Summer Course and Bummers

Well, we are half way into the summer course already.  Summer courses are more jam-packed-instead of 9 weeks they are pushed into 6 weeks. The first course that I am in right now is a Multimedia course.  I am enjoying it so far.  We are learning different multimedia tools which will be great for me to bring into the classroom.  It wasn't 100% what I expected I guess.  I thought it would be more lesson based-meaning here is how you can take this information and use it in your classroom.  Instead it is more about-here are some multimedia tools -learn how to use them yourself.  Major bummer for me that a couple of things that I was planning/hoping for this summer are not coming to pass.  Is that a saying?  Anyways-one of the things that didn't happen was a Cybersecurity course through DSU-I wasn't chosen.  Another thing is my Summer Challenge Camps through St. Mary's are not going to happen due to Covid.  The decision was recently made that they can hold the camps but they must be outside.  Well, that is impossible when you need computers and internet access.  I think in the end these bummers are actually blessings in disguise.  I think I was filling my plate with too many things.  I was accepted to take an online workshop for Exploring Computer Science in July.  I am looking forward to this course. 

Summer Courses and Opportunities

This summer-well technically it isn't summer yet-I am taking several courses online for my MSET Program.  One of these courses is called Multimedia Productions.  It started on Monday.  I am really hoping to learn and use some of the course ideas for my Multimedia course I offer for my High School classroom.  I do not have any curriculum for my high school classroom-so I will need to come up with ideas, lessons and tools to offer this.  This is our last week of "school" for my students.  We have had to be online for this last quarter-all of it.  Some students, like my own daughter did well with online learning-actually, probably better then being in the classroom.  She is a chatty one and gets distracted by others.  Being online-there are no others students to distract her.  Some students though really struggled with not having the support from home to help them stay on top of their assignments.  Or they were able to do the assignment-but need more support of going through the directions because they tend to not read them.  I think if I have to begin next year online-some of the changes that I would make would be doing a video through loom-where the students must watch the video and then answer questions.  I currently offered a video but many students skipped the video-how do I know these innocent angels were skipping the video?  Well-when you get questions that were answered in the video-you know they didn't watch it.  

Anyways on to my plans for the summer. I am taking another online course through USD which partners with DSU for their MSET program-it doesn't begin until June sometime and is something about Active Learning.  I also have signed up to take a 1 credit course called TEACH Camp.  That is free to take online June 1st and 2nd -half days.  If you want it for credit it is only $40.  I am hoping to be accepted for 2 other things that I have applied for.  One-I applied back in January or February for a one week workshop on ECS-Exploring Computer Science.  It is a curriculum that I will learn about and then implement in one of my classes.  I am thinking either 7th, 8th or 9th grade.  I also will receive a stipend for doing the class-which is also a nice incentive!  I am hoping to hear soon.  Another opportunity that came through my email was from DSU-Cybersecurity.  This would have me learning about Cybersecurity for a period of time and then implementing a course about it.  I could easily add a Cybersecurity course into my 9th Grade Computer class.  Another stipend is offered through this too.  

Another opportunity that I am considering is offering Summer Challenge camps this summer in July-IF we can.  I originally -before COVID-was going to offer 10 sessions on Scratch programming for students in 2 age brackets.  They are still considering Summer Challenge possibly for July-if the School Board says it is okay in June.  SO, we will see.

Week 14 

Final Project

This week is our final work for the class CET 720 Leadership and Evaluation.  This week we were to focus on an overview of what we have learned throughout the class by creating an IGNITE talk.  An Ignite talk uses 20 slides with an auto advancement at 15 seconds each.  I researched different ideas about how to organize an Ignite talk before starting.  I then created an outline focusing on the first 9 slides on the first book we read, "The Innovator's Mindset" by George Couros and then the next 9 slides on the book "The Edtech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools" by Mark Gura.  The first slide-I related it to my own thinking of technology and the last slide of what is happening in today's world for technology and a closing "gotcha."  My first information was way long for each slide.  I then began timing on a stopwatch to cut out extraneous information.  That was really hard.  Then you need to make sure you are transitioning with your words into the next slide.  Once I had a good overall outline-I began picking pictures for backgrounds.  To me an Ignite talk should have the focus on the speaker with just a visual for people to look at that relates to the point the speaker is making.  So all of my slides are background pictures only.  I also struggled with wanting to create a Title page!!!! I put one in and took it out, put it in and took it out, put it at the end and took it out.  The directions said to use the Apps Loom or Screen cast-o-matic.  I had trouble with each as you needed to have your webcam showing you at the same time as presenting.  I couldn't get them to work.  So, I emailed the Professor to use my tried and trusty Screencastify.  I then practiced and practiced.  I have 4 videos uploaded!  I then realized I looked terrible so I needed makeup!  So here is my overview of the course in my Ignite talk. ENJOY!

Week 13

Infographic

This week we finished up our infographic.  I ended up choosing the App - Snappa.  It only allows you 3 downloads a month though-which stinks when you are first trying to figure out how you need to download the infographic.  Anyway-here it is!

Week 12  

Evaluation Project

This week we were given 3 options to choose from for our Evaluation Project.  We were to then begin the project and create a video on FlipGrid telling our classmates which option we had chosen and the progress we were making on it.  I chose:

This option involves being a part of the Technology Planning Committee at your school. 

"As a part of this committee you are going to be helping to develop the school districts first ever technology plan. This is great news! You have known for a while that your school needs it. However, you have some people on your committee that don't think you need it. You have some people on the committee that were appointed to be on it because of their role with technology in the district. They say this is a waste of time and they don't have time to be involved with something like this. You have other people on the committee that are excited about doing it, but have no idea where to start. The committee chair thinks that a good place to start the process would be to look at what other schools have done. You volunteer to take on this task. 

After the meeting the committee chair pulls you aside and asks you what you think about this being a waste of time. She asks you to see if you can help get the others on board with the entire process.

What are you going to do?"

So I began searching for technology plans for my research.  I found 8 technology plans from across the country.  3 of those plans are from Catholic Schools, which I think is important to take a look at as that is where I teach.  I also wanted to try a different type of tool for my infographic.  I have used Canva before and Adobe Spark.  I found three tools that look interesting.  They are easel.ly, piktochart, and snappa.  

Here are there links in case you would like to check them out!  Next week I will let you know which one I chose.

https://www.easel.ly/     Easel.ly

https://snappa.com/       Snappa

https://piktochart.com/ Piktochart

Week 11 

EdTech Pilot Framework Site

This week we were to explore the website of the EdTech Pilot Framework from Digital Promise.  This site offers Pilot Studies of Educational Technology that schools have completed.  We were to select one Pilot Brief and review it, then post our thoughts on Seesaw.  The Pilot Brief I chose was based on Newsela.

Newsela features stories that are based on current events.  The same story is differentiated into 5 different levels.  Students also can access a quiz and writing prompt.  Students according to the Pilot enjoyed using Newsela and even checked it out when not required to.

The next thing we were to do this week was create a FlipGrid video screencasting from the same website a tool or resource that we thought would be valuable.  I am always looking for new tech tools and information about them.  The tool I chose focused on the DCPS example evaluation rubric.  This rubric allows schools the ability to look at various resources and compare them to each other.  Items such as grade levels, cost, teacher resources, student resources and pedagogies are listed.  You can find this tool here-https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DCPS-Sample-Evaluation-Rubric.pdf

I also found under Tools and Resources a great little gem that showcases new tools of technology. It is called the EdTech Roundup Reviews.  It is located here-http://www.edtechroundup.org/reviews

The last item that we were to complete this week was to access the website-IFTTT web site.   This website stands for If This Then That.  It helps to automate simple tasks. You first connect your app to the site that you want to automate.  I ended up connecting my Pinterest to my Google Sheets.  For every new pin-it will then show up in Sheets-this way I can keep track of my pins faster.

Week 10 

Resources and Infographic

This week we read Ch. 7 and 8 from the book, "The Edtech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools" by Mark Gura.  These are the final chapters in the book and contain some great resources especially in Chapter 8.  I am going to subscribe to some of the newsletters and articles online as suggested. 

A few suggestions I am thinking about are:

• Edtech Update at www.edtechupdate.com
• Smart Brief on Edtech at www.smartbrief.com/industry/education/
• Free Tech 4 Teachers at www.freetech4teachers.com
• Creative Educator at creativeeducator.tech4learning.com 

A couple of key points that were "WOW" factors for me:

1. "Digital transformation then, is the state of schools changing themselves to better accomplish their goals."

2. "With the advent and adoption of technology, a far greater variety of more elaborate activities are now practical to implement, thus transforming teaching and learning."

One of our assignments this week was to create a "Big Picture" Representation to plot the kinds of edtech resources and practices available and currently in use for ourselves and to share with the community we serve.  Below is my "Big Picture" Representation.

This was not an easy task to accomplish!  First, we were to create a list of items associated with school technology.  Below are my lists of Edtech resources and Practices that I began with.

 

#2 Create a flowchart of how technology is used in schools and how it is integrated into the curriculum. Then I opened the software Canva and became hung up on the word "flowchart" from the directions.  I just couldn't see how flowchart would allow my "Big Picture" idea to work.  I then considered a fishbone diagram and worked on that for a while, but again it just didn't work for me.  I then thought about how technology is learned about by the teacher through the types of Edtech and the practices of Edtech which were already represented in my lists.  I really wanted a diagram more along the line of a Family tree I thought.  I tried to work that representation for awhile-again I just couldn't get it to work.  Then I began creating the Edtech Practices as main areas with the Edtech Resources coming from the different types of Practices. The final "Big Picture" came together. These resources and practices are mainly what I utilize in my K-12 classroom.