Your Mobile Site in a Few Clicks

As I was preparing one of my presentations to TESOL 2012 in Philadelphia, I dispersed a bit after much time of focused work to enjoy myself into serendipity, which took me to a very nice, simple site to create your mobile site.

In a few clicks, you can have your mobile site at http://getsharesquare.com/

Here's the final result of mine. Pretty interesting tool.
http://shsq.re/25ZP/

Ed Tech News Aggregator

There are many ways to keep yourself updated to impact your classroom using technology.
However, I've just come across this Ed Tech News aggregator worth checking, Spigot , produced by the Digital Media & Learning Research Hub . There are many interesting articles and research information to keep you on the loop of ed tech and to inspire you to keep moving forward.

Another way to keep yourself on top of the Ed Tech News is to check:

http://www.scoop.it/t/ed-tech-news

The M in mLearning is for Motion

Life has been so hectic and intense that I've had insomnia for the past month since I got back from vacation. It might seem that this is not a good sign, for we need to rest our tired minds after a long day of planning, training, discussing, changing...However, I feel that this period has been one of ignition, one that our minds keep processing all what we want to accomplish with the new possibilities. Parallel to all the elearning projects and changes we are phasing in at the school I work for, mLearning is in the air. I can see MOTION around even if it is still not consciously perceived by our teachers. Some have purchased tablets, others have been questioning how to deal with the cell phones disruptions in the classroom. Others have already come up with some simple and effective activities incorporating mobile device. The mLearning revolution has started and there's no way back. It didn't start top-down. In fact, it is the other way around. Our students are the provokers. They are the teasers. They are the ones starting to set the pace and motion in our classrooms. Some teachers feel that they are out of synch with the youngsters who are active producers of content out of the classroom.

MOTION is undeniably taking shape in a way that it can't and shouldn't be ignored. So, this is the perfect timing for action on the trenches. I am getting prepared, and the Ed Tech Team that I work with is also shaking up. It is that period that ideas are popping up and we still need to understand what we should do with them. It is getting clear, though, that the first steps to start mlearning micro-revolutions to stir up our community of educators and learners can cause a little insomnia as a positive side effect. Here is what I've learned so far and have discussed with the Ed Tech Team:

• Bring on the concept of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device); helping teachers realize that they can use what is already there is an essential step; give examples of lesson plans and activities and ask them to test in their classrooms.
• Explore students' expertise; let them tell you what they are already doing with their gadgets. How authentic would that be in terms of language practice?
• Help teachers develop their digital skills through a mind shift  in a way that they can deal comfortably with different devices operating systems, and this means their understanding that they might be the learners and the students their tech mentors. 
• Start with very small projects that involve more than one group, that connect teachers together
• Read, explore, subscribe, test in class. Part of the MOTION is learning, is becoming knowledgeable about an area that you still don't know much about. 
• Use your network and give back to it by sharing your own results. 
• Spot those teachers who have already started their own micro-revolution and help them stir up their own classrooms. Good models have an amazing, long-lasting ripple effect in the teachers' group.
• Keep exploring with no set boundaries until you get the picture of what really works in your context. 

Here are some of the places I've been keeping all the inspiration and ideas to keep the MOTION rolling for the mlearning revolution:

http://www.scoop.it/t/elearning-mlearning

http://pinterest.com/carlaarena/mlearning/

http://pinterest.com/carlaarena/byod-classroom-ideas/

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

Digital Skills for Teachers - Where Are You?

Nik Peachey's post resonates to what I've been trying to do for the last decade in the school I work for, give support to teachers to help them enhance their digital skills' development.

Just by clicking on Nik's list, you'll be able to find where you are, how far you've gone and where you want to head to.


Teachers' digital skills tick list

As for my own professional development, besides being connected to my online network of educators through Twitter, Facebook, blogs, plus attending online webinars and conferences throughout the year mixed with f2f seminars and presentations in conferences, I have a motto of

"a skill or tool a semester"

Every single semester, I set a specific goal for my own learning and pursue it throughout the semester. It is doable, simple and it keeps me focused on my learning goals.

How about you? How do you keep yourself up-to-date? How do your pursue your professional development? Where do you want to head? What are your weaknesses that you want to transform into strength? How do you keep motivated to do your best on a daily basis? How are you constantly preparing for yourself to be an AGENT OF CHANGE?

Storytelling - Five Card Story

This week, in our Digitools EVO session, we're exploring writing. To be more specific, creative writing. Jane Petring carefully prepared wonderful tasks for that. She used many interesting writing platforms that we had collected. They are all fantastic ones, but I'd like to highlight one in special created by Alan Levine, the Five Card story.

There are so many possibilities there for students. They have a choice to grab the five random cards to write their stories.

The students can write their stories and share on the site.

They can write the stories and give each other's stories the title of their peers' stories.

The teacher could assign the picture cards and see what students come up with and then compare to the original story posted on the site. Take, for example, this very short story. The teacher could show the pictures to students, give them the guidelines, they could write the stories, compare each other's stories and then check what the author came up with.

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Five Card Story: The Best Thing about a Mac

a PLP ConnectU story created by tesuque

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by AJ Wms

flickr photo by giulia.forsythe
Had a PC. Fed up with trojans.Bought a Mac. Finally saw the light! Practically no viruses!

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So much to explore in the realm of digital storytelling, but my advice is always to keep it simple and fun for you and your learners.

EVO - The Art of Curation and Discovery in Professional Development

Just came across George Siemens's insights

"A curatorial teacher acknowledges the autonomy of learners, yet understands the frustration of exploring unknown territories without a map. A curator is an expert learner. Instead of dispensing knowledge, he creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected. ... A curator balances the freedom of individual learners with the thoughtful interpretation of the subject being explored. While learners are free to explore, they encounter displays, concepts, and artifacts representative of the discipline. Their freedom to explore is unbounded. But when they engage with subject matter, the key concepts of a discipline are transparently reflected through the curatorial actions of the teacher."
(George Siemens, Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 10:31)

It is a perfect definition of how we try to do things in the Electronic Village Online, and it hasn't been different this year. With the Classroom Digital Tools session in full steam with 503 participants, the moderators are simply the enablers of people connection and the pointers to exciting educational content. We are designers and curators of meaningful learning experiences. And this is certainly disorienting at first to participants who join us for the first time. Why? Because they generally expect to have a traditional type of training in which we "teach", they "learn", in which we are the "experts" and they are the "recipients".

Soon they come to realize that by joining the EVO, they enter in a different realm of professional development. We are there together to experience learning in a community. And in a community, there's no one way road. In fact, we have roundabouts, u-turns, all kinds of communicational directions to achieve our main goal for the session, provide participants with the opportunity to learn how to be out there in the wild with more confidence, to click around, to explore, connect, add their own voices and to keep daring. Nobody wants to make a fool of himself in front of 500 other people, mainly when these people are educators. We have our own self-image to preserve. However, once participants realize that YES, it is OK to ask, to write in the wrong area, to comment, to make suggestions, to give and get constructive feedback, the learning possibilities are immediately amplified, and it seems that our professional development gets on a whirlwind of new perspectives and directions with the wonders of new nodes and connections with educators around the globe.

Week 1 in EVO is always daunting, a bit scary at times, but it is also a time of allurement and fascination, a time for discovery and optimism that reenergize us as professionals and educators trying to make a difference in every learner's life and in our own.

I can't help myself, but be totally touched by what has been shared in our session by participants coming from all over the globe with their multicultural perspectives, trying to see what works and what doesn't in their contexts.





Week 2 in the Digital Tools group has started with some creative minds in action! We never know where it is going to take us with such a fantastic community. Let us keep exploring the unbound freedom of guided discovery...

Some highlights of our session also available at http://www.scoop.it/t/classdigitools

Make it Small, Move Slowly, Make it Big

Still on what I had mentioned for New Year's with my no-wish-list statement, I just came across a very enjoyable read that is inspiring and plain simple.

Mitch Joel, in his post "The Deception os Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk" (no wonder I'm a huge fan of these guys!) mentions the power of taking a step of a time, making things a habit and giving you some time to change. In fact, many people think that any move is about taking a big decision and just going for it. Wrong. All the big decisions in life have a maturation time, a period to settle in and become part of your mindset. Just then, it becomes an A-Ha moment. We might thing that it happens overnight, but it doesn't. We just need to have an open mind and the willingness to give a different perspective to our thoughts, actions and habits.

So, instead of big promises with huge moves, what if we made a very small change in our routine that can become a major impacting change in the near future? No wish lists, no promises, but one small change. I've already decided for mine. Let's see how it works. How about you?

No Wish List for 2012

How about starting the Year of 2012 with not so much weigh, to-do lists and wish lists?
How about taking a look back and just writing down all the accomplishments of 2011 to come to the conclusion that, YES, we´ve done much, accomplished tons, and still have a lot to do.



No wish list, but light-living, guilt-free 2012 with care and passion
with bonds and intensity
trust in others and self-confidence

To keep moving ahead
Doing our best
With a look back only to realize that
the future can be bright and light
It all depends on us
and our positive vibes




In the year of  Iemenjá, the mother of all living things and the owner of the waters,
let us live with the flow
re-energized by calmer waters
let us float and leave regret and negativeness behind
keeping 2012 as a year to remember and cherish,
the one that we accomplished with no promises or lists,
but with at least one action that made a difference.

How about setting yourself for a great start in 2012 with all the positive sparkles one can think of?
Not with a big list, but with a lookout for doing more good, acting more upon your life
and living the way you feel it is right, not how people think you should be or do
2012, the year of flow and taking hold of your own self emanating vibrancy and passion

Books, Summer, Books

For many, this is a winter list. Well, for us down South it is summer time, a perfect period of the year just to goof off with a great book or e-book in hand just for the sake of our own delight or of catching up whatever we couldn't read throughout the year.

I, personally, blend pleasure and work when it comes to summertime reading. Nothing better than being carried away by a good story or starting to dream and plan the year ahead.

Here's my list:

- Equator - Miguel Sousa Tavares
- Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
- The Help - Kathryn Stockett

I'm already enjoying myself with  Jonathan Field's "Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance". Great inspiring stories!

Also, in my Kindle I have some books for my professional development in the list:
The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age
Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing
Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054KBLBI/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title


Well, I guess I'd need more than my holiday season to catch up with my reading!

And here are some lists that you might enjoy, as well:

http://www.edutopia.org/winter-reading-list-2011
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143293240/year-end-fiction-wrap-up-the-10-best-novels-of-2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?_r=1

So, what's in your reading list for summer or winter?