Hello! Welcome to my last post for EDTC 300. This class has challenged me and pushed me to better my digital identity as well as my E-portfolio. It helped me find the proper resources for teaching and education and showed me how to share my own resources. My E-portfolio has only improved since taking this class and I am super happy about that! During class time we discussed a lot about how future employers look more at your E-portfolio and digital identity than they do at your actual resume. There is an article in the weekly plans called "Five Reasons Teachers Should Start a Blog" that basically sums up the importance of having a blog! 1. It helps others by sharing knowledge; We did a lot of resource sharing throughout the semester on Twitter, Slack and through our blog hub. 2.Network and meet new friends; We did this through our tweetdeck exercise when we joined the Saskedchat and through basic Twitter communication with our peers throughout the semester. 3. Learn some new skills in technology and communication; Every week I feel as though we gained new skills in technology. Whether it be cleaning up our blog and E-portfolio or actually learning how to code! My technological skills were fairly good before I started this class, but now I feel as if I have improved significantly. 4. Show the parents of your students what happens in your classroom; This one does not directly apply to me as I don't have a classroom yet! But, a great way to do this is by setting up a class blog. This way, parents can look at everything the class is doing and also what their individual child is doing in the classroom! I think it is a great way to get parents and grandparents involved. 5.It's fun to do; I did enjoy blogging each week about my progress with the learning project, so I would have to agree with this point! Throughout the semester we were told to contribute to the learning of others. I feel as though I did fairly well with this by commenting on my peers blogs each week and replying to tweets on Twitter everyday. I posted a tweet the other day about K-12 schools going back to normal in the fall and it generated a decent conversation. A lot of my peers commented on it, giving their thoughts and opinions and I replied to some of them. I tried to comment on tweets often and ask questions to generate a conversation! Another article that seemed to generate a lot of response was the one regarding the 4 day work week instead of the traditional 5 day. As you can tell from my screenshots, I used Twitter quite a bit. I was not the biggest fan of Slack, but I did try and answer a couple of questions that I knew the answer too. I also asked a couple of questions on Slack and quickly received a response! Another way I connected with my peers was through the EDTC 300 Blog Hub. I tried to comment on a few blogs each week to see my peers progress in the class. I was always encouraging and never said anything negative. I enjoyed the positive feedback I received on my own blog, so I tried to do the same for others on theirs. One of the main pieces of advice that previous students had given to us at the start of the semester was to keep a record of the contributions to peers learning. I did exactly that! I have a word document linked here that shows each time I commented on a blog, or a tweet, for the whole semester! I found the feedback extremely helpful throughout the semester. It helped me to meet new people, interact with them, and see their progress throughout the term. I hope I get to stay in contact with these people as we all move forward in our education journey. Thank you all for your contributions to my learning!
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Hi all! I am just uploading my summary of learning youtube video here! This week we had the option of creating our own code sequence, or doing an hour of code. I chose to do the hour of code because it looked simpler than creating our own. During class on Tuesday Katia took us through a few of the steps on the coding exercise with Moana. I had clicked through a few of the other options on the website but it seemed to me that the Moana one would be the easiest. I have never coded before or even thought about coding so I was a little hesitant to try anything advanced. It started fairly simple with basic movements like "move forward" and "turn right" or "turn left". I thought it couldn't possibly get too challenging as it is designed for grade 2. It did not take me a full hour to complete it, but I did end up getting stuck on a few levels! This is a screenshot from one of the longer codes I did, I had to do this level twice even though it looks so simple! It kind of made me feel discouraged that I was struggling with grade 2 level coding. The above photo is the one I struggled with the most. They had just introduced the "if starfish do.." button and I was not sure how to use it! I was so close to the finish line and ended up spending about 10 minutes on this level. This picture is from the last level of the code. I only did this level once because it was fairly simple and I was relieved it was over. One thing I found really cool with this website is that once you finish your code, they give you a certificate that you can save or print off if you want! Although it was meant for grade 2, I felt good getting a certificate at the end! Haha!
Coding is literally a language for the computer. It is something I never wanted to get involved with because I always saw it as something super intimidating and meant for really smart people. I never knew how simple coding could be. I don't think I will ever code again, as it is something I don't really enjoy or have any interest in. But, I can definitely see how it can be used in the classroom to teach students basic coding skills. I don't necessarily think it is a super important skill to learn, but if the students are interested in it and enjoy doing it, then why not! Definitely a unique experience!! Fake news is becoming more and more prevalent in todays technological society. As technology advances, so does the means to create more realistic fake news. It was once so easy to distinguish fake news, with the ridiculously fabricated images and giant fonts, states Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt. Becoming digitally literate in todays society is extremely important for cutting out the fake news. People need to open their eyes and realize that not everything you read online is real. I need to become more digitally literate myself, in order to teach it to my future students. With this new age of online learning it is especially important that we are teaching our students how to filter out the fake news. Like Katia said in class on Tuesday, our search engines are more likely to give us results based on our previous preferences. For example, if you are someone who sees things from a left wing perspective, you are more likely to see the left wing stories in the news and on social media. Being aware of our personal biases can greatly help us decipher the fake news from the real. Another article by Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt states that students can use what is called a media bias chart. This chart places all of the news sources in categories based on credibility, which way they swing politically and what perspectives they are written from. Using this tool, students are able to see what types of content the different news sources produce, in order to see things from different perspectives. There is a resource in the weekly plans that has multiple lesson plans for fighting fake news with critical thinking. These are great tools to bring into the classroom to help combat the fake news and get students informed on the real things going on in our world. With technology becoming more and more prevalent in todays classrooms and with remote learning, it is not hard to incorporate skills and tools about how to effectively find information online. I still find myself falling for fake news sometimes if I don't do the proper research and take the proper channels to find accurate information. Being enrolled in this class has been extremely beneficial with improving my digital footprint, finding the fake news and searching for the correct information, and I think it will be super helpful going into the fall semester online. I do believe I chose to take this class at the right time and I am grateful for that! This week we had the chance to cyber sleuth some fellow students. I will be honest, it was not the first time that I have "creeped" someone on social media. When my friends meet someone new for example, I always head to social media first to see what I can find out about that person. When I hear myself say that out loud it seems really strange, but it has actually become the new way to find out information about others. Kendyll Herauf and I were partners for this activity. I followed the cyber sleuthing worksheet we were given in class to find some information about Kendyll. I found nothing alarming about any of her social media accounts. She is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and of course her WordPress blog. My overall impression of her digital identity is that she is a happy woman with a husband and a child, and she seems very active based on a couple photos I found. She shares a lot of great resources for teaching on her Twitter account, and her FaceBook and Instagram accounts were private. In her Twitter bio it says she is an elementary teacher with a math certificate. There is absolutely nothing on any of her social media accounts that I could find that would hinder me from hiring her, if I was in that position. She seems like a genuinely friendly, outgoing, kind person based on her digital identity. The internet has a good way of digging up dirt on others in order to shame them or find out their wrongdoings. In class on Thursday, we discussed Justine Sacco and the offensive tweet she posted online that ultimately ruined her life. Jon Ronson discusses in his TedTalk Justine Sacco had only 170 Twitter followers at the time of her offensive tweet, and her name was only googled around 40 times a month prior to the tweet. Between December 20th and the end of December her name was googled over a million times. Her life was ultimately destroyed within a matter of hours because of one stupid tweet she posted online. The story of Justine Sacco is a great example to show the importance of watching what you post online. You may only have a few followers, but that won't stop the internet from digging up dirt on you. Because we are all educators or future educators, what we say and do is constantly monitored.
Many people have multiple social media accounts or multiple online identities to express themselves differently on each of them. I can admit that I also have multiple online identities. I have two twitter accounts, one specifically for this class and the other I have had since 2014. I have three Instagram accounts, my main account which is private, my embroidery account that I just created and I have an account specifically for my cat. The article posted in the weekly plans titled "Having multiple online identities is more normal than you think" states "different sites, different audiences, different purposes". I couldn't agree more. Certain social media sites I like to be a little more laid back, while others need to be a little more professional. I don't think there is anything wrong with having multiple online personas, but of course, we still need to watch what we are posting. Nothing posted online is ever truly private. The cyber sleuthing experience was definitely interesting, and definitely makes me think about my own online identity. As a future educator, my platform becomes extremely important. Of course teachers have a responsibility to model active citizenship and show their students how they can become active citizens as well. Anti-oppressive education is also super important. As teachers, we want to ensure we are educating our students to be the best they can be, and to always make sure we are modelling active citizenship and including all cultures in our learning. Because education is primarily online now and in the fall, teachers need to ensure they are still modelling active citizenship and anti-oppressive education. There is a quote from an online article by Ann Marie Borders that says "rather than simply trying to teach about multiple cultures, give your students the opportunity to teach each other about their own cultures and perspectives.... Remind your students that global citizens teach, listen and learn from each other". On Tuesday we discussed using our platforms for good and spreading resources that can help others cope with everything happening in the world today. I have been trying my best to educate myself on the black lives matter movement and spread resources that show why we need to support this cause. My following on social media is not huge, but like Katia said on Tuesday, whether you have five followers or five hundred followers, sharing resources still educates those that do follow you. Speaking out on social media about issues like racial discrimination can be a little intimidating. I am always worried about saying the wrong thing or being misinterpreted online. But as a future educator, people are going to be paying attention to the things I say. Of course, if I do say something incorrectly I would hope that people correct me so that I can effectively share appropriate resources and continue to support anti-racist movements. An article by UNESCO Associated Schools Network says that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of their societies". Racial discrimination comes from personal biases and judgemental stereotypes. It is time to start holding ourselves, our family members, friends and others accountable for when these biases surface. There is no need to think lesser of someone simply because their skin colour is different. It is absolutely absurd that racism still exists in todays society. It is time for the system to change. I really enjoy the quote that says "I understand that I will never understand. However, I stand with you." It really speaks volumes to the situation taking place in our world today. Staying silent may seem like the right path to take for those unsure of what to say or how to say it. But silence speaks louder than words. Staying silent says to others that you support the side of the oppressor. The only benefit of staying silent in my opinion is that you won't be judged for what you do decide to post. But, like we discussed in class on Tuesday, you need to take a look at the resources and petitions that others are sharing and then decide what you are going to post. It is very important that we are educating ourselves on how to be better and sharing resources that help others be better. Use your voice to spread good! We need to see a change. The links for the photos: Photo 1 and Photo 2 Hello! This week we were supposed to use a new technological tool to help us display our learning project. The tool I chose to use is called Adobe Spark. It is a super user friendly video creator website that I really enjoyed using. Right when you go to the website it is going to ask you to make an account so you can save your progress, it is free! I signed up through my FaceBook. Then your home page should look like the photo below... The next step is to start creating, there is a button in the top left hand corner of the page that says "Create a project" you are going to want to click that to get started. The picture below is all of the options you can create using Adobe Spark. I created a simple video. The next step is to name your video and then pick a template! After that you can add your own photos/videos. Before you begin adding your own content, a tutorial pops up that shows you how to do everything! You can change the music in the background to whatever you want and it was super easy to access my photos because I just opened google drive and all of my photos were there. After my video was finished, I downloaded it to my computer and then uploaded it to YouTube! I really enjoyed using this website to create my little video and I would definitely use it again. It was super user friendly. Checkout my video below!!! We recently discussed the idea of this new world of participation. In the YouTube video by Wesch he discusses the idea that we don't just sit back and watch, but we participate. He used the example of the Numa Numa video that went viral on YouTube and how many people remade videos of the dance and put their own spin on it. I think it is kind of neat to see so many people getting involved in new trends.
Back when I was growing up we did not have things like cellphones or apps like TikTok and Instagram that quickly make things go viral. I received my first phone when I was around 14 or 15 and I was only allowed to use it when I was babysitting, to text my mom to tell her I was ready to be picked up! It is kind of crazy in today's day and age how young these kids are when they receive their first phones. Like Katia said in her presentation, kids around age 10 are receiving their first phones and making their social media presence known. Technology is an amazing tool that can definitely be used proactively in the classroom. There is quite a few questionable things out there on the internet that make you wonder if you should really be bringing in technology into the classroom. Kids today are on some sort of social media platform when they are first born! Having technology in the classroom can prove to be extremely beneficial for students who are growing up in this world full of it. They are already digital geniuses by the time they reach grade level, so having something in the classroom that they are familiar with can help them in the learning process tremendously. Technological/online learning may be our new normal, so I think it would be beneficial to us all to use it for our advantage to be able to better support our future students!! Let me know your thoughts on this topic, or if you agree or disagree with anything!! I have had a twitter account for quite awhile now. I think it is a great app for finding hilarious content, keeping up to date with the new events going on in the world and it is very simple to use. I have never used Twitter professionally, or for school so that aspect of it is new to me. I had no idea about "Tweetdeck" or how the live-chats worked. The #Saskedchat was my first experience with a live chat. I actually really enjoyed my time in the #Saskedchat and I thought it was a unique way to do a Q&A to get so many people involved. I answered most of the questions but I could not answer the questions regarding my students because I do not have any students! I would definitely do a live-chat again, I thought the time went by really fast and it was pretty interesting!
What are your projections for teaching & learning for this Fall? This current situation we are facing with the COVID-19 pandemic is constantly changing. We are still learning new things about this virus everyday. It concerns me that the province of Saskatchewan and other provinces are starting to re-open when we have not got the virus under control. The UofR and the UofS both released statements yesterday discussing the fall term. It is looking like we will be continuing with distanced learning and online learning. This concerns me a bit as I am going into my pre-internship in the fall. I noticed in our zoom class last night that a lot of the comments in the chat were positive regarding the fall term. A lot of people were saying that it might actual benefit those going into pre-internship and internship in the fall as it will be a new challenge and hopefully a new way of teaching that these future educators will get to experience. I wish I could look at this current situation with such enthusiasm and excitement, but unfortunately the opposite is true. I am very nervous for the upcoming fall term and I feel like I won't be able to learn how to become a teacher to my full potential if everything is online. I guess we will just have to wait and see!
What do you think teaching and learning will look like in 2025? As for 2025, I am not sure what it will look like. I am barely sure what this fall term will look like, let alone 2025. I do believe there will be a lot more technology in schools than there is today, and maybe even staggered learning where students come to school on different days to limit the amount of time spent in the classroom. Whatever the future may hold, I am excited to hopefully be apart of the new and improved classrooms! |
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