Back At Blogging

Once again this blog is up and running for another term at Brandon University.....my last term I might add!!  It is hard to believe how fast time has gone and that in the spring I will be applying for my first teaching position.   All of my courses are in full swing now including ICT, the reason for my blog.  This term I am looking forward to learning more about creating websites and practical applications and tools I can use in my final student teaching placement and my career.  With this being my second technology based course, I am hoping that I can build upon the skills I learned last year.  I already feel a lot more comfortable with technology as compared to last year.  This is definitely a good thing!  Here's hoping for a great term filled with lots of learning!  

~ Carissa 

Summative Project

Final from Carissaarmstrong00

Future of Education

Using the K-12 Horizon Report for background information I feel that education is going to change drastically in the next couple of years.  Today's graduating educators have had a unique schooling experience.  We have experienced the change from being a student in a traditional classroom to one infused with technology.  For this reason I feel that this generation of teachers can see the potential benefits of infusing technology into the classroom.  This technology change will no doubt change how education looks. 

The Horizon Report talked about 5 key trends that they are researching.  Some of the main trends were the abundance of resources the internet makes available, technology changes the way we communicate and collaborate and people expect to be able to work, learn and study wherever and whenever they want.  I agree with all of these statements and I think that these trends, if embraced correctly, will really be beneficial in the classroom.  The article also mentioned that the one size fits all model of teaching is no longer acceptable and that technology is a tool that can help solve this problem.  I could not agree more.  Technology allows assignments to be adapted and modified with a few clicks to accomodate for students with different learning needs.

Different predictions were made in the Horizon Report about both near and far term changes.  The near changes included cloud computing and mobile devices.  I think that this has already taken place or has definitely started to take place with the creation of BYOD schools.  The second adoption changes included game based learning and open content.  Using games in the classroom is something that is stressed that we as new educators should strive to do.  Making learning fun is important.  The far term goals included learning analytics and having personal learning environments in which the students will choose the tools that best match their learning style.  I feel that giving students that choice will greatly change how we view education.  Taking control away from the teacher and giving it to the student will take some time before it is common practice but I think there are many benefits in doing so.

~ Carissa

Web Based App

The first app that I am going to share is called Popplet.  It is sort of like wall wisher but you can put in images and videos right there.  It was really easy to use and I like the way that you are able to organize it more than wall wisher.  It allows you to network your posts and link them directly together which I thought was cool.  Popplet

 

The next app that I thought was cool to use in an early years classroom was Make Beliefs Comics.  It allows you to make a three block comic very easily and has a variety of characters, backgrounds and objects ready for you to insert.  It was really easy to use and you could email or print it right from the finished screen. Comix 

 

Presentations

This was a great day to learn from our peers about topics that interested them.  All of the information that we learned was very relevant from things we need to know to things that will enhance our teaching. 

A theme throughout each of the presentations was internet safety.  This is such an important issue because internet safety for schools is something that is still being developed and experimented with as we are using technology more and more in the classroom.  I found it useful to hear many different opinions when it comes to what kinds of things should we allow our students to do and not to do with this technology.  Propor citations from the internet is something that I am still struggling with.  If it the citation is not very straightforward and easily accessible I am guilty of not bothering with it and just stealing the image.  Finding out about tools that will help do the citations for you was great. Filtering what content the students have access to through the school's wifi was something that interested me.  I initially thought that filtering was useful and did not pose many problems when it came down to inhibiting tools that the students may use for learning. When I  was in high school, most of us did not get around the filters but it seems that today's children are more knowledgable and can easily do just that.  The presentation about cyberbullying presented in the form of a short film was awesome not just because of the information but also as a way of demonstrating how media can be used effectively to teach in the classroom.  It was very engaging to watch the film as opposed to a formal lecture. 

I think that everyone did a fantastic job presenting to the rest of the class and that we all learned a lot in the preparation of our group information.

~ Carissa

Donald and Sophia

This was my first exposure to the web based course platform Blackboard.  The main take away point from Donald and Sophia was that before you embark on teaching a web based course, it is important to look at the pedagogy first.  Before this information I would have done it backwards and started right from course site and planned from there. 

One of the concerns raised from a room full of future teachers was the fear of reducing the number of jobs available for us.  I also felt that we were working to replace ourselves.  I was relieved to hear that for each course, the teacher has that scheduled into their courseload timetable.  The benefits of using a web based course were very clear.  I think that it is a great learning tool that can open up so many different options for a number of people.  For myself I think that I would want to have some years of experience teaching face to face with my students before I attempt to teach over the internet.

~ Carissa

Cool Tools

I would like to start this post off by saying that throughout this course I have learned so much about a site that I use all of the time, this site being Google.  Before this course, I only used Google to search for information or pictures.  I had no idea how useful all of its other features were.  Google Docs has been so helpful for completing group projects for school, it is something that I will continue using a lot.  Google + was something that I never paid much attention to and didn't really think that it could possibly be anything that I would find useful.  Lets just say I could not be more wrong.  There are so many neat things that you can do with this once you have created all of your circles.  I am a history major so completing my Arts Degree required me to write a lot of research papers.  It was stressed to us on an almost daily bases that using google for a search was a terrible thing to do.  After three years of this I came to develop almost a fear of using google and I was weary of even creating a gmail account.  I can definitely say now that there are great things that you can do from this one platform.

I absolutely love my bookmarking feature.  I decided to use Diigo and liked it right away.  I liked how simple it was to use and how things were organized.  After being shown Pearltrees in class however, I think I may want to give it a try.  I really liked how everything was displayed very visually pleasing.  With regards to the debate about Pinterest being a legitimate bookmarking site I feel that like anything else it has a time and a place.  There are certain aspects of it that make it very appealing (and as a new member veeerrrryyy addicting!!). 

This class without a guest speaker was very valuable to me because it gave me a chance to see how some of these tools work before I just jump right in.  I like to see what I am getting myself into before jump right in and try it out.

~ Carissa