#UWinDig

As a society, we have become increasingly dependent on technology is various forms and for various reasons. One of the constant reasons to integrate technology into your life is to make it simpler. Wether or not it truly makes your life simpler is difficult to say and is based upon your use of technology. The goal for many educators is to reach all of their students but many of them do not understand how to incorporate technology in the classroom. This week we looked at Extend, which is a site constructed to help educators to better incorporate technology into their classrooms in order to aid all learners.

In the scenario at the beginning of the module, Terry wanted to incorporate technology in a way that would benefit all of his learners. After talking to his colleagues and completing the Extend module, he incorporated the XYZ technology.

One of the main components of Extends modules is Digital literacies. Digital literacies use technology to address specific learning challenges on an individual basis. Digital literacies effectively locate, use, summarize, evaluate, create, and communicate information while using digital technologies and web-based platforms. It also includes the knowledge to engage safely and ethically in online communities. Developing digital literacies never stops as it is an ongoing process. As educators, it is our responsibility to

Design thinking sparks new ideas through creating and experimenting. It is human-centered so the people creating and experimenting will actually benefit from the product. In the classroom, it allows students to work together to come up with a solution to a known challenge. Design-Thinking involves a 5 step process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Connect. The process invites educators to empathize with their students so that they can define their students challenge. Once the challenge has been defined, the educator can begin to ideate which technology would be beneficial to their students. Once the educator has chosen a technology they can begin to prototype it to their students so that they can refine it and make it better for their learners. The final step is to connect the curriculum into the technology so that the students challenge will not hinder learning in anyway.

I chose to create a twitter essay for this reflection because it is a technology that I have barely used. We were told to stretch a bit for this reflection so that is what I am doing here. I found twitter to be fairly easy to use although I will admit I did ask for some help when it came to using threads to connect tweets. Having run through the Extend module with myself in mind, I think this is a good platform in which I could see students reflecting on their learning or even writing stories about events in the world. I imagine this would be a technology that many of my future students will be very familiar and comfortable with using.

Matt Rosof’s article, Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app from their phone in the last year, says study, discusses the results of a recent study which indicates that nearly half of young facebook users, aged 18-29, have decided to delete the Facebook app off of their phones. The study found that some decided to delete the application outright while others have elected to take a break from Facebook. Facebook’s stocks have taken a hit, 20%,  due to the volume of users that are moving away from the core Facebook application.The recent Facebook scandals, FBI russia probe and the Cambridge Analytica incident, are a large reason for the current Facebook exodus. What concerns users most is how their data is being manipulated by others for their own personal gain.

I chose to do my multimedia artifact on this article due to the fact that I have been contemplating deleting Facebook for some time. I really like how Facebook can connect us with people we haven’t seen in along time or help us to keep in contact with those people. Another great reason to keep Facebook is the group chats that, for example, we have started here at the Faculty of Education. Those group chats have the potential for great collaboration once we get into the field and begin teaching our own classes. In saying this, I believe that the potential issues that can arise due to the application outweigh the positives. I, like many others, have purged my Facebook account of anything that is deemed to be slightly unprofessional, however I can’t be sure that I have deleted everything. To me deleting the application seems like a smart option. Another issue that could arise from Facebook is if we are tagged in a photo that is deemed unprofessional then we could face consequences from administration. Also what if our accounts were to be hacked, seeing as Facebook’s security is in question lately, and something inappropriate is thus said. We would take the flack for such an incident. I simply don’t think the positives outweigh the potential negatives. The fact that our feeds can be manipulated along with our data, like the article explained, is enough to scare anyone let alone someone in a profession in which their content is constantly scrutinized. Having now read the article and combining it’s ideas with my previous feeling’s I have decided, like many others, that I will be joining the great Facebook exodus.  

Pdf: MindMup 2 Oct 27 18

Brandan Joyce

Ashley Hinck’s article, Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom, discusses the expectations that students have with digital media, and the stark difference between teacher centered versus student centered media education. Beginning this assignment, I assumed that it would be a linear process in which I would cobble together some words, drag and drop some pictures and then I would be guaranteed a working final piece. Having now completed this assignment, that was certainly not the case. I found it very difficult to get started, as I wasn’t sure exactly what to do. I didn’t have a set linear procedure to guide me through the steps that I needed to complete in order to get my finished artifact. There is also no set answer to this assignment, which is very different than the standard teacher centered courses that made up the majority of my university career. With the assignment I found myself being forced to be creative and try some new things that were certainly outside of my comfort zone.

I initially started with the standard template websites such as Canva because it was easiest to use a template rather than design something myself. I decided however to try MindMup as it was much more open and it gave me some creative freedom to come up with a project that was entirely mine. Coming up with my own design was very rewarding to me as I had to troubleshoot through problems, and there were a good number of problems, as well as tinker with the project with the inputs that I was given in class by the professor and my colleagues. I found it very satisfying using MindMup and learning the inherent issues that came with that software in order to come up with a final product.

MindMup

-Brandan Joyce