#UWinDig

For our final multimedia reflection, I chose to create an infographic using Canva to summarize the key points of the Technologist Module from the eCampus Ontario website. I chose to create an infographic because I am a visual learner and I believe infographics allow the message to be conveyed effectively. This platform is beginning to grow more and more on me as I experiment with it. I truly do enjoy the drag and drop method even though it may limit my creations sometimes.  One thing I noticed while creating my infographic was that many more of the graphics needed to be purchased before inserting them. When previously using Canva, I did not struggle to incorporate visuals, however it was quite challenging to find a visual to get my message across.

The overall goal of the technologist module is to educate users how to effectively incorporate technology tools in the classroom while still addressing a variety of specific learning styles. Our world continues to become more and more digital and I believe it is important for educators to stay relevant. In my placement, I often tried to incorporate technology in my lessons in order to appeal to my students needs and wants. However, I generally stuck to platforms that I was more comfortable and experienced with such as Kahoot , Gizmos, and Mentimeters.  I often questioned whether if the tools I was using were beneficial to my lessons and student needs. In order to successively incorporate technology, it is imperative that one reflects on their own digital literacies. After reading other definitions, I believe my definition of digital literacy most resembles the one from the government of British Columbia. Digital literacy relies heavily on one’s interests, attitudes and ability to appropriately use digital technology and communication tools to access, manage, integrate and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and create and communication with others. On the other hand, I believe Jisc did a great job of breaking down some of the elements relating to digital literacy. The elements included:

1. Media literacy – read, create and produce resources in a range of media
2. Communications and collaboration – engage in digital communities to benefit learning and research
3. Career and identity management – be aware of the effects the internet may have on your reputation and identity
4. ICT literacy – use digital devices, applications and services
5. Learning skills – gain skills by actively participating in technology-rich environments
6. Digital scholarship – engage in academic, professional and research practices
7. Information literacy – find, analyze, manage and share information

As our digital society is constantly changing from one day to the next, it is important we acknowledge this in order for us to become more digitally literate. The Extend Ontario website provides the Design Thinking approach which emphasizes the importance of involving users in the creation and experimentation process. As per Growing Success, students’ engagement and commitment to learning is much higher when they are directly involved in the process of creating success criteria, learning goals and feedback in relation to goals etc. I can say first hand that I observed for this to be true in my first placement. When working on narratives, I had mentioned to my students that their peers would be assessing their final products and I have never seen the class so silent and hard at work. Putting the students at the center of their learning allows them to take more accountability for their work.

The Design-Thinking Process follows five simple steps which will help teachers involve learners in finding a solution in relation to learning challenges.

Empathize – when creating any type of activity or lesson, it is important to put your learner’s needs at the forefront. Teachers must gather information about learning styles through feedback, other teachers and by simply asking students what they need.

Define – once the information is gathered, the teacher must start small and define the problem or challenge at hand. This step emphasizes the importance of the greatest good/utility for everyone.

Ideate – gather important features and characteristics of how technology could solve your issue. At this stage, using a mindmap and thinking aloud is highly encouraged in order to choose the right technology. When selecting an appropriate tool, The SECTIONS model does a great job of breaking down specific considerations you should keep in mind. They include:

• students learning styles,
• how easy it is to use,
• cost/time concerns,
• the teaching function,
• interaction (student centered vs teacher centered),
• organisational readiness of the tool in terms of support,
• networking (is the tool useful outside of the classroom)
• security and privacy

Prototype – test out the technology tool for yourself. Design a prototype for your students to refer to. I personally think the  Technology-Enabled Activity Planning Document would be super useful when it comes to my time management skills in the classroom. I struggled a lot when creating our Sway presentation and was forced to read and watch several tutorials. Although I spent much time learning how the platform works, I still do not feel comfortable with it. Using the post-it notes method would have helped me tremendously when trying to work my way around as it could have laid out important steps for me instead of having to go revisit the tutorial each time. By sharing each other’s triumphs, challenges and questions, we can better refine our creations to suit our learners.

Connect – the most important element in my opinion. It is crucial to ensure that the technology tool that you have chosen allows for curriculum expectations to be met. By creating a clear and concise list for your students, you are able to scaffold and guide your students in the right direction.

Overall, I believe that this model was effective because it made me reflect on some of my teaching practices. Next time I plan to incorporate technology in the classroom, I need to ask myself questions such as “Is it allowing for differentiation?” , “Are my students at the center of their learning?” and “Is it helping me meet curriculum expectations?” .

To view my infographic more clearly, click HERE ! (still struggling to make it appear clearly directly on the page)

Implementing the Assessment of Technologist Design Thinking

Technologist is an interesting and crucial read for teachers. With various perspectives coming into play in the module such as consideration of the learner and teacher, I found the read to be engaging. I feel although the module did have a lot of buzz words that often repeated the same ideas, it did in conclusion come to some vert practical points. The most important practical process the module spoke about that I decided to examine was the Design Thinking Process. This process focused on 5 stages starting with empathizing, defining, ideate, prototype and connect. Each stage built upon the next which I feel is a practical thing to have for teachers. With scaffolding in our own learning being present it makes it even easier to apply that kind of teaching style in our classroom. The components from the process that stuck out to me most were the empathy map template and the SECTIONS model. It is quite interesting when we think about all the internal and external factors that may be influencing our students. An empathy map contains things such as what a student is influenced by, what their emotions or feelings may be preoccupied it, or what students may see in their environment, or what their behavior might be as in what they see and do. I feel something like this can be used in every aspect of a classroom when it comes to understanding a student socially, academically and finally from a technologist perspective. The SECTIONS model stood out to me because it examined realistically the aspects of the technology. Such as if it is a good fit for the teacher, students, the institute and whether it is sustainable or not. All these considerations are taken into account in the stage of ‘ideate’ which I think is  brilliant as one way or another one of these issues can arise down the road when using technology. I feel the sections model can also be use to evaluate perhaps large purchases for classrooms that are outside of the technology realm.

Below you will find a video I have put together of the Design Thinking Process. I decided to use a commonly available form of tech to put together this quick, upbeat informative video. I bet you can’t guess what it is…Powerpoint!!! This piece of tech has been often written off as typical, boring and mundane. Well, I’d like to challenge that assumption today by exploring the creative side of Powerpoint and it’s many features. With a little bit of research and quite a bit of trial and error I was able to put together a motion design based typography video. I enjoyed the process and am quite happy with my work in the end. I can see myself using this video in the future for presentations and perhaps for even grabbing students attention for specific lessons. Check it out below technologist!

The Technology Integration module that we read through, Technologist through “extend” Ontario, was very informative to adding, substituting and enhancing lessons and assessments for students.  Technology is a big part of our lives, with all the smart phones, tablets, and computers, that fill our society, even our K-12 students are becoming more literate with and using devices than ever before.  We should be teaching our students the skills they will need to be successful in developing and using technology.  However, in our school systems today their is still a lack of technology use and development being done.  Students stick to Microsoft or Google documents and slides and when doing Google searches do not look past the first result.  As teachers, we should be pushing them to look outside the box using their creativities to push them past their determined limits.  Their is so much potential and knowledge that our students can be learning about technology, yet the boundaries to what is taught and explored is so small.  In my opinion and from what I have observed, there are three main reasons that teachers aren’t using technology in their classrooms to enhance learning and it is because they are unsure of how to use the overwhelming number of tools and don’t know which ones to select, there are few totally free for use sites and finally they are uncomfortable with the tools and media, needing to get permission to use the sites from the school board, school administration and/or parents.  It’s complicated, however, we should be selecting the challenge and working on expanding our knowledge of teaching using technology, because it will only enhance our lessons by making students more engaged with the material and allowing them to interact with the tools available to them, which may be important for their future careers.  For educators interested in entering the technology world and using tools that are unfamiliar to them, I think the Technologist module is a great resource to integrating technology into the classroom.

This resource allows educators to obtain a certificate by completing the full module, and I found that the additional videos and linked articles were helpful in enhancing my knowledge of digital literacy and the digital thinking approach that was outlined.  I think the first step to incorporating technology is to understand and create your own working definition of a digital literacy.  It isn’t a simple concept, rather it is about effectively integrating technology to enhance learning in a safe space for students to interact with the world around them academically.  It’s also about the process of designing, communicating and using technology to share ideas.  Coming to an understanding of digital literacy and the importance of choosing technology that is safe for students is the first step to integrating technology into the classroom.

The next part of the module went into design thinking and the importance of making sure that the problem/challenge and the technology tool or media that is chosen to enrich the learning experiences of students is human-centred and involving learners in the use of technology in a way that enhances collaboration.  The module laid out one approach to integrating technology: Empathize with your learners by understanding their unique needs, defining the learner’s challenge where the educator looks at where technology can be used to enhance or change a lesson or assessment (SAMR model can be used here to identify how the integration of technology changes the learning environment), ideate by choosing and assessing the tool or media, prototype the exploration, designing, sharing and modifying of the tool, and connecting to the curriculum finding where your creation fits in with the expected learning.

This approach is useful, but the only thing is you should be assessing the connection to the curriculum all the way through, not designing and using the tool to only find that their is no connection.  Instead, you should be looking at the connections all the way through to ensure that you know the curriculum and can be implementing the expectations into the creation of your tool.  That’s my only thought.

I chose to do an infographic (see below) because I thought that the step-by-step fashion of the article would look best presented in this format. I used an infographic for the last multi-media reflection and I thought that this format would be perfect, as I’d get to practice using Piktochart again and I started from scratch without using a template.  I think this resource is great to use in the classroom for poster making and I wanted to learn more about the tools and options that are available.  I can see myself using this tool in my classroom and I now have a two examples of what posters that start with a blank white sheet of paper can turn into.  This can show students that they have the option of not sticking to a template and using their creativity to design their own projects, as well.  I like that this tool is very user friendly and once you’ve experimented for a very short time, you can use the site’s features, images from Google (using the “labeled for reuse” tool) to create a visually appealing and simple poster that conveys meaning through text and pictures.

These assignments have taught me the importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, trying something new and staying up to date as an educator.   It is time consuming to learn about these sites and the features they offer, but it is well worth it to have students learn about technology tools that are available for their use in creating projects along with traditional paper and pencil methods too.  The more students know, the more well off they will be in their futures.  We need to be pushing our boundaries to push theirs to new heights!

If I am being honest, with being in University for the last 9 years straight, I have discovered so many resources and traded ideas with many incredible minds but the one thing I am yet to do, is to actually explore all of these things. I have books, websites, programs, and many other technologies that are sitting in my resource pile waiting to be explored once I finish school and have some time to myself…which will never happen. Whenever I am looking for something new to integrate into my teaching, I tend to google the exact idea and find the closest thing to what I want and attempt to use it only to go back to what I was doing before. When we began to look at the Technologist Module, I instantly became entranced with it.

Through eCampus Ontario, we have been provided with a way of linking the curriculum to technology rather being told that the curriculum drives the learning (which I have been constantly told). One of the ideas that stood out to me was the module has you interacting with ideas instead of just flooding you with information and then moving onto the next thing. It may take some people 30 min to get through the module and it may take others 3 hours. As well, it doesn’t just go right into bulk of things, it asks simple questions to help us figure out why we might be stuck.

The module explains the process of Design Thinking, which is a 5-step process used to tap into a designer’s toolkit to engage users in creating and experimenting with new ideas and then use feedback to improve upon those ideas. These 5 steps are: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and connect.

Empathize: Understanding what the needs of our learners are. Identifying the challenges, setting aside our needs, asking if this challenge can be solved through the purposeful use of technology.

Define: Narrowing in and identifying the challenge based on what we have learned about our learners. Start small as it is more productive and yields better results, this is the key to the design step. A good challenge is one that:

• Frames the challenge
• Inspires
• Informs
• Captures
• Helps

Ideate: Form and build features and characteristics of how technology could address your learners’ challenges. Asking yourself “How might I?” and generating a mind map to generate and link ideas.

Next is to select technology that will help build a creation to help address the challenges. We have been provided with two incredible tool resources in case we are uncertain of which one we want to use. Once we have found one, we must evaluate the tool using the SECTIONS Model by Anthony William Bates.

Prototype: Try out your technology and develop a prototype. Show it to your learners and find out what went well and what needs work. Create something small and show it off in order to get feedback. Follow these three steps for richer results:

• Design
• Share
• Refine

Connect:  Think about how your tech fits into the curriculum and how to integrate it into the classroom. Map out and clarify how you will teach your students.

I hugely believe that this is an incredible resource that has been given to us and although at times, it will feel like a huge burden that consumes lots of time, we must take our time with this process. So long as we understand it well enough, it will allow us to truly integrate tech in a meaningful way. Please enjoy my Pikochart that I have created about the 5-step Design Thinking Process.

This post will be focusing on the “technologist Module” one of the online courses that are available for people to take under the “Extend” Website, which can be found here:

https://extend.ecampusontario.ca/technologist-scenario/

This module focuses on teaching educators on how to use technology into their lessons, in order to be able to meet the different learning needs and abilities of their students. 

The technologist module is available to guide educators to select, use and integrate technologies in a way that supports, facilitates and enriches the learning experience of their students.

My Twitter essay which is posted below goes through a brief summary of the different parts of the module and what each of them focuses on

https://twitter.com/Blessy93130561/status/1097708946004029441

Some of the important details not covered on the essay is the digital literacy framework which includes: a) Research and Information Literacy, b) Critical thinking, Problem solving and Decision making, c) Creativity and Innovation, d) Digital citizenship, e) Communication and Collaboration, f) Technology Operations and Concepts.

Design Thinking is a powerful tool to tackle the unknown and/or reveal new ways of thinking and doing. 

As educators I think it is crucial for us  to emphasize the importance of being an effective and responsible participant in a digital society as many individuals misuse technology and the media whether it is to waste class time or to hurt others through cyber bullying, hacking, etc. It is important to teach the future generations to use technology for the betterment of society and themselves. 

The design-thinking approach is a methodology that provides a solution-based approach to tackling problems. In this particular case, we are placing an emphasis on the challenges a learner may face.  When I first took a look at the technologist module, I felt quite overwhelmed with all the information that was being provided. In order to break it down into steps, I decided to make a Piktochart highlighting the five steps of the design-thinking approach. Instead of going through all of them at once. I went through them one by one as I was creating my piktochart.

The first step to this approach is to empathize. In order to do so, a teacher must gain an empathetic understanding of the challenges faced by her students. Depending on time constraints, a substantial amount of information is gathered at this stage and will be used for the next stage to develop the best possible understanding of the users, their needs, and the problems that underlie the development of that particular product.

The second step is to define the problem(s). The teacher must put together the information gathered during the first stage. This is where you will analyze your problem(s) in order to create features that will benefit your students in their learning.

The third step is to ideate, which means to form and build ideal features and characteristics using technology that could help your learners overcome their challenges. First you must build a list of possibilities. This can be done by using online mapping tools such as mind, mindmup, canva, etc. This is the time to think outside the box to identify new solutions to student challenges.

The fourth step is the prototype. This involves putting your creation together. The basic steps are to design, share and refine!

The fifth step is to connect. It is crucial that you connect this technology to the curriculum. Make sure to link the activity to learning outcomes.

https://create.piktochart.com/output/36651513-untitled-infographic