Reflection

I have always considered myself a tech-savvy person but taking this course has expanded my scope with 21st century technology and learning. In regards to social media I always considered it more of a platform for personal use and sharing personal experiences with friends. I never really considered how valuable it could be for integrating it into schools and classrooms for sharing student work or collaboration. After going through the process myself in this course I can recognize the major benefits and internal motivation that happens when you are required to share your work with your peers. It motivates me to put more effort into my work and it gives me an opportunity to share my own creative ideas. 

Furthermore, I really like how peer feedback can occur when students are encouraged to comment on each others work. I would have never considered a tool like Google plus and using hangouts as such a valuable resource for collaborative learning that extends outside of personal social use. On top of that, integrating and using blogs and sharing your work via twitter is only enhancing the experience with 21st century learning. Every time I sent a tweet linking a post on my blog about something technological I explored instantly gave a great feeling. As I look over what I have accomplished in this course I get a sense of pride from the collection I have created via my blog. This experience only is further encouragement as a teacher to ensure my future students take advantage and become engaged with these kind of tools in a classroom.

With immersing yourself in 21st century learning as an educator there are many risks worth taking. Just like we want our students to take risks and try new things and explore new technologies and as a teacher I need to nurture this process. One of the best aspects I received from this course is jumping in with both feet and just trying to figure out new technologies I was not familiar with such as pod-casting, Wevideo, and feedback audio tools like Jing. The learning I gained from just exploring technologies was extremely valuable to my development as a teacher and student. Now going forward as a teacher the thoughts that fill my mind is how can I integrate audio/and pod-casting, videos, vloging, presentations and more to enhance my students learning. More importantly I want my students to use these tools to become producers of quality work they want share with the world. This is a process I look forward to exploring and also sharing along the way with those that helped me get this far.

All the best to my peers in EDUC 9F61.

Mr. Ahmed.

Presentation Tools

PowerPoint

Source: http://bit.ly/1ozygll

When I was a student I used PowerPoint because of its simplicity. PowerPoint is a desktop application that is easy tool a student can use to explore creating professional presentations. It is now available to use through Windows Live as a web base platform. PowerPoint was originally created as a desktop application and I now feel its playing catch up with some other options that are web based.    

As for likes, PowerPoint is great with providing tonnes of backgrounds, themes and transitions on the program allowing you to really customize your presentation. You’re able to add external links, images and embed videos.  Another thing I do like about PowerPoint is how you can make flow charts graphs, and pyramids. I think this could benefit students who are presenting research about business or math. However, as a university student I found myself using PowerPoint less often because it’s not the best tool for collaboration or sharing where a lot of projects happened to be group work. A downfall is you are not able to upload presentations to YouTube or Facebook or other social media platforms. Also sharing with peers or colleagues requires you send your presentation as email attachment. 

Prezi

Source: http://bit.ly/1uP9EHs

I didn't discover Prezi until my last year of University where a peer used the online program for a professional presentation. I was drawn immediately to its aesthetic and visual look which came from the smooth and appealing transitions and object animations. Unlike PowerPoint, Prezi is presented as  whole board where students can lay out their information and it follows a progressive path as it navigates through slick transitions to display your information text, images or media. I find this as an engaging tool for students to use to develop presentations because of its simplicity but also how the interface looks would be appealing to youth.

Collaborating with Prezi is easy because it functions through an online cloud where students can share a link with their peers giving them access to edit and collaborate ideas on their presentation. Students are easily able to add text, video, and images into the Prezi interface and deliver their presentation that will look much different from the standard next slide format of PowerPoint.

Sliderocket and Google Presentation

Source: http://bit.ly/1xpbEpf

The best options for presentation tools that I have come across for teachers and students to use are Sliderocket and Google Presentation.  As a teacher I find these tools are important to for learning and for collaboration with peers and colleagues.  Both of these tools are online web based programs that have a comparable functionality to PowerPoint with a traditional slide to slide presentation format. However, they are great collaborative tools and it can allow students and teachers to develop great projects as a team. Both tools use the cloud based system and you are able to share presentations to social media platforms. 

Additionally Sliderocket has the best interface in my opinion and it presentation editing tools are the best. I really like how it is by far the easiest tool to use for adding audio to your presentation. With a simple click you can add narration through recording or uploading an audio clip to enhance your presentation. Sliderocket requires a subscription and has a free component that will not allow you to use all of their tools without purchase; Where Google Presentation is free for all through email.  

Overall the tools that promote collaboration for teachers and students are the best options when it comes to learning. Giving students as many opportunities to develop socially and academically through sharing ideas and executing them through collaboration is important for growth. The same applies for teacher to teacher collaboration and using online presentations is a great way to extend learning outside of your classroom and school. 

Image Manipulation Programs

In terms or image manipulation programs there are tonnes of programs or apps that can be accessed and downloaded by students and for teachers to use.

For instance,

Skitch:

Source: http://bit.ly/1zoxUSn

After looking through Skitch and seeing how simple it is to use I would recommend this program for teachers to use that can be valuable to providing feedback. Feedback is essential for student growth and using Skitch a teacher can take a photo and mark it up, or highlight student text and make annotations. This can be a valuable tool for teachers to not only provide descriptive feedback but to build a portfolio to share with parents, use as anecdotal notes or for assessment. 

Photoshop: 

Source: http://bit.ly/1tMKya8

I personally am a fan of using Photoshop and it might not be as simple to use like Skitch but it is extremely valuable and beneficial to students and teachers. As a teacher I love using Photoshop to create fun and engaging activity sheets and posters.

Although Photoshop has a learning curve, I feel students as young as the junior grades are capable of learning this program that actually develops a real-world skill they can use. Students can exercise their creativity with a tool like Photoshop and become producers of media publications through classroom projects. The DSBN has Photoshop on every computer that student can access. Unfortunately I think there is a great amount of teachers who are not aware of how to use the program let alone teaching their students the many tools the program has.

On the other hand I have witnessed students at a school in Niagara Falls have amazing 8th grade class projects using Photoshop. They credited their projects posters to learning Photoshop throughout their junior grades and developing their proficiency overtime. By witnessing the success students can have with this image manipulation program, it has influenced me to have my future students apply and benefit from using Photoshop in their education.

5 Teaching Strategies for using Podcasts or Audio.

Podcasts are a fun and different way to engage your students.

Here are 5 strategies and ideas/activities that could be used by the teacher or in your class by your students.

1: Language Learning 

Teachers can have students collaborate with other students with learning and practicing language online.

http://daynurseryindy.wordpress.com/

I would use this strategy for students who are at the junior and intermediate levels. Students who are learning a new language (French) can use a tool like Skype to practice with another classroom that is learning English. For instance students in Ontario can have Skype partners where they practice vocabulary and oral composition with students in Quebec. By having the students rely on each other with some guidelines it can help them develop their language skills at their own pace.

2: Public Service Announcements (PSA's)

This is a good approach to have students think critically about issues that can be happening locally or globally and take a stance on that issue.

pic from http://blog.wemothers.com/

For this activity at the junior level the teacher can have students hear various examples of PSA's to help students develop standards for their own PSA's. After have students do research on their issues. Then have your students create a script they can use to record their PSA that can be broadcasted to the class or over the school announcement system.

3: Story Telling and Critical Reviews

Students can practice comprehension and critical thinking through developing podcasts that retells stories or they can give reviews on certain aspects of the text.

For junior students as opposed to writing I would have them create podcasts that capture their comprehension of a class text. At the Intermediate level I would have my students do the same but provide reviews with critical analysis of texts they are reading independently.

4 Engaging Parents 

Keeping parents informed is a great way to help your students receive the proper supports they may need at home. Some teachers communicate via phone, online through a blog or maybe newsletters. A different approach you can try is creating weekly podcasts.

pic from http://www.sedl.org/

What teachers can do is use the weekly podcasts for parents to listen to that recaps the week at school, in terms of projects, special announcements or events, and the upcoming week.

At the intermediate level what teachers can add to the podcast is student comments or opinions on activities that are happening in the classroom. For the busy parent this could be a great way to have them stay on top of what is happening in the class because they could download the podcast and maybe listen to it on their drive to work.

5: Assisting Absent Students

Any student who is ill and might miss a few days can fall behind and it can be hard for a teacher to support them and have them catch up. One way to tackle this is to create video podcasts that explain what they have missed and what they have to do to be able to keep pace.

If any handouts are used for any of the task we can easily upload as a digital file that can be downloaded to the student. You can also add the image of the worksheets onto the podcasts so you can further support your absent students by providing explanations of the worksheets.

Podcast - 3 Audio Tools To Try.

Here is my review on 3 tools to try as a teacher for having your students use audio tools in a classroom. I apologize for my voice projection on the podcast. I don't have the best microphone but I tried the best I could with what I have.
 

Thanks.

Reviewing 3 Tech Tools

Read&Write for Google

http://www.texthelp.com/uk/our-products/readwrite

This is a great tool that can benefit teachers and students is the Read&Write that can be found on the app store in Google Chrome. It is a great tool for assistive technology that all students can use to help them with their writing. I think students in a junior grades and higher can really utilize this tool as an independent resource. Since I would have all my students using Google drive to use for assignments or projects, I would have them add this extension so it can be used directly in any Google document they are creating.

What the app allows students to do is:

• Listen to their text aloud and hear how their writing sounds.
• Highlight their text in different colours that can perform different supports.
• Students can do speech to text • Use word prediction if they need help with writing
• They can create a vocabulary list that includes meaning and pictures associated with their words.

This tool is easy to use can be added right into the browser and students only need to click a few buttons if they want to get support with their writing.

The long term benefit of having my students’ use this tool is that I would want to develop their independence with using Read&Write to assist them with their skills and develop their confidence. Also students can feel comfortable using this form of assistive technology independently through their google drive. This is a great tool that I would recommend to any teacher to utilize.

Check out this video that gives you better visuals as to how the Read&Write tool looks.

Class Dojo

https://www.classdojo.com/en/about

This is s a unique tool that takes an interactive approach to behaviour management and student self-regulation techniques. The Classdojo platform is used online through through their website where teachers can create a classroom where their students sign up for. Students can create their own avatars and will use the Classdojo to follow the points they have earned for demonstrating proper behaviours.
This seems like a great tool for teachers to be able to reinforce great behaviour. Teachers can recognize specific behaviours such as respect, participation, or teamwork and show the class what that student did to demonstrate those behaviours. Then simply using an iPad, or mobile Classdojo app the teacher can give real time feedback and award that student dojo points for earning that behaviour. These points that students earn can also be access by parents at home and they can see how their students behaved on a daily basis. Communication with parents is essential and if they see their son/daughter is struggling with behaviour in class then they can work with them at home to improve that behaviour.

This is a tool seems like a great way to engage students in positive behaviour and keeps parents informed on a regular basis. Also I think this tool is great way to collaborate with your colleagues as students are still required to uphold their behaviours to earn points for other teachers in the school. 

Check out this video that gives you better visuals as to how Classdojo looks.

 

Planboard 

https://www.planboardapp.com/

This is a great tool for teachers to use to online through Google drive for planning their days, weeks, semesters and individual lessons. I find this tool to be better suited for the technological era of teaching and planning and organization and in the next few years using daybooks might be an obsolete practice.

The app can be downloaded on Google drive and after playing around with it, I recommend that teachers start getting used to developing and planning online. Since collaboration and blended learning is a major shift in education it only makes sense that planning will head down this path as well.

The interface of the tool is simple to use and teachers can toggle between day, week and month views to easily access their plans. You can colour coordinate your subjects and classes you teach. You are able to add detail descriptions of each day that anyone can follow. What is also awesome is that you can add the ministry expectations which some are already on Planboard. If you do not have the ministry expectation you are looking for you can add it easily and it can be used by other teachers. 

What I found great about Planboard is since it used through Google drive it can be easily shared to other staff members, administrators, or even supply teachers. I would not be surprised if teachers and entire schools and school boards start using a method like Planboard to use as a method for partner teaching with your colleagues.

To gain some better visuals of how how Planboard looks please view this video.

 

Office 365 or Google Apps?

Which do you prefer?

Both tools are similar as they both offer documents, presentations, spreadsheets, personal storage, email, file sharing and messaging and communication tools.

Personally I find both tools to be good and use like to use a combination. For independent work I prefer Office tools such as Word and Powerpoint because of familiarity and that I have been using these tools much longer as a student. As for doing tasks that involve collaboration I prefer using Google docs to work with peers on assignments.

Through my experiences I have found working with others was so easy when using Google docs and how your work automatically saves online. As a teacher with my students I probably will encourage them to incorporate using both tools in a similar fashion.

Recently I have been enjoying Google drive because of the endless apps that you can add to your account. I have found some interesting tools such as WeVideo that is super easy to use for editing videos that I might not have with office tools. There are many different apps that can be added to your Google drive and I can see my students benefiting from customizing which apps they like to use as tools.

Check out this video that gives a great breakdown of Office 365 and Google Apps.


 

Resources for the District School Board of Niagara.

The District School board of Niagara (DSBN) provides various and helpful resources that can be accessed by parents and students.

Even when I was a student I was unaware of how many outlets and support service existed for students and parents to access. Having parental involved in your students education is extremely important for developing sucess. 

For instance, for high school students who are going to transition to post secondary should look into awards and scholarships. There is a tonne of money that is available to students to access and earn through applications. Click below.  

Awards/Scholarships

Did you know there is a lot of information on special education and support services that can pertain to a guide for parents, assistive technology, gifted education and more.

Special Education andSupport Services

If you are having trouble with your school work and need an extra hand. The DSBN also provides a live online system to provide you with homework in math by certified teachers. I know when I was a student this is a service I would have taken advantage of. 

Homework Help

If you want to ever open your home and lives to other cultures then families can look into the DSBN’s international education and the opportunities of hosting international students.

International Education

Did you know that one of the best ways for students to be successful in school is through parent involvement. The DSBN lays the groundwork for those opportunities through the Parent Involvement Committee which provides information that makes parents lives easier with supporting their children.

Parent involvement committee

Three Blogs on Skills for 21st Century Learning and Teaching

Blog 1: Around the Corner

I found this to be an excellent blog that teachers can use if they want to gather information on 21^st century skills or ideas for teaching and learning. The blog’s author Miguel Guhlin does a wonderful job providing creative ideas, skills or tools that can be used such as Evernote and Postach.io to build portfolios and share with other teachers. The tools he promotes to use sharing are ideal for collaboration to occur with students and teachers developing countless professional learning opportunities.  

The particular link I have provided shows an example of one his most recent blog posts that explore writing ideas that teachers can use through blended learning. I enjoyed the examples that Miguel provided and external links and resources for having students work on writing about zombies.

Image Source: John Spencer, Education Rethink blog

Immediately thought it was a clever and motivating activity that would encourage students to write and be creative. Also, the tactics Miguel shares about having students publish their work online allows for longevity and more appreciation of their work should be applied. This is a much better approach for students submitting a physical copy of their writing that eventually can get thrown out in a short time frame. Which leads me to wonder is how much more value and appreciation will students have in their work if they are able to publish it online to share with others? Should this be a shift we need to start focusing more in schools?

Blog 2: Education rethink(Write about)

The visuals that are used for this blog caught my eye and it got me interested in writing. The author of the blog John Spencer tackles many different topics about education and the classroom but the thing I enjoyed the most was his ‘Write About’ ideas. I really liked how the visuals accentuate a topic and can definitely encourage the weakest writers to want to pick up a pencil and start writing.

Image Source: John Spencer, Education Rethink blog

I think the Write About visuals is great blended learning tactic. Now that I have discovered them I will look forward to using them in writing exercise for my students. It is so easy to have simple sessions of quick writes where I put John’s images and topics on my smart board and have my students write. What could make this even more impactful for a writing session is having all of the students do their writing on computers to be shared and published with their peers. So If I choose a topic such as ‘You get to invent a new class, write the course description’ – then as a teacher I would be really enthusiastic of providing opportunities for my students to share their ideas and work with each other. I think with a topic like that students would be very enthusiastic to share their creative ideas. I can find students can take more pride in their work if they are given opportunities to share that goes beyond their classroom walls.

Blog 3: The Thinking Stick

Jeff Utecht blog is a really neat site that has various postings about 21^st century tools and skills that can be used in education. For instance, the post I found intriguing is having the class replace their textbooks by creating a digital textbook using a app called Flipboard. The teacher can create class specific and current content that can be used and accessed by all students as an online class textbook or magazine.

image source: https://flipboard.com/

What I also found intriguing about this is having the students become curators of the content by being able to add content or articles to the class textbook. Allowing students to become contributors to others learning is what is essential to developing leaders in your classroom. I really think that area is important for teachers to find ways and develop.  

Once students setup their own account in conjunction with the classroom account they can add content and share content with other class members.

I like this idea and think it’s a great 21^st century tool that can because it allows students to share articles they find interesting with each other or be able to add it to the digital textbook on Flipboard.

I would like to use something like this that would replace the nelson literacy books that might be used for certain subjects and instead allow my students to find content they would be more interested in or that could be relevant to something happening locally or globally. This is a great tool that can combine social media and academics into learning.  

Blended Learning Example - Intermediate

Flipped Classroom Approach

A more recent method of blended learning that teachers have tried using is developing a flipped classroom. The teacher would use an online tool or blog and post videos of instruction that can be about a certain problem, issue or concept they want their students to tackle. The students at home have time and are given suggested resources to research and prepare. The following day rather than the teacher use class time to give instruction he allows the students to, discuss, problem solve and engage their challenge or task.

I think this is an excellent way to challenge and prepare students, and by providing them opportunities with online blended learning at home, they can learn at their own pace. Accommodating to students who have a Learning Disability or is are English Language Learners can benefit from this method of blended learning because the teacher can focus more time on answering any questions about the lesson and provide more individual support while other students are engaged on their tasks.

Personally I like this approach a lot but I am not sure if I would incorporate it for the whole year. Instead I would look to develop collaboration with groups using this format.

For instance – I would make a video about having my students look into Polar Bear problem in Churchill Manitoba (real life context) and provide them resources and video clips they need. Then assign groups and have them represent different communities or organizations in a city/region. Groups represent constituents such as tourists, tourists companies, local residents, environmentalist/scientist and first nations. The students can work together through Google hangouts for a short while to get organized with some ideas. The following day I would give class time to allow students to collaborate and prepare and use some periods for a role playing scenario of a city council. I would be the Mayor of Churchill Manitoba to facilitate the council meeting and students will have an opportunity to discuss issues and try and work together to find a resolution.

I think there is so much potential to this idea and I would love to try a task like this. What do you think?

Blended Learning Example - Junior

Using Videos to Improve Writing (Personal Example)

I have used this for my grade 6 class and it was fun way to engage students in writing and improving their writing. I had students watch the opening scene of the movie the Lion King (Circle of Life) in 2 different versions. The first clip is the regular theatrical version and the second clip is exactly the same scene but for visually impaired which has a narration of the actions occurring.

Version 1:




The task is simple, students will observe the about 2 minutes of the theatrical version then gather their thoughts and write their narrative after they have watched the watched the video. Students will be encouraged to focus on descriptive words. What’s great about this activity is that if a student has a Learning Disability or is an English language learner they can still participate and benefit from this blended learning activity with just using more support such as assistive technology with a notebook and applicable apps. Once the first version is done, I will have students watch the second version which is rich with descriptive words. The students write words down as they hear them and once the video is finished have them repeat the exercise and then compare and contrast their writing samples with their peers.


Closed caption video




To extend this further on I can just have students view a separate video that might only have one version but have them write two different samples, then compare and contrast with their peers. Thoughts?

Blended Learning Example - Primary

Using Dreambox to Improve Math. 

Dreambox is an excellent approach to blended learning where students are more engaged with learning math through games. The benefit the teacher gains from using Dreambox is they are better able to assess the levels of where their students are with different math strands. Measuring the students math skills through Dreambox can allow a teacher to better drive their instruction to bring up student’s achievement levels.

Anytime I've had classes that included sessions of Dreambox, I have found my students get excited and look forward to playing certain games. Also, I believe that another added benefit to this form of blended learning is that students are gaining applicable ways to use math in some activities that they find fun and relevant to their lives.

Finally, for students with a learning disability the benefit of Dreambox is that it provides differentiated instruction through the program and kids play the game at their own level. Students who eventually find success and gain confidence can eventually begin to challenge their selves can find more opportunities of success.

OCT Standards and 21st Century Teaching and Learning

Today’s generation of students are involved with social media platforms and electronic devices outside of school.  21^st century technologies make it so easy for young students to share images, communicate, and develop content they create.

In education it only makes sense to embrace these same technologies students use at home and find a way to incorporate it into their learning. Within 21^st century learning and teaching we as educators have a challenging task to navigate. Using a combination of the Ethical Standards and Standards of Practice I wonder if we will be able to find the best approach that can help implement 21^st century tools into our classrooms. As a teacher, I feel the ethical standard I would focus on the most on is Respect and consider how impactful that can be within an online classroom learning environment. I feel there is a lot of open content that is shared through social networking platforms. I would want my students to develop respect towards their own content and work that is develop by their peers. I would want my students to learn and better understand social justice opportunities, cultural contexts of individual’s opinions, and consider the fine line between privacy and freedom and speech. These areas alone are challenging for any teacher to tackle and more importantly I wonder how can we do this? I highlighted ‘we’ because I feel this needs to be a community approach to find the best solutions. I know going forward that my students will continue to have regular use social media platforms and I will seek support from my colleagues and administrators either through ongoing professional learning and professional practice.

I think that I am ahead of the curve with my knowledge and use of social media platforms because I use them every day in my personal life. I feel my biggest hurdle will be finding the best practice of how to integrate these tools into the classroom where students can best utilize them with individual and collaborative learning and maximize their potential with content development.

By collaborating with my fellow educators and school administrators, I think together we can find the best practices and approaches to use with social networking tools. So I would like to ask, do you think the ministry and schools should increase their efforts and focus on proper training for 21^st century learning and technology for teachers?

Social Media

The use of Social Media in schools.

In terms of initiatives that I would employ, first I would think collectively as a school we could bring in a guest speaker for grades 4 and up. An assembly can be held and the guest speaker can talk about issues with and the uses of social media.  Secondly, I would look to provide similar setup for parents since they monitor students at home. I would look to get parents into the school and provide them more information of social media outlets on a more serious tone. 
Within my classroom I would look to communicate and inform students about internet footprint and how that content stays online permanently.  Lastly, I would look to get my students involved in a discussion about cyber bullying and how that it can occur through social media platforms. These are some of the strategies and initiatives that I feel should be employed to help and teach safe use of certain sites. 

Letter to Parents about tech use

I just wrote a sample letter to give you an idea of how to share your intentions with technology to parents and also have them be apart of the experience.

Check it out on my Google document.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uKUgSFWwAR0458KBkqeRs95_J0BOKrp-SQrWDJ4HLzQ/edit?usp=sharing"

Welcome

My name is Ahmed and I plan to use this blog to share my technological experiences in education. I hope to share the tools I enjoy and how I might use them to enhance the learning experience. Please check out my first post and video on the "Uses of Technology" page.

Enjoy

Mr. Ahmed