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Hey everyone check out my very own mastercard commercial!
Hey everone check out my very own mastercard commercial!
I thought this presentation was excellent! The use of animation and Voki intrigued me. Voki is a cool animation program where you can synchronize your voice with a cartoon characters mouth. A primary school teacher in Geelong, Victoria, Australia named John Pearce’s talks of the obstacles we will encounter with technology, but also how to overcome them. His presentation is divided into 7 topics. I will touch on the topics I was most interested in.
Becoming an Agent of Change
Many teachers, especially of older generations dismiss the use of technology in their classrooms and prefer their traditional ways. Because of all the new genres of literacy, these stubborn teachers will soon be teaching literacy history. We have to look at accepting and understanding technology as part of our jobs. If we do not students will continue to learn about technology in a less structured format.
Safety Issues
Numerous teachers are afraid to implement online assignments because of the risk they are putting their students at. By now most threats have been recognized and ways of dealing with these matters have arrived. There are ways to make blogs and other online assignments only available to your “friends”. Proper screen names and careful monitoring can be set up by the teacher. John used a neat analogy between children using technology and children swimming. There are dangers involved with both activities. It is one thing to tell a student what the proper swimming strokes look like, but to actually put them into the water and have them discover it for themselves is the best way to learn. As long as we take the desired precautions students can remain safe.
Blogging
Mr. Pearce basically touched on what we as class have learned about blogging. Blogging has endless opportunities and can be very educational. The best part is that others can see the work you post, not just your teacher, peers and parents.
Copyrights
Many teachers worry about their students using copyrighted work. Some students just go onto Google and copy and paste copyrighted work into their own, which raises problems. Greats sites such as Flickr and Pod Safe Music make this issue easy to avoid.
So I checked out Dean Shareski‘s, yes our Ecomp instructor, presentation called “Design Matters”. In it he explored 2 areas of design; Classroom, school and structural design as well as classroom multimedia design.
I really enjoyed Clarence Fisher’s idea of making your classroom a studio. He set up his classroom as a studio and therefore, the role of the student and teacher change. The teacher just becomes one source of information and the students are no longer knowledge sponges, but rather someone who is active and involved. The traditional setup of having the teacher at the front of the room changes to the room being divided into seperate work areas. If we view classroom in a different design hopefully we can generate new and innovative progress from the students.
Later in the presentation Dean focused on classroom multimedia design and I really like his suggestions about this topic. I totally agree that a student has to plan for their computer based assignment. Storyboards or outlines give them a purpose and direction throughout their project. One thing I know I have to work on myself is putting “constraints” on my web based assignments such as power points. I have to practise eliminating parts of my work to put more emphasis on the main idea. This will also be aconept I work on with my future students.
Another good idea is not allowing your students to use templates. Their works will appear to similar and they lose the personal touch they could have had if they did it on their own.
These ideas that were presented are great tips for me in my future career as an educator! Thanks Dean!
The K12 Online presentation, “If All My Classes Did This”, really opened my eyes to how technology can be implemented in the classroom. Wendy Wolfe, a teacher from Minneapolis talked about and gave examples of how programs such as ToonDoo, Comic Creator, Gliffy, Zoho and G-cast could be used in the classroom.
ToonDoo is website where students can create their own cartoons, with unique characters and neat backgrounds. Once these cartoons are created you can email them to friends, make power points presentations or make them public to the world. I thought this was a great idea to implement in a visual arts classroom. Graphic arts and design are very common and this website allows students to explore and create this type of art. Students could also illustrate books they are reading in their English classes.
Gliffy was the next resource I found really cool. You can create your own account and do numerous things with it. I loved the idea of creating flow charts. The example during the presentation was of a flow chart that showed the events leading up to a historical event. What a great idea for a history teacher! With this program you can also create floor plans. Once again interior design is another form of art that could now be explored in a visual arts classroom. Fun!
Next we were introduced to Zoho. On there you can create easy power point presentations that you students could use for public speaking or any other presentation. You can also find other things such as spread sheets and writing programs.
G-cast was the last resource to be discussed, which is similar to a pod cast. Students could create radio broadcasts and record their interviews. I could also use this as a personal teaching tool. It would be easy to record my lessons, to prevent me from repeating the project details over again.
All of these internet resources sound fun, appropriate and educational. It also showed me how technology can be used in a visual arts classroom.
On my way to Arcola Community School I was both nervous and excited. What if the kids didn’t like me? Or what if it’s too much for me too handle? I mean, it’s my first year in university and already I’m in a classroom. What if I scar these kids for life?
After my experience all of these worries were at ease. Getting us into the schools this early is an excellent opportunity and I loved every second of it. I was introduced to the staff and the rambuncious kids welcomed me with curious and loving eyes. The teacher I am working with is enthusiastic about us helping out in the classroom. This was my first time working in a community school. I did not grow up in a community school, but have learned a lot about them through the EPS 100 class that I am currently enrolled in. In a community school the students usually share a similar background. Most of the students are of blue collar families and/or of aboriginal decent. Community schools allow local agencies, institutions and citizens to contribute to a stronger learning program. Some of there main focuses are to be life long learners and work on the parents literacy and parenting skills as well. The schools are given extra funding to provide nutrition plans, after school programs, etc. The schools also take a School Plus approach to learning. It was great seeing these programs and ideas at work. My time at the school gave me a greater appreciation of a teachers and the hard work they put into their career.
As I was writing a paper for my English 110 class I noticed how much a computer saves me from destroying countless trees. If you are anything like me, you make countless rough drafts of your work, which isn’t environmentally friendly. By using my computer it saves me from wasting trees. This thought sparked my question of, how much paper do huge corporations use daily and how can technology sustain our environment?
Going paperless would affect your office in numerous ways. Paper needs a storage place, which leads to expensive filing cabinets. Once these filing cabinets accumulate and you run out of office space you will be forced to rent extra space to store your files. This obviously calls for more money and resources, but with the use of computers this could be completely prevented.
Not only do you deal with the cost of paper but also with the cost of ink, mailing and faxing. On-line files and data could save these expenses. Storing, sorting, copying and mailing steals countless office hours. By simply clicking a mouse that time can be turned into valuable work time. We can use technology to do insurance billing. We can set our fax machines to print only things we want in hand and most of all use digital document-storage. Why don’t we scan forms onto a computer instead of copying everything and storing them in filing cabinets? Hey, even replace the paper towel in your office washroom with an air dryer. Together we can sustain our environment.
Ecomp 355 has opened my eyes to the positive effects of the technology wave.
In my English class we`ve read an article called, “You and the Atomic Bomb” written by George Orwell that concerns atomic bombs and other weapons. Personally I have never gave this topic much thought, as I did not live through World War II and well, the thought of them is just eerie. When I think of an atomic bomb I think of some mad scientists threatening to end civilization in a matter of seconds. In reality Orwell states there are only few(like 3) countries in the world who could afford to make an atomic bomb.
One of the key aspect of Mr Orwell’s work focuses on how the progress of humanity is marked by significant advances in weapon creation. He makes reference to the discovery of gunpowder and the overthrow of feudalism. He makes the general assumption that in the ages in which the dominate weapon is difficult to obtain will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas if the dominate weapon is cheap and available, the common people have a chance. He also adds how the age of democracy and of national self-determination was the age of the musket and the rifle. This idea was specifically hard for me to grasp at first but it`s true that our history of wars have shaped our world today. Kind of sad, but true.
The focus of my English class is Remembering the Past and therefore this article is leading up to the remembrance of the atomic bomb dropped during WWII. I added a video from Youtube that shows us the effects of the atomic bomb. It`s scary to think this could possibly happen again, or anyone thought it was okay to drop it in the first place.
I believe that in order to prevent history from repeating, we have to remember it.
WARNING: graphic video
Reviewing my latest blogs I’ve kind of set a negative tone towards technology. Then I tried to imagine my everyday life without it. These are everyday examples of how technology makes my life so much easier.
8:00am – Checked my emails and Bank account balance
10:00am - Paid my Sasktel phone bill on-line
Mmmmm
10:45am - Used the microwave to cook my porridge!
12:00pm – Scanned my student ID card to enter the gym
12:00pm to 2:00 - Plugged my ear phones into the eliptical to watch a basketball game while working out
4:00 to 5:00 – danced in the kitchen while listening to my I-pod while cooking up a chicken stir-fry.
5:00 to 6:00 – Chatted with some friends over msn and bought the coolest purse on ebay
Wow, look at the few examples of how I used technology just today. I definitely take technology for granted!
Symptoms of this new epidemic can be easily detected. You’ll find the infected walking with their heads down and thumbs moving like mad. They often appear to be in a trance, randomly walking into closed doors and generally ignoring one another as they go about their daily business. You’ll find them pulling their phones out every few minutes to check the time, to check for messages, and anxiously jumping every time they hear a ring or felt a vibration.
Perhaps the most deadly form of texting is “autotexting”. Quickly pass, or keep your distance from a drivers whose head is bobbing quickly up and down while the car is swerving lane to lane. The loss of a cell phone or computer sends the infected into a frenzy. They will feel rushes of anxiety, constantly be touching their pockets and experience a feeling of nakedness. These behaviours reflect their desire to be constantly connected, and their fear of being out of touch.
Technology is the new way of life and I completely accept it, but are we going to far? I recently travels to a larger city and was at a pub with a friend when he asked the bartender, “Can I have a pint of beer and half a pint of coke?” Sorry, replied the bar tender, “you can’t have the coke, pints and half pints of soft drinks are not on the computer.” Not on the computer? Wow, they now control what we can and cannot drink. Fascinating.
Obviously the world would not end without computers, but it would just make things a lot harder and less efficient. It would result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. We are the age of new technology, but next time you are wondering the streets like a mindless drone, say hello to the person next to you.
