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Social Networks, Communities of Practice, and Personal Learning Networks

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A As I mentioned in my previous article, we are living in a new era now. We as teachers, we must be conscious of that. Our students does not have the same expectations regarding the teaching experience and the tools that the teachers should use in class. Most of Millennial are expecting a dynamic class and they are expecting teachers capable to handle the traditions, the knowledge as well as the technology.  It is amazing now how many opportunities Teachers have around the world; technology have allowed us to live in a connected and hyper connected world. We can be chatting here face to face while there is somebody learning Chinese Mandarin with a colleague in China. Is not that an amazing thing?  However, we have to be captious with the use of the "Social Networks, Communities of Practice, and Personal Learning Networks", especially with the first ones. Why? Due Technology can connect us but not expose us to people with bad intentions. (I know this is not

Videos and other useful Web 2.0 tools

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We have the opportunity to grow every day. Each day is passing we become wiser or that is the goal or the natural course of being on Earth. While some people evolving others are involving.  What makes the difference between those types of people? We must observes two words resistance and assertiveness.     What are these two Word so important? They could determine our professional or personal grow in every area of our lives. They reflects the attitude that we can assume in front of each obstacle. Regarding the use of technology, people have the option to resist to its use and be afraid of them or they just can figure out how they can use them for their own goodness. We can see this example clearly when Internet was created and launched; there were people that were afraid of that and resisted to use it. On the other hand, they were a lot of people that were opened to use it and they started to learn how to use it. The last example is not just the only one; I

What is podcasting? How useful is it?

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Nowadays, there are certain elements that have become so popular. Sometimes, we can hear people talking about them and we can feel that we are out of the place. Podcast is the case, many people are using this/those videos to record relevant information o simple information that they want to register. However, I was asking to an expert about the importance of Podcasting for us as teacher. He just told me this: PODCASTS make you powerful; they make you stronger and help you to go further that you think you could go. He was explaining to me that he works in an enterprise that edit and have a quality control to some customers that creates them. Additionally, he told me about people that they just take a topic talk about whatever they want to talk but nothing specific or particular. He just said me you do not need to have such an interesting topic; you should have the desire of communicating a message to someone and publish. The rest come later. If we understand, how pow

Blogging in ELT

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            Most of the time as teachers, we tend to focus only on teaching and transmitted our knowledge in our daily classes. Maybe, we do not think about leaving a legacy or share our knowledge to our future generation. This technological era has given us that opportunity by using the blogs or by blogging. What is a blog? Why did they become so important in most of the Universities in USA and Europe? According to Cambridge Dictionary, blogging is the action to add new material or regularly updated a blog. While a blog is a virtual space, it is generally consider a page with personal purpose, where we add information in a chronological way. There are different kind of blogs, we have Personal Blogs, business blogs, professional blogs, media blogs, freelance bloggers, affiliate blogs, among the most popular sites for blogging, and we can find the following ones published on the Wbbeginners webpage: WordPress.or ,  Wix ,  WordPress.com ,  Blogge ,  Tumblr ,  Medium  

Basic concepts of ICT used in education

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Basic concepts of ICT: an overview of distance learning, E-learning and flipped classrooms A person who wants to learn something will find the ways, but a person that does not want to will find excuses. In this technological age, there are many ways throughout we can learn. Among them, we have distance learning, e-learning, b-learning, mobile learning and blending learning. It is important to highlight the development that has occurred through technology. Especially, we can see that the education field have grown because of it. Children and adults can learn without having a teacher in situ. They could have access to a virtual class and they can have access to the best teachers of the world by a click. One of the most surprising thing is that a cellphone that before was perceived as a simple device. Nowadays, it is a very useful tool. The mobile learning allows students that normally do not have time to take a regular class, to have a class anytime they need. They ca

The Web evolution: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, X.0 - Static websites: e-portfolios for professional purposes

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All that we have today is not there by chance, they did not appear from nothing. In the ICT world, most of the things have evolved. For example: long time ago, there were only webs 1.0 or spaces that did not allow the interaction or exchange of information and content, as we know today. Right now, most of the platform are working with the 2.0 webs ‘format. Why? Because right now, the users have a voice and they like to express themselves or in some cases add extra information, knowing this, what are we going to do as teachers of English as Foreign language? What are the advantages or disadvantages of using the web 1.0 and 2.0? What could be great for us to use?      In this particular article, I am going to be focus my attention to the most used one, the web 2.0. The interactive platform that as I mentioned before; it allows the interaction with the users. It could be either dynamic or static. If we decide to enter in this world and start producing materials or content that co

The history of the Internet and Digital literacy

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In a changing world, it is important to be constantly learning. Specially, learning about the digital area. The information and the way to obtain it have evolved. Nowadays, we can get access to a lot of information like the blink of an eye throughout the internet, and its technological tools.  For that reason, it is important not to be a digitally illiterate. Regarding the term Digital Literacy, how can we define it? One of the word that we can use to analyze it is the word literate. According to Word References dictionary is perceived as the competences or knowledge in specified area or the ability to read or write. In this particular case, I perceive it as the ability to understand and handle the devices and technological elements, such as: laptops, tablets, iPhone, kindles, internet, the apps and the technological programs. It is also an ability that allow us to read and write in a digital way, and to communicate a message at the same time. Why is important to be a