#UWinDig

This post will explore the Technologist Module on the E-Campus Ontario website. This module is for educators to learn how to integrate technology into their classrooms in a way that enriches learning experiences for students. The module is divided into several sub section, and the overall goal of the module is a walk through of how to take a design-thinking approach in your classroom with the help of technology. The design thinking approach has 5 sections and each of these sections is a different tab in the module. Each tab has a technical explanation of the step/approach and also includes an “extend activity” that is an example of how the achieve this step in the design process.

I found this module very useful. As someone who has always found incorporating technology in the classroom very taunting, this module is definitely something I will use when it comes time for me to use technology in my next practicum. The extend activities provided hands on examples of how to apply what is being explained at the beginning of each section to give teachers a starting point if they are overwhelmed when it comes to incorporating tech into the classroom. I found the technology integration process that is suggested in this module is very realistic and could easily be adapted to any subject area. I do believe that technology integration is an important aspect of todays education because times are changing and technology is becoming such an important tool.

To better represent the information this module contained & my thoughts check out the mind map I created!

Check out my Mind Map! 

Hey everyone and welcome back to the blog!

I am excited to present another Multimedia reflection based on the eCampus Ontario’s open PD module of Technologist.  First off I think having open PD is amazing!  This allows teachers to extend their knowledge and have openness in education.  If teachers can learn openly then students will be able to learn openly as well.

For my final reflection I wanted to make a music video, like I did for my first reflection.  I did have one exception though.  If I was going to make another music video I had to write my own music and lyrics with a tool I was unfamiliar with.  I figured if the module challenged teachers to try new technology tools for the classroom I would start now.  I started with a beat, and added some loops.  I played around with FX, made the video, and got to use my DJ name I created with my brother when I was 7.  I hope you enjoy this video and might try garage band for yourself in the future.  Needless to say I had a lot of fun!

Music, Lyrics, Videography, and Editing by Stephanie Johnston

The Technologist module had a very distinctive 5-step process for trying to incorporate technology into the classroom for the benefit of the learners.  I am now much more reflective on my own classrooms when I am thinking of new activities.

The 5-step model that the Technologist module provides.

I think this 5-step process in good for incorporating anything into the classroom.  First we need to try and understand our students in the empathize step.  From there we need to figure out what problem or challenge we want to solve.  One recommendation is that teachers start with something small.  Teachers don’t need to pick a challenge that is too big for them, and that may ultimately make the learners more confused.  The next step of ideate is where technology starts to get involved.  As the teachers we need to think of cool technology or anything cool for that matter that might engage students.  Next is testing the tool.  The testing is like peer editing a paper.  Everyone is worried to see what others think, but ultimately the paper (or in this case, classroom tool) is better because of the editing.  As the teacher you need to test out your new tool for the classroom. Lastly, you need to connect your tool to the curriculum.  You can’t implement something just for fun.  There needs to be a way to connect the tool to the curriculum because our duty as teachers is to teach the curriculum.  Ultimately, as teachers I think that there is a huge importance on trying new things in the classroom to keep students engaged and interested.

Thanks for checking out my final multimedia reflection!

Steph

Found below is a Powtoon video that I created, summarizing the key points on Technologists Module of eCampus Ontario’s open PD modules. Here is the link to the module itself.

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

I have to admit, for each of the 2 past multimedia reflections that were assigned to us and posted on this blog, I attempted to use Powtoon. However, I gave up after a creating a couple slides because I deemed it too difficult of a process. For this reflection I was determined to start and finish a full reflection using this media. It took me a couple hours just to get myself accustomed to the program. There are still many options on the task bar that I am not sure of what they do, but once I figured out how the basic aspects of it worked I got faster at creating my slides. I cannot say I particularly enjoyed working with Powtoon, nor am I extremely happy with my finished product. But I worked very hard on it, and as it was my first time I expected this type of outcome. In the future, if I use Powtoon again, I will have to explore all of its functions more in depth in order to create a better video as a whole. While creating this Powtoon it was difficult for me to find a good balance of pictures and words, without being overbearing. I also struggled with giving the video more of a flow, unfortunately I think it ended up being choppy. A limitation to Powtoon that I experienced was that you can only make a 3 minute video for free, anything above this requires a purchase. I understand that they have to make money, but it defers me from using the program at all. Overall, my experience making the Powtoon was a difficult one. However I am proud of myself for sticking with it even though the finished product isn’t exactly what I had hoped for it.

As I journeyed through the Technologist Module, there were many things that I did not know. Honestly, this is not surprising, as I accept the fact I am not extremely knowledgeable in integrating technology into the classroom except for what I have learned throughout this semester. I was aware of digital literacies, however the design thinking approach was new to me. I think that it is a perfect guide to follow when integrating technology into the classroom. It is an in depth step by step process to integrate technology, but at the same time it is easy to follow and uses terminology that is easy to understand. The five steps to design thinking are empathize, define, ideate, prototype and connect. To summarize, empathize is getting the perspective of your students. Define refers to understanding the challenge that the students are experience, which the technology will be used to solve. Ideate involves selecting a tool and using the SECTIONS model to evaluate if the tool will be effective. Prototype discusses working with the tool and testing it out. Lastly, it is important to connect the tool back to the curriculum and course outline. Overall, when choosing a technology and/or program, it is important that it touches upon the students needs and that it connects with the course.

Another very positive aspect of doing the Technologist Module are the Extend activities that it offers after each section in order for the participant to get more engaged and gain some experience with the design thinking approach. For example, on the “Define” tab of the module, the Extend activity directs the participant to come up with a student challenge and add it to a Padlet. Where other challenges are posted and ideas can be shared. Another example is under the “Empathy” tab, where the Extend activity encourages the participant to create an empathy map where it provides instructions on how to do so and an empathy map template.

During my placement this year, I did not integrate technology into the classroom as much as I would have liked. This is because I struggled to make it relevant to what we were doing. If I had something like the design thinking approach to follow, it may have helped me in using more technologies and programs that directly related to my course and curriculum. Some of the technologies that I did use included tools such as Kahoot and Google Slides. I realize now that these were simple substitutions and did not reach the higher levels of SAMR such as modification or redefinition. I struggle with the thought of reaching these levels, however by following the design thinking approach I think that I could do this more comfortably. I will use this approach in my future classrooms in order to make sure that I am using the right technologies and programs for the job, so my students can benefit. The Technologist Module offered an extensive list of programs that can be used in the classroom, which is extremely beneficial to me as I always find myself using the same ones. Overall, participating in the module was a huge success and I am looking forward to applying what I learned to an actual classroom.

Openness in education, technology, differentiation, inclusion, learning, universal learning design: all words that float around the mind of an educator in the 21st century.

For my reflection of the Technologist Module from e-Campus Ontario Open Teacher Modules by Ontario Extend, I decided to do a Twitter essay. This module was created to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms effectively. As new teacher candidates, this is important and relevant, but I do understand how already experienced teachers could benefit from this module as well. In order to execute my Twitter essay, I created a thread with twenty tweets that summarized the key points of the module while creating connections with my own thoughts and experiences. The process of creating this reflection was actually quite nice; I got to look at some tweets while I took breaks and scroll through tons of funny gifs. I had a lot of fun composing my Twitter essay, and honestly, it’s the most fun I’ve had writing an essay in a long time. I enjoyed trying to find a balance of gifs, polls, images, and plain tweets to create a thread that looked aesthetically pleasing. I wanted to make sure there was a seamless flow to the thread to capture readers’ attention while keeping them engaged throughout the whole Twitter essay. I felt that all of the key points that I wanted to convey was easily done with this platform. I would recommend that others use this platform as well because it is easy to use, allows you to share your thoughts with others easily, and it’s just fun. A lot of fun actually.

As I went through this module, I was surprised as to how much I learned. To be honest, before I began this module, I thought I knew everything about technology integration because of my experience using it in the past. I knew how to navigate a plethora of different websites and could easily give students directions on how to access them. Turns out that there is a lot more to it than just that. There are ways to integrate technology into the classroom that are more innovative than simply using it to show a video. I always thought of the use technology as an element of a lesson instead of the means of addressing certain learning challenges. Technology should be used in a meaningful context in today’s classroom where students will learn, collaborate, and communicate their knowledge with others.

Further, technology has the ability to implement differentiation and Universal Learning Design (UDL) in the classroom. Although this wasn’t explicitly covered in the module, it is absolutely applicable. Using certain websites or applications can apply UDL. A lot of different platforms cover different means of representation which supports different learning preferences. Also, differentiation can occur through technology by simply adapting the work that is being done with it. I have attached a chart below of both teaching strategies so you can consider how you could apply technology with these strategies in mind. Overall, technology is a tool that can integrate important teaching strategies as well.

Source: Overview of UDL/Differentiated Instruction

What this module taught me was the following: technology in the classroom is much more than the use of a video, social media site, or google search; it is challenging students to innovate and create something with the use of technology to solve problems.

This module has influenced my practice because I will design my lesson plans with technology in mind, but I will also design it with the Design Thinking Approach and the SECTIONS model. Creating authentic, meaningful tasks to facilitate learning with technology creates an engaging space for students to learn; however, we must consider the students when designing what and how they will use the technology. Student learning and student safety is of top priority.

While going through my Twitter essay, I hope you find useful resources to access, engage with the polls, and maybe even laugh at a gif or two.

Check out my Twitter essay here:

1. Multimedia Reflection time!
Today's reflection is on the Technologist Module of the e-Campus Ontario Open Teacher Modules. The goal of the module? Using technology as a tool to address specific learning challenges. Let's go! #UWinDig #OntarioExtend https://t.co/yUs5PdbmoI

— Amy (@amynatyshak) February 14, 2019

I wish all of my fellow educators good luck in curating meaningful, technology-oriented lessons.

Enjoy!

– Amy

eCampus Ontario published an article on Design Thinking https://extend.ecampusontario.ca/technologist-scenario/. Upon reading, one might think that this pertains only to creating a technology tool. I did too. But in fact, this is a fantastic model to follow when you are thinking about how to integrate technology into your lesson/classroom/assignment. In order to integrate technology, you need to ensure you are meeting the needs of your students. On top of that, you need to ensure that you are comfortable with the technology itself and are aware of any problems that could arise and how to guide your students. This means playing around with the platform before actually using it in the classroom so you know how it all works and if it truly meets the needs of your student(s). 

Although you may not think you need to integrate technology into your classroom, there are probably a fair amount of students that can benefit from the proper tool. This is called Differentiated Learning. Differentiated learning is important in meeting the needs of all your students by designing responsive instruction to all learners. You may think that differentiated learning is just for students who have IEP’s, but in reality, offering varying strategies can actually benefit many other students! You might be surprised. Often times, you can differentiate learning by adding in a new technology platform – there are many options. eCampusOntario has a resource to show all different types of platforms you can try and how they may suit the needs of students!

Trying a new platform can be rather daunting, but far less daunting if you follow the Design Thinking Model. Check out this Twitter Essay that summarizes what Digital Thinking is and how to do it: https://twitter.com/lexiaimevoyager/status/109614454892353153. I chose a Twitter Essay because it was a very easy way to synthesize and summarize all the key points (you only have so many characters per tweet anyways!). The use of GIF’s aids in engaging the reader as it is a rather heavy reading material.

The Technologist Module on eCampusOntario outlines the process for determining what technology you should/can integrate into your classroom and what would be the best option. This is really important for me because as someone who is not very literate with technology, I especially struggle with the idea/thought of having to integrate it into the classroom. This procedure makes me far confident that I will be able to choose the proper platform that will best suit the needs of my student. I actually learned about many platforms that I had never heard of previously, and I am really excited to try some of them such as Trello! I will absolutely use this model in my classroom to ensure I am not wasting my time or my students time with the wrong platforms – I want to reach them the best I possibly can. I will follow this outline to choose platforms that allow for differentiated instruction. I want to give my students choices when it comes to doing their work and how they learn.

What’s that you say? We can connect with anybody in the world and even have continuous dialogue that doesn’t confine us to the four walls we are sitting between?!

For my second multimedia reflection, I read Dr. Michele Jacobson’s article and watch Henry Jenkins’ video. You will have to forgive me because I am in NO WAY an artist, but I, hesitantly, decided to try my hand at a sketch-note/mindmap hybrid:

I really enjoyed reading Dr. Jacobson’s article, and I agree with most, if not all, of it. We have grown up during the growth and expansion of the Internet (please see my little teenager Chrome stick figure on the bottom right of my picture) and it has developed, probably exponentially, since we were kids. I definitely agree that technology, social media (maybe not all social media), and the Web 2.0 initiatives have a place in education to come capacity.

I am the first person to admit that I prefer working face-to-face with someone rather than online, but in a world where people are insanely busy with school, work, family life, etc., getting together to work on an assignment or project often falls by the wayside. That is when the participatory digital world comes in. This digital world allows us to stay connected, and continue conversations or brainstorming that would not have taken place if we did not have participatory platforms. Every single group project or assignment I have had in the first two months of this degree has taken place on a Google Doc. It was the most practical way to work on things, and I was able to work on my portion away from school, just like my other group members.

I think that we, as future teachers, should start exploring now, kind of like what we did last week with our Twitter chat, and see how we can implement certain platforms, emphasis on the participatory nature of them, into our future classrooms. Using the participatory digital world, quite literally, has global outreach (hence the not-drawn-to-scale globe in the top right corner of my artifact). I was tweeting with a person in Egypt last week about the topic of algorithms and privacy, or lack thereof. When I was in high school, that would not have even been a possibility because digital tech and social media were banned in classrooms. Now they are welcome, to a degree, and I think that that is the future of education and that as long as used responsibly, digital technologies and Web 2.0 platforms will be extremely beneficial to the future of education.

– Courtney M.

Here we go again! My second multimedia assignment may lack sticky notes, but it still maintains an ample amount of colour and creativity. This time around I created a Venn diagram because Dr. Jacobson’s article, ‘Teaching in a Participatory Digital World‘, explains how both students and teachers utilize technology to motivate and adapt their ongoing learning experiences in the classroom. Since I already made a sketch note with my first multimedia assignment, I figured a Venn diagram would be the next best thing because it visually represents how students and teachers collaborate with each other and/or technology to benefit their educational lives. Each circle represents the roles of what students, teachers, and technology contribute and are expected of in the participatory digital learning world.

While I found this article to be a bit repetitive, I used that as inspiration to create the Venn diagram. Since so many of Dr. Jacobson’s ideas and comments were similar to each other or inter-connected, I used that to my advantage. Personally, I’m more of a pencil and paper kind of person, but I can definitely see the benefit of incorporating digital media in the classroom. There are so many fantastic resources and teaching tools online that can be used to really enhance the classroom learning environment. As teachers-in-training, it’s important to pay attention to this quote, “we cannot shut down the education system while teachers retool their practices and jurisdictions bring technological infrastructures up to standard.” With that being the case, it’s a great idea to start exploring online teaching forums and resources now to be prepared before we become permanent educators. However, my only concern regarding digital learning is the legitimacy of knowledge and information being shared. I’m surprised that Dr. Jacobsen barely touched upon teaching students how to critique digital learning practices; especially when “fake news” is extremely common in today’s world. Also, sometimes learning from your peers doesn’t always result in academic inquiry; especially if you and your peers are younger students. There are lot of online distractions that teachers must be aware of before allowing their students to utilize the digital world.

Considering this Venn diagram is hand-written, I still wanted to incorporate the participatory aspect of the article using online sources. Therefore, I created a Facebook group called ‘Memes for Education’ and invited 13 of my friends to participate. Their goal was to react only using gifs or memes to my comments/quotes/questions I had from the article. I also included a few posts that had them communicate and react to each other’s comments and it turned out to be a hilarious and insightful project. I chose to film their responses because it will showcase the gifs and I cannot post the discussion without adding everyone in the class into the group. (A few videos posted below).

The most challenging part about this assignment was organizing the roles and connections stated throughout the article and where (and how) they fit on the diagram. I didn’t have as much space as my previous sketch note so I had to condense my summaries while making sure I still got the point across. I also had to make sure I kept this neat, yet still appealing to look at. The information outside of the diagram represents some of the benefits and skills you’ll learn/need after participating in a digital learning environment.

Overall, I really enjoyed this article and believes it advocates for digital learning practices in a positive way. I think it’s important for students and teachers to stay up to date with real world situations and technical advancements. Learning about and utilizing them in an education setting is a great (and safe) place to start in the ongoing learning process.

Left side:

Bottom and connections:

      <— Tech and students <—-tech and teachers   <– all three

Right:

Before this article, I was familiar with the practice of redlining as a historical concept. It is one of the least talked about and most damaging policies from the era of a segregationist America. Today we are now seeing a new form of virtual redlining, restricting access to knowledge for students. The most common reason to restrict and ban certain topics from being seen is for moral reasons. There are perfectly good reasons to ban and restrict certain content on network computers in schools. Illegal activities such as child pornography, and drug dealing are things which are unacceptable in any context. It is when institutions have to decide on something that is legal, but taboo to many people. The example of revenge porn is an excellent one. Sometimes in higher learning institutions students must do research on taboo topics. This isn’t just limited to porn though. If you wanted to do a study on alt-right or explicitly neo-Nazi groups, it might be helpful to go on websites such as 4chan, or Stormfront. These websites are vile places with some of the worst opinions of humanity being expressed. To do a thorough study on them though you must wade into the mud. I would guarantee that 4chan is banned on almost every institutional network and Stormfront on a good portion of them.

The obvious solution to this problem (especially in community colleges) is to have a more open attitude when either choosing what sites go on a banned list, or designing algorithms which are more open. This is the easy technical solution. The societal solutions are much harder. Community Colleges see more of these restrictions due to the opinion that their purpose is more about job training than abstract intellectual thought. The attitude being that why would they need to look up such taboo topics in such a setting? This brings up the fact that those in the ruling classes often feel a moral paternalism for the working classes. It has existed since the earliest days of progressivist politics in the late 19^thand early 20^thcenturies.

The most concerning thing about this article though is that it might be a bellwether for something more sinister in the coming years. The concept of the digital divide is not new and something we have explored already. Chris Gilliard in his article is explicit in stating that digital redlining is not the same as the digital divide. The two though I think will become more and more linked in the future. As laws surrounding net neutrality fall in the United States and are under threat in Canada, it is possible to see a future of the internet which divides what can be accessed easily and what cannot be based on your income. If you pay for an internet or data package which fast lanes certain popular websites, but leaves others behind a “throttle wall” then the information people will be able to access will be dependent on income. This is reintroducing the “gatekeeper” effect which plagued old style media institutions of the past. The beauty of the internet was that you had essentially the same amount of “digital square footage” that the New York Times had. The openness and democratic nature that we value in the internet will be lost.