4/18/2021 0 Comments Summary Of LearningResources used to make my "Summary of Learning" were:
- Google Slides - Bitmoji - Canva - Google Docs - Screencastify - Animoto - Youtube To view my Google Slides and "campfire" scene slide, click here The script to my "Summary of Learning" Youtube video is below: Come join me around this toasty, warm fire and let’s chat about my time in EDTC 300. To start, I need to flash back to the beginning of EDTC 300. At the start of EDTC I will admit, I was scared, nervous and worried. I knew that technology in the classroom was beneficial and I thought I had a decent grasp on how to use tools to make learning more engaging. The tools I was using at the time included: Google Docs, Google Slides, Word and Powerpoint (I was living under a rock, I know…). So, let me tell you when we started our weekly Zoom meets, I was little overwhelmed with the amount of technology I would be learning and using in the next 4 month. I will say, I am someone who posts on social media a handful of times a year. So, hearing that for the next 4 months I would have to post on Twitter multiple times a day, keep a blog that reflected my learning, do an additional blog post for my learning project, comment on other classmates blogs, build a community on Slack, and manage 4 other class. OOf, I was overwhelmed, and to be honest I didn’t think I could do it. Now fast-forward to now, I am SO thrilled I stuck with the course! Let’s take a peek at my own PLN. If you’re not familiar with the term PLN, it stands for personal learning network. It is a space that gives educators the opportunity to connect with others in order to gain new understandings or share their own expertise (Edublogs, 2021). Let’s talk about the first way I shared my ideas with my classmates... I used an ePortfolio using the platform, Weebly. I created my Weebly blog for an ECS class a few semesters ago and then as this semester went by I expanded my ePortfolio to suit my new EDTC learnings. Each week we were assigned blog prompts which encouraged us to connect with the course teachings and connect with our peers. On that same blog site, I shared my #learningproject. I was able to connect with others in the class that focused on similar topics and this helped me expand my PLN and support me during my own learning project. My most favourite tool that allowed me to learn, share ideas, and collaborate asynchronously was: Twitter. Before EDTC 300, I wasn’t a fan of Twitter... now I am full blown obsessed! I could get lost looking through different hashtags. Some hashtags I found myself interacting with were obviously, #EDTC300 and #learning project and then I used #edtech and of course #Saskedchat. #Saskedchat happened every Thursday @8pm. This was an opportunity to connect with other educators in and around Saskatchewan. Twitter is my new go to tool for professional learning. It has helped me expand my Personal Learning network because I am able to engage with my peers, educators near and far and participate in #saskedchats. During a Wednesday Zoom class, Katia, introduced the topic of our digital footprints. During this class, we were able to understand the importance for us, as future educators, to be aware of how we are perceived on the outside world. To be an educator, we MUST be aware of our digital presence and identities. There’s a saying that says teachers should know how to live their life like they’re in a fishbowl. To understand just how much can be seen and found online about our digital identities, Katia got us to engage in an activity called, cyber sleuthing. This activity helped us see just how much information can actually be found in the digital realm, and showed us the importance of being aware of what we are posting and sharing because it can impact us and others around us. I appreciated this activity because I got the inside scoop from Sarah, a classmate who found all this information on me. This is stuff that, future co-workers, students, parents, administration and other people are able to see and find out about me. By doing this, we were also able to learn how to create awareness for our students and their own digital identities. When we teach students about digital citizenship, we can share the ways how to use technology in a respectful and safe manner. When students practice digital citizenship, they develop digital literacy. Teachers can use Ribble’s 9 Elements of digital citizenship to “lead and assist others in building positive digital experiences, to recognize that our actions have consequences and to participate in a manner for the common good” (Ribble, 2017). This is essential for students to understand online etiquette, and how to use internet safely, responsibly and kindly. Katia, moved into the theme of identifying fake news, mis and disinformation and knowing what is appropriate to share online, as a way to navigate our usage of internet safely. In order to implement technology in the classroom, we have to understand the important role it plays in our education, especially in the world we are living in right now. In EDTC, we were provided MANY (and I mean MANY) resources, materials, and tools that we could use that would help us in demonstrating the power of technology to our future students. Coding being one of these tools. We had the opportunity to explore Scratch and Code.org. Coding is something that will support several 21st century jobs, which makes it important to allow students engage, explore and experience coding in their education. Along with coding, some other apps, chrome extensions, and creation tools that were used during EDTC can be found jam-packed in my cooler (see Canva visual). EDTC 300 has certainly expanded and deepened my understanding of technology. It has provided me with valuable information that I can take with me into the classroom. As a future educator it is important we understand the impact technology has on ourselves and the community. Technology is something that is continuously changing and is something we can growth, explore and learn with for years to come. Thank you for a wonderful semester, Haley Miller
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I started EDTC 300 in January and some how, it is already the middle of April and the last week of classes for this semester?! EDTC 300 has taught me the importance of technology in the classroom but also how to create and build my own PLN. In this course, we have been using several different sources which include, Twitter, Blogs and Slack. When using these sources, we had been asked to put in effort into our own learning, but also the learning of our peers in the class and education faculty. In my blog post today I will be sharing and highlighting some of the times I contributing to the learning of others while in EDTC 300. Twitter: During my time in EDTC 300, we were asked to be active on Twitter. This was an area I was pushed out of my comfort zone. I am not used to being "active" on social media. I am known to post on my personal Instagram or Facebook *maybe* once a year. So being asked to be active on Twitter every single day, seemed a little scary. I was also not active on the social media app, Twitter, at the time, so I was worried I wouldn't catch on right away with how the app worked and the correct way to connect with others from the course. But I was pleasantly surprised by the involvement and encouraging interactions I had with my EDTC 300 classmates. I also surprised myself with my own growth. I found Twitter to be an excellent source for teaching and finding information, material, and resources. Twitter is most definitely a professional development tool that I will continue to use throughout my journey in education and teaching. I was able to find material that I actually was able to use during my time teaching as a pre-intern. I was also able to connect with experienced teachers on the app and read their advice and opinions. I think Twitter is a great resource for teachers and professional development. Side note: I was even able to connect with a few of my own elementary teachers on Twitter. As well as teachers I have met through my parents (who are both teachers) during my time on Twitter this semester. It was so special to build those connections through an online space. Another aspect I enjoyed about being active on Twitter was being able to connect with others from the EDTC 300 course. This year was strange with no physical interaction (dang Covid-19 restrictions) with my peers. But being active on Twitter felt like I was still able to get to know my classmates and share and learn new ideas. Twitter allowed us to build connections that normally wouldn't have been possible. Below are screen shots of some of the conversations I had with my peers from EDTC 300 on Twitter: The last reason I enjoyed Twitter was the because of the #saskedchat that happened every Thursday at 8:00pm (I even have an alarm set for Thursday's at 7:55 pm that goes off if I am able to attend the Twitter chats). #Saskedchat was a hashtag that would be used to join Kelly Christopher and the questions they asked. This was an opportunity to connect with other teachers in Saskatchewan and sometimes even around the world. This is where I connected with many teachers that shared great advice and resources. I also followed many of them on Twitter so I can continue to follow along with their journey. Below are some screen captures of the conversations I joined in during last week's chat #Saskedchat: Blogs: Next up was the blogging, which was probably my most favourite part of my PLN. I found the blog to be very beneficial. It was a place where I could reflect and write about my learnings and progress throughout the course. I also appreciated the fact we had access to our classmates blogs to connect with them on their blogs too. We were able to check in on their progress with their #learningproject and weekly posts. Having access to read about our classmates progress and journey helped build a positive virtual classroom "community". Katia, our wonderful professor, created a "Blog Hub", where it gave us access to everyone from our course and their blogs. From there, we were able to read and comment on classmates' blog posts. I enjoyed reading what type of yoga Alex C. was doing, what Shana was baking, what Tina was sewing and how Haley's jewelry was going (along with many others!). The screen shots below are some of the comments I made on my classmates blogs throughout the semester. Slack: Slack was another source we were expected to be actively using. I found Slack like the "homeroom" of it all. Slack was where we went if we had questions, needed help, or just wanted to share something with our EDTC 300 class. I found Slack to be useful a useful tool as a University student and wished all classes used it. I asked a question one day and I had multiple responses with great help and information. I also liked that Slack sent me notifications when someone mentioned my name. The screen captures below are some of my interactions on Slack: 4/10/2021 0 Comments Coding fun!In my first year of University I took a computer science course, and let me tell you, I still have nightmares from that class. It was hands down the most difficult course I have ever taken. I was convinced during that course that your brain has to be wired a certain way to pick up on all the "code-lingo". It was clear my brain was not wired that way. I worked my way through computer science 100, and made it out alive and told myself I would NEVER code again. So, when Katia started the class this week sharing that "we will be coding this week, and it will be SO fun", I was a tad hesitant and had instant flashbacks to first year University struggling through coding. But, I will give it to Katia, she was right, we did code, and it was actually FUN! Image Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/e7hUrs2THi5osVCP6 If you're not familiar with the term "coding", this is what I will be talking about in today's blog. A good definition I found from an outside source suggests, "coding means using the programming language to get the computer to behave as desired. Each line of the code is a set of instructions for the computer. A set of codes form a script, and a set or dozens of sets, form a program". This week I took some time to check out, "Hour of Code". On this website, you can choose to do a wide variety of activities that are designed for all ages and the best part, the activities are in over 45 different languages, which makes it a great site to support. When I first got onto Hour of Code, I knew I wanted to pick a "beginner" level activity to start. I scrolled through the MANY options and decided to go with "AI for Oceans". The video below was the first video I was greeted with that supplied me with information to use while interacting with the activity. In the video below, it gave me a brief overview of what to expect and how AI worked and what machine learning was. The purpose of this activity is to introduce students to machine learning (a type of artificial intelligence). While doing this activity/game, students are able to explore how training data works and how it is used to enable a machine learning model to classify new data. Something I loved about the activity I chose was that within each level, it provided educational content. Throughout AI For Oceans students have the opportunity to help AI impact the future. Some of the main factors I appreciated as a future educator were the references to the environment, food waste, pollution, littering, saving and cleaning the ocean life, and that AI can identify genetic disorders from a person's face. In Level 1, the students have the chance the understand what machine learning is (a computer that can recognize patterns and make decisions without being explicitly programmed). In Level 2-4, the students are able to train AI to clean the ocean. In Level 5, students can begin training data and bias. In Level 6, students will be using the training data. In Level 7, students are able to notice the impacts on society. In Level 8, students can teach AI a new word. While involving myself with "AI for Oceans", I was pleasantly surprised at how well laid out the expectations were. This was my first time "coding" in this type of format, and it was so user friendly, and something I would definitely introduce into my own classroom for my students to explore. Not only is coding important in today's day and age, Hour of Code also integrates educational aspects within the concept of learning how to code. It is a win- win.
I think as a future educator who will be teaching younger students, it is important for myself to have a basic understanding of coding. Coding is something that will support many of the 21st century jobs. In order for my students to be familiar with coding, I want them to experience and use it in the classroom setting. This means that within my lessons, I want to incorporate coding. Some apps/sites that would be beneficial to use are code.org, and Scratch. These are just a couple of the coding sites that I would like to introduce into my classroom and teachings. I find coding allows the students to use critical thinking and helps them improve their accuracy for planning ahead. It also encourages creativity and challenges their knowledge to keep building. Using coding during mathematics promotes problem-solving, number sequences, creativity and patterns. "Coding teaches problem-solving skills, and real-world ways to teach mathematical thinking. When students create or debug a program, they practice solving problems" (Tynker Coding For Kids). Coding is something that I could use in math lessons but it also applies to cross-curricular activities too. As I saw in AI For Oceans, students would be able to make connections to science, arts education, social studies, and health education. Coding has many positives and I can see myself implementing it into the classroom as a future educator. 4/2/2021 0 Comments Fact or Fake?This week in our EDTC 300 course we have been exploring the topic of "fake news". As we move to online learning (especially right now living and teaching during a global pandemic) and learning the new ways to introduce technology into the classroom to enhance our teaching and better engage our students, we have to be careful. When we enhance our teaching by providing technology for our students, it is important to teach them about their own personal digital citizenship (see blog post). Couros & Hildebrandt (2018) suggest we also need to "approach news and information with a critical eye in order to identify intentionally misleading sources". It is important our students are prepared and fully understand how the online world works. As the Thompson Rivers University Library shares, fake news is referred to as, "a type of hoax or deliberate spread of misinformation with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically. Fake News is related to propaganda whose purpose is to spread information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view" (2019). As a child, I remember being in line at the grocery store with my Mom and there would be rows and rows of reality magazines displayed. The headlines would be outrageous but still caught my Mom's attention. While we were waiting for our groceries to get rung up, my Mom would skim through a magazine and close it while shaking her head whispering, "just junk in these magazines". This is probably the first time I was really aware of fake news being around me. Image retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/unJ1AKsgcWpT3VxA8 As an article shares, people "fall" for fake news because we have our minds set to trust the media and government, the amount of editing makes images look realistic, links can get mixed up between friends and family with similar if not identical-looking links across the web, lower attention spans and it often appeals to our emotions. Lindsay Matts-Benson from the University Libraries shared: As a future educator, some tips I will remember to look for are: 1. Be critical of images 2. Investigate the URL/site 3. Read beyond the Headline 4. Verify the Author 5. Track down original source 6. Watch out for new technologies For more information based on how to self-check the news for fact or fake, I suggest looking at this site and this one. If you need a visual or are still unsure of what is fact or fake, this "7 types of mis- and disinformation" can provide additional help when distinguishing between the two and the different types: Indicator B and C caught my attention. There are many ways you could approach teaching healthy decisions and information/misinformation in the community. One way that I think is important to teach young students is allowing them to understand the difference between fact/fake and information/misinformation while online. I have found a few resources that share ideas about how to teach about fake news and help foster critical thinking in the classroom. One learning activity that I liked for this grade level was looking at this website as an example for misinformation/fake news. The students can observe and note what they read and the information they find and state whether or not they think this site provides information or misinformation. From their findings, the teacher can then teach what to look for when looking at online resources and how to spot fact vs. fake information. 3/31/2021 0 Comments Cyber SleuthingWell, it is safe to say I wouldn't be a first pick to be hired as Penelope Garcia's assistant on Criminal Minds. If you're not sure who I am talking about, Penelope Garcia is a fictional character from the crime drama, Criminal Minds. Penelope is the technical analyst of the behavioural analysis unit. She very easily can find and investigate all data and information to provide to the FBI team for anyone they need "dirt" on. This week in our EDTC 300 course, we were asked to do some cyber sleuthing (kind of similar to what Penelope does just not nearly as cool as her job). We have been focusing on our own digital identities and footprints in previous classes. We've also been learning about the importance of our own and other's personal digital identities. And last class we were asked to do some investigating ourselves on someone we did not know but was also in the Education Faculty. We had to find information on these areas: professional, biographical, personal, where they are located on social media/online, our overall impression of them and if we would trust this person based on what we could find on their personal digital identity. We also had to share if we would suggest them changing anything about their online presence. We were only given a short 20 minutes to do some creeping/stalking. And by the end of that time, as a group, we had quite a bit of information on this person. Thankfully for this person we stalked, they had a lot of positive information online that isn't considered harmful or dangerous. With this being said, we were still able to learn a lot about this stranger from the information we loaded from her online presence. But this isn't the case for many others online. Often photos, statements, and other online documentation can come back to haunt or hurt one if the wrong hand gets a hold of it. In one of the TED Talks we were asked to watch this week, it talked about how 1, just 1 tweet could ruin your life. In this TED talk it shared how social media gives us the chance to speak up and share but with that comes with having to rethink how we interact with others online. Jon Ronson talks about "giving a voice to the voiceless" which means that just because one may think something doesn't mean we need to post it for the whole world to see. We should be sharing valuable or important information that can be seen as beneficial. Picture above retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/PB3NLSNDfttuyeyV8 Getting back to my cyber sleuthing...the point of this week's task was to see what we could find on someone else in our class. By doing this task, it allows me to share with my partner what I found from my end, which then can let my partner know what other people like future bosses, colleagues, students and parents may be able to see too. So, lets get started. I was partnered with Sarah Adams-Huber to "cyber stalk/sleuth". Overall, Sarah keeps a very "locked-up" and clean online presence. Sarah may do this on purpose or I may need to get some tips from Ms. Garcia to help me investigate a little deeper ;). Sarah doesn't use her given name on her social media sites, which made it trickier for me to find her. When I did a quick search of "Sarah Adams-Huber" on Google, I didn't find a thing on her. I follow her on Twitter which gave me some information about her location and where she studies for post-secondary. Attached to her Twitter, I could get access to her Wordpress, blog. This gave me a little bit more information about her and her interests (she loves cats :) ). I messaged Sarah asking her for her social media "name", which she provided me. But this still didn't give me a whole lot more information on Sarah. Her Facebook account shares pictures of herself, animals, partner and some life updates. I couldn't access information from her Instagram as it was locked and we aren't following each other. I've created a sheet which I will share with Sarah that lays out all the information I found that she can use as she likes (as I don't think I should be sharing all the information I found online without her permission). Overall, I would say Sarah has a positive online presence and I wouldn't suggest she changes anything. This task is fun but also eye-opening as our digital identities could be potentially dangerous if something negative is shared and then found by someone who later posts it in a harmful way.
I am curious to see what Sarah found on me and if I need to make any changes about the way I present myself online. Haley :) 3/24/2021 0 Comments Digital CitizenshipPhoto Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/s4RbVX6onKixSywx6 What is Digital Citizenship? Well, according to Ribble's "Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship", digital citizenship is the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible and empowered technology use. After our EDTC 300 class, I reflected on my own digital citizenship and how I can incorporate digital citizenship it into my own teaching practices. I have always dreamed of being a primary teacher which means as a future teacher, it is never too early to introduce healthy usage of the web and reinforce proper etiquette online. Technology isn't going anywhere fast and young people are using it daily. As a community, we have seen more and more online bullying occurring, which makes me, as a future educator, want to ensure that my future students are understanding the importance of being kind online. As well as, creating positive digital experiences, recognizing that the actions we do online and in person have consequences to others and to participate online positively. After reading and learning about the nine areas from "Ribble's Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship", I can recognize many areas I could incorporate in my teaching and learning environment. The first element that stood out to me was, Digital Rights & Responsibility. This element suggests, "Digital Citizenship is about helping students understand that when they are provided opportunities, such as the access to the Internet and use of online products, they need to be diligent in helping others as well, such as informing adults of potential problems. Educators must help students understand that protecting others both online and in the real world are essentials skills to have". This element can be an area for discussion in a classroom. It is important for students to learn that online and Internet access is considered a privilege. Which means, students/children need to ensure that they are using technology properly and appropriately. This element shares that students/children have the rights and responsibility to protect themselves and others online. This means, is children are noticing something that shouldn't be shared or posted online, and could be considered harmful to someone in "real life", they have to do something about it. I can connect the element, "Digital Rights and Responsibility" to the Saskatchewan Curriculum. Specifically, Grade One: Health Education, DM1: I chose DM1.1 because the "Stop, Think, Do" method is a great way to demonstrate how we MUST stop, actually think, and then do if appropriate. By doing these actions, students can begin to recognize the importance of thinking before acting. Before students just post online, they need to think, "is this kind?", "is this harmful to someone else or myself?", "is this quality/accurate information?", etc. Students can practice this method in hopes of limiting harmful posts. Another element that stood out to me was, Digital Health and Welfare. This element refers to the "physical and psychological well-being in a digital world. Technology provides many opportunities and enjoyment, but knowing how to segment use with the needs of ourselves and others is key to a healthy, balanced life. Educators, especially in 1:1 schools or classrooms need to ask the questions of how much screen time is appropriate for students". Personally, I could connect to this element, because some night I, myself, have the fight of too much screen time before I go to bed. I catch myself endlessly scrolling Tik-Tok or Instagram... sometimes online shopping/browsing. This can affect my mental and emotional well-being. I made a connection to the Saskatchewan curriculum. Grade One Health: Outcome USC1.1: This outcome is a great way to introduce the things that make us healthy and the things that are unhealthy and how to find a healthy balance for our well-being. As a future teacher, I would explain to my class that too much screen time is unhealthy for many reasons (takes away from our time with family and friends, limits our time from moving our body and being active). From there, I would go in depth about the importance of cherishing the moments spent "in the room" with family and friends and the importance of living an active lifestyle.
Nibble's Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship shares many aspects that can be interconnected to the curriculum. These elements are important and students should be aware of them even at a young age (Grade 1). Haley 3/10/2021 0 Comments New culture of ParticipationMy Grandparents used to have dial-up internet and I can still hear the "dial-up internet" sound loud and clear whenever I flashback to those times. Whenever my family and I would go over to visit my Grandparents, they were always annoyed by the sound and how glitchy the internet was. It was like you had to have the perfect connection for it to 100% work properly. I don't recall myself ever using dial-up internet (still too young to use it), but I sure do remember the noise it made. If you're too young, or just don't remember, let me refresh your memory: Flash forward to now, year 2021... WOW. Technology has made leaps and bounds within the past 25 years. I now live in a house that has wifi with the "fastest" internet connection. We can live stream the Oiler's hockey game, download Luke Comb's new song the moment it is released and connect back and forth with friends through several different apps . We quite literally have access to everything we need at the tips of our fingers. During our EDTC 300 class, we were asked to watch Welch's Youtube video, "An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube" . In this video, he mentions how a dance called the Numa, Numa went viral in a positive way. He also shared just how much content is shared each and everyday on Youtube (which shocked me). As well as how having access to the digital world we are living in allows us to share in ways of identity, community and expression. After watching Welch's Youtube Video and watching Amanda Todd's documentary, I get overwhelmed thinking about how much access my future students and children will have to technology and more importantly, social media. Social media was talked about a lot during our EDTC 300 class. As a future educator, social media will come up. In today's day and age, it is not going anywhere anytime fast. In our EDTC 300 class, we talked about how teachers today are finding social media apps like Tik-Tok, Instagram and Snapchat to cause issues in the classroom. As future teachers, it is our job to find ways to teach our students how to positively, respectfully and safely use technology and other online networks. I am a firm believer that social media and technology are fantastic and can provide endless learning opportunities for our students... if it is used correctly. So, let's start making good use of our time online. Right now, students are online more than ever (especially with E-learning). So, we need to start like, now, with teaching our students internet safety. Technology can be dangerous for all users if they're not using it healthily. A blog by, Mama in the Now, shares, "The Best Ways to Teach Kids Internet Safety" which is a good read for the first steps in teaching our students to be safe online. Another page called, Sasktel's Be Kind Online, is social movement that reminds everyone to "rethink their online behaviour, embrace our connectedness and spread positivity". We need to be prepared. We need to model correct behaviour online and remind students that what you say and do online stays forever. Retrieved from: SaskTel's Be Kind Online Website Categories2/20/2021 1 Comment EDTC Review on AnimotoPhoto retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/TosUfoMNuaCM1gsv6 This week for my #learningproject in EDTC 300, I used Animoto. As shared previously, I am quite intimidated by technology. I think there is just SO much out there, that I didn't even know where to start. I knew for this week's task, I wanted to make a video, but I knew I needed to try a new "video making" platform because I tried to use iMovie before and failed miserably (several times). So, when Amanda Brace suggested Animoto as being a great (and fairly "easy") app to use when making videos, I figured I would give it a shot. I won't lie, I was anxious to make this video because of my previous failed attempts at making videos! But, honest to gosh, Animoto is so SIMPLE and well laid out which made it extremely user friendly. To begin my "review", let's talk about what Animoto is... Animoto is a FREE (my favourite price as a student, hehe) video maker. It shares in their slogan that Animoto allows you to, "create your own videos easily". You are able to "combine your photos and clips with music to make professional videos that'll impress". It can be used as a classroom tool for educators, students and administrators. You are able to easily create and share videos with your students, parents or colleagues. What I liked about Animoto right away, was that there wasn't any software downloads needed. I was able to instantly get started on making my video. On Animoto's website, it states a step-by-step guide on "How to Create a Video with Animoto". There are three easy steps: 1. Choose a Video Template 2. Add Photos & Videos clips 3. Customize your video Here is a Youtube video that explains it in detail too... Now that you know a bit about what Animoto is, and maybe a little about how to go about making your first video. I want to share my experience using it for the first time. When I started to research Animoto, I made an account on my MacBook Air, but as I was figuring things out, I realized I needed to make the video on my phone because all of my video clips and photos were on my phone. I downloaded the Animoto app onto my phone. Once I downloaded the Animoto app onto my phone, I was able to start. The first step was to choose my template, I decided since it was my fist time using Animoto, I would choose a "start from scratch" template. By choosing this options I was able to learn how the video making app worked and further my knowledge about the app and really get a chance to explore my options. I think next time I would try a pre-made template because I found the iPhone app to be quite finicky. The part I found the most finicky was when I had to type out a caption. Every time I would type, it would turn the font white with a lime green highlight around the text. So every time I made a caption I had to go back in and change my font to my liking. Perhaps this is something that I did wrong on my part but it still made it a pain to go back in and change each time. I also found the app to be slow/ glitchy. I had to click the areas I wanted to explore several times before it would load (again, perhaps this is something on my end). I would like to explore this app more and try to make a video using the website and compare and contrast how the process goes. Other than the glitches and font annoyance, this app was WONDERFUL. One thing I loved about this app was how simple and user friendly it was when adding pictures and videos. I liked that you could clip your own videos to your liking of length. From there, you were able to "create". You could add in different layouts, logos, and bursts to your videos and pictures. Having this feature made it an excellent way to customize your video to your preference. Another feature I liked was the option to add a "video style". This allowed for an extra touch in design preference. The design setting options are very appealing to the eye. This area is another aspect I would like to explore and play around with more. I find that it is something so little that makes your video POP! I am happy with how my final video turned out. Even though I still have a lot to learn and work on within using Animoto, I would say this is 10x better than when I tried to use iMovie. I give this app 8.5/10. There were a few glitches while using the app, but overall, the app was user friendly and simple to use. For a first time user, I am pleased with the outcome and I will be using this video making app again. Check out my first-ever Animoto video I made for my EDTC 300 #learningproject: Categories2/9/2021 0 Comments Tweet, Tweet.Picture Credit When I was in high-school, it was the "in" thing to be on Twitter and tweet back and forth with others. My friends and I would tweet song lyrics (CRINGE), or update our lives through our tweets. My time on Twitter when I was in high school wasn't educational whatsoever, I don't even recall myself using hashtags (#HELP) correctly. I would say I was on Twitter for 2-3 years before Instagram become the new, exciting social media app to spend our time on. I then deleted my Twitter account because I was no longer active on the app and Instagram was consuming my social media usage. If I was being completely honest, I thought Twitter was a "dead" social media app because no one I knew was really using the app. I was clueless that Twitter was actually VERY alive and thriving. Now that I am back on Twitter for #EDTC300, I am learning WAY more and following accounts that provide me with resources and information that I can use and take with me in my teaching career. I am honestly shocked at just how much is on Twitter for teachers and educational use. As a future teacher, I love the idea of introducing Twitter in the classroom. I am still a tad hesitant about primary years using the app (just because I personally haven't seen how that would work). But, I think Twitter usage for students in Grade 5 and up could be potentially powerful. Students could use Tweets to collaboratively work together as a team. They can also use different hashtags to act as a research tool and find relevant blogs for their learnings. Another aspect I think Twitter in the classroom could be beneficial, is for the organizational aspect. The teacher and students could use Twitter as a platform where they update each other on homework and assignments, announcing field trips, any changes in plans or updates and reminders of spirit days! The students could come up with a fun # that would be used for their grade/class and thats where the students and teacher could look for any Tweet regarding this class. I think this is something I would totally look into as a teacher. There is so much potential in bringing technology into the classroom. Below is a small screen shot from Cybrary Man's Educational Websites which lists MANY educational hashtags to use on Twitter, I found this list very helpful. As someone who would be classified as "newer" to twitter and using it to benefit their educational journey, I thought this list came in handy for finding accounts to follow and hashtags to search. Once you find those hashtags and accounts, you begin to add so many new resources and information to your toolbox. Last EDTC 300 class, we attended a #Saskedchat which was something brand new to me. It was so fun and fast-paced. We used something called a Tweetdeck which kept our feeds and tweets organized and allowed us to see certain accounts and hashtags all on one screen, which made being apart of the chat easier. @Saskedchat asked questions that focused on "must have" resources, supports and technologies for first year teachers and self care tips for future teachers. The questions @Saskedchat asked were great as we are all future teachers. Below are some of the tweets I sent out that night in response to the questions asked.
This week in EDTC 300, we were asked to get a Feedly account, at first I was a little confused as to what Feedly even was. I also felt a little overwhelmed with having to create another account to manage. As shared before, I am not someone who is "tech-savvy", so having to learn how to use another browser and manage it kind of stressed me out. But Feedly is neat. Feedly is, " a news aggregator application for various web browsers and mobile devices running iOS and Android. It is also available as a cloud-based service. It compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources for the user to customize and share with others" . My first search was, "education", then, "teaching", then, "primary years". From there, Feedly started suggesting certain pages for me to follow. I then got into "ed tech" articles. Once I had spent enough time browsing, I saw the option of creating boards (this reminded me of Pinterest, I love Pinterest so I know all about 'boards'). I have created three feeds so far. One is "teaching" related, another, "primary year", and the other, "education" . I also made myself one that is titled, "Activities for Kids" which has already shown me awesome resources (some even FREE). After creating some feeds, I created a board. In my board this week, I added in articles or posts from my feed that caught my attention. Some of the posts I saved to my boards have information I want to remember or resources I would like to use later. One account stood out to me in particular. Cult of Pedagogy's account and feed stood out to me first. The first article that stood out to me from Cult of Pedagogy was titled, "6 Ed Teach Tools to Try in 2021". I thought this would be a good read since, well, I am in an EDTC class and with our world right now, we all could use some more knowledge around technology in the classroom. I enjoyed the option of being able to listen to this article in podcast format, that is something new to me! This time, I read the article, but perhaps next time I could use that feature. In this article, it shared 6 tools that included, Mote (justmote.me), AllSides (allsides.com), Google Lens (lens.google.com), Bulb (bumbapp.com), Embracerace (embracerace.org), Prezi Video (prezi.com/video). I thought Google Lens was SO cool. Google Lens allows you to point your smartphone camera at an object and the app can give information about. You are able to pint it at images, plants, and even texts in other languages to translate. This is such a useful tool and I am so glad I read about it. Check out this neat video! Categories |
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