EdTech March 7th Discussion

Ed Tech (EDCI 336) Class Notes Followed By Personal Thoughts

  • Education with integrity
    • Program that checks if there is plagiarism in the paper
  • A publishing company has access to data base of millions of unpublished students work (it is unknown what they will use it for; artificial technology?)
    • Bring up news in the classroom
  • Learn what’s happening in EdTech
  • The Liberating New Work of Open Educational Resources
    • Resources for teachers to use
    • Accessible education
    • Different modes and needs for communicating in education
    • Topic of Social Justice
    • Free education
  • A diverse landscape for content creators and educators 
    • Creative commons
    • Copy right
    • Public domain
      • When something is around for an extremely long time, it loses copy right and becomes public domain
    • Embeddable content
  • Copyright basics
    • Class Info on copyright
      • Copyright applies to all works created
      • Copyright is assumed automatically and immediately
      • Fair dealing allows for the use of some copyright protected works with limitation
      • Even if you give it to people, they do not automatically have permission to copy it
    • Class info on alternative copyright licensing
      • C
      • CC
      • PD
      • Person Symbol
      • $ with a cross through it 
      • =
      • Backwards C
    • Open Educational Resources
      • Open content/open educational resources (OER)/ open courseware are educational materials which are discoverable online and openly licensed that can be shared, redistributed, improved and used
    • Open verses Closed Resources
      • Closed caption and audio over for those who have communication barriers (ie. Khan website)
      • Do advanced searches on google to only show photos that are of free use
      • Go to setting, advanced source and then tailor it to only sites/pictures that are of free use. It will only give you results that are openly licenced 
  • My Reflections from March 7th2019 EDCI 336 Class
    • Copyrightis more complicated and complex than I have previously realized. I am aware of what copyright is and how it protects the owners of said content, but I was unaware of how copyright is protected immediately and that the content could not just be given away to be copied even by the artist. It is interesting that there have been updates and changes to the Copyright Act and Fair Dealing in Canada (Bill C-11).
    • Being sued can depend on if they are making money from the source or if the user themselves have money that the original owner could take. It is important to remember what you can and cannot use in the classroom under the Copyright actand that, as we know from having a university degree, citing should always be a priority.
    • Many people get access to information online, but the information simply being online does not give the user permission to copy it (ie. Print it out). The internet is great to inspire one’s own work and to give ideas (Pinterest) but is not just an open source overall to use as one pleases
    • I was unaware that older information becomes public domainafter a certain amount of time
    • Though I had not heard about it previously, the site Unsplash(providing high quality photos) has their own licensing system but would be useful to use in the classroom
    • Open content/open educational resources (OER)will be an extremely useful source to use in my future classroom due to its allowance of discovering online educational materials that teachers can use
    • It is very interesting that, though I had never heard of the open education movement, it is being brought up all around the world (especially during this week as it is Open Education Week). Having completed an undergrad degree I support this movement after having experienced the extreme expenses of textbooks that may or may not be used in class. I have seen many of my friends in school use thousands of dollars of textbooks as TV stands instead of really using them. I have also experienced buy-back where a $100 textbook is bought back for $10 and sometimes not at all because they happened to have made a new one for that class. It would be great for future students not to experience the same thing and save thousands of dollars throughout their post-secondary education. 
    • I know that there is a lot of content on the internet, but the actual numbers are astounding. 4 billion photos, millions to billions of texts, millions of videos and so on and so on. 
    • Instagram is not openly licensed. YouTube can be depending on what the uploader chooses. I find this to be more helpful as I feel that I am unlikely to use Instagram photos in my class but could likely find useful content from YouTube to teach the students
    • The provided websites are great resources that I have bookmarked on my computer and will definitely be using in my teaching practice. Oercommons.org; Curriki.com & Siyavula.com
    • Multimedia: Archive.org
    • Overall sources provided throughout the class: 
      • OERcommons.org
      • Curriki.com
      • Siyavula.com
      • Archive.org
      • Flickr
      • Unsplash.com
      • Google.com advanced search
        • These sources are great because they vary between providing teaching resources as well as making sure that you do not break any copyright laws

                                                            

Got My First Real Six String

I feel that I have made progress in my guitar skills throughout this term; having a background playing ukulele has definitely helped out my strumming and positioning of my hands while playing but has also caused quite a learning curve. Ukuleles are much smaller than guitars and have four plastic strings rather than six metal strings, making me learn to stretch my hands more and further apart as well as making me get used to the metal digging into my finger tips and building calluses. The strings are very close together and does demand that I use only my fingertips on each string in order to avoid muting the other strings as it is important that all ring clear in order to make a satisfying chord. Having six strings (… bought it at the five-and-dime… great song I would like to learn to play one day) is much more difficult than having four and has been a big change for me. Specifically, the sixth string has caused me the most trouble; since the metal string is so thin and sharp, I have had to press down hard on it as far on my finger tip as I can (my pinky is also sensitive to it) and it has caused indents and been painful. I have now built up some calluses which has helped me play for a longer amount of time with less of a problem. After having done this for awhile, it is hard to believe that popular artists can play the guitar for hours at a time while still being an upbeat performer in their concerts, I feel like my fingers would hurt a lot by the end (play until my fingers bled) and that my energy would be completely drained. 

            When I search about learning guitar and the length of time it takes, it comes up with 

“Frequency of Practice: 4-5 times a week. For around 20 – 30 minutes… Skill Level after 6 months: Can play rock/pop songs easily: strums the chords, clearly plays the chords with no trouble switching” (http://www.severnriverguitar.com/2013/03/04/how-long-does-it-really-take-to-learn-to-play-the-acoustic-guitar-with-real-life-examples-from-actual-guitar-players/). Hopefully that I will have reached that level within six months but hope that I will finish earlier as I have put a lot of work into learning how to play this instrument and feel that my background in music (I have been able to read music for many years due to choir and ukulele) has helped me despite what I mentioned about the difficulties moving from the ukulele to the guitar. 

EDCI 336 Tech Inquiry

While reading Isabelle’s post, I was introduced to brand new blogging website, Edutopia, as well as having discovered different uses for blogging in the classroom (Great find Isabelle!). 

I looked around Edutopia and found many interesting blogs that gave a lot of useful information. One blog that I found very interesting was Cindy Bourdo’s blog where she recounted The Biggest Lesson of My First Year Teaching. Bourdo talks about the stress that she experienced and the change in her life once she witnessed an important strategy that other teachers practiced. Cindy said that she spent all of her time writing lesson plans and thinking of new learning and teaching techniques, yet still felt stressed every day and had a difficult time working with the students. Throughout this program we have been taught how to assess, how to write unit plans and different ways to teach certain subjects; all of these are extremely important to know and master, but Cindy points out that the missing part you can never study in university is how to create a welcoming teacher-student relationship with the students and how much that can alter your own and the child’s experience in the classroom. 

Building upon what useful information the blogs on Edutopia provided, the site also gives inspirational and interesting videos on different strategies of teaching and how to help children of diverse needs. This part of the site included videos such as The Sensory Room: Helping Students with Autism Focus and Learn, 60-Second Strategy: Participation Cards, The Power of Relationships in Schools and so on. What was very helpful on this blog was how these videos were organized; above the title of the video there would be words in bold classifying the video and what it is meant to teach. Titles included “Learning Environments,” “Student voice,” “School Climate,” “Teaching Strategies,” and “School Leadership.” I think that videos can also be a useful tool when blogging but must be managed correctly and, must make sure that each student shown in the video has given consent to have their image taken. 

While making my way through this blog and looking at the different videos, I realized the importance of organization in a classroom blog, hopefully reflecting what my real-life classroom looks like. It gave me some ideas on how to present my classroom by updating it to briefly explain what we worked on that week and what will follow it. I liked that Edutopia had a drop-down menu revealing the topics that the blog covered including assessment, integrated studies, project-based learning, social and emotional learning, teacher development, technology integration … etc. I found that the technology integration aspect was very interesting due to me not knowing much about technology but also knowing the importance of technology in today’s time and age. 

Isabelle had a great find when choosing this site and I am happy to say that I will be bookmarking it on my computer and using it for years to come. I think that it provides so many important sources and information that will benefit myself, my classroom and any future students.

Interview Regarding Technology in School

I got my first phone part way through grade nine, which was later than many of my friends, but was still much earlier than my sister who is ten years older than I am whom of which got hers at 15. I found it very interesting to hear that children as young as kindergarten are coming to school with iPhone 6, 7 and X’s. This interview filled me in on a lot of information regarding technology in the classroom and reminded me that technology is constantly changing and that new platforms are being created every day.

I have provided some of the notes that I took throughout the interview that I found were important, surprising or particularly interesting.

  • Concerns we have in schools “2019 Focus on Networked Citizenship”
    • Digital identity
    • Digital rights
    • Digital literacy
    • Use of communication networks – social, professional, personal
    • Safety – Networked connections
      • Keep your media professional
    • Security of Self
    • Communications in networked spaces
  • Videos of people can legally only be taken in a “public place.” Places such as schools (must be invited as student or embedded person) or Starbucks (“private business”) are not public places
  • Students now send ~8,500 texts per month
  • Is social media worth $1 a day? (This is good to think about when spending time on social media; would I spend $1 a day to use this platform?)
  • What sounds dangerous? (Texting and driving vs drinking and driving) Though a useful tool, technology can be a hazard when used at the wrong time and should be considered when in use
  • Current Social Media Concerns with Kids
    • Students are “getting younger, increased affirmations, feeling special” based off of likes and YouTube influencers
  • “Feeling Special” based off of “Likes” and “Retweets” but also feel bad about themselves if they do not get the likes and followers
  • Social media & Youth
    • Address the existing and emerging social media concerns in your environments with education and media literacy conversations
    • Open constructive solutions-based dialogue with co-workers, stakeholders, clients, employers and public about social media trends and communications concerns
  • Understand the school expectations and policies of the employer
  • The Influences and uses of mobile technology
    • Personal use entitlement
    • Balancing professional expectations
    • Opening dialogue of Usage
    • Understanding social media culture
    • Reflective usage by co-workers
    • Developing empathetic and ethical users
    • The value of information
  • Social Media Used by Educators has Three Potential Critical Audiences
    • Public/parents
    • Staff
    • Students

Pacific School of Innovation & Inquiry

The visit to PSII was eye opening to me in regards to how school has changed via the creation and more common use of new technology and technological knowledge. I, myself, am not a skilled technology user and found the student-led inquiry quite inspiring; seeing the students find their passions and guide their own learning driven by that interest was a new and refreshing form of education. Reflecting back on my time in high school, I think that I would have made the most use out of the different musical instruments and recording technology that they had available to the students. The freedom that the students are given over their own learning is a large difference from what I experienced as a grade-school student but I believe that it is a welcome change due to the importance of being engaged and interested in what you are learning in order to retain and understand information. It would be interesting going to a school with such a small amount of students, I was pleasantly surprised to notice such camaraderie and encouragement between the students and their creative minds and projects.

EDCI 336

In the video we watched in class, the school’s revolutionary take on education made me think about my future as a teacher and consider how I would like my classroom to look like. I think that the format of the students having freedom to learn what they would like and to have choice in order to take interest in what they are learning is something to strive for. It was great to see children come out of their shells and pursue what they enjoy. Samantha – one of the students in the video – started out as a shy young girl that rarely spoke and found the new and unconventional school system daunting. I could see how many students would find such an open learning system and an education based off of student inquiry very different and perhaps cause some apprehension in the quieter and more teacher-directed learners. Samantha was one of those who made a noticeable change throughout the film, eventually speaking out more in class and becoming more comfortable with the lecture-style (as if in a University Seminar) classroom. We saw a full transformation in the shy Samantha as she becomes a confident director of a high school play of which is presented during the week where the students were to showcase their work. Samantha is a great example of how open discussion between student and teacher and allowing the students to lead their own education can broaden the children’s interests and allow them to follow their passions and make them into a future. It was interesting that the school had such a high university acceptance rate when its essential format is in such starch opposition to that of a regular high school. This goes to show that though new systems of schooling may seem different, innovation is key to further growth and allows us to unveil unknown interests and passions. The student who did not complete their project until the summer is an example of students’ interests in school based off of specified subjects verses that of their own inquiry. Though school was over, the student worked through the summer to complete his project despite being on break. Allowing students some freedom in the classroom will hopefully spark interest in them and have them be invested in their own education.

Chords

This week I began working on the basic chords used for most popular songs. I have found that I was able to catch onto most of the beginners chords such as C, A, E, Am, D and Em as they are similar to ukulele chords and only require up to three fingers. Some of the chords that I found to be more difficult were G and F, both of which involve four fingers that are stretched wide across the neck of the guitar. Some of the more simple chords stay along the first three frets of the string and the strings are general only one or two away on a six string guitar. G involves strings one, two, five and six but only uses frets two and three. The F chord involves strings two to five and uses frets one to three; this chord is also more complicated as it requires the player to avoid strumming strings one and six. Avoiding strumming certain strings has been one of the larger challenges throughout this process, meaning that chords E and Em have been the easiest to learn as you strum all six strings when playing them. I am excited to continue working on the chords and hope to become comfortable enough with them that I am able to transition from one to another smoothly. I would love to sing while playing guitar so a key to doing this is having a strong foundation in the roots of playing guitar, my focus will continue on chord transition and then I will add in a basic strumming pattern.