Author Archives: legaults

Feb 19 2019
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How to Become a Technologist

For this multimedia reflection, I chose to use Canva. I had previously used Canva once; however, I did not use a template. This time, I wanted to create an infographic using one of the templates provided. I wanted to use Canva another time because I have been using this program in my personal life for various reasons and I wanted to gain another chance to explore it even more. I really enjoy this application because it is user friendly and allows me to add my own creativity. I have trouble organizing ideas and my creativity to create an aesthetic product; therefore, I really appreciate all that is available on Canva. I can truly see myself using this program in my classroom and having my students use it as well! I feel like my students will love it and be able to show their creativity and knowledge.

The technologist module, click here to view–> https://extend.ecampusontario.ca/technologist-module-checklist/ that we explored a bit in class and then further on our own was interesting and I enjoyed how it broke down the core principal of Design-Thinking. It gave a step by step guide on how to understand and implement design-thinking; therefore, I thought an infographic on that principle would be a great way for others who are not familiar with the concept to grasp it as well. The 5 steps are presented for educators and how to integrate technology into your classroom if you are a new teacher or a teacher who seems to be sticking to the same course techniques over and over again. I think the first step of Empathizing is very important and stuck out to me. You must understand who your learners are before you can even begin to integrate technology. Integrating technology into your lessons for just the sake of doing so and to be “with the times” is not a useful mindset. During my last placement in a grade 7/8 class I had many ELL students and if I am integrating technology I have to make sure they are able to grasp the lesson as well.  There are all five of the steps:

  1. Empathize: Understand the needs of your learners so you can empathize with the challenges they face. Create a relationship so that you may better understand what they need from you.
  2. Define: Narrow and identify the challenges or problems. Knowing the challenge will help you develop a plan that will meet the needs of the students you have built a relationship with.
  3. Ideate: Form characteristics of how and what technology you will use to address the challenge. Create a mindmap by sketching it on paper or through some awesome programs online!
  4. Prototype: Try it! Test it! You might fail but you need to share it with an audience or yourself before it can be fully implemented. Play around and get to know the technology you want to use. You can always redefine and rework it if you haven’t met your expectations.
  5. Connect: Connect the use of this technology to the curriculum! These connections are important for your students to find meaning in your lessons.

Lastly, all of these steps are useful and it has made me feel less anxious about my own classroom in the future. Having an organized system is extremely helpful and following the design thinking process will help me and several others who want to integrate technology into the classroom!

 

How to integrate Design thinking in your classroom

Oct 28 2018
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322monday21, Uncategorized

Should Cell Phones Stay?

After reading the article, Tackling tech: How some Ontario teachers are attempting to limit students’ cell phone use by Nadine Yousif. Even though it was a short article, I felt as if it expressed many important ideas and examples; therefore, I chose to do a visual representation of a brainstorm sketch/mind map on Canva to display the key ideas I took away from the article. The article explores the impact of cell phone use in classrooms and how teachers fight a battle every single day to keep their students from being distracted from their personal devices. There were two devices that were being used by two teachers at the same school in Kitchener, Ontario. The first was the Yondr pouch, the cell phone is placed in the pouch and can only be unlocked by the teacher. This is a good idea to keep the control in your classroom; however, students may feel hostile about giving their property to be locked up by a teacher. Whereas the Resistor Case is a pouch that uses Velcro to keep it closed. The students are able to open the pouches to retrieve their cell phones; however, an obnoxiously loud Velcro noise will alert the whole class that you are retrieving your cell phone. This idea is excellent, because the students are being made to think twice of their actions and are accountable for looking at their cell phone or not but it can also be disruptive.

I had a lot of thoughts of my own experience in school and also my experiences in the classroom after reading this article. I remember hiding my cell phone in my pencil case during certain classes to send text messages and if you were to ask me what I learned in those classes, I would have a hard time telling you. It does make you distracted and keeps you from being present and engaged with your teacher and your classmates. However, it is a difficult issue to regulate, I don’t believe that a school wide band would be optimal because faculty would then have to police the use of cell phones instead of incorporating them and technology into their lessons. Furthermore, students would want to use them more because it has been taken away from them. I believe that we have to grow with the technology around us and try to incorporate those devices in our classroom. Certainly, there can be a time to have them stored away, when there are presentations or a test, but it does not have to be all the time. Students will then see that there is a positive relation between education and technology that is accessible to them and they can learn how to use their devices for educational purposes! These devices aren’t going away anytime soon and they might even evolve into more advanced items that become necessities to the way we live. The problem may be that we are continuously fighting this battle instead of changing the way we look at this issue. We should be looking at how it can be incorporated. I know that I wouldn’t want my students on their phones the whole time that I am speaking and that may be my own anxiety of not being able to control my classroom. After reading this article, and seeing that the phones were locked away, it has made me realize it is the anxiety of the teachers that are afraid of interacting with technology or losing the control they want to have in their room. I have that fear as well, when in reality I know that I should be innovative and think of ways to create a positive link with these devices and my lessons.

I have never used Canva before, but many of my classmates have and enjoyed it. Therefore, I wanted to try to familiarize myself with the resource. I find that brainstorming and writing key ideas after reading something helps organize the main ideas and facilitates the next steps in an assignment. I wanted to create a visual representation of a brainstorm/mind map because you could ask your students to do this on Canva after an assigned reading and before they begin a response, essay, or journal entry. I enjoyed Canva because it did give you some templates but you could also design it to make it your own by changing the colours and sizes of icons, moving them around the page to the way you want. I like that there was a lot to choose from as well, if every student created one, they would all look different and reflect that students style and knowledge.

Tackling Tech (1)

Sep 29 2018
3 Comments
322monday21

Step Outside of The Box – In Digital Pedagogy

The Hinck article, “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom”, linked here: http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/  addressed the difficult issues of using pre made templates, filters and drag and drop tools that can minimize the creativity of the person using it. Furthermore, students get anxious and frustrated if there is not a step by step instruction to follow when using technology. When using these platforms, making mistakes is a great way to learn; however, many of us feel like we are failing if we are making mistakes. I also feel this way, I am more comfortable when I know that I am completing the proper steps to achieve the desired end goal. I need to step away from this frame of thought so that my future students may be able to step out of the box and create things of their own in their own way. In many ways, we are programmed to assume that the creative process is linear and Hinck discusses this in the article. There is no step by step process in digital media and the mistakes you will make should be viewed as challenges and apart of the process rather than a failure. Digital media is the process of creating, and there is no right or wrong way to create something out of nothing.

As a future teacher, the process of creating, learning and trying new things is going to be a part of the job. I must become more comfortable with digital pedagogy and pushing myself out of my comfort zone so that my students may do the same. I also need to expose them to my own struggles and failures so that they can see that I do not expect perfection from them. I chose to use Imovie because I do have a little bit of previous experience with it but would like to play around with it more. I also chose Imovie because I enjoy video representations of ideas and would like to produce more video content in the future. I also chose to write by hand with chalk because I really enjoy brainstorming and producing ideas by hand with a tactile object like chalk. Also, the juxtaposition of chalk and the video representation is a blend of the past and future of learning in classrooms. Also, how I would like to have my own classroom, a blend of both ways of learning and teaching! I have never published a video on to a blog or Youtube, so I originally tried to use Uview but the video would not embed into the blog post. I started to get frustrated that it did not work the first time. I assumed it would be very simple without any struggle and immediately got frustrated. I had to create a Youtube account to publish it on there and then embed it and it finally worked. My own struggles and expectations of wanting it to be successful in the first try mirrored the struggles that students have in the classroom. Therefore, I realized I cannot have expectations that my students won’t get frustrated and want to give up because I feel that way myself when I am facing a new platform or project. For the next project, I want to try a platform I have never used before!

Thanks for watching!