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!