Re-Evaluating Digital Technology to Enhance Learning đŽđŞ đŞđ¸ đŠđŞ đˇđ´ đšđˇ đŞđŞ Project Details ................................................................................................4 Chapter 1 .......................................................................................................5 Project Overview ......................................................................................................6 Methodology ............................................................................................................7 Impacts of the Project ................................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Learning Styles & Digital Technology ............................................8 Learning Styles And Digital Technology Overview.......................................................9 Visual and Aural learning Styles...............................................................................10 Physical Learning Styles ...........................................................................................11 Logical Learning Styles without technology integration ..............................................12 Logical learning styles with technology integration ....................................................14 Solitary learning styles with technology integration ...................................................15 Integrating technology with The Elements of Learning ................................................18 Integrating technology with The SAMR Model...........................................................19 Integrating technology with Universal Design For Learning ........................................20 Motivation, Homework and Study ............................................................................21 Motivation and Learning Styles ................................................................................22 Strategies for motivating students .............................................................................23 Digital technology for Motivation, Homework and Study ...........................................24 Chapter 3: Digital Resources for teachers & Students...................................25 Digital Resources For Teachers And Students ............................................................26 Digital Books in Education .......................................................................................27 VHS Lernportal .......................................................................................................28 Weebly.com ...........................................................................................................29 Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) .........................................................................30 Augmented Reality ..................................................................................................31 E-Learning Platforms ................................................................................................32 Chapter 4: Digital technologies for SEN students .........................................33 Digital Technology to Assist Students With Additional Learning Needs .......................34 Working with visually impaired students in an inclusive environment ...........................35 Case Studies - students with visual impairments .........................................................36 Accessible videos ....................................................................................................37 Blogging with SEN students .....................................................................................38 Skills Centre â Use of Supportive Technology ...........................................................39 Improving Digital Competences and Computational Thinking of SEN students in VET ...40 Chapter 5: Sample Lesson Plans ...................................................................41 Sample Lesson Plans ...............................................................................................42 Digital Art for pre-school teachers ............................................................................43 English Language - Inventions & Inventors .................................................................44 English Language - Discussion Skills, Clothes ............................................................45 Music is Great! Music Festival Project .......................................................................46 Discovering Ancient Civilisations ..............................................................................47 Heritage Studies: Primary Sources ...........................................................................48 General Data Protection Regulations ........................................................................49 Data Types in Computer Science ..............................................................................50 Markup language and management systems .............................................................51 Database Management Systems and Administration ..................................................52 Teaching Applied Physics for Traditional Video Game Development ...........................53 Coding traf c lights with push button ........................................................................54 Tourism Studies: Package Holiday Elements ..............................................................55 Converting Currency ...............................................................................................56 Chapter 6: School Experiences of Adapting to Covid-19 Restrictions ............57 Teaching during Covid-19 Restrictions. ......................................................................58 Ireland: The St. Johnâs Central College experience ....................................................59 Ireland: The St. Johnâs Central College student experience ........................................60 Estonia: Haapsalu Vocational Education and Training Centre .....................................61 Romania: Everyone was more united that before.......................................................62 Spain: restrictions through the experiences of teachers, parents and students. .............63 Turkey: Experiences and challenges with Web Tools ..................................................64 Germany: The Classroom Post Restrictions ................................................................65 Conclusion ....................................................................................................66 Project in Pictures .........................................................................................67 fi PROJECT DETAILS Project Reference: 2018-1-IE01-KA202-038790 Project Title: Re-Evaluating Digital Technology to Enhance Learning (RED) Project Co-Ordinator Cork Education and Training Board, Ireland European Engagement Co-Ordinator: Gerald Brennan Digital Book: Miriam Walsh Project Partners Inspectoratul Scolar Judeaten Bacau, Romania Ana Maria Rotaru Haapsalu Kutsehariduskeskus, Estonia Liis Rßß IES Ribera Del Tajo, Spain Ivan LĂłpez MontalbĂĄn Hasan Fatma Onal Anadolu Lisesi, Turkey Simge Akoz Volkshochschule Arberland, Germany Lieselotte Joacham This project is funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme. CHAPTER 1 Overview Methodology Impact PROJECT OVERVIEW The use of digital technology in education has been actively promoted for a number of years throughout the EU and generally teachers and educational management have responded positively to the introduction and use of digital technology in the classroom. Many vocational schools strive towards digital maturity as outlined in the eSchools programme and the partners in this project are all actively using digital technology in their vocational education and are all well advanced towards digital maturity. However we have now reached a point where we need to examine the effectiveness of this use, not only a self evaluation of our digital maturity but also of our response to the learning needs of students. Each teacher has to question why they have decided to use digital technology in a particular lesson? How does it add to the student learning? Do different students respond differently to the digital technology used and which students bene t most? Can some students be disadvantaged in their learning through the use or overuse of digital technology? It would seem that in many cases digital technology has been used to substitute for existing teaching tools. Students often use tablets or laptop computers as a substitute for books. Teachers use digital projectors and digital presentations as a substitute for the traditional blackboard. The Internet is being used to replace the students trip to the library. While there is nothing wrong with this as such it demotes digital technology's role in education to one of substitution for existing technology. As educationalists we should be asking if we can we get more from digital technology? How can we employ digital technology in a more productive way to enhance vocational learning. In fact how can we harness the full potential of digital technology so that our students gain the maximum vocational educational bene t from its use? In many instances the things we know about how students learn, their attention span, different types of learning and other educational theories have not been employed in deciding how, when and why we should use digital technology. The purpose of this Erasmus+ project was to address these questions at a practical level in the following way: By conducting a critical examination of how digital technology is currently being used in vocational education. By identifying digital resources currently available that may be used to enhance student learning. This will include the identi cation and evaluation of online educational resources as well as a more general evaluation of the Internet as a learning resource. Areas such as independent e-Learning, digital technology in classroom gami cation and the use of Alternate reality software will also be considered. We re-examined how students learn with the goal of developing a better strategy for the use of digital technology in the vocational classroom. This included an examination of the different types of learning : Visual, Aural, Verbal, Physical, Logical, Solitary and how digital technology can be used to deliver each of these. We also examined how we can better use digital technology to assist students with learning dif culties, disadvantaged students and minority groups. This included examining digital technology as a learning supports, as an accessible resource and study support, types of digital assistive technology, focusing on the stronger learning styles of the individual student. From this we developed sample vocational lessons using digital technology to enhance student learning and demonstrate how a more professional application of digital technology can add signi cantly to the students learning. These lessons cover a wide range of vocational subjects. We will then tested and evaluated these sample lessons in a real vocational classroom situation so as to ne tune our examples of a better way to use digital technology in vocational education. Primarily the project gave participating teachers the opportunity to examine in detail how they currently use digital technology in vocational education, question whether this use is educationally sound and work to develop a better strategy for digital technology use to enhance student learning. In so doing also to examine how students with dif culty can be helped by using digital technology to deliver course material targeted towards their stronger learning type. The importance of recording and sharing the project experience was fully recognized. There is a project website and public Facebook group which recorded project activity and learning as each phase of the project progressed. The project ebook entitled âEffective use of Digital Technology for Vocational Learningâ records the learning from the project, contains many of the project presentations and contains the sample lessons as well as a detailed rationale behind each lesson outlining why the approach taken enhances student learning, student evaluation of the lesson and suggestions as to how the lesson may be adapted to other subject areas or age groups. It fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi should be stressed that all of the partners in this project currently use digital technology in their vocational classrooms; the critical question we wish to answer is how can teachers use that technology more effectively. M E T H O D O LO GY Teachers from each partner institute conducted a critical examination of how digital technology is currently being used for vocational education and training. What exactly do we use digital technology for, what type of resources have we developed for digital technology, what range of equipment do we have available. We then re-examined how students learn with the goal of developing a better strategy for the use of digital technology in vocational education. This included an examination of the different types of learning and how digital technology can be used to deliver to different student learning styles: Visual, Aural, Verbal, Physical, Logical and Solitary. Topics such as student attention span and aids to memory were also explored. This is crucial as only by understanding fully how students learn can we hope to nd more productive ways to use digital technology to enhance that learning. Once we understand how students learn we sought to identify digital resources currently available that may be used to enhance student learning. This phase include the identi cation and evaluation of online vocational educational resources, as well as a more general evaluation of the internet as a learning resource. Areas such as independent e-Learning, digital technology in classroom gami cation and the use of Alternate reality software were considered. We recognised that the opinion of students on the use of digital technology during classes is important as they may nd certain types of digital resources stimulating and others not so useful. We engaged with them to better understand what works well and what does not and adjust our own thinking accordingly. We also explored the topic of how we can better use digital technology to assist students with learning dif culties, disadvantaged students and minority groups. This included examining digital technology as a learning supports, as an accessible resource and study support, types of digital assistive technology, focusing on the stronger learning styles of the individual student. Having gathered all of this knowledge we worked to put this into practice so that we can show how digital technology should be used in class to enhance learning. To this end we produced sample lesson plans with a digital technology content so as to demonstrate better ways of using the technology. The work of the project was conducted through a series of Teacher Training Events as well as through ongoing communication and sharing of best practice between project partners. These events combined formal presentations, brainstorming and discussion sessions, practical demonstrations and site visits. The teacher training events were structured into the following thematic areas: Learning Styles And Digital Technology Digital Resources For Teachers And Students Digital Technology to Assist Students With Learning Dif culty Designing Lesson Plans that incorporate best practice use of digital technology. Two of these training events were organised in conjunction with student blended learning events so as to gain greater insight into the student views and experiences of the use of digital technology within their studies. Presentations were recorded and presentation material gathered for inclusion in the project eBook and website. IMPACTS OF THE PROJECT The main impact of this project will be a more educationally based use of digital technology in vocational education. Teachers will not only use digital technology but will ask themselves how it might best be employed to serve the needs of the vocational students in their institutes. Teachers will better understand the different learning styles that students employ and will adjust their digital technology use to take into account the different types of learning. We expect that there will also be a signi cant impact on studentâs vocational learning as they will bene t directly from the better educational use of digital technology in the classroom. Digital Technology use that it geared towards their individual needs and which can contribute to a greater diversity in the way that vocational education can be delivered and assessed. fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi CHAPTER 2: LEARNING STYLES & DIGITAL T E C H N O LO GY CHAPTER 2 Learning Styles & Digital Technology L E A R N I N G S T Y L E S A N D D I G I TA L T E C H N O LO GY OVERVIEW Digital Technology as a learning tool cannot be divorced from the fundamental fact that students are all different, learn in different ways, at different speeds and have an in nite variety of interests. This is important as a digital approach to curricular delivery may work very well with one student but may fail totally to achieve the learning goals of another. In seeking to re-evaluate the use of digital technology in the classroom the teacher must rstly gain an understanding of the students in the class, their individual learning style, their level of digital competence, their level of motivation, ability to concentrate and their ability to engage in self directed learning. Overuse of digital technology or inappropriate use is likely to hamper learning. Consequently the teacher needs to evaluate where and to what degree digital technology should be incorporated into their lesson plans. Prior to discussing digital technology use in the classroom we will rstly examine how vocational students learn, this will including discussion on learning styles and how this can fundamentally effect the students ability to concentrate and absorb the vocational material being presented. This will then lead on to consideration on developing a better strategy for the use of digital technology, to harness its ability to present vocational learning material in a way that is appropriate to the individual students learning style.. This will include an examination of how digital technology can be used to deliver to the student with any preferred learning style./ These learning styles include: ⢠Visual ⢠Aural ⢠Verbal ⢠Physical ⢠Logical ⢠Solitary This examination sets the foundation on which our project is based as it is from this re-examination of how students learn that we will adopt a better digital use strategy. Solitary Visual Logical Aural Physical Verbal fi fi fi VISUAL AND AURAL LEARNING ST YLES In general learning styles are divided into three types: Visual, aural, kinaesthetic. For every student it is important to understand his preferred learning style. Once they identi ed their learning preference, students can do better in courses. For teachers it is important to use a variety of learning styles when planning lessons, so that they can focus on every type of learner. Visual learners typically remember what was read or seen in a presentation and think in pictures. They have vivid imaginations and associate colour with information. They also like written reports better than verbal ones. Visual learners like drawing pictures, games, graphics, videos, art media, they need a âbeing thereâ experience. Visual learners learn best through taking notes and making lists, they can read later., They learn from books, videotapes, lmstrips and printouts. These type of learners are writing out everything for a quick and frequent visual review. Aural learners remember what they hear in a lecture, presentation or during a conversation. They talk while they write and are sophisticated speakers. They remember things by listening. Aural learners like to play word games for vocabulary, they like to explain ideas, tell jokes, explain, describe and discuss. They learn best through listing to lectures, audio sources and by discussing ideas. They also learn through preparing oral presentations for others or by using speech recognition software. Aural learners should read written material aloud, verbally review the spelling of words and the contents of lectures with another person. It is also good for these type of learners to record notes through speech recognition software, record lectures to listen again, to read aloud or sing information and to make a list of keywords. Kinaesthetic learners typically are well coordinated and want to move all the time, they are âdoers" not âtalkerâ. They need a concrete experience as a learning aid, they like to take things apart and put them together to learn how things works. When it comes to digital technology for aural and visual learning styles huge investments were made in technology in public schools. The results are often negative, because leisure-time tech skills donât translate to educational and training use of technology. The general distinctions of students are different. They want to be connected, but to one another, they also want to be entertained by games, music and movies and they want to present themselves and their work. E-learning at its best is seen as a convenience and at its worst as a distraction. Since neuroscience revealed that 90% of the what the brain processes is visual information, the primary learning modality is visual. Therefore teachers should compliment text-based presentations with visual components. The German Federal Of ce of Education claims that digital technology as separate subject is not enough. A change of the educational system is necessary and digital technology should be used in every subject. The use of audio, visual and digital technologies in teaching should engage more of the learners senses and build multiple cognitive connection to the content. When using digital technology different skills are trained. The classroom collaboration is on the rise and educators need visual and aural learning solutions that can link multiple students simultaneously to a shared screen. The touch interactivity is becoming more sophisticated, helping to get students engaged. Large-screen displays used in classroom have become more affordable and teachers spend less time in front of the classroom, they have more time for smaller groups inside the class. Digital technology can serve a solution for every need. Teachers and students can use a lot of different free platforms supported by government. The students favourite in Germany is called âThe simple Clubâ. It offers short videos for a lot of subjects for all school types. With terms like âindustry 4.0â or âworking environment 4.0â playing a dominant role in public debates, it is clear that the ongoing digitalisation will have also large effects on the future working environment. There is also a Digital Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) which describes what it means for educators to be digitally competent. It provides a general reference frame to support age development of educator-speci c competences in Europe. It is directed towards educators at all levels of education, including general and vocational education and training, special needs education, and non-formal learning contexts. Aural Aural learning refers to a style in which individuals learn best through hearing directions and speech. For example Visual directions given in a different language. In visual learning a learner utilises graphs, charts maps and diagrams.For example a timeline in which students are introduced to the timeline of the solar system. fi fi fi fi PHYSIC AL LEARNING ST YLES Digital Technology for Physical Learning Styles presented by Estonia Here we will look at examples of digital technology and its usage with learners whose main learning style is physical based on vocational school environment. The reasons why this methodology is used in our school: ⢠We are a vocational school (everything is done by practicing); ⢠A person learns the best through action; ⢠Diversi cation of teaching; ⢠Digital tools are favoured in Estonia (Estonia is the e-country); ⢠It is a natural environment for physical learners Examples of physical learning styles in practice in our school The European Day of Language: orienteering game The groups of learners with physical learning styles had to go through 5 different language points (destination) on the basis of the instructions they had received, where the language task had to be done. In addition, at each point they had to make a photo of their group and upload it to a folder created by the teacher (Google Photos). Passing the trail took about 60 minutes. QR-code hunt: Nature Festival: nature topic QR- game. QR-codes are laid out all over the landscape, they need to be searched and answered Science Photohunt: nature trip. Learning about local ora and fauna. Taking pictures with your own device. Each student chooses one wildlife species to present to the others Software suggestions for a photo hunt. Action Bound Loquiz Physical Learning Style Aural learning refers to a style in which individuals learn best through hearing directions and speech. For example directions given in a different language. fi fl LOGICAL LEARNING ST YLES WITHOUT T E C H N O LO GY I N T E G R AT I O N Due to fact that we are different, the way we learn is different. Students prefer learning experiences in which they are actively involved, so they will achieve better results and be successful in school. They learn faster when new acquisitions are useful and can be practiced in everyday life as well as in the future. Students who know their learning style are more engaged in the learning process, trust them, and feel more independent. The latest research states that when the learning modalities are adapted to the results obtained by analysing or testing learning styles, students will retain effortlessly and will be able to achieve increased school performance. The key to actively engaging students in learning is to understand their preferences for learning. Students who do not know how to learn will not be able to become responsible, autonomous, with useful skills and attitudes throughout their lives, necessary for school and social success. Learning is never complete, but it is a complex process that involves bene ts and means change; learning is an individual process which can be fun and active. Talking about learning styles, about the different ways of knowing, about the differences between learners may be less important than the actual strategies appropriate to each learning style and the speci c learning materials used. The specialists emphasize the special role teachers play, their contribution to âthe task of teaching the students how to learnâ adapted to their needs, interests, personal qualities, aspirations, or learning style. Each individual has his or her unique learning style. It is vital for teachers to use a variety of methods to âenrichâ students with strategies for developing identi ed learning styles. It is not strange to use different learning styles for different learning tasks, for example in different school subjects or even within the same subject. To illustrate this aspect we have selected six logical learning and teaching methods that can be used in class with students and through which we can encourage co-operation learning, teamwork, and achieve better results in class, that is: the cluster technique; âWhat I know/ What I want to know/ What I have learnedâ; the pyramid; Edward de Bonoâs Six Thinking Hats, the chinquapin and the cubing technique. In the PowerPoint presentation we provided a short description and a few examples for each method. To conclude we will quote Benjamin Franklin who said âTell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learnâ. Knowledge is valuable when useful. And what we know determines what we can learn. Logical learning develops critical thinking, a clear, rational and free thinking which is not based on the accumulation of information, but on developing the ability to process information. This is why it is useful to identify our studentsâ learning styles in order to understand and help them make logical connections between ideas and arguments. The logical-mathematical learning style The left parietal lobes are in charge of logical thinking and understanding of information. The log-mathematical learning style refers to oneâs ability to rationalize, to solve problems and to learn through the use of numbers, abstract visual information and the cause-effect analysis. Strategies and activities which can be used at school or at home for logical-mathematical children: Games or kits (example: building games) which include calculations, puzzles; Game creation that incorporates mathematical concepts; Categorizing and classifying, achieving rewards; Producing life based problems or stories; Building Legos models; Making calendars; Assembling models/ artistic prototypes based on mathematical data, studying models and playing with patterns Studying number sequences or divisions of an event; Analyzing systems; Roleplaying about mathematicians or scientist; Computing, creating programs, graphics or computer games; Creating graphics, maps, diagrams, symmetry study; Using statistics concepts, probability games; Problems recognition and solving them; Interdisciplinary activities containing mathematics or logic, syllogisms; Designing maps; Planning projects; Deciphering codes, playing with numbers; Visiting museums or science galleries, computer and science fairs; Researching projects, doing scienti c experiments, applying methods, interpreting data fi fi fi fi Learning methods for mathematical-logical students A person with mathematical-logical learning tendencies should discover the reasons behind school work. This type of person shouldnât just memorize words or theoretical notions, but he/she should understand the details behind the requested content that helps interpreting the lesson. You should create and use lists by extracting key point of text while you study. Also, you can use other methods to outline for indentifying important domains. Be aware of your physical condition, i.e. breathing and stress level. It is possible you isolate your body from your rational thinking. Remember that this is part of the whole system, the equipment you are using- you canât learn or memorize just by using the brain, you learn with the whole body. Remember that connections work well both when it comes to logical questions and when it comes to irrational things. It does not matter how well two things t together. You have more chances to remember them later if you have made illogical associations. Your brain may protest at rst, but it works! If you write down your thoughts, underline thoughts and logical behaviors. This highlights your ability to choose systems and procedures and the fact that you can gure out when to change a set of procedures. Use your systematic thinking to better understand the links between the different parts of the systems. An important point here is that systematic thinking helps you better understand the overall view. Often this is greater than the sum of the parts. For example, you could understand the individual systems of an airplane and the ight surfaces, but you could not have the vision of how these systems support the ight in balance. System charts can help you win this understanding. You may nd it dif cult to change your behavior or habits. You can rationalize everything you want about why you should change the behavior you have and the one you want to get, but it can happen that the old one persists. Try the shunt technique to understand the current and desired behavior. Once you understand that, use the deviation technique from the old to the new behavior. If you do not succeed alone, ask for someone else's help. Sometimes you can over-analyze certain parts of learning or engaging in a skill/ability. This may lead to an analysis paralysis. You're busy, but you're not moving towards your goal. If you nd yourself analyzing too much with what subjects to start or super-planning the course maps, stop and re-focus on progress. Consider how much you will get from yourself, because you have lost more time than necessary. Measure your activities according to the speed at which you have achieved your goals. Planning exactly how much you spend on each chapter of theory does not help if you are not even close to grasping your learning! If you often get stuck in the analysis, write in big letters: Make it NOW! on a poster, plaque or stickers that you can see around the place where you study. fl fi fi fi fi fl fi fi LO G I C A L L E A R N I N G S T Y L E S W I T H T E C H N O LO GY INTEGRATION Example 1 of didactic activity Description: Notes on a computer's memory (computing system), organization and classi cation of memory (memory types) Class: IX, Discipline: ICT. Competences: Identifying hard and soft components of a personal computer. Using online resources to locate and extract useful information, Content: Memory Unit, Methods: explanation, conversation, exercise, interactive teaching, modelling, Teaching tools: computer network, whiteboard, AEL application Didactic scenario: By using interactive knowledge presentation software - Ael platform, students will learn about computer memory (memory organization, memory types). At the beginning of the lesson, following the teacher's instructions and under his supervision, the pupils will connect to the Ael platform and access the indicated lesson. Students are actively participating in the teaching-learning lesson, carefully following the simulations, studying the models contained, and solving work tasks step by step, ensuring interactive teaching of concepts. In order to x the acquired notions, at the end of the lesson, an interactive game is proposed which consists in discovering in a few ways the notion of presentation. Example 2 of didactic activity: Class: XI, Discipline: Computer Science, Learning Unit: Dynamically allocated data structures. Competences: Description of operations speci c to the single-linked lists and development of some subprograms to implement these operations. Content: Stack. Elementary operations on the stack. Methods: explanation, heuristic conversation, questioning, case study, discovery, Teaching tools: computer network, video projector, AEL application. Didactic scenario: Using the Ael platform and the lesson package Lists, stacks, queues. From this package, the lessons are selected: Stack-Presentation, Application Stack and Knowledge Stake-Test. Students will acquire elementary concepts about stacks: representation mode and elementary operations (element insertion, element deletion, scroll). At the beginning of the lesson, following the teacher's instructions and under his supervision, the pupils will connect to the Ael platform and access the indicated lesson. Students actively participate in the teaching-learning lesson, carefully analyzing the case study, following the implemented simulations and solving the work tasks step by step. In order to x the acquired notions, a grid evaluation test is proposed at the end of the lesson. Teaching is interactive. Ael provides multimedia tutorials and manuals. Ael forum is the communication and collaboration tool used for questions, discussions, information and debates. Example of some available platforms for teaching with technology. Code.org The Hour of Code is addressed to anyone who wants to write lines of code of a game.In code.org the instructions are replaced by blocks. The blocks are used just like the pieces of a puzzle. W3 Schools This platform is one of the most complete websites with Web tutorials. They are grouped by categories: HTML Tutorials, Tutorials for script languages, XML Tutorials, Server Scripting Tutorials. The proposed tutorials are accessible, reduced to the essence. Open Educational Resources (OER) Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium â digital or otherwise â that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum. Advanced eLearning (AeL) The entire educational process is conducted in a virtual, secure environment controlled by ef cient, intuitive and attractive technologies for pupils. fi fi fi fi fi S O L I TA RY L E A R N I N G S T Y L E S W I T H T E C H N O LO GY INTEGRATION According to a study by Think with Google, â67% of millennials agree that they can nd a YouTube video on anything they want to learnâ. For big projects and small xes, people look for how-to videos on YouTube, increasingly on mobile. Of smartphone users, 91% turn to their devices for ideas while completing a task. Amongst the most popular searches you can nd: - How do you tie a tie? - How do you curl your hair with a straightener? - How to make a cake? The process of learning is a slow-time consuming process that might discourage students to keep on working on their studies: You can easily notice that in vocational schools, most of our students avoid reading text books, written notes or instructions manuals and rely on videos to learn. Sometimes they do not even pay attention to teachersâ explanations and instructions. That is because being constantly connected has trained students to expect immediacy and relevance in moments of intentâthe I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to- do, and I-want-to-buy moments. From questions like âHow to install a webserver?â to âHow to change the air lter of a motorbike?â, people are using their mobile devices and technology in general to satisfy their âI-want-to-doâ moments. As said above, learning how to do these sorts of things used to be time-consuming. Now, it is as easy as opening a video and nd a reliable source of information. So, sometimes, the problem the students have to solve is how to deal with infoxication, or information overload. That is, the phenomenon related to the development of the Internet, and which refers to the dif culty or impossibility of taking a decision or keeping informed about a particular subject, due to the endless amount of data and content that exists on the web. In other words, sometimes nding something useful is as dif cult as nding a needle in a haystack. I would like to divide the proposed technologies into 4 categories. Within each category I would propose a tool to be used with both social and solitary learning pointing out which tool ts better which way of learning. Technologies used for Technologies used for Technologies for accessing and sharing simulating real automatic Virtual Learning information in a resources on virtual self-assessment structured way platforms These technologies are being tested now in our school, sometimes with great success sometimes with a bit of disappointment. 1. Technologies used to access and share information in a structured way The rst category would include virtual learning environments platforms like Moodle. With those applications the teacher can organize a whole course grouping activities, texts, videos, articles and the rest of the materials into weeks or units, creating tasks, self-correcting questionnaires with feedback. They normally have a calendar showing the next steps to take and have many ways to contact students and answer their questions Moodle is a very well-known open source web application (with a module to access from smartphones) that has become standard de-facto in the industry. In our school, we have a webserver at fpribera.es where we upload courses with the structure of an eLearning course for the whole year. This way, students can access the information they want, when they want, selecting and ltering what they want to do learn in each moment preventing infoxication as they have been directed by the teacher both by a calendar and the sequence of the contents. This platform is ideal for solitary students as it provides with a private space where they can work privately in a quiet environment, but with access to a teacher that can be contacted online. A good addition to Moodle is the perhaps not so very well-known software exe-learning. eXeLearning can generate interactive contents in XHTML or HTML5 format. It allows you to create easily navigable web pages including text, images, interactive activities, image galleries or multimedia clips. fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi Also, the teacher can track the studentsâ progress contacting them when needed and encouraging them to go again through parts of the subject that somehow they have ignored or discarded. We also use Google Apps, or so called, G-Suite to share information with other fellow teachers and students. Each student in our school has a Google Account under the domain riberadeltajo.es. With this account, they automatically have a lot of tools available that would help them with their studies: â˘Apps that allow them to contact their colleagues and teachers, like Gmail for email but also video with hangouts, G+, etc. â˘Apps that let them access their les, shared them with other users and nd instantly what you are looking for â˘Apps that would help them carry out any project like spreadsheets, docs, presentations⌠â˘Manage users and devices It is worth mentioning the app Classroom, a tool where educators can create classes, distribute assignments, grade and send feedback, and see everything in one place. 2. Technologies used for simulating real resources on virtual platforms Sometimes, working in groups requires infrastructure that is not always available in a vocational school. For example, takes students of our course âSystems and Networks administrationâ. They need a whole network with servers for each and every one of them. Economically it is just impossible to provide them with all the hardware and all the technology needed. Here is where technology helps both teachers and students. There are software packages like Virtual Box or VM Ware that allows a computer to run virtual machines imitating real hardware. If it werenât for that kind of technology, lessons would be just theoretical. We use virtual machines and virtualization technology to train students from the Information Technology courses, specially networks and systems administrators. Imagine a student that is in the middle of a lesson performing a task suggested by the teacher. The student is working with several virtual machines and one or more networks. He makes a mistake and one of the machines have crashed. They can just simply clone the virtual machine from the teacher and resume the lesson with almost no delay. There is also technology to have the virtual machines in the cloud, like the google cloud, amazon web services, etc. When we speak about Simulation, we also have to talk about gami cation. I like the following de nition from the Wikipedia: Gami cation techniques are intended to leverage people's natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, or closure, or simply their response to the framing of a situation as game or play. That clearly states that gami cation motivate students to learn in a social way. Regarding gami cation, we have the experience with two Erasmus+ projects: Creating and Developing your future: We used a cisco app called The aspire game where students had to manage a start-up company, contacting customers, doing accountancy. The game was called âThe entrepreneurship gameâ and it was intended to motivate and encourage our students to start their own business. Run for your lives: This was a videogame created to encourage students to learn English vocabulary about healthy habits and an adequate diet. There are already hundreds of gami cation apps for lessons and courses that we should examine before reaching quick conclusions. 3. Technologies for automatic self-assessment There is software in the market that corrects tasks, assignments, questionnaires, etc. That helps teacher of course, as it prevents the teacher from long markings processes, but also involves students in evaluating their own work and learning progress. For example, moodle questionnaires. Adding a questionnaire to moodle is easy, sometimes boring, but easy. They are just basic tests, but if you prepare the test carefully, students can get feedback from their mistakes or from their good answers. Sometimes, I use the commands of the operating system to create scripts to automate assignments marking. It is very useful because it saves a lot of time. The teacher has no longer to expend nights correcting exams and assignments. Even though it would seem that the process of evaluation is a bit robotized, students like to challenge the script and they have to chance to submit the assignment more than one time correcting themselves what the script tell them to correct. A remarkable experience here to be told, is a project calle Programa-me that we performed in the year 2012 and that involved more than 500 hundred students of software programming from differents part of Spain. We used domjudge, a software that corrected automatically the programs that students wrote either in Java or in C. DOMjudge is an automated system to run programming contests and we tested it in Talavera with a delegation of the most important schools in our state. We organized the students (green t-shirt) in teams and proposed a set of problems to be solved. There was a virtual jury provided by DOMjudge that corrected the students and a real jury (teachers in red t-shirt) to verify that the decision taken by the virtual jury was correct. So far, the project happens to be one of my favourite of all times in our school. fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi 4. Virtual learning There is a whole world to explore here, we can tell our experiences with Virtual learning techniques, for example: Augmented reality: a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. We prepared a cook book to teach students how to cook several recipes. When the student pointed with his or her smartphone to a picture in the cook book, a video appeared in the frame of the image of the camera where the picture was. Virtual scenography: With the OBS software, we create a virtual scene, where a teacher shows students how to do complete a task or an assignment. That way students can have a 24x7 teacher repeating the lessons any time they need, at their own speed stopping even the video if needed. Interactive Video: With interactive video, virtual scenography adds the power of knowing the progress of the students. As a summary, we can say that all the techniques described here are adequate for both social and solitary styles. My conclusion would be that even though all the tools included in this presentation are adapted for both styles of learning, everything depends on the teacher and how he or she organizes the activities to be adequate for one style or another. I N T E G R AT I N G T E C H N O LO GY W I T H T H E E L E M E N T S OF LEARNING The elements of learning and consist of 5 different elements which can be easily integrated into the class to increase student engagement and ensure all leaners are motivated to learn. Below are the elements and examples of ingrain. Real world engagement Real world engagement refers to students being introduced to collaborations with companies or career professionals. In this example students were introduced to Podcasting through a FaceTime conversation with Martin Coutts, an educator from Scotland. The next day they created their own podcast independently and their social media impressions hit 49.8 thousand. They have also had conversations with an LA based app developer and local animation company Sminky Animation. Critical Thinking Students are introduced to coding through the application Swift Playgrounds. Through completing these coding challenges they learn how to put critical thinking in practical. A skill which will be essential in their personal and career lives in the future. Personalisation of learning Students are given a choice of how they can learn and submit evidence of learning. This element also integrates universal design for learning. Students may choose to write a report, record a video or paint a picture. All formats are accepted. Communication and Creation Students use these skills through their projects and develop their own learning paths and sharing process. Teamwork Students work together on creative coding challenges and also in creating collaborative publications. Again a skill that will be bene cial for them going into a workplace. Example of teamwork after working on collaborate coding and publishing projects together students came together to organise a fundraiser for a local charity that helps homeless individuals in their community fi I N T E G R AT I N G T E C H N O LO GY W I T H T H E SA M R MODEL Transformation Enhancement When looking to integrate technology into learning the SAMR model offers various levels of technology integration. 1. Substitution. Substitution is the simple replacement of traditional learning tools with technology. For example the replacement of pen and paper with a computer and word-processing application. 2. Augmentation. Augmentation again requires little change to the structure of a learners learning but does have some advantages including ef ciency, cost and time. Technology acts as a direct substitute with functional improvement. 3. Modi cation. Modi cation allows for the redesign of a task. For example instead of writing those 800 words students might take an online quiz or create a book. Here technology allows for a signi cant task redesign 4. Rede nition. Rede nition allows you to challenge the status quo and completely redesign learning. This allows students to be more creativity and complete tasks that were previously inconceivable. Technology allows for the creation of new tasks previously inconceivable fi fi fi fi fi fi I N T E G R AT I N G T E C H N O LO GY W I T H U N I V E R SA L DESIGN FOR LEARNING Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn, including Students with Disabilities. UDL aims to improve the educational experience of all students by introducing more exible methods of teaching, assessment and service provision to cater for the diversity of learners in our classrooms. It is designed to improve the learning experience and outcomes for all students. Universal Design for learning has 7 Principals: ⢠Principle 1: Equitable Use. ⢠Principle 2: Flexibility in Use. ⢠Principle 3: Simple and Intuitive Use. ⢠Principle 4: Perceptible Information. ⢠Principle 5: Tolerance for Error. ⢠Principle 6: Low Physical Effort. ⢠Principle 7: Size and Space for Approach and Use. There are three main principals underpinning UDL, these are: â˘Engagement: UDL encourages teachers to look for multiple ways to motivate students. â˘Representation: UDL recommends offering information in more than one format. â˘Action and expression: UDL suggests giving students more than one way to interact with the material and to show what they've learned. Clearly digital technology can play an important role within the design of a UDL lesson as it allows students to gain information in a wide variety of ways, both visually and aurally as well as giving students multiple means of interacting with the learning material. It also gives the opportunity to test student learning without resorting to the traditional written examination but through other means such as video or aural presentations, interactive games, visually stimulating activities etc. If used correctly it can also greatly improve student motivation through gami cation of the lesson and through engaging students in a creative process such as the production of podcasts or digital publications. In essence it gives greater exibility to the teacher to play to the students strengths and from this to build their learning pathway. Universal design is for accommodating difference, it requires planning to build physical, learning and work environments so that they are usable by a wide range of people, regardless of age, size or disability status. While universal design promotes access for individuals with disabilities, it also bene ts others. Within this digital technology provides a valuable additional tool in giving the teacher greater exibility in how the lesson can be delivered and assessed. fl fi fi fl fl M O T I VAT I O N , H O M E W O R K A N D S T U DY Motivation: The desire to act and move toward a goal Homework: A set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed outside the class Study: The act of learning about a subject, usually at school or university How to become and stay motivated. Make Donât Plot Use Set goals your goals do it your Rewards public alone Homework bene ts ⢠Persevering until they succeed. ⢠Teaches students how to stay organized, plan ahead and break complex tasks into smaller, more manageable parts. ⢠Gives students another chance to review class material. ⢠Students are forced to solve complex problems on their own and learn how to work independently. ⢠The teacher can gauge how much of his class was understood by his students. ⢠Teaches pupils that it is best to start early and work at your own pace that to start late and do a rush job. ⢠Students are inclined to look for tips and tricks online; tips and tricks that help them become more ef cient and more knowledgeable. Study bene ts Studying is an important part of the process of learning, but different students will have different needs and will retain information better from different methods of studying. Some people wait until the last minute to cram in information before an exam, but that is only going to help you learn the information for the short term. Study skills are an array of skills which tackle the process of organizing and taking in new information, retaining information, or dealing with assessments. They include mnemonics, which aid the retention of lists of information; effective reading; concentration techniques; and ef cient notetaking. Homework and learning styles. Auditory Physical/ Kinaesthetic Visual Typically good at absorbing information Kinaesthetic learners prefer to be active while Visual learners bene t from seeing from spoken words. studying and may not be able to focus while information on a chalkboard or in an sitting still. illustration and may grow impatient listening for long periods of time. Talking to themselves or with others about Reading aloud and tracking words on a page Using ash cards what theyâre learning with a nger Reciting important information aloud, Writing things down multiple times to commit Studying, charts, tables and maps. perhaps recording it and playing it back them to memory Reading a book and listening to the audio Moving around or taking frequent breaks Drawing illustrations, mindmaps book at the same time Using word associations Highlighting and underlining Highlighting and underlining. Setting information to a tune and singing it Doing hands on activities, such as building Writing notes and revising. to help remember it models or playing games Limiting distracting noises Playing with a stress ball or toy while studying Colour coding information fi fl fi fi â fi fi fi M O T I VAT I O N A N D L E A R N I N G S T Y L E S We all know that learners complete their learning tasks if they are motivated to do so. And improving motivation is part of our training strategy in order to achieve best (and quality) results. But if we want to de ne how to motivate learners we have to re ect for a minute on the nature of motivation: âThere are two general types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to internal motivations such as autonomy, mastery and meaning. Extrinsic refers to external motivational techniques such as money, trophies etc.â You need a clear picture of the types of motivators you can use /promote when designing a learning strategy. Extrinsic motivators work best for example with simple and clear tasks: a learner gets a reward such as a badge after accomplishing a speci c task, or gets a penalty when an assignment is not submitted as requested. But if you want your learner to complete a complex task, such as problem solving, you need to promote autonomy and curiosity. âI need a B- in statistics to get âLiterature interests me.â into business school.â âLearning math enables me to âIf I fail chemistry, I will lose my think clearly.â scholarship.â âI feel good when I succeed in âOur instructor will bring us class.â donuts if we do well on todayâs quiz.â Intrinsic Extrinsic motivation motivation Intrinsic Extrinsic Advantages: Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self- Advantages: Extrinsic motivators more readily produce behavior sustaining. Efforts to build this kind of motivation are also changes and typically involve relatively little effort or preparation. typically efforts at promoting student learning. Such efforts often Also, efforts at applying extrinsic motivators often do not require focus on the subject rather than rewards or punishments. extensive knowledge of individual students. Disadvantages: On the other hand, efforts at fostering intrinsic Disadvantages: On the other hand, extrinsic motivators can often motivation can be slow to affect behavior and can require special distract students from learning the subject at hand. It can be and lengthy preparation. Students are individuals, so a variety of challenging to devise appropriate rewards and punishments for approaches may be needed to motivate different students. It is student behaviors. Often, one needs to escalate the rewards and often helpful to know what interests oneâs students in order to punishments over time to maintain a certain effect level. Also, connect these interests with the subject matter. This requires extrinsic motivators typically do not work over the long term. getting to know oneâs students. Also, it helps if the instructor is Once the rewards or punishments are removed, students lose their interested in the subject to begin with! motivation. fi fi fl S T R AT E G I E S F O R M O T I VAT I N G S T U D E N T S Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn. Get to know your students and use examples freely, use a variety of different teaching activities, teach by discovery, be free with praise and constructive with criticism. Take time to get to know the different learning styles. Auditory Physical/ Kinaesthetic Visual Are successful in reading dialogues and Read to understand, and learn how something Read to have fun or rest, cannot study plays, vocalizing lessons, speaking to is done, not to enjoy. Enjoy short term and for a long time, need a silent themselves or others while reading about fragmentary study. Usually study lying on the environment to study, read fast and what they read, and vocalizing new words: ground. In order to appeal to these types of remember words in written form. students, you can do the following: In order to appeal to these types of students, you can do the following. Ask students to tape themselves and listen Have students use their bodies when learning Use owcharts, maps, or graphic back. (snap, clap, tap, etc.). organizers. Give them audio recordings of your classes. Use objects to help them understand a concept. Have students use a computer to type out their notes using different fonts. Have them listen to podcasts. Close their eyes and imagine what they are Create checklists, write out ashcards, learning, then act it out. draw pictures. During peer groups have one student read Use a variety of different art supplies to learn Watch videos. and another listening. (crayons, textured paper, markers). Read materials aloud to students. Students can use manipulative to help learn Use highlighters to emphasize vocabulary or key words. As you can see in the examples above, you do not need to use technology in order to appeal to each unique learning style. Regardless of their learning style, students learn best when they partake in a variety of multi-sensory activities. Itâs best to try and plan out activities that are suited for visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learners. fl fl D I G I TA L T E C H N O L O GY F O R M O T I VAT I O N , H O M E WO R K A N D S T U DY Over the past few decades, schools have relied on computer technology for delivering educational content or equipping students with resources to enhance their learning. With the advent of the Internet, some schools have started offering classes fully online for maximum exibility, while other brick-and-mortar institutions are incorporating digital tools into their classroom and at-home assignments. Incorporating these tools helps educators keep their students engaged in a time when online media is a huge part of many studentsâ lives. In this section we explore. â˘Virtual Classrooms Help Teachers Create Homework Assignments â˘Virtual Classrooms to Assess Student Comprehension and Progress â˘Virtual Classrooms Can Turn Homework into a Game â˘Virtual Classrooms Personalize Education for Students with Different Learning Styles Virtual Classrooms Help Teachers Create Homework Assignments Teachers can assign all the pre-selected lessons for a course, or they can mix and match lessons to create a custom course speci c to their curriculum. Teachers can also assign videos and quizzes to either an entire classroom or speci c students, offering more opportunities for scaffolding. They can even assign multiple lessons at a timeâset it and forget it! Virtual Classrooms to Assess Student Comprehension and Progress Videos and online quizzes offer immediate grading, as well as answer explanations so that students can learn from the questions they missed and target their study habits to areas that need the most help. With this digital method, students can learn from their mistakes in a safe environment, away from the potential embarrassment of getting an answer wrong in front of classmates and get feedback in real time rather than wait for homework to be graded or reviewed in class. Virtual Classrooms Can Turn Homework into a Game The biggest draw for students, a virtual classroom offers enhanced opportunities for gami ed learning. Teachers can make homework more fun and engaging with a YouTube-like experience for students who are used to consuming information through video. A quiz attached to an online lesson can also feel more like a game than an assessment. Virtual Classrooms Personalize Education for Students with Different Learning Styles Virtual Classrooms not only enable students to learn anytime and anywhere, but also cater to different types of learners and studentsâ needs. In particular, students who are audiovisual learners rather than text-based learners stand to bene t a lot from digital learning. By providing options for students to self-select their learning method, virtual classrooms help put more students on the path to academic success. Motivational tool technologies possess the following key characteristics: Innovative (fresh, cutting-edge) Authentic (tools with real-world applications) Apps to consider Easy-to-use (for both teachers and students) User-friendly (attractive interface enabling easy navigation) Padlet, PosterMyWall, Reliable (does not crash often or lose content) MyBrainshark Ease of sharing (via social networks and beyond) Control over content (manageable, suitable privacy settings) fl fi fi fi fi CHAPTER 3: DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR TEAC HERS & STUDENTS CHAPTER 3 Digital Resources for teachers & students DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR TEAC HERS AND STUDENTS In this section we will identify and use digital resources currently available that may be used to enhance student learning. This will include the identi cation and evaluation of online vocational educational resources as well as a more general evaluation of the internet as a learning resource. Topics covered include independent e-Learning, creating vocational learning eBooks, gami cation in vocational education and the use of Alternate reality software. Some examples of the use of these technologies are given. Students were engaged in the preparation of this phase of our Re-Examination of digital technology through their participation in a number of vocational training classes. During these they were introduced to and used a range of currently available digital educational resources that are intended to enhance student learning. This included online vocational educational resources as well as a more general use of the internet as a learning resource. The students had an opportunity to express their views on areas such as independent e-Learning and digital technology in the classroom. They were also able to examine gami cation and the use of Alternate reality software. This engagement with students proved highly productive and highlights the need to incorporate student views into the decision making process of how much digital technology should be used in the classroom. It is clear that the overuse of technology can be damaging to the students educational progress particularly if the student has become resistant to the technology use. It is equally clear that technology can enhance student learning when it is used correctly. Achieving the correct balance of technology use is one of the classroom challenges for the modern teacher. fi fi fi DIGITAL BOOKS IN EDUC ATION This presentation looks at publishing digital books and how engaging in this digital technology activity can enhance student learning. It was noted that âan expert in technical communication has warned, however, that simply replacing hard copy text books with technology may be damaging childrenâs ability to learnâ. We agree with this but we need to acknowledge the bene ts of the accessibility features of tablets or other technological devices. The interactive nature of digital books can add greatly to the student learning experience. Students not only publish their own books but also create the multimedia content for the books. In this way a wide variety of learning goals are achieved including aspects of creativity, literacy, technology use, planning and topic speci c learning through content research. So how should we use digital books with students? Some examples of digital books produced by students are given including a student book on guitar lessons, a book on a studentâs experiences as a refugee, and a book for the local dyslexia group branch aimed at parents to inform them about the accessibility features on an iPad. The use of class publications as a way for students to share information with their peers and the wider community was also examined. Creativity and teamwork can be fostered through this approach. This can allow for authentic student voices, sharing creativity, celebrating successes, sharing struggles, reaching all learners, building an educational community, recording real world experiences, future planning, learning re ection, and professional development. Inter class collaboration is also possible with these publications. Student feedback from working on digital publications has been very positive. One student commented that âFrom a personal point of view this brought new challenges in both the terms and work and dealing with other people. I was elected project leader, a situation that I have never been in before and this taught me a lot about myself, showing me strengths that I did not know I had, and helped me improve on weaknesses that I brought into the project with me.â Another student said âAt times it was challenging to materialize art for the accompanying articles. I shared these little hiccups with my fellow writers and the editor, but they understood and reassured me that there was no rush. This gave me enough wiggle room to further work and experiment on my ideas before committing them to a nal rendered issue.â The production of digital books as a learning tool does not require expensive software and can bring signi cant bene ts to the con dence, creativity, teamwork ethic and learning of the student. Students becoming published authors after contributing to Peek, created on iPad published on Apple Books. fi fi fi fi fl fi fi VHS LERNPORTAL The VHS Lernportal is an online platform to learn German. It is available via www.vhs-lernportal.de. The Lernportal is a project developed by the DVV, the Deutscher Volkshochschulverband, for language integration and training of basic skills and was released in 2018. The project was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). All functions and contents are free. The main purpose of the website is to learn German as a second language. The platform consists of German courses from level A1 up to B2 (CEFR). The interface and menu is available in 18 languages and it is even certi ed as a digital textbook by the Federal Of ce for Migration and Refugees for the use in integration courses. The content of the German courses is meaningful, curriculum based and has a scenario approach. The focus is on communicative capacity and on the training of all competences, which are reading, writing, listening and speaking. There is also a second column, which contains the basic skills training. In this part literacy and numeracy skills can be trained, also for German native speakers. There is a full audio support for the interface and menu and also additional courses for health literacy, digital literacy and profession oriented skills. There is also the possibility for feedback and tutoring. The learners get an automated feedback on 95% of the exercises and there are also human tutors for text correction and general feedback on the learning process. After registration every learner has a tutor for correcting texts and giving feedback on the learning process. It is also possible within a language course, for example, that the teacher becomes the tutor and that he or she can give feedback on the learning process of his or her own students. The teacher can also give the students individual exercises according to their needs in the learning process and give them exercises matching the contents in class. To motivate the students, they can achieve certain learning goals and earn batches for their achievements. There is also a mobile version of the Lernportal, which can be used on smartphones and tablets, also as an app. Furthermore there are online trainings for teachers as well as additional materials and handbooks. fi fi W E E B LY. C O M Weebly is a free website builder that makes it easy to build a website, blog, or a classroom website & blog. Weebly is a San Francisco, California based company that was founded in 2006 with the mission to help people put their information online quickly and easily. Enable 3 million people to easily create personal sites and blogs or establish web presences for businesses, weddings, classrooms, churches, artistic portfolios, and more. It is easy to use because of the easy drag & drop website editor. Videos, pictures, maps, and text are added by simply dragging them to the website. Usage in Haapsalu Vocational Education and Training Centre â for teachers´ training- https://praktilineht.weebly.com/ â teachers´ developmental folders - https://liisryy.weebly.com â study materials - https://www.oppematerjalid.eu/ â introducing projectwork - https://redhkhk.weebly.com/ â students´ projects - https://laanemaaloodusfestival.weebly.com/ â students´ developmental folders - https://the17grey.weebly.com/ Students´ developmental folders The purpose of using the studentsâ developmental folders is to support the learning process and at the same time teaching the students feel more comfortable with online tools and website building. The folders are meaningful tools for collecting, analyzing and re ecting the learner's work over a period of time, allowing the development of the author's learning, highlighting the weaknesses and strengths of the learner, and progress. (Karm, 2007; Karm, Poom-Valickis, Marandi, Pilt & Pilli, 2010; Meeus, van Looy & Laanpere, 2004). The e-portfolio allows you to approach learning more learner-centered, where the learner organizes his / her activities, makes learning activities more exible, emphasizes lifelong learning, and supports the use of e-portfolio based competence assessment (Atwell, 2007). Looking to the future, it can be estimated that e-portfolio acquisition will become a new type of dynamic CV, which records all life- work, creating views for friends and family, school, employer, job interviews and admissions in different formats (Stefani, Mason, Pegler, 2007).(Used source: http://portfooliokursus.wordpress.com/lugemismaterjal-1/1-nadal-e-portfoolio-moiste-ja-naited ). Weebly and learning styles â Mainly visual â The content can be very different. â The usage of Weebly depends on teacher´s creativity â Learning assignments combine different learning styles (video creation, taking photos) â The whole learning process can be re ected in Weebly. fl fl fl OPEN BROADC ASTIN G SOFT WARE (OBS) This presentation explains why we should use open-source software like OBS to record lessons and practical sessions. Among the advantages of recording your lessons are: ⢠Allows your students to review your lessons and tutorials ⢠Documents your course in a different way ⢠Improves e-learning ⢠Important for visual learners ⢠Helps students with some disabilities The presentation discussed how millennial students learn today through videos from all kind of sources, specially from platforms like YouTube. Most teachers are reluctant to record their classes for many reasons, but the bigger problem they have is the technology behind the production of the video itself: File formatting, cut & join scenes, editing, rendering. All of these steps can make the production of a video more time consuming than the initial lesson preparing and delivery. The goal of the presentation is to show how easy is to use an open-source software application like OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) to produce a video instantly and feeding it to YouTube directly, without having to edit the video or make any major changes to the feed. It also demonstrates the varied uses of OBS, like setting up an unlimited number of scenes you can switch between seamlessly via custom transitions and shows how with a small budget, a decent recording studio can be set up to record your classes. AUGMENTED REALIT Y Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that overlays interactive digital elements â such as text, images, video clips, sounds, 3D models and animations â into real-world environments. Augmented reality can enhance learning and also provides students with opportunities to create their own content. Use of augmented reality tools can help the teacher explain a subject, provide a visual representation of the material, and help students test out their knowledge in practice. While augmented reality technology has been around for quite awhile it is perhaps not being used to its full potential in the classroom. This presentation rstly looks at the question of âWhat is Augmented Reality?â, provides a quick overview of its history and an acknowledgement of how it is of particular bene t to visual learners. Some speci c AR products that can be used in education are identi ed and brief examples of these given. These included PokĂŠmon Go, HP Reveal, Aurasma, Merge Cube and WWF Free Rivers. The use of Merge Cube to teach the parts and function of the human brain and heart for a science or biology class is demonstrated. There is also a demonstration of WWF Free Rivers, which may be of particular interest for use in Geography or Environmental Science classes. fi fi fi fi E-LEARNING PL ATFORMS The learning process has gained new dimensions with the development of the e-Learning industry. As a result, platforms that incorporate Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become extremely numerous, and the options for those interested in such methods are multiple. Moodle (acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is one of the most used LMS platforms. Moodle can be used in many types of environments, such as in the educational environment, for training and development, or in the business environment. A great advantage of the Moodle platform is its availability in several languages. The main difference between Moodle and other platforms is that, in addition to choosing from several preset answers to a question or offering short answers, students can upload larger les, such as documents, les, images, audio and video clips. Teachers have the opportunity either to leave comments on the topic or to organize discussion groups between members of the same group on this topic. Therefore, this platform is distinguished by the high level of interactivity it offers. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform and educational technology. Launched in 2013 in Norway, Kahoot! has been designed to be accessible to classrooms and other educational settings around the world. Kahoot! learning games can be created by anyone, on any subject and for students of all ages. It has quickly gained popularity due to the fact that it can be accessed using any device, computer or laptop that has a web browser. It is very important that students perceive the use of this application as a game, they do not feel that they are evaluated, they are relaxed and willing to interact even more with digital technology in the school environment, in education and, why not, in self- education. Wand.education provides teachers with all the support they need to create high quality interactive educational content in a simple and fast way. This platform replaces the classical lessons, which do not take into account the competences of each student, with interactive teaching methods, captivating lessons and tools that allow continuous and ef cient monitoring of progress. With Wand.education teachers have access to the prede ned learning activities available in the application (such as image galleries, hot spots, crossword puzzles, or charts), or they have the opportunity to deliver content created on xed, or mobile (tablet) devices and to evaluate studentsâ performance. In addition, this platform allows teachers to monitor student progress through intelligent, detailed reports. Last but not least, the platform also contains a collection of lessons created by other teachers, which can be searched by keywords, previewed, added to the already existing list of each teacher. All lessons can be adjusted according to the students' competences or the feedback received from them. Conclusion: Looking at the far greater number of advantages than disadvantages, we can say that the use of e-Learning platforms is an opportunity offered to those who wish to obtain continuous training. It does not exclude traditional education, in which real objects are used as a source of information but adds virtual resources. A combination of the traditional methods of learning and assessment and those of e- Learning is indicated in order to obtain performances regarding the development of the studentsâ competences. fi fi fi fi fi C HAPTER 4: DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR SEN STUDENTS CHAPTER 4 Digital Technologies for SEN students D I G I TA L T E C H N O LO GY TO A S S I S T S T U D E N T S W I T H ADDITIONAL LEARNING NEEDS In this section we will examine how we can better use digital technology to assist students with learning dif culties, disadvantaged students and minority groups. A series of lectures given by teachers with an expertise in this eld are included. Topics examined include; digital technology as a vocational learning support, as an accessible resource and study support, available types of digital assistive technology and focusing on the stronger learning styles of the individual student. Universal Design for Learning also plays a key role here in that it allows teachers to focus on the students strengths and not to judge a studentâs ability within the narrow focus of written assignments or assessment. Often students with learning dif culties may be capable of demonstrating their learning more fully through the medium if podcasts, lm, audio les or visually where they may fail to do so using a formal written assessment process. Student con dence and motivation can be greatly improved by using digital technology to shift the focus on to what the student can do, rather than falling into the trap of highlighting the learning dif culty. fi fi fi fi fi fi fi W O R K I N G W I T H V I S U A L LY I M PA I R E D S T U D E N T S IN AN INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT In Romania, special education is organised by the Ministry of National Education and Research for children and students with mental, physical, sensorial, language, socio-affective and behavioural de ciencies, or associated de ciencies; it is provided according to the handicap/de ciency degree of the child which is de ned within a 4-level scale: light, medium, accentuated, and grave. There are special education schools and admission is based on the evaluation of the child and the written agreement of the parent or legally appointed guardian. A special education class consists of 8-12 pupils but in case of multiple (associated) and/or severe disabilities, classes are organized with 4-8 pupils. In mainstream education, a class may integrate 2 or 3 pupils with disabilities. The admission age and the duration of studies in all special education units and structures are the same as in mainstream education, with a few exceptions. Special education is structured in curriculum frameworks, textbooks, as well as teaching aids elaborated according to the type and handicap-degree and approved by the Ministry of National Education and Research. The frame curricula include, for all levels of special education, compulsory and optional subjects, organized in 10 curricular areas: Language and Communication, Mathematics and Natural Science, Human being and Society, Arts, Physical education and sports, Technologies and practical activities, Counselling and guidance, Speci c compensatory therapies, Psycho-diagnosis, Social education. Evaluation is adapted to the disabilities of the pupils. In order to facilitate disabled pupilsâ access to various levels of education, the organizing institutions have the obligation to ensure equal chances to all candidates and adjust examination procedures to each candidateâs special. Graduates of the special education â whether provided separately or integrated â receive the same certi cates as the graduates of mainstream education. The teacher is responsible for choosing the methods, taking the concrete situation into consideration, the teaching aids available in the school and following the methodological guidelines provided within the curriculum and speci c teachersâ guides. The teaching methods applied in special education are carefully chosen so as to meet the purposed objectives and, most of all, to be adapted to the pupilsâ disabilities, age and individual particularities. For students with visual impairments, teachers should consider the following: before making the worksheets, determine with the student what type of font is right for him/ her (size, spacing, capital letters etc.); if you have a PowerPoint Presentation, have the student sit as close to the projection screen as possible; Use the Windows Magni er utility for tasks on the computer. fi fi fi fi fi fi fi fi CASE STUDIES - STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS This presentation explains the experience of the Spanish team of students with vision impairments on vocational and secondary schools. Two cases are detailed: Case 1: Arturo Arturo was studying for a degree in systems and networks administration. He was diagnosed with albinism complex with permanent nystagmus and lack of iris pigmentation, as a result he is unable to see properly being very sensitive to light and brightness. Ocular albinism is the result of a gene mutation on the X chromosome and occurs almost exclusively in males. This type of albinism only affects the eyes. People with this type have normal hair, skin, and eye coloring, but have no coloring in the retina (the back of the eye). As a result individuals may experience strabismus (crossed eyes), photophobia (light sensitivity) nystagmus (involuntary rapid eye movements) impaired vision and/or astigmatism. Arturo was introduced to Zoomtext ((freedomscienti c.com) This application allows him to access larger text sizes, colour enhancements and a fully accessible interface. Case 2: Cosmina Cosmina is a student in the secondary school. Cosmina is visually impaired and participated in a technology project called the Barrierless Project. The aim of this project was to build a braille to text machine using Arduino which would help to send her exams and help with her school assessments. The traditional option of a Perkins typewriter was available to Cosmina but had some limitations including only working with Braille, extensive costs and delays in using a translator to translate the braille content. The solution of building their own machine using Arduino was a great opportunity for Cosmina to be helped by her peers. Students helping students. In addition it was a real solution to a real problem, it was also an example of integrating tech into the solution and inclusion of all students in the class. It was also an exportable solution which could easily be shared for other blind people. fi ACCESSIBLE VIDEOS Ä°yiye Ä°Ĺaret is a digital platform prepared by Fiat Turkey as a part of their Unhindered Movement project to help hearing impaired people to effectively express themselves in Turkish. The contents were prepared with the data gathered during the 7 month training process of 10 hearing impaired individuals working in TOFAS Turk Automobile Factory. The platform presents the words and how they are grammatically used in sentences through visual tools, sign language and in written form. The platform has an alphabet from which you can pick the words. Each word is described by pictures and via sign language and is grouped with other words that can be used after it in a word map. If the words are followed according to the maps, Turkish grammatical knowledge can be improved. Each word has four different sections; âshowâ, âSpeakâ, âSignâ and âExplainâ. Each section de nes the same word for the user. Proloquo2Go is an award winning symbol based Alternative and Augmentative communication app prepared by Talk To Me Technologies. It is designed to provide voice to over 150.000 individuals who cannot speak due to different conditions that come from birth (cerebral palsy, autism, apraxia etc) or later in life (strokes, brain injuries etc). It improves the communication skills and fosters the language development of the individual and also provides support for the caretakers or teachers/trainers of the disabled individual. It provides more than 60 natural sounding text-to-speech voices in different languages, 3 complete research based vocabularies (basic, intermediate core, advanced), and more than 10.000 updated symbols or emojis. It is easy to use with its advanced word prediction and fully customizable vocabularies to meet the needs of illiterate users from symbolic communication to literacy. The app is provided mainly for iPad OS and can be downloaded from Apple App Store. Autism Core Skills is an educational platform designed for use by individuals with autism. This app teaches pre-academic, academic, social, and communication skills. The app can be used with both nonverbal and verbal learners.The lessons teach both academic and social skills, from preschool through rst grade Common Core standards. The academic lessons cover reading and math skills such as colors, shapes, rhyming, spelling and addition. Two-player social lessons cover the communication skills of expressing preferences, staying on topic, and categories. Games teach students to share, take turns and follow rules. Each lesson played can be customized for the user. Autism Core Skills engages students by using high interests themes in our lessons. Autism Core Skills can be used as an addition to lessons to help students achieve individualized education program goals. Teachers can use this as formative assessment to guide instruction and also help practice newly learned concepts. Students can practice a skill until they reach mastery. Teachers could also use the app as part of learning centers, either with small groups of two or three students or with individual students. For students who prefer individual work, teachers can help select visual images that serve as high reinforcers for sustained effort. Finally, teachers can easily print out progress reports to send home to parents. fi fi BLOGGING WITH SEN STUDENTS Here we examine the creation of a Food Blog with SEN Students How running the blog helped the SEN students to become more creative, communicative and improve their digital skills in their cooking lessons. The cooking teacher Aili Tervonen started as a class teacher with the group of Cookâs Assistants for the very rst time in 2018 autumn. Before that, she has had long experiences in teaching other groups of Cooks in VET but she had never been a class teacher of SEN students before. The class teacher of SEN students is the one who stays with them all the time and teaches almost all the subjects that they learn. The teacher started the blog with the idea to gather all the recipes they were doing in the lessons but it ended up to be the most powerful tool for teaching not only Cooking but other important skills as well. For now, she and her group have been running the blog for the second year already and she has captured all the students into the process. It was not an easy way to get the students involved because the SEN students have many prejudices about going online. In fact, they are quite familiar to use Facebook, Instagram or some other social media platforms but they do not have a clear vision why to do it, instead of communicating with their friends only. Some of them are also too shy and very strict with posting photos or anything personal. It took a lot of work and explanation to re-valuate their attitude. The blog is hosted by our school server so it is not public and knowing that took some tension away. The teacher kept posting after every lesson; she took pictures of their food and cooking process and went through the topic with showing the precious posts at the beginning of their day. Therefore, step-by step the teacher started to build con dence of the students and so they got used to it and started to show interest. After 2 months, they started to remind the teacher that it is time to take pictures and post them to the blog. It showed that the teacher had managed to build a routine, which is a very important part with teaching the special need students. In January when the students started a bakery class with another teacher, they had already built up the routine. It was important to them to continue with the blog, so they took the initiative and started to take they pictures of their work themselves. Together with their class teacher, they posted it online and checked the names of the bakery to get it right. In the middle of February, everybody had taken the responsibility and considered the blog to be a part of their studies. During the e-learning week, which is in February, the SEN students had a task on Padlet to bake something at home, to photograph it and post it on Padlet. After that it was possible to see a huge step â the students were able to post online and share it in social media and they were proud of their work. They became aware that social media and online activities could be associated with different aspects, not only with communicating with their friends. Running the blog taught the students to use social media in a different way, to take photos, to communicate more openly and use a blog as a learning tool. fi fi SKILLS CENTRE â USE OF SUPPORTIVE T E C H N O LO GY St. Johnâs Central College have developed a Support Centre for students with special educational needs, those struggling with their studies and students with disabilities. Through this centre we provide study and learning support both through one to one support sessions and through digital solutions. Examples of some of the digital solutions are given here. The Read and Write software program has been loaded on to every computer within the college and is available to all students who require it to help with a multitude of literacy issues. This help includes allowing pages from a book or magazine to be scanned and read by the computer, the creation of audio les of the students own work and can be used in examinations instead of employing a physical reader or scribe. The Play function plays any text on screen aloud to the student. This can be useful to allow class notes, assignment briefs etc to be read to the student with literacy issues and also to allow them to check their own written work by being able to hear it read back to them. The function also has a âSpeak as I type option so that the student can easily check for errors. Voice Speed, Pitch and delay between words can be altered to meet the students needs. There is a spell check combined with a dictionary de nition to help with similarly sounding words eg. Flower, Flour. A screen masking function allows screen colour and intensity to be changed. Another option in use was the Of ce 365 immersive reader which serves a similar purpose. The main aim here is to not allow student literacy issues to prevent learning in other areas and to allow students to demonstrate their learning through multiple means This is in line with the aims of Universal Design for Learning. We also looked at digital solutions for Mathematics learning. These include; Photomath which allows the student to scan the mathematical function, the app then solves the problem but shows the student the logical steps leading to the solution. Modmath is a text editor for Mathematics. Desmos allows students to solve and obtain a visual representation of functions. Most students entering the college at present have a reasonable level of technological ability and are willing to engage productively with digital with support options fi fi fi IMPROVING DIGITAL COMPETENCES AND COMPUTATIONAL THINKING OF SEN STUDENTS IN VET This presentation is about inclusive activities for studentsâ with special needs to encourage their IT and communication skills on international level by taking part in NordPlus Junior Project. The project is an inclusive mind-set and focused on students with special educational needs (SEN). The project was carried out in Haapsalu Vocational Education Centre with Finnish and Icelandic partner schools. The main purpose of the project was to encourage studentsâ digital competences, computational thinking in living environment and using IT, to expand their language skills and open- mindedness about living in a variegated and digitalized world. The project is preventing social exclusion among young people with special educational needs. Taking part in this project encouraged the students to communicate with different people from foreign countries. Since everybody will need the ability to interact with a wide variety of people, especially in their future work, everyone needs to adapt with living in digital environments. Poor digital skills and the lack of computational thinking or low ability to communicate can be a risk factor for social exclusion. This problem occurs especially with SEN students who have less con dence and skills in this eld. The reason we wrote this project is that there are not enough possibilities and involvement of SEN students in different international projects, where they could communicate with people from other countries, practice teamwork and share their experiences and knowledge. To make the most out of this experience, it was necessary to have an adequate support for every student by involving two teachers from each country into the mobility. In addition, the project also educated the project partners. Students and teachers were encouraged to share their digital skills and approaches. Teachers gained pro t through observation and idea gathering for their future work. For dissemination and sharing the results, we had the project Facebook page and Instagram user account, to present the project activities and show the differences and similarities of participating students and their countries. The NordPlus Junior project âImproving DIGITAL COMPETENCES and COMPUTATIONAL THINKING of SEN students in VETâ is a good example how HKHK has combined the digital technology and different learning styles to assist students with learning dif culties. fi fi fi fi
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