Classroom Technology

  As I write this blog post, I am looking at six different screens within a two-meter radius. Four of the screens come with cameras, and three have microphones. I am a STEM instructor, and I deal with technology daily. I often wonder and worry if some of my students will feel resentment towards their families and teachers. I worry that some of my students will say when they are adults: “My childhood was a screen!” Although I believe that students can learn creative skills in Minecraft, students should apply what they have learned from digital platforms to the physical world.   Growing up, my Minecraft was the forest. I would knock on my friend's doors every day and drag them away from their Gamecubes and Playstations. I enjoyed video games, but I also had the freedom to wander around the neighborhood. We would go down into the forest and build forts. We would build frames, harvest grass, and mix mud and grass to create strong walls for our forts. In winter, we would play ...

  I decided to go with three different applications. First, I used a cellphone app called Video Maker. Furthermore, I used tools on both Youtube and Canva. I went with Video Maker because my computer does not come with a microphone. I tried using a headset with Canva, but unfortunately, I could not get it to work. Video Maker was great because I could upload images from my phone and my Google drive. After I uploaded the video, I used YouTubes creative studio to add background music to set the story's mood. After I uploaded the video to Youtube, I downloaded the video from Youtube and uploaded it to Canva. I thought Canva was awesome because I could add some animations. Furthermore, I could add a title and a goodbye message.    I made a video about my experience in Laos. I feel like Laos is unknown and forgotten. I would like my students to be curious about the world around them. I would like people to know that even when you are experiencing something challenging, yo...

  Storytelling is a helpful way to pass down information. Stories can provide meaningful opportunities to learn about the experiences of others. The experiences we share with one another allow us to develop empathy. When we can learn to put ourselves in the storyteller's shoes, we can learn from both the success and failure of the storyteller's experience. Storytelling has developed and remained the same for thousands of years. In some communities, elders are living libraries that share context-dependent stories with their communities. Growing up, many of us had written text to read and gain new information. Today, digital viewing is one of the six language arts. Digital storytelling allows us to share many stories presented on an easily navigable platform. The stories are organized by category, and the platform allows listeners to view the experiences of others from the comfort of their homes.    In the video My Struggle with Mathematics , we are introduced to the a...

    I have had a lot of experience with group projects at work and at school. Group work is great when all members do their part. However, at university, I have been surprised that some students go completely AWOL only to log in to Google Docs to put their names on an assignment they had no contribution to.  Despite my negative experience with group work, I have had some positive experiences with group work. My positive experience has come from paid work and school work that had a greater purpose aside from just trying to learn a simple skill.     During my second year of college, I had a great time doing group work in my methods course. I was placed in a group with a member who wanted to work on a proposal for creating a space for Indigenous men. This project was essential to my group member because he was fulfilling a dream of his to help his community. This was a positive experience, and we formed a relationship because the purpose of the project e...

Last year I entered a Canadian classroom for the first time since 2008. I was surprised to see a Smartboard and disappointed to see Chromebook. Although I don’t like Chromebooks because of their limited functions, the fact that more classrooms and schools are using them will broaden the market for online freeware. The online freeware market will continue to develop stream services with similar factuality as programs such as Photoshop and Movie Maker. Personally, I need to use technology for everything I do. I use an iPad for reading remediation, and a laptop for online EFL tutoring, and STEM instruction.      In the article Are Chromebooks Good? Pros and Cons, reviews the disadvantage that Chromebooks have with their storage capacity (Wylie, 2021). At an average of 32 GB of storage, one might need to find an online service that students should use when saving material. However, according to Wylie, the storage capacity is only an issue if you allow it to be. Google a...

Bookmarking online service: https://feedly.com/i/my      I really enjoyed using the online service Feedly. I deleted my Facebook almost a year ago, and I kinda missed all the news outlets that I used to follow. Feedly is a great way to read the news without the temptation of reading all the opinions in the comment section. I can also search for different topics and organize the topics into folders. For example, I can search up the word “education”, and follow sources that create content for the subject.  Feedly will give me website suggestions based on the topic “education” and the algorithm will track my likes and suggest sources based on my interest. I can hit the follow button when I see a familiar source, and it will be saved into the “Education” folder that I created.    Podcast: https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-v2j7n-114b3110 EdTech Bites Podcast: Ep. 98: Who To Follow On Twitter And Instagram This Podcast Gives suggestions on ed...