Analyst

WEEK 1

Hi everyone! I'm Alba, the analyst of this week.

On our first activity, we were kind of scared because we didn't know how it will work and how we would get along with it. Nevertheless, we deal with it the best way we could.

The best part of this task is probably the fact of making the posters physically, using our creativity in order to be dynamic for the others to pay attention to our exposition. Because of that, the best moment of the week was when we met to try to summarize the information and start to design and make the information map

On the other hand, it wasn't everything good at all, the worse part was to find information about ACAD and TPACK, and understand them in a perfect way in order to make the activity efficiently.

Apart from that, with this task, we were able to learn about these two frameworks, that we have never heard about. In addition, they could be really useful in the future, at facing our students, it would be important to know new ways of teaching.

Analyzing our work as a team, I believe that we have work organized, however, we could always improve it, for example by trying to focus on the content of the activity more than in the visual part and the exposition, which is also significant, but I think we have achieved that, so is crucial now to be centralized in others aspects.

WEEK 2

Hi, bloggers!!! I'm Laura and this week I'm the analyst of Tinkiwinkis.

In my opinion this is one of the hardest roles of the blog because you have to evaluate you classmates and this is a little bit difficult, I mean, sometimes you can’t evaluate the work of another person because you don’t really know their personal or non personal problems, but as in life we must be as objective as possible and on the other hand because you have to do a deep reflection.

This week we have started with a task related to create a comic. We were on charge of doing an auca comic. We have to admit that if we could have chosen, I'm sure that no one in my group would have chosen this type of comic, it was complicated! But not everything was bad, the best part of this task was working with my group, sharing ideas, laughing, and creating the best comic that we can. As every week there was plenty of good moments but the best ones are those in which we are laughing, despite not all was good moments, the worst moment of the work group was when we had different points of view and we had to decide which one is the «best» sometimes this makes some conflicts but we quickly solved it.

From this task I have learned that there are a lot of different ways of comics, like modern comic, hieroglyphics comic , superhero comic… For me this activity was interesting because in that way we can remember all the work that we have recently done.

The truth is that for next weeks we have to conserve our Tinkiwinkis’ spirit, I mean, work as always and do our best. As far as I know, nobody is perfect, so we could improve maybe in trying not to waste too much time doing silly things (in a good sense) part of our time flies.

That's all for today come on Tinkis!

WEEK 3

Hello everyone I´m Alvaro and I am the analyst of Tinkiwinkis this week

In this third task we were working on the development of a classroom activity and its connection to ICT. Our group focused on the development of a podcast for parents. We wanted to develop this activity taking into account the health situation we are dealing with, the age of the students and the resources they could have at home if they could not carry out this activity at the school

We had to plan a presentation in PechaKucha format. PechaKucha is a presentation format in which a presentation is presented in a simple and informal way by means of 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each. In this presentation we explain how to develop such an activity in the classroom and its connections and benefits in relation to ICT. as the analyst I have to give a positive appraisal of the teamwork we did to highlight how our facilitator re-articulated the tasks it was also a great idea to take pictures of us doing the task to include in our presentation I think it was a great way to give a personal touch to the task.

Our stars Carmen and Teresa did the best job they could, it was extraordinary how they presented the activity we had done in a very dynamic and correct way, they prepared their role very well and kept the time perfectly.

This assignment was very comprehensive because we learned a lot about technology and especially how to relate an activity to effective teaching and also to the blomm taxonomy.

As a conclusion I would like to make it clear that we have organised ourselves very well, we have put together a great activity and the stars of our group have given a great presentation and we are very happy with our work this week.

THAT IS THE REFLECTION OF THIS WEEK

WEEK 4

Hi Tinkis!!! I'm Teresa, the analyst of this week.

This week we had to do an activity for our partners. To create this activity, we had to combining at leats four activities of the book "E-Learning for Primary Teachers".

First of all, we read the book on our own and we took notes of what activities we liked the most. We have to admit that at first we saw this task very difficult because of combining the activities but after brainstorming, we were clear about how we were going to do it.

Once we were clear about what activities we were going to do, we looked for a way to relate them and resources with which, in this case, our classmates would carry out the activity, but also taking into account the age they were supposed to be.

Finally, our activity was based on a radio program where foreigners talked about important places in our country with the aim that they visit our country.

In my opinion, I think that as the weeks go by, we improve not only in the jobs but also in our organization to carry them out. I know there are always things to improve, but we always try to do our best and as this week's analyst, I have to say that we have done a great job. Keep it up Tinkis!!!

WEEK 5

Hi, I'm Carmen and this week I'm the analyst.

This week, the activity consisted of evaluating the apps we use in class, the ones we didn't know and the ones we did, using rubrics.

On the first day of the activity, we decided which three apps to put in each category. Then, we started reading the texts, each one by himself in order to understand the rubrics and to be able to evaluate them with criteria.

We then developed a rubric for each application, which was a bit difficult as you have to think a lot about each criterion, but once we understood and got the hang of it, we had no problem.

On Wednesday we discussed them in class, which helped us to compare our results with those of the other groups and to see the method they had used. In our case, the method we used consisted of grouping the categories in order to leave a total of 6 groups with 1 point for each criterion, so we divided it as follows.

1. Functionality and accessibility

2. Technical and mobile design

3. Privacy

4. Social presence

5. Teaching presence

6. Cognitive presence

Next, to score the criteria in each category, we assigned them as follows: if they worked well, one point, if they were minor concerns, half a point, and if they were serious concerns and not applied, zero. We then made a rule of three out of one by counting all the criteria in each category. Finally we added up the six categories and got our result of 6 stars.

From my point of view, at first this task seemed easy but it turned out not to be so, as evaluating and finding a method to do it correctly and objectively is difficult. Also, this activity has helped us to see the reality of the day-to-day evaluation of a teacher with rubrics, as well as to reflect on different aspects of the applications such as respect for privacy, the ability to work offline... Moreover, by comparing the results of our colleagues with ours, it allows us to identify what criteria each one has followed and what their priorities are when using an application in the classroom, which makes us question ourselves and think about our method. To conclude, knowing how to evaluate with criteria is essential, and even more so when it comes to applications that we are going to integrate in the primary classroom, which is why I consider that this activity is very engaging. We learnt a lot!

Let's keep working!

WEEK 6

Hello everyone! I'm Alba and this week I'm the analyst.

This week has been the funniest so far since what we had to do was create our own game-based learning strategy.

We started this task on Tuesday, when, by playing the games we brought to class, we get some inspiration in order to begin to have an idea of how a board game works.

The following day, was also about getting inspiration, but this time we used a platform in which appear different cards with a topic and with a game, with the aim of creating a game with the topic given.

On that day, we also started designing our board game, after choosing the main topic which was taking care of the environment, corresponding to 2nd cycle of primary education, we believed that it was an actual subject really important for the adults of the future, and it also offers lots of possibilities to create a game. At first, we were thinking about making it like a Party & Co., but after realizing that this wasn't what we exactly wanted, the idea of Monopoly appeared in our minds. Nonetheless, the Monopoly itself seemed to be boring for kids, so we decided to focus on a cartoon, Sponge Bob was the one we picked, it's in part related to the environment, as he lives in the sea, so we agree that making children think that they are going to save Sponge Bob's place would be a great motivation. We had to select a name for the game, and we thought of mixing the words Eco and Monopoly, our first idea was Ecoly, but after finding out that it was a bacterium we change the name to Ecopoly. This day was a very productive one, as we settled down the main characteristics of the game.

On Friday, some problems appeared, we were breaking our minds about how to make a kind of Monopoly without money since we thought that it didn't fit at all with our idea of a game to take care of the environment. Linda suggested us to use the certificates that are given for the countries when they do good things for the environment, nevertheless, we decided to change that into stars which could represent those certificates. In addition, we also try to preserve the mechanism of Monopoly, but we didn't want to do the thing of buying houses and hotels, so our idea was to make children earn elements in order to obtain a place and clean it, and to get those elements they would have to ask questions, but not only normal questions with specific answers, we also wanted to make children reflect and create new ways of taking care of the environment by themselves. On that day we try to have everything planned, so we can finish it as soon as possible.

On the weekend we work on designing the board, the questions cards and also the chance cards (as on Monopoly real game), so on Monday, we met in the afternoon to print all the materials and to assemble everything. On Tuesday, we had to prove our game to make sure it works and to make some improvements.

Finally, on Wednesday ICT Teachers were the ones who play our game, and they were really motivated and having fun at playing it.

To sum up, this task I believed that it has been the best one we had made, not just because it's a game and everybody likes to play, but also because of our work, we have done such a great effort at designing that game and I think that it has been reflected on our final product. Most people could think that this task is just a loose of time, because playing can't be learning, but the real thing is that games are the best way to learn, not only for kids, we spent a great time doing our game but also at playing the other games, and the most important thing is that we learned. We learned how to focus our classes on gaming and how to make games in order to be productive to the action of learning of the children.

Let's keep swimming!!

WEEK 7

Hello Tinkis! I'm Laura and this week I have been the analyst. Honestly, I have to admit the analyst’s role is one of the most difficult ones and probably the one of which I like the least because not only do I have the responsibility of assessing my workmates –and friends– but also of making the reflection since it’s one of the most important parts of the tasks.

This week we have started with a task related to This week the activity consisted of exploring Tasks with Digitals Computational Thinking and Coding from one of the most significant initiatives of coding around the world: The Hour of Code. Is a worldwide project that helps teachers from all over the world to introduce themselves to coding as an introduction to Computational Thinking.

So, basically our mission for this week was to test three activities classified on Grades 2 to 5 from this website: https://hourofcode.com/us/gb/learn. We have chosen one activity to be used on poor or not internet conditions (Candy Quest) , and another with no computers or devices (Coding Basics: Unplugged) and finally the third one without requirements (Barbie you can be anything).

Following the Bloom Taxonomy we can observe that in the first activity of Candy Quest the objectives are Understand, Apply and Create. In the second activity of Coding Basics: Unplugged the objectives are Understand, Apply, Analyse and Create. And finally in the third activity of Barbie you can be anything the objectives are Understand, Apply and Analyse.

On the other hand, these activities have their ethical problems the first activity of Candy Quest; In this game, when the children dodge the obstacle, the children are rewarded, so this can be associated with normality and it can become a problem because they should not be rewarded for doing the right things. In the second activity of Coding Basics: Unplugged; by not working directly with a computer, students may encounter some problems in adapting their knowledge when transferring this knowledge to a situation where there is a computer. And finally in the third activity of Barbie you can be anything; It is a game considered socially feminine, so many children would not feel comfortable playing it.

Moreover, these activities have also their changes in the first activity of Candy Quest; one of the changes that we would carry out in this activity would be that if the children show difficulties, the teachers would make video tutorials explaining how the activities work so that the children know how to play and understand it. In the second activity of Coding Basics: Unplugged; one of the changes that we would carry out in this activity would be that if the children show difficulties, the teachers would make video tutorials explaining how the activities work so that the children know how to play and understand it. And finally in the third activity of Barbie you can be anything; one of the changes that we would carry out in this activity would be that if the children show difficulties, the teachers would make video tutorials explaining how the activities work so that the children know how to play and understand it.

To be honest the funniest part was when Carmen recorded the podcast, it was a very funny moment because every time it was recorded she started to laugh and had to repeat it many times, but in the end it came out perfect and it was a very funny moment.

Futhermore, we have to do an interview to (Lucía), one of our classmate of (See u on Tuesday) she was in charge of answer our eight questions in relation to computational thinking. She did it perfect and it was a pleasure interviewing her.

As far as you will probably know, we are a group that complement ourselves very well, so the best part of the task and of the week is sharing all the moments with my friends, get together, share ideas because is a good way to learn and increase our knowledge due to the fact that all of us have different ways to see the things and among other things.

Honestly, I don’t think we had had a bad moment in the group, because fortunately we hadn’t got any problems and we finish the task on time.

That’s all for today see you soon in a new post ! Come on Tinkis

WEEK 8

Hello everyone! I'm Carmen, and this week I'm the analyst, one of the most important and responsible roles, as I have to evaluate the work of my colleagues and analyze which aspects have been the best and worst ones.

This week's task was to discover the concept of a personal learning environment, specifically the group one. To do this, we had to go back to task five about ethics in which we made a list of the apps we were obliged to use in class, which ones we had discovered and which ones we had used before, and we evaluated them. Also, in this task number eight, we filled in a questionnaire individually, about each app (where we used it, for what purpose, with which device and whether we thought this influenced its effectiveness).

Once we had discovered the personal environment of the group, we had to draw up a diagram for our star, Alvaro, to explain it in front of the whole class. In this diagram, we included the three main elements of the PLE: access and decode (multimedia information); (re)creating knowledge (doing reflecting about information) and discuss (discussion and controversy with others), and within them, the applications that accomplished each of these functions.

Personally, I think the best part of the work was on Tuesday afternoon, when we had a video call and we put in common our personal learning environment, to create the PLE of Tinkiwinkis group. It was fun as we got to know a bit more about our colleagues, their way of learning and how they use their time. The worst part for me, on the other hand, was on Wednesday, as our star was too nervous and we didn't know how the presentation was going to go. We also realised that we had not done our task properly, as we should have gone a bit deeper, but we have to learn from our mistakes.

Therefore, as a group I believe that we must improve our comprehension skills, read things as many times as we need to in order to understand them properly, and once the task has been completed, review it several times and check that we have done what we had to do and have achieved the objectives. On the other hand, we must keep our desire to learn, the curiosity we have about the world of education and its innovations, as well as getting up whenever we fall down and enjoying the process, which is where we learn the most.

As I have already mentioned, this task brought us back to task 5 about ethics, so we have recalled the knowledge we have already acquired to incorporate new information into our minds, which has helped us to know our daily way of learning.

Generally, I think that this week we got to know ourselves a little better as a group and also as people, that is to say, ourselves, since discovering the applications, electronic devices and so on with which our daily learning takes place, has helped us to appreciate how many resources we have at our disposal and what would become of us without them. I also believe that this activity has led us to reflect on whether we make use of everything we have at our disposal in the right way and take advantage of that.

It hasn' t been our best week but next week it will be.

Keep it up Tinkis!

WEEK 9

Hellooo.! I'm Álvaro, and this week I'm the analyst of the tinkiwinkis group.

This is one of the most important roles you can play especially because of the importance of evaluating your colleagues and pointing out our failures in doing the task although it is also interesting to highlight our strengths and this week even more so because we can compare the results and how we performed the task with respect to the first one which consisted of presenting our activity in the same format. We had to look back to the task one where we presented a diagram in the same format we looked back in order to see some mistakes we might have made back in the day in order to learn from them.

This week's task was to create an infographic about digital teaching competence talking about the main elements which are(Generator and manager of emerging educational practices, Expert in digital educational content, Expanded reflective-practical , expert in enhanced organizational or personal learning context, Sensitive to the use of technology from the social commitment perspective, Able to use technology to expand his/her relationship with the student's family and environment) and relate it to everyday situations. We started this task by collecting information about the topic, and then we connected using meet google in this call we dedicated ourselves to extract the most important and relate it to various situations then we watched the video of how to make an infographic and followed the steps all this on Monday so that on Tuesday our stars had time to prepare so they made those good presentation also it is to praise the effort of my colleagues to find a place to print the infographic.

As this week's analyst I think our positive point is the way we organized ourselves very well, we distributed the work very well, I think we got it right with a good design of the infographic, selected a good font and the right colour in order to transmit professionalism and make a good impression both to Linda and to our colleagues.

I also think that we made a series of mistakes that we can locate in the relationships we made with the different elements of the DTC and perhaps some small imperfections when selecting images to make the infographic more dynamic and perhaps we did not put enough information.

Compared to the first task, I noticed a great improvement in the presentation of the star, it was noticeable that they were not very nervous, they were comfortable making the presentation and also when working because our infographic is much better than the diagram that we made in task number one, and I also noticed the improvement not only in our group but in all the groups.

Generally I think we do a good job every week we get better and better at the tasks we improve in all aspects of both performing and presenting them the only thing I have to add is that it has been a great task and we intend to keep improving on the last task.

SEE YOU SOON ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS

WEEK 10