Boosting of New Technologies and E-Learning

There is a great and effective way to discover in a safe, friendly and supportive environment the best apps, web solutions and social platforms for teaching and student learning.

We have been proving it together with five participants from Poland, Spain and Slovenia during our New Technologies and E-learning course which took place in Palermo from the 13th to 19th of March. We did a lot of digital steps and deepened ICT and e-learning knowledge.

At first, we discovered Jamboard,​ a virtual whiteboard for interactive lessons and presentations where students can take part as well, then we were moving towards Powtoon: an extremely engaging visual communication platform that gives you the freedom to create professional and fully customized videos. Our participants made their creative videos using unique templates, scenes, images and music.

They also had a chance to edit the photos we’ve taken during the city tour with the help of Snapseed photo editor and create a collage with PicCollage. It was a really nice moment of collecting the memories from sunny Sicily. 

Participants were really excited by Mentimeter as they could participate in an interactive presentation-quiz on Palermo and its history and thus gain students’ perspective. Then, they tried to create their own presentations with tasks about the cities, where they live and make us participate too:) It was a great experience as we exchanged cultures and found out many new things! Our trainees appreciated Socrative a lot: it gives them an opportunity to make various quizzes, monitor and evaluate the process and get immediate feedback.

It’s worth mentioning that we had much fun exploring Bamboozle app for creating classroom games and Quizlet for interactive flashcards and quizzes. We were refreshing our knowledge in school subjects such as Math, Biology and English, but the game was not fair enough as there were three Math teachers involved:) These applications are perfect for increasing competition spirit and teaching in a new interactive way! 

We learned how to create posters and presentations in Canva,  that has become rather common among teachers for a simple reason that it allows them to create the contents easily, and how to create “visual scenes” on Thinglink. On the other side, Edpuzzle and TedEd showed us how to create beautiful and interactive materials using ready-to-use Youtube or TED videos.
Last but not least, Edmodo showed us how to deal with “classroom management” in and easy and engaging way. 

Besides course activities, our participants also enjoyed two city tours around multicultural and chaotic, but charming Palermo, its narrow ancient streets, mix of styles and shapes, local authentic markets and stunning seaside in Mondello. Moreover, we have visited Monreale cathedral with the biggest and the most impressive golden mosaics in Italy. It was totally a blast!

Looking forward to seeing you again!

​More info on the course “Discover the best apps and tools for E-learning, Distance learning and Web Design” at the link: https://www.erasmustrainingcourses.com/diversity-and-intercultural-learning-in-the-classroom.html and of the course “Making the most of new technologies, apps and social media in the classroom” at the link https://www.erasmustrainingcourses.com/social-media-in-the-classroom.html.