Two in One

Short of time as I am, I'm posting two interesting sites for you in one single post.




The first one is held and kept by a New Zealand ELT teacher. Sarah Lilburn posts her videocasts on ELT in a website where students can watch her as she talks about Hamlet, explains the present perfect or teaches you how to greet the Queen!



I think it is a very original way to ensnare students! In just a few years' time we'll see this will not be so unusual. New ideas are welcome! and this one is solid! Congratulations, Sarah!

If what you need is an online dictionary, here's a website with hundreds!
YouDictionary.com offers definitions, thesaurus entries, spelling, pronunciation, and etymology... and many languages!



It's worth having a look. You can even have your name in Egyptian hieroglyphics!

L'Estartit

Rain, rain and rain... but also fun, boardgames, short walks along shopping street and lots of brunyols. Therapeutic stay at Pere and Tere's apartment at L'Estartit: Thanks a lot, my friends!

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What a disaster!

Interesting website from ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), a United Nations organisation caring about the natural disasters and its effects on the world's population.

It contains a link to a game about disaster control, where students can deal with different threats in different parts of the world: Tsunamis, fires, earthquakes...

The game gives a lot of information through documents, images and charts about different natural disasters. It is very easy to implement in the classroom, as all is presented in a very easy and clear way.
Once students start playing the game, they must control the risks of an eventual disaster, by means of building defences and developing structures to avoid future dangers. The interface is very catchy, and students have always the feeling of being in the middle of a very interesting computer game. It is very good for practising English, both vocabulary and oral production, as there's a constant need to negotiate about what decisions to take. So... a good cocktail: Fun, group work, projects, and English!

ICT and Videogames: Tim Rylands

For those interested in videogames in education, here's a very interesting site from Tim Rylands, a Primary teacher from the UK who is now using videogames at a cutting edge stage. The use of a game such as Myst in the classroom provides with a wide variety of exploitation possibilities. Don't miss the video about some of his techniques, and visit his site. It will be rewarding, believe me!

Thinkingworlds Training in Barcelona 15/16 march 2007

We made it!
The training's over, and the sensations are great!
Our colleagues saw the potential of the tool, and, even though some trimming or tuning might be needed, I'm sure will come out with a very successful project. We have been able to create simple and solid assets covering different areas. Our goal is to be able to create a set of materials suitable for our schools, and to be able to disseminate the potential of this application so that more teachers can feel engaged to this common project. I want to thank Duncan and Rob for their patience and kindness. Added value was their skill to show the potential of Thinkingworlds.

Here are some pictures for you!

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Guess Who?

It's a pity I can't put the Stevie Wonder song here, because she deserves it!

Whole bunch: First shot

Here's a first picture of the whole family: As you can see, the elder ones were not in the mood for interviews, so we leave it just like that!

Games in education

As you probably know, I'm deeply involved in digging into the possibilities of 3D virtual games (Caspian Learning)...

...and virtual worlds (Second Life) in education.

We are going to hold a training session with catalan teachers and people from Caspian Learning in Barcelona in march. I'm sure we will end up with a highly successful outcome, and that will lead the way to a great number of 3D activities created by our teachers for our schools.

I also find amazing the massive amount of possibilities for education that Second Life contains, although it gives a different approach from Thinkingworlds: Secondlife is an open field of possibilities and variations. Too open I would say if there is not enough control or training for/from the teachers. Caspian Learning's Thinkingworlds is an environment that provides teachers with the possibility to create closed assets with no interference from the www.

Two lawns with different grass to tread... and believe me, both tempt you to walk barefoot!

Here's a video clip about games in education by the Orange County Department of Education's Educational Technology Group. They have given permission to post.

One of the interesting things commented in the video is the fact that educational institutions don't usually have cutting edge technology that allows end users (schools and students) to use cutting edge software. That would imply a drawback from the game designers' point of view, who are not very keen on stepping back in order to create software with a less sophisticated technology than the one used in commercial products. But the actual truth should make them consider the possibility of stepping back a little in order to create these products. Probably the great leap forward would come in no time, once they found out there's a market for that kind of materials.

Vampires and fairies

Clara and Mònica had their Carnival party at school. They chose to represent the two sides of the force: Clara was dressed as a vampire, and Mònica as a fairy.

First bath in the Royal Spa

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Emma had her first bath a few days ago at the Royal Spa (AKA home). Her sisters gaver her the best possible assitastance, and since that day, she enjoys diving into the depths of her little bathtub!

Some are lucky...

Time for carnival! just a tie, but enough to strike a pose in front of an old Mavica and portrait these people that make my job easy. The smiles are not just for the pose... they are there everyday!

Can anyone spot my boss?

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Emma the Third

And here she comes!

Our third daughter Emma arrived on the 2nd of february, at 6:40 am. I apologise for the delay in posting the news, but the week has been pretty busy, as you can imagine. She's a lovely girl with a lot of dark hair, likely to fall in summer, as it happened with Mònica the Second. We all take turns to cuddle her, and we do argue to be first!

Back to work on monday... I'll go back to post ESL links for my colleagues... and I'll miss her!

I'll keep you up to date with her progress, and I will bother you with loads of bubbleshare slideshows. Here's the first:



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Thursday, 1st

On thursday the 1st, we are called to turn our lights off for five minutes, to be cut off from the world of power from 19:55 to 20:00. When I read about it, it shocked me a bit, indeed, but as I reflected on the idea, I saw that it was not meant to change the world, but to help us see how much energy we would save if we were a bit more sensible.

We are going to join the initiative (provided we are not in the middle of our third daughter's birth, due for that very same day), and I encourage you to do the same!

Cheers!

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Cashback

A very witty short film. 17 minutes of intelligence and sensitivity awarded at Sundance festival. Take your time and watch it!

Shivers...

I'm reading a book by Frank Schätzing... The Swarm (El Quinto Dia in Spanish). It is a very good book, indeed. Long as it is, you never find the time to put it down.

It deals with the fight of makind to survive a global threat coming up from the deep, and it covers computer science, ecology, biology andp politics, all perfectly threaded in a thrilling mess all through 881 pages (mind you, I'm right through two thirds of the novel, and how am I enjoying it!).



Yesterday I watched a piece of news on the telly about a creature from the deep that came up to the surface in Japan... a frilled shark... It looked like a monster to me. It is a very old species, and just the look of it made me think of the lurking dangers from Schätzing's book. The truth is that now I'm aware of the fact that the unknown mysteries are not so far... just 10.000 metres below!

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A Good Game

Something I forgot about last Holidays: The Three Wise Men brought me a very good present... a bord game called Carcassonne. It consists on laying tiles which develop into a medieval landscape you must conquer.

A very nice and catchy layout. If there's someone willing to play.. I'd like to find some friends to play with me once in a while (not far from home, of course.. three children make things difficult, you know).

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Performancing

A very interesting tool for us bloggers: A Mozilla add-on that lets you publish posts directly into your blog! You only have to go to the add-on page of Mozilla at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/ and search for Performancing:

Once you restart Mozilla Firefox you wil see a small icon on the lower right corner with a small clipboard... just set up your blog there and get started!

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Back after a long while!

Here I am back from holidays... an later! It's been pretty busy at home, with lots of things to do because of Emma's arrival. She's expected by late january, but she'll probably be with us before. Clara and Mònica are really excited, and they keep calling Emma in her mummy's bossom: "C'mon, Emma, time to come!".
Back at work, I'm completely engaged in Caspian's project. It is really rich and motivating, and I hope we will come out with very good results.
Hey, I forgot: 5 in the family... need for more room... need for a bigger car. Those who want to collaborate.. It's a new 7 seater C4 Picasso... we accept donations!

Anyway, back to work. Here's a very interesting website where you can have your students in a chat room where you can recreate different simulated situations in different sceneries. You can even create your private island, which is good if you want to have a controlled chat in a closed environment. Just don't buy any gadget, they are not necessary, and have fun...very catchy, my colleagues, believe me!

Visit the website and have a try... you won't regret it!

http://www.boombang.tv/

Up here with some Geordie lads

I'm here in Newcastle upon Tyne at Caspian Learning in a two-day training session. we are setting up a project together. They have produced some fantastic stuff for education: 3D educational assets which can be used in different subjects. They are very motivating and catchy. I'm here to learn how to deal with some of the assets, how to deal with the authoring tool, and also to to talk about the joint project. I'm leaving tomorrow, but I've got the feeling that I could have stayed for some more days: there is so much to learn... and I feel like getting into it straight away. We are going to have some training sessions in Barcelona with people from Caspian together with a group of teachers who are eager to learn how to exploit the possibilities of thinkingworlds.

Thanks to you, Chris, Duncan, David, Rob, and to all of you up here at Caspian, mates. I hope we can come up with a rewarding and long-lasting experience.

Engaging tools

Here's a group of interesting tools for you:

Heromachine. Draw your own hero: http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine/classic.asp



Decorate your Room. Practise vocabulary and have fun: http://www.studio2b.org/lounge/games/decorate_room/default_popup.html



Create films in a very catchy interface at DFilm Moviemaker: http://www.dfilm.com/index_movie_start.html