Life-Long Learner

It’s mid-August and I don’t know where the summer has gone. It has flown by so fast along with all my good intentions - blog postings, art projects, professional reading, yard dreams, etc. But…despite good intentions being lost to the sunny days of summer, I have accomplished so much more than expected.

Though I enjoy my life as a learner in the field of education, I threw myself into family and farm life this summer. My days are full as I nuture my family and my garden (which I affectionately refer to as the football field). Our family has spent days working and playing with extended family and friends. My son has spent a few days ‘helping’ mom with his minature rake and hoe in the garden. My only worry is catching him before he pulls a vegetable plant rather than a weed. He has recently enjoyed his first camping trip filled with swimming, walks along the lake, ice cream, and lots of ‘kids’. As an only child, nothing measures up to playing with other ‘kids’.

Due to the bounty of our football field, I’ve taken to learning new and traditional recipes for preserving - strong German dishes like homemade sauerkraut and bieruck (I apologize for my spelling). I spend my days in domestic bliss.

With that said, I have to say that I’m gearing up for classes in the fall. The student in me is eager to learn more and touch base with friends that I haven’t seen in a while.

Take care and enjoy as the sun smiles upon you.

Tech Task #7 - The Final Reflection

Alec has asked us to reflect on our blogging experience. In particular he asked:

For this assignment, reflect on your blogging process. You may do this as a summary, you may highlight favourite pieces that you blogged, or you may talk about your changing perceptions of blogging. You may also want to talk about what you think about blogging for the classroom, whether you like it or not, or whether you’d try it or not. You should also measure in some way how you have commented with others on their post. Do you have a favourite post from someone else that you have commented on? What was one of your best comments to someone else?

Well, my blogging journey has been a roller coaster - slow, fast, up and down. I’ve started off rather slow. Our first assignment was to introduce ourselves, which was a great starting point for me since I didn’t know what else to speak to. Or I should say - what I felt confident speaking to or about. I come from a period in my life where communication was a like a game of chess - strategic. You always had to be conscientious about what and how you say things. You don’t express an opinion unless it is backed by research, conviction, and a purpose; and not to mention taking into account your audience.

When I would read other people’s blogs, I would think to myself:
- Do I know enough about this subject to comment?
- Can I respond with conviction? Really mean what I say.
- What is my purpose in the response? Am I just doing an assignment or am I expression a point of view? Am I trying to change other people’s view?

I became bogged down by my own standards.

I tried to look at how I was blogging, what I was blogging. I confess, blogging is not much different than how I communicated before, its just more relaxed and with fewer consequences (but there are still consequences). Switching gears was hard. So on May 21, I started my “blogging journey”. A new blogging journey. I took a look a my space, made some changes, and started to look for information about brain development. I could speak to this. The last eight years of my life was around early childhood brain development and family literacy. It is where my interests lie. I want to teach based on the knowledge that our brains develop differently due to the conditions that we are surrounded by during the first six years of life. I could write with conviction about brain development.

Then Lindsay posted a blog about writer’s block and changing gears herself. I wasn’t alone. Lindsay struggled as I struggled - I felt a sense of belonging. (Sorry Lindsay to capitalize on your struggle.) But it felt good to know that though we weren’t blogging about the exact same topic, we were coming from the same place. So this was what Alec talked about - a sense of community.

The same feeling also repeated itself when I started to have more comments to blogs I posted about interesting finds. Then the smack in the forehead came when I had so many responses to the Blogging Journey IV post. I was struggling to keep up to all the blog postings that I subscribe to and I was reaching out for management suggestions. I got them. Some from people I never met before. It was fantastic. Blogging no longer was a reflection tool, but a learning tool. I could ask for help and it would be there.

So where am I on my blogging journey? I visualize myself as spending the last seven weeks sitting in a nest. I admit, I’ve flapped a wing or two, but I haven’t had the confidence to fly - to just view blogging as a community and tool for learning. A way to connect with others who have the same interests as me. To share my findings and to learn about concepts and aspects that I have not considered before. It is exciting.

Now, I must confess - time management will still be an issue. But with that said I have to acknowledge that I’ve been given great tools in ECMP 355 and now it is up to me to make the most of them. The choice is mine.

So that is a overall reflection of my blogging journey.

Here are my answers to the remaining questions.

Talk about what you think about blogging for the classroom, whether you like it or not, or whether you’d try it or not.

I would introduce and/or encourage blogging in the classroom. For two reasons:
1. Students need community. Blogging is a form of community.
2. Students need opportunities to write for the sake of writing. To express for the sake of expression.

With that said, I would also discuss the importance of safe and responsible communication online, whether it is blogging, texting, emailing, etc. Essentially somewhere there is a record of what was written. Do you want comments made in anger or spite to come back to you at a later date? Would you be willing to accept the responsibility of those words? I would also discuss cyberbullying and have students research what the consequences are. Have discussions about it both in person and online. It is a serious matter, which should be taken seriously.

Do you have a favourite post from someone else that you have commented on? What was one of your best comments to someone else?

I have a number of regular posts that I look at. For classmates, I often check on Sara, Lindsay, Ryan, and Colleen. Since spending last year together in the Arts Education program, they have a special place in my heart. I like to celebrate their successes and help when I can. For others, I often check on Alec Couros, Kyle Lichtenwald, Dean Shareski, and Chris Harbeck to name only a few.

My favourite comment was to a post on ‘On teaching cool’ by Kyle Lichtnewald. When reading the post I became quite passionate about what Kyle presented and some of the responses. My comment is number 8. It started the thinking process of what my educational philosophy is. I have many reasons why I want to be a teacher, but my current philosophy had not been put to paper yet. It had changed slightly since applying for the Education Faculty.

So this is my reflection, my response to a request. I say it with confidence and conviction. Now I’m ready to use this tool to the best of my capabilities.

Thank you Alec and fellow bloggers. I look forward to our future together.

Have a glorious day.

It has been a while since I last posted a blog. I’ve been busy preparing for the end of my ECMP 355 class. As I think back over the class, I can’t get over all of the new information that I learned: blogging, wikis, making videos, sharing resources, learning about new resources, and connecting with other educators. This is all thanks to Alec Couros and my wonderful classmates. I am truely honoured to be working with such amazing people.

Side note: If you get a chance, check out Alec Couros’s wiki. It is a wealth of information.

I did have a major frustration while working on a video project (beyond not having enough time to do all I want to do with my new found knowledge) - Windows Movie Maker.

It all started with our last Tech Task assignment, which consisted of each of us filming, editing, and posting a short video clip. I was very excited with the possibilities. I understood that all I needed was a camera (a digital camera would work) and Windows Movie Maker on my computer. I had both those items, so I was good to go.

My idea was to create a short clip on a community’s view of change in agriculture. Since I now live in rural Saskatchewan, I thought that this would be a learning experience for both myself and my future students. I interviewed ten people with clips of 2 to 20 minutes long. I cut out all the dead time and spliced each interviewee’s clip. All I had to do was drop them into Movie Maker, add text, transitions, music, and whatever else was needed.

Problem #1 - Movie Maker does not take .mov files (QuickTime).
Problem #2 - Upon testing a number of converter programs and finally purchasing one, I discovered that my files were not converting in sychn. My audio and visual were out by two seconds.
Problem #3 - When I tried importing the converted files to Movie Maker, I got a ‘no codec’ message.
Problem #4 - I tried downloading software to install a codec, but it didn’t work.
Problem #5 - After two weeks of trying to get this video project done, I still had nothing to present the day before it was due.

Solution - Pictures! I can import photos into Movie Maker.

So that is what I did. I created a movie called Top 10 Tips for Reading to Your Child (based on the information that I have under Family Literacy Philosophy).

As I worked through Movie Maker, I realized that it wasn’t as simple as I thought. I could not edit audio (note up and down texture of the audio and heavy breathing on occasion - though I do excited about reading to my child). Plus spacing out how much time I needed to speak during each part lead me to repeating the script many, many times.

Overall, it was an interesting and somewhat enjoyable experience. I can only hope that next time things will run smoother.

Feel free to check out my video at Top 10 Tips for Reading to Your Child via blip.tv:.

Have a glorious day.

Alright, I have to admit I’ve become a bit of a blogging junkie and I think I might need some help. Blogging is amazing and frustrating all at the same time.

Here is the amazing part - intellectual thoughts, ideas, and opinions come to the individual - literally dropping information at our finger tips. Information and resources that we never knew existed are being shared with a whole community, and I am a part of that community.

Here is the frustrating part - so much information and so little time. I am currently subscribed to 40 bloggers including classmates, educators, and literacy (adult and family) practitioners, which is exciting in itself. BUT I find that I’m easily distracted. I’ll be happily reading a blog and clicking on all the links (you never know how much additional information is beyond the next link). Then I’ll come across something that I’ll want to learn more about so I’ll google it or check the links within the links. Next thing I know I’ve spent over an hour on one blog. This explains the 183 blogs waiting for me to read them. This would be fine if I had a coffee pot next to the computer and my double taking care of all of my other life celebrations and challenges.

So I’ve come to accept that I am not managing my blogging skills or time very efficiently and I ask for some help. If any of you have some recommendations (beyond getting up two hours before the rest of the family and squeezing in moments when I think no one will distract me), I will gladly hear/read them. As a student, mother, spouse, and career woman, I will take all the advice that I can get - not to mention how many more blogs I can read. Tee hee hee.

Have a fabulous blogging day.

Last week our professor for ECMP 355 at the University of Regina, Alec Couros, took us on a journey to the dark side of the internet and technology. He spoke about the definition of media literacy and asked us to review and respond to some of the resources and tools available on his wiki - Open Thinking Wiki.

While looking through the resources I came across many useful tools such as Evaluating Internet-Based Information: A Goals-Based Approach, Quick Tips for Authenticating Online Information, Knowing What’s What and What’s Not, and not to forget all the information and tools found under media literacy.

While going through much of this information I was both amazed and disgusted at what people use media literacy for. So, I googled further. That is when I found an interesting paper written by Douglas Kellner called Media Literacies and Critical Pedagogy in a Multicultural Society. He talks about multiple literacies (print literacy, computer literacy, cultural literacy, social literacy, ecoliteracy, and media literacy) as a way to redefine how we look at educating and engaging our youth. We are in a time of change and he encourages all educators to embrace the good and be aware of the bad when incorporating media literacy. It is how our youth are learning and developing critical thoughts and theories. Though I encourage you to read the whole paper, I want to quote his final thought because it resonated with me so much:

“Youth — indeed all of us! — needs to learn to interact in many dimensions of social reality and to gain a multiplicity of forms of literacy and skills that will enable us to create identities, relationships, and communities that will nurture and develop our full spectrum of potentialities and satisfy a wide array of needs. Our lives are more multidimensional than ever and part of the postmodern adventure is learning to live in a variety of social spaces and to adapt to intense change and transformation. Education too must meet these challenges and both use new technologies to promote education and devise strategies in which new technologies can be used to create a more democratic and egalitarian multicultural society.”

This paper was written in December 1997, yet so much of it relates to what we are discussing over ten years later.

Enjoy and have a glorious day.

While looking for information on the web or connecting on links, I often ask myself ‘is this link authentic and of sound quality?’ and ‘would I share this with my students?’ So I began the search for a list of criteria that would assist me, which lead me to these great finds:

Evaluating Web Sources from the Regents of the University of California, copyright 2008; and

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet by Elizabeth E. Kirk, copyright 1996 by Sheridan Libraries.

Best of luck with your online searches.

Have a wonderful day.

In my search to find a powerpoint presentation to critique for my ECMP class, I came across the presentation <a href=”

| View | Upload your own

“>’Explaining the Impact of Twitter, Friendfeed, and Social Media 2.0′ by Pat Kitano on Slideshare.

Pat has used many of the design recommendations from the Extreme Powerpoint Makeover presentation by Dean Shareski. Pat uses images of online logos and pages, works with contrasting colours, white backgrounds, highlighted text boxes, real photos, limited use of bullets, ideas are sequenced, and the font in text boxes are large enough.

Overall the presentation is quite self-explanatory, but I did find some of the multiple logos on one page distracting, the print in the web examples too small, and a detailed script in the notes component would be helpful. Though I can not recommend much to improve this presentation, I would recommend that web page examples be presented one at a time and larger (such as pages 7, 17, 22, 24 and 25) to allow the viewer to clearly see the points that Pat references with red circles and dialogue balloons.

The reason that I’ve included this presenation as an ‘interesting find’ is that it gives a bit more insight into Twitter, Friendfeed and social media with great references to more social networks. I find it both interesting and useful at this point of my blogging journey.

Have a glorious day.

I have recently been trying to catch up on my blog subscriptions and read Chris Harbeck’s blog posting E-Portfolios Year 2 What I have learned! It is amazing!

Chris talks about using electronic portfolios in his classroom as part of student-led conferences. He highlights what has worked and what hasn’t worked. He also shares examples of what his students have created and tools that will assist both teachers and students.

Though I gathered so much information from the blog, I was very interested in the accessibility of information and projects done in the classroom by parents. What an excellent way to engage parents in the learning process! Parents don’t have to wait until the parent-teacher conferences, but rather tap into what is going on at any time (literally). I also liked the idea that students did math work with their parents during the student-led conference. Family engagement once again.

If you haven’t seen this blog, I encourage you to take a look. It is a fine example of technology and the learning process.

Have a glorious day.

I did it! I made my first digital story on Photo Story 3 and uploaded it to blip.tv.

Check out <a href=”“>Timeless.

Have a glorious day.

During my blogging journey on the giant learning curve of technological literacy, I’ve come across a few glitches. Today’s glitch is access to high speed internet in rural Saskatchewan.

Part of the reason that I decided to take the online version of ECMP 355 - Computers in Education through the University of Regina was to experience learning online. This is important to me as a pre-service teacher who may be seeking employment in rural Saskatchewan. I believe that new learning opportunities will be available online for rural students in the future, and it would be best if I understood what they are going through in order to provide as much support as I can.

My glitch comes in the form of unreliable high speed internet access. Due to a number of natural challenges (wind shaking the rotor on the tower attached to the house, objects getting in the way of of site of the tower, etc), the satellite signal is not consistant. As a result, I’ve been calling friends last minute to ask if I could borrow their computer to attend the live classes and praying that when the internet does come up in my home, I will have enough time to get some work done. As a result I am a tad bit frustrated.

Thankfully a Berenstein Bears moment has provided some insight - something good can come from something bad, we just need to find it. So here is my something good - reflection and future planning. If I am frustrated now, how will my students feel when we are incorporating the exciting world of technology in the classroom, but they are unable to access it in their own homes? What am I willing to do as a teacher to support their learning dispite the challenges that they are facing - no computer at home, inconsistent internet connection, other commitments, etc.?

Some of the solutions that I thought of include:
-Allowing the student to use my computer in the classroom outside of class time (ie. breaks, lunch, before/after school, etc.). I could be available to assist when needed, and/or I could use the time for prepping. Would I go as far as to meet in the evenings or on weekends? It would depend on my family commitments, but I like to think that I will be flexible.
- Allow for class time to work on assignments.
- Allow for extended deadlines for assignments.

Based on my own experiences of learning online and talking to some students in rural Saskatchewan, I think technology will open many doors for learning, but as teachers we need to look at the resources of individual students to ensure that they have all the opportunities available to be included in the learning journey.

With that said, I welcome the thoughts and solutions from others for working with and supporting students who may not have access to the technological tools that we incorporate in the classroom.

Have a glorious day.