Tag Archives: #UWinDig

Teaching Technology to Teachers; Totally Tubular!!!!!

For this multimedia reflection, we were able to explore the use of technology within a classroom as well as ways to make technological lessons easier to access for all learners.  This was done through a module presented by eCampus Ontario with the help of Extend; they were able to clearly explain how easily this can be achieved in a classroom.  This is very beneficial in the classroom and can aid in your development of technology pedagogy.  A lot of teachers may lack knowledge in the technology department.
With an easy to follow module like the one that was presented to us, it allows for teachers to gain a better understanding of how to incorporate technology into their classroom in the most effective way for their students.  The module exhibits different steps or pathways to achieve the best
possible outcome for the students and to help teachers identify challenges they may come across with solutions to how to best solve them.

 

It is important to approach every lesson you prepare with openness; finding ways to share information on top of ways to allow your information to be accessible to a wide range of people.  As a future educator, incorporating differentiation into my pedagogy is key. Once the target audience is known (finding out the students in your class on the first day of school for example) you are able to make specific adjustments based on their needs.  Having particular needs should not penalize a student or make them any less.

Differentiation looks at the variety of differences and allows for adaptability where it is necessary.  Looking back on my first practicum experience, I know that this idea was something I failed to achieve.  Incorporating digital media into my lessons was something I found hard to do but thinking of all of the different exceptionalities that my students may have had at the same time was very hard for me.  I now can apply this module into my next practicum, ensuring that I make the different technologies I use accessible for all students as well as figure out any of the challenges I come across before presentation.  I will most definitely refer back to this module in a couple of weeks.  It is critical to have students reach goals in their own way that is best for them and I want to implement this idea in my next practicum.

 

When it comes to technology, I personally felt like I would have considered myself “technologically savvy”.  However, after going through the module, I realized I am just savvy in the social media field.  This is not a beneficial tool for me in the classroom or to my pedagogy.  There is a lot more to explore in the technology world, and I feel as though that not only this model, but this class in this entirety has improved my knowledge on this topic.  I will utilize everything I have learned to become a better teacher, but also to better my students and their needs in regards to technology.

 

The platform that I have chosen for this multimedia reflection was Canva.  (Click here for a better visual of it!) It was my first time using it, but I had heard many good things.  I however found it not user friendly.  This could have been due to my lack of experience with the website; identifying a learning curve that I was unable to meet.  I should have explored the website more before jumping right into the multimedia.  As well, I found that the lack of colour schemes was not beneficial. Most of the graphics I had searched for in the side tool bar were ones that you needed to pay for.  For a free website, having users pay $1 for a photo/graphic is absurd to me.  I found that adjusting certain objects and text boxes was difficult as it changed the font size itself as well as the positioning of certain graphics.  As well, italicizing font want not an option.  For my second multimedia I used Piktochart, which compared to Canva, I found to be more accessible to my needs.

 

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The Technologist In All Of Us

For my third multimedia reflection, I made a Twitter Essay based on Ontario Extend’s Technologist Module.

 

The Technologist module starts off with a video displaying a scenario where “Terry” is struggling to incorporate technology in a way that best support his learners. This is where the Technologist module comes into play. The module starts with an explanation of digital literacies, and how they can be defined in multiple ways. JISC’s Guide to Developing Digital Literacies, defines Digital Literacy as “…capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in digital society”. The module stresses that digital literacy is developed over time, and is an ongoing process. The module then talks about the design-thinking approach, which focuses on designing things strategically and with purpose in mind. The design-thinking approach is outlined as six steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Connect and Test. The module goes into detail about each of the steps, and provides resources on how to help implement them.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the module. While I think the module provides a great array of valuable information, it can be overwhelming at times. As we discussed in our last class, there are a lot of accessibility issues with this module (e.g. videos with only text and no sound, contrasting colours, multiple hyperlinks etc.). For many people, this module can be overwhelming, and hard to use, as there is a lot of text with many redirecting links. I think if the actual information and layout of the website was structured differently, the module would be more engaging and easier to look through. It is ironic that there are these issues with the site, as had the website developers taken more time to “empathize” with the public and educators, they would have learned about these issues, and prevented them.

The actual content in the Technologist module is good. It provides educators with easy steps to follow and use to create plans for implementing technology in their classroom. I like how the module places a large focus on empathizing with the learners. Since the tools are for the learners, it only makes sense that their thoughts and feelings should be taken into account. I think that the module will be beneficial to educators, and will help them learn how to incorporate technology in a meaningful way. In the future, I plan on referring back to this module when encountering an issue I would like to solve through technology. This site is a valuable resource to educators, and provides a great framework for incorporating technology in the classroom.

I chose to do a Twitter essay as I wanted to immerse myself in a fully technological-based medium. For my first multimedia reflection, I created a SketchNote which I illustrated by hand. For my second reflection, I created a Piktochart, which was a step towards technology, but still heavily involved visual and artistic elements. I wanted to challenge myself for the third reflection by creating a Twitter essay that required being concise with my words and thoughts. I enjoyed using Twitter as it allowed me to concisely summarize my thoughts on the module, by keeping tweets at 280 characters or less. I also liked that I could incorporate pictures and GIFs into my essay. The module had a lot of amazing graphics (e.g. mind maps), that complemented the tweets well. I also liked that through using the hashtags’ #UWinDig and #OntarioExtend, I was able to connect with my peers as well as other educators. I enjoyed having this extra level of connectivity that was missing from my first two multimedia reflections. In my Twitter essay, I summarize the module and give my thoughts about each specific aspect.

Click this link, search up my username (@_ms_reka), or look below to view my Twitter essay:

References:

Extend Ontario. Technologist Module. Retrieved from,

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

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Technologist Assemble

Education is becoming more technical every day. We see this in our classrooms, in our board meetings, and in our society. It is important that we as educators collaborate with technology and use it in our classrooms. But teachers might wonder, where do I start? How do I implement tech? What if I am not great at using technology? Well there is an organization that might be able to help you with all your questions. Extend will help you become more tech savvy and will guide through the many skills that you would need to use tech in your classroom. During the module, I went through the scenario, overview, digital literacies for teaching, design – thinking approach, empathize with your learners, define your learner challenge, ideate, choosing a technology tool, using the sections model, and connection to the curriculum. Each strand mentioned will be talked about in my twitter essay link below. The module does a very good job explaining the role of teachers and how we should be okay with uncertainty when using technology. That the internet is so vast and has many unsolved questions that we can impose on our students to help their growth as individuals. I recommend looking at the module to experience it yourselves. Link is posted below. I hope you enjoy your journey and enjoy my views on Extend’s approach of digital literacy.

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Help! I’m going off on a digital tangent!

After reading through the Technologist module, I felt like I learned more about my own learning style than I did about digital literacy and design thinking. For me, hyperlinks are distracting and I tend to not interact with them very much. I like to have a specific focus when learning about a new topic, and clicking on a hyperlink makes me feel like I’m going on a digital tangent. I don’t want to lose my place in the original text I’m reading, so I don’t usually click on hyperlinks that will lead me to a whole other world of information. Furthermore, I often found myself ignoring the “extend activities”, because they felt like extra information that was not necessary for me to understand the module.

My favourite part of the module was the video What is Design Thinking (speaking of hyperlinks…). This video was great because it showed a real life example of what design thinking can look like. The video was also easy to follow and visually appealing. However, I struggled to see how it could be applied to a typical classroom teacher. I couldn’t see many teachers spending their limited free time designing an entirely new category of technology. Most teachers (including myself) would have no idea how to even go about doing so because we  have no idea how electronic devices are built and programmed. I liked the idea of creating a post-it note prototype, but then where do we go from there? Overall, the video was a great description of design-thinking but it seems impractical for the typical classroom teacher.

The platform I decided to use was Piktochart. I started this assignment by using Canva, but after struggling with formatting issues for several minutes, I decided to go back to good ol’ Piktochart. I have used Piktochart in the past for a multimedia reflection and I really enjoyed it. It is easy to use, and the template is flexible. The only annoying thing is you cannot change the colour scheme for some templates (of course). I decided to use images instead of icons for this infographic, and I found that Piktochart had a variety of high quality photos available to use. I sometimes struggled with finding the exact picture I wanted, but in the end I managed to find some that worked well.

Overall, though I like the concept of design thinking, I didn’t really enjoy working through the online module. Enjoy my infographic below, which summarizes the main points of the module.

Thanks for reading!

 

Nicole Langlois

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Gucci, Prada, Chanel…What Design Thinking Are You Using?

eCampus Ontario’sOpen PD Modules Summary – Piktochart

For a separate window to view the Piktochart – click HERE

 

My response to the key points

Digital Literacies

I think that that I would agree completely that digital literacy is certainly complex. Recently I was speaking to a professor and they told me how he, and many other adults, assumed that my generation is completely tech savvy, but that was a false notion. Even though I have grown up in this new age, I still find it difficult in trying to navigate through the technology world. 

Design-Thinking

After watching the video and reading the script on the design-thinking section I was still confused as to exactly what the process was because the description it gives in the script is different than the words and explanation that the video gives. From what I did understand I do agree that it is good to find solutions directly from the people affected instead of simply following some crazy idea that I haven’t even received any feedback for.

Empathize

This is a very important step in the design-thinking process as it is the root for the whole process. The goal is to connect better to learners and if I don’t know what the learners are really struggling with or wanting then I’d be stuck throwing darts in the dark.

Define

To me this is the hardest section of the module because I find it extremely difficult to pinpoint the true reason for the challenges of a learner. Often I have found it comes to learners not being motivated, but every learner is different and that makes it difficult to pinpoint what truly motivates them. This is why I find the empathize section to be so important because then I’m not left on my own to ponder the reasons behind learners’ lack of motivation.

Ideate

It seems daunting to try and simply create ideas about each potential technology and so it is extremely helpful to have links to various places that give ideas about what questions I should strive to answer and what technologies I can look through. Here is one example – website resource.

Prototype

This makes sense that now is where I would start to develop deeply into my top technology choice(s) otherwise I would be in the design process forever.

Connect

I also agree that I only start to connect my specific goals and curriculum aspects to my technology idea because there’s that potential that after I start using one during the prototype stage I may assess that the current one may not be the right fit for me.

Module Checklist

In terms of organization of modules and a summary section, this is great. It is concise and allows me to quickly assess whether I’ve done all that I needed to do and as a checklist I can visually cross things off which would give me a greater motivation by having a sense of accomplishment with each checkmark.

Extend

All in all I believe that the extend portion of the module for each section is one of the most important aspects. The extend truly helps go that extra mile that guides the process and sharpens every detail. Especially as someone who works much better with continuous feedback from other, the extend portion easily connects me to little hubs that allow me to put forth my ideas, receive feedback, and then tweak my ideas and plan afterwards. The extend truly enables me to have a fuller picture of the process and of what my actual goal in this is.

 

 

 

 

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Design thinking? MORE LIKE DESIGN STINKING!! AM I RIGHT!?!?

Oh, what a controversial post title… Welcome, fellow traveler of the #UWinDig seas. Please, grab a seat. Stick around. I did a twitter essay – two actually.

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Part 1 – in which I come to the conclusion that the technologist module is mostly fine, but also maybe useless.

Part 2 – in which I talk about design thinking being a sham and make 1 VERY good joke (CW: NAUGHTY WORDS)

 

Reflection… (a lot of reflection is in the twitter thread, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much here)

As stated in the first twitter thread, I did not find the module to be that useful.  Though I understand that it would definitely be helpful to a lot of teachers.  As I mention in the thread, their are a ton of great links to useful tools for the classroom.  It’s just that most of it seemed like common sense to me. I’m curious how many others found the module to be mostly common sense. Am I crazy? Am I too cynical?

Anyways, because of this I had a hard time figuring out what to do my reflection on at all. I ended up doing what I always do: complaining.  It was a lot of fun!  I had already been reading about education fads a lot over the last few months, as well as instances of education misrepresenting things from other disciplines (psych and neuropsych mostly).  So this topic kind of lines up all my current education related interests.  If I had more time I probably would have made a silly video, but I’ll have to save that for another day.

 

 

 

Here’s some good links I posted in the twitter thread that I’m going to post here as well, because I’m such a fun guy.

  1. This Vox video on doors that is very interesting

2. This video form a conference that is also very interesting and gives some history of design thinking and the perspective of a designer (Natasha Jen: Design Thinking is Bullshit)

 

3. This very appropriate (and not at all edgy) Medium post (Design Thinking is Kind of Like Syphilis – It’s Contagious and Rots Your Brains) – *this guy is probably being a little harsh

Design Thinking will mess up your brains. Decline sets in. Enthusiasts embrace sexed up platitudes as profundities and believe smooching lipsticked pigs is innovation. If you manage an organization, you do not want individuals infected with these mental models in your meetings. Their ignorance and gullibility are not assets but liabilities. But for all these issues, there’s an even deeper way in which pushing the DTs in education is problematic.

 

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Technologist taking tech on as a Teacher

Going through the role of the technologist on the eCampus modules proved to be an eye opening experience with it showing me how much that is taken for granted as an educator who was raised into a technology the skills that I employ naturally, but a majority of teachers would not. There is a natural effort throughout our lesson planning to integrate technology into the classroom so that it is relevant to the audience, therefore aligning it with curriculum. However, the one concept that I found that I commonly skip or overlook is the prototype stage, where I learned that I tend to just risk it but not form a controlled risk or have a segmented release of the tool. This made me self reflective of the tools that I do use in my lessons and it made me realize that there is many different tools that I use but they fit the same mold . That mold is traditional education through quizzes or testing of knowledge, such as kahoot or mentimeter. This made me critically reflect on the fact that I may use technology in the classroom but it might not be fully addressing the challenges of the learners which is the end goal for integrating technology. I understand that there may be a use of technology in the classroom but it may not be effective. The role of the technologist has so many steps and subtle nuances to ensure that when you as an educator employ differentiated instruction that it not only understands the class problems but properly addresses them. Furthermore, we always learn about student centered learning as a core concept to most teacher pedagogues, however I learned that you need to select the tool for the student not the technological tool that the teacher enjoys. The overall module for technologist was effective because it mirrored what it sought to enforce by providing multimodal education with it having facets that appealed to multiple different types of intelligence by utilizing textual, visual, auditory, and linguistic elements to reach the audience. this is effective while at the end it models further strong educational skills by emphasizing the value of feedback to improve its modules, while recognizing the fact the facing constructive criticism is one of the hardest parts of integrating a new tool into the classroom. This module had a far greater depth than I had anticipated which is the reasoning for why I chose to do an Infographic because there was far too much information to express with a more visually driven platform such as Powtoon.

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The gist of being a Technologist


As we continue through this digital age, new and exciting technological tools are being developed each and every day. How are we as educators going to find the best tools to integrate into our classrooms?  The Technologist Module Design Thinking Process provides a useful algorithm to aid teachers in selecting the most effective and appropriate technological tools for their individual learner needs.

 

 

Early on in our course we learned about the SAMR framework, and were encouraged to strive to use technology in ways that are transformative to a lesson, and not just as a substitution of traditional methods. Similarly, we discussed the domains of TPACK, and the importance of incorporating both pedagogical and content knowledge when we integrate technology into our classrooms. The Technologist Module aligns perfectly with these concepts, as it offers educators a method for which they can successfully select these technological tools.

 

For this multimedia reflection, I decided to write a Twitter essay outlining the Technologist Module Design Thinking Process. Even as someone who is inexperienced with Twitter, using the platform was simple and effortless. Adding pictures or GIFs was a painless process, and aside from the character limitations there were no hurdles to leap.  Enjoy the tweets!

 

 

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What is Design Thinking?

For my form of media,  chose to create an infographic on Canva; here it is if you would like to look at a larger version.

For our media form, we were responsible for reviewing the Technologist Module of eCapmus Ontario’s open PD modules which describes the different aspects of Design ThinkingThis module summarizes the five main steps it takes in order to integrate technology with the use of design thinking. Design thinking is simply the strategic methods used to develop and create concepts. In my infographic I have set these five steps very clearly which a small bubble of information on each step and what it means. In the module, on the other hand, are a large variety of other sources and links offered for viewers reference in each step of this process. This includes Wikipedia links, YouTube videos and more.

I believe that these steps are very simple to understand, and in turn easy to follow as a teacher. I think that as teachers, we tend to follow through with some of these steps naturally such as trying to figure out where a student may be struggling, or trying to figure out how to help said student. I have experienced this personally in my practicum, where a student seemed to be disruptive in class; measures were taken to figure out why they couldn’t focus. My associate and I later discovered that the student had avoidance issues which in turn caused them to feel the need to avoid anything that makes them uncomfortable or that they do not understand. I do believe that with this specific set of steps any teacher should be able to move their students forward in a positive direction, whether it involves technology or not. When considering the integration of technology specifically I feel that it becomes more difficult as it is another concept being added. Being a teacher who is not fully aware of all the technology advances, there is a slight feeling of intimidation with the process. With that it, it becomes essential for teachers to take things step by step in order to not feel as overwhelmed.

As a science teacher, I very much appreciate the procedural approach that the module takes in solving a problem while also integrating technology. In my own experiences, the hardest part of getting through to a child is having them tell you that they are actually struggling. Many students are not comfortable enough to tell a teacher that they do not understand something. The only way this will happen is if the student trusts the teacher which is why I agree completely with having the first step be empathy. Once the student is able to open up, the teacher is then able to specifically define the struggles the student is having. I feel that this may be easy to do on paper, but is the hardest part in a real classroom as sometimes there are underlying issues which are the root cause of smaller issues that are easier to see. I have done student observations and anecdotals and in my opinion it becomes very hard to keep track of every student’s academic characteristics while also having multiple observations per student. In terms of having to ideate a design for the students, I think that it is essential for a teacher to have multiple sources to use. The module itself provides many external resources and link which provide extra information for the user which is very helpful. The more knowledgeable one is on an issue, the better they will be at solving it.

 

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SHARING IS CARING

Well folks, here we are, rounding out our last semester at the Faculty of Education, eager to begin our professional careers. Now, if we were to jump in our Delorean with Marty and Doc Brown, we would surely be met with an extremely daunting and tedious task of acquiring and locating the physical resources we would need to write out (the horror!) our lesson plans and activities. Luckily, OER is here! What would be an unknown acronym to most, is a glimmer of hope to those of us who are just getting our feet wet in the classroom. Open Educational Resources. Say it out loud… beautiful, isn’t it? Void of copyright laws, business models and practices that restrict us from accessing the ideal learning materials, Open Educational practices allow access to copy and share without breaking any laws! Open educational resources allow the full technical power of the internet to be brought to bear on education. Not only that, OER’s are subjected to continuous quality improvement.

Which leads me to our third and final Multimedia reflection. We analyzed the Technologist Module; an open PD module of Ontario Extend provided free of charge from eCampus Ontario. Initially created for the Northern Building project, it was a collaborative approach to build knowledge, further develop skills and share resources that support the technological educational initiatives of the institutions. Of the six available modules, the Technologist provides information to incorporate technology tools and platforms to address specific learning challenges.

I have chosen to use a technological platform that I thought to be appropriate for the given content we were exploring. Prezi is something I have used a few times in my own instruction, seeing differing results based on students’ perceived levels of retaining and thoroughly understanding the material provided. Perhaps my presentation approach was not the correct technological tool that would support and enrich my students’ learning experiences for the given subject or method of delivery? Yes, I have succumbed to the comforts of familiarity and I am a glaring example of what many educators (in my brief experience) choose to do. Alas, have no fear, The Technologist module affords all educators with valuable information on how they can use the right tools effectively, addressing all specific learning challenges and learners’ needs, improving digital literacies in the process.

Technologist Module Prezi

Students are preparing to enter a workforce which differs significantly from 20, even 10 years ago. As educators, we must provide students with the appropriate tools and knowledge to thrive in the 21st century work environment. While technological skills are not everything; an individuals digital literacies can significantly enhance their level of success, and overall life experience.

It is imperative that we look to share as much of our own personal learning through teaching experiences and communications with other educators to provide a greater learning experience for all students. Reasons for this would be; more available lesson plan resources, professional development modules such as those offered by Ontario Extend, and creating connections in educational corners across the globe to name a few. We are all creating lesson and activity materials that are new and exciting for you and your learners, why not share that with the rest of the world?

 

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