Esteban Llorens is currently working on the IES Mare Nostrum Malaga as professor of philosophy. He is head of training, evaluation and educational innovation. He also was a consultant for 8 years in the Faculty of Malaga Center.

Esteban has three personal interests: teach, participate as a speaker in training courses and write about educational organization.

What is the importance of an exam in class?

It depends on the examination and the weight of itself. For example, if you make a single rote examination and it has more than 90% by weight in the evaluation of students, the educational value of the exam approaches to zero. However, if you do a test with a lower value of 70%, not rote, is viewable by students always (ie, upload it to the cloud) and intends to ensure individual responses can not be assured only project work in these cases, I believe that an examination is valuable and indispensable in many cases.

What do you think about project-based learning rather than using books?

It is the best teaching method I know. However, it can not be the only one for all classrooms groups because there is no way (for many rubircs you do, either those rubrics are complex and complete) to determine the exact evaluation of just one student. There is no way, and I have tried to realize if a student will have a 7 or 7.5 only through classroom observation and evaluation of the final product. In a classroom group with 30 students and 3 hours of class per week you can not, if we are honest, specify both. So my option is to complete the ABP (“learning based on problem solving”) with written tests.

“And the books? I do not use them, but if they were digital, very economical and ABP guidance, I wouldn’t have any problem making partial use of them.”

What has been the most pleasant time you have spent in the classroom?

There have been many, choosing one nearby, when at the end of the course I see the amount of skills a student have acquired and is able to use in their daily lives. Whether to understand a story that the student saw on TV or to use a knowledge management resource to organize a trip.

How do you think it impacts the inclusion of new technologies at the school?

Completely. It is changing everything and will change even more in the near future. However, it collides with an outdated organization from the classroom to the offices of the Ministries of Education. The biggest mistake, in my point of view, is to think that ICT resources and traditional training will catch on the educational use of ICT. This will only happen for a percentage of teachers who are motivated, time and previous experience for this. The rest, and is most just will incorporate ICT into your classroom if it has a direct support to them. Many teachers have great ideas to develop APB + ICT to bring to your classroom, but will only do so if they have direct help in the classroom. Is it the same cause (and has the same solution) by which we introduce an auxiliary language in the classroom few hours a week, accompanying the official teaching.

What technology tools or gadgets would you recommend in your day to day as a teacher?

“The first is the tablet with keyboard. With this you are independent of the typical computer on the teacher’s table which works today but tomorrow who knows. You are independent to install applications that the Ministry of Education will need decades to understand, etc.”

What do you think should be the role of parents in the use of new technologies for their students?

It should be always accompany. First, when buying resources. I’ve seen students with a mobile of last generation, who have no computer or tablet at home. This is absurd from the educational point of view. Teachers could do more to help parents in this selection.

For which reason, do you use Additio?

“During the courses, I always put a slide showing a calculation where a teacher can take more than 6000 notes about their students a year. If in any other profession, this task was said to us that it should do done “by hand” it would seem absurd.”

What functionality of Additio you emphasize that helps you more in terms of development as a teacher inside or outside the classroom?

I have several:

• Link audio and visual resources to a particular student, because it is impossible to do it with a traditional teacher’s notebook. It leads the evaluation to a more interactive and authentic level.
• Manage more information in a few clicks, to send a report to another teammate or the same student.
• The fact that the application works with a browser on a computer. Many teachers do not feel comfortable with the tablet or simply they do not have one. It’s a good way to not ignore all this group of teachers.