Web-based Courses

I am not a "newbie" to online courses. I have had access to Blackboard for the past year and it has been a great resource for me.  I have used blackboard with my students in finding different assignments and questions to use and also to help with content notes.

I have also used blackboard as a back-up in my classes if I was going to be away.  If I had to be away for the day, I would send my students to the computer room to work on a lesson on blackboard.  Therefore they wouldn't get behind in the work and I know blackboard is an adequate and outcome based system and I am reassured  I day would not have been "lost."

I love that Manitoba Education has given ALL teachers (even pre-service teachers) the opportunity to use this great resource.  We know that it is a "good system" as well since it was created by Manitoba Education and that the material will be outcome based.

My only concern is that this system is indirectly going to cut jobs for teachers.  Since these courses will be web-based, the students can be from all over one division and only be taught by one teacher in one school.  Whereas before, there would be a teacher in each school teaching these students the course.  I understand that it is not the "intent" of Manitoba Education to diminish jobs of teachers, but it seems that indirectly, this is what will happen.

Infographics

Infographics are a great tool to use within the classroom.  They are way for visual learners to make an understanding of a complex idea and be able to incorporate that knowledge to help learn other concepts.  They help students who learn visually and for all students to develop the ability to see patterns and sequence in their learning and understanding.  One of my favorite infographics  that i have recently found is about education and statistics.

 This infographic is quite an interesting read and represents pictures and statistics of our global school population.  For example, this infographic states that there are

• 1.4 billion students on Earth
• 3.2 million public schools teachers (and a few more in just under two months!!:) )

This infograph also involves some post secondary education which ultimately stems back from secondary education.  

Infographics is a great visual tool to help learners fully understand the content you want to get across to them.  Relating words (stats in this example) to pictures is a great way to teach and help with comprehension.  

http://infogr.am/Facebook-vs-Twitter-brookegelo_1361811539/

Check out my info graphic: Facebook vs Twitter!

Show and Tell: Poll Everywhere

One of my favourite web-based apps that I like to use in many of my classes is called "Poll Everywhere." It is a simple poll application that can be used at any time within a class and transferred to data.  It is a good activation strategy and a way to engage the students and make them feel "cool" by having them use their smart phones.

I have used this application in my Chemistry class, Biology class, Math class and have even used it when asking the students their opinion on a extra curricular event or any discussion idea that I would like their opinion.  In the past, I have polled students on:

1. How they get to school?  walk, drive, bike, etc.  Then with this data, we would make graphs which covers a Grade 10 Essential Math outcome
2. What would you like to do for an activity for "Activity Day"? Ski/snowboard, bowl, toboggan, etc.  Then we used this information to decide what were the top two activities we would give the students to choose from for Activity Day.

This application is easy to use, however, participants need a smartphone or access to a computer with the internet in order to take part in the poll.  Steps:

1. Go to the website: www.polleverywhere.com
2. CLICK the "Create your first poll" green button
3. Type in the question you want to poll
4. Hit "Create"
5. Click "open ended" or "multiple choice" depending on how you want the participants to respond
1. If you click multiple choice you will then need to add choices you wish the participants to choose from
2. If you choose "open ended" your audience will respond with anything 
6. Then a number will come up for the students to choose between your choices, or how the participants will answer.
7. A graph will soon appear, after students have answered the question.

It is a great visual and easy tool to use within the classroom for receiving quick results and also engaging the students to use their smart phones or other devices within the classroom.  

Clarence Fisher

Clarence Fischer joined our Internet for Educator's class this past Thursday for just a half hour, but he spoke about very interesting and enlightening issues.  He is an educator in Snow lake, MB and teaches the Grade 7 and 8 class in this community.

Clarence focused on the changing of education and more so today, it is vastly changing daily.  He focuses on two important factors of a changing educational society: engagement and passion-based learning.

He also spoke about multi-model representation and how he believes its important to create information rather than consume information.  Both are important, but in today's classrooms students need to have the ability to create their own "stuff."  Pictures, video, presentations, etc are all valuable.

Technology is important within classrooms but need implement why you are using it within the classroom. For example, wanting to purchase laptops for your classroom because its cool or interesting. But most times there needs to be more of a reason than simply being "cool" within the classroom.  These reasons can be about creation and importance of learning communities and networks.  The learning that occurs within the classroom is only as strong as the network you have in the class.  online learning communities are important for your students to have access to sharing information and learning from others that may live across the world.  Our job as teachers is to help students have a network of their own.  Students taking initiative to network outside of class and find connections in this way.  Global perspectives is the most valuable reason we use technology with kids.

Video in the Classroom

Videos and multimedia clips are an excellent way to engage students in content area courses.  Videos can be used before, prior or after lessons to clarify or bring up new concepts and ideas.  Videos also help the visual and auditory learners and can be used in all courses.  I find using videos is a great tool within the science curriculum.  For example, performing virtual labs online and also showing students how to perform certain lab techniques from experts from online youtube videos.

Here are a few videos that I found useful to use in a Grade 11 Chemistry.  Labs become quite complex in Grade 11 and 12 Chemistry and it is best that proper techniques are taken into account while performing theses labs.  So not only should the teacher demonstrate the lab and the proper techniques but it is a good idea and resource to watch clips of the lab.

The second video is about safety within the lab which is a VERY important factor before entering the lab.  Students not only need to know all of the rules and regulations of the lab, but know hazards and risks in performing each experiment.

Videos help reiterate key concepts to lessons and are a great tool and resource for teachers to use within the classroom.

NPR Podcast

I listened to several different podcasts on the NPR website affiliated with public radio. I found this website to be very interesting.  There were many different topics you could search and listen to podcasts.  I mostly listened to the podcasts dealing with education and schools. I enjoyed listening to the podcasts because all of them were uniquely different. They weren't necessarily dealing with curriculum, but issues that arise in schools.

For example, I listened to the podcast on Cyberbullying, since it is a "current" topic in today's media.  This podcast was not about how kids are cyberbullying but TEACHERS being the victims of cyberbullying.  There was a teacher in a school in the states that was a victim of cyberbullying and a student of his, made up a fake twitter account about him.  This account made the teacher look like a violent person with inappropriate images and displaying him as a drug and sexual addict.  The student then made many tweets on the teacher's behalf which were very unprofessional and inappropriate.  This occurred in North Carolina and a new law had just been passed in this state.  The new North Carolina law states that it is a crime to torment and intimidate teachers online.  Therefore this student could receive up to a month in jail and a $1000 fine for doing this.

However, the student was only given a "slap on the hand" and left alone.  The law is so broad that no criminal charges could be given.  However, the student confessed and as a result,  the teacher decided not to press charges but soon after resigned from the job.

This just proves that students can target not only their peers, but their teachers of bullying online.  Students are young and may make silly mistakes online, but it is considered detrimental when a student is attempting to harm the reputation of a teacher.

http://www.npr.org/sections/education/

Edublogger: Daniel Willingham

Daniel Willingham is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.  His research focuses on memory and learning of the brain and his approach deals with the K-16 age group. He is an associate editor of Mind, Brain and Education and has written two books: Why Don't Students Like School and When Can You Trust the Experts. Both of these pieces deal with education and the brains of adolescents.

Daniel is an avid blogger and I came across him when I was searching for an edublogger related to my course content area: Science.  His blog is called: Science and Education blog, but he writes about many different experiences he has had over the years during his profession and his research.

I find his video on: "Teaching, is it an art or a science?" very interesting.  He makes some very interesting points. Since I am a Science/Math teacher, I am a little bias, but he does make valid points for both sides.

He also has more "interesting" videos on his blog website which I found intriguing to read.  His claim about learning styles and how "they don't exist" is quite controversial, but an interesting listen!

I believe I will follow Daniel Willingham's blog for quite some time. He blogs mainly about education but also about his current profession and current events.  His blogs seem to be different day to day and that is what makes them interesting!

Digital Footprint

Google!
When I googled myself, there were a variety of websites that came up with my name.  However, I put in my maiden name (Brooke Collins) and most of the sites were accurate.  When I put my married name, the only sites that came up were the current sites and social media sites that I am involved with:

Brooke Gelo:

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• My manager position of the hotel in Pilot mound

Brooke Collins:

On this page I came up in Google mostly about my hockey career in the states.  But there were a lot of other websites that related to a DIFFERENT Brooke Collins.  So my new married name is not as "popular" as my maiden name.  I feel that is better and I can't be mistaken as a different person now online.

If my students attempt to "google me" in the future, the only information they will find are the networks in which I am affiliated with: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.  I have learned throughout the past two years that teachers should stay away from friending parents and teachers on Facebook or other social media sites.  If parents want to know more about me and find me online, I would personally give them my teacher website or class website and they can read my "about me" page.  However, I do not find a "need" for them to go onto my Facebook and look at past pictures or posts that I have been involved in.  Even though my Facebook is very secure, appropriate and professional, I would still not be "ok" with friending students and parents on my personal social media sites.

MY PLN

My PLN, maybe small now but it is growing!

I find that my personal learning network is changing every day.  I am learning daily more and more about what is out there (for technology) and I try to at least scope out the new application to see if their worth using.  I find myself to be fairly computer literate and I try to stay on top of new technological advances.

I don't ever want to me a dinosaur in my classroom and I will always try to be "ahead" of my students digitally/technologically.  It is important to be aware of new technology and also implement it within the classroom for others to learn, grow and expand their PLN's.

I hope to attend at least one professional development session a year (LIFT or SAGE sessions) and therefore keep up to date with new information to bring back to my classroom.

I not only want to expand my PLN, but I want to help my students connect and develop their PLN's.

Twitter!!

First Thoughts About Twitter: 
When I first heard about Twitter, I figured it was just another "Facebook" application that someone developed because of how popular Facebook was at the time.  I assumed somebody wanted to get rich, (since Mark Zuckerberg became an instant millionaire) and developed Twitter as a replica of Facebook.

I was still bias even when I learned more about Twitter.  I was told that it was an application that was basically about "status updates" and that was it! I heard talk about people first posting about "I just went to the bathroom" or "Yay, my telephone bill finally came in the mail." Some people were simply updating their "twitter" about pointless things they were doing in daily life.  Therefore I had not interest in wanting a Twitter account and was dead set AGAINST tweeting ever!

However, when I entered the ICT course I was challenged to create a Twitter account. I followed through with this task and started following some interesting people.  People who were NOT tweeting about going to the bathroom or other pointless information that NOBODY cared about. I started following a few interesting people who tweeted on a regular basis.  However, mostly (actually all) of the people I followed were celebrities whom I followed because I liked seeing their different pictures they posted.  I was active on Twitter during this class, but I seemed to lose interest after the class was over and forgot about the people I was following.

New Thoughts of Twitter:
However, my last year of education within my Internet for Educators class we were supposed to be active in Twitter again, so I began to TWEET and follow some new and interesting people.  I also had a smart phone at this time so I was able to access Twitter wherever I had coverage and realized I could learn from the people I found on Twitter.  I came to the realization that Twitter isn't just about posting "what a person is doing," but someone sharing important information and resources.

The first step was to understand how to tweet (professionally).  I then followed a few of my classmates and see how they tweeted and what important things they had to say.  By viewing different tweets from my classmates, I was able to get the general idea of "how to tweet."

I then began following people who had significant importance within education and realized there are a whole network of people out there whom I can learn from.  At the tips of my fingers, I could have this information from TWITTER.  I thought this was pretty cool and I think I will always use my Twitter account from now on. To keep track of my classmates from Internet for Educators after this year is over, but also to learn from many other people out there who Tweet great ideas and resources.

Love of Learning = Life of Learning

George Couros brought up a very key point during his presentation to our Internet for Educators class:
"How can we use technology to enhance and further our relationships, learning and education?"
We are everyday learning about ourselves as people, and the use of technology helps us learn about others and connecting with others.


Problem Solving
We not only need to focus on problems solving but "problem finders." Kids benefit by looking for problems within their school or community and use inquiry to find the answers or how to solve these problems.  The first step is to determine a problem, and then use experience and skill to solve the problem.

Love of Learning, Life of Learning
Teaching kids to be good at school rather than good at life.  You want to teach kids real life skills and go beyond their abilities.  You want students to have the love of learning so that they continue to a "life of learning."  As teachers we are judged and measured on students achievement and success AFTER they leave and not DURING the time they are with us.  It is important to establish relationships with these students and by giving them adequate and exciting instruction, this will allow them to love learning and be excited to learn.

Sharing about Personal Growth and Learning
I find myself asking the question a lot, "How can I use this blog after I am done with this class?"  George brought up a good point about how its not just about sharing, pedagogy and expressing opinions, but it could be about sharing with parents, colleagues and students of what you are learning.  It can be about reflecting my own personal learning after watching something insightful and beneficial or attending a rewarding PD in which I was able to take a lot of the information home to use.  It's about letting the people who trust you with their children know that you are always going to be a learner and continue to learn within professional development.