Category Archives: Assignment #3 – Week #3

The summative: an ode to all of you! – Module 14

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Where I was:

When I first started this course, I was really only thinking about technology and getting better at using it. And to be honest, I was also dreading the inevitable hiccups that I knew were awaiting me in using said technology. In short, it was just basically all about ME.

Some random thoughts going through my head in the weeks leading up to the course.

  •  Time for me to start using more online resources, not just suggest them to classroom teachers.
  • All the kids are doing it.
  • There’s so much out there. I need to learn how to use all this digital technology.
  • Think of how awesome I’m going to look when I go back to school in September with a digital resource bag full of goodies.
  • This course is really going to help me get better at figuring out how to use social media in the classroom and the library.

I simply just wanted to be better with technology but I don’t think I knew what I meant at all when I said that to myself. There was one giant part of the puzzle missing and that was the “why?”

How did I begin to figure out the “why?” Well, it all happened thanks to you.

Where I am now:

I have asked the “why” and I will remain vigilant in answering the “why” thanks to Jenny urging us to examine this most crucial aspect of using technology and thanks to you for sharing your experiences, your opinions, your expertise and your unanswered questions with me. I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate “live” with all of you.

So where I am at now? I am at a place of feeling connected. I feel connected to all of you and I feel more connected to technology because of you. It’s that simple.

  • Karen, you patiently showed me how to use Diigo.
  • Naomi, you showed me how to embed an infographic into my blog and helped me unravel the mysteries of the Google Site.
  • Jorden, you have guided me through Twitter and shared your power adaptor with me.
  • Sophia, I like your cat pictures and you know I am getting a Pinterest account.
  • Christine and Julie, your sense of humour makes me smile and your final project impresses me totally.
  • Kate, you make me want to be a more conscious caretaker of the environment.
  • Charlotte, you have constantly reassured me that I don’t completely suck when it comes to technology. And you’re always smiling.
  • Cherise, your calm demeanour and insightful contributions to class discussions never go unnoticed.
  • Michelle B., I love how you used Padlet (new to you) to sum up your “where I was/am/am going.”
  • Kristine, you blow me away with your passion for protecting intellectual property – bravo!
  • Brianne, you are my go to person for all things iPad.
  • Merrin, you have a crazy, cool voice and major congrats on your new position in your new school. Maillard Middle is so lucky to have you!
  • Michelle S., ’twas a blast exploring the different platforms we might use for our classroom websites. I think you might just be a bit of a Weebly expert now.
  • Janet, your passions for music and librarianship are truly inspiring. I look forward to checking out your website!
  • Petra, you make comics come alive! And with a most soothing voice to boot!
  • Neelu, I so hear you about CONTINOUS teacher development.
  • Doni, if not for you, Yammer might never have crossed my path.
  • Sandy and Terrence, über cool idea to create a database of available/truly existing ICT for TOCs in a given school or district!
  • Amy, like Karen, you have convinced me that online bookmarking is a “must embrace.”
  • Tess, your presentation on digital storytelling has provided me with great ideas for my Gr. 9 French Immersion classes.
  • Shirla, you are Evernote organized and an absolute master of the WordPress platform. Your blog resembles no other.
  • Justin, I love the super cool image you posted of the teacher-librarian in her many starring roles and so much fun alliteration in there too!
  • Lisa, I assure you that it’s not you when it comes to Sharepoint. I send you good karma to continue doing the outstanding work you have done so far using this challenging platform.
  • Harjeet, your Delview Library website and the pages you’ve included on inquiry are beautifully laid out. Lots to explore there!
  • Jennifer, you have provided super cool international perspectives to our discussions, not to mention the tasty treats!
  • Karen Sandhu, forgive me for forgetting you when I presented. You and Neelu are doing amazing work and thank you for introducing me to Quadblogging.
  • Jenny, you have the courage, the strength, the resilience and most importantly, the trust.


Where I want to go from here:

It’s kind of amusing to me now to see that I was barely considering the logistics and the why of constructing a classroom website/blog before I started this course. The website I have created (still in its early stages) has become a major focus in where I want to go for it represents the beginning of a digital connection to my students and the potential for so much more. I will continue to explore all that digital technology has to offer, partake of what works for me in my particular context and will ensure that the “why” has been answered. I will do my best to keep an open and conscious mind and know that I am right in doing so as I continue to build on this beginning.

Planning for obstacles, barriers & resistance – Module 13

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When pondering what possible obstacles, barriers and resistance I will most certainly encounter in the near future, I can’t help but include myself in the mix. The moments of frustration I experience with technology are frequent and evident as one can note in many a post on this blog. Sometimes I do want to throw in the towel and just rely on what I know will work: a white board, markers, textbooks, pens, pencils, paper. You get the point. It’s comfortable, it’s what I know and it’s reliable. Using good old paper and pen is not a bad thing. It will happen and that is ok. Variety is the spice of life. I can’t imagine living in “The Brave New World” of the Steve Jobs schools. But what I also can’t imagine is not embracing what is and making the most sincere efforts to meet people where they are at.

The “people” I am referring to for my future vision project are my students. Although I occasionally envision myself as my own barrier to digital technology, I do know that I have an openness and willingness to learn and advance in digital territories. It is my students’ reality to turn to the online world to locate and access the information they need so it only makes sense to me that I include a digital platform in my teaching practice. Hence the birth of my class website/blog. It is a real thing that now exists, will be tended to, will evolve and will be well used (at least by me and my students). I am also looking forward to my website/blog taking lots and lots of baby steps during the school year and morph into something more collaborative and interactive.

I will not be the only obstacle I encounter along my travels. In my role as a teacher-librarian I am often reminded of the fact that the more than 100 classroom teachers in my school are all situated at varying levels of “embrace” when it comes to digital technology. There are many colleagues who still resist using BCESIS to input their marks. They prefer to remain with formats that are familiar to them whether that means using the old system, Integrade, or hard copy mark books and then entering final marks into BCESIS because they have no other choice. Suggesting to these teachers that they might want to consider using Padlet, Twitter or you name it for a project would be way beyond what they can imagine right now. So I again reiterate that I need to meet my colleagues where they are at. I don’t interpret their unwillingness to venture into new, digital territory as resistance. I see it as feeling very unprepared for it. Many a successful collaboration with the TL in my school has opened up the reluctant teacher’s eye to using digital technology simply because they have had a support system in place and some additional time to absorb the new knowledge. For these teachers, I can actually be that technological support and help them advance even if ever so slightly.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have colleagues who are far more advanced in their comfort level and daily usage of digital technology in both their professional and personal lives. Thankfully, they are more than willing to meet me where I am at and are therefore my support system probably more often than they would like!

All this to say that I recognize that I have my own blind spots and blindsight but I hope that I will be able to make conscious decisions to not be my own digital technology barrier and that I will be able to modify my behaviours as I uncover and remain aware of the hidden biases that I am holding onto.

 

The “Beginning” and the “Why” of using ICT – Module 12

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As you can see above, there is a beginning to my journey. I have the basic framework set up for my class website/blog and am definitely feeling more optimistic than yesterday. I must give credit where credit is due and that goes to Naomi who patiently walked me through a few manoeuvres to help me get the site closer to what I had envisioned during collaborative time in class today. I realize that yesterday I was so caught up in getting the technology to do what I wanted it to do that  I couldn’t focus on anything else. Luckily, I have moved on.

The beauty of this class is that we have the opportunity, every day, to work directly with our colleagues: to collaborate, share and learn for purposes that are so completely valid to our particular situation/reality! It truly is a privilege to have this time to work together, it really is. I walked away from class today feeling so very connected, not only to those who are in my inquiry group, but also to all my classmates and our instructor who generously share their expertise on a daily basis. Knowing that I have this supportive network of people lifts me. I remain inspired by their endeavours and I am reminded of the reasons why I am using ICT in my world.

This feeling of connectivity is what I hope to establish with my website/blog. The possibilities for collaboration, creating, sharing, learning etc. via ICT are endless. I see so many resources I would like to explore and incorporate in both my roles as a classroom teacher and teacher-librarian. Visions of magnificent end products using technology dance in my head. But are they really “end” products? Will I/we not continually be at the beginning of ever evolving ICT? Yes, I will. But what counts today is that I have begun the journey and I know that I have a multitude of reasons for using technology.

My future vision project is a beginning and it will be improved upon, added to and modified as I carry on with its development. Even if I have limitations in what ICT is readily available to me in the classroom (ie: one teacher desktop and possibly a laptop/projector combo on a cart) the use of my website and all the other online resources that have been uncovered throughout this course will reach far beyond the walls of the classroom. We have so many options to be connected today using ICT. Here I am just beginning to figure out what I can do, share and build with one tiny slice of the ICT pie.

 

Participants’ Learning & Connectivity to Future Vision Project – Module 11

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I am not singing the praises of Google sites right now. It’s been a long and frustrating afternoon and evening. I have gone down two different Google site paths in the attempt to create a website that is supposed to enhance the participants’ learning and connectivity. Well, the “creator” can’t even seem to create, therefore the participants are going to have a bit of a tricky time doing that learning, collaborating, connecting thing. To top off my rather technologically challenging day, I decided to turn to this Teacher’s Guide to Google Sites for assistance. This particular line stung just a tiny bit, “A site can be created  for a class within a couple of minutes using templates for different pages and without the need for advanced technology knowledge.” Really? A couple of minutes?

Needless to say, I’m not feeling terribly inspired at this very moment. I truly believed I was going to take massive strides today in getting the website to a place where all I had left to do was fine tune a few things and then move on to looking at all the wonderful ways I can use this platform to augment the learning experience of those connected to the site (mine included).

I suppose I could end things on a brighter note and remember what stage I’m at here. I need to consider these aspects:

Why will students and/or parents be visiting the class website? There are obvious reasons such as accessing information on homework, assignments, and being able to download handouts. We will also be creating a community where we can share what happens in the class with each other, the school community and parents/family. Again, my main goal for creating this website/blog is to have access to information and to connect the participants to the classroom community.

I actually learned a bit more than I am giving myself credit for today. I figured out how to edit the header and move pages around. And I uncovered a gazillion different fonts whereas yesterday I had come to the conclusion that I only had access to five fonts. Progress, but oh so slow. No two minute learning curve here!

As I write this, I do realize that I am in the throes of experiencing what many a colleague experiences. And I am sure that our students go through similar hair-yanking moments when trying to master a new online resource. I get it. But sometimes it’s best to leave things be until tomorrow and I know that that is what I must do now for no more progress is about to be made tonight.

A tired and frustrated AM who is moving on to other homework now.

 

Design Considerations for Future Vision Project – Module 10

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The decision has been made! I am building my website/blog with Google sites.  The decision to use a Google site was made primarily because my colleague with whom I will be collaborating extensively uses this platform and so it made sense to me to use the same one. Google sites are not entirely foreign land to me. I set up and used a Google site for a previous course but its purpose was limited to being a parking space for my assignments. I in no way collaborated or shared the site with anyone other than my instructor. The design considerations were of the most basic nature: colour(s), font and ease of access to assignments submitted pretty much sum it up .

Embarking on my “Future Vision Project” with Google sites is a whole different and exciting story. This is going to be a website that will serve many purposes and what follows is a bit of a brainstorm I did in class today with my inquiry group.

How can I use my classroom/website to enhance learning, sharing, collaborating?

  • Google site will be my platform – highly collaborative and most students in my school already use Google docs which is so awesome for collaboration
  • facilitates communication between the students and teacher (need to incorporate a blog widget)
  • transparency of what is going on in the class (parents, colleagues, admin can check in any time they like)
  • students can share their work with others in the class, the school, the world (authentic audience/authentic feedback)
  • students can have their own blog/website that will be linked to class site (will serve as their digital portfolio)
  • need to consider who has access to site, privacy issues, who can comment, edit etc.
  • a list of resources has no life, people talking about a resource gives it a life
  • OER = Open Educational Resources

Status update as of 8:18pm on Monday, July 15, 2013…the site has been created but am still trying to figure out the layout. I know how to add the blog feature, add posts etc. but still not sure how to get that blog scrolling on the home page of the website. Don’t really love the background I have chosen and feel like I only have five choices for the font. I’m feeling kind of restricted with this platform when I compare it with what I have seen on Weebly. There is no sense of defeat however! I am looking at tutorials and by doing I am learning. And frankly, this is what it is all about!