Category: EdTech

This week after lecture I watched Jeff Hopkins YouTube video on the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. This school reminded me of the movie Michael had told us to watch during the beginning of this course based on High Tech High. Both of these schools work differently from traditional schools and focus more on the students individual learning in areas that they are most interested in. At PSII there is no set timetable as their whole curriculum and learning is based on their own inquiry. The students here dive very deeply in their topics, I learned that there are groups of about 13 students that are led by one teacher. This ties into my inquiry question in EDCI 250 about instructional methods that can be used to incorporate one to one learning in the classroom. The students at PSII are all delving into their own topics therefore they gain a lot of one on one attention from teachers, therefore receiving a lot of support. I am curious whether these students feel more supported and engaged with school since they are receiving that individual learning as well as maybe building a stronger relationship with their teachers. Overall I think this type of learning is very innovative and interesting. It really lets students be individuals and focus their studies on things they find important which is amazing. One of the reasons students often lose focus in class is because they are simply not interested in the lessons being taught, therefore at PSII, the fact that students learn what they want is a great way of keeping students on track and ensuring they are constantly progressing in their studies.

Last week we learned about the numerous things you can do with an image to spice it up. We learned how to edit photos using common programs such as PowerPoint to other more specific programs such as Mirror lab, Prisma and Comica. It is often said that images can convey more thoughts and and feeling than words can, therefore, knowing how to creatively edit an image can be extremely valuable. It gives you the freedom to tailor the photo in a way that is meaningful to you. I did not know that you could use PowerPoint to edit photos, however now that I have watched a few tutorials on how to do so I am looking forward to using this newfound skill at one point in my own classroom one day. Digitally enhancing/ editing photos is most definitely an art that is similar to drawing with pen and paper. It requires you to be creative and work from and build an image that is totally your own. I do not have experience with this form of art but I think it is very cool! However, I do have experience screenshotting images on my laptop and having them saved onto my files. This is a very convenient tool to use if you need to quickly send someone an email with an attachment or if you are unsure of how to save the image (still making sure to site it of course). I like how you can crop screenshots and make them any size you want for it to fit onto you work. Overall this was a very helpful lesson, I am still very unaware of the creative things you can do with simple programs and this lesson definitely opened up a whole new stream of learning.

I used these four images to create one large graphic using PowerPoint. It was difficult to find exactly where the took functions I needed were in order to edit the images it in a way that I wanted. I tried uploading it s a pdf and then a presentation but I kept an error message and finally just screenshotting the image, cropped and copied it onto here.

This is my final image created by using all the images above fit together in a creative and aesthetic presentation.

This week we had a guest speaker attend our class call. His presentation was extremely informative and eye-opening, he made me think of the little things that could make a huge impact on my career as a professional. To be completely honest I was quite tuned out and focused on completing other tasks for my other class at the beginning of his presentation, I was sort of half listening to what Jesse was saying and even then I don’t think I was really understanding what he was talking about. It was not until he started giving examples of teachers on the island, in Vancouver, teachers who were local to my area, did I start listening. I was shocked at the impact that technology, social media had on these peoples lives, using it inappropriately had completely ended their careers. I believe that teachers and students both do no realize that most footprints made on social media can be traced. Anything posted in Facebook or Instagram can be leaked and forwarded. It made me think back to my middle school tech teacher who told my class that anything we do on the internet, anything we look up and say can always be traced back to us.  It also made me think of recent account on Instagram I have seen that was based on exposing the secrets and spreading rumors about specific students and teachers. And now I think that education based on the safety factor of all these platforms is really lacking in the education system. It is great that are furthering the integration of tech and our cellphones into the classroom and making them tools that allow education to be more accessible, however it needs to be heavily emphasized that the wrong text or post can ruin someone’s educational as well as professional career.

This week in our EDCI 336 class we were taught primarily on the importance and usefulness of open educational resources. We were given information on how to find our own  resources and what it mean for these resources to be under protective copywrite or under creative common rights and permissions. I intend on using what I have learned when looking for images and other information to use for my own projects and assignments. For the photos I used to institute visuals for my free inquiry post, I found a site called Pexels, it provides thousands of high quality images available for download. These images are copywrite free, owners of these images have given up their legal rights to the pictures.  Something I thought that was very interesting from this weeks lesson was learning about teachers pay teachers. An online platform used for teachers to sell and buy original lesson material for classroom use from each other. I think this is cool because it gives the teaching community a chance to provide one another with ideas and unique perspectives on lessons.

As this is still the first week of EDCI 336 I am still figuring out how to use the blogging platform that we have been assigned to use. I have never been tech savvy, I remember back in middle school that tech class was my least favorite out of all my classes. However now that I am older I understand the importance of technology in the classroom. From creating documents for students, class websites and monitoring class activity and grading  it is the future of learning assistance in the classroom. I believe that, although it may not always be straightforward for those who may not posses a strong background in technology it is arguably convenient, efficient and reliant.

Just a little about myself – I am from Victoria and have went to school here my whole life. I have always thought about being a teacher since high school when I recognized my love for teaching others and taking on the leader role. However, my first year I ignored these thoughts and took business instead but soon realized tha My hopes for this course include learning the basics of setting up my own website, how to create a strong online presence for class material, as well as learning the importance of integrating technology into the classroom and how students can develop from it.