I am going to post a picture and I want you to look at the photo for a minute. How does this photo make you feel? What does this photo remind you have? When I look at this photo, I feel nostalgia. I feel like I am five years old again in my Grandparents backyard running around. I can picture my Gramma following me around with this camera asking me what I am doing as we laugh together. I feel warm inside and my heart feels full. This photo also makes me feel overwhelmed because I think about how far technology has come in the past twenty years. It's rare to see a video camera like this, society uses cell phones now to capture the moment. I also start thinking about my education experience back then and the type of technology that was involved in our classroom. I am going to post a few photos of what technology looked like when I was in school. You knew it was going to be a good day when that TV got rolled into the classroom! I now think about classrooms today and the type of technology that is used in them and the type of social media that is available to students. Our topic for class this week revolves around the idea of technology and education. In the past fifteen years, technology has evolved rapidly and in turn, this has changed the world of teaching. In Michael Wesch's video "An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube", he states that 9232 hours of content are uploaded everyday. I can't even wrap my head around that number! I knew Youtube was popular, but was not aware about the amount of content people actually upload. I personally have not uploaded much to the platform, but I know that there are people out there that make a living by uploading videos to Youtube. There are even websites that contain tips and tricks to make money off of the platform. The number of videos uploaded per day shows just how much our society has evolved to revolve around technology. Children are indulging in social media at younger ages, research shows that 90% of children aged 13-17 use social media accounts such as Facebook , Instagram, and Youtube. With children being so involved with social media, Katia discussed in class that teachers are needing to also be involved online and keep up with the latest trends. This will ensure the teacher can communicate and connect more with the students in the classroom. With that being said, it is also critical to talk about educators and professionalism when it comes to social media. It is very easy to find someone online and your online profile represents who you are. Teachers are held to higher standards within society and it is important to maintain a professional reputation and be cautious of what you post. The Youtube video below by Royce Kimmons explains the importance of online professionalism with teachers. While it is important to be cautious online, having an online profile can be extremely beneficial as an educator. It can allow you to expand your network and connect with other educators in the field. It can help you stay up to date on current trends which can be important to incorporate into your lesson planning to keep children engaged and interested. Educators can also have access to tips and tricks for the classroom as well as activities to incorporate into the lessons. I have personally found Twitter to be a huge help in connecting with other educators as well as finding activities, tips and tricks to use in the classroom.
As educators, how can we balance the challenges of technology? This is a difficult question to answer! Balance can be difficult when it comes to technology. It's important to have a social presence, but it is also important to have a professional social presence as an educator. Technology and social media can be an amazing tool for educators if used properly!
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This week we were assigned to use a new technology tool to help us document our progress in our learning project. Since my project is learning a new language, I knew a video would be the best option for me to show my Italian skills. I had never edited a video before this week, so I was a little nervous to try it out for the first time. I knew I needed to find an app that would be easy to navigate in order for me to be successful. After searching through the list of technology tools that are available, I decided to use Windows Movie Editor because it seemed like a very user friendly app. It was very easy to download and required no membership to use the software, which is a bonus! When you first enter the site, this is the main page that pops up. In order to get to the 'Video Editing' section, you need to click the 'Video Editor' on the top task bar. I really enjoyed how this app automatically uploaded all of my photos and sorted them by date. After getting to the 'Video Editor' section in the app, I uploaded my video to the app. I did this by clicking the 'Add' button under project library. After adding my video, I was a little lost on what the next step would be. I knew my best option to learn was to watch a video online. I started searching Google to see if there were any video tutorials and I found one right away. I watched the short video "Video Editing in Microsoft Photos | Tiles and Text" that was uploaded to Youtube by Windows. After watching the video, everything seemed pretty straight forward and I was able to get started. I needed to start splitting my video up into separate frames in order to edit each frame individually. I did this by check marking the box on the frame I wanted to edit and then clicking 'split' on the storyboard tool bar. Once you click 'Split', it will bring you to a page that isolates the frame you check marked. In this window, you are able to play around with where you would like the first frame to end and the second one to begin. Once you have decided where the first frame will end, you click done and it will split the frame into two. This part of my editing took me a long time to do, even though my video was only three minutes. I had a lot of areas in the video that needed to be split in order for the editing to be done properly. Once I had split all of my frames up the way I wanted, I started going into each frame and adding text. I was able to accomplish this by, again, clicking the frame I wanted to edit and then clicking 'Text' in the storyboard tool bar. Once text is clicked, a window will pop up with the frame you chose. With the 'Text' tool, you can add text to the frame you chose and you can choose when it pops up in the video. There were quite a few cool fonts and animations to work with, but it's important to use ones that fit your video. Once I edited everything I wanted to, I watched the video in full to ensure everything was completed and flowed together. I noticed that something was missing when watching the video but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Of course! There was no background music in the video. I noticed that there was a 'Background Music' tab at the top of the page. I clicked it and voila! There was a huge list of background music to choose from! I found a tune called 'Happy Beat' that fit right in with my video and decided that would be the best one to use for the background. The video was now complete! I clicked the 'Finish Video' button at the top right hand corner of the screen. I was able to export the video right to my laptop!
After using this tool for my project, I know this would be a great tool for the classroom. It would be great to make instructional videos if students are working on a hands on craft/project. I know personally I am able to follow along better when I am able to play and pause instructions. I also think this would be a really great tool if the teacher is planning a game with the children, an interactive pause and play game could be created with this tool. With the ideas I have come up with, they would fall into the Modification category of the SAMR model as Windows Movie Editor allows for educators to redesign tasks at hand. Educators would be able to use this app to modify lesson plans and create a more interactive environment. Overall, Windows Movie Editor was very user friendly and it was easy to navigate around after watching a short tutorial. I know my video could be more smooth, but hey, it was my first go at editing a video and I think it went pretty well. This will definitely be a tool I will utilize within the classroom and I would highly recommend it to all future and present educators! Back in high school, Twitter was THE social media app to be on. It was where everyone was posting the latest news and it was a place to follow celebrities and act like we knew them personally (lol). Eventually, the app started to die out for that use, but over the past few weeks I have re-discovered Twitter for a new purpose - professional development in my career.
I never knew this side of Twitter, but it has become a helpful tool in my learning and in growing my network in the field of education. My peers and other teachers I follow are constantly posting new tips and ideas for teachers to use in the classroom. I have also found it to be a useful form to educate others with information I have found while researching on the web. I had a very enlightening experience last night when I partook in my very first professional development twitter discussion with Saskedchat. Every Thursday from 8-9, individuals within the education field gather on twitter to answer the same questions based on the theme for that night. Last night, the topic for the night was Celebrating Gender and Sexual Diversity in our Schools. Throughout the hour, seven questions were asked and everyone tweeted with their own personal answer to the questions. It was truly amazing reading other points of views from individuals who are currently in the education field and from individuals who are future educators. Reading these answers allowed me to expand my knowledge and think outside the box. It also challenged me to think about my current knowledge on the topic and understand what areas I need to grow in. Overall, I think Twitter is a great place to grow in your career and connect with other individuals within the same field. As educators, it's important that we work as a community to ensure our children are receiving the best possible education they can! So, if you are an educator or you are working towards becoming one, go get Twitter and use it to your advantage. Don't forget to join in on Thursdays from 8-9 on the Saskedchat account to join in on the conversation! During class yesterday, I was introduced to a new website called Feedly. It has been revolutionary in my search for teaching tips and tricks. It was overwhelming the amount of information I could access off of this one site instead of spending hours on end scrolling through the internet trying to find the best websites for the information I was trying to gather.
The process for finding the information I was after was easy, after signing up for my account, I simply had to type in a key word for my search and BAM, everything related to that key word popped up. Websites on websites appeared with a small blurb of the main idea of the site. It made it easy to sift through the search outcomes and find the ones I wanted to follow. Once I found a few, I was able to add it to my page so I can continuously get updates from the website on my feed. One of the websites I followed on Feedly is Classroom Freebies. I decided to follow this site because they post tips, tricks, activities, and ideas for the classroom up to four times a week. For example, some of the top posts on that page include poetry activities for national poetry month, tips for new teachers, and practicing phonics in the classroom. This site seems to be based on the model 'teachers helping teachers' and I know it will be helpful when it comes to being in a classroom and planning activities for the children! I highly recommend checking out this site as it is important to connect and share with other teachers. Another website I have followed that I would highly recommend is TED-Ed! It is a site that was created around the idea of knowledge-sharing for teachers and students around the globe. As of today, TED-Ed has a global network of more than 250,000 teachers. The site posts roughly four times a week and the videos dig deep into interesting worldly facts. The facts are accompanied by entertaining graphic videos that are extremely engaging and make learning fun. For instance, the first video on the page talks about a skyscraper design flaw and how it almost destroyed the entire building. I chose to follow this site because I know these videos will come in handy when I am in a classroom setting and prepping for course work. Plus, a lot of the videos posted is stuff I don't even know about, and I believe it is important for educators to continue learning as well. You can never have too much knowledge! Overall, as an educator in training, I highly recommend checking Feedly out because it will amplify your experience as an educator! Hello! My name is Taylor Blake and I am currently a student in the Education program at the University of Regina. I am very passionate about education and believe teachers play a key role in childrens lives. I worked at a Boys and Girls Club location for four years, as well as completed a small practicum while at the University of Lethbridge. Within these positions, I was able to use technology to my full advantage by planning activities around ideas that were found on the internet. In a lot of situations, I was able to demonstrate activities through videos found online. Technology has been a huge help to my success in my job and in my practicum.
While I am not scrolling through the internet for the next coolest idea to show the kids, you can find me at home hanging out with my husband and dogs. I highly enjoy building puzzles, going for bike rides and hikes, as well as going to the gym. I have personally only blogged during my practicum, but I found it a great way to document my teaching journey. I look forward to continuing to blog throughout this class and into my teaching career! Please follow me on my twitter account as I continue to post updates on my education journey! |
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