Team roles for this week

This week, the team roles will rotate the same way we have been doing it the past weeks.
- Elena: Facilitator
- Marta: Journalist
- Marina: Analyst
- Noelia:Translator
- Holly: Curator-Farmer
- Paula: Star
As you have seen, we are a group formed by eight people, so each week we have two helpers who will be helping with everthing. This week the helpers will be Ángela and Clara.

My experience as Translator

Hello there, It´s Holly here, once again; and this week I was our groups Translator. I had to pick 5 words and tell you a little bit about them. So here you are:

1.     Map Projections

 Maps are called projections because map-makers have to project a 3-D surface onto a 2-D map. A projection is a representation of one thing onto another, such as a curved 3-Dimensional surface (like the Earth) onto a flat 2-Dimensional map. There are 3 major types of projections: cylindrical, conic, and planar.

Since a map is 2-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional world, compromises must be made in accuracy (some information must be lost when one dimension is ignored). Different maps differ in the relative accuracy of the depiction of the area, the shapes of objects, actual distances, and compass direction. Maps that focus on maintaining one feature (like preserving distance) must distort other features (like area, shape and compass directions).

Maps that accurately reflect area are often called equal-area maps (an example is the Albers equal-area conic map). Maps that maintain the shape of objects are called conformal. Maps that correctly show the distance between points are often called equi-distant maps (note that the shortest distance between two points on a map is generally not a straight line. but a curve). Navigational maps need accurate compass directions maintained on the map (like the Mercator map).

2.   Mercator map projection

A Mercator projection is a type of rectangular map in which the true compass direction are kept intact (lines of latitude and longitude intersect at right angles), but areas are distorted (for example, polar areas look much larger than they really are). Mercator projections are useful for nautical navigation. Geradus Mercator devised this cylindrical projection for use in navigation in 1569.

3.   Robinson map projection

The Robinson projection is a widely-used type of map in which the Earth is shown within an ellipse with a flat top and bottom. In this pseudocylindrical. projection, lines of latitude are parallel to the equator, but lines of latitude are elliptical arcs. In a Robinson projection, area is represented accurately, but the distances and compass directions are distorted (for example, compass lines are curved). This type of projection was first made in 1963 by Arthur H. Robinson; it is also called the Orthophanic projection (meaning 'right appearing').

4.   Azimuthal map Projections

An azimuthal projection is a projection of the globe onto a plane. In polar aspect, an      azimuthal projection maps to a plane tangent to the Earth at one of the poles, with meridians projected as straight lines radiating from the pole, and parallels shown as complete circles centered at the pole. Azimuthal projections (especially the orthographic) can have equatorial or oblique aspects. The projection is centered on a point, that is either on the surface, at the center of the Earth, at the antipode, some distance beyond the Earth, or at infinity. Most azimuthal projections are not suitable for displaying the entire Earth in one view, but give a sense of the globe.

5.  Treasure hunt:

Treasure hunt, also known as “Scavenger hunt” or “Knowledge hunt”. It’s one of the most popular didactic activities used by teachers that want to include the Internet in their classes. It consists of some questions, from a determinate topic, and a list with some webs where you can find the answers of those questions. And at the bottom of those questions we can find a “big questions” where the pupils can demonstrate what they have learnt. Those activities are good for acquired information about a determinate topic and practice some abilities and procedures related with the technology.

THE ANALYST OF KEEP CALM AND KO 

(TREASURE HUNT)

Hi mates, another week more, I am Noelia Hernández, the analyst of my group during this week.

Firstly, I’m going to write about the new activity of this week, it called “Treasure Hunt”.

       1. What was the best part of the activity and the worse?

On the one hand, the best moment of this activity was when we gathered for working, we had fun. Although, all moments that we worked were really amusing, maybe I would stress when we talk about how we do the activity. And we thought to do it about Indiana Jones. So, directly, we had a barrage of idea about that. One of them was, the analyst could custom of Indiana Jones. We were speculating how we can dress up the star (Clara). The star seemed enthusiastic with the fabulous idea. The truth is that we everytime.

On the other hand, the worst moment, perhaps it would be when we started to work (Treasure Hunt).

       2. What have you learnt?

At the beginning, I think that we have learnt to increase our knowledge. A way for that maybe could be to discover that there was more than one way in order to understand the world map. Likewise we have found different projections as Mercantor, Azimuthal and Robinson.

o       The fist of them, Mercantor projections is a cylindrical map projection.

o       The second, Azimuthal projections have the property that directions from a central point are preserved and therefore great circles through the central point are represented by straight lines on the map.

o       And finally, the third is the Robinson projection is a map projection of a world map which shows the entire world at once and the problem of showing the whole globe as a flat image.

*What’s more, we have learnt to connect several ideas, for instance we gathered a video game “Los Sims” and a board game “the Monopoly” to compare the dichotomy HOW we get money in a virtual life is different from real life.

*Moreover, we have had a treasure box, where you can choose an only one paper and then answer the question. The questions will be appearing in other paper inside the box.

The treasure box is related with things at home.

        3. What do you need to conserve as a group for the next weeks?

Maybe, we could say in one word the HARMONY. Although it is very easy, sometimes it is hard to find it, we always archive find it. To us, the harmony is got very fast, because when one girl of group had a mental block, we said…”mate, keep calm and keep organised”. You shouldn’t press the panic bottom, it is only and activity and we must do as group…”Group work does work”.

        4. What do you need to improve as a group for next weeks?

Although I think that every weeks we try to improve, a way for getting, could be asking questions before start working. Because this week, we started to work with the new activity and when we went to class, we realised that we were wrong about the activity. So, briefly we should have more clear the activity before to start to work.

          5. How this content is related to other contents in your course and in your degree?

This content is difficult to relate with other contents in our course, because we did not learn the different projections and the relation of media influence in virtual life from real life. But, I can say one subject in order to know to explain a exposition oral with children. For instance “Planificación de la acción educativa”, I choose that, because the star has to choose one of the world map projections and KNOW EXPLAIN FOR WHAT.

Another example, it could be when we can compare the virtual life from real life with an easy explain in order to the children can understand easily. All of that, we have learnt in “Planificación”.

      6. There is any evident social connection of this content?

Yes, the society always tries to manipulate the reality in order to beneficiate for one cause. And we realised in this activity the three points of views the word maps, according to different projects where try to extend countries according to the importance that they are. But, that don’t impress us, because we used to see that day by day. In economy, customs, politics….etc.

The world always has moved for one caused, due to maybe we can not advance.

 Monday, 23^th February

*Briefly, when we went to class this Monday, we had to gather the analysts of other groups. And, our point of view was that the work was hard and difficult to understand, finally we comprehend the activity and we learnt with this activity, for example, we try to mix different activities like treasure hunt with different projection of world. So, the goal was HOW you explain that to your students?

Journalist post

Hello, I am Marina. I was the journalist and I going to explain the second activity of this subject that take place last week at the university. It is called the Treasure Hunt activity which consist in look for information about Map Projections (Robinson, Mercator and Azimuthal) and explain the relationship between this activity and the slogan of it:  “Media are not neutral”.

On Monday 16th we distributed the roles of the group.

We all first met the 18^th of February after lessons we have lunch in the canteen and then we went to Luis Vives library to share our findings and knowledge about this activity as you can see in the pictures.

Firstly, we have learned that everything we introduce on classroom has an impact in our learning students and its impact depends on the kind of media that this is, the intention of the designers, the owners of the media, the way we introduce those, and so on. Therefore, we MUST be aware about WHAT media we introduce in the class, WHY we do it and HOW we are going to do it.

 Secondly, we found information about Robinson, Mercator and Azimuthal Map Projections and we compared those three, in other to choose the best one. So, we picked two countries around the world: Germany and India comparing their features in each projection. Finaly, we have chosen the Robinson’s because is the most accurate and the best which represent both countries certainly as they are and its sizes and shapes are better respected than in the ohers.

 

According with the Treasure Hunt, we have chosen a treasure hunt related to the house and its stuff. We think that these games are not only useful to learn new themes of the subjects, but also about the things that we have near us, like in this case, the house. Therefore, this indoor treasure hunt initiate our children in a challenge about the house. 

-Answering the Big Question:According to TV, we can observe that every channel has a specific ideology. For example, is not the same to watch a debate in ‘La Sexta’ than watch it in ‘Intereconomía.’ As well as media is not neutral, the cartographic projections are not neutral either   “The Great Day”: Monday 23th of frebruary, the star Clara did an exposition about these activities. She explained to the whole class our work with two more Stars of other class groups altogether.

To conclude, I would like to advise you some blogs, one from our class and another one from the outside, from the worldwide. 

-Platypusoyer becuause I see they have done a great job, and also a great effort to carry out these activities from School Organization. I like so much the work they did and I enjoyed so much their exposition  http://platypusoyer.blogspot.com.es/ Hope you like it to!

-http://scientiablog.com/ I advice you this page because the science is amazing and it is part of our life. We mustn't forget where we belong. hope you like it!

Curator farmer by Paula!

Hello everybody!! This week I am the curator farmer of my group. My work is based on making a mind map. This mind map include websites, images, blogs, videos related to map projections and the treasure hunt; also it included all the references that my group has used to make the entire work. 

On the following link yo can see all the resources which we have employed in order to do this activity: 

http://www.pearltrees.com/keepcalmandkeeporganized/cartographic-projection/id13695330

Also, I add the references even though they are in the pearltrees: 

Armando, D (2008). Representaciones de la tierra. 2008, de Blogger Sitio web: http://davidgomser.blogspot.com.es/2008/11/representaciones-de-la-tierra.html

Túzaro, T. (2011). La proyección de Mercator vs la proyección de Gall-Peters. 2011, de wordpress Sitio web: https://thetuzaro.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/la-proyeccion-de-mercator-vs-la-proyeccion-de-gall-peters-2/

Onel5969. (2015). Robinson Projection. febrero 21, 2015, de Wikipedia Sitio web: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robinson_projection&action=history

Gilliam. (2014). Mercator Projection. Diciembre 4, 2014, de Wikipedia Sitio web: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mercator_projection&action=history

Stockton, N. . (2013). Get to Know a Projection: Mercator. julio 29, 2013, de wired Sitio web: http://www.wired.com/2013/07/projection-mercator/

x

'Star' experience

Hello I’m Clara and I had the role of being the ‘STAR’ this past week.

We had to work in several things this week. First of all, we had to explain how two countries (in our case India and Germany) appear in different projections (Mercator, Azimuthal and Robinson) and their comparisons with the reality. Secondly, we had to interpret the meaning of the sentence “Media are not neutral”, the relationship of this sentence with our work and we had to choose an example of media that distorts the reality. Finally, we had to look for a treasure hunt and explain why we had chosen it.

Being the star of your group is a challenge as well as it involves a huge responsibility. This role implies both things because you are alone in the face of danger, that is, you have to defend a topic without the help of anyone.

Working as the way that we have worked this morning has its advantages and its disadvantages. One the one hand, it was good not to have the whole responsibility of the exposition and it has relaxed me that I had to explain this work with two more partners. In addition, it is a chance in order to learn about the works of the other groups and to compare different points of view. On the other hand, I think that you cannot show all the work that you have been doing along the whole week because you have to reduce that work, to mix it with the works of the other groups and to eliminate some parts of your work. Therefore, it has been a little bit frustrating not to have the chance to show our whole work to our partners.

In spite of this last fact, I think that in general it has been a good experience and a great challenge for the three stars, although I had been nervous, but, I hope you liked it and enjoyed the exposition.

*In this exposition we have worked with "Busy Bees" and "The Umpalumpas". When we gathered all the stars, we changed the points of view of our work and we put in common what each group had made. Next, we decide what star was going to say one part or the other of the exposition, but our mistake was not to take into account the time because we didn't have enough time to finish the exposition that all the stars have prepared.

PS: Below you can find everything that my group and I have prepared to talk about this morning, but finally I have only talked about the Treasure Hunt.

TREASURE HUNT: Cartographic projections.

AKA: “Media are not neutral”

Hello, I’m Clara and I am the star of the group Keep Calm and Keep Organized.  I’m going to talk about some topics: maps’ projections, media (media’s distortion and the sentence “Media are not neutral”) and treasure hunt.

MAPS’ PROJECTIONS

First of all, I’m going to start with maps’ projections. India is in reality almost nine times bigger than Germany, but, are they really presented in maps as they are in reality? Let’s see it.

Mercator’s projection

India has 3, 3 million km2, and Germany has 357,046 km2. However, in Mercator’s map they don’t appear as they really are.

In Mercator’s map India is smaller than their dimensions shown and Germany is bigger. This is because Mercator’s map represents the developed countries larger that they are and the underdeveloped countries smaller. Furthermore, Mercator’s map represents bigger the countries that are further away from the equatorial line, that’s why Germany is also shown bigger.

Azimuthal’s projection

First of all, the Azimuthal projection doesn’t show all the Earth. Moreover, the regions that are far away from the projection’s center have deformations that’s why India is distorted. On the contrary, the Azimuthal map projection shows Germany as it is in reality.

Robinson’s projection

Among the disadvantages of Robinson’s projections we can include that there is a severe distortion close the poles but this drawback doesn’t affect too much India and Germany because they are not very near the poles, that’s why these countries are better presented in this projection and its sizes and shapes are better respected.

Every projection has its advantages and its disadvantages because it is very difficult to flatten the Earth into a sheet without distorting the shape or the proportions of the continents. Therefore, we have chosen the Robinson projection because we consider that it has more advantages than the other and, in addition, it has more advantages than disadvantages. Although it distorts regions along edges, it minimizes errors in sizes, shapes of landmasses and it accurately shows sizes of oceans and distances across land. Furthermore, the National Geography society started to use this projection.

MEDIA

We think media are not neutral for many reasons:

According to TV, we can observe that every channel has a specific ideology. For example, is not the same to watch a debate in ‘La Sexta’ than watch it in ‘Intereconomía.’

As well as media are not neutral, the cartographic projections are not neutral either. Depending on the person and on his/her point of view of the world, the map is going to be in one way or another.

Talking about media, we can see that media make us distort the reality.  For example, when we explain the value of money in class we would use two games, ‘SIMS’ and ‘Monopoly’. Here we can find some contradictions with the reality. For instance, in the SIMS we can do tricks-cheats in order to get money, but, in the reality, money doesn’t grow on trees. In ‘Monopoly’ everyone starts with same amount of money while in the real life, each one has different amount of money because it depends on many factors like each person’s background.

Nevertheless, there are also some advantages when we use those games to explain the value of money. In ‘SIMS’ we earn money based on our job, like in real life. In monopoly, we pay taxes and if we do not pay them, we go to the jail.

We consider that in order to explain the real value of money we would choose ‘SIMS’ because it has less things related to reality. Using this videogame to explain children about the value of money, we can point out a huge contrast between how money is achieved in real life and in virtual life.

TREASURE HUNT

We have chosen a treasure hunt related to the house and its stuff. We have imagined as if we were primary school English teachers and we would start from the beginning, I mean, from the things that surround the children, what they see every day.  

Power point presentation: 'Treasure hunt. Cartographic projections.'

Today's exposition

Hello everyone! Down below you can find some pictures from what we have used in our exposition about 'Treasure Hunt. Cartographic projections.' 

FACILITATOR. TPACK experience

Good morning, as the facilitator of the TPACK task we done last week, I would like to say that all the members of this group did a great job and helped each other do the activity. As a Facilitater  divided all the Work and We all search for imnformation through our tools, and then we put all in common, taking into account get all into agreement and then make our own work about this term, which was new for us.
Then the Start of this week, learnt it how to explain it for all the class, and all the mates within it were passing around a listening to our star (Angela)
Then, the curator gather all the references of our work, and put into an web page called pealtress, so useful for recollecting data references and assignments, She was Clara. 
In the video below you can see the result of their great effort. Hope you like it!

Marina

Team roles for this week

The roles for this week will be the following ones:

- Marta: Facilitator
- Marina: Journalist
- Noelia: Analyst
- Holly: Translator
- Paula: Curator-Farmer
- Clara: Star

Elena and Ángela will be the helpers, so they will help the rest of the group for the right development of this week's project.

Journalist post

Hi mates, I’m Noelia Hernández and this week I have been the journalist of my group, so I’m going to explain the activity of this week.
Welcome to our new blog, I hope you all like it. The first activity that we had to work with was to create a blog. And then, we had to look for information and to try to explain what TPACK was.
In the beginning, we met on Friday 6^th of February, we created the blog and then we distributed the group roles.
On Monday 9^th of February, we met for the second time. We had to shift the analyst due to the fact that one member of the group wasn’t able to come to class and to the meetings that we did, so finally, this was our decision.
What’s more, we downloaded a new programme called Xmind in order to work with it, but as it was a bit difficult to work with, we decided to change it into an easier one called Parltress. Moreover, the teacher gave time for us to work in class, and we took advantage of it because we asked some questions about our new project, TPACK.
The last day that we met was on Wednesday 11^th of February, we met to finish our work. We had some ideas about TPACK and we tried to share all of them in order to create what we had to create, a poster explaining what TPACK was and how the course of our degree helped us to develop that model.
To sum up, we helped the star to collect information and to finish the task. Sincerely, we learned, not only a novel word, but also the knowledge that we can find behind this word.

“The Big Day”:  Monday 16^th of February, the star (Ángela) explained the exposition about TPACK to the team (Noelia, Clara, Elena, Paula, Marina and Marta) and to all of our classmates, and we had to watch and evaluate the expositions that the rest of the groups had made, except Ángela, who was explaining it to our classmates.

To finish, I would like to advise you blogs, one from our class and another one from the outside, from the worldwide.

-          The first website I advise you is named vogue. In this website, you can find a plenty of awesome pictures which we can relate with the latest fashion in our country. Moreover, if you want you can follow them in facebook too. I think that it is a good website in order to buy new clothes good prices, for example you can access to look low- cost clothes. Moreover, in that week was “Saint Valentíne´s Days” and in this blog there are a lot of recipes where you can cook. It seems easy to cook due to there are pictures with desserts. The forms are not   varieties, all of them have heart forms. So, definitively we discovered interesting and useful things.

 The link is:  http://www.vogue.es/blogs 

-          Secondly, a blog that I advise you to visit is called 7upgroup, I like this blog because it is attractive due to the fact that there are lots of photos where you can see how they work. From my point of view, it’s extremely awesome. Furthermore, this group seems to be hard-working. So, according to my opinion, it’s a good idea to follow this blog.

The link is: http://7upgroup.blogspot.com.es/