CPD for busy teachers with MicrosofEDU

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MicrosoftEDU offers a number of courses (click here ) on a range of topics/areas. Some courses teach you how to use specific tools (e.g. OneNote here) while others offer a broader perspective and teach how to incorporate technology in your teaching practice. The courses last between 1-3 hours.

Here are some courses that I, personally, found interesting and useful. There are many, many more.

If you have ever wondered why there is a need for ICT in teaching and/or if you personally teach in the 21st century environment, try 21st CENTURY LEARNING DESIGN and learn about 21st century skills and how to develop them.

Definitely, one of my favourite: a 1-hour BUILDING GLOBAL CITIZENS course teaching how to engage students in working together on real world problems.

As part of global citizenship, DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP is a crucial element of 21st centrury education. Learn about it in just 30 minutes. Learn about three pillars of digital citizenship and how to prepare your students for living in a digital society. Click the image to get there.

Learn about the tools you can use to address a range of diverse needs and make your teaching inclusive HERE  and take an 1-hour course on DYSLEXIA AWARENESS (here)

There is much more MicrosofEDU has to offer:

  • Spend 90 minutes to learn about PROBLEM BASED LEARNING and how to encourage students’ critical thinking and collaboration while solving complex problems.
  • See how ICT can be used in class to teach about small and big ideas.
  • Take your students on a VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP with Skype.
  • Choose from a number of webinars HERE.
  • Watch quick tips videos HERE.
  • Use MicrosofEDU resources HERE.

 

 

 

Let your students get VISUAL

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Let your students get VISUAL using: ADOBE SPARKS, LUCIDPRESS and GOOGLE DRAWINGS

FirmBee / Pixabay

 

 

 

Together with my students I decided that the product of a series of lessons on DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP (see this post) will be a visual (poster, leaflet, flyer) with DOs and DON’Ts. Although there is a number of very good tools, we decided on a choice of four.

Below a wee overview and a selection of students’ work.

ADOBE SPARKS GOOGLE DRAWING

a short introductory clip from Lynda.com on what Adobe Sparks is. You can enrol for the whole course.

Watch a short tutorial by Richard Byrne:

 

 

 have a look how Jen Jonson created a beautiful infographics in google drawing

easy, fast, efficient, user super-friendly, FREE option is more than enough for your classwork

VIDEOS: your students can upload videos, add text , icons, music or voice without any sophisticated skills 🙂

 

 

in-house G-drive app; you can create: diagrams, posters, drawings; mindmaps, or concept maps;

good for individual work as well as collaborative project

FOR TEACHERS: just ditch a coursebook (joking) and prepare your own dynamic interactive lessons including videos for

example.

CANVA LUCIDPRESS 

a tutorial on how to use Canva – one of the best tools for any visuals

A drag-and-drop tool enabling you to produce wonderful visuals. Available as a stand-alone desktop tool or an in-built app (in G-Drive).

absolutely fantastic program using a drag-and-drop format, full of free icons, banners, templates, pictures, you name it. FREE version is enough;

a piece of advice: apparently, not good if you want to create a trademark and use it. Copyright issues. But for school use it is absolutely fine. If you want to find out more about legal issues, read an article by N. Styles here.

You can produce brochures, leaflets, banners as well as documents such as CVs, magazines or certificates.  FREE option full of templates, icons or images.

VERDICT: 

 

SPARKS – gold medal for the VIDEO creation tools and for the fact that is is really FREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CANVA – gold medal for fantastic tools for static iamges/visuals

GOOGLE DRAWINGS – gold medal just because it’s google (joking,joking) – for simplicity and collaboration option

LUCIDPRESS – gold medal for simplicity and wide range of free tools

Below, simple visuals created by my students on DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP 

 

 

 

What is DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

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Digital Citizenship in plain English: norms, rules and regulations applied when using technology appropriately and in a responsible way.

See other definitions:

  • Digital citizenship is about confident and positive engagement with digital technologies. (….)”
  • “(…) the quality of a response to membership in digital community (….)”
  • ” (…) Digital citizenship empowers people to reap the benefits of digital technology in a safe and effective way(…)”

THE SEMANTICS OF DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP – elements, dimensions, pillars, core values, competences …… 

Digital Citizenship poster highlighting the nine elements of Digital Citizenship as defined by Dr. Mike Ribble, by Fractus learning https://www.fractuslearning.com

https://www.fractuslearning.com/digital-citizenship-poster/

Digital Etiquette electronic standards of conduct or procedure.
Digital Communication electronic exchange of information
Digital Literacy process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology
Digital Access full electronic participation in society
Digital Commerce electronic buying and selling of goods
Digital Law electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
Digital Rights & Responsibilities those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world
Digital Health & Wellness physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world
Digital Security (self-protection) electronic precautions to guarantee safety

 

The DQ (The Digital Intelligence Quotient) Institute identified eight core digital citizenship competencies constituting DQ.

https://www.dqinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/digitalcitizenship.png

Visit the the DQ Institute website here for more information and resources.

An absolutely fantastic website The Digital Teacher Cambridge features an interactive diagram of six areas: DIGITAL WORLD, DIGITAL CLASSROOM, DIGITAL TEACHER, DESIGNING LEARNING, DELIVERING LEARNING and EVALUATING LEARNING. Find out more about The Cambridge English Digital Framework for Language Teachers HERE.

PanJoyCZ / Pixabay

USEFUL RESOURCES: 

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP AGREEMENT – three, FREE TO DOWNLOAD, documents  published by Global Digital Citizenship Foundation HERE.

And my favourite Be Internet Awesome Pledge by google. [embeddoc url=”https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-interland.appspot.com/en-us/hub/pdfs/Google_BeInternetAwesome_Pledge.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES: 

  • POSTERS on the wall with tips (available free for downloading and printing HERE)
  • Collection of POSTERS from commonsense.org
  • Free classroom poster: I am a digital age learner
  • Free poster (British Council)

 

 

 

E-SAFETY RESOURCES

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E-SAFETY RESOURCES

One of the numerous e-safety images posted by Google

A collection of e-safety images posted by Google.

THINKUKNOW

Are you a teacher? Or a parent/carer? Check this out! Thinkuknow is the education programme from NCA-CEOP, a UK organisation which protects children both online and offline. The resurces (articles, videos, games) are split into the target groups: 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14+, parents/carers and children’s workforce.

Thinkuknow has their own youtube channel featuring a number of excellent educational videos.

DIGIZEN

Issues such as social networking and cyberbullying are explored on the Digizen website. Plenty of fantastic resources such as lesson plans, stories, videos or activities. See the digital citizenship  glossary:

[embeddoc url=”http://www.digizen.org/downloads/DIGIZEN_GLOSSARY.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

OTHER RESOURCES

CHILDNET INTERNATIONAL Childnet’s mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP  “Everything educators need to empower the next generation of digital citizens.”
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP & SAFETY COURSE by GOOGLE  “(…) online course is designed for you and your students to learn how they can help create a safe and positive experience online.”
NETSMART TEENS

Helping young people to make safer choices online through videos, games and interactive comics.

BETTER INTERNET FOR KIDS
WEB WE WANT  Created by young people for young people and by teachers for teachers. Available in 12 European languages.

 

 

save the trees – go paperless !!!!!!!!!!!!!

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save the trees – go paperless !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going paperless – a dream or a real possibility? I am currently using Planbook and Box for communication and storage. I have my Blog which students can use for extended learning. So other steps or what different steps should I take to go paperless? Which platform would be the best option for my students?