Waiting for Superman

This was a great documentary and was surprised teachers in the United States got paid while they were waiting for their law cases to be settled.

I understand why parents are choosing these charter schools and understand that college is huge but I didn't realize how far parents would go to get their kids in certain schools. Also students would have to take certain schools to fill out a certain requirement for the college they wanted to attend.

Here is a screen shot that from the film that explains that putting children in private school is cheaper then putting them through jail.

BYTE

http://www.danbuckley.net/

Dan has a great website for understanding personalized learning.

I enjoyed BYTE and listening to Dan the guest speaker however I found some of the sessions I went to more Early years focused but for the price and the information I received it was definitely a great experience. I met some of my fellow teachers and chatted with them and I am figuring out that these sessions are for meeting old colleagues. I also find that a teachers personality is one of a kind and filling Crocus's gym up with these teachers got extremely loud.

The most useful resource I found a BYTE were the ESRI Story Maps and seeing them used outside of Geography.

I think some highschool teachers should hold some more sessions next year. I found with the sessions this year, our teacher introduced them all in out class and we should credit these sessions for a PD.

My First Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5hQTeRgZo&feature=youtu.be

Tech Task 12

So I think the bring your own devices and policies are going to be the biggest features in the future of education. The student is going to have a lot more responsibility with their 400 dollar device then their 10 dollar binder and pencil. If the kid forgets their device then they may actually not get the lesson unless everything is saved on a cloud and there are extra devices to work on. It is not like the old days where a teacher can just give them paper and a pencil.

The second major factor is Policies and of the schools I went to there is only one school division that has struck down on the policies and blocking everything. This is hard when you are a new teacher and used to doing whatever you want and letting the students use multiple apps and websites. I think the future is going to have more policies and protecting students from trolls and other internet creatures. I also seen where the provincial math is going and they are wanting students to use their devices on the provincial exam. This brings up a new topic but I know the teacher's age was a big factor in these discussions.

Tech Task 11

So for the geography teachers out there, I would like to share with you some ESRI products. ESRI products such as Arcmap is bought by the province and you can install this software on the computer. There is a mobile app for this but really it is just a fancy Google Map and I wouldn't suggest it unless you are using the software. Another ESRI product is the story map and this is where any classroom can use this map and it is pretty cool. So you need to have your GPS on for this application to work. This story map will reference the pictures you take from your for using the GPS coordinates and then you can type stuff behind the pictures. There is a teacher using this in her English class and getting the kids to tell a story. This can also be used to take before and after pictures and make a story.

Another cool app is Microsoft Photosynth, I used this in my practicum and it creates a 3-d model from still images. So you can take millions of pictures around a certain object and put the images into Photosynth and create a 3-d model.

Tech Task 10

We were not suppose to blog about this but when reading through the essentials 40, Physics 40 and psychology 40 I came across some questions.
Do you get to pick a teacher that works with you through these activities? Or is the teacher already picked and you do not get to see them often.

The reason I am bringing this up is because the physics and essentials are hard to follow I find and looks pretty dry. But maybe this is how these courses and I know you won't get the feedback like a normal course but I thought they would have at least tried to be interactive. The psychology course would be easy to do the course over the web but the other two would be hard. Especially when in the question they refer to module icon, whatever that means :/. I also found that the courses are not up to date with the curriculum.

Tech Task 9

We were lucky enough to have Mr. Bolton from a Manitoba High School come in and show us how he uses technology and other cool resources in math. For starters he has his own website which I will provide the link below and has plenty of resources on there to share. He uses recording technology with a blue tooth and Smartboard to record his lessons. He posts the lessons on the website which are downloadable for the students. He also posts the notes that go along with the class as well so if you weren't in class that day you wouldn't miss out.
I think this is a clever way to teach and when we are going to that 1 to 1 classroom, students can listen to the video and answer their own questions. We still need the teacher though for the most part in the classroom but these videos will help. Mr. Bolton said to have a site counter on the page and to watch the numbers double or triple during exams.

Mr. Bolton and another teacher who presented in our class also showed us students making a video on solving math questions and teaching themselves and their peers. This is where I would like to go on formative and possible summative assessment with my students. The problem is I need a group of guinea pigs to do it and perfect this style. I am glad though that these videos are being used in the classroom and being successful.
https://brianbolton.wordpress.com/mad20s-grade-10-applied-math-course-outline/

Tech Task 8

So I am not a big fan of apple products so instead of downloading iTunes and watching the podcast.  I just simply clicked on Math Dudes website where he has all of his videos online or linked to YouTube. What is even better is you can download the videos off his website instead of going to iTunes and finding the video.
What I like about Math Dudes videos are the math instructions in them and the English is better than most video instructions I found. The video would be a good refresher or another resource that students can use from home. This video would not replace a teacher in instructing the course but would help enforce key concepts. These videos are American so they do not follow the Canadian Curriculum or Manitoba Curriculum.

I would let the students create their own video on a math theory or concept and put their own twist on how they as students remember concepts or formulas. See my next post to get more insight on this.

Tech Task 7

I think these infographics would be good for a student who is struggling on a topic then they can make one of these to grasp and remember the concepts. I think these might be useful for studying theories, definitions, or formulas because you could have the definitions and the steps and maybe an example as well.
So I created an infographic on my years in education and it looks kind of like a gas gauge. This shows that I am almost done my BEd degree and when you are making this there is a table in which you can calculate however you want the gauge to show.

I used this app to make the infographic  https://infogr.am/app/#/create but there is another app which has a lot more templates I find. The link to that app is here https://magic.piktochart.com/. I like this app much better even though I just fooled around with it and never made my infographic with it. I just thought with the first app I used that had the name infographic would be a better app and first page on Google.

Tech Task 6

I used mindmeister to create mind maps because we used this app in the first ICT but never did anything with it. So I broke my connections down into four categories in which I listed the website or apps that I use. I probably could have made a few more categories but I didn't want the picture to be cluttered.
The second assignment was to create a mind map for the 21st century and I also broke this down to 4 categories and labeled them with numbers. I think what students do most now is connect and interact that is why it is number 1 on my mind map. Kids are using Snapchat and Twitter which connect more to people around the world then Facebook. These apps are made more to interact with each other where I find Facebook as a more advanced blog and photo album. We use Facebook to find information out on people or creep where as the other two apps we use to message or interact.

I find Students are more creative and have competition when you give the students a chance to use technology. Students will look up tutorials videos or Google how to change a back ground or add videos into their projects. Whereas the old student would have just used notes or poster board or a plain PowerPoint. Now students are looking to get a more advanced PowerPoint by adding pictures/videos or using Slideshare or Prezi.

Tech Task 5

So my digital foot print has nothing to do me but I found that there are many other professional David Underwood people out there. Although if you put Brandon University behind my name then there is a little article about my presentation in Regina. I am actually glad that when you Google my name that images and web pages don't come up. I have heard too many stories where people didn't get jobs to do just Googling there name and finding inappropriate content.

I think everyone should be checking on what they are posting on the internet or even what they are storing on an online storage app. You never know what you post could come back to haunt you or end up in the Google images. You have no control on what shows up first for the searches unless you are a mathematician working for Google.

Tech Task 4

I had the pleasure of attending a PD that Devon held about Smart Board technology in the early years classroom. She showed an easy way to take attendance using smart boards and how to import new pictures into the gallery. The most fascinating tech tip I received from this PD was that you could import Flash games into the Smart Board technology and play the game in the Smart Board. She never showed us how to do this but gave out her contact information if we ever need help.

Devon has quite the background for being a young educator with a masters and a reward from multiple companies such as Microsoft and Smart for using technology in the classroom. She showed us some of the devices she has won which were a remotes that you could use for test taking and keep track of class progress or individual progress. This just shows on how close we are getting to a paper free classroom with students however not sure how many teachers are  for a paper free classroom but we will leave that for another discussion. I think Devon is a professional young educator that is representing Brandon University very well.

http://kinderdiva.blogspot.ca/p/more.html

Tech Task 3

So I first used twitter in my first year of university when a friend from ACC was having a contest in his communication technology program. The contest was twitting about the ACC radio station and winning a Blu-ray edition of Lord of the Rings Trilogy. There was only three people in his class and one of the students got two sets. We ended up not winning so I started using twitter to follow Jay and Dan sports broadcasters from Canada and Comedians. I eventually found twitter very entertaining listening to jokes and twitter wars but I lost interest.

I see the educational purposes in twitter and could be a valuable resources for reminders or getting information out there. I just don't want to use twitter right now because of some of the comedians I follow there are some harsh jokes that people would take offense to and might come back to haunt me.

How to use Twitter in the classroom? Check out this website below

https://www.examtime.com/blog/using-twitter-in-the-classroom/

What can we use Twitter for in the classroom? Check out this website below

http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

tech task 2

I think curation has to do a lot with the students age and the type of projects you as a teacher are doing in class. The reason for age is I find students can't research or remember the website or words they searched. Using websites such as diigo gives the students the information and the student just needs to choose what resources they want to use. When the students are younger, they are more competitive on using resources the teacher gives and it gives every student an equal or base for using resources. So for high school students I would give diigo as a base model for research but I would expect the students to find their own resources and bookmark them. I think high school students should be given more responsibility and given the chance to get deeper resources for their content.

I found this link on ed blog and I thought this would be a good resource for teachers. Basically this app is used for creating a personal YouTube list and blocks out the inappropriate content. I would use this more for early-middle years then senior years just due to the responsibility factor.

http://classtechtips.com/2015/01/22/juniortube-for-video-curation/

1 to 1

This whole 1 to 1 education move that is happening with technology is going great with students being able to be on a device in the classroom or working from home. There are many benefits to the classroom but some negatives starting with behaviour. If the teacher does not demo or have the proper management of these classes then the classroom turns into an app war. For a first year teacher that is not very app-etizing and we need to teach these students to use these devices.

Another benefit for these devices is all the programs and tools you can use to make assignments and the teacher does not have to book a computer lab to do this. The teacher might have to help teach/learn on how to work these new programs for modifying a picture or making a podcast. I really like this movement and that we are slowly changing our assessments. However, I would be curious on to know how much time this takes to do podcast/videos in the classroom vs the old assessment. I have got a chance to teach in a 1 to 1 but they were just starting up and kind of all over the place. The major downside I see to this is getting rid of the computer labs because I teach GIS which tablets can't handle the program and I need a desktop for the software. Therefore, I might not be able to teach GIS to students because of the 1 to 1 unless the students all got laptops.

Web-Based Courses

I really like the idea of web-based courses for the students because these courses give students more opportunity. I came from a rural area and most of my friends just did work experience to make up for the extra courses. I think students should do a web based course maybe instead of work experience. There are many of courses offered online compared to 6 years ago when I was in school. I had one friend take a web based course for math so they could get into university and not be behind in university. I could also see this as a positive if the student has behaviour issues or issues with the teacher. The student could just do a web-based course and not have to do with these issues.

I see a lot more opportunity with kids now with online courses or independent courses. The downside is the social and engaging part in the classroom and students have to be able to organize and manage their time to finish the course. If a student isn't organized or waits last minute to do a whole years work in a matter of weeks or a month. I knew someone who did this and the course was needed to graduate. Luckily the person did graduate but I can see this as a negative and I might argue that the information learned in these online based courses may not stick with the student. This is just due to the lack of experience and discussion the student is missing if they were in a class. There are online courses that have a web cam with a teacher but I still hear the negatives and lack of discussion.

Today's Teacher

This blog is really interesting on testing you as a teacher to see what you give your students and what you are missing. You could go on the offence and say you don't agree with this blog or parts of becoming a whole teacher.

I agree with what is said and that teachers need to be more whole and give the students a voice in the classroom. Students need to be challenged with questions and discuss about these questions to get a solution. Discussion helps deeper learning and the teacher isn't always going to be there for the student to spoon feed the student. But with giving a student a voice, you as a teacher have to be flexible and the student's peers have to be flexible so respect is key. I thought this topic was a good summary of today's teacher.

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/whole-teaching-whole-teacher-self-assessment-educator-assessment/

Thirds

This intro video on how to make a better picture or video using the "Rule of Thirds". This video makes sense and shows you how to make certain objects in a video stand out from the background. I think this video would be really good to show to students in an ICT course. Some students do not know how to take a proper picture or video. In my math class I might even bring this up to see if there were any other numbers that would work for this rule such as fourths. You could turn this into a study if the students didn't believe and get your peers to vote on the best photo. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSSOZxLnNyc&feature=youtu.be&list=PL6e_LPIs5f6Ygx8y3sUAS7w7nNYlPp_L9

Internet and Devices

The internet can be a wonderful source in the classroom and the students can research new information and use new tools for their assignments. The downfall is some of the websites are blocked due to school policies and the student can research certain materials. Also at the last school I was with anything with a username that the student needed to sign into was blocked. I found this very frustrating when most schools are wanting teachers to use new technology. Also giving the kids devices meanwhile they can't research or use certain websites such Google products, Prezi, Edmodo, Socrative is kind of a downfall. Basically the student uses the device to download games and take notes with in class. One parent made a good point with kids aren't learning proper keyboard skills with using these devices and with computers the kids would develop these skills. I also found some parents think the devices are a waste of time because the students aren't using the devices to the full extent and the student might as well being using a lab computer or pen and paper.

These thoughts were all going through my mind when Jon mentioned devices to a certain school division.