3rd online class is a charm!

Hello everyone and welcome to a new category in my blog.  My name is Chalyn Smith and I am currently on a mat leave, when I am in the classroom you can find me at Kitchener Community School’s SLC class.  My classroom focuses on providing a safe, nurturing and caring environment where my students feel comfortable building relationships with all team members and students. I strive to meet each student’s social, emotional, behavioral and educational needs. I encourage and focus on the strengths of our students.

This is my third online course with Alec and Katia.  This semester I am facing a few challenges. I am a new mom, so finding an online class lets me stay at home while figuring out this tiny human.  I also have to admit that I like blogging, being able to tell my story and hopefully entertain along the way.

When I started my mat leave division office required me to turn in my laptop, I begged to keep it but tech services mentioned they have sent police at times to repo equipment. I only realized that I would need a computer to use as the two classes I signed up for approached, and don’t have a home computer.  I figured using my cell phone or smart tv would be too challenging.  I had a an idea, I could borrow one from my uncle, he’s a lawyer and probably has like, ten extra kicking around his office.

Well, the laptop that he gave me is quite fast but I am sure it is from about 2000.  I was excited as I had a laptop that I could use and I didn’t have to buy one as that was my other choice.  however, one morning as I lay awake in bed it dawned on me that this sweet machine doesn’t have a webcam.

I decided while at Walmart to buy a webcam that would just plug-in.  I asked an associate and he told me they didn’t even carry a webcam.  Luckily I strolled down an isle and found a $30.00 one.  But I decided that I would stop by Visions instead and use my $40.00 gift card.

Walk into Visions carrying my little man in his baby bucket, cause shopping is so fun lugging around a car seat.  I locate a sales person and ask for a webcam, he laughs and tells me that they no longer sell the as most laptops now have they built-in.  I then decide to buy one off VarageSale.

If you are not familiar with VargaeSale I suggest it is something you might want to check out, it is a buy and sell app on a cell phone or a site on the computer.  You can quickly find things you are looking to buy or write up ads and sell your stuff.

Okay back to my story, sitting in the Visions parking lot I find an ad on Varagesale for a $5.00 webcam in the Northend.  I make my way to the house, and place the coins in the sellers hand.  At this moment her dog pops out of the house, I tell her not to worry as I have a big Siberian Husky cross and by the looks of things this mangy think is harmless.  The dog then darts off the steps onto the street and into a yard across the street.  The seller, standing in her house coat with no shoes is forced to chase the dog through the snow as he is not responding to his name. I attempt to call the dog and help her but the more we call him the farther he runs.  I have no idea what to do, yell thanks for the webcam and drive away?? I opened the house door as I saw a brother or boyfriend and mention ” you should help her, your dog ran away and she has no shoes and is chasing him”.  He slowly makes his way outside and lures the dog into the car.  This was by far the oddest Varagesale story.  Do you have a funny story about buying or selling something? Please share!

And that my friends is the story of how I connect to class, in case you wondered about the quality of my $5.00 webcam, just check me out on Zoom.

My learning goals for the semester are:

1.  To make myself comfortable on Twitter and make time for Twitter chats.
2.  I would also like to explore some new techie teaching ideas that would allow me integrate technology into early years classrooms, as I hope to soon teach the youngest learners.  I think now is the time to get some fresh ideas as I have typically worked with middle years.
3.  I will work hard to come up with something creative for my summary of learning.  Previously I used animation software to present my ideas, this time I am going to try something new.  If you have any ideas of something I should look into that wont baffle me too much, please let me know.

 

 

 

We are way too dependent on technology

As soon as we are with a group of friends at a restaurant or sitting with family visiting, someone pulls out a smart phone and somehow the domino effect takes place.  Less people are socializing with the bodies that are present.  Some of the people with gadgets begin to engage with online activities.  I am sooo guilty of it, I have even coined the phrase “what are you FaceBooking around?”, because of the amount of times people get distracted by their gadgets.  I understand how awkward it makes it when your friends are attempting to talk to you and you are choosing to engage with online likes, comments, texts and tweets.  It is terrible when you miss out on someones accomplishment because you choose to engage with tech.

I agree with Sherry Turkle and her Ted Talk Connected, but alone that receiving an affirming text is just like getting a hug, as I write this I think that I should text my step-daughter and let her know that I am so proud of her today.  I have know her since she was 7 and today she wrote her last grade 12 exam.  I was going to send the message as imagined in the fake text message on the right that I made using the fake text generator.  Then I thought that giving her a hug in person and congratulating her is better than any text message that I would send.  I guess I have some control as to when I should be talking in person and when I should send a quick message.  Later that evening I congratulated her in person and had tears in my eyes thinking about watching her grow from a 7 year old little goofy girl to a beautiful graduate.  I am so glad that I realized that I needed to send a message to her but face to face was the best as I could look into her eyes, with the little stream of tears running down my cheeks.  This connection is what we both needed!

But, it is sad to have to admit, but the first thing I do in the morning is roll over and grab my phone, as it is only an arms reach away.  I like to peak at my emails on Hotmail, my Facebook, and perchance I went to bed earlier than my friends I might have a text to read. Sadly, I continue with this routine before I drift off at night.  Let me tell you it is so so easy to lose track of an hour on Facebook.  Just this morning one of my students pointed out that we should unplug ourselves from technology and games for at least two hours before bed.  However, I do find many posts on Facebook that I save using the new save feature.  In the morning I fire up my computer in the classroom and share my findings. Just today I was able to share the New Heritage Minute that explores the dark history of residential schools, this was an amazing tie into National Aboriginal Day and Truth and Reconciliation that I have been focusing on in Literacy and Social this term.

Between this course and 831 last semester, I have made a conscious effort to include more technology in the classroom. I started finding current events that I could share with my students in my Facebook feed.  In class we would read the article off the whiteboard then allow students to use persuasive writing to chose a side of the issue. My students were not writers but now I can present an article on Harambe or the Japanese boy who was left in the forest as punishment, and watch them go.  I created an outline and expectations for their writing and shared it with them on GoogleDoc’s.  Now I can help them edit online and teach them the ins and outs of typing and formatting.  My class despised using pencil and paper to write.  Now they are ecstatic to grab a Chromebook.

However, I am guilty of attempting to multitask by using my phone during meetings to send out emails.  The days of the to do list are gone, because now we just do it at the comfort of our fingertips. Sherry Turkle further talks about just paying attention to what we feel is important, how do we even know what we are zoning out?? Zoning out information while we are doing what we want on our computers and phones isn’t a skill we should be bragging about.

Last night as I was sitting for supper, I had my computer connected to zoom and my Husband and I watched the intro video by Janelle, Kyle O., and Dean.  My husband quickly pointed out that I should mention it was only 2 weeks ago when we were travelling to Yellowstone national park.  Having to turn our cellular data off made for a long car trip.  We drove 2800 km and enjoy conversation and scenic views. Luckily we had a GPS that guided our travels, a gift I had received for Christmas.  When we would get chatting, something would come up, Arron at the wheel and me as passenger, I would say “just pass me your phone, I’ll look it up, let me google that”.  I must have said it 50 times on our trip, and we both had a good laugh.  What a fond memory, Aaron made a great connection to the into video.  All because of the atrocious data charges that happen once you leave Canada.

Text or Talk: Is Technology Making You Lonely? made some very great points that I have to agree with.  The article pointed out that a recent study found that 48% of respondents only had one friend or companion . It is true I have a huge social network online, but the depth of my networks offline has decreased. I have a few confidants at work and basically only one friend that I can confide in outside of work. In fact I sent my friend a text just this morning that I missed her, as I haven’t had a face to face conversation with her in like 10 days. Yes, technology has made it easier to stay in touch while keeping distance, I find myself feeling distant when I haven’t made connections with people in person.  

I truly believe that myself and larger society is was to connected and addicted to social media.  I think that social media acts as a safety net that protects us.  Once we say or do something in real time, there is no taking it back. Online activity  allows us to control what we share with our friend, family, or even strangers. We can make all sorts of edits and add filters to made us appear happier, better or just different.  I think the bottom line is to make sure that we keep the connections that we have with our real life friends.

 

The end is near SUMMARY OF LEARNING

It’s unimaginable to think that another semester has passed, and scarier yet another school year for all of us teachers. I love the flexibility and freedom that online courses have.  I will admit I don’t have a cat but being 7 months pregnant makes me want to be a home body, and I have no trouble getting cozy and doing my blogs or zooming in for class. I have taken four EC&I classes, and two of which have been with Alec and Katia. Being able to interact with other Grad students through Google+ and also with our blogs has been awesome.

 

Talk about learning, signing up for the first debate was a little scary but Kayla convinced me to get it out of the way, peer pressure I tell you!  Having Steve on our side of the debate was awesome.  When we first me up for our game plan, h mentioned being on the debate team in high school.  I figured I would post this picture in hope that someone may believe that Steve was the one holding the victory trophy. Of course Steve being way too honest admitted that he was not in the photo, but either way I had a good laugh.

Well now to sum up what I have learned over the semester

But first a flash back to last semester… Some of you may recall in EC&I 831 Kayla, Dallas and I attempted to use Nawmal to make an animated movie for our summary of learning.  For anyone who wasn’t in that class and needs a good laugh I suggest you read my summary of learning from last semester.  To make a long story short Nawmal left a bad taste in my mouth.  Kayla suggested that we give PowToon a shot.  PowToon appeared to be easier to use that the software that we had used prior. I figured we would go ahead and use it.  The software came with a 2 day free trial that allowed you to use all the customization options. If I needed to buy more time it would just cost $19.99 billed monthly.  Friday afternoon we began working on our project by selecting a some-what ready made layout .  With about 2 hours in we decided to call it a day.  Luckily we were able to save our project, I even opened it on another computer before I shut the browser window.

Saturday morning I decided to set my alarm and get up and attempt to work on it again. Little edits such as making sure the  color in each slide matched, there were 200 to choose from, and that green looks like the other 50 greens.  Another edit that took a long time was making sure the text boxes displayed in the right order. I must have spent 4 more hours just tweaking the presentation.  I did have a tough time attempting to get the spy song to loop through the whole presentation.  I fought the spy song battle for 2 days before I uploaded it to YouTube.  The 2 day trial came with a little timer that appeared in the corner of the screen that somehow just stressed me out.  Although, I was curious what 2 day trial really meant, I was going to look it up, before I got locked out and lost all our progress.  I think PowToon has many great features and would student and teacher presentations look awesome but I think the people would also feel the time crunch, if it was not a paid subscription.

Well folks for the moment you have been waiting more!!

Well I guess the time has come to thank everyone for their input, contributions and insights to my learning, and  a special thanks Alec and Katia for everything that they prepared, brought to the class, and for all of the fast paced discussions that they facilitated. Ohh yeah and I love the debate format, so much more engaging than straight forward presentations.

Selling souls in the name of eduaction!!

Another week and another great ED Tech Debate. I am defiantly a fan of the debate format.  It allows us to explore tech issues and then take it further by reading relevant articles and linking it all together.  I would highly recommend an online course, I just love them so much!  This week I had a chance to catch up on reading other’s blogs.  It is great to see so many people with amazing insights.  I agree with Angela, when she talks about not noticing how many partnerships are actually happening in front of our eyes.  She mentioned the vending machines,  in the elementary school that I work at we don’t have machines in the halls.  But with 35+ staff members in our staff room I mentioned getting rid of the Coke machine to make room for another fridge, my principal mentioned that unit was a permanent fixture as Coke gives the school a lot of money.

Dean’s blog got me thinking about the old Taylor Field, hard to believe that the name switch happened 10 years ago.  It also got me thinking about how the Agridome went to Brant Center back in 2005.  Dean’s blog sparked a brief conversation with my husband Aaron.  We chatted about how the sports industry is looking for ways of generating additional funding through the use of ad’s on jerseys.  Shannon pointed out that corporate impact is everywhere “education is not immune to this mind set and so the tendrils of corporate influence have most definitely become a part of the foundation”.  Aaron suggested how long will it be before Regina is home to Pepsi Middle School or Rexall High.  If schools were to be sponsored by big corporation perhaps education wouldn’t be underfunded or maybe teachers 2016 -2017 salary increases would be fully funded by the government as mentioned in good faith bargaining.  Perhaps we would never hear that the education minister is just funding half the salary increase and expecting the school boards to make the tough decision of which programs to cut and which people to let go.  Maybe in time, education will be forced to sell it self to corporate interests, never know when we will see the Regina Mosaic Public School Division.

Luke  made some very good points about corporations wanting to be involved in education but also wanting recognition. He further mentions that the most important consideration becomes whether the corporate involvement in schools is actually providing enhanced learning for student.  Shannon further pointed out that “our guest debaters indicated that some corporations do have morals and values that promote student achievement and what is good for education.  These companies may the lesser of the business evil”

I think that when educators are forced to wrap their heads around corporate sponsorship and education we have to realize that our government is severely under funding education.  This forces school boards into corporate partnerships. Our government is giving us no choice but to sell out and to create these critical friends, and partnerships.
So much more to keep my eyes open for when I look at all the branding that we have within my school.  I will certainly begin to question what’s the motivation behind the$e partnership$.  Thanks to last week’s debaters and to all for the great blogs!!

 

Childhood will never be the same :(

This past week has given me time to think about the question: is social media ruining childhood?  The presenters did a great job highlighting that this tech trend is causing children to mature too quickly.  In talking to teens I know about social media, one girl mentioned that social media is pushing girls to wear make up and look more adult like. Another point that was made was that social media is not providing good role models for today’s children.  I agree with this statement, too many silly challenges such as the rotating corn challenge  and too many silly kids that are willing to try anything for their 15 seconds of fame. These challenges make children want to be daring and take some unhealthy risks.

Photo Credit: Mike Brown via Brainzooming

I think social media is pushing kids to grow up in a world they are not emotionally ready for.  I was strict with my husbands 2 girls as to what the boundaries were when it came to accessing social media.  To this day his 17 year old daughter seeks approval when posting photo’s or will show us a friends photo when it is in bad taste.  These are skills that we need to teach children.

I 100% agree with Danielle  that social media has such an influence on childhood and many children are growing up at a very rapid rate compared to the childhood that I had. She further adds that it is important to embrace the technology, as it is not going anywhere.  I think that she did a great job compiling a list of strategies for educators and parents.  Sometimes we forget to setup boundaries with little ones or even the big kids too!

Kyle  reflected on going back and getting rid of social media, even his colleagues thought it would limit the many problems that stem from social media.  I think that moving forward and embracing the technology and social media in a respectful and responsible way is a skill that we as educators can teach children.

Raising 2 girls has taught me a thing or 2.  One of the things that is happening so much, and most children do not want to talk about it is cyber bullying.  Children can not get away from it as they are so connected to technology 24/7.  I have seen first hand the real tears that ask.fm can cause. I believe that social media provides platforms for kids to take risks and often tmes forget about using better judgment.  Just this past week in the Leader Post “Teen first  to be punished under Regina’s anti-bullying bylaw”. This story comes down to a video being spread on social media of a Down Syndrome student in his underwear as  he changed for phys. ed.. The boys who made and spread the video through social media were the first to be charged since the introduction of the bylaw in 2006.

I have begun to take an interest in reading comments that people post in relation to Facebook or Youtube videos.  I have quickly learned that the comments should not be looked at in the classroom as anyone can write anything even on a simple you tube video for kids.  All in all the internet and social media is about teaching and learning, as we as educators and parents have a duty to do the research and do our best for the children.

Openness and sharing in schools, are we creating a monster???

Wow, I am so amazed with all the online learning that I am doing between reading blogs and our assigned articles.  I enjoy finding some little tidbits on Facebook and Twitter and sharing them with the class, I absolutely love when others share the same.

The TedTalk, How to Think about Digital Tattoos gave me lots to think about. I had never thought about our presence on the internet as digital tattoos, but it certainly is just like the permanent ink we adorn our bodies with.  The footprints we leave on the internet are there forever.  They are traces that were leave behind and are attached to our identity as they shout and tell stories for whom ever to see.  I was even more taken back by the facial recognition Face.com software that allows the user to match a photo of someone’s face with his or her identity. Even when Alec show us the Russian Facebook which can match a picture to your profile, and let anyone find out who you are by just uploading your picture.

Peel Region School Board Staff Guidelines for Social Media  was a great article about some of the guidelines and boundaries for using social media in the classroom and within the school. Sometimes people might not see posting on the internet as black and white, they may find some grey and feel okay about tip toeing into the grey area.

A friend asked my opinion of a situation involving her son’s teacher and authorization for photo usage.  Another friend of hers screen shotted a picture and sent it to her, the photo was of my friends son.  The photo was posted on his grade 1 teacher’s personal Instagram account.  Without trying to alarm her, I instructed her to have a conversation with his teacher.  I mentioned that the conversation should focus on the fact if she wanted her son on social media she would post pictures herself, and that the media release form did not cover non-school social media accounts.

I believe that educators are held at a higher standard as they are viewed very critically in the eyes of the public.  When it comes to social media, your posts may cost you your job, or even haunt you for a longtime, yeah and there is that forever piece like a tattoo.  Employers tend to us social networking sites to research job candidates, and close to 59% say they would be influenced by a candidate’s online presence. Sadly when it comes to social media. the whole world is watching, and just waiting for you to make a slip.

Safety is a concern when posting details about school and the students that attend, I like how a safety tips are suggested such as to refer to the sports schedule for information about location and times.  This is a good deterrent for people who are looking to track down kids, by just browsing the internet.

Another teacher tip that I took form the Peel document was the idea about including professional hours in communication with parents.  This has come up for me personally as a parent emailed at 10:00PM at night then became upset in a second email at 7AM that I didn’t respond.  I explained that I would only respond to emails during my work hours.  By having professional hours this sets boundaries were the world assumes you are available 24 hours a day.  Again this came up in my head last night as I forgot to follow up with a parent and thought about calling at about 7PM, again Kayla reminded me that I should just call in the morning.  I agreed and said “professional work hours” good point Kayla.

The staff supervision section makes many good points about staff use of social media. Staff must consider that online activity is still subject to the rules of a school and their professional responsibilities. I enjoy the example of a staff member choosing to read a book during student supervision.  I have seen too many incidences of staff on their cell phones, except I did not believe it was my place to intervene and make them aware of their responsibilities.  However, it is a distraction problem and a huge safety risk.

All in all I defiantly enjoyed the agree side of the debate.  Either side of the debate that you choose, you always must tread lightly when it comes to your own and your students digital footprints.

It can’t be true, technology making kids sick???

This week  our lovely debaters had a chance to dabble with the idea that Technology is making our kids unhealthy.  Aubrey,  Jayme, and Jennifer had the task of trying to convince us that technology was really making us suck.  They had some fabulous points for their side of the debate and they suggested that we read.  The first article is a Huffington Post article,  Sneaky ways technology is messing with your body and mind.  The article mentions that tech is really taking a toll holistically. The whole tech neck thing is actually a serious problem, I just saw a diagram on Facebook about how our spines are actually curling up because of technology use.  I went back into my Facebook and searched and searched to find the article, turns out it was my hip grandma who posted the article The Harm of Looking Down at Your Cell Phone Does to Your Spine. This article that my grandma shared mentions that staring down at your device is like having an eight-year old sitting on your head while you are standing. It is scary to think that just typing a message, reading an e-mail, or browsing the Internet,  puts you at risk of spine injury.  With that in mind you also have to consider  you’re enduring about 60 pounds of pressure. It is even more scary to think that the average person spends two to four hours a day in this position. Dr. Kenneth K. Hansraj, chief of spinal surgery at New York Spine Surgery & Rehabilitation Medicine points out that the quickest way that we can avoid this neck injury is to put the phones down once and for all.  Unfortunately, we know that dropping the phone is not likely not going to happen.  Some of the solutions that the Dr. suggests is that we try to hold our phone straight in front of us instead of bending your head down. Wow, my grandma is right on trend with all this tech stuff!

Back to the Huffinton Post article, thinking about all that bacteria on a phone is super gross.  We should defiantly be cleaning our gadgets more often. The eye strain things is so true for me, late at night or early in the morning I am guilty of using my cell phone in bed.  I may have even dropped it a few times ahaha. Ooohh no, is this cell phoning around at night is messing with my sleep cycle too.  I am defiantly a constant Face Book feed checker too. The suffering from withdrawls also goes to show how long a person can last without their cell phone.  I will drive home to get it, even if I know that everyone knows that I am at work and could reach me there if need be.  I really enjoyed this article as i relate to so many of the points it may be concerning that my holistic health is being effected by technology.

The quick video Five crazy ways social media is changing your brain right now defiantly hit home for me as well.  I know that when it comes to Facebooking around, I am for sure guilty of having the addiction that is mentioned in this video.  As I sit here at the kitchen table working on my blog and watching video’s , the phantom phone effect is something my husband admitted that he swears he feels buzzing, pulls out his phone and it is just his imagination.

The flip side of the debate was represented by Heather, Andres, and Roxanne.  They had their work cut out for the as they had to highlight that technology is not making our kids unhealthy.  The first article that was chosen for our class to explore was Determining the effects of technology on children.  The article opens with how beneficial technology in the classroom is. I will admit that my students are writing way more now that many of my daily writing assignment are being done of the computer using Google Docs.   Many of the points discussed in this article have been mentioned in previous debates about the benefits of technology.  There is no need to convince me, I know exactly how great technology is.  The article goes on to point out that technology is not going anywhere and we should look at both sides of the coin.

I believe that part of growing up in this internet age is understanding the big risks of the internet.  The article Researchers: Forget Internet abstinence; Teens need some online risk suggests that we need to get teens to handle small risk situations, and learn from there. Teens used strategies of ignoring content or leaving the site.  Teens did share with parents and friends when they can across explicit content.  It is important as a parent and a educator  to keep up with the trends so we can keep our kids healthy.

Turning bystanders into upstanders against bullying is a great resource that classroom teachers can use to show students how to be upstanders.

All in all I totally love the debates and the learning that we are doing in this class.  It is opening both my and my husband’s eyes (he has the unpaid version haha) about issue that we face with technology. Everyone understands that technology is moving at such a rapid pace, we just have to do our best to understand both the pro’s and the cons.  More learning as we go!!

 

Should we just google it??

Wow are these days ever flying by.  I am not sure if they are moving so quickly because there is only 22 teaching days left in the school year, or I am just ready to enjoy all summer has to offer.  This week we were lucky enough to enjoy 2 debates.  I will just give an overview about instant access to the wealth of knowledge available at our fingertips with just a few clicks of a button and scrapping all the memorization in the classroom.  I will also explore the other side of the debate talking about ensuring that students are ready for the world by making sure they know all the drill and kill facts.

I enjoy how the opposing team finds articles reliant to their side of the debate. Luke, Ashley, and Andrew provided us with 3 articles and a video for us to ponder.

The first article How Google Impacts The Way Students Think really opened my eyes in the sense that when students are using Google they are missing out on the process. Knowledge is not simple searchable.  The internet is making it seems as though the answers are always accessible to us. The whole idea that googling is easier than thinking is scary, now we are so used to just searching for what we want to know that all we need to do is type, we don’t even need to know how to spell. However, I must admit that I am a fan of Pinterest, but again it is just plucking visuals and saving them for your own access at a later date. 

Wow, How the Internet is Changing Your Brain is another eye opener of a article. I understand that Google searches are on the rise but i would have never guessed that the idea of instant information reached 4.7 trillion searches a day.  I know first hand that it is so very easy to whip out my smart phone and look something up, perhaps I continue to do the same searches over and over again because I know that the info will be waiting there for me.  Google has become my longer term memory.  I think I am going to do a running tally of how often I use Google in my daily life, both for personal and for the classroom use.  It is bizarre that Google that become a storage place for our memories.

Three Rules to Spark Learning was a very interesting TED Talk by Ramsey Musallam. He makes many valid points about how students questions come first in learning these are the seeds of the learning that will take place.  He further goes on to remind us that we should not dehumanize learning by just allowing the students to look things up and use technology.  Learning is about so much more than just finding the answer it is about the trail and error and the frustration, and the ahh ha moments in the classroom.  Most of all learning is about the reflection and the revisions so that we can get better and do better.

Amy and Heidi chose some great articles for us as well. The first article that I explored was When Rote Learning Makes Sense.  There are many valid point that made me lean towards this side of the debate. I really believe that before students can think critically, they need to have some sort of background knowledge or something to base their new knowledge on, the scaffolding. This article further pointed out that gaining something from a quick knowledge source such as Google doesn’t allow us to actually think about in our brains. ” Knowledge without comprehension is of little use, but comprehension requires knowledge and it takes time and effort to acquire”.  We needed to understand that the brain is a tool that needs an active effort to make it work harder and somehow Google just isn’t making our brains work hard enough.  The old saying practice makes perfect is true when it comes to allowing the brain to soak up more knowledge and actually move it from short to long-term memory storage facilities. Googling does not engage our bodies or allow us to learn aloud.  If we move past the memorization of the basics we are overlooking all the basics we need to continue to build on what we know.

Memorization is Not a Dirty Word is a great article that talks of the importance of memorizing info.  We have to remember that there will be times when we don‘t have access to the internet or our phones.  This memorization is exercises for the mind and the brain. I 100% believe that memorization trains our brains to get ready for building on to the knowledge that we already have.  The final words of the article make so much sense “But what good is learning if you don’t remember it?”

Why teach facts to the level of automaticity? This article continues to illustrate that memorization improves students ability to learn.  When students memorize information or facts it allows them move to higher order thinking without having to back fill. They are able to focus on learning the new facts and continue to build their knowledge and retention.

Humm, I guess this is a very tough one for me.  I defiantly think that memorization is a very important learning concept.  I have always struggled when it came to learning math or just learning in general.  I would have to come up with all sorts of mnemonics and rhymes to help me study.  That is just how my brain works.  I understand that accessing knowledge at your fingertips makes for some simple answers but sure takes away from what you know and what you can recall.

So what are your thoughts, does technology in the classroom enhances learning?

Last week came and went so quickly. It’s hard to believe that the long weekend just blew by us. I managed to enjoys some me time and finish up some projects around the house like baby’s room. However, I am sooo guilty of putting my blog on the back burner. My husband had surgery last week and I even had to care for him. Anyhow, here I am now, in the moment.

Last week  Jeremy, Erin, and Kyle D. had a chance sway the class into believing that technology in the classroom does enhance learning in the mean time Kayla, Steve and myself had a very tough job in attempting to present our side of the debate that technology in the classroom does not enhance learning. From the start i understood that attempting to argue that technology in the classroom is a bad thing to a group of Grad students taking a class about online technology was going to be a tough sell.

I started out with a quick survey of my staff, I asked what were some of the challenges that they faced using technology in the classroom. I thought a Wordle  would be a fun touch.  If you have never used Wordle, I don’t suggest you do it on a RBE Laptop, you need to update Java and to do so you need a secret username and password.  So I had to use another generator called Worditout, which I managed to create this collage.

 

 

 

 

 

I then thought maybe a Prezi would be a cooler visual.  I had never have used a Prezi before, I also found this to be a challenge.  I had difficulty getting the images to go where I wanted to go.  I did not finish the Prezi, just had a little fun playing with it. Watch my attempt at a Prezi.

 

There is many sides to this debate coin, I was able to find many articles such as Don’t give students more tools of mass distraction to support our argument that technology in the classroom does not enhance learning. Many educators believe that technology is becoming more and more intrusive.   The main point of my article was that technology in the classroom is a tool of mass distraction, much of what students do during class time on their devices has nothing to do with learning.  This can become very frustrating to educators as we can not often compete with cell phones and student devices.

Students find it very hard to concentrate during class if they are constantly receiving notifications or texts.  I know that in some schools students are even receiving text from parents.  Shouldn’t parents know that their child is busy in the classroom.  Now that technology is in our hands for most of the day it is easy to think of something and fore off a quick text.  Gone our the days of writing a to-do list, now we are so into multitasking that if we don’t do it right this moment we will forget.  Perhaps, this is where some of student impatience in my classroom comes from, their minds are wired to do things right now.  It doesn’t matter if I am talking, they will interrupt or get up and go get what they need at that moment.  Okay, may be that’s a pet peeve of mine, haha.

Not every student has access to technology at home, so when they receive a cell phone or get on a computer they can’t always handle it.  Many are constantly over stimulated. Some of my students can not manage to stay on task with their cell phones so accessible, this digital age is much tougher to regulate than the old note passing. It is not just students who are distracted by technology it is people everywhere are paying more attention to their devices than what’s going on around them. 

Another point that I made during our debate was that technology becomes nearly impossible to monitor in the classroom. It is easy to walk into a room and see that every student is using a computer or a device, but how do you really assess if and what type of learning is taking place?  

It is even more scary that school firewalls are far from foolproof when it comes to what students can access at school. In my first year teaching I had a student who was on a website called stranger chat.  I couldn’t believe that a child would want to chat with strangers and further how the school computer offered that wide open freedom.  I spoke to tech services and asked about banning Facebook and stranger chat, I was told this was something that my Admin would have to tackle as it was a school issue.  I spoke to admin who thought it was just a one time incident and did not need any more attention.  The whole stranger chat saga just allowed me to educate my students to become better digital citizens.

It becomes easier to do what you want on the internet when you are using your own device in the classroom, most students do not have the data plans so they will sign into the school WIFI. At times I even believe that our WIFI password should be changed to deter students abusing it.  As an educator I find it difficult to supervise my behavioral class as I constantly have to keep walking back and forth to make sure they aren’t clicking tabs.  Much time is wasted as I could be helping another student instead of policing technology in the classroom, as soon as I turn my back to write on the board, out come the phones.

A final thought is that students are using cameras to record teachers, videos are ending up on Youtube or Snapchat.  With students having so much access to technology the privacy is becoming more of an issue.  My debate partner Steve also made note of the fact that much student info and their work product is given away when using school computers.  Often, we don’t realize what we are giving away when we create an online identity.

I defiantly enjoyed the debate that my group was a part of, but deep down I appreciate technology in the classroom and I try very hard to incorporate it into my lessons and have students use it responsibly.  It was super cool to see both sides of the issues and I can’t wait for other groups to share their findings.

Putting a name to an online face

Hi everyone! My name is Chalyn Smith and I have been a Special Education classroom teacher at Kitchener Community School for the past 5 years. I have been teaching at Kitchener since I received my Bachelor of Education after degree from the First Nations University of Canada in 2011. The program that I facilitate is called a Structured Learning Classroom (SLC), which was a created to meet the needs of all learners within the public elementary system. My classroom focuses on providing a safe, nurturing and caring environment where my students feel comfortable building relationships with all team members and students. I strive to meet each student’s social, emotional, behavioral and educational needs. I encourage and focus on the strengths of our students.

I am blown away thinking that this is my sixth graduate class at the University of Regina in Curriculum and Instruction. I love the flexibility of the online courses offered by Alec, this is my second course with him and Katia as I took 831 last semester. Meeting in person last week allowed me to again see some familiar faces. I enjoy looking at different classmate blogs, and challenge myself to explore even more this semester. Luckily my wonderful co-teacher Kayla (who I share my classroom with), convinced me to jump into the debate with both feet, eeeekkk we present next week with Steve. Hopefully we can convice you all that technology does not actually improves learning. Wish us luck!!

I managed to create my 831 blog last semester and since beginning to blog and leaning more about technology I’ve tried to increase it in the classroom. I have attempted to do mini lessons on such things such as formatting, email, and all the other things little I had overlooked. Currently I share all sorts of cool articles and video’s off Facebook (wow I love the save link feature), I also have began to use Kahoot and the students love it. I am lucky to have 2 iPads, a student laptop, and 4 Chromebooks permanantly homed in my classroom. If anyone has any cool ideas or suggestion to add to my tech toolbox please share.

See everyone next week in the Zoom room!!