Analyse, evaluate and present a reference open educational project

Hello everyone!

Today, I bring you an analysis of an open educational Project, which was designed to work on the English contents for the third grade of secondary education. The project that I analyzed is called “English speaking cities” and it has been created by CEDEC (Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Curricular en Sistemas no Propietarios).

Web link of the project:
http://procomun.educalab.es/es/ode/view/1445270076365/widget

This project is focused on one of the most important English- speaking cities: London. This project enables students to know more about the city and the most important places that we can find there. In addition to that, student can learn more about different ways of entertainment of the city and become familiar with the appealing monuments, landmarks and relevant places.

In order to become familiar with the city, each session of the project is going to take place in a different part of this outstanding city. In each session, there is a different proposal of the tasks that student will carried out to develop the aims and skills that is determined in this project.

From my point of view, I think that this project is ideal for students because it provides with a lot of useful information about the city and it is connected with the real- world.
The different places that students will learn in this project are:

• Tower Bridge
• The Tower of London
• Big Ben
• Camden Town
• London Eye
• London Underground
• Buckingham Palace
• Piccadilly Circus
• The British Museum
• National Gallery

In order to analyze this project, the first thing I did is reading the post deeply. Once I read it, I analyzed the project taking into account the essential project design elements checklist, the tasks that are carried out, the skills that are developed and the proposal of doing this project.

After I have analyzed the project, I created a Genially to summarize my analysis of this project. In the Genially, you can see how I analyzed the project taking into account our grading criteria and I also add in each slide a brief opinion of each criteria.

The essential project elements that I have analised are:

1. Key Knowledge, understanding,and success skills (GOOD)

The aim of this project is to learn key vocabulary adn grammar structure. Apart from that, student will also develop different ICT competences. Through this project student will have worked on speficic content such as Present Simple and its forms,Adverbs of frequency and vocabulary related to entertainment, restaurants and things to do in London.

By doing each task and challenge, student also can practise the four skills: speaking, listening, writing, and reading.

In addition, student practise some important skills by evaluating their own work and their partner´s and also by working collaboratively with partners. I would like to stress that this project emphasis the importance of teamwork and working collaboratively, because to do each challenge student need to work together.

      2. Challenging Problem or Question (GOOD)

In this point, I also find the project adequate, beacuse in each session student have several task in which they have to answer a variety of questions related to the activity. 

Through the questions that they have to answer in each activity, they can put into words what they have learned by writing in their learning diary.

In my point of view, this project is based on meaningful problem to solve, because student have to become familiar with the social-context of London and they have to learn about what they can do in that city.

    3. Sustained inquiry (GOOD)

In each session, student have to ask themselves a lot of questions in order to complete the tasks. Furthermore, they can ask further question about the topic and discuss their opinion with a partner. After doing that, they have to write an article sharing their answer of those questions and their opinion.

In my point of view, I think that this project involves an active process in which student can particpate actively by using different ICT tools and resources. 

  4.   Authenticity (GOOD)

As far as I concerned, I think that this project is based on real context and it is meaningful for students.Through this project, student have the opportunity to learn about a specific city by using a variety of tools such as Blog site, Google site and twitter among others.

 5. Student Voice and Choice (GOOD)

This project is based on an actively participation of the student. Student can make choices on how they work and how they use their time.

Most of the work is guided by the tecaher, but student have to develop it by themselves.

 6. Reflection (REALLY GOOD)

Through this project student can reflect on what they are learning by writing the article, designing the Google site and also by  writing the learning diary.

7.  Critique and Revision (GOOD)

By doing the personal blog, student can reflect on the different contents they are working on. They have to upload the different audios and videos they produce, and they have to share the link to the Google site of their project.

8.  Public Product (QUITE GOOD)

The partners will carry out peer assesment on the Google Site Project work and grade about how their teamwork has worked.  

To conclude, I would like to say that the project enables student to use English and ICT in an engaging way, and also prompt student to participate actively in each task or activity.