The White Board

On march 10th we did a whole ICT session about Digital Boards. The Digital Board is a kind of blackboard that works with electricity... so it's digital. It let us bring to the classroom a wider variety of activities and resources for theaching/learning.
The new possibilities that the Digital Board brings to the class are almost infinite, and you can use it for any subject or purpose; this tool is ready to bear anything!

As you can do with blackboards, you can write and draw in it as well as create interactive games, play music, surf the internet and save your notes from one class to the next one.
It really is a very powerful tool that is slowly coming into our classrooms. It is true that a lot of schools have this device, but it is also true that not all schools take a real advantage of this wonderful tool. Some teachers uses it as just a projector but others had found in this tool the perfect device to make lessons more motivating and easy to understand for pupils. 

In order to practice and try this new technology out, I have designed a very simple game to be done with a digital board. Taking into account the Blooms Taxonomy, this activity will fit into the Understanding step; this activity has been designed to check pupil's understanding and memory about a topic (The Space).

The target age for this activity/game is 7-8 years old and it would be played in Science Time (CLIL). Whit this activity you will be:

• Checking understanding about the Space topic
• Developing their thinking and relation skills
• Testing their memory capacity
• Practicing English and Science while having fun and using the Digital Board

This activity isn't something new. We all have done relation activity sheets (as students and as teachers) and we all know how they look like. However, redesigning this old (but great) activities into something more visual and new is something that needs to be done; as soon as possible and in the most innovative way possible. The Digital Board allows us to do this redesign process using all the tools that this device offers us. 

This classic activity, just "adding the ICT thing in it" turns to be a perfect TPR activity. It makes students stand up, come to the front and use their whole body to complete and relate all the aspects shown in screen. Once again, technology made of a simple activity something a little bit different and more motivating for everyone. 

But... how do you assess it? This activity was made with the purpose of having fun and review content, so you don't really need to assess it. But if you want to you will see it is really easy to do. If the students completes each screen with good rhythm and with not manny errors, that would mean that the pupil know. 

I struggled to upload or embed the activity in this entry... but you will find the file with the activity clicking here!

Ferran Rodríguez i Díaz

Session 3 (10/03/2016)

By Laia López Mullor

In session 3 we have been learning about smart boards. First, we reflected about the use of technologies in class. We contemplated whether they can be used by the students, the teacher or both while also considering the pros and cons that they come along with. Secondly, we learnt some practical things about smart boards in groups from questionnaires. Following a list of instructions, we learnt in a practical way how to use the smart board one by one in groups of four. We started with easier taste to the most difficult ones.
Then, Maribel told us about "ExperTics", a very interesting role that student's play at her school. The main idea is for teachers to ask for some volunteers, from students in different grades, in order to teach them some tips about how to solve common problems that can came up in the classroom. For example, when the internet doesn't work or when the smart board has problems. After taking this masterclass, the students should become experts in technology and be able to help the teacher as well as the rest of the pupils.
Finally, we learned in a practical way, following a list of instructions, how to use the smart board one by one and from the easier tasks to the most difficult ones.

(Expertics video)

During this session we have been learing a lot of things. Here you have the sum up of this session and the files we have been looking at:






This is the end of my entry, if you have any doubts let me know and I do my best in order to help you.