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Category: EdTech Reflections

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 7

This week in class we tried some different coding programs for kids. It was actually so much fun! I have never tried coding before and the website I tried, Grasshopper, was really cool. I always thought of coding as this impossible, complex thing, and it still is in my eyes, but this website was a great way to introduce coding to students. The instructions were straight forward, and the website was really user friendly. I enjoyed myself, and I know if I was a child and that was introduced into my classroom, I would love it. I think it is great that students are starting to learn the basics of coding in school. That was something that never took place when I was in grade school, and I think it’s an important skill to have, especially because our world is becoming more and more reliant on technology. I also just really enjoyed joining breakout groups and discussing the different coding websites. I feel like I am bonding with my cohort more and more. Now it’s time for reading break which will be great, but it will also be a busy week prepping for the last month of the semester.

Amy

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 6

This week in EdTech, we did something slightly different. We did an EdCamp session. Essentially, we brainstormed a few different topics in a Google Doc, and we went off into breakout groups on zoom and discussed the topics. The great thing about this activity was that we could hover around to different groups whenever we wanted. It was so much fun speaking to everybody in my cohort about various topics such as physical health. The crazy thing about this school year, with everything being online, is that there are some people in my cohort that I have never spoken to! I have spoken to almost everybody but there are still a couple of people that I have just never been in a breakout group with. This new mode of learning has certainly made it difficult to get to know my fellow classmates, but this activity was fantastic. I spoke to some new people and made some good connections on the different topics. I am looking forward to doing something like this again sometime.

Amy 🙂

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 5

This week I really wanted to try some graphic design. My partner creates videos and graphics for different companies, so he has Adobe Photoshop on his computer. I played around with it a bit and tried a few different things. I am currently working on a header with my name on it. I used Adobe Photoshop a few times when I attended BCIT, but it has been so long I can hardly remember what all of the little buttons mean. And seriously, there are so many buttons! It’s actually a bit overwhelming. I wish I could just automatically know what every button does, it would make things so much easier. But I guess that would only come with practice. I think that using online programs like photoshop is really important. I want to be able to use these tools to create lesson plans and graphics for my classroom. It would be great to add my own personal touch to everything I do. I’m looking forward to learning more about Adobe photoshop!

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 4

This week I completed workshops for some video and audio editing software. The programs are called iMovie and Audacity. I have actually used both of these programs many times before. When I was attending BCIT for Radio Arts & Entertainment, using these programs was an everyday occurrence. I conducted, recorded, and edited phone interviews using Audacity, and created and edited videos using iMovie. I also used to make movies when I was a kid and would record and upload video clips onto my parents iMac and edit them using iMovie. Due to these experiences, I am pretty familiar with these programs and fairly confident with my abilities using them. I haven’t used these applications in a while, so it was great to have the opportunity to complete these workshops and get a bit of a refresher. I will likely be using Audacity to interview somebody for my Inquiry Question project for one of my classes.

Amy 🙂

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 3

This week in class we had a special guest named Jesse Miller. He spoke about the importance of privacy and safety on the internet. It was really interesting hearing him speak about how school servers can see internet activity. I had no idea! He told a story about a substitute teacher for a first grade class. She was posting on her Snapchat, and the people who monitor the server noticed a lot of activity on Snapchat which obviously doesn’t happen often for a first grade class. She got in trouble for posting about the class.

It was also interesting hearing Jesse speak about the use of cell phones in schools. During my Wednesday school visit last week, a student told me she has “the new iPhone 11 Pro”.  She is nine years old. That completely blew my mind! I had no idea that having a phone at that age was normal. Turns out most of the kids in the class have phones. There is obviously a “no phones in school” policy going on at this school, because I’ve yet to actually see any students with their phones. This just goes to show that having a phone is literally just a part of life now. Everybody has one! It’s pretty cool. I like technology and I am looking forward to implementing it into my classrooms in the future.

Amy 🙂

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 2

In class this week, we discussed copyright. I learned so much about the subject, and it was really interesting because it is something I have never thought about before. I didn’t think teachers had to worry about copyright when collecting materials to use in the classroom. For example, I had no idea that if a teacher is providing a class with a copyright-protected work, it must only be a short excerpt from said work. An example of a short excerpt is one chapter from a book, or up to 10 per cent of something like a musical score, literary work, or audio recording. This was really interesting because I used to participate in school musicals when I was elementary-aged, and we did productions like Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Knowing what I know now, those scripts were not free. The teacher did not just find the script and score online and print them out. They were definitely copyright-protected works that cost money to use.

Amy 🙂

EdTech Reflections Blog Post 1

I just completed my first week of classes in the elementary education program at UVic! It has been quite a journey, but I am finally here.

I graduated high school in 2016 and attended the British Columbia Institute of Technology for a two-year Radio Arts & Entertainment program. I learned a lot about technology, the power of my voice, and social media, and even created a website through WordPress which highlighted my best work in the program. I met one of my closest friends there and experienced cluster housing (11 roommates, yikes). I worked very hard for two years and left BCIT with so much more than just a diploma.

In the fall of 2018, I began school at Camosun College. Over a two-year period, I completed all of the prerequisites for the Bachelor of Education, Elementary Education Curriculum program at the University of Victoria. In June of this year, I received my acceptance letter and I could not have been more excited.

This school year has already been much more different than I could have ever imagined, but I wouldn’t change it if I could. It’s going to be an interesting year (hopefully this doesn’t carry on longer than that), but I am ready for the challenge of online-based learning.

Amy 🙂