Umm... Something About Jeopardy

     I thought the assignment went pretty well, PowerPoint is an excellent program and its pretty easy to make different things with it. I did have to redo a couple parts of it, I accidentally used animations instead of screen transitions and needed to set non-linear navigation, but those are simple fixes. I thought it would be a lot more difficult, but as I got used to the controls (especially the copy slide button), it became a lot easier. Overall, I enjoyed the assignment, as it was an excellent way to get familiar with PowerPoint in general. Picture of my PowerPoint below.

    Surveys are a great way to collect and sort mass information. Specifically, I could use surveys to receive feedback on assignments or tests. I could also use them to plan out projects with, asking students which one they prefer. For social studies specifically, if I'm doing a debate I could do a survey to let the students chose which topic to debate. Building on that, I could also use a survey to get feedback on the debate, asking who they thought did best.

    There are quite a number of interesting things on my peer's blogs. A lot of them look really great, which is certainly a testament to their abilities. There are some interesting topics they talk about too, I remember on from a few assignments ago talking about how he didn't want to be a teacher anymore after going to class this semester. Besides that, they add some pretty god personal stories which are interesting to peruse occasionally.

    I can't say I used the badges a lot, even this deep into the class. Even if I did, I'm on a spare computer so I couldn't share any of em'. The badges are interesting, but its not exactly anything I would save, its not like they're official certifications so there's not practical use for them. They're just nice to show off I suppose, so I doubt I will ever use any of them. 

    Tech skill wise, it would be nice to learn how to use Canvas, or something like it. All the additional technology we've learned is nice, but Canvas is something we are absolutely guaranteed  to use, as long as nothing crazy happens. Given that, it would be good to learn some of it, although I don't know how feasible it would be to do something like that. I imagine there is a canvas-like training program, or at least some training version of canvas which we could use to learn at least some of the features.

Umm... Something About Miles Davis

     I was in the online section of EME2040, and I think it was pretty good. In general, the online class stuff has kind of sucked but this class is perfect for something online, considering that technology is at the center of its curriculum. The group projects went surprisingly well, and all of the other individual projects were fairly informative as well. Overall, I would say this is a very positive experience, with the class giving excellent insight into relevant technological skills.

    OER are learning resources which are free to steal from others and, for the most part, change what the content is. In general, most OER resources allow you to Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute educational resources openly though different means. I found a fairly excellent example of an OER resource on the OER Commons, which I will provide a link to below this paragraph. The resource I found features a host of videos following the 100 people project, which seeks to gain perspective on the world by limiting it to only "100 people". The videos are clear and easy to understand, and it could be an excellent resource for teachers wanting to provide their students with a perspective shift on the world.

https://www.oercommons.org/courses/100-people-a-world-portrait/view

    The PowerPoint project was a lot more in-depth than I figured it would be. First, I didn't know you could make videos straight from a PowerPoint, which is sure to come in handy one day. Second, I didn't know you could save your own page template, something which will save me a lot of time one day. Overall, it was a handy experience in expanding my ability on a program which I thought I knew all about. Below is a photo of my assignment.

Umm... Something about Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit

     Making a website was pretty fun, its nice to make something that is actually usable by others. Weebly is also really easy to use, so its almost impossible to make a website that looks objectively bad unless you're trying to. A good teacher website can also be extremely convenient for future students, as it gives them a centralized location to look for information they need. Overall this has been an excellent experience, which I may use sometime in my future.

Here's a link to my website

    Diigo is pretty darn useful, being able to save notes, citations and even just websites in a single area is an excellent tool. It's connection to others is also another great angle you could lean on for stuff like group projects. In fact, you could use it in conjunction with a website to store and publish annotations on scholarly articles for any future student to read with 0 hassle. It could be useful for a good history department as well, as it allows you to share any good resources you find with the rest of your peers almost instantly. 

    As for a website to help stay ahead of the curve in terms of technological changes, nothing is better than twitter. The young people are always active, and the trending system makes sure that cool stuff gets shown to you on a regular basis. There are plenty of technology-related users who post about cool new tech stuff as well, so you can rely on a few of those to keep you informed. Overall, its a good place to keep on top of trends. An excellent example of a good place to stay ahead on education-related technology is the official Harvard School of Education twitter account. They make near daily posts highlighting education-related articles, a lot of which include talks about technology.

Here's a link

Uhh... Something about the DOW Jones

     Now, none of my classes required teachers to keep class pages, but the teachers at Waterloo are. Publicly, most only show a few pictures, basic contact info and a calendar, but some include a bit more details. A few teachers decided to put descriptions of themselves and the class, others decided to put events or important memos for their students on their page. The one who put the most is the band director, who included clips of the marching band, as well as some of the bands' social media. Below is a screenshot of the band's page, as well as a link. 

    Link

    Technology is quite useful for a lot of different things in the classroom. One great way to use technology is as a database for all of my assignments and lectures, so any student who misses class doesn't miss much. It can also be a great way of reminding kids remotely, or at the very least, keeping a public record of when things get turned in so parents know when to remind their kids. Creating a website using Educator Pages seems like the best way to do this.

    PB works was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The fact that you couldn't edit a page in tandem with others, as well as the lack of formatting abilities makes it a bit of a hassle for group work. The website isn't completely without quality of life however, as the sidebar and the ability to link back to different pages within a page is pretty useful. As for using it with kids, I would most likely use it as a group resource for certain information, or as a way for the students to create a a group project.

Umm... Something About the Geneva Convention

     Diigo seems nice, but I can't say I find it very useful. Being able save websites to a central groups seems very useful, but when looking at a class that is, for example, searching for sources, I would prefer the students search for and evaluate their own sources instead of deferring to the group for assistance. It could be useful for a group project as a way to centralize sources, or just for general information sharing, but past that I can't say I would use it myself. I also don't like having to keep that extension around, its not super intrusive but I'm not really used to it yet.

    Blogging is certainly interesting. At the very least, I know I am bad at creating blog titles, since I keep deferring to my friends for the titles. It's not been as bad as I originally thought though, I usually just imagine that I'm just posting this as an essay and it makes it a bit easier to write. It is nice, however to share my thoughts about various things to others, although I would not be doing this outside the class.

    In terms of Web 2.0 tools, one which I may use when I go teaching is YouTube. I still remember some of my old YouTube class projects, and those were a ton of fun to make. YouTube is one of the easiest video sharing websites around and can be an excellent creative outlet for students in any classroom. Overall I give it an 8/10, great versatility for the classroom, although a bit difficult to use for constant assignments.

Umm... Something About a Creative Blog Title

     Honestly, I never liked Twitter. I had an account a few years ago, but deleted it at some point so I lost all the info. Its been good to get back into it though, I've reconnected with a couple old friends through there and have made some new ones along the way. Twitter is great for reaching out to others, asking for their experience or their resources so it could be great for a future career.

    The digital divide is problem which is affecting tons of students around the US. It involves the differences between a students ability to access technology. Although technology is almost everywhere, it doesn't mean that everyone can afford it, newer technology is still expensive and less affluent students may have difficulty accessing technology that more affluent students take for granted. Depending on where I may work in the future, the divide may be greater or smaller, but will most likely always be present. To work around it, I must ensure that all the assignments I give can be completed regardless of a student's individual access to technology, as well as ensure I provide ample opportunity to use technology in class, with the school's resources.

   As for two pieces of software I would use, one would definitely be Microsoft Office. Using Office and other word processers is vital for anyone, regardless of their future, and starting those skills early is bound to be beneficial. Canva was also an extremely useful tool for creating visual aids for presentations or just infographics in general. Getting kids to use that would help greatly for any presentations.

    I've never really gotten a "badge" before and I've never really thought about them. I think they could be an excellent way of giving students some sort of recognition for their online skills, or as a reward for their efforts. Personally, I don't share much on social media so I would most likely not share any badge I get. 

Umm... Something about Volkswagen German Engineering; BeamerW

     As a teacher I do feel ready to implement the 11-12th grade technology standards. Most of the technologies listed are pretty simple, stuff like word and Excel, and all the stuff that isn't is relatively self-explanatory. The most difficult one to implement might be LAFS.1112.W.2.6 which requires the use of the internet to publish writing products and provide active feedback. Although it says word can just be used for this, it feels a bit inadequate to the standard. Using Skype could prove challenging, as it would require the students to have some level of access at home.

    For History resources, there is basically an entire US history course worth of short lectures with slides to go along with it. They're all a bit short, but pretty informative overall. They could be perfect for an in-class presentation, or for a study resource before exams. They could also be used for students who miss class and need to catch up, as a sort of half replacement for a normal lecture.

    Good internet searching is important. The google algorithm is pretty smart nowadays, but expediency is key when trying to find information and you want to be sure that the information you show is accurate. When looking something up its good to be careful of synonyms, words have double meanings sometimes and you could get results that are useless. Its also important to be as accurate as possible in the shortest amount of words, google has a pretty good system and will probably understand what you're trying to search without 90% of the sentence.

"Cool Bento Box" by glindsay65 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0