On Tuesday we had two guest speakers Donald Girouard and Shannon Magee. They both work for Manitoba Education in the Webased department. Blackboard learn is the current application/website that is being used in Manitoba. Blackboard learning is a webased system that applies to the senior years curriculum in Manitoba. There are a total of 44 courses available on blackboard learn. Shannon and Donald talked about how blackboard learn works and how to apply for a course. They explained how you all you have to do is apply for a course and then you have access to it. Once you have access to the course you receive all of the lessons and corresponding resources with that lesson. I like how you are able to add videos or text right into the lesson that is already made up if you prefer a different video. As a new teacher I think having access to all of these resources would be very beneficial in your first couple years. They mentioned that even if you are not teaching a webased course you can still apply for access to a specific course.
I never had to take a webased course in high school, so I do not have a lot of experience with how they work, but it seems to be pretty simple to organize. I have taken an online course in university and it had some of the same features that blackboard learn offers. One of the problems I could see arises in a webased course would be dealing with the students who are Skyping or Zooming in. You would have to make sure that you are in regular contact with theses students to make sure that they are doing their work and that they are understanding the material.
Overall, I think the presentation was well done and if I ever find myself teaching a senior years course I will try and use blackboard learn even if it is just for resources. I think this was a very beneficial presentation and I would be a lot more comfortable teaching a webased course after attending the presentation.
Monday, 30 January 2017
Sunday, 22 January 2017
Week 2
On Tuesday we were introduced to the term personal learning networks or PLNs. Personal learning networks consists of the people an individual interacts with and gains knowledge from. When we were first introduced to this term I didn't really think that my PLN was very large, but after Mike talked about what a PLN was and showed us an example of his I realized that mine was probably larger than I initially thought. I first thought that mine would have mainly be comprised of my university contacts, but I hadn't taken into consideration all of my online and social media contacts. My PLN is still relatively small, but I am hoping throughout this course it will increase.
The next term we talked about was Echo Chamber. In terms of media content an echo chamber refers to following people or news outlets that supports our points of view. The problem with this is that you creating a bias for your opinion by only viewing news that supports your beliefs and not viewing as much news from the opposing views. I never really thought about this, but I think I am guilty of this. I am a frequent follower on Reddit and even though I use it for personal use a lot of the sub-reddits that I subscribe to all consist of groups with my viewpoint. I can see how this can be a problem because by following news outlets that support your thinking it creates a confirmation that your viewpoint is correct. After learning about this term it made me think back to my student teaching when we were talking about politics and how most of my students (grade 7) had negative opinions about Trump. I always assumed that these students were receiving their negative viewpoints from their parents and relayed these viewpoints in the classroom (even if most of their points were valid, but that's not the point). As educators I think it is important to educate our students about echo chambers and that even if the majority of our knowledge gained through the media has a viewpoint that we need to be cautious that we are not just validating our own opinion through the media.
On Thursday we had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Alec Couros for speak on technology. Alec is a professor at the university of Regina and is an expert in the field of education technology. Alec is a extremely knowledgeable man and did a great job of keeping my interest as well as providing a lot of valuable content during his presentation. I really enjoyed the conversation he had about his open learning projects. This is something that Alec says he does with his students where they choose a subject that they are interested in and research that subject using various medias. I really liked this idea and hope that it is something that I can incorporate into my teacher. In my last placement I conducted a project that was similar to this and my CT called it an inquiry based assignment. Basically students were allowed to pick a topic that related to the topic that we had been discussing in class. It wasn't quite as broad as what Alec had been talking about, but I think the students enjoyed the process. Alec also talked about how important internet security was and provided us with many examples of when his identity was used on the internet by someone else. As educators this is something that we will have to educate our students on as it could happen to them. It was also important to all of us because this type of thing can happen to anyone who uses the internet. I am looking forward to continue to follow Alec on his blog as well as twitter as I think he will make a great addition to my PLN.
The next term we talked about was Echo Chamber. In terms of media content an echo chamber refers to following people or news outlets that supports our points of view. The problem with this is that you creating a bias for your opinion by only viewing news that supports your beliefs and not viewing as much news from the opposing views. I never really thought about this, but I think I am guilty of this. I am a frequent follower on Reddit and even though I use it for personal use a lot of the sub-reddits that I subscribe to all consist of groups with my viewpoint. I can see how this can be a problem because by following news outlets that support your thinking it creates a confirmation that your viewpoint is correct. After learning about this term it made me think back to my student teaching when we were talking about politics and how most of my students (grade 7) had negative opinions about Trump. I always assumed that these students were receiving their negative viewpoints from their parents and relayed these viewpoints in the classroom (even if most of their points were valid, but that's not the point). As educators I think it is important to educate our students about echo chambers and that even if the majority of our knowledge gained through the media has a viewpoint that we need to be cautious that we are not just validating our own opinion through the media.
On Thursday we had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Alec Couros for speak on technology. Alec is a professor at the university of Regina and is an expert in the field of education technology. Alec is a extremely knowledgeable man and did a great job of keeping my interest as well as providing a lot of valuable content during his presentation. I really enjoyed the conversation he had about his open learning projects. This is something that Alec says he does with his students where they choose a subject that they are interested in and research that subject using various medias. I really liked this idea and hope that it is something that I can incorporate into my teacher. In my last placement I conducted a project that was similar to this and my CT called it an inquiry based assignment. Basically students were allowed to pick a topic that related to the topic that we had been discussing in class. It wasn't quite as broad as what Alec had been talking about, but I think the students enjoyed the process. Alec also talked about how important internet security was and provided us with many examples of when his identity was used on the internet by someone else. As educators this is something that we will have to educate our students on as it could happen to them. It was also important to all of us because this type of thing can happen to anyone who uses the internet. I am looking forward to continue to follow Alec on his blog as well as twitter as I think he will make a great addition to my PLN.
Sunday, 15 January 2017
Week 1
This week we were introduced to our Internet for Educators course. I was interested in taking this course to further my knowledge on how to use internet and technology in my teaching. I am looking forward to the resources that this course will offer me and I am excited to be introduced to resources that will be beneficial to me in my future endeavors.
The first resource that we were introduced to was Google Plus. Google Plus is a social network platform that everyone in our class is using as sort of a home base. I have never used Google Plus before but it seems like a useful platform to use if you are using any online platform in your classroom.
The next online resource that we were introduced to was Twitter. I have been using twitter for 5-6 years and I am pretty familiar with the application. I have been using twitter on a personal level not as on a professional level. I could see the benefit of using twitter to follow people in education and people in the world of technology.
The last resource we were introduced to was Feedly. Feedly is a RSS (Rich Site Summary) and is a content organizer. I have never used Feedly, but with the small amount of time that I have spent on Feedly this week I think it could be a very useful website and one that I plan on incorporating in my everyday life as well as in my teaching future. Feedly is a way to organize all of your online feeds on one website.
This first week made me excited for what this class is all about. I think this class will be an enjoyable experience. In the two classes that we have had so far we have generated valuable conversations and I am looking forward to what future classes hold.
The first resource that we were introduced to was Google Plus. Google Plus is a social network platform that everyone in our class is using as sort of a home base. I have never used Google Plus before but it seems like a useful platform to use if you are using any online platform in your classroom.
The next online resource that we were introduced to was Twitter. I have been using twitter for 5-6 years and I am pretty familiar with the application. I have been using twitter on a personal level not as on a professional level. I could see the benefit of using twitter to follow people in education and people in the world of technology.
The last resource we were introduced to was Feedly. Feedly is a RSS (Rich Site Summary) and is a content organizer. I have never used Feedly, but with the small amount of time that I have spent on Feedly this week I think it could be a very useful website and one that I plan on incorporating in my everyday life as well as in my teaching future. Feedly is a way to organize all of your online feeds on one website.
This first week made me excited for what this class is all about. I think this class will be an enjoyable experience. In the two classes that we have had so far we have generated valuable conversations and I am looking forward to what future classes hold.
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