October in Review : The most popular posts pf the month !

David Bowie | Facebook (official)

https://www.facebook.com/davidbowie

Yes! I'm a fan of David Bowie! He is one of my favorite singers/musicians. David Bowie has been an endless game in the media and popular culture. Singer, dancer, actor, provocateur, innovator. 

The October issue of BBC History Magazine saw 10 fashion experts select the men and women they believe have set the fashion world alight over the centuries, and BBC History Magazine asked readers to vote for their favourite.  And David Bowie had been named the best-dressed Briton in history.

“Don't follow me. Look at what you want to be and go and do it, because that's the one thing you can go uniquely in life. "

Geoffrey Marsh (about David Bowie)

So this could be the quote for this post. I believe and practice the differentiation as a value by focusing on individual identity of my students. 

Well, after three busy weeks, having important work to do - the most impressive it was judging educational media as a member of the jury of MEDEA Awards - back my regularly scheduled program today! The most popular posts of the month.

And now, let's do! 

This is October in Review of the post of the month: 

I added eleven posts in October - Wow! - on different subjects. In October, I wrote posts in English, Français and Português.

Here my list of the 5 most popular, presented in most reading order. 

I am glad to see that the most-read post of October is Visiokids: Education: Sciences & 3D. 

Visokids

 | Visionarum

http://www.visionarium.pt/

O Visionarium apresenta os Visiokids (descontinuado no site), uma série televisiva em animação 3D, constituída por um total de 65 episódios, de cerca de dois minutos de duração ma RTP Ensina.

Cinco personagens – Atómico, Bit, Cósmico, Cassiopeia e Vita – que representam diferentes áreas da ciência, e que desde 23 Setembro são apresentadas diariamente na RTP2(?).

Verdade! Descobri esta série que partilho na publicação de hoje e que conjuga ciência e tecnologia. Encomendada à Insizium, uma empresa portuguesa, tem o apoio científico da Universidade do Porto.

Uma série animada em 3D a integrar com sucesso nos currículos escolares de Ciências. 

As ciências e as novas tecnologias têm um papel fundamental na educação e na sociedade.

Credits: Insizium

Education: Science & 3D

Visiokids is a 3D animation TV series (Portuguese language), made in Portugal by Isizium, focused on science, (consultancy at University of Porto) consisting of a total of 65 episodes with a minute and a half long. 

It's directed specially to children and young students aged 6-12, being an exciting, informal and accessible educational digital resource to Science (curiosities and questions present in everyday family life). The University

.

https://casadamusica.com/

Oh! What a special day! October 1 is International Music Day! And Music has always an important role on my blog.

As you already know me well as my usual readers, it would be impossible not to write about Music Day.

"No truly cultural pursuit, involving the intellect and the emotions, is complete unless it can be regarded as both an end and a means. It is an end in itself so far as it moves the aesthetic sense, gives immediate pleasure and becomes a part of our being. It is a means in the sense that it should raise us to a higher level, make us capable of going further to accomplish other, more difficult, more pregnant acts of cognition-in short, of developing our own powers and helping to develop those of the community."

Georges Duhamel, Académie Française

I think music should be taught in every school, from primary to secondary education as a serious curriculum.

The aim is not to form not only professional musicians, but to develop the appreciation, taste and critical judgment of the listener from his earliest youth, so as to train him and enable him to appreciate the beauty and wealth of musical masterpieces. 

Yuri Suzuki

https://www.instagram.com/yurisuzukilondon/

And what about special needs students? Yesterday, I read a fantastic article on FastCompany website: How to write Music in color! Absolutely! Agree!

The article is about the sound-artist|designer Yuri Suzuki ! As a dyslexic kid he learned music not through sheet music but through “Color Chaser".

Education:

"Music has the potential to achieve social and psychological transformation of children and young people. Their sensibility will be accurate. We must never waste such an opportunity as teachers! Captivating the major interests of our students about Music."

GSouto

Music, as you can read on several posts on my blog, is fundamental in Education of children and young people.

If music is thus integrated into general education, it becomes a useful auxiliary to the other subjects of School Education. 

Stephen Hawking comic

https://dd508hmafkqws.cloudfront.net/

Visual Learning in School Education: The series 'Stephen Hawking: Riddles Of Time & Space' would provide a glimpse into "the man, the myth and the legend,"

But this is not all about visual learning and Stephen Hawking. The scientist is very inspirational.

Reading The Guardian last month, I watched an incredible video about Stephen Hawking.

Education:

So, do you want a better educational digital resource that this video animation? It's a wonderful video to talk about Stephen Hawking's ideas in the classroom.

As I wrote on Videos in the Classroom : The Higgs Field, students love videos in school curriculum. They learn more watching to a video than hearing thousands words.

The old approach to school curriculum was teachers lecturing to students with lessons centered around a textbook.

Now, under a new curriculum being rolled out the last academic years, educational digital resources (videos, apps, games, infographics) and tools (tablets, smartphones and other devices) have replaced textbooks, and student-centered debate, inquiry and discussion is the main focus.

 

via Google Images Archive

Seeing pink? October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It was with these words I started my post Going Pink at School: Let's do it! Remember?

An opportunity to draw attention to our girls students. Girls are growing up faster and need to be aware that it is out there and early detection is the best cure and hope of getting through this awful thing.

Unfortunally, as educators, we all have known some children and young people who have or had cancer or often coexist with cancer because they have brothers or sisters, sometimes mothers or grandmothers suffering with this disease.

via Google Images Archive

Schools can holding special programs to educate students and teachers about how survival rates increases through early detection.

I think it would be important to introduce cancer awareness in school curriculum, not only in sciences curriculum.

I know several schools that involve young students to raise awareness about this disease.

“Education helps students and teachers not only protect their families, but also their own lives,” 

I hope the activities I proposed were useful to you and had a big success among your students.

European MOOCs infographic

https://elearninginfographics.com/

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics.

It's not the first time I write about MOOCs. MOOCs (Massive open online courses) provide online access for all. 

On the first post MOOCs in a simple way I introduced the 'a-ha' in Higher Education and completed the post with a video published on The New York Times.

Now, as a member of Open Education Europa (disabled), reading the last updates, I  found the European MOOCs Scoreboard Infographic. Please read the entire information.  

via The Next Web

MOOCs are offered not only from universities using their own or a shared platform, but also from nonprofit organizations, trade associations or single businesses or even from an individual using free online course builder tools to create their own MOOC.

The two infographics show the impact of coursera in Europe and all around the world. 

Impressive, isn't it? In just two years (this started in 2011) Coursera has grown "from a revolutionary idea to thriving community of more than 100 partners institutions, 5 million+ students from 190  countries, and 500+ courses across a diverse range of disciplines"?

So many countries, languages, and educational backgrounds represented! This is an important movement promoting lifelong education for everyone from every corner of the globe.

I hope that all of you had a great weekend and feel ready for the next week. As I do every month, I've put together a short list of the most popular posts of the previous month. 

Hoping that all of you tried some of my tips, resources or ideas to do something different at your class.

Have a great new week !

G-Souto

04.11.2013

update 27-04.2025

Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

October in Review : The most popular posts of the month by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

November rundown of the most-read posts

http://s1.lemde.fr/

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."

Alvin Toffler

Alvin Toffler's quote  is really interesting! I believe that it represents the learning of our students and our own learning in our days. An educator is always learning and always relearning. Those are my pedagogical aims and my own thoughs and acts.  

The usual readers of my blog know that the quote identifies my way of teaching in school curricula and the values of my proposals to my students and of course to  you as teachers.

I believe and practice the differentiation as a value too, by focusing on individual identity of my students. 

They are free to be creative by discovering, learning, discussing. And I am there as a facilitator or a tutor, sometimes as e-tutor, just enough to let them comfortable in their learning. Finding their own way to discover and think. 

The classroom must have an open door to the world. Students must feel free to talk and share ideas with us about all the subjects they care about, in and around every curriculum.

November rundown shows the diversity of subjects and some of my values in teaching. It summarize the most-read topics in a collection of five posts. 

As you already know, I write in English, French, and Portuguese on this blog:

No doubt! Parlons Français LE: ressources en ligne is the most read.

Hugo | Martin Scorsese

http://en.wikipedia.org/

"Je ne pense pas au futur, il viendra bien assez vite".

Albert Einstein

Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens

http://www.porto.ucp.pt/

Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens FLE, une plateforme e-learning, des cours de Français LE à distance (collège et lycée).

Ce projet m'a pris trois ans de recherche en dehors de mon travail au lycée. J’ai sondé les goûts et l’imagination de mes élèves qui aimaient me 'provoquer' en me faisant découvrir de nouveaux concepts pour les cours de langues.

Convaincue (2000) que l’apprentissage d’une langue allait désormais dépasser la salle de classe et deviendrait toujours plus ubiquitaire, d’autre part que la méthodologie du FLE devrait s’adapter à la "ne-generation", et aux outils technologiques, j'ai voulu surprendre mes élèves et les motiver par des jeux de langue.

MAG des Usages | Magazine en ligne

http://www.infoeducation.fr/

Un iPad à l'école (Juin 2012) de Pascal Paul est un magazine des usages consultable en ligne uniquement consacré à l’utilisation de tablettes dans l’univers de l’éducation. 

Quelques pensées:

"Innover" n’est pas le nouveau à tout prix.  C’est combiner, souvent chercher des alternatives quand on est confronté à un problème pendant un cours, quand on sent qu’il n’y a pas d’ajustement entre la motivation et les connaissances, entre ce que nous mettons à disposition de nos élèves et leurs résultats en ce qu’ils en font

MEDEA Awards 2012

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/

MEDEA Awards 2012: the Winners: The 2012 edition of the MEDEA Awards ended November 14 November with the Awarding Ceremony at the Media & Learning Conference. 

As you know since 2009 I am a member of the Jury MEDEA Awards. It's a pleasure to share this interesting award that encourages innovation and good practices in the use of media in Education.

As an educator, I know how important it is to be encouraged as I was a finalist at  Global Junior Challenge in 2004.

The European Collaboration Award was awarded to Historiana "Your Portal to the Past" made by EUROCLIO - European Association of History Educators, The Netherlands and represented at the Awards by Geert Kessels. 

http://historiana.eu/

Historiana is designed primarily for students (from age 14), and their educators (including trainee teachers). It is conceived as  being a  complementary educational resource for history, heritage and citizenship education in Europe and beyond.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/

In addition to the finalists, the Organising Committee also announced 15 entries that are Highly Commended.

Plataforma “Cuenta Regresiva”  1 acción = 1 cambio, Educ.ar S.E. (Argentina) is one of this 15 entries.

Cuentra Regressiva 1 acción = 1 cambio:  "Cuenta Regresiva" pone en escena la experiencia de cuatro personajes adolescentes que se comprometen en la lucha contra el tráfico ilegal de fauna en la Argentina.

"Cuatro jóvenes en acción, la red como herramienta y un gran desafío. Sumate a esta experiencia. Vas a descubrir hechos desconocidos, a enterarte de cosas que ni siquiera imaginabas, y algo en vos sentirá la necesidad de participar. Estamos en una cuenta regresiva… el tiempo es crucial. Si actuás, algo puede cambiar."

You know how I like to include environmental education in school curricula! So many posts I write about it! Environmental education must be a cross-curricula activity.

Never too much to help the new generations contribute for the protection of the planet and endangered species. I really liked this project.

http://www.netpublic.fr/

Le Journal d'Anne Frank: un BD manga. Voilà un projet que j'ai bien aimé et qui va surprendre vos élèves! Anne Frank au pays du manga. La BD documentaire interactive a été diffusée sur le web le 15 Novembre dernier par ARTE.tv.

Anne Frank au pays du manga est une BD documentaire interactive. Un voyage en BD documentaire interactive "pour comprendre ce qui, de la Shoah et d'Hiroshima, peut - ou non - constituer une expérience commune au Japon et à l'Europe."

Le Journal d’Anne Frank est un écrit exceptionnel, au sein de la guerre et d’une tragédie pour l’humanité. 

Dans tout le monde le Journal d'Anne Frank est um best-seller depuis sa parution et un livre 'obligatoire' dans les cours de Langues.

Le manuscrit du Journal d'Anne Frank

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/

C'est le plu lu et le plus étudié dans tous les collèges ou lycées du monde. 

Moi même, en étant enseignante de Langues, j'ai lu dans la classe le journal d'Anne Frank avec différentes générations. Tous les jeunes étudants s'attachaient vraiment à ce récit de vie qui les faisaient réfléchir. 

Anne Frank au pays du manga

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/

Activités & ICT:

Un excellent documentaire interactive pour introduire la Narration dans un cours de langues et littérature.

La Narration peut comprendre le roman, le conte, et aussi le journal intime ou la BD. Ce sont des récits avec des caractéristiques différentes qu'il faut que les étudiants travaillent au curriculum.

Cette BD interactive comprend une soixantaine de pages avec le récit d’un voyage qui volontairement éclaire et dérange.

Outils:

Web (portables et tablets)
Smartphones (la recherche)
Livres (plusieurs livres 'Journal d'Anne Frank' empruntés à la Bibliothèque scolaire)

Lecture:

Poprosez à vos élèves de lire le manga BD Anne Frank sur le web et de le comparer au Journal d'Anne Frank (livre)

Noam Chomsky

http://upload.wikimedia.org/

"It is not important what we cover, it is important what we discover."

Professor Noam Chomsky is a well known educator and linguistic among other important things. 

It is as a linguistic that I knew him in college reading his works.

But now as an educator, I want to share with you his last interview on Education during WISE Summit 2012; November 13-15 in Quatar.

Noam Chomsky talks on the importance of interaction and participation in the classroom, the urgent need to address funding, the role of modern technology to improve access to education and what more needs to be done to build the future of education.

Watch the video below:

"The future education should be regarding as a way of offering opportunities and encourage the learners to pursue in their own ways so they develop their own creative capacities and learn to become productive free people in a free society."

It is the kind of education I like and practice with my students. The pedagogical change and innovation in Secondary education through the disruptive learning in teaching activities is on the capacity to encourage our students to discover and develop an independent thinking.

"It is not important what we cover, it is important what we discover."

"Independent thinking come through discovery"

Noam Chomsky

World Philosophy Day & New Generations: November 15, is the World Philosophy Day. "World Philosophy Day". It is annually observed on the third Thursday of November to honor philosophical reflections around the world. 

http://wa1.www.unesco.org/

"Beyond all of our differences, we are all equal in the exercise of reason – this is the sure way to build fairer, more equitable societies, sustained by the energy of critical thinking."

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

http://wa1.www.unesco.org/

The main theme of the 2012 World Philosophy Day which is “Future Generations”.

"What future is in store for those who will be 20 years old in 2062 and what will it mean to be young in the future? Will future young people live in a better world than the one in which today’s youth is living?"

Education:

"The importance of Philosophy, especially for young people, underlining that philosophy is a discipline that encourages critical and independent thought and is capable of working towards a better understanding of the world and promoting tolerance and peace”.

It is a day and/or a week for schools and students to share thoughts openly explore and discuss new ideas and inspire society’s challenges.

Children of all ages are open to discussing a multitude of problems and questions of philosophical nature which interest them personally. And we all know that young people in the XXI century are well informed and have an opinion about problems that concern them, their family, friends, and country.

© UNESCO All Rights Reserved

http://wa2.www.unesco.org/

They also contain various objects symbolizing today’s communication tools. These include a mobile telephone, photos, videos and a USB key with a song written and sung by children from the Andre Malraux and Jean Vassal de Crepy-en-Valois schools, two of the five that took part in the event.

I love this activity! How many students and teachers worked on it! What an excitement participating in such legacy!

Some thoughts:

The fundamental principle of education is to understand the truth for oneself. The fundamental principle of philosophy is to realise that all truth comes from reality. Thus educational philosophy must be founded on the truth of what exists. 

I particularly agree with Einstein. Education (and teaching students philosophy from a young age) has two central functions relating to the individual and their society.

• To educate the individual as a free individual – To understand and use critical thinking skills for determining the Truth for themselves.

• To educate the individual as a part of Society – Virtually all our knowledge, our clothes, our food is produced by others in our society, thus we owe Society and have a responsibility to contribute back to Society (that everyone must give as well as take.)

I really hope that you will enjoy every pedagogical proposal written in November (here and on the blog) or will discover some new pedagogical ideas to introduce in your lessons.

Thank you to all the colleagues from around the world that kindly read my blog and are shy to become followers.

"Good teaching may overcome a poor choice of technology but technology will never save bad teaching."

Tony Bates

G-Souto

05.12.2012

Copyright © 2012G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

November rundown of the most-read posts by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.