In recent years, formal education has given way to virtual classes and online courses. Because of this, we had to adapt and think about a new way to teach and learn remotely. In this case, the use of new technologies, tools and interactive learning platforms has proven to be a winner. These technologies have enabled teachers around the world to maintain an engaging and dynamic environment also in virtual classrooms. The same tools also confirmed their usefulness in real classrooms, especially when it came to attracting the students’ attention and enthusiasm. The new edition of the combined courses “Making the Most of New Technologies, apps and Social Media in the Classroom” and “Discover the Best Apps and Tools for E-learning, Distance Learning and Web Design” concentrated exactly on these matters. This session of the course took place in Palermo from 18/02/2024 to 24/02/2024. The participants came from all across Europe, with Danica, Alena and Michaela from Private Secondary Business School, Košická academia in Slovakia, Mihails and Imants from Rezekne Academy of Technologies in Latvia, Petra from Gymnázium, Mladá Boleslav, Palackého 191/1 in Czech Republic, Francisco from CEIP Juan Mendoza Mendoza in Spain, Dajana from Chastno osnovno uchilishte "Obrazovatelni tehnologii" in Bulgaria and Erika and Beata from Vilnius engineering and technology lyceum in Lithuania During this course, participants learned to use a wide range of technological tools and to implement them by integrating them into their teaching methods. The purpose was to apply these new technologies in classrooms and virtual ones to teach easily and more effectively. They started the course by looking at the simplest and easiest tools for editing videos that are very useful for teaching. Indeed, we can use these tools in different ways such as preparing multimedia content, introducing a new topic summarizing an old one, and challenging students to create their work to engage their creativity. Another topic analyzed was how to create a website, which can offer different options of use in remote. By creating different pages and enriching them our participants had the chance to personalize their internet, write a blog to report on the development stages of a project, create portfolios etc. The course then covered other tools for collecting and sharing resources and content. They discovered platforms that allow them to and improve videos, images, texts, and other media, and share all this content with their students with a simple click. These tools can be useful, for example, to describe parts of a table, especially in science subjects, to provide a deeper context for a richer experience when addressing a new subject, through the study of foreign languages. The participants also put into practice tools that function as collaborative walls, where each user is to publish and contribute to the creation of more exhaustive information. Amongst the many tools they discovered, they also learnt about interactive presentations in which the teacher can request the class’ opinion by proposing polls, creating word clouds, asking for questions or feedback on the topic being presented, creating video lessons, particularly effective in these times, and online learning quizzes, very useful to verify the progress of the students. Participants left this course with knowledge of new interactive learning technologies and a new set of tools, ready to use them in their real online courses. There is no doubt that this method will increase students' creativity, engagement, attention and motivation and transform learning into a fun and dynamic activity.
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Welcome to the ELA Blog. Here you will find articles and photos of our courses and have a look at the topics addressed during the week in Bologna, Palermo and Tenerife. You will also have the chance to take a peek at our projects and check out what we have been up to.
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