Technology Blog EDBE 8Y08, Week 6!

Introducing Week 6!

Good Day fellow Technology Bloggers! 

Today, we will be discussing the Week 6: TPACK Teacher for Digital Learners. On our first week back from reading week, the scheduled format for our lesson did not change in a substantial way, except that a fair majority of this lesson was to provide us as Teacher Candidates with the opportunity to enhance our previous work, and a review period to increase the success of our Genius Hour and TED Talk proposals. First, we began with inputting the Word of the Day, which was posted in the online agenda for the week. Then, if we hadn't completed our professional order badge by completing at least twelve tweets, we were told to compose our final in-class tweets (which I fully utilized).


Core Learning Activity!

Our core learning activity this week was to complete any necessary revisions to our Digital Portfolio, as well as peer evaluate the TED Talk assignment, Genius Hour Digital Portfolios assignment and any outstanding submissions that we may have missed throughout the course. We then proceeded to the Socrative exam, (the dreaded final exam). Unfortunately, I was not able to utilize this technological tool as it was malfunctioning at the time I attempted to use it, but I learned that if one program fails, there are plenty of other ways to ensure understanding in the topic.


Last Portion Of The Course!

In the last portion of the course, we were instructed to complete the TPACK Quest page of my blog by retrieving the badges I have earned so far and Embed them on my blog as images. We were then tasked to describe how each badge represents a particular set of skills and knowledge that contribute to your 21st century teaching repertoire. Lastly, we were instructed to complete our course evaluations.


Personal Course Reflection!

Overall, this course has allowed me to face many challenges I previously have had with technology, and has convinced me that technology can be an educational tool in my future classroom. I feel more confident with my capabilities with technology, but like anything, practice and continued determination will lead to more capable results. Prior to the start of this course, I was convinced that there was too much of a push towards technology in the school setting, believing that personal mobile phones in particular would not be usable educational tools for the younger levels of education, but I realize that it is how you present these devices that makes students motivated to utilize these resources rather than simply pushing technology aside and claiming it to be a distraction. I am happy to have learned many valuable educational skills in regards to technology, and that this course has been an inspiration on that front.

Technology Blog for EDBE 8Y08, Week 5!

Introducing Week 5!

Good Day fellow Technology Bloggers! 

Today, we will be discussing the Week 5 Collaborative Learning & 21CLD! As this was a class during reading week, it varied to the other technology classes 8Y08 has had so far! First, we began (as always) with inputting the Word of the Day, which was posted in the online agenda for the week. Immediately afterward, we were told to Embed our Movie Trailer on our blog Movie Trailer page. Next, we were told to link our blogs to the Digital Portfolios Resources folder if we hadn't already done so. Then, I assessed my other peers' Movie Trailers and left notes on their blog explaining what I think was done well and what still required some adjustment. In the process of enhancing our technological skills, we viewed the page A Box Story & Not a Box. Using the the tool Google Draw (within Google Drive), we were assigned the task of creating a page that could be used for the "Not a Box" book.


Core Learning Activity!

For our Core Learning Activity, we were required to read the article Backchanneling in Education and look at What is a Learning Object? Following this, we began the Web 2 Toolkit Learning Object Jigsaw Exploration, and I picked two tools I could see myself using to facilitate a learning outcome. Next, I made a post in the Forums under the appropriate forum for your number grouping. In it, highlight the features of the tool and how you might use it in your own teaching.



Genius Hour and Preparation for My TED Talk

First, we were tasked with creating a Web 2.0 Learning Object for my Genius Hour project about the various uses of a spatula. I then choose one web tool from the exploration activity to further explore, and created a Learning Object appropriate to support my Genius Hour. Following the hour of work dedicated to my genius hour proposal, I began looking into different apps that I might use to enhance my TED Talk, as well as began to shape how my TED Talk will unfold.

Reflection:

Thus far, what I have learned from this week is on how to use Google Draw, and I continued to do further research on my Genius Hour question as well as create some ideas on how I would like my TED Talk to be structured. I have learned a variety of different methods that a spatula can be utilized (the core of my genius hour question) but it is the creative aspect that I am still working on to create a stellar TED Talk. In this course thus far, is have learned a lot about myself in regards for the use of technology in the classroom setting, realizing that while I still have some way to go before I will be as proficient as some of my peers with technology, that my interest in technology in education has sparked, and with that so will my capabilities in it. From here, I will continue to work on the assigned work in our class, while drawing ideas from this course that I can use in my own teaching experiences in the future.

Genius Hour Blog/Vlog Post Week 4

Good Day Educational Bloggers!

Genius Hour Digital Portfolio Reflection For This Week

    

Word of the Day

Genius Hour Introduction (PowToon)

Add narration and music to your movie (you may need to borrow a headset/mic from the IRC).

Add and final props, images, shapes to enhance visual appeal. Create dynamic timing and add entrance effects for text and other visual elements.

Export and embed the PowToon artifact on your blog's Genius Hour Introduction page.

Go to Storyline Online, select a book, view the video, and come up with five assessment questions.

Use Google Forms (located in Google Drive) to create your quiz. Be sure the first question asks for participants name.

Google Forms video tutorial
Google Forms text assistance

When completed, submit the URL of your Live Form to the Our Google Forms Discussion Forum.

Take your own test, enter ANSWER KEY in the name field, and submit the correct responses.

Complete at least three of your peers' Google Forms evaluations.

Mark your Google Forms Responses by creating a spreadsheet and applying the Flubaroo Add-on (from menu bar). 

Develop your Genius Hour Movie Trailer

Sample Genius Hour Movie Trailer

More from your peers: 

4 the love of learning – Rebecca Enright

The Ellipsis Teacher - Elysse McCusker

Miss Carly Laist – Carly Laist

Create a movie trailer for your Genius Hour project using Windows Movie Maker, PowToon, iMovie, Animoto, or another approved video/movie creation tool. 

Note: Next week your will embed your movie trailer onto your blog and receive feedback from Peer Evaluation - be sure you have this completed! 

Use the time to complete your research, or work on your movie trailer.

What I Learned About My Topic

Trouble I Encountered

What I Need to do Before Our Next Genius Hour

Questions and Where to Find the Answers

Where my Genius hour is progressing

Genius Hour Blog/Vlog Week 2

Good Day Fellow Educational Bloggers! 


Today, I will be discussing the activities we participated in for our Technology in Education class followed by my explanation of my Genius Hour Pitch!

Class Activities: 

When I first arrived in class today, I wrote out my word of the day on Sakai. Shortly after, I began to work on my Genius Hour slide show using Powtoon to introduce what Genius Hour, creating my first two slides. Following this, as a class we watched a few videos to inform us of ideas for our genius hour using various samples, and we contributed to our professionalism badge by tweeting about what we have learned in Technology class up to this point. I further developed my Genius Hour question with the help of the Question guide, and with the help of my peers feedback I slightly improved on my own Genius hour question. 



Genius Hour: 

Thus far, my Genius Hour question is "how could we make the best use of a spatula, using extremes in term of testing and the process to select each type of spatula?" I personally feel as though this is a decent idea for a question, but I still have to work on refining it. My goals for this project are to come up with a really good question that invites ideas and generates creativity about the many uses of a spatula. I thought this topic would be fun to explore, something random but also is connected to my interest in cooking.

Reflection: 

The classroom activities from today's lesson that I might use in my own classroom would definitely be the Powtoon presentations. I feel that this is a fun way to teach most any lesson that you want to create a powerpoint with. I believe that the visuals that this program is capable of would really enhance learning, especially in the more junior grades. Some planning and management considerations I might have to take for these sorts of lessons is to keep the presentations short and sweet, perhaps by identifying the main objectives of the lesson rather than teach the entire lesson on the power point. 

Thats all for now! Please feel free to view my blog for next week!

Genius Hour Blog/Vlog Week 3

Good Day Bloggers!


   Today, I will be discussing my previous lesson in EDBE 8Y08, and reflect on what is to come for us in this course!Reflection on what you did this week.

   This week we started as we always do: with the word of the Day! Quickly after this, we navigated through Powtoon; continuing with our genius hour presentations and providing citations to them. We also went over how to take screenshots and how to process them into our presentations! To set the stage, we completed our professional badge of the week by tweeting and viewing the TED talk video. Next, we complete the TED Talk evaluation form to confirm our knowledge about what the presenter projected to his TED talk audience. Following this, we watched an insightful video on assessment (as an example of what NOT to do as a teacher) and then completed our Plickers activity of how to assess Genius Hour projects. After this, we embedded our genius hour project proposal pitches into our Digital Portfolio.  

Reflect on what you learned about your topic today.

   As I would consider myself to be a relatively novice technology learner, I always seem to learn a great amount in our class. Specifically about our topics of discussion, I have learned how to use more aspects of Powtoon, and learned a great deal more about my Genius hour and how I will propose further research. 

Reflect on what questions you have from this week.

   Most of my questions reflect my inexperience with technology as a whole, but specifically in its classroom applications. I am eager to learn more from this experience, and I believe that as with anything, the only way to achieve something is to work hard at it. 

Explain what you need to do/get before next Genius Hour.

   Before next Genius hour, I need to complete further research about my topic, and the capacity this topic could have in engaging others to always continue to learn and to ask open ended questions. I have thoroughly enjoyed my research thus far, but I require more research and adding my own creativity to the project, that can be done both in and out of the classroom setting.