Tech Play 3: Creativity Tools

 

For this week’s Tech Play assignment I investigated making Bitmogi rooms and using PREZI or Google Slides for a presentation. 

Creating my initial Bitmogi was a little difficult.  I disliked the one that the software made from taking a selfie.  I ended up making it from scratch which required individually selecting each option for how I looked.  That seemed a little time consuming.  Trying to make a Bitmogi room was also time consuming.  Finding objects to include in the room and adding them gave me a headache.  I realize that students catch on much quicker than I do, and could see the value in using Bitmogi for a project, such as designing their vision of what a classroom should look like.

                       (Example: Bitmogi classroom play)

     

I have witnessed the students using emoji’s for some time now for personal use in gaming and other platforms. For this reason I feel using Bitmogi is a great tool for students to demonstrate their creativity and knowledge in a “fun” learning platform.  Using Bitmogi in this way encompasses the “Technological Knowledge” and “Content Knowledge” portions of the TPACK model.  Touching on the “Pedagogical Knowledge” aspect of TPACK would be dependent to the information included in the Bitmogi.

I started out wanting to try PREZI to make a presentation.  I was very excited looking through all the available templates.  Unfortunately, PREZI will not let you even do a free trial without giving them a credit card number.  When the site started asking for money my investigation ceased.  I was extremely disappointed at not having the opportunity to actually play with PREZI.  I have seen some very comical presentations done on this platform in the past and was looking forward to testing it out.  They should allow teachers and students to try it for a short period of time without asking for money.

Since PREZI bombed, I went on to try Google Slides.  I like the similarity of Google Slides to MS Power Point.  In fact, if there is a template or color scheme you prefer to use in Power Point it can easily be uploaded to Google Slides to prevent the need to recreate the presentation you desire.  The ease of drag and drop for graphics is outstanding, and to me is much simpler than cutting and pasting into Power Point.  Google Slides is an excellent tool for students to present their knowledge through a “hands on” activity.  Google Slides is a great tool for a student collaboration project since it can be shared with several participants who can make tracked changes for a group project.  Google Slides used for education can incorporate all three aspects of the TPACK framework.  The affordances of using Google Slides include the option for self-publication, networked content creation, and scaffolds networked innovation.

 

(Google Slides Tech Play Example)

 

           Creativity included with curriculum helps students to become innovative and helps encourage them to learn new things that are outside of their comfort zone.  Creative tools add to a students’ ability to become better communicators through different mediums which additionally aids in improving their social skills.  Creativity through expression bolsters a students’ emotional development by giving them a positive outlet for expressing their emotions in a structured learning environment.

            Every person learns in their own way, and has their own likes and dislikes.  A teacher should not impede a students’ interest of technology because of a personal preference.  Students deserve a well-rounded education and the ability to learn any new technology available.  I personally did not like making a Bitmogi page.  It was way too time consuming for my taste.  But I can see the value of allowing students to play with it and incorporate it into their classwork, especially when it heightens their interest.  After all, getting the students to love learning is what we are working toward.  Any technology that tweaks a student’s interest in learning and enhances that learning should be used for the benefit of a well-rounded education.

Tech Play 2, E-portfolio Research/Reflection

 

 As I researched the options for hosting an e-portfolio this week I realized just how inexperienced I am in this area.  The options for hosting an e-portfolio are far greater than I had originally thought.  The options for websites are more numerous than I ever imagined (even for the free versions), and if you want to pay for hosting there are even more.  And then there are Wikis and Blogs available for use too.

I understand that the e-portfolio can be a more accurate way to demonstrate a students’ learning and become the assessment “of” and “for” learning.  I have stated before that I am not a supporter of standardize testing because I feel that it is not a true representation of a student’s knowledge.  The stress and anxiety that students feel knowing a test can prevent them from graduating is an antiquated form of torture for many.  This torture is not limited to the students.  Teachers in my school continually complain about having to teach to a test! And the students admittedly memorize information for a test and typically forget the information for the future.  Testing does not support a student-centered learning experience in a way that portfolios (paper or electronic) can. 

 Paper portfolios have been in existence for a long time and have been used to exhibit a person’s talents for a variety of areas.  For example, models have a professional portfolio of pictures and an architectural student might have a portfolio of building designs to present to future employers.  In my first few years of teaching CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) the students kept a paper portfolio of their drawings.  The advantages of switching formats to e-portfolios are staggering.  E-portfolios give the students an opportunity to collaborate with other students who could possibly be in another country and learn in their own terms.  E-portfolios are also a much more efficient way to collect and organize artifacts for a portfolio.  Both paper and e-portfolios have a table of contents, but with paper the user must flip through pages to gain access to the information they seek.  With an e-portfolio the table of contents is hyper linked, and data is available with the click of a mouse.  Additionally, students do not have to worry about losing their e-portfolios like they could with a paper portfolio or have a cup of coffee ruin their work.  E-portfolios can be stored on a cloud server and be accessible from anywhere even if it were not published for the public to view.

I looked at three different Wiki sites: Wilispaces.com, Wikidot.com, and Pbworks.com.  Wikispaces advertises that it was designed specifically for classroom use and is a social writing platform. The advertisement on Google piqued my interest, but when I tried to view the site, I found that it had closed in January 2018.  Wikidot seemed difficult to navigate and I got confused on who could edit versus view the work.  For this reason, I would definitely not choose Wikidot.  Pbworks is geared more for business than education.  Overall, I do not believe I would choose a Wiki platform for my portfolio.

In addition to searching the internet on my own in search of a portfolio site, I decided to ask the opinions of other teachers I know who teach web design.  Between my search and suggestions, I came up with Myefolio.com, Weebly.com, and Google sites (sites.google.com) as the top three runners for an e-portfolio site.  Myefolio is geared towards education of all levels from kindergarten through college and beyond. With it being geared to all ages I found it was reasonably user friendly.  This is my second time visiting Weebly because I played with it before making a blog host choice.  Weebly has a lot to offer, but I still feel it is harder to use than Myefolio or Google applications.  Affordances appear to be equal for Myefolio and Google sites.  I need to experiment with both locations before making a final decision for a host site.  I am honestly leaning towards Google sites because of my familiarity with using other Google platforms.  I know that my students at school are more comfortable with Google applications, which would lead me to have them use Google sites for their e-portfolios.

The TPACK model is also new to me.  But from my reading I have started to understand how the teacher’s content knowledge for the subject may include knowledge of concepts, evidence, and theories for that subject.  It also should include and educational/organizational framework that leads to the best approach in communicating the content knowledge to students.  Pedagogical knowledge in is my understanding on the best methods regarding teaching.  This requires that I consider student learning styles while practicing classroom management skills, produce lesson plans, and conduct student assessments.  Technological knowledge references my knowledge of and ability to use varied technologies and tools to use in the best manner to scaffold student learning.  I also learned how the technological content knowledge will help me in understanding how content and technology influence how I should/could communicate information through different educational technology platforms and influence which is best for specific classes/subjects.

E-portfolios can support all areas of the TPACK model when the correct tools are used.  It provides affordances for the student to use critical thinking skills, creativity, and gives the student opportunities to present their knowledge through the use of educational technology instead of proving what they know through standardized testing.  I truly believe that demonstrating their knowledge through activities is a better representation of what a student is capable of than passing a test.

Blog Reflection

 

My personal opinion of what the definition of a blog should be is derived from the research I did on blog sites for this assignment.  To me a “Blog” is an electronic diary of a person’s thoughts and opinions.  These opinions could be simply their perception, or they could be supported by facts gathered during research.  But, the major difference in a blog versus a diary is that a diary is typically written in chronological order and a blog appears in reverse chronological order with the newest post appearing first.

            A “glog” is a representation of images, video, and audio used to create an interactive, Web-based poster on a virtual canvas. (Basically it is a graphic blog of mostly pictures.)  A “vlog” is a type of blog which uses video, and is often compared to web television.  A “discussion board” is an on line forum where multiple people make posts and other individuals can reply to those posts.  I would think that Face Book is an example of a publicly used discussion board dedicated to enjoyment.  Discussion boards used for education are a good resource for asynchronous learning and support the on line learning platform and varied schedules of the students.   My belief is that a big difference between a blog and the previously mentioned platforms is that it can be solely written text (if you want it to be) and it can be set to be “viewed only” by anyone except the author.  In that situation it is similar to an on line book and is “read only”.  As for the differences between blogs and a regular website, the major differences that I see are that blogs are updated regularly, and blogs are displayed in reverse chronological order. 

            My research of blogging sites included WIX.com, Word Press.org, Word Press.com, Weebly.com, Blogger.com, and Blogster.com.  Several of these sites have free blog options with a limit on resources provided.  I ran into issues with WIX and Word Press.com.  Word Press.org is specifically for someone who has their own server to host a blog on, so that was not an option for me.  Blogster.com had a decent tutorial to help beginners like me, but in the end I chose Blogger.com.  Blogger.com has a great help section which has proved to be invaluable in getting started with my beginning blog.  The one thing I missed in Blogger.com that I liked from WIX.com was the WIX site is a WYSIWIG format.  What You See Is What You Get lets you see what your blog looks like without switching to another page to see the finished product.

            As a learner I feel that using a blog affords me the opportunity to be myself and post my opinions.  Five people can look at an assignment and come up with five separate opinions on how to proceed to complete the task.  Blogs are not a rigid source of information as many web pages are.  If I performed a search on affordances of a blog, I could receive a plethora of information and that information would not necessarily be consistent from source to source.

            Using a blog as a learning tool is a technology I had not considered prior to this assignment.  I require my students to maintain an engineering notebook (diary) of what they do daily in class.  A student blog/vlog would be an excellent substitution for writing in a paper journal.  Students could video or take pictures while developing their projects and embed that into their blog for enhanced understanding for the audience.  As a teacher I worry about my students not getting instruction when I am out of school for illness.  A blog or vlog would be an excellent way of conveying detailed instruction to my students if I am unavailable.  I could embed a video of me teaching a lesson or use an existing YouTube video to enhance the written instruction.  Using a blog as a teaching tool could transform my classroom in ways I had not thought of prior to this.

65 and blogging for the 1st Time

 After fighting with several blog sites I was finally able to get started here.😍 More to come when I can get into this site from the computer & not my phone.

Finally figured out a portion of setting up this blog site.  I was told I should have fun with Technology.  I think the fun part may be going into all the sites I tried out and deleting any accounts I set up.  The learning learning curve has been a challenge.