M Small-Cooke's Portfolio

Second Life is an online virtual world, developed and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003 – Wikipedia.

For this activity I did not meet up with any classmate, as I believed people used different username as I did myself, since I did not want to use personal information on a gaming tool.  I’m not a gamer and I did not find this tool appealing or interesting for my learning needs or teaching needs.  Maybe this is so because of the limited amount of time I had to navigate the tool and to fully understand it usage and benefits.

The tool downloading and initializing were pretty quick and easy, but finding my way around the space within the tool was very frustrating, I bumped into walls frequently, was totally unaware of how I was to walk at first.  I used my laptop to performed this task, so I thought it was just to drag my mouse to get me moving. All clicking and dragging my mouse did was turned the page/view.  I still am unable to use the fly option (which I wanted to use to get me around faster), as it is grayed out and did not allow me to gain access.

I honestly had no idea at all what to do and what are the real benefits of this tool.  I had someone saying hi in the chat room which was a bit creepy for me since they just said “hi how are you?” which followed by another communicating in another language and then disappearing from the chat room.  I guess this tool is only beneficial if you start off with a partner, so that we can actually meet up at the same time to walk through what I termed as a “amaze” together.

One great feature that I like about this tool was the fact that it was created in 3D, which is very appealing to children as it gives them a more real life experience.  Using second life as an alternate learning space will need to be fully mastered by me first, before I would think of introducing it to my students and/or colleagues. I will definitely visit this tool and spend quality time in learning how to navigate it and explore the ways in which it can be used to enhance and/maximize my teaching learning environment.

References

https://secondlife.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

Asynchronous learning is a student-centered teaching method that uses online learning resources to facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a network of people. – Wikipedia.

The specific type of tools a teacher uses to integrate in each lesson should be in alignment with their objectives.  The learning outcomes by the end of the Technology Integration Activity I have planned in previous weeks are; students should be able to:

• define the term simple machines.
• group at least 5 examples of simple machines correctly.
• work cooperatively in groups to share aloud what they have discovered after investigating and watching related videos.
• associate and use relevant vocabulary of terms such as force, push and pull.
• identify and categorize correctly at least 5 simple machines within their environment.

My Asynchronous Tools of focus for this lesson would be:

Flipped Classroom – Short video lectures  will be selected and placed on the schools’ website so that students can view them before as well as after the class session to guide students on what will be focused on during the session and/or reinforce content be taught.

YouTube – The use of videos via YouTube is a great way to show the students the types of machine that belong to each group of simple machines.

Digital Library/Resources – Builds on students skills such as knowledge of usage, navigation and communication while completing required task for the lesson.

References

Cabi, E. (2018). The impact of the flipped classroom model on students’ academic achievement. International Review of Research on Open and Distributed Learning, 19 (3), 202-221. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.3482 (CC BY 4.0)

EDUCAUSE. (2012). 7 things you should know about flipped classrooms. Retrieved from https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2012/2/eli7081-pdf.pdf

eFront. (2016, February 10). Using videos in your eLearning courses [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/AopF8T43Fno

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_learning

Education doesn’t stop when you get your teacher’s license.  We need to follow the profess we make/give to our students that they are life longer learners – because so are we. (Tom Whitby – Founder of #edchat).

Purpose of my PLN

• Instant feedback.
• Connects with other educators and stakeholders.
• Sources tools and resources to support learning and teaching needs.
• Personalizes your own learning.
• Accessible and flexible.
• Excels your learning.

Planned Usage of My PLN

• Share and garner ideas.
• Participate in collaborative online learning.
• Make new connections by meeting new educators.
• Seek new point of views on topics.
• Communicate with a diverse group of educators.
• Find information and support.
• Model how to be a master learner.

Platform to Build My PLN 

Since this is my first time building a PLN through media, I’m going to keep it simple by starting with Twitter (even though I have other networking tools – Pinterest, TED Talks, YouTube, LinkedIn).  Having one platform to start with will give me the opportunity to decipher the experts and/or organizations that will give me the most out of my desired purposes and/or to meet my objectives.  It will also allow for better time management, as with my already loaded day, I really do not want to be sucked into all the creative ideas or informative talks that all my networking tools have to offer.

Formation of My PLN

I started out with my #lrnchat to begin my activity.  Through this chat group, I have added some of the members from the group based on their profiles and interests which are in alignment with my objectives.  From the connected educators video, I was very impressed with the founder of #edchat, so he has also been added to my network, as well as #sd61learn and #sd61Inclusion, to build what I’m expecting to be an awesome PLN.

Strategies Used to Start Building My PLN.

In building my PLN, I’ve used the below strategies and will definitely alter it as I go along to tailor my needs and making it as effective as possible.  Please feel free to choose any and/or all of the below.  It can also be used as a guide in prompting your thoughts as it relates to your desired needs.

• Search Tool Icon – this allows the narrowing down of exact and/or keys words of what is needed.
• Say Hello in Chat Groups – especially if it is your first time. Doing this allows others to recognize your presence and welcome you, so that it doesn’t feel weird to you or pointless.  This way, you’ll also be prompted to get engaged.
• Follow Educators You Admire – this allows and/or promotes participation, since they will most likely be posting things of your interest.
• Devote Allotted Time to Your PLN – set a specific time of day and the amount of time to be spent on your network(s) so that interaction with your connection can be done regularly.

While networking, remember two things, PLNs are 1) only valuable if people contributes and 2) you’ll never find the exact insights you need if you don’t try. (Elizabeth Trach – Professional Writer and Blogger).

References

M.-A. [DevPro PD Flipped]. (2012, October 18). What is a PLN – Marc-André Lalande’s take [Video file]. Retrieved from from https://youtu.be/hLLpWqp-owo

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology [Office of Ed Tech]. (2013, September 18). Connected educators [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/K4Vd4JP_DB8

US Department of State, The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, American English. (n.d.). Developing your virtual personal learning network (PLN). Retrieved from https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/teachers-corner-personal-learning-networks-plns

www.schoology.com/blog/personal-learning-network-pln-benefits-tools-and-tactics

Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter).

Twitter has never been an interest of mine based on hear-says of how this platform works.  So, for this assignment, I had to create an account and learn how to use it.  Thanks to “Introduction to Twitter and Twitter Chats in education [Video file], Karlin, M. (2016, March 23),” I was able to navigate this tool fairly well.  As Lalande, 2012 puts it, in most participating chats I am always a “lurker.”  Most of the social media sites that I have an account with (I mainly use Instagram and Facebook), are mostly used to stay in touch with friends and keep up with the lives of celebrities.  My YouTube account on the other hand is used for educating myself on areas of interest.

Tweet Chat Chosen 

I decided to follow #lrnchat, as this group’s focus is on “how people learn.”  Getting ideas from a wide range of people on how they think and/or believe people learn is very useful, especially teaching an “all inclusive group of students.”  Ideas shared and learnt can allow and/or promote creativity, which in turn allows you to tweak others ideas to match the needs of your students based on their individuality.

Tweet Chat

I participated in today’s session (10/03), with the theme: Your Design Process.  I found the tweet chat to be very informative in such a short space of time (1 hr.)  However, the purposes of re-tweets and hashtags are yet to resonate with me.  I believe that if you are following a particular group, then what is the point of re-tweeting or having to hashtag?  I guess one of the reasons is to get it posted on your personal feed instead of the group’s feed.

Participation from Others

The group is open to everyone and can be participated in, every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PST.  They can be found by:

• Searching #lrnchat
• Hit the follow button

To ensure you are in on the action, turn on the notification for the group.  This way you are reminded before the session begins and you will be notified as soon as the session starts.  Notifications are also given when questions are asked, answered and comments posted, liked as well as re-tweeted.

Tweet Chat Experience

My overall experience was very good.  The #lrnchat group seems pretty friendly, as they welcomed newcomers (me in this case) and also assured the new tweeters that it’s ok to ask for help if needed.  One key observation as well, was the introductory activity which seems to be a norm that the organizer begins with each week, which is in the form of a question – “What did you learn today? If not today, then this week?”  Questions were pretty short and very relatable.

Lesson Learnt

“Creativity is a natural outcome of our cognitive architecture, while process isn’t.”  Also a Stephen King quote “write with the door closed and edit with it open.”

Future Sessions 

Yes, I plan to keep participating in future sessions, so that I can build on my navigating and participating skills for this site.  After all, I want to move out of the “lukers” group to the group of participants :).

PS:  Please feel free to follow me on Twitter @SmallCooke

References

Karlin, M. (2016, March 23). Introduction to Twitter and Twitter Chats in education [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TOD-E3LGzHU

Lalande, M.-A. [DevPro PD Flipped]. (2012, October 18). What is a PLN – Marc-André Lalande’s take [Video file]. Retrieved from from https://youtu.be/hLLpWqp-owo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

This post aims at my identification of a problem that I hope to address through the integration of digital resources into a learning activity.

Small-Cooke_M_EDDL5101_A2

Modern mobile technologies now have the ability to facilitate active exploration by learners of all age (Power, R. 2013).

The Duolingo app is a useful resource.  I download the android version and evaluated it using the CSAM framework, below are my findings:

Collaborative – learners have an opportunity to participate in a number of activities individually and collectively.  Based on given instructions from the teacher, the students can compete with each other in peered activities that will foster their understanding of the language being taught and develop proper pronunciation and listening skills.

Situated – have learners migrate to a resource room that is decorated and labelled in a way that reflects a country that speaks the language of focus (e.g. France – French).

Active – within the resource room, students will be encouraged to speak only French (short sentences/phrases), to communicate with each other and the teacher.  All questions and instructions will be given in French and through the usage of their app. interpretations can be obtained to gain clarity of unsure words, phrases or sentences.  Assistance can also be obtained in providing responses when faced with uncertainty.

Mobile – the app. version contains high quality content and facilitates holistic interaction.  Being mobile allows learners to practice, compete and engage on the go within and outside of their regular classroom settings.

Other criteria that I would use when critically evaluating such digital resources would be time and interest.  The allotted time spent on this app must be managed properly so that students do not over indulge and allow other subject areas suffer by this focus.  Observing and engaging the students will allow me to determine their level of interest (as it peeks or drops).  Being aware of how interested the students are in all the activities, will also allow me to determine the amount of time that should be allotted.

Reference

Power, R. (2013). Collaborative Situated Active Mobile (CSAM) learning strategies: a new perspective on effective mobile learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.18538/lthe.v10.n2.137

Take an activity that you have done with your students in the past that had an impact on digital literacy (or build upon a past activity to make it better support digital literacy). Write a short description of this activity, describe how it develops digital literacy, and relate it to one of the “types” or “levels” of digital literacy described in the readings. Try using Mozilla’s Web Literacy tool to develop learning outcomes for your activity.

Teaching at a school in the rural part of my country was often a challenge for us teachers, as we often do not have all the resources readily available at our institution.  2008 was the first time my school got computers donated to our already built computer lab, that were long overdue.  I and two other colleagues who were the most tech savvy on staff had the privilege of introducing the students in each grade to the usage of the computer.  Since EdTech was a part of our curriculum, we taught this subject once a week to the students before the computers were donated by content only and limited hands-on experience which was done through the usage of teachers’ personal laptops.  Introducing the students through hands-on experience was an exciting task for both the students and teachers.  The first introductory activity was to have the students name and identify the external hardware components of the computer. After which students were guided in opening and using a new word document in Microsoft word.  Students were asked to write about their first experience using the computer and then share it with the class.

The three main principles of digital literacy to obtain competency were exercised: use, understand and create.

• Use – the students had prior knowledge of the computer and its hardware components. The students were able to engage with the computer and were able to navigate through guided instructions.
• Understand – a fair understanding of the usage of the keyboard and mouse was exhibited by the students. Students understood how to open a word document and that the selection of each letter was present on this document, similar to the way in which they wrote in the notebooks.
• Create – through guided instruction, the students were able to create their personal reflection and what they have learnt.

Mozilla’s Web Literacy Tool, reveals that the learning outcomes of this activity were write, read and participate.  The writing component of the literacy tool, allowed to students to revise what they previously knew about the hardware component, then they used the components to compose their experience.  Read, promoted the skills of search and navigation.  The students had to learn how to use the mouse to get it across the screen and the exact position that they wanted to obtain their desired goal.  Participate, students shared their experience about their first hands-on activity with the computer.  This activity was the initial step in exposing the students towards 21^st century digital and web literacy.

Reference

https://learning.mozilla.org/en-US/web-literacy/participate/(Retrieved September 22, 2019)

http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals(Retrieved September 22, 2019)

“Digital literacies are transient: they change over time, may involve using different tools or developing different habits of mind, and almost always depend upon the context in which an individual finds herself.”  Douglas Belshaw

Being digital literate, I still consider myself a novice when compared to so many of my friends and colleagues, but on the other hand when compared to my hubby, oh gosh!! I’m an expert 🤣

The below table provides information on a few of my strengths, challenges and resources that assist me within the educational technology field.

PS.  Even this table shows that I am still a working progress, as for the strangest of reasons I am unable to align the center column to meet with the other two columns.  It works perfectly in my word document, but on my blog, it’s not aligning.  Tired on numerous occasions but to no avail😢😒, welcome all feedback.

References 

Time To Know. (2018, January 17). The essential elements of digital literacy for the 21st Century workforce [Infographic]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/Time_To_Know/the-essential-elements-of-digital-literacy-for-the-21st-century-workforce

http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals

Technology Education is a vast and open field of study.

As exciting as EdTech is, it can be frustrating at times, especially when you do not get the chance to master certain skills that were introduced before something new pops up.  Sometimes, I get left behind in this ever changing world.  There are a number of challenges within EdTech, however, a few of my greatest challenges are:

• Keeping up-to-date with the rapid change.
• Being able to incorporate technology within the classroom in all subject areas to facilitate the main purpose, so that growth can be achieved by both the students as well as myself.
•  Effectively manage appropriate technology, so that the subject(s) objective(s) can be achieved.
• Not obtaining the proper training to achieve maximum results.

With the rapid changes that are seen within our technological world, a few of my go to places for help with these challenges are:

• YouTube and Google – for instruction on its usage.  Whenever, there are new apps or resources available, I use these websites to self teach and also to build on what is common between new introductions and those similar to those already expose to.
• EdTech Experts – people who I know personally and are certified in this area are always my to go resources for concepts unclear or ideas on how I can use certain resources.  I also seek support for my colleagues during training sessions, so that future lesson can be planned for effectively.

Trusting reliable sources are of utmost importance, as there are a lot of things to consider when using technology: safety, awareness and ethical.  No one wants to be hacked, be incompetent or lack confidence in the delivery of a lesson.  I trust personal EdTech experts within and also outside my organization, my students’ input and/or suggestion after carefully evaluation, selected Google search engines and YouTube videos (after evaluating the content presented).

Describe and discuss one or two elements from the Bates or Watters chapters that allowed you to think deeper about your past or present teaching.

The history of the future of ed-tech. The refrain of this talk: new
technologies are easy to develop; new behaviors and new cultures are not.

Throughout my learning and teaching career in Jamaica, one of the methods to assess what students have learnt was through the administration of exams (internally – at the grade level and within the school; externally – within the region and island wide).  Multiple choice test items were always a part of the way exam papers were set up.  As a kid, I enjoyed doing them, but when I became a teacher I had mixed feelings about them.  I think that they do not allow points to be awarded to a child who has partial correct thoughts about a given question and as a result, made some students feel as if they were dumb when they realized the got the answer incorrect.

Watter spoke about the “machine to score intelligence,” which was developed by Sidney Pressey.  This machine was used to determine the eligibility to enlist individuals into the military.  From this machine the invention of multiple choice questions begun and teachers used their own modifications of this concept to test students on their level of intelligence.  A lot of my past colleagues argued that multiple choice testing was never a true reflection of the students’ capabilities, but it was the best way to manage their time in terms of “the amount of the time spent grading papers,” since they were marked by a machine.

As teachers, should we be concerned more about time spent on grading papers or should we be more focused on the concepts our students have learnt?  Yes, short answers and essays are indeed more time consuming in regards to grading. However, it gives a clearer picture of what each child understands, so that we can re-teach concepts if needed, know the strengths and weaknesses of each child, so that we can better prepare our lesson to cater to the needs of each individual within our classroom.

Reference 

Watters, A. (2014). The hidden history of ed-tech. In The monsters of
education technology (pp. 7-31). Vancouver, BC: Tony Bates Associates Ltd.
Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/audreywatters/the-monsters-ofeducation-technology.pdf#page=7