ILP "Participation"- Lynda.com (2)

For my independent learning project, I participated in a Lynda.com online course on Drawing and creativity. Through this course I was able to flex me "creative muscles" and channel my imagination into my art work. Here is my activity log:

The link below leads to my Prezi presentation. In this presentation you can read about my course and my personal experience and even get a glimpse at my personal artwork :
My Prezi

ILP "participation"- Lynda.com (1)

For my first ILP, I chose to take a creative course on Lynda.com. I took the class "5 Day Drawing Challenge which helped me how to flex my creative muscles and prompted me to think out side of the box and push myself artistically. Here is an activity log:

The link below takes you to my ILP Prezi. In this Prezi you can see some of my (feeble) art from the course and read all about my experience in the class!

My Prezi

I really enjoyed this project and the independent pace I got to set to take the course. 

Post 10

This weeks assignment was to make an interactive presentation in powerpoint. I chose to make a quiz on the first Act of Macbeth. I never really realized until now the amount of effort it takes to create fluid quizzes. Linking each slide to a specific follow up slide got real confusing and hard to follow in the creation of my powerpoint. I do feel like I have fully mastered the art of the hyperlink now. This project enhanced my appreciation for my past  teacher's efforts. As a middle schooler, Jeopardy review days were the most exciting and they really did help me to learn. I do think the interaction forces kids to pay attention and links memorable experiences to facts they need to know. I would totally use interactive presentations in my future class. Next time I make one, I think i'll make it jeopardy style rather than a flow multiple choice style because that means fewer slides to work with and get mixed up because everything is linked to a central page. Here is a glimpse of my quiz:

I am excited to begin working on my Data Collection project and to get to play around on Qualtrics. As an educator, I think I would like to use short surveys at the end of each chapter or particular section of my curriculum to get feedback from students on what they liked and what they didn't like. I think I would also try to take learning style surveys at the beginning and middle of each school year to see if there are any places in my curriculum i can tweak to fit the class's preferred learning style. I think really short quizzes embedded in lessons to get a grasp on what the students are understanding and what they need help on. Common Board Configuration now requires public school teachers to take learning scaled at intervals during each lesson and sometimes students are to humiliated to show their true level of understanding by holding fingers up publicly, so maybe by taking anonymous poles via Qualtrics quizzes during a lesson could fix that problem. The amount of use surveys like those on Qualtrics get is tricky though, because it relies upon the idea of common access to computers in the classroom, so it is much easier in theory than in real life, but not totally unfeasible. 

In reviewing my classmates blogs, the most interesting and helpful point of discussion in my opinion was the section of blog post 7 that talked about assistive technologies. I think I so often forget that teachers have to really work hard to balance the many different disabilities and learning impediments in their classroom at once. As a student, it is easy to forget that not everyone functions in the same way I do. I thought it was the most challenging prompt and I had a difficult time coming up with examples, even after reading the book. It was helpful to see and take note of all the different examples of assistive technologies that don't break the bank my classmates had in mind. 

The biggest skill I would like to gain in technology is Excel literacy. Excel deals with so many functions and equations and i get very lost and stressed out with the extent of it's abilities. I think it is not only helpful and interesting, but also a necessary skill in the life on an independent adult. I am coming to the end of an era where I can still be financially dependent on my parents and I really need to learn how to make my own budgets. Excel computes and organizes and is overall the best tool for making a professional, functioning budget. I believe it will introduce some organization to my life if only I master it.

I plan on gaining skills in Microsoft Excel by taking advantage of the free programing the university provides to it's students. I have also seen multiple adds for Excel tutors around campus and even in the library, I think with a little one on one instruction, i could master it no problem. In the meantime, we are about to tackle Excel in class, which will give me the basics and there are thousands and thousands of instructional videos on websites such as youtube that are very informative and can teach all sorts of skills in Excel that I plan on taking advantage of.

Post 9

A flipped classroom is a newly emerging concept of a learning system that has students watch lectures and take notes and go through lessons on their own via their technology and then do their homework in a dynamic group setting of a classroom. I think the flipped classroom is a brilliant idea, but only if students truly put in the effort it requires. I think younger students still require more of a fully in class presentation of material so that teachers can be there to get a read off of the students in person and check to make sure that they are truly understanding the content and not rushing themselves. Older students would do well with the blended delivery system. Here is a source I found when researching the type of material that can be accessed through the flipped classroom model: flipped classroom

Professional development is the process by which teachers continue to develop their skills in teaching and stay updated on the changing environment that is the classroom by taking courses or attending conferences or lectures that connect them with new information that enhances their classroom performance. Technology has worked to connect teachers with experts no matter their crazy schedules or distance from the experts. One really interesting resource for professional development I stumbled upon is Diigo.

Diigo is an online bookmarking site that allows teachers to flip through hundreds of sources and mark ones that are important to them. Diigo also allows teachers to join groups and share information with each other. You can annotate directly on articles through Diigo and see what other people are saying about work that is circulating the academic world. Diigo has worked to combine the internet, your personal notes, your spur of the moment reactions, and you well though out commentary/ research of your own into one easy to access sight. I like the fact that it removes the middle man and lets teachers have such direct access to each other and to the experts, it narrows down on clutter.

This week's assignment had us testing out out new skills in Microsoft Powerpoint. I really liked some of the information in the Do's/Don'ts informational sheet that instructed us on our

Powerpoints. I have been using powerpoint for years and have formulated my own list of tips and tricks, but a lot of my knowledge about good slides has never been pinned down before. I thought the & words a line and 7 lines a slide rule was very helpful along with the three color limits. Powerpoint is a classroom essential. My teachers have been using it almost daily since I was in kindergarten. If I plan on being an educator, this is a skill I will have to be absolutely fluent in the in's and out's of the programing. I have been lucky enough to have had access to this programing since elementary school and have been well practiced in it. This project was just another opportunity for me to refresh my memory.

post 7

Blooms Taxonomy is an organized depiction of the many levels of learning including: memory, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Powerpoint can bring all of these levels of learning to one place. On the first level, powerpoint can be used by teacher to create slides with facts that students can memorize, of example, a math teacher writing a formula. On the second level, teachers can integrate video and graphics to help students take concepts written on paper and put them in motion with real life examples the truly foster deeper understanding, like the math teacher showing how the formula appears on multiple graphs. On the applying level, teachers can integrate multiple choice questions and example problems into their powerpoint slides, like the math teacher integrating a practice problem for the students to test out their abilities. On the next level, power point can be used to show examples of solutions for the student to critique and evaluate validity and correctness. On the final level, the teacher can charge students to make their own informative power points dealing with the formal in real life or teaching the class about a new formula.

Adaptive technologies are any device or tool created to alleviate a learning disability. For example, blind or dyslexic students might need an audio text reader to read out assigned texts to them so they don't have to struggle with the written word. Adaptive technologies can even be more simple things, like pencil grips for students who struggles with writing, or keyboards for children who's thoughts race too fast for them to write them all down, predictive keyboards are also a tool that modern computers employ to help learners in need of assistance. Adaptive technology can be really easy to integrate into the classroom or very hard, depending on the tool. A pencil grip would be a really easy thing to supply a student with, but it is nearly impossible to supply a whole class with computers so they can type or use audio players. Adaptive technology is hard because it costs money and it varies from student to student, there is not universal solution or tool that works on everyone.

This week's assignment was my favourite so far. In my years of schooling, of all resources available to me, teacher websites have bee the most useful. All through high school, I checked my teachers sites daily. Some sites were well formatted and easily accessed, others not so much. The formatting of the site makes all the difference, so having the opportunity to create a site I would want to use as a student was a great learning experience. I used the CRAP model to keep my page well organized and better tailored to a learning experience. I used both text and pictures combined to strengthen my messages and I kept the text close to its assigned picture to keep continuity and convenience for the reader. I kept it simple so that it would not distract from the purpose and made it mostly to be functional and easily usable because students really are only there for functional purposes, not just for fun. My website looks a little like this:

post 6

Many teachers are required by their schools to keep class pages for the parents and students of their class. These pages can contain everything to information on grading policy and assignments to updates on upcoming events. I browsed around and found the page for Ms. Placek's 5th grade literacy class from Switlik Elementary school (website here). The page contained information to the parents about the teachers expectations for the students, such as getting their planner signed each night. It also had a section with key calendar dates to be recorded, like clothing drives and the upcoming book fair. She had multiple statements regarding school policy and a whole section with learning website links.
As a teacher, I will have my own website for students to easily access. If i teach english literature, I will include links to practice multiple choice questions regarding texts, videos that give time period and other background information on the books, and i will include an updated calendar of due dates that my students can access at any time. I would most likely chose a site like Edmodo that sends out notifications and can be accessed on mobile devices for the sake of convenience. I would like to use a sight that allows me to connect to the students and allows the students to instantly contact me through comments or messages directly on the sight. I also like thecae of students being able to turn things in electronically on the same page. Electronic submissions would make my job a lot easier because they can automatically be scanned through Grammarly to check spelling, grammar, and any hint of plagiarism, so all I would have left to do was to check content and assign a score. This would benefit me and the students because it would allow for me to grade things more quickly and have a shorter turn over time on assignments, it also hold the students accountable because nothing slips through the cracks.
Our most recent project has dealt with Web Resource evaluation. A web resource evaluation form is basically a rubric by which teachers can "grade" websites. The rubric creates a water mark for teachers to judge websites by so that they can determine what a good site is and what a good site is not. Web resource evaluations help internet users to be better stewards of the web, they can share their evaluations with certain sites to allow the author's opportunities to better their sites and make them more usable. I am sure there are many website authors out there who appreciate the feedback and the constructive criticism. These forms require teachers to do further thinking and put deeper consideration into what they present to their students from the internet. I like the effort these forms require from teachers, I like to think that they hold teachers to a higher standards. I think it would be nice if school administration generated these and required teachers to submit these before assigning sites to their students, but I think that the amount of work that requires of all involved parties makes it an unreasonable requirement. This assignment taught me how to evaluate and determine what makes a website good. The C-R-A-P system of evaluation came in handy when finishing off this project. In the future, I will be a better critic of the web and I will require a higher standard out of the sites I use.

Here is our evaluation form:

Post 5

Web 2.0 is all the non-static educational and interactive tools the internet provides to students and teachers a like to connect them with new content. It is useful because it is easy to work, readily available for use, and breaks communication barriers between student and teachers. For example Diigo, a site mentioned specifically in the Podcast, for collective note taking and discussion boards right on the source makes sharing information with a class so much easier and interactive because they can ask and answer each others questions, or directly address the teacher. Web 2.0 builds community. However, to use these tools well, all students must have access to computers and internet. The internet issue is getting easier as WIFI becomes cheaper and more widely accessible, but the costs of computers are still a high price for schools to have to pay. 

Within Web 2.0 there are many amazing tools that can be utilized. In high school, I had a teacher who would use a website called PollEverywhere.com with the students of our class similarly to how college students use I-clickers. He would throw questions in to power points to keep us alert and monitor participation levels and he would use questions to evaluate on the spot how well we understood the lessons. I could see myself using that in class to make sure my class is understanding me in real time rather than encountering a large group of students who did not understand the content and were too afraid to approach me when I grade a batch of failed quizzes and tests. It would save me time and keep my class on their toes. 

Another Web 2.0 tool that helps integrate polls is photoPeach.com. This tool allows you to create slideshows and easily embed polls or quizzes. I think photo peach encourages more of a personal touch because it is designed so that it is user friendly for incorporating your own media such as audio and video as well. It creates really beautiful slideshows that are aesthetically pleasing, which also helps the class stay alert. Another great thing about it is that is it free. You can create lessons and not bother the school board about funding, which is good for low income schools. The presentations you make are easy to make accessible to the class for studying purposes, which is personally very important to me as instructor powerpoint have always been my main mode of studying.

In our most recent project, working with concept mapping, I loved getting to explore new parts of Microsoft Word that I'd never try out before. I was amazed by the variety of available templates they had to offer and was surprised with how easy to manipulate the shapes were. I got to mess around with different shapes and colors and really consider what type of map would best fit my needs. I ran into some confusion when faced with WWI material that was kinda all over the place in relation to itself, so I attempted to merge two types of maps together to get the most information formatted into its proper organization, so I started with a cause and effect map and then branched off of my effect with a bracket that included the important concepts within the event bubble that represented WWI. I am not sure if that would work in the future, but I felt like it was the best way to merge all of the information together. I think if I teach at a highs cool level, I will create concept maps at the end of powerpoint to link together all the ideas I have just taught on into a bigger picture because so ofter my struggle was figuring out where everything fit. 

Here is my completed concept map:

post 3

The Newsletter assignment this week utilized the Microsoft word skills we have learned in class this week. In My news letter, I played around with font and justification. I learned how to use the columns format on just one section of the page and showed off  my abilities to embed Hyperlinks, usable email addresses, and bulleted sections of text. I think if i ever actually mailed out the newsletter I would use the mail merge tab in Word and personalize each letter with a greeting and the name of the student whose parents it's going to. My newsletter this week was an experiment in making a newsletter, trying out a new skill. If i were ever to make another, I would play around more with the style and design and make an effort to make it much more aesthetically pleasing.

In this Dott Infographic, it is easy to see how infographics can be used to merge creativity and productivity. The company uses a striking image with lots of color and aesthetic appeal to draw the eye of a bypassed, but includes a lot of detailed information on the company. Out of many infographics I scrolled through to choose one to critique, this one stood out and caught my eye, which means it did its job. I think the supplemental detail at the bottom of the graphic that is color coded to aid understanding of each of the categories in the big picture really helps organize the page. The creative way the parts fit together in a cohesive way does a good job making the point about their company and it's many parts that work well together. The only criticism I can really come up with is that the picture is a little busy and can be hard to zero in on. The many parts and flashy colors can distract from the point of the piece as a whole. I noticed this as I realized I had been looking at the picture for a few minutes and still had no idea what function of the actual company was.

In my future classroom, I hope to use social bookmarking like Chapter nine talked about. A resource to share and annotate important websites, storing them for later is very helpful to a high school English Literature teacher as so so many important commentaries on books or the writing process are available online. Big libraries of poetry could be accessed and put into an online magazine for students to access to complete projects. As a teacher I would make my students keep running blog journals of commentary and analysis on assigned chapters in reading for specific weeks. By using blogs, I could stay updated on grading throughout the reading process without confiscating the students work to grade it, I could also have students quick link specific passages from online text into their blogs so I can reference the exact textual evidence in their analysis. As a high school teacher, I would feel it necessary to teach my students even the basics of digital citizenship, because so often, high schoolers are the pinnacle of laziness and try to cut every corner possible. Often digital citizenship slips through the cracks of general education standards, so some students reach their senior year of high school and still don't understand the importance of being a good digital citizen. Even if it was just a refresher course on citizenship, I would still start from the basics and teach all my students all the protocol to be good citizens with their technology.

Blog Post 2

     As a student, most of my papers were done in Microsoft word and submitted electronically rather than handed in. This is a method I would employ for multiple reasons. Reason one: it is an easy way to keep all the documents organized and compressed into a computer file, rather than having to keep track of tons of papers and just pray you don't lose any. Reason two: it is far more environmentally friendly. With a slowly deteriorating paper supply, I do all I can to lessen my paper demand. My third and final reason is that I can use programs such as Grammarly to quickly scan papers and identify plagiarism and grammatical and spelling errors, which is very time efficient. 
     In my school experience, copyright infringements were considered plagiarized work and thus papers that contained them were penalized. I was aways taught the importance of citations and the bibliography. We were also taught how to search for the necessary actions to use certain content. A lot of time went into teaching different formats of citations, mainly MLA and Chicago formats. We also learned a lot about internal citation and how to use it properly in a paper. As a teacher, I would concentrate on teaching my students how to properly use copyrighted works and how to use proper citation at the very beginning of my course so that I can encourage them to pull from many different sources in their research to further support arguments and spread accurate and extensive information on assigned topics. Outside sources really strengthen a paper when used correctly.
    The use of my EME2040 twitter account has really taught me how to find interesting, cutting edge news on the technology world. I believe this method could be used in many subject areas, from researching the latest and greatest achievements in the scientific world, to finding ongoing commentary on works of classic literature that further the interpretation of text. I also love seeing what the other students are posting, I get a lot of learning inspiration from viewing the different paths they've takes to achieve the same goal and work on the same project. A lot of new ideas on how to successfully complete the project have arose. My career of choice is to be an English Literature professor. Twitter could be used to generate an online socratic seminar between the students of multiple sections of the course regarding their reading material. It could also be used for student to share articles and passages of importance regarding a text. I would also use it to live tweet responses to their ideas, honing in their thoughts and changing their direction of thought if its off course before they go to far a dead end rabbit trail. It is really quite useful.

Blog Post 1

Computers have become an important resource for education in recent years as they have become more widely used. Computers are so important in education because the modern workplace revolves around them. No matter what business you enter, computer knowledge is necessary. Computers dominate every industry because they are efficient for storing and sharing data and they are universal, all industries use them, making communication with anyone in the business world possible. If the point of education is to prepare students for the working world, education would not be complete if it left out an element of the workplace as pivotal as the computer. Common Core is a national classroom standard in public education that sets requirements in technology education for all students. Common Core is used to create an even playing field for students graduating from public education and entering the workplace. I agree with the common core standards for technology education because it is such a new aspect of education and it is so easily overlooked by teachers accustomed to traditional educational standards and I do think it's important for students to learn computer skills. We live in an age where being oblivious to computer tech is really not acceptable.

Having used Edmodo in the past, I definitely think I would try to integrate that into my classroom. It is very efficient for sharing homework, submitting assignments, posting likes to resources, and creating a virtual classroom setting for students to communicate across. It works a lot like social media, but it eliminates many distractions that tag along with teachers who use websites such as twitter or Facebook for educational purposes as it is strictly educational. In my classroom, I would post notes online before my lectures so students could follow along on their computers while I spoke and could take interactive notes on the downloaded power points. I believe group work, though challenging, is necessary to teach students how to interact with each other and cooperate in the workplace. I would tailor group work assignments to be computer based so students could work together in class and at home through file sharing to increase productivity. In this class, I hope to learn HOW to tailor my lesson plans to incorporate these technological aspects.

I both agree and disagree with the definition of the term digital natives. I do believe there are digital natives, or people who have grown up accustomed to technology with a somewhat innate understanding of technology, however, I do not think the term "digital native" is based solely on generation. Digital natives are also defined by environment. A child growing up in the third world with no access to technology is not a digital native, even if they were born in the digital age. In my experience, my "digital immigrant" teachers have varied in computer literacy levels. Some teachers I have had have clearly not taken the time to get used to technology and it is very noticeable. Other teachers I have had who have been digital immigrants have had computer skills that far surpass my understanding of computers. It all depends on the amount of concern the individual has actually put into figuring out technology. Often, my digital immigrant teachers have been even more capable than me because they are willing to do research and read directions, whereas I expect some sort of innate understanding, which can often limit my actual understanding. I anticipate that in the future, the tables will be turned and I will be considered an immigrant of new technology among students as technology continues to evolve and change. The "next new thing" will probably be way over my head, which will give me the opportunity to either be surpassed by technology or it will give me the opportunity to rise above and adapt through research and reading.

My Twitter Username: @skheme2040

Blog Post 0

In the past I have used technology for many things. As a teenager in the 21st century, it can almost be assumed that you are involved in one or more social media site. I am on Instagram, twitter, and Facebook. I use these sites to share my daily life with others and connect with friends. In high school, I was required to know how to use PowerPoint, Word, and Excel for various assignments and presentations. Most of my classes required online submissions of assignments via Edmodo so I was required to know how to navigate and use it. I often used the internet for research papers, sourcing various articles uploaded to the internet to support theories. I am now a member of a collaborative blog called The Reckless Collective that documents the lives of nine friends and their respective lives as they move all across the country, yet maintain their bond. It is meant to provide advice and encouragement to younger girls. Since joining the blog, I have had to become familiar with website design as we look toward publishing the blog as its own site. 

I hope to learn various skills that will help me in my future career. My intention as of now is to be a professor one day and as a future educator I will need all of these skills to be effective. I really hope to brush up my Excel skills because I've gotten rusty. I often struggle with organization and Excel is a great resource for organizing and calculating statistics, so it would be really great to leave this class feeling confident in Excel. 

Today, through the learning style assessment, I learned that I am very balance between active learning and reflective learning, I believe I need both to truly reach higher understanding. I am pretty strongly an intuitive learner, so lecture style classes cater to me well, but when it comes to facts and memorization, I need to take advantage of office hours to ask professors about theory so I can spark an interest in the subject. I lean more towards verbal learning and auditory learning, but I still love graphs and pictures and find them very helpful. I also learned that i am a global learner most of the time rather than a sequential learner, meaning I really need to seek out and establish a big picture before I look into details if I want to best understand a problem or concept. Overall, these results were helpful on my first day of college and give me advice as to how I should move forward and tackle learning throughout my college career in order to do my very best.

Learning Style Assessment Results