Ramble #15

Greetings! This is my final blog post for the Internet For Educators course! We have come a long way! As we all think towards graduation I think this week's video should reflect that...

This week's talk from Dean Shareski from Discovery Education was great!

One of the things he mentioned that resonated with me was the fact that teachers are increasingly tasked with not just teaching content but also providing social-emotional needs. He stressed the point that it is important that new teachers understand that they are so much more then just content delivery vehicles. They need to be passionate about working with and for children. To this point, I completely agree. As we have learned in this Education program teachers are social welfare agents just as much as they are "teachers". 

He also talked about the idea of bringing wonder and curiosity into the classrooms as much as possible. He pointed to the fact that the best teachers are the ones who model curiosity and wonder to their students. Essentially, if we as teachers claim to be "life-long learners", we must actually follow through with this claim. Students that see their teacher wondering and learning everyday will be inspired. We need to figure out the best ways to model this behaviour for our students. Personally, I agree, but I think that a lot of teachers have big trouble being vulnerable enough to admit to their students that they "don't know".   

I think it is so cool that Dean takes a "photo a day". That is honestly something that I might consider doing in the future. It is a mindful practice in itself. It forces you to slow down and notice things that you may not have noticed before. Additionally, it takes wonder and curiosity to find new and interesting things to take a photo of each day. 

Lastly, he mentioned the notion that schools often miss out on the opportunity to create and foster a community. He believes that teachers nowadays should focus more and more on building a community of social learners in their classes rather than just delivering content. Students no longer need teachers to learn content because it is all on the internet, right in their hands. Therefore, teachers should strive to transition their efforts more towards building strong relationships with their students and relationships among students in your class. I completely agree!

Until next time,

Justin

Tech Task #7

In this post I want to introduce you to Lisa Nielsen. A few weeks ago I was looking ahead at all of our tech tasks. I noticed the one that had us finding and sharing an education blogger. At the time I did not know of any education blogger so I went searching!

I stumbled upon Lisa Nielsen's blog. It is called "The Innovative Educator". It is a tremendous blog about various topics. However, there is a focus on at-risk-youth. I found this to be a very unique subject for an educator to be discussing regularly. She actually has a series of blogs entitled "Innovative Approaches to Support At-Risk-Youth". I would recommend checking that out for sure. 

Recently, given the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida she has posted a couple of blogs about school safety and school community. These were excellent posts. One of them was made using an infographic like we made previously in this course.

The thing I like about Lisa compared to some of the other education blogger I have been following is that she is active. She posts at least once a week, more than likely it is twice, or three times. This makes a difference as a reader. With blogs that only post once a month or so, it is hard to make a connection with the author because you are only "visiting" them once in a blue moon. In the few short weeks I have been following Lisa I feel as though I have got to know who she is as an educator and a person. 

Check out Lisa's blog here:

https://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/2018/02/address-learning-differences-with-these.html 

Ramble #15

It seems fitting that this week's video is the video mentioned in Daniel's presentation on Tuesday. It is a TED Talk from Kevin Brookhouser talking about 20 time projects. It is a great video. Check it out!

As mentioned, on Tuesday this week we had a "zoom" conversation with Daniel Dillion. He was a fascinating individual that was full of great personal and educational stories. The more his presentation went on, the more interesting he got. He mentioned that he has travelled to more than 25 countries, which is so cool! He also has taught internationally in a few different counties including Ecuador!

He talked about a few different things. However, he mainly discussed the idea of project-based learning and 20 time/passion projects as well as the incorporation of VR (virtual reality) technology into the classroom.

His discussion of project-based learning and 20 time projects in his classes was really inspiring. He shared a few different stories about what his students have accomplished in the past. The one kid that was inspired to learn about fruit carving and subsequently the next year created a plan to develop his own "tiny" food truck was a great example of the power of 20 time projects. I appreciated how Daniel discussed the way that each week looks like in terms of planning running a project-based learning model in his classes. This helped to me to envision to structure in this seemingly chaotic model.

Daniel also told us about how he was able to find the funding and implement a brand new VR technology station into his school. The many ways, across many disciplines, that the VR has already been used within the school is super neat! Daniel mentioned how engaged the students are when using the VR technology. This makes sense. How could they not be engaged when they are using cutting edge technology.....IN SCHOOL?

The important point that Daniel mentioned many times was that technology is just a tool. He compared the VR technology to a pencil, or a piece of paper. It is no more special. Just like a pencil, VR technology is a tool that helps to facilitate learning. It does not have inherent educational value in itself. It must be used properly by a teacher in order to deliver curriculum authentically.

I really enjoyed Daniel's presentation. He really seems like a cutting edge thinker in education with an abundance of great pedagogical ideas.

Until next week! 

Tech Task #9

I have many resources I use online. However, recently I have been using one in particular and really finding a lot of value in it. I have mentioned this resource in one of my previous blog posts but it is so good that it deserves its own post!

The resource I am talking about is Mr. Andersen from Bozeman Science on YouTube.

He can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/bozemanbiology

He is a veteran science teacher that has taken the time to make hundreds of high-quality instructional videos on various topics. Most of the content pertains to the core sciences (chemistry, biology, physics). However, there is also topics discussed that fall outside of these core sciences.

He is an incredible teacher who has the ability to boil down very complex ideas and concepts to their essential elements. The graphics he makes for his videos are also well done and always aid in the instruction. 

This resource can be used in two ways. First, it can be used as a "content review" resource for us teachers. Many times, us as teachers need a brush up on the material that we are currently teaching or will be teaching in the future. This is the case for me right now. I will be teaching Grade 12 Biology in a few weeks and need a refresher on some on the concepts. Secondly, Bozeman Science can be used as a supplemental resource for our students. I could definitely see myself creating a classroom YouTube page in which I plunk a bunch of Mr. Andersen's videos in a playlist for my students to view outside of class. Also, I could see myself instructing my students on a topic and then playing Mr. Andersen's video to reinforce the information. 

The limitation of the resource is that it is primarily focused on science content. Many of us will not be teaching science when we get our jobs so this resource will unfortunately useless. Other than that there are no downsides to this resource. It is simply a great educational tool!

Here is Mr. Andersen's most viewed video!

Ramble #14

I don't know if anyone else is aware of Mr. Andersen on YouTube but this guy is truly amazing. He has hundreds of videos on various topics (mostly science) and it is all educational content. He explains things so well. He is a tremendous resource for not only students, but also teachers looking to brush up on their content knowledge. I will be teaching Bio 40S in the Spring and therefore I have been brushing up on my knowledge of DNA and protein synthesis. Here is a video from Mr. Andersen that I watched in the process.

This week in class we had a synchronous class from the comfort of our own homes facilitated by the application known as "Zoom". It was a great learning experience because I was not previously aware of "Zoom" and all of its potential. I especially loved the screen sharing feature. That allows for so much more when meeting online. Furthermore, the remote control feature on the screen sharing is amazing! As a teacher we could go in and guide our students in the right direction on their computer from our computer, that is crazy! The whiteboard feature would allow for collective brainstorming and the splitting of people into sub-groups also allows for collaboration and shraring. The program is free to use, and frankly that seems like a steal. 

When we were in our sub-groups discussing Kyle brought up an interesting use of "Zoom" that we as teachers could use it for. Kyle mentioned setting up "office hours" in which you would be on "Zoom" for a predetermined amount of time, students could pop in at their discretion if they needed help. 

If I was ever to teach a class on-line I would highly consider using "Zoom" as a tool.

Until next week!

Justin

Tech Task #8

For this task, we were to look into what an infographic is and then subsequently make our own. 

I was previously aware of infographics before today so I didn't have to do much research. Although, I did find out that there are SO many different types of infographics that have been designed. That was super neat!

I believe that infographics are super useful within the classroom. Some students learn best through visuals. If we as teachers can provide them with clearly laid out information in a visual format they will be able to best learn the material. I believe it is so important that if we present students with text about content we should also provide them an image or visual on that same content too. This serves to give the students multiple ways to interpret the content. 

Here are two examples of infographics I could see using in my classroom:

First, an infographic about DNA...

https://visual.ly/community/infographic/science/dna-presented

Next, an infographic about World Geography...

http://infographiclist.com/2011/10/26/geography-of-pakistan-infographic/

Lastly, I designed my very own infographic using the very intuitive and helpful site called Piktochart. It is super simple to do. I chose to create an infographic about climate change!

Check it out here: https://create.piktochart.com/output/27971930-new-piktochart

Cheers,

Justin

Ramble #13

My video this week discusses the possible benefits of distance learning for students. It is fitting given the topic of my blog this week!

On Tuesday this week we had a wonderful presentation from Shannon Magee and Chris Fredrickson from Manitoba Education. They told us all about online learning and distance education within the province of Manitoba. They also provided us with a Google Doc that was chock-full of resources relating to online learning and distance education. 

The most notable to me was Blackboard Learn. I slightly remember learning about this last year. This year it seemed a lot more relevant to me because as a first year teacher (next year) I will take all the course/subject resources I can get. It is amazing that so many high school courses have entire course plans, activities, and assignments all laid out for us. I will definitely be using this service to gather resources for courses I am teaching in my final student teaching placement!

I was really impressed by the many tools available to us teachers within Blackboard Learn itself. The collaborate tool is very helpful, allowing us to "skype" chat with our students in a collaborative fashion. I was also intrigued by the plagiarism catcher tool built in to the platform. This is an incredible tool for us teachers to ensure that our students are not stealing content online. Being that it is an online course, students may be more tempted to steal content online as compared to a traditional course in a classroom. 

The presentation got me thinking about the future of education. As these online LMS get more and more advanced and user friendly, could physical schools become a thing of the past? It sounds crazy, but the future might just be CRAZY. In the education program here at B.U we have talked extensively about incorporating emerging technology into our classes. We haven't talked all that much about the idea of emerging technology taking kids out of our classes. Could students learning from home become more and more prevalent as online education becomes more and more advanced and effective? This will undoubtedly impact us as teachers moving forward in our careers. Who knows, in 15 years we could all be online educators!

Until next week!

Ramble #12

As always we will begin with a video. This week's video is from the YouTube channel Ted-ed. The channel is dedicated to educational content. It is mostly animated and very informative. As teachers it is a tremendous resource because the content on the channel crosses all subject areas. 

Here is an example:

This week in class we had the pleasure of listening to a presentation from Dr. Alec Couros. The presentation was centered around the contemporary world of technology. Specifically, he discussed the highs and lows of technology. He mentioned the many ways that technology has made our lives better. Notably, he pointed to the tremendous ability of technology to connect us all as humans. He also talked about the downsides and potential dangers of the contemporary world of technology. 

Overall, I was very impressed with Dr. Couros' ability to balance the highs and lows of modern technology. I have that very same perspective on technology today. Some of my thoughts on that I had mentioned in my post last week. It is so very important that while we enjoy the many benefits and joys of current technology we still understand and respond to the potential dangers of it (Dr. Couros talked about identity theft).

It was extremely interesting when Dr. Couros was discussing the digital signatures of children. He mentioned that a staggering statistic of children have a digital signature/footprint before they were even born (sonograms posted on Facebook for example). This is wild! I am not here to judge, but it a very different world that babies are coming into nowadays as compared to when I was born, that is for sure.

After the talk I went and followed Dr. Couros on Twitter and intend to keep up on his happenings. He was a very talented and informative speaker!

Until next week,

Justin

Tech Task #6

For this tech task I looked into what Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is. Of course, I was aware of my own PLE because I live in it, however I had never drawn it out explicitly. Being able to see all the various ways in which I am connected online was really neat. I had to go back a couple of times and continue to add to my PLE as I thought of further ways I am connected.

So here is my PLE!

My PLE will undoubtedly keep changing as my career progresses. Darn it! I just thought of another thing I should have added: Amazon Echo (Alexa)!

Next I constructed a hypothetical PLE for the typical student we might encounter in our classes. This took some thought because I had to put myself in the shoes of a typical high school student.

Interestingly enough my PLE was not much different from the hypothetical high school student. I guess this is a testament to the fact that I am still young and actively keep up on current technology. 

The implications of this for us as teachers is simple but very important. Technology and the online world moves so quickly. The typical PLE for a high school student today will be VERY different from the PLE of a typical high school student 6/7 years from now. It is our duty as teachers to keep up with technology and what our students are doing online. This is not only because we don't want to embarrass ourselves in front of our students, but also because we have a duty to teach our students about responsible online behaviour. If we as teachers have no idea what our students are engaging with online we will not be able to teach them how to use it safely and responsibly. 

Anyway, just my thoughts! 

Tech Task #4

I googled myself. The results were surprising... I did not realize how many people are also named Justin Rowe. Interestingly enough there is a well-known artist named Justin Rowe and a semi-pro basketball player as well! I looked for quite awhile to find a trace of myself on google but I wasn't able to find anything. After awhile I narrowed my google search down. I searched "Justin Rowe Brandon" on google. This produced different results. Suddenly my digital footprint was revealed! There were a couple of ads I have posted on eBrandon as well as the preliminary website I have set-up for my fiancee and I's wedding. 

This "self-google" task made me aware of my minimal digital footprint. I don't feel like this is necessarily a bad thing. In general I am a private person and it is comforting to me that my business is not all over the internet. However, I also must consider that the world is moving towards a very "online-based" society. Interactions between people are increasingly moving into the online sphere. It may not be a bad idea for myself to start building a healthy and positive online identity. 

In terms of protecting my online identity I think it is important to use security features online whenever possible. I always use multiple passwords and rarely put personal information on any of my social media profiles. One thing that is often overlooked when engaging online is always making sure of the "https://" status of a website. The "s" at the end ensures that the website that you are browsing is a secure website and will not endanger your online identity. 

As I commented on in my "Flipgrid" I truly believe that people have both an online identity and a IRL identity. After reading about the idea of digital dualism I am a strong believer in the idea. Of course, there are exceptions. However, most people put only certain aspects of their lives online and filter out the rest. This creates a very different online persona as compared to who they are in real life. 

In my humble opinion I believe that schools need to make online identity education a priority. All students of today are online in various ways, We as educators need to educate them on how to put a healthy and positive persona online. If we do not teach them about the dangers of negative online interactions they could get themselves into bad situations online. I intend to educate my students about online literacy using the variety of lessons provided on mediasmarts.ca.

I will leave you with this image!

Tech Task #2

Curation, curation, curation. The importance of curation online can not be understated. This is because there truly is so much information online that it can quickly become overwhelming. However, if we are able to properly manage and organize information in our online lives it become so much more manageable and therefore useful to us educators. 

A site like "feedly" turns a massive headache into a non-problem. Without "feedly" we would all have to worry about keeping track of our classmates' blog URLs and then going to each of those URLs every week to check out their posts. "feedly' takes care of all of this in such a simple manner. It organizes all the URLs in one nice folder for us and then notifies us when our classmates have posted. From there we can simply to follow the link on "feedly" to their blog. So handy! 

Similarly, a site like pinterest is super helpful in curation. My fiancee and I just recently got engaged and one of the first places she went to when we began planning the wedding was pinterest. This is because it organizes all the helpful links and images you need into one page for you based on the search field. From there, you can create a board and begin pinning all the posts you like onto that board for easy organization. Pinterest makes planning and idea generation so simple!

For me, one of the biggest curation tools I use online is my subscription list on YouTube. I use YouTube everyday for a variety of entertainment. I watch YouTube much more than I watch television. Therefore, being able to easily organize and keep track of the content on YouTube is so helpful. Anytime I log in to YouTube I can know all the new uploads from the people I choose to follow. This makes my life so much easier. 

Along the same vein, I could definitely see creating my own classroom YouTube page (credit: Kirsten Thompson) for curation of educational content. Once the page is set-up my students can go there and access all kinds of new and existing content on YouTube. This certainly enhances their learning!

Overall, I truly do appreciate all the online curation tools that make my life easier everyday! 

Ramble #11

As promised in last week's post, here is part two of that incredibly well done video!

The other night I was lying in bed (couldn't fall asleep) thinking about technology. The genesis of this train of thought was me asking me bed-side table 'Alexa" what time it was. She politely responded "The time is 2:13 a.m". For some reason in that moment I had a profound feeling come over me. I felt in awe of what I just did. I literally asked a cylindrical object what time it was and it answered me. That is remarkable. However, all too often we as humans do not take the time to sit back and gain perspective on the world around us. Technology is truly incredible, yet it is taken for granted everyday.

I think it is important to take the time and appreciate all that technology has given us. I now carry a SUPER powerful computer in my pocket everyday. That computer can tell me any piece of knowledge in human existence. It also is my daybook, my watch, my alarm, my music player, my thermometer, etc. etc. Even though this technology is very new in the grand scheme of things, humans expect it. What I mean by this is that, smartphones are really only about 10 years-old, however, humans now EXPECT that we should be able to carry around a SUPER powerful computer in our pockets. I feel that there is little appreciation for the miracle of human ingenuity. 

I remember the times of land-line phones, dial-up internet, VCRs, CDs, etc. This allows for me to have perspective and appreciate how far we have come in such a short period of time. 

Children who have grown up with technology like this in their lives since they can remember aren't able to gather that perspective. These kids have nothing to compare it to, and therefore of course they expect this technology to always be there. How can we as future parents and educators get our kids to respect and appreciate the technology they use everyday? That is a MASSIVE but important question.

This was quite a ramble this week... but I am happy I did it!

Until next week!

Ramble #10

I'm back! Yes, nearly 10 months later I have returned to continue my ramble. This year I am taking the course entitled "Internet for Educators" here at B.U and so far it has been very interesting. More on that later. But first, just like last year, we will begin with a video!

As a Geography and Social Studies teacher I LOVE this video. It is an amazing way to engage students in world geography and get them thinking about where places are in the world. Check it out! Next week I will post PART 2!

On Thursday this week we had two guest speakers talk to our class about ways in which they are integrating technology into their classrooms (they are current teachers). Kirsten Thompson's talk with us was very informative. As she spoke, I noted many ideas that I would like to implement into my classroom next year. The two main ideas I really liked were: a classroom YouTube channel and using plickers. I use YouTube a lot for educational content and creating a channel devoted specifically to educational content pertaining to your students' learning is genius! It is a hub for them to access all kinds of information remotely. The way Kirsten described plickers resonated with me. It is a way to integrate technology into your class when your students might not have access to technology. That is a strong consideration to think about and Plickers solves the issue!

Tyler Letkeman's talk was super interesting too. The part that really stood out to me was the way in which he integrates Google Drive and all of applications into his teaching. His use of Google Forms and social media is great. I remember participating in the #bestwordchallenge last year but I didn't know much about it. I will definitely try to think of ways to integrate Google Drive into my teaching next year. 

Overall, the class is off to a successful start!

Until next week,

Justin