Office applications

Maybe one of the most available learning technologies at school level is the Office applications as many schools don’t have access to internet and not even a computer room. Additionally, various may be their use for class activities and, yet, ignored as such, like in my personal experience. That is why, after going through the previous modules, I was able to realize the number of activities one can produce using Office applications. Although, as equally crucial is the approach to present these activities to the students (as a whole or in parts) during the class. Therefore, I consider that the success behind the use of these tools lies in the attractiveness of the activity by taking into consideration the adequacy of the content-student(s).

Cyber well-being

There are many things I ignored before reading this unit. I had heard how criminals were using information published on Facebook to carry out their activities but not specifically bullying. In effect, I was almost at total relax using the Web 2.0 technologies, the most important issue was keeping computers virus free. But now I can see the significance of the dangers and harms one may encounter while making use of these technologies and tips to avoid its going on. For that reason, a strict number of rules to be set at the beginning and to fulfilled during the sessions are needed as a start point but not solely. Maybe that is why, a constant going through the matter on how to prevent and keep safe on the web would be appropriate. Just as much as giving parents a short list of recommendations (or recommended links) like those of keeping SMART, Nettiquete Rules and those given by Dr. Byron. This could be done in the form of a letter or pamphelt sent to parents in the students notebook. These are probably just a few ways of getting through to parents and students, however, I guess it all depends on the features of each goup or community.

Copyright resources

As a teacher of English as a foreign or second language, one's duty is to offer the student(s) a variety of material and activities. Moreover, one of the most practical ways is by means of virtual and printed material, and as seen on the British Council presentation, there are some limitations even for educational purposes. Thus, teacher practicality is not the synonym of license to use any virtual, printed or recorded material freely, plus, overstepping the limits given by all rights reserved and creative commons may be cause of punishment as it is against the law. What's more, as 'well-being practitioners', 'role models', teachers, we should avoid being regardless about the respect we owe other people's work.

Web searching

As technology users, we may find many useful tools and probably one of the most handy/important of these is the web. This technological device offers a huge amount of information, presented in different ways, such as, videos, texts, audios, and so on, with a great variety of topics. Therefore, as to be responsible teachers, save time and select appropriate material we need to become efficient at its use. And among one of the web's uses, we have the web search engines which should smoothen our seeking of materials or activities for the class. To this matter, I learnt that this isn't just a matter of typing in keywords, but also the knowing that recent material is unlikely to be found and the adequate use of symbols ("", +, -, *, etc.), as seen in this module, make the search much more productive. However, the web search does not end here, though, one may find many results. So the next step to be considered would be the validity or reliability of the sites encountered by asking the 'W' questions and the 'H' questions, just as shown on the video of this forum. Consquently, one will not only benefit from following these steps, but can also induce students to becoming web literates.

Integrating the web

One may see the web as a way of giving a class and, even worse, the class fulfiller, yet, through this module we can clearly testify that this is not so. If a certain amount of dedication isn't given to the planning of a class, even a good website with lots of activities can become a mess. In the past module we evaluated and selected sites, and saw the usefulness of fully educational websites in a given context, but understood that these could also distract students from their tasks. That is maybe the importance of acknowledging the sites as mere resources as to have clear that without a proper lesson plan we are doublty to accomplish objectives.

References:
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/course

Evaluating and Selecting Websites

The web has plenty of information and many uses (from entertainment to serious and academic areas), thus, the demanding task of the teacher to evaluate and select proper and adequate sites to be used 'during' a class. But the taking into consideration several aspects before setting forth a website is necessary as to have a solid basis on which to confirm the validity and congruency of such. Personally, the few times I have recommended websites, evaluating and selecting them have not been consciously using the criterias seen in this module, however, there were a few things taken into account such as level and appropriacy to the students. Now, in this module, a logical view on how to choose a suitable website was offered and I believe that the information is going to be of great help to feel more confident when applying and using this tool for class purposes.

References:
http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/course