ICT in the Classroom:
On Wednesday this week, I went to talk to my cooperating teacher, about issues as timeless and mundane as when to show up at the school on a given day, or what he expects from the students and any student teachers in his classroom, but what I also ended up hearing a lot about was technology in the classroom and multimedia, not only as a tool that the teacher used, but one that students used on a regular basis, as an integral part of their education. Their current English project is a whole-class long presentation that must involve technological as well as non-technological methods, and it is regularly expected that they use classroom technology in order to conduct research for projects and do assignments.
I didn't really doubt the value of the class before hearing all this, but if I had, any of those doubts would have been laid to rest. My development as a technology-user has only begun, and it's unlikely to end, at least before we all end up with the technology directly wired into our brains (it's coming, there's already experimental neural interfaces in testing).
Five Best Things I Did/learned in ICT: (Arbitrary List #1)
1.) Horrible Students- the video, the epic
2.) Topical Website- I'll have to edit it a bit for classroom use, but I'm using it.
3.) Google Docs- Holy Moly, I actually know something about ICT!
4.) Animoto
5.) E-Portfolio
Five Most Frustrating Things That I Experienced/Did in ICT: (Arbitrary List #2)
1.) Why The Heck Won't The Darned School Give Us Some Goshdarned Disk Space (The PG version)
2.) Wikis- Surprisingly useless in a collaborative context
3.) Connection Problems with Group Presentation- GRRRR
4.) Why Are There So Many Tools That I Can't Learn Them All
5.) Google Isn't Working In Google Chrome What Is That Even About
Overall, I would say that I have learned a lot and enjoyed a lot in my journey learning about ICT, but perhaps the real benefit is that I'm a little less afraid of just leaping in and trying something new, monkeying around with it until I get something that works. It's that same spirit of bold innovation which spurred explorers to discover and map the New World, one that I need to cultivate in myself before I can cultivate it in my students. I was around to see the transition from the analog world to the digital world, my students will be entirely creatures of the digital age in all of its promise and problematic implications.
As I begin my second placement, I look forward to putting in practice some of the things I have learned in this classroom and perhaps coming up with some new tricks and tools that I can share with students, coworkers and others. It has been a true pleasure to learn with Mike and perhaps I will be able to have another class with him in the future.
Farewell and Goodnight (for now),
Kris Keen
Friday, 8 March 2013
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Week Eight: The Fine Art of Presentation
Week Eight: The Fine Art of Presentation
One of the first things that any aspiring technologist should realize about technology is that sometimes it doesn't work out very well. This is what our enterprising group discovered on Wednesday, as the presentation we had intended to do was somewhat derailed by the lack of cooperation of the components involved. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate that difficulty somewhat and show everyone the wonder and amazement of Remind101 through a more interactive method, but it would have been nice if things had worked out a little better with the smartboard.
How can you prevent such things from happening in the future? The first thing is to make sure that you are familiar with the technology or application that you are using with your classroom, that you've used it a few times, and if at all possible, with all the specific equipment you will be using in the actual classroom demonstration. If you are intending to hook something up to a Smartboard, do it after class sometime, so you know what to expect. Knowledge is your first and last line of defence.
Secondly, it never hurts to have a backup plan in case something doesn't go right. Perhaps you can scale down what you'd intended to do into a form that would be more viable, or perhaps you can simply do what you'd intended to do in a low-tech form if necessary. Perhaps there's another activity that can keep them busy while you figure out what went wrong. While it's always ideal if your Plan A works out perfectly, you should always be ready to employ a Plan B. We thought of one somewhat on the fly, which worked out all right in the end, but a prepared plan would have been better.
Remind101:
Now that I've discussed several of the potential issues with presenting technology, I'd like to spend some time to briefly discuss Remind101 itself. I think this could be an extremely useful app for classroom purposes, neatly solving some of the most intractable problems of having teacher e-mail addresses and texting numbers in the hands of parents, students or others. It's useful for the teacher to have a service which can instantly send reminders and brief notes to people in defined groups and the confidentiality and inability of others to reply to the messages means that it can stay on task, as a professional tool, rather than a socializing one.
I don't think I would use this with actual students in an Early Years context, though it may be useful with their parents and between teachers. With older kids, it may be a different story, though it would require a certain degree of sensitivity about the nature of the school you were in. In a school in a privileged area, virtually everyone might have a phone that can take advantage of this, in a poorer district, it might be a source of undesired conflict between "have" and "have-not" students. This could be especially tense in an area where there is a mixed demographic (I tend to think of Vincent Massey, which contains some of the richest as well as some of the poorest kids in the city) and some caution may be in order before introducing it to students. It might be easier on something like an extracurricular club or sports team than in a general classroom.
Overall, I thought Remind101 was a useful app and I was happy to show it to the classroom. It's crazy to contemplate this, but my next blog entry will be the course wrapup, where I reflect on some of what has happened in the class, what I have learned, and what I would like to learn more about as I start my second placement of student teaching.
One of the first things that any aspiring technologist should realize about technology is that sometimes it doesn't work out very well. This is what our enterprising group discovered on Wednesday, as the presentation we had intended to do was somewhat derailed by the lack of cooperation of the components involved. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate that difficulty somewhat and show everyone the wonder and amazement of Remind101 through a more interactive method, but it would have been nice if things had worked out a little better with the smartboard.
How can you prevent such things from happening in the future? The first thing is to make sure that you are familiar with the technology or application that you are using with your classroom, that you've used it a few times, and if at all possible, with all the specific equipment you will be using in the actual classroom demonstration. If you are intending to hook something up to a Smartboard, do it after class sometime, so you know what to expect. Knowledge is your first and last line of defence.
Secondly, it never hurts to have a backup plan in case something doesn't go right. Perhaps you can scale down what you'd intended to do into a form that would be more viable, or perhaps you can simply do what you'd intended to do in a low-tech form if necessary. Perhaps there's another activity that can keep them busy while you figure out what went wrong. While it's always ideal if your Plan A works out perfectly, you should always be ready to employ a Plan B. We thought of one somewhat on the fly, which worked out all right in the end, but a prepared plan would have been better.
Remind101:
Now that I've discussed several of the potential issues with presenting technology, I'd like to spend some time to briefly discuss Remind101 itself. I think this could be an extremely useful app for classroom purposes, neatly solving some of the most intractable problems of having teacher e-mail addresses and texting numbers in the hands of parents, students or others. It's useful for the teacher to have a service which can instantly send reminders and brief notes to people in defined groups and the confidentiality and inability of others to reply to the messages means that it can stay on task, as a professional tool, rather than a socializing one.
I don't think I would use this with actual students in an Early Years context, though it may be useful with their parents and between teachers. With older kids, it may be a different story, though it would require a certain degree of sensitivity about the nature of the school you were in. In a school in a privileged area, virtually everyone might have a phone that can take advantage of this, in a poorer district, it might be a source of undesired conflict between "have" and "have-not" students. This could be especially tense in an area where there is a mixed demographic (I tend to think of Vincent Massey, which contains some of the richest as well as some of the poorest kids in the city) and some caution may be in order before introducing it to students. It might be easier on something like an extracurricular club or sports team than in a general classroom.
Overall, I thought Remind101 was a useful app and I was happy to show it to the classroom. It's crazy to contemplate this, but my next blog entry will be the course wrapup, where I reflect on some of what has happened in the class, what I have learned, and what I would like to learn more about as I start my second placement of student teaching.
Monday, 25 February 2013
Week Seven: Dr. Strangedean, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love the Chicken
Week Seven: Dr. Strangedean, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Chicken
In ICT class this week, we embarked on the production of a short video in which we developed our abilities and aptitude for making and editing video, while having a great deal of fun and including several fellow students and faculty. We decided early on to do something fun, rather than serious and thought that it would be an excellent idea to end with a rendition of the Harlem Shake, in which we would invite any faculty members willing to participate. We were pleasantly surprised when the Dean of Education, Dr. Cockerline was willing to not only dance in the scene at the end, but guest star as an angry principal.
Making the video was a lot of fun! We were lucky enough to get a selection of fun props and costumes from Mecca Productions, including a rather realistic-looking prop chicken, which I happily engaged in dancing around with at the end of the video. We discussed such things as appropriate angles and rotating of camera duties, while doing the shoot in two seperate sessions, one on Tuesday for the bulk of the video and on Wednesday afternoon for the Harlem Shake part at the end. While producing the video was the most fun part, editing in many ways is the really important work.
We had several ideas for music, including ragtime and a variety of pop songs, but chose to go with a relatively obtrusive backing track, so as to not distract too much from either the Harlem Shake at the end or the visual elements nearer the beginning. We used a single take of Stephanie's disapproval for several scenes, with the reasoning that it would be funnier if repeated. We deliberately left in a few jumpy cuts for humourous purposes, though I feel most of our transitions were reasonably smooth. We ended up with a video that was 3:43 long, but felt that cutting it further would result in the loss of valuable material (and comedy), so we didn't cut it any further.
Once we finished making the video, we uploaded it to YouTube, where as of this morning, our video has 272 hits, which indicates that it is being watched by at least a few people outside of our immediate circle! The process of making and editing a video was enormously fun, and I look forward to perhaps sharing the experience with a classroom in the future. I have considered the possibility of doing a video for my Grade 7 ELA class (or perhaps another class) and I think it would be a great deal of fun for students, as well as providing them with a lasting artifact of their hard work and creativity.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Week Six: Operation Multimedia
It is difficult to believe that I am doing a retrospective of the sixth week of our term already. Needless to say, that is more than a little intimidating to consider, as we begin the inevitable mad sprint to the finish of the term and the beginning of student teaching.
Our Week In Review:
We spent much of this week discussing multimedia and worked to create a slide show featuring digital photographs, set to music. For my own show, I chose to do something related to my teaching plans for the term, a slideshow on Ethiopia, using pictures from the Wikimedia Commons. My desire would be to impress upon students that there is more to Ethiopia than what they usually hear about it, that is, of a country full of starving children. I chose images of the landscape, of the wildlife, of their culture and history to give a brief impression that of the rich heritage of one of the world's oldest nations.
Using Animoto to produce this was simplicity itself, with the selection and arrangement of the pictures being significantly more difficult than the other visual and auditory elements of it. While the video that was produced was ultimately serviceable, I was a little disappointed at the low quality of the images that were produced. I suppose that the paid service would give you options to have better sound quality, as well as longer videos. I think that a minute-long show with a greater number of images and higher quality would go a long way towards fulfilling the purpose I desire. Perhaps I should try Photostory to see how that compares.
In addition to making a slideshow, we also used photomanipulation programs in order to turn an ordinary image into something considerably more amusing. I used BeFunky to add an appropriate frame to a Shakespearan image as well as suitably knavish dialogue. I must say, it looked better on my screen than it did up at the front of class. In the future, I would have used speech balloons so as to make the text more visible than it was. This is something which I need to do some more experimenting with before I can feel confidant in my mastery.
Looking Forward:
Next week, we're making a movie, which should be exciting. Our plan is to do it as a large group and then split into two groups in order to edit the film differently, which should make it interesting to compare the two edits together. I've never really participated in a project like this before, so it should be interesting to see how it all turns out ...
Our Week In Review:
We spent much of this week discussing multimedia and worked to create a slide show featuring digital photographs, set to music. For my own show, I chose to do something related to my teaching plans for the term, a slideshow on Ethiopia, using pictures from the Wikimedia Commons. My desire would be to impress upon students that there is more to Ethiopia than what they usually hear about it, that is, of a country full of starving children. I chose images of the landscape, of the wildlife, of their culture and history to give a brief impression that of the rich heritage of one of the world's oldest nations.
Using Animoto to produce this was simplicity itself, with the selection and arrangement of the pictures being significantly more difficult than the other visual and auditory elements of it. While the video that was produced was ultimately serviceable, I was a little disappointed at the low quality of the images that were produced. I suppose that the paid service would give you options to have better sound quality, as well as longer videos. I think that a minute-long show with a greater number of images and higher quality would go a long way towards fulfilling the purpose I desire. Perhaps I should try Photostory to see how that compares.
In addition to making a slideshow, we also used photomanipulation programs in order to turn an ordinary image into something considerably more amusing. I used BeFunky to add an appropriate frame to a Shakespearan image as well as suitably knavish dialogue. I must say, it looked better on my screen than it did up at the front of class. In the future, I would have used speech balloons so as to make the text more visible than it was. This is something which I need to do some more experimenting with before I can feel confidant in my mastery.
Looking Forward:
Next week, we're making a movie, which should be exciting. Our plan is to do it as a large group and then split into two groups in order to edit the film differently, which should make it interesting to compare the two edits together. I've never really participated in a project like this before, so it should be interesting to see how it all turns out ...
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Week Five: Smart Boards And The Infinite Confusion
Smartboards: The Usefulness, The Frustration
I used a smartboard relatively frequently during my first placement, but it is safe to say that I never did more than absolutely scratch the surface of its functionality, using it primarily as a means of displaying computer programs on a screen for what amounts to a somewhat fancier version of a whiteboard, which are in and of themselves recent additions to classrooms. Exploring the functionality of a smartboard during class, I have to admit that I'm still less than expert in its use and expect that I'll be continuing to learn for some time how to use them properly.
I did, however, encounter some very useful little programs that could be valuable for either an Early Years or an early Middle Years placement, including programs that allowed you to place organs in their proper places on the body and an interesting interactive flash that allowed you to sample different parts of an orchestra, so you got a sense of how the different instruments contributed to a single piece. Certainly, there are no shortage of useful functions that one could accomplish with a smartboard given the prequesite skills and time to do so.
As a random aside, you know you're a hopeless nerd when you start playing around with dice rollers on the smartboard software and wish they had the full range of polyhedral dice, so you could basically play D&D on a smartboard ... which is neither here nor there as far as a classroom goes.
For all the power and functionality of the smartboard, however, there are some drawbacks. It is frustrating that the light markers can only be operated one at a time, and that the colours shift seemingly arbitrarily if you break that rule. There's no denying that it's easier to write on a whiteboard than a smartboard. I also worry about it being the best investment of preparation time as it often takes quite awhile to assemble instruction-worthy material on a smartboard, even at a limited level of functionality. Additionally, there is a frequent and disturbing trend to simply reduce already-precious whiteboard space for the smartboard's addition.
A Few Thoughts on Multimedia:
When I was introduced to the concept of multimedia in the 1990s, it was primarily as something you viewed, something you watched or listened to that already existed, within a computer program or increasingly as the 90s drew to a close, on the Internet as well. Somewhere around the midpoint of the first decade of the new millennium, however, that began to change, marked by the emergence of YouTube in 2005 and continuing onwards into the present. Rather than simply being something that you watched, an experience that you took in passively, multimedia is now something you yourself can create, without specialized skills or expensive software.
This has had vast implications for our society, ones that are still making themselves felt as literally everyone in the world with an Internet connection can now become a creator and an artist. Thousands of people who previously had no means of sharing their creativity with the world can not only share their artistry, but also make a living from their art. In the year 2000, only a tiny few webcomics existed, and now there are countless thousands of them, with dozens of creators who are capable of supporting themselves on their art.
One of the most popular webcomics on the Internet, Homestuck, on www.mspainatadventures.com, is emblematic of the changing nature of artistic creation and expression on the Internet. Fuelled as much by Internet memes and its own fandom (about a million people read it daily) as by any traditional considerations of plot, it seamlessly weaves together images, animations, music and even short computer games into an epic that defies all simple categorizations of genre or even medium. Starting in 2008, the insane, brilliant mash of forms and mediums that constitutes this comic would have been inconceivable even five years before it went online.
The world of media creation is one that I haven't even dabbled in substantially. There are perhaps a dozen photographs of me that exist on the Internet, all of which were taken by other people. I don't own a scanner, nor have I ever used the camera feature on my phone. All of which would have marked me as pretty normal even a few years ago, but these days, smacks of Luddism that I don't really believe in. Hopefully by the time I am finished this course, I'll be empowered to branch out a little more into the world of multimedia and integrate both original and found content into the classroom.
I used a smartboard relatively frequently during my first placement, but it is safe to say that I never did more than absolutely scratch the surface of its functionality, using it primarily as a means of displaying computer programs on a screen for what amounts to a somewhat fancier version of a whiteboard, which are in and of themselves recent additions to classrooms. Exploring the functionality of a smartboard during class, I have to admit that I'm still less than expert in its use and expect that I'll be continuing to learn for some time how to use them properly.
I did, however, encounter some very useful little programs that could be valuable for either an Early Years or an early Middle Years placement, including programs that allowed you to place organs in their proper places on the body and an interesting interactive flash that allowed you to sample different parts of an orchestra, so you got a sense of how the different instruments contributed to a single piece. Certainly, there are no shortage of useful functions that one could accomplish with a smartboard given the prequesite skills and time to do so.
As a random aside, you know you're a hopeless nerd when you start playing around with dice rollers on the smartboard software and wish they had the full range of polyhedral dice, so you could basically play D&D on a smartboard ... which is neither here nor there as far as a classroom goes.
For all the power and functionality of the smartboard, however, there are some drawbacks. It is frustrating that the light markers can only be operated one at a time, and that the colours shift seemingly arbitrarily if you break that rule. There's no denying that it's easier to write on a whiteboard than a smartboard. I also worry about it being the best investment of preparation time as it often takes quite awhile to assemble instruction-worthy material on a smartboard, even at a limited level of functionality. Additionally, there is a frequent and disturbing trend to simply reduce already-precious whiteboard space for the smartboard's addition.
A Few Thoughts on Multimedia:
When I was introduced to the concept of multimedia in the 1990s, it was primarily as something you viewed, something you watched or listened to that already existed, within a computer program or increasingly as the 90s drew to a close, on the Internet as well. Somewhere around the midpoint of the first decade of the new millennium, however, that began to change, marked by the emergence of YouTube in 2005 and continuing onwards into the present. Rather than simply being something that you watched, an experience that you took in passively, multimedia is now something you yourself can create, without specialized skills or expensive software.
This has had vast implications for our society, ones that are still making themselves felt as literally everyone in the world with an Internet connection can now become a creator and an artist. Thousands of people who previously had no means of sharing their creativity with the world can not only share their artistry, but also make a living from their art. In the year 2000, only a tiny few webcomics existed, and now there are countless thousands of them, with dozens of creators who are capable of supporting themselves on their art.
One of the most popular webcomics on the Internet, Homestuck, on www.mspainatadventures.com, is emblematic of the changing nature of artistic creation and expression on the Internet. Fuelled as much by Internet memes and its own fandom (about a million people read it daily) as by any traditional considerations of plot, it seamlessly weaves together images, animations, music and even short computer games into an epic that defies all simple categorizations of genre or even medium. Starting in 2008, the insane, brilliant mash of forms and mediums that constitutes this comic would have been inconceivable even five years before it went online.
The world of media creation is one that I haven't even dabbled in substantially. There are perhaps a dozen photographs of me that exist on the Internet, all of which were taken by other people. I don't own a scanner, nor have I ever used the camera feature on my phone. All of which would have marked me as pretty normal even a few years ago, but these days, smacks of Luddism that I don't really believe in. Hopefully by the time I am finished this course, I'll be empowered to branch out a little more into the world of multimedia and integrate both original and found content into the classroom.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Week Four: Google Docs and Wikis and Weebly, Oh My!
It's startling to think that the course of the term is about half over already. It feels like it just began, but we're already finished Week Four. The work begins to pile on as projects become more and more engrossing and assignment due dates, once seemingly so distant, become too close for comfort ...
Making a Website via Weebly:
For the most part, Weebly seems to be a very simple, yet powerful tool for making a website that is both attractive and functional, especially for someone with little experience in making a website. It's a delight to be able to pull down simply elements from the top bar in order to create individual pages, as well as an intuitive interface for making and ordering websites. I'll be using Weebly for my e-portfolio and, through the magic of an alternate email address, will actually be using it in my personal life to power a website for a tabletop roleplaying campaign that I run.
There are, however, a few criticisms that I would make about Weebly. It does not seem particularly easy to make a good-looking table in the website, though it's possible that I just haven't discovered the "trick". To me, tables seem like they could be a discrete element. Also, there are some issues with formatting and spacing that, while I was able to resolve them, caused minor headaches. Overall, however, I was able to make a far more attractive and functional website in a far shorter time using Weebly than I would have imagined possible only a short time ago. Literally anyone with basic Internet navigation skills can learn to make a website on Weebly that would serve their purposes.
It is a tool that I intend to be using in my classroom, not just for myself, but for my students. I see no reason why a Grade Four student, or group of students couldn't make a simple website using the tools offered on Weebly, and it would be simplicity itself for tech-savvy Middle or Senior Years students (in which case, the content would be more important than simple construction). Though I chose to make a topical rather than a personal website, one of my intended projects in the near future is to create a personal website to use as a portal until I get a job at a school division (and then replicate, as best I can, the website on their space).
Google Docs vs. Wikis:
Now that we have experience making both Google Docs and wikis, I can compare the two in terms of their usefulness for collaborative work and speculate on their proper use, both in general and in the classroom.
For the purposes of a short-term collaborative project in which people are likely to be working simultaneously, there is no question whatsoever that Google Docs are superior. Our group ran into several headaches with wikis regarding updating, and while we eventually nominated Kristin to be the primary editor and publishier of group-sourced content, this created new headaches. Meanwhile, doing the same manner of project with a Google Doc was not only far easier, but actually fun. The medium seems to lend itself to a fairly lighthearted atmosphere and I think a class group would have a lot of fun working on projects together using a Google Doc.
The primary advantage of a wiki, I believe, is in its permanance and online status- a Google Doc can be made open, but is not typically so and it functions primarily as an online equivalent of Microsoft Office. While I don't have a lot of experience with wikis yet, I would speculate that they are probably more powerful than Google Docs in terms of being able to construct a large and durable webportal. The difficulties with collaborative work on a wiki disappear if the people who are collaborating are distant from each other and not typically working at the same time.
While I certainly had an easier time with Google Docs, I do not want to dismiss wikis, nor do I want to put up my hands and refuse to learn more about using them. After all, one of the most popular and useful websites in in the world, Wikipedia, is a wiki.
Making a Website via Weebly:
For the most part, Weebly seems to be a very simple, yet powerful tool for making a website that is both attractive and functional, especially for someone with little experience in making a website. It's a delight to be able to pull down simply elements from the top bar in order to create individual pages, as well as an intuitive interface for making and ordering websites. I'll be using Weebly for my e-portfolio and, through the magic of an alternate email address, will actually be using it in my personal life to power a website for a tabletop roleplaying campaign that I run.
There are, however, a few criticisms that I would make about Weebly. It does not seem particularly easy to make a good-looking table in the website, though it's possible that I just haven't discovered the "trick". To me, tables seem like they could be a discrete element. Also, there are some issues with formatting and spacing that, while I was able to resolve them, caused minor headaches. Overall, however, I was able to make a far more attractive and functional website in a far shorter time using Weebly than I would have imagined possible only a short time ago. Literally anyone with basic Internet navigation skills can learn to make a website on Weebly that would serve their purposes.
It is a tool that I intend to be using in my classroom, not just for myself, but for my students. I see no reason why a Grade Four student, or group of students couldn't make a simple website using the tools offered on Weebly, and it would be simplicity itself for tech-savvy Middle or Senior Years students (in which case, the content would be more important than simple construction). Though I chose to make a topical rather than a personal website, one of my intended projects in the near future is to create a personal website to use as a portal until I get a job at a school division (and then replicate, as best I can, the website on their space).
Google Docs vs. Wikis:
Now that we have experience making both Google Docs and wikis, I can compare the two in terms of their usefulness for collaborative work and speculate on their proper use, both in general and in the classroom.
For the purposes of a short-term collaborative project in which people are likely to be working simultaneously, there is no question whatsoever that Google Docs are superior. Our group ran into several headaches with wikis regarding updating, and while we eventually nominated Kristin to be the primary editor and publishier of group-sourced content, this created new headaches. Meanwhile, doing the same manner of project with a Google Doc was not only far easier, but actually fun. The medium seems to lend itself to a fairly lighthearted atmosphere and I think a class group would have a lot of fun working on projects together using a Google Doc.
The primary advantage of a wiki, I believe, is in its permanance and online status- a Google Doc can be made open, but is not typically so and it functions primarily as an online equivalent of Microsoft Office. While I don't have a lot of experience with wikis yet, I would speculate that they are probably more powerful than Google Docs in terms of being able to construct a large and durable webportal. The difficulties with collaborative work on a wiki disappear if the people who are collaborating are distant from each other and not typically working at the same time.
While I certainly had an easier time with Google Docs, I do not want to dismiss wikis, nor do I want to put up my hands and refuse to learn more about using them. After all, one of the most popular and useful websites in in the world, Wikipedia, is a wiki.
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Week Three: Once More Onto The Breach
Websites for Everyone:
This is not the first time I have worked towards building a website.
The first time I made a website, it was in Grade 10 Computer Science, in 1999, and I was using html to try and design a very simple, unexciting webpage for a class project. As I recall, I'd decided to make a Smashing Pumpkins fansite (dating myself yet further) and the process of building it was absolutely painful. I got a fairly good grade on the final result, but I remember being rather disappointed by the appearance of the site, though it was no worse than probably half the pages on the Internet at the time.
Fast forward to the year 2013 and I'm working on building a website again, using Weebly, which allows me to build a website without any special training or programs, using a vastly more intuitive interface and with a result that is considerably more impressive than the first one. Several of the options I have now, such as including a blog, embedding YouTube videos and such, didn't even exist back in the year before the turn of the millennium, let alone were possible to create without any real difficulty. Even five or six years ago, website design was still primarily for those with technical savvy, and now today, virtually anyone can make an attractive, functional website and furthermore, do it for free.
Cyber Citizenship- Some Brief Musings:
With greater power and vastly increased options, however, does come a certain added responsibility. It was more or less understood back in 1999 that I was free to pilfer virtually whatever image I could from the Internet, as there was no organized Creative Commons. Today, we have more opportunity and thus, more obligation to act as responsible digital citizens.
It wasn't that long ago that it seemed that living the cyber-pirate's life, so to speak, was not only an acceptable means of existing in cyberculture, but the only ones. The music industry was flush with enormous profits, most software was priced well outside of any reasonable budget and it was exceedingly easy to portray the people that built sites like Napster and the Pirate Bay as modern-day Robin Hoods.
Today, the situation has changed vastly. If you don't want to pay the outrageous, ridiculous sums for, say, Microsoft Office, there are legitimate free options such as OpenOffice or Google Docs. The rise of Creative Commons has placed a huge amount of media for free use by anyone. While many things remain unaffected thus far by this change, it seems that the "wild west" of the Internet is slowly settling down somewhat in favor of a somewhat more organized communal approach. Thankfully for all concerned, the Wikimedia Foundation seems to be the light of the future for the Internet, rather than 4chan.
Cyber citizenship, with its associated rights and responsibilities is a real thing and for many young people today it is probably just as important in their daily lives as their national citizenships are. We're used to thinking of globalization as a vaguely sinister concept, foisted on us by powerful corporate and media interests for the exclusive profit of a tiny cabal. Cyber-citizenship, however, offers us the potential to create an alternative globalization, sharing the benefits of technology and creativity with all people. While obviously there will always be a leading role for technical experts in Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, entry into this online world is relatively easily obtained. This is something that we will have to teach children about, as it will be as much a part of their daily lives as their national heritage.
In the meantime, though, I have a website to finish.
This is not the first time I have worked towards building a website.
The first time I made a website, it was in Grade 10 Computer Science, in 1999, and I was using html to try and design a very simple, unexciting webpage for a class project. As I recall, I'd decided to make a Smashing Pumpkins fansite (dating myself yet further) and the process of building it was absolutely painful. I got a fairly good grade on the final result, but I remember being rather disappointed by the appearance of the site, though it was no worse than probably half the pages on the Internet at the time.
Fast forward to the year 2013 and I'm working on building a website again, using Weebly, which allows me to build a website without any special training or programs, using a vastly more intuitive interface and with a result that is considerably more impressive than the first one. Several of the options I have now, such as including a blog, embedding YouTube videos and such, didn't even exist back in the year before the turn of the millennium, let alone were possible to create without any real difficulty. Even five or six years ago, website design was still primarily for those with technical savvy, and now today, virtually anyone can make an attractive, functional website and furthermore, do it for free.
Cyber Citizenship- Some Brief Musings:
With greater power and vastly increased options, however, does come a certain added responsibility. It was more or less understood back in 1999 that I was free to pilfer virtually whatever image I could from the Internet, as there was no organized Creative Commons. Today, we have more opportunity and thus, more obligation to act as responsible digital citizens.
It wasn't that long ago that it seemed that living the cyber-pirate's life, so to speak, was not only an acceptable means of existing in cyberculture, but the only ones. The music industry was flush with enormous profits, most software was priced well outside of any reasonable budget and it was exceedingly easy to portray the people that built sites like Napster and the Pirate Bay as modern-day Robin Hoods.
Today, the situation has changed vastly. If you don't want to pay the outrageous, ridiculous sums for, say, Microsoft Office, there are legitimate free options such as OpenOffice or Google Docs. The rise of Creative Commons has placed a huge amount of media for free use by anyone. While many things remain unaffected thus far by this change, it seems that the "wild west" of the Internet is slowly settling down somewhat in favor of a somewhat more organized communal approach. Thankfully for all concerned, the Wikimedia Foundation seems to be the light of the future for the Internet, rather than 4chan.
Cyber citizenship, with its associated rights and responsibilities is a real thing and for many young people today it is probably just as important in their daily lives as their national citizenships are. We're used to thinking of globalization as a vaguely sinister concept, foisted on us by powerful corporate and media interests for the exclusive profit of a tiny cabal. Cyber-citizenship, however, offers us the potential to create an alternative globalization, sharing the benefits of technology and creativity with all people. While obviously there will always be a leading role for technical experts in Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, entry into this online world is relatively easily obtained. This is something that we will have to teach children about, as it will be as much a part of their daily lives as their national heritage.
In the meantime, though, I have a website to finish.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Week Two: Testing The Waters
The first week of a class is almost inevitably largely a progress of getting to know the instructor and getting used to being back in the rhythm of school again. In our second week, we got into exploring the world of technology in earnest.
Monday-
On Monday we did many things, including looking at some examples of successful e-portfolios and discussing the "Three C's", Creating, Communicating and Collaborating. We also discussed something which I actually have some familiarity with, Google Docs, and we opened a program together in which we can share applications we have worked with. In my mind, Google Drive and Google Docs are some of the most valuable online applications in existence. One of the truisms of Microsoft Office is that it is hideously overpriced and the use of Google Docs potentially frees the user from having to pay for either a computer with Office preinstalled or actually buying the program in retail. In addition, it allows for online storage, which means that if a computer suddenly crashes, you will not lose your progress, nor will the death of a computer mean the potential loss of the files in question.
Tuesday-
One of the more interesting things we played with on Tuesday was a program called Jing, which allows you to make a capture of your computer screen and upload it to the Internet to be used either publicly or privately. Relatively easy to use, Jing could be useful for getting images to use on a website or class project, as well as for creating a tutorial for learning how to use a particular online application that you were utilizing for your classroom. I look forward to playing more with Jing.
Wednesday-
On Wednesday we had a presentation from Andy McKiel and Darren Kuropatwa on "What Really Matters" in which we had to create a visual representation on what we thought really mattered in the classroom. In doing so, we had to use a few very interesting websites. We used compfight.com to find Creative Commons images to use as the backdrop. I appreciate being shown this resource, because while in the "old days", it was quite easy to simply rip images from somewhere else and put them on schoolwork without anyone knowing, now many school assignments are being shared more widely. By using Creative Commons material, you are choosing to avoid any potential legal problems but also contributing to one of the most fascinating parts of Internet culture, the idea of providing valuable programs and services for free. We used pixlr.com to edit the images and text into a viable representation. This was another program that I look forward to using in the future, as it was quite simple and intuitive to use and could, I think, be grasped readily by Grade Three or Four students.
Thursday-
We spent much of Thursday discussing the workshop we had with Darren and Andy, as well as talking about online privacy and maintaining a positive internet presence. This is one thing that I would like to start building up as I have virtually no online presence right now, one way or the other. While most of the references to other Kristopher Keens seem to be either positive or neutral, it's best to build up your own reputation so that when the inevitable Google search comes from an employer or as is quite likely, students themselves.
We also discussed beginning to set up our websites, of which we have two primary options, one being for a classroom website and the other one being set up to support teaching of a specific topic related to the curriculum. I'm actually more inclined to make the latter than the former, as I'm actually quite eager to get into some of the content for my placement as soon as possible and likely will not be able to do so in some of my classes, as my placement is Middle Years. I'm interested in doing something do with the Communities of the World cluster in Grade 7, as I think I could easily find a great many useful resources for students.
Next week, we will be working extensively on our websites, learning about some of the tools we can use to make one, as well as getting some class work time in which to do so. I'm a little nervous about setting up a website, as I haven't done that since high school, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!
Monday-
On Monday we did many things, including looking at some examples of successful e-portfolios and discussing the "Three C's", Creating, Communicating and Collaborating. We also discussed something which I actually have some familiarity with, Google Docs, and we opened a program together in which we can share applications we have worked with. In my mind, Google Drive and Google Docs are some of the most valuable online applications in existence. One of the truisms of Microsoft Office is that it is hideously overpriced and the use of Google Docs potentially frees the user from having to pay for either a computer with Office preinstalled or actually buying the program in retail. In addition, it allows for online storage, which means that if a computer suddenly crashes, you will not lose your progress, nor will the death of a computer mean the potential loss of the files in question.
Tuesday-
One of the more interesting things we played with on Tuesday was a program called Jing, which allows you to make a capture of your computer screen and upload it to the Internet to be used either publicly or privately. Relatively easy to use, Jing could be useful for getting images to use on a website or class project, as well as for creating a tutorial for learning how to use a particular online application that you were utilizing for your classroom. I look forward to playing more with Jing.
Wednesday-
On Wednesday we had a presentation from Andy McKiel and Darren Kuropatwa on "What Really Matters" in which we had to create a visual representation on what we thought really mattered in the classroom. In doing so, we had to use a few very interesting websites. We used compfight.com to find Creative Commons images to use as the backdrop. I appreciate being shown this resource, because while in the "old days", it was quite easy to simply rip images from somewhere else and put them on schoolwork without anyone knowing, now many school assignments are being shared more widely. By using Creative Commons material, you are choosing to avoid any potential legal problems but also contributing to one of the most fascinating parts of Internet culture, the idea of providing valuable programs and services for free. We used pixlr.com to edit the images and text into a viable representation. This was another program that I look forward to using in the future, as it was quite simple and intuitive to use and could, I think, be grasped readily by Grade Three or Four students.
Thursday-
We spent much of Thursday discussing the workshop we had with Darren and Andy, as well as talking about online privacy and maintaining a positive internet presence. This is one thing that I would like to start building up as I have virtually no online presence right now, one way or the other. While most of the references to other Kristopher Keens seem to be either positive or neutral, it's best to build up your own reputation so that when the inevitable Google search comes from an employer or as is quite likely, students themselves.
We also discussed beginning to set up our websites, of which we have two primary options, one being for a classroom website and the other one being set up to support teaching of a specific topic related to the curriculum. I'm actually more inclined to make the latter than the former, as I'm actually quite eager to get into some of the content for my placement as soon as possible and likely will not be able to do so in some of my classes, as my placement is Middle Years. I'm interested in doing something do with the Communities of the World cluster in Grade 7, as I think I could easily find a great many useful resources for students.
Next week, we will be working extensively on our websites, learning about some of the tools we can use to make one, as well as getting some class work time in which to do so. I'm a little nervous about setting up a website, as I haven't done that since high school, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!
Week One: Dabbling In The ICT Pool
I use the computer for virtually everything I do. I cannot imagine doing research without access to the Internet, or writing without being able to type. Outside of school, this is little different. I use instant messagers extensively and Skype occasionally for communication with others, including with many people whom I have never met "face-to-face" and yet consider myself to have very real friendships with. Even when I go to play Dungeons & Dragons (there's a subtle nod to it in the title of this blog), I use mainly books in PDF version as well as various online programs to ease the burden of being a Dungeon Master.
And yet, the truth is that I'm little more than a neophyte in the world of technology. If the technological world is seen as an ocean, I've been little more than a duck dabbling at the surface. I'm a little nervous about diving into largely uncharted waters, but excited as well. We've had two weeks in the class thus far, and I'll be taking much of the time on this blog to discuss what has happened and what we've begun to explore in that time.
One of the first activities we engaged in was to make a Wordle, in which we thought up words and phrases related to ICT and put them in the program to create a world cloud, which we then formatted to suit our interests and submitted. The world cloud is an excellent visual way of dissecting a text, with key concepts naturally coming to the surface and lesser ones being subsumed. We also learned in this exercise how important it is to be flexible regarding technology- it wouldn't save adequately on my computer for some reason, so I had to export it to Microsoft Document Writer and submit that file.
Another neat little exercise we did was to put up both questions and things we were passionate about on the WallWisher program, a neat little application which allows you to paste things on an online "wall" shareable only by people in a particular group. I could see the WallWisher program being useful for classroom use in a wide variety of topics well beyond technology itself. It could be used as an activation exercise in a unit, by getting students to post something that they know or think they know, as well as something they don't know or would like to learn about. The results could be an excellent way of stimulating discussion before getting on to the primary material of the class.
On Thursday, we were introduced to the concept of the eportfolio, which I think would probably be an overall more convenient means of storing a portfolio than a paper version, especially for me. Instead of bringing a cumbersome copy of a paper portfolio to an interview that may be hard to replace, you could simply provide a link to it on your resume or offer it up in one format or another during the interview process. Even if it is rarely examined, your portfolio provides a means of organizing and proritizing your accomplishments and attributes and may serve a valuable part in organizing your interview, even if it is never explicitly referred to or even mentioned.
And yet, the truth is that I'm little more than a neophyte in the world of technology. If the technological world is seen as an ocean, I've been little more than a duck dabbling at the surface. I'm a little nervous about diving into largely uncharted waters, but excited as well. We've had two weeks in the class thus far, and I'll be taking much of the time on this blog to discuss what has happened and what we've begun to explore in that time.
One of the first activities we engaged in was to make a Wordle, in which we thought up words and phrases related to ICT and put them in the program to create a world cloud, which we then formatted to suit our interests and submitted. The world cloud is an excellent visual way of dissecting a text, with key concepts naturally coming to the surface and lesser ones being subsumed. We also learned in this exercise how important it is to be flexible regarding technology- it wouldn't save adequately on my computer for some reason, so I had to export it to Microsoft Document Writer and submit that file.
Another neat little exercise we did was to put up both questions and things we were passionate about on the WallWisher program, a neat little application which allows you to paste things on an online "wall" shareable only by people in a particular group. I could see the WallWisher program being useful for classroom use in a wide variety of topics well beyond technology itself. It could be used as an activation exercise in a unit, by getting students to post something that they know or think they know, as well as something they don't know or would like to learn about. The results could be an excellent way of stimulating discussion before getting on to the primary material of the class.
On Thursday, we were introduced to the concept of the eportfolio, which I think would probably be an overall more convenient means of storing a portfolio than a paper version, especially for me. Instead of bringing a cumbersome copy of a paper portfolio to an interview that may be hard to replace, you could simply provide a link to it on your resume or offer it up in one format or another during the interview process. Even if it is rarely examined, your portfolio provides a means of organizing and proritizing your accomplishments and attributes and may serve a valuable part in organizing your interview, even if it is never explicitly referred to or even mentioned.
Technology In The Classroom (Then & Now)
Before I start discussing my adventures in Introduction to ICT and beyond, I'd like to start with a brief sketch of technological change in the classroom based on my observations and experiences.
Then:
When I went through the public school system, computers were making their presence felt in schools but only tentatively. My first contact with computers in a classroom environment would have been in the early 90s, on computers that did not even have Windows installed on them. The programs available were largely typing programs or simple mathematical ones that allowed you to use a mouse to arrange various shapes on the screen. There were no computers in the classroom and Internet use in schools was still many years away.
I remember distinctly seeing my first "multimedia" on a computer, probably in 1993, a 30-second clip of a cheetah running and thinking that was the most amazing thing ever. There was a special computer in the centre of the computer lab that only teachers and, I believe, Grade 6 students could use that had Windows installed and programs like Encarta. Still, despite a lot of talk about computers being increasingly important in the future, they felt "tacked on" to the school curriculum and we only spent one or two periods a week in the computer labs.
When I was in Grade Five, I got my first home computer, a 486, which was state of the art for the time and enabled me to begin typing up assignments on the computer, which was a blessed relief for a young man with distinctly poor handwriting. Not long afterwards, I became the only person I knew personally- not simply in my class, either. I received this computer and the Internet access through a fundraising effort in the belief that it would be beneficial for my disability, which was probably a correct assumption. As for computer use in the classroom, it was still restricted almost entirely to computer labs, which I actually accessed less often in Middle Years than in Early Years.
It wasn't until I was in high school that computers began to be seen in the classroom, though they were primarily used by teachers. There were Computer Science and Keyboarding classes, and I took one of the Computer Science classes and the Keyboarding class. The former was rather fun, though I remember wasting more time than I should have using Napster (it took the school another year or so to realize piracy was probably not a thing to allow on campus) and the latter, while horrifically boring and tedious, was a godsend as it finally taught me how to type with fluency and speed. Nonetheless, while I relied more and more on home computer use for schoolwork, the experience with technology in the classroom was still relatively minimal.
Now:
I started my student teaching at George Fitton School with my former Grade 2 teacher, though the placement itself was in Grade One. When I was in her class 21 years ago, there were no computers in the classroom and the establishment of a computer lab was a recent development. In her class today, there are four computers, all of which are vastly more powerful than anything that existed when I went to school, let alone had access to. There was also a smartboard, which was used frequently in the classroom, though observably less often than in some of the other classrooms I visited where they were used daily or more than once a day.
There are serious discussions about acquiring mobile technology en masse for students to use in class time, and discussing the principle of giving a device to every student in the school. Already, there are carts with large numbers of laptops that are used to give most of the upper-level students regular access to school computers. Students are using computers every day in virtually every classroom and they do it at a level of proficiency I likely didn't gain until I was in high school.
There is a very real chance that there is more computing power present in my former school, an inner-city school in one of the most economically deprived catchment areas in Brandon, than existed in MIT when I was in high school. The technological revolution is only beginning and if I want to be at all viable as a classroom teacher in this brave new world, then I have a lot to learn ...
Then:
When I went through the public school system, computers were making their presence felt in schools but only tentatively. My first contact with computers in a classroom environment would have been in the early 90s, on computers that did not even have Windows installed on them. The programs available were largely typing programs or simple mathematical ones that allowed you to use a mouse to arrange various shapes on the screen. There were no computers in the classroom and Internet use in schools was still many years away.
I remember distinctly seeing my first "multimedia" on a computer, probably in 1993, a 30-second clip of a cheetah running and thinking that was the most amazing thing ever. There was a special computer in the centre of the computer lab that only teachers and, I believe, Grade 6 students could use that had Windows installed and programs like Encarta. Still, despite a lot of talk about computers being increasingly important in the future, they felt "tacked on" to the school curriculum and we only spent one or two periods a week in the computer labs.
When I was in Grade Five, I got my first home computer, a 486, which was state of the art for the time and enabled me to begin typing up assignments on the computer, which was a blessed relief for a young man with distinctly poor handwriting. Not long afterwards, I became the only person I knew personally- not simply in my class, either. I received this computer and the Internet access through a fundraising effort in the belief that it would be beneficial for my disability, which was probably a correct assumption. As for computer use in the classroom, it was still restricted almost entirely to computer labs, which I actually accessed less often in Middle Years than in Early Years.
It wasn't until I was in high school that computers began to be seen in the classroom, though they were primarily used by teachers. There were Computer Science and Keyboarding classes, and I took one of the Computer Science classes and the Keyboarding class. The former was rather fun, though I remember wasting more time than I should have using Napster (it took the school another year or so to realize piracy was probably not a thing to allow on campus) and the latter, while horrifically boring and tedious, was a godsend as it finally taught me how to type with fluency and speed. Nonetheless, while I relied more and more on home computer use for schoolwork, the experience with technology in the classroom was still relatively minimal.
Now:
I started my student teaching at George Fitton School with my former Grade 2 teacher, though the placement itself was in Grade One. When I was in her class 21 years ago, there were no computers in the classroom and the establishment of a computer lab was a recent development. In her class today, there are four computers, all of which are vastly more powerful than anything that existed when I went to school, let alone had access to. There was also a smartboard, which was used frequently in the classroom, though observably less often than in some of the other classrooms I visited where they were used daily or more than once a day.
There are serious discussions about acquiring mobile technology en masse for students to use in class time, and discussing the principle of giving a device to every student in the school. Already, there are carts with large numbers of laptops that are used to give most of the upper-level students regular access to school computers. Students are using computers every day in virtually every classroom and they do it at a level of proficiency I likely didn't gain until I was in high school.
There is a very real chance that there is more computing power present in my former school, an inner-city school in one of the most economically deprived catchment areas in Brandon, than existed in MIT when I was in high school. The technological revolution is only beginning and if I want to be at all viable as a classroom teacher in this brave new world, then I have a lot to learn ...
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