Europeana Learning Diary I

Oh look, such a handsome thing! I mean the 3D printer, not me.


I'm an Arts and ICT teacher at a school near Lisbon, where I've been teaching for the past 12 years. I have a master's degree in Educational Science - ICT in Education, and a very strong interest in 3D modeling and printing, wich translated into the TIC em 3D (ICT in 3D) project, wich since 2007 is enabling students to express their visions using 3D technologies (modeling, printing, animation, virtual worlds). I'm also involved with teacher training and volunteer at Lab Aberto, a FabLab in Torres Vedras. In my free time I read like a maniac and blog about it, with a side gig as a comics critic for a portuguese website. The weirdest thing that happened to me was co-creating the Anprino Educational Robot. When I dreamed of going into art school decades ago, fathering a robot was something that I definetely did not see coming.

Having the opportunity to be a part of this community and pilot project is very exciting, exchanging views and experience with such a diverse group. While I'm very focused in 3D modeling, I see it as a tool for expression rather than an end in itself, and I'm always looking into themes and projects to integrate these technologies. Europeana seems to be a huge treasure trove of searchable content, visual inspiration for my pupils projects. Beyond the project's goals, I'll be also looking to on how to adapt its contents and methodologies to my own research and educational practices in the specific area of ICT in wich I specialize. It's, well, a thing. I never miss any excuses to melt filament.

You may have noticed that I'm using plain old blogger as a journal, instead of the suggested tools. For me, apps such as padlet, sutori, glogster and it's like are very useful for those of us who feel intimidated by the technical aspects of maintaining a web presence. However, I've been on the web long enough to see a lot of apps and web services come and go, either failing in their business models or being subsumed by larger corporations. In most cases, all the work we users put into our personal spaces whithin those servicer was lost. Blogger has been a constant for years, and shows no signs of folding, so it gives us assurances of continuity. Also, it's free and easier to maintain than a personal website. I'll be using the Europeana tag to annotate relevant content for this mooc and the DSI-3 project.

(No âmbito do projeto Europeana DSI-3 estamos a participar no mooc Europeana In Your Classroom. A primeira tarefa do mooc é iniciar um diário de registo de aprendizagens.)