I came to a realization today. I felt like I had writer’s block when it came to blogging. I was frustrated because while my peers were excelling in finding subjects that interested them, I felt like I didn’t have those interests. I realized that I should be blogging about subjects that interest me as well as blogging about my new endeavors with technology.
One of my interests is my guitar. I learned to play guitar this last semester in EMUS 202 (great class, all education students should try to take it!) Shortly after, I had to give back my guitar that I had borrowed to learn to play on. I decided to buy my own guitar, which has been great!
Recently, I watched a fantastic film that inspired me to start learning some more difficult music. I am currently working on a few songs from the film, but I thought I would share it with everyone else, so they can enjoy it as well!
The film is “Once”, it is a fictional account of two people creating music together. It is a fantastic film and you can check out the trailer below. The two stars of the film are a music group, you can check out the film’s myspace, and the band’s myspace to hear their music. It is fantastic and I encourage everyone to take a listen! Have a great day!
When I began this class, I knew that I would become frustrated. I’ve always seen myself as a technical person. I am able to work with technology, but as I become deeper into this class, I realize that I have been left behind. But in some ways, I think it was a choice.
I look at our society and the students in schools and realize that I have to jump on the technology wagon, but something keeps holding me back. I keep thinking about aspects that define who I am. Unfortunately, most of them do not have to do with technology that I am using now. Maybe this is because I have been blinded from it or I refused for so long to give into the popular tools.
I struggle as a pre-service arts educator with technology. I look at the way that I have experienced arts education both as a student and a teacher and I struggle to find the technological connections. There are aspects of art forms that beg for technological interaction, but I can’t deny that there is something about art away from technology that is inspiring. I wonder if this is a common feeling for arts educators, stuck between the inherent aesthetic quality of interaction with art and arts with technology. Or does there have to be a divide?
I believe I come from the generation of digital natives rather than immigrants. The realities of the current technology have been developed since I was a child. I have interacted with them or chosen not to interact with them. I wonder, as a pre-service teacher, does this hinder me? I have little interest in cruising YouTube and other media sites, does that make me technologically illiterate? I beg to say it doesn’t. I think that I can integrate and use technology in my classroom, but I don’t have to be a constant on these types of technology.
I am looking for some answers, I really wonder if my disinterest in certain forms of technology will hinder me as a teacher. It is not that I am unwilling to try these things, but I just find better connections and interest in other areas, sometimes away from technology. This class is opening my eyes to the possibilities of many forms of technology but I still struggle to be engaged with every kind. I am looking for feedback, if any from educators on how they deal with these feelings or whether they encounter them at all.
I created a mastercard commercial for my ECMP 355 class. I decided to create mine on my trip to europe last year. I hope you enjoy it! Here is the link. (Sorry I can’t embed it because it only works for wordpress.com with blip.tv)
Hi! I figured I could write about my final project and see if anyone responds with suggestions or links.
I am creating an arts education resource that contains websites, lesson plans, and a sharing space for arts educators. I am creating it with wikispaces, so that others can add to my project. I am calling out to any educators who have resources that they use for arts education. I have many and I am beginning to collect websites, books, etc. If you have any suggestions in any of the arts areas (dance, drama, visual art, music and literature) please let me know!
I will post the wikispace address at a later date.
Hello! In the past week, I had the opportunity to view George Siemens speaking at the TLt Summit in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He spoke about technology education in our schools. I want to focus on some of the key notes I found interesting from his presentation.
There was a comment made about the focus should not be on the tools but on shared interest. I found this interesting because we tend to focus on the tools we are using, how they are being used and we forget about the reality that technology is about shared interest and relationships.
I thought George posed a valuable question when he asked about where we find value in education. Previous to this question, he said that content has limited value. He then posed the question to educators, where do we find value? If our content is limited then we need to explore and discover value in other places, like in technology and the use of technology.
George Siemens continued on to speak about the idea of the expert versus the novice. I thought this was important in seeing the value in students work. Novices work in ways that are beyond the expert because they see situations differently. I enjoyed this comment because it gives validation to students and their own control of their learning. In this same aspect, novices can teach other novices, creating peer connections and peer teaching.
The hole in the wall experiment mentioned by the speaker was intriguing. The idea that learners could discover its function without knowing anything about the computer is fascinating.
One of George Siemens final comments was that we, as teachers, need to change but our educational system is not changing. This is an important factor in every area of education. He is right that students are learning differently than before and we need to keep up with their needs. Education is behind on the times and we need to match societies advances. If we are to change our system, then drastic changes will need to occur at all levels, including universities. It will take time but maybe this upcoming generation is the one to make the evolution happen. We have begun to change, and I believe that this change will be gradual and it will happen one day.
The following is the slideshow from George Siemens presentation, it highlights and emphasizes some of the ideas I discussed here.
Hello! I wanted to blog about something I read in a news feed on Yahoo.ca on friday.
The article was about a 13 year old girl who had committed suicide after the end of an online relationship. A relationship she thought was with another teenager, that turned out to be a 49 year old woman. The woman was once friends with the girl’s mother, when the relationship turned sour, the woman turned on the young girl. Posing as a young boy with a myspace account, the woman led the young girl on. The girl committed suicide shortly after the breakup before she was told that the boy was not real.
Social Networking sites like facebook and myspace allow for any user to create an account and access others accounts. These sites can be wonderful for people trying to connect to others in various locations. Unfortunately, these sites tend to be abused. I was reading Ashley’s weblog the other day and she made a similar comment about the abuse of those sites. It was concerning our safety as teachers online and the realities of social networking as a person in power. The interesting thing about facebook is it’s evolution over the past couple years. When I first signed up for facebook it was open to only university students. The users were other university students and everyone belonged to a university network. It has changed over the years to become a public forum.
This makes me wonder, how can we teach students that have grown in this generation to see the issues of safety and privacy online? I wonder this question frequently as I use more technology. Our lives have become public. How can we as teachers turn this technology into something that is not destructive to our students and ourselves?
I am interested to hear about how other educators have effectively used social networking in their classrooms. I will continue to research this area, but if any readers know educators who have done this I would love to hear about them!
Hello! I was reading the paper this morning because while I love the internet, I still love reading the paper. Anyways, in the first section of the Leader Post a title caught my eye about a teacher from Saskatchewan who had received an award for excellence in use of technology in early childhood education. As I read the article I was intrigued by the award and the teacher involved.
The teacher receiving one of the awards was Milissa Gavel. Milissa came and taught a session with the 2nd year arts education group this year. She taught us how to use SMART boards in a classroom. I had never encountered SMART boards before and found this session extremely useful. I was excited to see she had been recognized this month for her work in integrating technology into the classroom. I thought others would be interested in this article.
I found another video that shows a bit of the area before the volcano began erupting. On the Reuters website you can find more pictures that show what Futaleufu looks like with the ash. They have determined that Chaiten will be closed to people for at least three months after the eruption.
Hello! I thought I would clean up my posts by posting the videos separately from the text.
There are three trailers to films about Darfur/Sudan. The first film is The Devil Came on Horseback which explores the present conflict in Darfur. It is an interesting perspective from a person who worked and viewed the conflict from inside the borders of Darfur.
The second video is for Darfur Now. This is being released this month in stores. It observes the view of many people working in different aspects around the issues in Darfur. I am excited to watch it when it becomes available.
The third video is for God Grew Tired of Us. God Grew Tired of Us focuses on a different aspect of Sudan’s history. It focuses on the story of the Lost Boys, who were boys that were displaced by the civil war between the north and the south before the conflict in Darfur. These children walked hundreds of miles to find safety and eventually leave Sudan. I have heard great things about this film, it follows the lives of some of the Lost Boys when they arrive in America.
Hello! I viewed the video about the technology being implemented in classrooms in the Prairie South School Division today. The video highlighted the use of technology in classrooms around the division. Some teachers have been using cellphones, laptops, and hand-held devices to redefine student learning.
I believe the introduction and use of technology in these classrooms is fantastic. In Craik, the teachers use cellphones as a learning tool and are connecting students world with school. I love the use of data projectors, smart boards and personal laptops. Students connect with their world and their learning effectively through these ideas. I am curious to know how certain teachers use these technologies in their classrooms. After I finished viewing the video, I wanted to know what content they were covering and how they were achieving this. Especially in regards to cellphones, I am curious as to how the teachers in Craik use these devices for learning. I will have to do more research into this area.
I feel I must critique some part of the video. This is where I see a problem, right now our education systems, teacher training, etc. is focused to the individualized success of students. It is a wonderful shift in thinking. This kind of reality allows all students to find success in education. The problem is, is that many people will continue onto post secondary education because it has become a requirement for many jobs available. When we arrive in post secondary, the tables turn and we are placed in an environment that ignores student needs. Now, some faculties are different and the learning that occurs there is a continuation of the learning achieved in previous schooling. For the majority of faculties, we find ourselves, as students struggling because we are unprepared. This is the first university class where I have used technology everyday, majority of them, the only time I used computers was to write papers and research. My questions lie in the reality of post-secondary education, is this place going to change with its newer generations? Or will generations to come be bombarded by something they were unprepared for? Maybe, I am wrong, but I am interested to see if anyone else feels this way.
Overall, I am interested to learn more about how these teachers actually use these technologies in their classrooms.
