list to help you get excited for the next term at your school with new projects that might bring great learning outcomes, powerful teaching moments and the enjoyment of you with your learner being learning partners:

mLearning Resources

Design Series - Learning Design

In my last post, I talked about the importance of thinking about design in two different levels in our classrooms. The first and essential one, instructional design - planning our classes to convey meaning and to arise interest, engagement. Another aspect of design that we should be more aware of is adding elements that are visually-appealing to the eyes and all the senses. One example I just had in my class was simply adding a wonderful music clip of Adele. First, my students didn't know her, then the video is an example of an upbeat well-designed videoclip. Plus, the music itself was an activation for learning. My students were glued.



Add to design the learner himself. The third level. Many times, we simply take for granted how the learner is dealing with his learning process. We, as educators, need to make them aware of learning strategies that might work for them, that might help them take their language production to the next level. It is all about helping them design their own learning paths through tips, suggestions and constant support.

This is an example of what I generally do. I take a picture of our collective work on the board and post it on our class wiki. However, my handwriting is not a masterpiece on the board. It might be helpful for students, but not that visually-appealing:



Let's turn this option more student-centered and well-designed to help students explore class content more effectively.

Take, for example, a site like http://squareleaf.net/. It is very simple to register, students can add their class entries in a color-coded fashion. It is a clean, straightforward, ad-free online space. Students gain in mobility as they can access their notes wherever they are. Plus, they are the ones creating their language lists in any way they feel might be more profitable for them, including editing the colors for each box. So, here's the twist from my previous image:

What do you think? How might this affect the whole learning process? Isn't it going to help in our students' own learning design?

Blended Learning

For some, blended learning means having a mix of face-to-face classes, plus online encounters. However, I'd go a bit beyond. Blended learning can take different shapes if you consider a regular face-to-face classroom with the use of online tools to supplement the learning process that takes place within brick and mortar spaces. Also, if you consider the many different forms of professional development, it can be considered a blend of formal + informal, the kind of sharing in the school hallways plus your connections within your online networked context. I consider them all to be types of blended open learning opportunities. To blend is to find different paths to keep evolving as people, lifelong learners and professionals.



In this screencast, I talk about three examples of blended learning experiences:

•  Using http://voicethread.com/ to connect our students and their ideas beyond classroom walls. Here, I show an example of a very simple, but highly effective, activity some friends of mine worked on with their very young learners. These co-workers would panic when they got started in this blended-informal-formal educators' world, but they are now totally into it: http://ctjconnected.blogspot.com/2010/07/embracing-changes-learning.html
• Using Flickr groups to keep promoting vocabulary/language development. Educators can model how to use images to convey an abstract concept. Then, learners can start preparing their own photo sets. Here, the example was the Flickr group, Idioms in English
• I also make a point that PD can be part of the blended learning realm and give the example of using a wiki, a collaborate webpage, to make sharing and learning an on-going cycle in the workplace.

The biggest challenge we all face when we make blended learning part of our routine is to find the right balance between the so many choices we have nowadays. I'd say that the most important aspect to optimize our choices is to keep in mind that the tools are there only to be enablers of brain connections and networked encounters.

How would you define blended learning and how would you make/have you made it a reality in your classroom?

Drive - From Pawns to Players

Funny thing is never have I been so motivated to exercise! As I press the next page button on Kindle (thanks, my dear friend Dennis) and keep moving my feet on the ellyptical, my eyes are glued to the many concepts and theories in Daniel Pink's Drive.

I'm in the part he explore in more details the concept behind the self-determination theory that considers human beings as having self-directedness, autonomy that lead to an inner motivation to create, innovate, to go beyond. Though lots of research have been carried out about the subject, most companies still have their management system in the belief that people have to be controlled and push forward. Otherwise, inertia is the rule. Daniel might be an optimist just like me. He states that he believes quite the contrary. People can move on, be creative and do things even when they are not required to. He exemplifies with companies that have been giving part of the working hours back to employees, generally 20%, for them to work on whatever they want, be it a personal project or an improvement to anything they're working on. 3-M has done that in the 40's and now we have that little square, timesaver called post-it. Google does that and many of their mainstream products came from the 20% autonomous period employees had, like Gmail, Google Translator, among others.

This is to say that when we give autonomy to people to work in a task as they wish at the time of the day they prefer with the team they want, unexpected, innovative outcomes are highly possible. I wouldn't say always at all, and it all depends on the drives of the people. First of all, these people must be ethical professionals with an inner willingness to move on and not those competitive ones who would sell their soul for recognition, status or money. No. Here's about that genuine good worker with respectful and ethical mind that Howard Gardner talks about in the five minds for the future.

Again, I can't stop connecting all that to our classrooms, our learners. In which ways giving more autonomy to learners and the possibility of choice enhance their educational performance and their willingness to do their best? How can we change our views of students as pawns - manipulating all their moves according to what we believen they should learn - into learners as players, as informed decision-makers on how they can best achieve their learning goals? Aren't the digital tools available nowadays one of the ways we can achieve that by guiding learners, but giving them the possibility of autonomously deciding how to get there? Aren't there so many ways, so many strategies - and not just one - to successfully reaching the finish line just to get back to a starting point again and continue the never ending cycle of learning?

I certainly have no fixed answers for that, but in the role of a teacher trainer, I like to think that one way to start sprinkling this idea of self-determination and autonomy might be to help educators achieve that first. Then, they might inspire the ones around them. I'm sure that many have done that throughout their teaching years. However, more than ever this digital, connected world can help our students even more in the direction of self-search, purpose seeking, lifelong learning, drive to create, to be a true citizen-player.

Am I too idealistic, utopic? Or does it make sense?

Related posts:

http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/2010/04/still-on-drive.html
http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-drives.html

e-Learning - Don't do This to your Online Students

More and more I find myself looking for ways, activities, resources that will help me connect with my online students in meaningful ways. It's always a challenge, but when you hit it, the results are extremely rewarding. When you get your students to respond to a challenging, extra activity, heaven. Just like in any classroom, part of the job of learning is on the learner. However, there is that percentage which is teacher-driven. In any setting, students must feel they belong, imagine online!

This video which I learned about via http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/ , a blog where you certainly will spend, but not waste time, shows exactly what is disconnection, lack of a motivating environment, feeling of isolation, not a teacher presence to guide, facilitate the learning process.Don't Do This to your Students!

Online

This topic is certainly dear to me. Just making a retrospective of my own blogging, I can see how many times the words connections, interconnected, relationship, connectivity appear in my writing, not to mention my talk. I can see how connectivity is part of my life in every sense of the word. In the past, I used to be connected face-to-face with people and that already fascinated me. Nowadays, besides the daily encounters with family, friends, co-workers, students, I´ve added my online connections as part of my routine and just as essential to it. There´s not a single day that I don´t turn on the computer, talk to people, learn from others, interact, join different tribes, smile and get excited with the tremendous possibilities I get from these digital encounters. They are no less important and real than every person I talk to, hug, laugh and interact.

The way I´ve linked and hyperlinked in cyberspace has changed how I view my profession and my sustained development as an educator and human being. I wouldn´t be here if it weren´t for a tweet from Dave Cormier.



I could be writing about any ed tech happening, but wouldn´t know about Darcy Norman´s project. Through my online circles serendipity is learning, a tweet surprises us, blogging adds to our voices and comments become the heart of these humanly ties that we start to cherish and long for. Through Slideshare, I pass on what I´ve been up to, even Facebook has its own connective role.

However, in an interconnected digital space, I´d say that my darling is Flickr! Not that the others aren´t essential hook ups. They are, and all the apps make a difference in the way we relate to others. But Flickr has just such a powerful appeal, and that´s exactly why tomorrow I´ll be sharing some of my ideas about it to a group of educators, and I think it has a lot to do what I think about humanware and connections. Flickr is visual and vibrant. Its dashboard shows who I am, whom I connect to, what makes me tick. Flickr reminds us of the power of an image. It empowers me to communicate, share and learn from my network. Flickr is part of my interconnected learning cycles about life, people and my profession.

Flickr - Design that Connects

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I connect online through my learning communities, I thrive because of them. Technology is just the invisible hands that make all this possible and desirable.

Cool Tool of the Week - My Studiyo - Creating Online Activities

Just tested My Studyio because a tweet from @GrahamStanley and @NikPeachey. What a great surprise as tomorrow I´ll be presenting about cool tools for the classroom for a group of Brazilian educators. I liked My Studyio because it´s user-friendly and very easy to register. You can have multiple choice questions with an attractive layout adding images, youtube videos and texts. The final result is an embeddable quiz that you can put anywhere on the Net, or even send to students.

Also, I can picture my students creating quizzes and posting them to the others to take the quizzes. By doing that, they will learn a new skill and practice the language structures they are focusing on. Oh, by the way, the fact that you can embed the quiz in Orkut is a plus for Brazilian students who are totally hooked to this social network.

The Google Wave

I'm here watching Google's Wave demo to be released at the end of the year. WOW. As an educator, I couldn't help but see the applications it could have in our classrooms. It's just like having a single platform to perform many many digital tasks we do in different online spaces. Of course we'll have to work with learners on how to work properly and productively in waves, but things look extremely exciting!

Brazil is rich in huge Waves
Google Wave is the one I can finally ride
Even being in Brasilia (where there's no sea)

Cybersurfing with Young Learners

I had the great opportunity to present for the IATEFL Young Learners SIG invited by Dennis Newson, who moderates the list.

What a pleasure to explore one area that is dear to me, but I´m not an expert at it. The presentation reminded me once again that there is no need to be an expert. Information is out there, your network is a powerful human resource that you can count on to learn about what is happening around the globe. Of course I had my own examples as I teach a group of tweens and the examples of my colleagues at the language school I work for in Brasilia. However, I wanted it to be a worldwide mosaic of young learners digital production. Twitter is the way to go. Just ask Twitterverse and you´ll be suprised by the abundance of resources, examples, ideas and generous educators ready to share and interact with you.

Just by preparing for the presentation I revisited some of my own beliefs in terms of teacher training and the fundamental role educators have in the process of their students´ digital literacy. I was reminded that, yes, young learners can have fun while doing serious school work. And certainly these youngsters can become better citizens, more prolific citizens if they are enabled to think critically, create, remix concepts, understand the process by which they become digitally literate, and not only persons that use the Net to socialize, as I see most of the students doing.

By starting with very simple, cost-effective tools, educators and learners can give a learning boost their digital experience to use the power of the online world to make a difference.

All the resources of the presentation are available at
http://brazilbridges.pbworks.com/Cybersurfing-with-Young-Learners

Cybersurfing With Young Learners

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