In Peques y Más we present a complete interview with Salomé Recio Caride. Salomé was born in Murcia and is a specialist teacher in Early Childhood Education, she works as a tutor in that cycle since 1987. She has a degree and PhD in Pedagogy from the University of Murcia. He is doing his doctoral thesis in the Department of Didactics and School Organization at the Faculty of Education of Murcia, on the use and training of ICT in the cycle of Early Childhood Education. She is also an administrator of the Infant Education section of the Educational Portal of the Region of Murcia, educarm and two educational blogs, one of resources Children's stage and a classroom blog: In my children's classroom. In addition, he also collaborates in the blog Blue Words, publishes in the spiral magazine 2013 and collaborates in projects such as kantaconmigo, Tribu 2.0.
She has been a reference teacher since 2012 of the Telefónica Foundation and a member of the extended board of the Spiral Association. He also collaborates with the Department of Didactics and school organization of the Faculty of Education of Murcia and the ISEN Center of Cartagena, through lectures and conferences on the use of the computer and the PDI, since 2008 for students attending the teaching degree. At the end of the interview you can find more details of his complete biography. For now we are going to the interview full of teaching experiences of great value for teachers, parents and students.
How the teacher creates an innovation environment in the classroom with technology
The first step to introduce technologies in the classroom is to remove the fear of its use, dare to use all those tools that we have and decide to integrate into the educational system and the teaching-learning process in our classrooms.
After reading this first paragraph, some will ask, how is it possible to do this if we have never done so? The answer is simple: We must change our way of working in schools, gradually making a methodological change in which ICTs assume a significant role in our day to day in a normalized way, integrating them into our activities. That is, we have to combine these new resources with those that have been used so far. We will continue using the waxing and the chalk, and along with those, the interactive whiteboard, and also a cardboard, scissors, glue and recycled material to make a mural on a particular topic, as we will also do by making a digital poster on the computer. This way we will get the children to see the ICT tools as a resource that complements the rest, that adds up and that helps us in learning concepts, but in a different way.
To do this, logically, it will be necessary to train and prepare. A teacher should be aware that our profession is constantly undergoing changes, and more in our days, and a good teacher should always be learning and updating, since otherwise we will never go hand in hand with society and, in that case, our Children will not be being trained for the society in which they are growing and in which they will develop as autonomous persons.
How technologies can be leveraged in the classroom to enhance student creativity
The best way is to use them as a resource that helps us make children the protagonists of their own learning, that they are the ones who use them and interact with them. You have to let your imagination fly, stop saying no to everything or talk or express yourself only when we want.
In Children, when children are starting to get closer to the world of letters, they themselves can invent stories and illustrate them with the digital whiteboard, or by digitizing, with the help of a scanner or digital photo camera, what they do on paper with pencils or colored waxes, and assembling a video with their voices recorded with the help of a digital recorder. In this blog post of Children's Stage, you can see the result of some of these stories.
With ICT, children feel more motivated and give free rein to their creativity. A clear example is when you ask them to go out and do something to the PDI and check that the whole class raises their hand to access it. Otherwise, if you ask them to go to the center of the assembly to do an activity, no matter how simple it is, the hands that are raised are less. The important thing is to know how to use these tools well, since it is just that. Do not use them for everything, but make the most of them.
To teach how to use, for example, a POI, the least important thing is to handle the software very well. What we must learn is what resources students can use, how to find them, how to select them, how to choose them and when to use them. The what, when, how and where are those who will guide us in the good use of ICT.
Something that is taking hold, and that I think is the most interesting thing that is being developed in recent years to improve this creativity and use of ICT, are collaborative projects.
Projects that colleagues from different locations, near or distant, generously create to share with each other and invite those who want to collaborate, and that offer our students the opportunity to develop and live very enriching and creative experiences. In this page of my Childhood Stage blog you can find some of them.
What specific applications have you given to the digital board in the classroom
Many, I would almost say countless. So true it is that today it would be difficult for me to practice my profession as a tutor for Early Childhood Education without my ID. It would take me a long time to go back after having advanced so much in its use. Over the past few years, this powerful tool has become my best ally. We have been getting to know each other and we have been taking advantage of that knowledge to make our way hand in hand with the children.
In the morning, we begin to do the routines in the PDI, and from there, children use it to write, do operations, draw, find information on the Internet, play with image and sound programs, upload images to the blog and post entries , interact with other children with chats or video calls, etc.
To learn more about everything my children and I do with the help of the PDI, you can watch this video, in which the students themselves tell you what they do in class with ICT. Also in this post you will find a good summary of some of the things we do in class with the PDI. I like to use my own games, which I elaborate myself for the use of children in the PDI or computer and that I share in my blog entries for use with their students or children.
Although the most important thing to keep in mind, and not forget when using the POI, is that children are the ones who have the most use, that the PDI has to be up to it, and that the protagonists are them. In addition, we must not forget the meaning of PDI.
That I means interaction, that is, children touch it, interact with it and get results. It is not a mere screen to project.
In this blog post from Espiral you will find a decalogue in which I wanted to underline what seems most important to me when using the POI in the most correct way:
As in everything, each child has its own way of acting between certain situations, and in these responses it has a lot to do with the personality of each one, so it cannot be affirmed that all children act in the same way before the PDI. But it can be seen that, in general, all children act positively against digital tools, and in particular, extraordinarily effectively, before the PDI.
When students change to elementary school, does the rhythm of creativity and innovation in higher courses keep up?
You can't talk about creativity and innovation according to the cycles, not even according to the educational centers, but according to the teaching professionals. There are great teachers, with great creativity and imagination, with continuous and innovative activity, at all educational levels. I know, because I have seen them, I know and follow their work with great interest.
In the time that I have been attending courses, congresses and conferences on education and new technologies, or through social networks and educational blogs, I have been able to verify that this is so. Therefore, it cannot be said that innovation and creativity are a thing of a cycle. What is true is that in Infantil it is easier to be innovative and creative, since we work globally. We teach all areas to our students and combine them as we see fit. It is true that our schoolchildren are very small, but that does not have to be an impediment, but rather push us to try things with them. It really amazes how they react and how they like to learn in this way. They are very creative, and you have to let them be.
If we do fichitas and color, we can never let your imagination fly.
Following this work approach, I don't want to stop emphasizing collaborative projects among students of different ages and places. I am convinced that these kinds of experiences are very complete and allow us to be much more creative. All children win, and there is a permanent coexistence between them through the network, which is the ideal way for them to become true protagonists of their learning.
Examples of these projects are the Reading Promotion Project, that my students, during two school courses (with 3 and 4 years) developed with those of 1st and 2nd of the ESO of the Juan de La Cierva de Totana Institute (located 40 kilometers from the city of Murcia) to stimulate the elderly in reading and introduce the little ones in the world of letters. You can access the information of this project in this link.
Also, throughout the 2012/2013 school year, we have developed a project with children from a school in La Puebla de Cartagena, who were attending primary school first, using a blog as a platform, in which they have been getting to know each other virtually, telling each other learning, sharing experiences and proposing challenges. And during the previous two courses we developed the FLIS project (promotion of children and secondary reading) with students of 1st and 2nd of the IES Juan de La Cierva Codorniu, with the collaboration of the University of Murcia.
How the School and the Parents' Associations respond to the introduction of these tools by teachers
Schools respond in different ways. Some support and promote this type of methodologies, helping teachers who take initiatives in this regard and making available to teachers and students all the resources available to facilitate the use of ICT. And others, without obstructing the way of carrying out these projects, but without giving them importance. Perhaps because they do not understand them or do not believe in them to the point of favoring and supporting them.
The parents, at first, have doubts, but I, personally, can only have words of thanks to those of my students, since they have supported me at all times, letting me do and collaborating with my proposals, as can be seen in several entries how about Easter monkeys or about vacations or about homework.
Families have a fundamental role in this work, and as in everything, you have to teach them to perform that role. Just as we are trained to develop this type of methodology, we must train and advise parents to perform that important role from their homes.
You have to talk to them, explain things well, try to see the positive side of these tools and ask for their collaboration, as we do with your children and with your classmates. Collaborating together, we all win, and as in other aspects of life, we need a time of learning and adaptation, but if we make families see the processes so enriching and the results so beneficial that occur in their children, we surely manage to do A great job.
How children work at home what they learned in the classroom
Most families have a computer in their home with Internet access, which makes it easier for them to access the information that is added in the blog, which recommends resources for children as well as for their parents. In the case of my students, they have downloaded interactive games that I created myself, and practiced in their homes. They also usually come on weekends to see the entries we have made in class and discuss them with their siblings and parents, making this practice a family routine. This is demonstrated by the comments that, from time to time, themselves, with the help of their parents make in the blog entries. I know that some families who do not have Internet in their homes, make visits to the blog through the connection of family members or approaching the public library in the neighborhood, next to the school, and that offers free Internet for its users.
If I put some activity to collaborate from the houses, usually half of the families answer, as can be seen in this entry.
A job that teachers must do is the formation of families in this regard. We must teach them that now there are other ways to learn, and that their children feel very comfortable with them, that it is fun to share and collaborate with them in their experiences, and as they do so, progress is achieved in this regard, although I recognize that there is still much to do in this field.
What training needs exist among teachers to maximize the potential of technology use
The training of teachers must be done from the digital competence necessary for the use of ICT in their work environment. This means that teachers must learn to use technologies from an educational point of view. It is not about training in technology, as well as expanding their instrumental training and using tools for the performance of their work and the development of the teaching-learning process.
Digital competences must be associated with two key objectives: to know the technological context in which students develop and develop new skills that allow them to use technologies to favor meaningful learning.
The technological competences in which teachers should be trained should tend to enhance the curricular integration of ICTs to use them in the day-to-day classroom with students in a responsible manner, using them and incorporating them appropriately in teaching-learning activities. The process cannot be reduced to the acquisition of digital skills or technological skills, but must be based on its didactic and pedagogical application.
What is the focus and objective of your doctoral thesis?
In my doctoral thesis, I have two research focuses: teacher training in the use of ICT, referred to both initial training, at the University, and continuing education, which teachers are already active; and the use of ICT in children's classrooms in the Region of Murcia, for which I have passed a questionnaire to a fairly significant percentage of them in which I ask many questions about knowledge and use of ICT in their professional lives.
Finally, I will try to develop a training plan after the analysis of all these points. I can only add, for the moment, that I am discovering very interesting data.
How can parents contribute to increasing children's learning at home
The most effective way to do this is to have regular contact with your children's tutors. This has always worked, and this is how it is achieved that there is continuity between the family and the school, forming a link that makes there is no break between the two institutions. It is not about being talking to teachers every day, but knowing that at the time that is necessary it can be done. And that communication must be bidirectional. With the help of ICT, this is much simpler, since it is not necessary to coincide in time or space through email.
I encourage all teachers to create a classroom blog, and families to follow it from their homes, collaborating with comments and participating in the activities that are scheduled.
It has helped me to have more contact, and to families to be more up to date with everything their children have done and learned. They must enter the blog with their children to address the task in a stimulating way and accept their progress with words of support and encouragement, so that their children have confidence in their school activities and that this motivates them to continue in that line, forming and developing as autonomous and independent people for the day they are adults.
And so far the interview with Salomé Recio Caride. A very generous interview in its content and full of successful experiences although with a lot of learning work. We thank Salome for her time and dedication in preparing the interview. Finally, I continue to collect many of the experiences that make Salome a very prominent personality among the teaching community.
Salome is ICT trainer since 2006, with more than 50 seminars on New Technologies applied to Education taught in different CPRs in the Region of Murcia and in different schools in other Autonomous Communities. He has also participated as a speaker at 31 regional, national and international conferences, among which Educared 2007, with the presentation "Families, you have an e-mail"; Educared 2009, with "Salzillo, a baroque sculptor in the ICT era"; and Educared 2011, with “EnREDados: if I read, you learn”. He has participated in the last two national education and technology congresses of INTEF (Granada 2011 and Mérida 2012, has also attended round tables at congresses and conferences on national and international education and training. Salomé has published three books, articles for different magazines and collaborations in publications related to Education and New Technologies, and two digital ones with experiences on the use of ICT.He has won four awards in different calls for the multimedia games development contest of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, the last of them in 2009, obtaining the first place with the game "Pantallita", aimed at children of Infant and Special Education. It has also been awarded in the II National Congress of PDI with the teaching unit "The means of transport in Children with the PDI" Salomé has been a finalist with four experiences in the 2011 call for the Internac Prize ional Educared, with the works: “The use of the PDI in the classroom of Infantil,“ Project FLIS ”and“ Game of the means of transport for Infantile and students with NEE ”(in two categories). He has also obtained the third position of the “teachers with students” modality, category from 3 to 8 years, with the project “We learn with the painter Pedro Cano”, the prize of the Spiral Association “Silver Peonza” in the edublogs call of 2012 with his resource blog Stage Children. And he has won the first prize of the International Educared Contest 2012, Modality B, category from 3 to 8 years, with the game for Infant Education and Special Education "La flor de las letras". He has also been recognized up to four times for his good ITE practices: “How the computer entered my Infant class and stayed here”, “Pedro Cano's art and ICT with the PDI in Infant”, and “The project FLIS (Promotion of Reading in Children and Secondary School) ”, project“ Connected classrooms ”and an acknowledgment of good practices of the Educational Portal of the Region of Murcia with“ My friend the PDI ”.
