Voyage Coetail

What is changing because of technology: education or the educators? This week’s prompt gives me a lot to reflect on! That’s another good thing about Coetail: the reflection part! Reflecting on our learning is already a change in education and it is even more visible and doable because of technology. Obviously, I’ve always reflected on my teaching but not as much as I do now. I’ve never blogged about it. [caption id="attachment_420" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by omran.jamal https://flickr.com/photos/62855773@N08/10757491534 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license[/caption] Reflection is, I think, part of the growth mindset and if we want changes to happen, don’t we, educators, need to have a growth mindset? Easy to say when we know how scary tech integration can be sometimes. Carol Dweck, author of “ Mindset ” explained in Recognizing and overcoming false growth mindset We have come to realize that every one of us is a mixture of bo...

I didn’t want to start this post by the usual “I love stories”, yet I love stories…especially when they’re made digitally in French lessons. En français! I kept on asking my students to talk in French, reuse all the words they’ve been learning, to express themselves in French. Obvious to say that some students are natural-born communicator, always happy to talk and raise their hands even if they don’t know the answer and some others who blush just with the idea of talking in front of the group. However when it comes to use technology in the French class and to record them, the activity becomes fun and even the more shy are happy to participate. I regularly record my students when they‘re presenting, reporting to the class or acting out. I found a nice trick to have everybody excited about the activity: recording their feet! I can still hear them, they can still listen to them and everybody is happy to listen to the recording. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSj2EgMl4[/embed] ...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="225"] https://quotesgram.com/le-petit-prince-important-quotes/[/caption] I’ve just opened the Pandora box ( YES, tech is evil!!!). For the last five weeks, I’ve realised the power of new technology integrated into teaching, the impact it could have (or not) on learning. For me, a whole new world of possibilities is out there. Thanks Coetail! I’m becoming paperless! Last week, my French department had Open class days. That’s a day where parents came to participate to French lessons and to receive information about French curriculum and resources. This year, I uploaded everything on my Wiki pages. No more paper copies!!! Back to my reflections for this week: how can we embrace globally collaborative projects in our curricular areas to address this facet of 21st Century Learning? By the way what are global collaborative projects? Why do we do that? How do they take place? Do I do collaborative projects in my classroo...

Wouah! I’m super excited with the Coetail program as I’m learning new things that open new horizons!! Genius and powerful! Those are the words that came into my mind after reading “Connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age” by George Siemens. This is so obvious! Of course, I have used this theory before. And you know what? I have experienced it just before writing this post. What I have done? To make sure that I understand it well, I did some research. As I “messed around”, I have found several interesting, inspiring articles and videos but this one makes sense for me. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFCYjm6nf40[/embed] I store my knowledge in my friends As George Siemens says: “Learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime. Learning and work related activities are no longer separate. In many situations, they are the same. Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.” Karen Stephenson states: “Experience has ...