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