Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3

well,
I have learned one thing this week, technology can sometimes be a little annoying. Do not get me wrong, it is a magical thing, however, it has been my mortal enemy this week. Not only has it taken me all week to figure out how Feedly works, but I still do not know how it works...... it has been a struggle. There has been some success though! I have figured out how to add websites/blogs/articles etc.. on to my Feedly, but I cannot figure out how to sync Feedly with my browser, sooooo if anyone knows how please feel free to help a sister out! :) I have tried some trouble shooting of my own. I was given an article on how to add Feedly to my browser (which I have attached), but I could not follow it/ understand it. I have learned however, from this experience that I am patient and open minded to trying new things. It is part of growing into a world that is technology driven and there is no point in getting mad over it because it will be there forever. I just keep taking deep breaths and try everything I can to get it to work. For example, I am making use of my web 2.0  PLN with my blog and maybe one of my peers can help me out ! :)  Needless to say, I have learned quite a bit this week about technology, It doesn't always work in your favor.

What I have figured out about Feedly is that it is actually the coolest website I have ever come across on the internet. It is even better then last week when I used Wordle for the first time. Not going to lie Wordle was so the most exciting thing I had come across on the internet in a long time I told 10+ people about it! But Feedly topped it. Knowing that information can come to me, with the click of a button...  wow... speechless. Where has this website been in the last four years of my university career? While setting up Feedly, I used the journal article A Quick Start Guide for Educators to help me understand what I was doing. One of the major things that I always consider when setting up an account with a website, is to put to use my digital literacy and make sure that it is safe. I did this by exploring Feedly's preferences, knowledge base and read up on the feedback from other Feedly users. This way I can research the site and make sure it is going to be a safe environment to work in. Another really important aspect I learned about an RSS feed reader is that you do not want to add to many sites so that it is information overflow. I took a lot of time reading peoples blogs and adding those that were most interesting and valuable.

Darrow Steffes Design, (CC) 2010

The most valuable item of interest that I found on Feedly this week, since I ran into so many problems, was the knowledge base section. It had answers to many of my questions, such as how to mark articles as read, how to subscribe you tube channels, how to search for articles etc. An important part about this course is using the internet to your benefit. I could have emailed my T.A every time I had an issue with setting up my Feedly, however, I did not. I used the resources on the tips of my fingers and discovered on my own. I empowered my own learning strategies and created a work environment for myself. Not only did I learn how to subscribe to youtube channels or to search for articles on Feedly, I learned that I am responsible and capable of leading my own learning skills. I am able to teach myself how to use the web to my benefit and explore my knowledge and understanding without someones help. Education today is moving from a teacher driven cycle to a student-centered approach and this is a great step for someone who has been in the teacher driven cycle their entire life. I have proven to myself that it is possible to learn without being told what to do.

Wong, J. (CC) 2014

Final Comment:

This is another item of interest that I found fun and enjoyable to read which adds to my humorous side not so much my education side:
http://pintester.com/
It is about a lady who tries pins from Pintrest. You should read it, it is actually quite enjoyable.

Thanks for reading!
MissEmilyp

My Expiernce with RSS Feeds

Hey everyone!

Nelson, M. (CC) 2009

This week we were introduced to the Feedly RSS reader and honestly I think this idea is fantastic and I have no idea where it has been my entire life! It does everything for you, all you have to do is subscribe and BAMMM! articles are coming to you! This was my reaction when I started exploring -->

Needles to say it has been an awesome experience getting to know Feedly RSS reader. Throughout my discoveries, I found various sites that I subscribed to, but I did find one in particular that really struck my interest. It is a site affiliated with New York Times Journal called Travel. It is a site full of information about the world and a place where people can share their stories about their adventures. There was one story I was reading called "The Legacy of the Falling Spider."It is a story about a man and his friend who spent 9th grade on an exchange trip in Kenya in the Berkshire Mountains, Camp Becket. In this exchange they had to live in various homes and become one with the folk of Kenya. At one home a massive spider fell on one of the heads of the students, while the people they lived with in Kenya laughed at them! Here is the link you can read you self:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/travel/the-legacy-of-a-falling-spider.html?ref=travel

Anyway, the point that I am getting at, is this site  is a place where everyone can share their stories and talk about the adventures they had. As someone who would like to travel one day, these stories are intriguing and exciting. It will encourage me to keep my dream of traveling in hopes that I one day will have a story to tell and post on the NYT Travel site.

Thanks for reading!
Missemilyp

4P19: Chapter 3

Hey everyone,
This week in chapter three, the major topic addressed was the backwards design method in dissecting the curriculum and how KDB plays a huge role in this method. The backwards design has four steps: Two pre-steps, Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3. This method is a way of dissecting the curriculum as a teacher with emphasis on early planning assessment. The majority of this post will have to do with the planning of assessment throughout the curriculum and the importance of it.

The backwards design method made a lot of emphasis on the student and how important it was for the student to understand what is expected of them with learning goals and success criteria. As a student who learned visually while in elementary school and high school, I needed to know what was expected of me in a picture in order to be successful in school. However, many times while in school, the outlined assessment material (ie. a rubric) was not in my level of language and the teacher never took the time to explain it. I was not a strong reader growing up, and I still struggle with this task as a University student. So, as a young student I had no idea what was expected of me because I could not read the assessment outlines. Eventually,  I just did my own thing and hoped for the best. In most cases I had my mom and dad read it to me and hope that they understood it better then myself.

Because of my struggle to read, I had always asked myself the question in school, what do I actually have to do on this assignment? And how in the world am I going to do it? And I would answer it with "Mom will know what to do." But then this leads me to some new questions now.... what is the education system doing now? and how is it different? Do people like myself still struggle? or are some finally able to succeed with better understanding?

To lift my spirits, the text introduced some 'new story' methods that I believe are excellent ideas for students like myself.  The text is addressing the importance of assessment incorporated into the teachers curriculum design, as well as incorporating the process of students co-constructing the rubrics or assessment tools to help them develop the skills of self-evaluation (Drake, Ried & Kolohon, 2014). It is important to note that the text was keen on addressing that student should be aware of what is expected of them and assessments tools be created at a level of their student language. This means that students (like myself) who were unaware of what the rubric says, will benefit from having a run through of each criteria and become aware of their expectations. It is exciting to see that what the 'new story' brings will benefit students like myself and they will hopefully avoid having the same struggles I went through.

What really caught my eye in the STAGE three process, was that they incorporated the three types of assessment new to me this year (AaL, AoL, AfL) into their day to day activities charts. It is prominent that teachers are becoming more concerned about the needs of the 'new story' student and how they understand the information given to them.  They are moving towards a new direction that not only uses quantitative assessment but qualitative assessment as well. Some fun qualitative examples they mentioned were photo collages, diary, scrapbook, puzzle, letter... etc (Drake et al. 2014). Not only are teachers allowing students to engage more in their personal learning they are helping them to develop a 21st. Century skill, creativity.
 
The approach of integrating assessments in to curriculum has many benefits, that I myself would have benefited from in my younger years. To begin, it would have been beneficial to have been given feed back throughout the course so that I or my fellow peers could develop the skills in order to succeed properly in the class. I will never forget my high school history class where I had various tests that I studied diligently for and never got higher then a 70%. I loved history and I could not understand why I was getting these low marks. When I would ask for help, the teacher told me to look at my rubric for help, and guess what, I couldn't understand the rubric nor did he have the time or interest in helping my misunderstandings. It is sad to say that, because of this teacher, I no longer enjoy history because of his invaluable feedback and lack on interest in me as the student. This is where the assessment tools AfL and AaL would have been helpful for me, because they would have addressed where I stood as a student and what I would need to work on to improve my understandings and skills.

Another benefit of this design, would be that students learn how to self-evaluate their work. I was not taught this method in high school, nor was I interested in self-evaluating my work because it frightened me. Self-evaluations can be tough because no one enjoys evaluating their work in fear that it is not what was expected of them. However, it is so important for students to know this skill because it teaches them how to read a rubric and follow guidelines so that they not only understand what they are putting forward but they understand what is expected of them. Having the student actually participate in creating a rubric helps guide the student in the process of self-evaluation because they created what is expected of them.

Overall, it is clear to me that  integrating assessment into the curriculum, is very important to the process of learning. This reassures me that maybe there is potential for those like myself.

 

Image by Line upon Line Learning

Retrieved from 

http://homeschool.rebeccareid.com/2014/01/12/inspiration-sunday-understand-to-teach/

Thanks for reading,
Missemilyp

Resources

 Drake, S., Reid, J., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Toward a New story of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. In Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st-century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford Univrsity press.

Weekly Report and Reflection Post: Week #2 PLE's and PLN's

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all having a good week, cause mine has been better then the last. I think my struggle this semester is having to juggle 7 courses all at once and organizing when I will complete tasks for each course. It has been difficult but because of the time management skills I learned and ADED 1P31, I found a way to make things work. This week in ADED 1P32, we learned about creating our PLE's (Personal Learning Environments) and PLN's (Personal Learning Networks) in which we organize our digital tools and communication on the web 2.0.

 

As a future teacher, I have a responsibility to inform myself in PLE’s and PLN’s. I have a duty to be involved with the 21^st century so I can help my students become familiar with the web 2.0 and make learning student-centered and student-driven. As described by the 'Net worked Student Video', I have a duty to offer guidance to students when they or stuck in the networking world, teach students how to properly communicate and follow netiquette rules when online, help them decide what information they find is awesome and valuable, and what information is not as awesome and valuable. The list goes on but the most important thing to realize is that this is the future of schooling, and the video did a good job at explaining this process.

Pedersen, E. CC(2014)

This week I was introduced to a new digital tool called Popplet, and it is a very neat program online, where you create your own diagrams and mind maps. So, with this program I created my PLE! 

While creating my PLE, I used Drexler’s categories as a template and, from there I added my own digital tools that I have used within each of theses categories. I found it difficult to categorize some tools because I didn’t know exactly where some of them fit under, but I think I came to a good conclusion! I wanted to keep in mind while making the PLE the criteria for a PLE introduced in the 'silent video' in the introduction. I had to make sure the tools I listed were supporting my personal learning environment and are systems that help me take control of and manage my own learning systems that surround me everyday. 

Here is something a learned about a PLE, it can help me organize my future. I am not normally one for planning a head and having a 5-10 year goal.... I like to take my time and just take things day-by-day cause you never know what will happen. However, If I were to plan right now what I will be doing in 5-10 years, I will be graduate from Teacher Collage and be a successful full time teacher in either Northern Ontario or in my home town. I plan to be out of debt and living with with my boyfriend in a house of our own far off in the country. These are realistic dreams, however the reality is there are things I need to do to accomplish these dreams and the PLE can help me with this. As described in Malan's PREZI, a PLE can be helpful in my academic learning because it can help me organize who I am, who I want to be,  how I will get there using academic sources and what I will do to support my journey. For example, in the future I mentioned I would like to get out of debt. In order to get ideas about what the quickest and fastest way to get out of debt is to socialize and collaborate with my peers through my PLN as well as practice my digital literacy and research on the topic using Google scholar or a search engine. 

In addition to creating my PLE and PLN, I also explored the world or world clouds using the tool Wordle on the web. It is a tool that allows you to create your own word cloud with a body of text that you input from your own work. Wordle will then generate a word cloud  with the most prominent and important words from the text you inputted. You can change the colour, font an how it is written (horizontally, vertically, half and half etc.) Here is the one I made! I created it with last weeks blog. As you can see, in last weeks blog a lot of the words I wrote about were digital citizenship, technology, netiquette, etc. I absolutely loved this program  and will use it in the future because it really makes your work a piece of art.

Pedersen, E. CC (2014)

Thank you for reading this weeks blog, I hope you enjoyed it!
MissEmilyp

Digital citizenship and Netiquette

Hello,
I hope everyone is having a good week! My week has been jammed packed and it has been hard for me to find time to write my blog post. However, I am now at work and no one is here, so I have found some time to intrigue you with my post on digital citizenship and netiquette.

What did I learn this week? Well that's a great question for you to ask! The most interesting thing I learned from our week 1 session is the digital dossier video. I am not going to lie I watched the video 3 times before I believed it. For those of you who do not know what a digital dossier is, it is the accumulation of all the digital tracks you leave behind on the internet and it begins before you are born and even continues to grow when you have past away. It is the tracking of your digital footprint threw the web when you have shared a picture or added a tweet or even a comment on someones post. It is what I would call your tracking device, that anyone in the world can see by Googling you..... pardon? It is amazing to me how technology can track you and exploit you in many ways (not always in bad ways).

Since I have a digital dossier, in which I can be tracked by not only mother, but the entire world, I have to have respectable netiquette when representing myself on the web. The text ,  'Core rules of Netiquette'   helped me to understand the rules and etiquette of the web and realize that I want to be seen as a I am seen in the physical world. Therefore, reading the article on 'Core rules of Netiquette'  as well as seeing examples of what blogs with proper netiquette look like on the web really showed me how to represent myself in the digital world and how to create a positive digital footprint.

Here is a fun fact: Anything you type into Google is tracked and recorded, employers can Google your name and find 10 things about you with the click of a button BEFORE even meeting you.... I am mind boggled!!

Now, I have to be honest with you, when I did the digital drivers license, I got 100%. I felt good. I felt on top of the world. But then I stopped, and ask myself, wait, does this mean I know everything about digital citizenship? No, this means that I read the 9 elements of digital citizenship and remembered what I read for the test. That being said, I went back to the 9 elements of digital citizenship from the text 'Digital citizenship in schools' (2011) and found that I would really like to focus on a the area of digital communication. The world is full of new technology and University, this year especially, is introducing more hands on web 2.0 tools for communication with fellow classmates as well as with professors, therefore I think it will be important for me to focus my attention on digital communication.

That all being said, I think it is awesome that I am growing my digital foot print on the web 2.0. It is the generation of technology and it is important to get out in the world and meet new people and really grow a positive digital foot print. When I say positive I mean that I want to grow my digital foot print in a way that uses proper netiquette.  I would like to represent myself as a professional, I want to keep my digital footprint up to date and manage my social media (professional name, make appropriate posts, keep information private, etc..). How I hope to achieve this is through research during the course as well as from feed back of others, just like the text says "A good digital citizen seeks out feedback from others to evaluate their use of technology, and then makes personal adjustments based on this feedback (Ribble, 2011)."

Image by Peak Health and Wellness (2012)

Retrieved from

http://www.peak-hw.com/the-universe-is-talking-are-you-listening/

Thanks for reading!
Missemilyp

Resources:

Ribble, M. (2011). Digital citizenship in schools (2nd ed.). Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.

4P19: Chapter 1

Chapter one of the text 'Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment' explained the shift of the education movement from an old story to a new story. It explained that the shift is specifically taking place through curriculum types, teacher instruction and how students are assessed. Instead of having only the traditional method of teaching; different curriculum's, teacher instruction and assessments are beginning to make learning students- centered. The creation of the 'new story' is about personalization with students and creating a learner identity.

Growing up, school was a robotic chore. Get up in the morning, eat, dress, go to school, learn something, come home, have dinner, sleep. Then repeat this process over and over again for 10 months of the year. At the 'school' part of this process, I learned traditionally. A teacher stood at the front of the class, taught the subject and I, the student, did what the teacher told me to do. I was a passive learner in a teacher centered learning experience. Once in a while I was graded with a letter telling me where I was at in the subject. If I got a C, this meant I was doing okay in the class, but I could do better, if I  got an A, I was doing well. Whether or not I was confused, this was my grade.. NO exceptions. This is normal, this is what school is... at least I thought.

School worked for me. I made it through the system and successfully entered university. However, I have felt sincerely sorry for the people I knew who slipped through the cracks. I never understood growing up, why people failed a class. I thought it was because they were lazy and did not care about their future. I WAS WRONG.  As the text explains, there are many types of curriculum evolving that work in different ways to meet a students needs, not just traditionally and teacher centered.   For example, the text explains about project-based learning curriculum.

"Students in a project based learning classroom... learn while doing the project, because the project is the vehicle for simultaneous instruction and application. Students apply an inquiry process to answer an open-ended driving question that arises out of their genuine interest and desire to know (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014 )."

Not only would this style have worked for myself, but I know and believe my fellow classmates would have benefited from this student centered learning approach rather then traditional teaching methods.

As a catalyst for change, education is beginning to take one step forward toward a new story. It is evident in the various curriculum's (like the one mentioned above) that not only are teachers beginning to create a student-centered classroom but they are allowing for students meta-cognitive process to develop. While reading the text, the improved processes of assessment really caught my eye. Teachers are trying to provide students with a  "building growth mindset" in which they are to evaluate work based solely on the work rather then grading a fellow students work (Drake et al., 2014). This process encourages students to think about how they are graded and empower them with new knowledge and success in future projects.  In addition, teachers are beginning to provide students with a personalized formative feedback throughout the process of learning to promote this development.

The change is evident and continuous, and in my opinion the key to this change is: There are always two sides to the story. It is not only about students changing but the teacher needs to change as well to meet the needs of individual students. As the text says, the teacher is the 'change agent' who increases learning between both students and the teacher themselves (Drake et al., 2014).

I believe this change is necessary, and this chapter has provided me with new meaning and understanding of the 'new-story.' I believe we are moving towards a generation that promotes individual success and self-determination  and the only way that this can happen is if it is supplied with in the education system.

Thank you,
Missemilyp

This photo resembles to movement of 'old-story' to 'new-story'. There is an ever changing growth and development of students who learn differently and succeed differently. I can't climb a tree. My brother can climb a tree. We are two different people who learn differently and the tree resembles our differences.

Resources

 Drake, S., Reid, J., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Toward a New story of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. In Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st-century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford Univrsity press.

My First Blog

Hello blogging audience,
My name is Missemilyp and this is my first EVER blog. I am a University student entering my 4th year in the Concurrent Education program at the intermediate/ senior level. My teachables are mathematics and physical education. Before entering University, I was born and raised in a small town called Uxbridge. I am a country girl with love for my family and the great outdoors. That being said, I have never once considered that I would become a blogger.

I have to be honest, I am a little nervous to begin blogging. I have never done this before and I feel like I have just entered a new country with a new language and I am the only individual who speaks English. However, I hope to learn this new language and master it by the end of this school year.

But now to the grind... Why blog??... and Why now??

Why Blog?

The purpose of this blog is mostly to participate in two classes that I am enrolled with at my University.  The first class is ADED 1P32: Learning in Digital Context. By the name of the course it is suggested that I will be learning about learning in the digital world... you would be correct! Yes, not only will I be learning about new technologies, but the Netiquette that follows it. I will expand my knowledge in digital foot prints and how to create positive engagement in the world of technology. In addition to ADED 1P32, I will also be participating in EDUC 4P19 in which I will be exploring the curriculum in the areas of assessment and instructional strategies. I will be using the blog in both classes to reflect on readings or other course material each week.

Why now?

Look at our world. Every second somewhere in the world an individual has just created a new twitter account or a Facebook account or even a Blog. It is up to us (citizens of the world) to keep up with technology before it takes over. I don't know about you but I see the struggles that my grandparents go through learning how to use the basics of technology, for example a new television. If you do not keep up with technology and expose yourself to new forms of technology it will take over. Evidently, you will become your grandparents, struggling to keep up with society. As a future teacher  I observe classrooms that not only use technology as a form of learning but is dependent on technology to guide them to better possibilities within our world. It is important  as a future teacher and citizen of the world, to keep up with my students and younger generations, therefore I must engage with technology.

With that being said, I do not want to minimize blogging to only two classes. I would like to expand my knowledge in various forms of technology and possibly continue with blogging on my own time. This way I can start expanding my knowledge of current and future technologies.

Thank you for reading!
sincerely yours,
Missemilyp