Digital Classroom, is it diverse enough?

As this class continues to expand my virtual horizons I want to share everything with my colleagues and students. I am immersing my students with online media (time for kids, cnn student news, etc) collaboration networks (edmodo, Evernote, etc). I have been able to get colleagues from 3 different schools, as well as my team teacher to join in my  world wide web frontier. This has been an amazing experience so far, but... Yesterday I had a someone question me about diversity within my class in regards to my teaching and student learning experience.

I was able to explain that by utilizing a variety tools such as, YouTube, iGo account with Google Drive, multitude of math websites, aforementioned online media and collaboration sites I was able to justify how diverse my class is. For some reason I spent the rest of my day and into this morning worrying that maybe I am forcing my students to spend to much time in front of screens, and that I may be doing a disservice to my students because we are focusing to much of our time online and using technology.   

As an educator I know I am doing my job, I also feel that having a strong understanding of how to navigate and comprehend the online world is going to be essential for my students as they grow up in a technological world. 
As I  develop my blended classroom I continue to add in more and more modes of technology that my students can utilize.  I guess as its stands right now I am feeling confused and frustrated as it comes to this issue of diversification within my classroom.  By making the shift to an online classroom for most of my subjects I am noticing an increase in productivity from all my students, especially the ones who were completely reluctant to do any written work.  Don't get me wrong there is still a lot of managing, and check ins required if not more so from pencil and paper work, because the disruptions and now "silent but deadly", and those incidences easily contribute to a conversation about being a good citizen and what the difference between a good real life citizen and a good digital citizen look like, and how closely those concepts are now related. 
So I guess my opinion is that yes creating a blended classroom and utilizing the technology that our board encourages us to use as much as possible is what I need to be doing and it is good that I am doing as much as I am. 

Back to the basics

Getting back to the basics is what this week is all about for me.  Making sure I do the small things.  Read a couple blogs, ask a couple of questions, do a little bit every day.  On Friday I met with Katia and had a great conversation with her about the class and what I have been doing and how I can improve in a few areas.  She helped me understand Twitter better and finally got a tweetdeck page set up.  She also gave me a few good ideas for how to interact more and some creative thoughts for a summary of learning.  If you haven't seen the iMovie trailer app, please check it out! Awesome! I am going to be playing around with it in the very near future.
Here is a fun one that Katia showed me, this kid is great!


After last weeks conversation in class about all of our assignments I felt good right after the class thinking I have been doing not bad.  Assignment #3 Major Digital Project I feel I am doing great in.  I know I need to update my thoughts about how it has been developing and that will be up in the next day or two.
Assignment #2 Summary of Learning
I got really excited about.  As Alec talked about different ways to do this I was concerned with what others are going to be doing.  I want to stand out but be able to do a good job of it as well.  This was one of my main reasons for meeting with Katia last Friday and after our discussion I am confident that I will have an outstanding presentation.  There has been so much information given to us over the course of this semester it is very eye opening as to how little I know, not only about technology but about interacting in a online world.   I am very please with how far I have come already so I am looking forward to this unique way of reflecting.  I hope I can keep all my thoughts into a 5-7 minute presentation. 

Assignement #1 Networked Professional Learning
This one I feel I have done a good job of for some of it but I need to do more in certain areas.  Commenting on blogs, and pingbacking people are simple ways to improve in this area.   Along with improving my twitter presence (thanks again to my meeting with Katia this should occur a little faster now).  As Katia and I talked on Friday about this area of the class I came to an understanding of why Alec initially had the "Web" as part of the assignment.  It would be an interesting concept to put together and would really show how well one interacted with those within the class, and where we gained the confidence to expand our horizons and branch out as well.  I have thought about it over the weekend and I have a few ideas as to how I can improve my network and will work on it this week. 

My goals for the week are:
Send out 3 tweets in reference to #eci831
Find one article reguarding networked learning. 
Post my development of my Major Digital Project
Begin putting together my summary of learning. 

This is going to be a big week but I am very excited! 
 Go RIDERS!!!!

Our Students Digital Identity and Our Connections With Them

I just found this awesome site 21 Things 4 Students.  Its a site out of Michigan but revolves all around how the students conduct themselves online.  All I can say is WOW what an awesome site.  I will defiantly be looking through this thoroughly and getting my students to either do this as an ongoing project or simply add it to a morning routine and get through the whole course with my students. 
After going through a few others blogs and getting more into the online world with my own students I am finding the importance of being a good citizen through digital identity is in drastic need of guidance.  Aside from the lack of spelling and poor punctuation it is more about how they share and what they share with "each other".  I put that in quotations because I did a few searches and found many of their comments and postings that they thought were "private".  I got a bit of backlash from the students as I was "creeping" on their facebooks and askfm, but I told them that I wanted to show them how easy it was for me to find and that they need to be more aware of what they are posting. 
I have booked our resource officer to come in and do a presentation on cyber bullying and talk to my students about the importance of being a good citizen in all aspects of life. 
At the start of my blogging journey I was conflicted about what to do with social media and connecting with my students.  I am warming to the idea of utilizing two accounts one being a personal and one being a professional so I can connect with my students.  I am beginning to feel that if as a teacher I can be a good role model for my students through their digital life along with their real life I may have a stronger chance at making a lasting impression with them.
Has anyone else had changes of opinion when it comes to this touchy subject?  What are your thoughts?
See you in class tonight and hope to hear back from you. 

Creation Hour or Practical Applied Arts

I truly enjoyed last weeks class with Sylvia Martinez.  At my school we adopted to do PAA classes once a week and rotate through the students.  We stared this about 3 years ago and now that Joni Darke has had the time to become a consultant and create web page to help facilitate what is going on and what our options are the entire senior end of our school has truly bought into utilizing this time.    We have done a variety of tasks such as, flute making, learning how to grocery shop, cardboard boat racing, cooking, paper airplanes, kite making, Delta Darts (which has been my favorite so far).  I have a couple of things I wanted to do this year. I started this year off with grocery shopping as my PAA project.  I know it doesn't directly fit in with the concept of creation hour, or "making" but it is a skill that none of my students have and thought this would be a great time to teach them a life skill.  I was planning on in the new year to do a "meme" creation with the kids as part of my rotation.  Now that we were introduced to  Makey Makey I am thinking I will change to try doing something with that.  The nice thing is that I have time to learn about and tinker myself so I understand how to work with them and where to get extra materials. 

Final Project
My major digital project is coming.  I have started getting my students online.  (HUGE success).  I am continually tinkering with the edmodo site and connecting kids and learning about how to utilize it.  But like I just said I have the kids online.  Now this is forcing me to get it going at an accelerated pace.  I am not quite happy with where it is at yet but in the next couple of days I know it will be ready for me to invite my eci831 community to sign in a check it out.  The exciting thing is the amount of responses from the students I have gotten.  For me to get the amount of responses that occurred in the first day of my utilizing the edmodo site compared to me asking the students to write a response and hand it into me is drastically different.  The ability for me to check their progress and quickly respond to their writing is amazing.  This is why I am re-energized about my project.  I know last week I was feeling a little defeated but was able to gear down and get some serious work done on it and I have found some success!  This is a great feeling. 

My goals this week are to
1. Have my fractions unit ready to go
2. The next 3-4 reading assignments up a rolling for the edmodo site. 
3. Find an article relating to my Major Digital Project
4. Comment meaningfully once a day to a different persons blog or message on the community page. 

Connected Reality

This has been a very trying week.  With upcoming report cards, parents meetings, having my intern take over most of the responsibilities of the classroom teacher, going to different schools to learn more about new structures within classrooms, and trying to get online while working a second job and coaching.  I am feeling the my connected reality is a figment of my imagination.  I have even contemplated leaving my phone at home for a week so people can not reach me to ask me any more questions or requests for assistance.  So as it stands this week I am not living and learning in our connected reality. 
I am sure I can not be the only one who is in this boat, and it takes me back to a post about the balance of screen time posted by Jackie Sakatch.  I am trying to convince myself that yes 1. my time in front of the screen is appropriate, 2. It has to be meaningful because it is all for the students, and 3. It must be empowering if it is the first two. 
The last one is the hardest one for me right now.  I think because I am having such a hard time getting my students to buy into the appropriateness of their screen time and making sure their screen time is meaningful.  I am not seeing the success in utilizing the online math assignments, and teaching that I was hoping for.  I know it is early but I would like to see some more independence but instead I am seeing a lack of ability.  This then goes back to having my intern take over most of the responsibilities.  I would like to utilize more time throughout the day to reinforce certain skills, but I do not want to take away from her learning experience either.
Now where do I stand in being a good citizen within my classroom community when it comes to eci831... I feel that I have been lacking there.  My time management is lack luster and I have not had the time to put in as much as I have wanted or needed to in the last couple weeks, but I am hoping now that my intern is capable of handling more of her load without my instant support I will be able to sneak some time throughout the day to monitor and add to the community.
My goals this week is to review and check in on my progress of my major digital progress, add a couple of posts about what we are learning in class on Tuesday about gaming and about some program that is helping me flip my class, along with reading and commenting on at least 6 peoples blogs, or posts. 
Here's to reclaiming my connected reality within eci 831!

Higher Educations Future

So I know this is a little late but there was some reading, and a lot of conversations around the changing of higher education.  The general consensus that I was able to come up with was that higher education is in constant change.  Every university/post secondary institution is continually updating their curriculum and changing their courses to meet the needs of the next student.  Not much of a shock to me but the conversation turned interesting when I used the J. H. Newman quote “assemblage of strangers from all parts in one spot” to describe the concept of university/post secondary education.  I asked if this was still the concept.  The people I talked with then thought and some agreed while some did not.  


Massage Therapist: "Of course that is the case.  If we don't meet to see the technique and practice it then how do we know if we are doing it properly?"

Resident Surgeon: "I would agree for the most part because people try to go to the place they feel will serve them the best.  But there are a lot of universities that people can go to get their undergrad degree before they decide what they want.  Bachelor degrees are the new high school diplomas." 

Teacher: "I don't think it has to be people from all over.  What is the University of Regina's enrollment at with people only from Regina?  I bet most of the university has Regina or surrounding area students."

Law Student: "Sure, people go to where they need to get their education.  I don't care if I know anyone or not, I will meet new people, I have enough friends so I just want to go to school to get my degree and start my life.  I will go where I need to do that."

So some of them missed the point so I then asked them since they agreed so emphatically I asked them if they could have taken a number of their courses online in the comfort of their bedroom and gotten the same educational outcome?

Massage Therapist: "Probably not, we did a lot of hands on things that needed to be in a lab essentially.  I don't see how you would learn without doing a lot of the practice."

Resident Surgeon: "For the theory courses yes, I would have rather stayed at home, but there were a lot of classes where I would not have even understood the lectures if I didn't have someone to sit down with and talk about for hours at a time."

Teacher: "The courses sure I could have done a lot of them at home, but how would the prof of known that it was me doing the work?  Also when it comes down to actually practicing teaching how would I have gained that experience without being in the classrooms? There are certain things that you need human interaction for."

Law Student: "It seems that most of my courses involve so much reading that I do most of my courses in the comfort of my own home, but the discussion and conversation that goes on in class is where the epiphanies come from.  I could get some of it from an online course but I don't see the deeper understanding coming through."  

So after the weeks topic of how university/post secondary will change I believe that it already is.  We are utilizing so much more technology than every before, but what will university/post secondary look like in the future, I am not certain.  But I do hope that the human connection is not lost.  I do not see how some learning can be embedded without human interaction.   This topic is interesting and there was a TIME article about What Colleges Will Teach in 2025.
Who knows but it will be interesting. 

Sues Message

After Sue Waters awesome talk there were a number of things that I realized I need to do better.
1. Link!
      This is something I did not even think about!  I was viewing blogging very similar to regular journaling.  It simply did not register with me that I could "Link" (connect) what I am sharing with my readers.  Once Sue showed us how simple it was, I felt a little embarrassed because of how I was not already doing it or making that connection myself.
2. Connect
    I think I am connecting to the class.  I realize that I am focusing more on the final project rather than class to class but I feel that the final project is the basis of how I am going to connect this class to my actual job, which is why I am taking the class.  I know I could comment and reflect a little bit more about the information we are learning week to week (which I am doing now!)
3. Comment/Join In
    This is a task that I will try to improve on week to week.  The only way of doing that is to make sure my posts are done earlier, so I can then spend time checking on others, and they will then have time to read and respond on my posts...
4. About page.
    This is something I will work on over the course of the next few days (aka weekend) and will get up and running.  It should be simple but I would also like to add in the design and development of my page as I have not completed that either and feel that shows a lot about a person as well.

5. How to get more people reading my blog? Attention seeking titles.
    This is something I am not very strong at... I feel that I can be spontaneously witty, but when it comes to creating catchy titles that I know are out there the pressure gets to me and I come up blank... I will try but who knows.
6. Images... Start adding images...
    I understand why adding images is a positive thing.  It makes it more visually appealing and in our society today people need that visual connection to stay focused.  I am one of those people.  My issue is, how do you find visuals that are meaningful for all the concepts we are talking about... Like this one for example... Do I find a picture of someone posting a picture?  It seems a little redundant... Maybe that's the point... Maybe I could do it with some humor.   We will see what kind of pictures I find.

7.  Flipboard - Awesome!  Why/How did I not know about this prior to this class.    This a spot where I can link all my media to that I find interesting, my blogs, tweets, news feeds, and its at the tip of my finger without having to jump around from page to page or app to app.  This is awesome! Enough said on this point.

8. Alec's Challenge - 

Create an EC&I 831 magazine for Flipboard, and add relevant links to it.  I think that we each can do this for ourselves and a "magazine" page would be unnecessary for us.   But it would be a good thing if people wanted to search for us.  I will try but I will also keep an eye out for it as a magazine due to the amount of people in our class and who knows how many of us will try to upload our info to a magazine page.

Now when it comes to how all this information will help me blog and become a better blogger... Well after the class my mind was spinning and my browser was packed full of tabs opened.  It took me until Thursday afternoon to go through each of the pages and simply browse each of them to get a stronger understanding of why Sue would mention them.  Obviously I found the Flipboard page to be one of my favorites. 

I am on my way to developing my major digital project.  As I said last week I am in the process of getting my edmodo class up and running with the focus to be within math.  I am also trying to do this within an Explore +4 model.  There are a bunch of great youtubes on this from teachers in Regina Public. One of the best ones for middle years is here:



This project is coming along and right now my big struggle is getting all the students signed up as it is taking some time due to the multiple levels of groups that I get to work with.  I have students from 4 different classrooms within my school and I am setting up emails, passwords and walking each of them through the process one at a time.  By next week I will be opening my page to be viewed by others so keep an eye out for my progress.  Thanks for all the support