something about me

I was born and raised in Tuscany where I studied and graduated. Since 1982 I live in Carpi in Emilia -Romagna. I teach German as foreign language (and civilization) at upper secondary school for foreign languages  “Pico” of Mirandola in Italy.Like so many other colleagues I have collected experiences of teaching in many school courses in high schools in my region. I participated in various experiences of partnerships with German schools. In my previous school, The I. I: S “A: Meucci” in Carpi, have for some years been the contact person for the DSA. Now in the current school I am responsible for Erasmus + projects . I love history and archeology and music and dance of all kinds.I have a boat license and I like to go sailing. The sea has always been part of my life. I am fascinated by the North Sea even though I am the daughter of the sun. I have five children and I’m married to a “Koelner Bursche”. Since I’m eager to learn every thing which can give new  a sort of a new flavor to my lessons I participate with enthusiasm to the first  course about coding and now to  this new course about developing digital  skills ! I have collected in this diary all the useful informations  I received in this course and  I could need after having finished attending this course.

first Module

what I found very  interesting  and challenging

eSkills course | M1 Future Thinking

my comment  on the padlet to this interesting video

“I think this is the ideal summary of what ollie says in the video above and I totally agree with him: “…”technology is not going to make teaching easier, but it’s certainly going to make it different.” I don’t really know if I will  see all the changes Ollie is talking about in the video above , but nevertheless I completely agree with what he says at the end addressing us as teachers: ” Let’s keep education values-based. Let’s really concentrate not on the technology but on what is important to be a human being. Let’s make sure that we teach young people to be resilient and also how to embrace change because change will be the only constant over the next 10, 20, 50 years. Let’s make sure that we put innovation at the heart of every curriculum. And whatever happens, let’s make sure that us as educators remain positive and always deliver the best possible service to children and young people.”  teaching to be resilient means teaching and learning with PBL using technologies with renewed pedagogical approaches wich can help us to face  in a positive and constructive way all the changes we will be confronted with”

Searching the Internet – advanced search

I found this section very useful for me and my students

As many other participants of the course I think that advanced search is surely something our students need to learn. The tips  and information I riceived in this modul are really useful and I have learnt something new  for me .I learned that  they can make the results much more ‘to-the-point’ and useful, even if you have to know what you are looking for with some detail. I will use them with my classes. One interesting option for school purposes is the ‘copyright or not’. The use of creative commons licenced materials  can help students  to  find materials which can be reused   freely , without copyright problems

…and what about the Hidden gems?    Simply great!

Digital plagiarism

I think digital plagiarism is very often a problem in our classes. I didn’t know about the tools presented in the video above and I will try to use them in the future . I think however that the best thing we can do is to try to make our students aware of the importance of a honest and responsible use of the informations that can be found in the net : That’s why I will show the next film in my classes and I will discuss with them about it’s content. A very very useful input to reflection !!!

 One of the most challenging parts of the course for me:

How to create digital  resources/contents

I think coding is very challenging for me as I  teach German and I’d like to deepen my knowledge about tool such  as scratch and mine craft . I have already attended a previous course about coding but I need more training and suggestion about  howto use it in foreign language classes

……..writing for the web

“as a convinced eTwinner I use to work a lot on the platform using and giving my students the natural audience of all our european project partner. For parents we use what’s app groups or even parents chats when we make for example an exchange , introducing parents in the eTwinning world where their children work and learn. I’m convinced that google apps can be very useful and I’d like to learn how to use blogs and web sites in the best way. I have a blog and I created also web sites with my students during eTwinning project but I’d like to learn how to use all these tools in the most  useful way for me and my classes”

about online collaboration….

“yes a use google docs and forms. I use google drive to share and modify documents in real time with all my students. During these days my students have used google presentations in a collaborative interactive ways with their eTwinning project partners as we created mixed working groups .
I also use ourboox in a collaborative way. We create first of all a google account with the name of the project and then we create  other accounts for several tools with the google email address. Each student can work on the document using the tool helping and modifying what peers have done .

Das sind wir! Questi siamo noi!

I’m also very interested to try to use also the other tools mentioned in the  following video

Audio and Videos

I often use videos  for my classes and I try to work as often as I can with flipped modality
I found very useful materials for german classes  on a site called Wissenswerte under this link
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE37A20BB9249C5B0
I also work with self made videos
which we  create with Imovie or even with  movie maker  using smartphones or digital camera
we use also audacity , powtoon, emaze , prezi,  voki,… but I will try to learn with my students also all the tools suggested in the video  related to this section

I tryed a couple of time to create a web site for some eTwinning projects and we did it (my students and me) using google sites
here the link to one of our projects
https://sites.google.com/site/carpiweiden/
I’m completely aware of the fact that I need to know more about this subject, I mean how to use websites in the best way for didactical purpose sinse I have very limited experience in doing it

and now  I  begin  to feel a little bit overwhelmed by  the difficulties ….

…….Games Design

during the last course about coding I have attended I had the opportunity to make some tries with my german classes with scratch and also mine craft using  German as  main language to give instructions . It was very enjoyable
but I think I need much more training in order to use this fantastic tools in the proper way. I’m convinced they could be used in a very creative way to develop also a creative use of the foreign language

the most challenging and difficult part for me , but nevertheless very interesting and involving

4. How to programme machines

 CODING

As many other colleagues I love my job and sharing my enthusiasm with my students. I’m working  as teacher for more than 30 years and I  always try to find out new ways and methods and tool to get my students more and more involved in what we are sharing together.I changed  several schools , as many other teachers in Italy.

What I particularly  appreceate in my school is the desire of innovation and the curiosity  and also the space given to all that possibilities which can enhance  and widen students’ and teachers’ motivation and competence : for example the importance of virtual and real exchanges which can provide a real language and cross curricolar  improvement as well as a real sensibility for world citizenship

I think that coding  can be really relevant for students at every age and school level . It should be taught in primary and secondary schools and across all subjects because it teaches  logical and critical thinking and it helps to to become  creative .  I think that  in my country teachers  of any subject need to be trained  because we don’t  know about the proper use and all the potentialities of coding. The situation is better if you consider primary school but in the upper secondary school only teacher of scientific area know about coding.

I love these two girls!!!

I made some tries  in using scratch  and mine craft in my classes and my student loved it ! I saw the video  on the previous page  during a previous course about coding and I found it very interesting and I showed it to my students . They found it very motivating especially the fact that two brains are better than one . I could observe how they worked together , really collaborating  being once the driver and once the navigator. By working in pair like this they really could understand and  verify the importance of a proper way to communicate  , learning at the same moment  what empathic thinking and critical thinking means  to be really creative and not only a passive user of technology. The only question now is to learn how to use it in a good programmed  way for my  german classes. The first steps have been done now we must go ahead!

I think it is  really crucial to understand how we might use computer programming or computer coding to be able to link to other subjects. As I said before I teach German in an upper secondary school for foreign languages in Italy and I   have already made some tries to use coding in my classes. What I did was to give my students some instruction in German by switching the language from english in to german  for example with scratch and mine craft ; but that’s was all I could do for the first time . Now I’m thinking about how to introduce it in a good programmed way into the curriculum,  may be also trough the potential of  games design for cross-curricular project work. I think for example to develop an eTwinning project about game design in a collaborative way with our project partners choosing a theme about which we could develop games .
But I don’t really know how to use it in a proper way or how to develop an app! I’m really eager to know how to use it in my classes

I think I need some more time for seeing and rethinking about all the resources we have been given in the previous video  , and then, may be,  I can  say something useful ! What I find really crucial is to involve students   to think about the most important problems they have to face  in earning how to communicate in german with their eTwinning partners for example . I’ll try to do it for the next project because now the end of our school year  draws near and there is no much time to be left  for such activities which need a  proper planning . Beside that I need to learn this subject  from the very beginning because I don’t really know how to develop an app! I will try to learn more about the web sites you talked about in the video on the previous page!

there are so many interesting things to be learned ! here my first attempt with touch develop: I’ll be studying all the summer and preparing  something interesting for my classes!…mmmh I hope so!

this woman fascinated me!

I found the video about Tullia Urschitz very interesting and I think it could be possible to create an  eTwinning project including different subjects as for example german and maths and robotics . students could work in a collaborative  way writing a story and creating the characters to be moved with  robots  working with teachers of maths and discussing in the forum of the eTwinning platform on how to use and program the robots in an interactive way. We could improve both the foreign language and the mother tongue helping our project partner to learn the appropriate  structures in the foreign language by learning together how to program and how to write the programs in the appropriate way  in order to translate the written story into action

this video  must be seen again and again

the computational thinking concept behind the simple activities shown by Tullia in the  previous video   is really fascinating. I did some unplugged activities with my classes during the previous course about coding . Since I teach German I asked my students to give  their blind classmate instructions in german  so we used this activity as a review of giving instruction on the road .
My students enjoyed it very much and then we reflected on the meaning of Algorithm
I don’t use robots but who can know?..may be in the next eTwinning project!

Internet of Things

I think , the Internet of things is a deniable fact  but  people and teacher must be aware of the risks connected with it  . I think  the guide to a responsible use and attitude towards Internet and all its applications in daily life is crucial for our future and the future of our children and students as well. I see many advantages and also many risks as Ollie said in the  his video

Technologies like a Learnometer  can make school environment better. Again Ollie confronted us with very fascinating and challenging perspectives . I completely agree with what he said at the end : the methodology behind the use of every technology is what means: we have to keep in mind some leading concepts: to help students to become resilient , responsible, respectful , open minded ,with a positive attitude towards useful innovation , ready to share ideas and experiences while listening to other’s opinion in order to achieve tangible and positive results for the community in which we are living.

5. How to use social media?

as an  eTwinning ambassador I  often meet other teachers and we discuss about the use of technologies  as opportunity to help methodological innovation in teaching and learning praxis. I agree with Luca who says that  the crucial question is to create an appropriate training system  for developing teacher skills, not only concerning digital literacy. I think eTwinning can offer a very important occasion for professional development and methodological innovation

I usually use social media to communicate and collaborate with my eTwinning partners both for projects or other activities . For our projects and also for my classes   e create what’s app groups .  We use slide share google+, vimeo and youtube . I don’t use very often face book  but I use sometime twitter .  Since I agree with Ollie when he says “Social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way that we communicate” and  that “a good  understanding of social media is important to help people get a job.”, I’d like to know how to use  better social networks  for my projects or teaching activities in order to help my students to become more prepared to face the future work world. I think also that a crucial aspect of internet and social media access is the netiquette and awereness of risks related to the net

here Ollie speaks also about  eTwinning!

I think, as many others colleagues of this course, I cover all the three parts mentioned by Ollie . I am a member of the biggest net of teachers in Europe: eTwinning and as  an eTwinning ambassador  I organize and I also take part into many face to face events
I’m a member of school groups I participate as a member in several thematic groups for eTwinning members . I’m also coordinator of Erasmus projects in my school and I thake part into online and face to face events
I’m not so skilled in using face book  but I’ll try to become more confident in the use of all the opportunities offered by this social media . Since I found out of eTwinning my professional life changed a lot because  it really gives me the opportunity “to be connected to the latest research, to be connected with colleagues that have similar interests and to be connected, most importantly, to other classrooms” (Ollie) from all over Europe : it gives the opportunity to have a class without walls being connected with new impulses , ideas  and becoming real author of best practicies. Through eTwinning I knew for example  also about The  european schoolnet academy  and all the resources offered by it’s courses
What we could improve also in my school could be the right use of several socialmedia  with an appropriate methodological approach and project behind

Social Media in the Workplace

First of all we  have to help students to think critically and to   understand that social media and the net can become a very important way to learn and to  work. I don’t want to seem and ,may be ,  to become boring for other members of this course, but I strongly believe that eTwinning projects can be very useful to achieve  the goals I mentioned above. One of the basic ideas of eTwinning is the correct and responsible  approach and use  of the net and it’s social media . While developing eTwinning projects and realizing the series of small task related to them, in order to achieve a tangible result, students learn to think creatively and to have a critical approach to the resources they are confronted with , included the approach with social media. They learn for example how to behave and react  properly during a chat or which materials can be downloaded  and   reused or modified  and uploaded without infringing copyrights. In our last Erasmus project we had a workshop in Hungary  with students coming from 5 different European Countries  about  safe internet  approach. The students found it very useful and made a lot of questions which have been answered by experts . It was a really good experience

the biggest challenge:

6. Final Project

from this course I take  lots of informations with me but most of all a new enthusiasm for  new ways of making my lesson more effective and involving. Thank you!  The first thing that I will do is to think how to use facebook to create  contents in an interactive way, may be also for my next etwinning project and for sure I will try to use also scratch in the next project 

    see you in the next course        

  Emmagi