TRANSLATOR TASK 4

Hello! I am Elena Belver Morales and this week I perform the role of Translator. My main function is to define the five main concepts that our group has come across while doing this week’s task, in which we were required to explore the TACCLE 2 book for primary school children and then present one of the activities in a Pecha Kucha style. These are the five concepts I believe should be highlighted: 

• TACCLE 2

This is a project funded with support from the European Commission that addresses the importance of engaging students in producing their learning objects. It does so by providing a series of 5 supplementary handbooks (in Dutch, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) of several subjects: primary education, maths, science and technology, key competencies, arts and culture and humanities. 

• Pecha Kucha

It is a type of presentation that consists of 20 slides that must be presented in 20 seconds each one of them, meaning that the presentation lasts six minutes and forty seconds in total. This method has been gaining popularity lately, and nowadays it is extremely common, due to the fact that it is a very clear and dynamic way of doing presentations. 

The term Pecha Kucha comes from Japanese and it is an onomatopoeia used to refer to the sound of casual talk.  

• Blabberize

It is an online tool that allows adding voice to a 2d image or photograph and then send the message to other people. This can be really useful in education, for many and varied subjects: for instance, it can be used as a way to increase vocabulary in another language or, as we considered, as a method for improving the relationship between the students as classmates.

• Bloom Taxonomy

This is a framework elaborated by Bloom that classifies cognitive ability into six categories: knowledge —recall of previously learned materials—, comprehension —extending beyond the memorization of previously learned material to make simple interpretations—, application —putting learned information to reach a solution—, analysis —breaking down complex material into its component parts so it can be better explained—, synthesis —combining available elements to form a new whole—, evaluation —making a judgment as to the value of materials or ideas—.

• Technology

It is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation of technical means —skills, methods and processes— which are used to achieve goals and which allow people to apply scientific knowledge for practical purposes.

Once these five concepts have been explained I will proceed to formulate the following question: 

• Is Blabberize the only acceptable tool to make technology accessible and enjoyable for students?

My answer is that definitely not, since the TACCLE 2 book for primary school children suggested many more activities, giving teachers the possibility to choose the one that works better for them. Moreover, I believe it is crucial that the technology chosen is able to answer the educational goals that are intended to be achieved by the students (such as Bloom taxonomy) and that, of course, is accessible for everyone.

That was my reflection of the work we have done this week. I hope you found it interesting and thank you for reading me. See you next week!