Part of my ECOMP 355 class assignments were weekly tech tasks. Here I will show/link seven different ones in total. Enjoy!
Tech Task #1
Hello world! In this blog entry it has been suggested to explain who I exactly am, a short life story kind of thing, so here we go!
My name is Lindsay Rogers. I am currently in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, going into my third year of school this upcoming fall term. My family household in order of oldest to youngest consists of my mother, my brother Michael (whom now lives on his own), my brother Joel, my sister Diana, myself, and our family dog Princess. Currently I am substitute I.A. for the Regina Catholic School System, as well as a youth worker for the YMCA of Regina. I enjoy reading, video games, computers, movies, musicals; country orientated ideals, the beach, cards, board games, animals, and spending time with family and friends.
I have always had an attitude of excitement towards technology. Video games have always been a delight to me growing up, as well as television and the ability to tape cartoons programs to watch on those lazy summer days when bean ends needed to be cut. PowerPoint slide shows were an eye opener for me when I was first introduced to them. I made my first one in grade school with my cousin as my partner (it was about hydroelectricity). I spent many hours making it, going as far as having our voices recorded onto each slide. It was also timed so that neither of us was necessary for presenting the slide show for the presentation when it came down to it. My laptop I care for like a baby these days it seems. I use it for everything in university, since I have so much trouble writing for long amounts of time. I only wish that I had had the help of the laptop in other years, such as high school, or even elementary school. It sure would’ve kept a few hairs from going gray! I love the online classes as well, where you can save some gas and try something new at the same time!
My feelings towards computing technology in the K-12 classroom are mixed. I do believe that many new teachers today are starting to rely too much on technology for teaching, and are forgetting that a hands-on approach is best when instructing. A lot of teachers will rely on technology to the extent that technology, in my opinion, can become a weed of social insecurity. Social skills must come first. For example, learning to write properly should always come before the concept of learning to type. Also, in my opinion, reading a book one on one or in a small group of children is always far more productive than having each individual child attached to a computer screen listening to the story be read to them by some random individual. To me, it is like changing the idea of personal learning into a more impersonal learning experience.
My expectations for this class are simple, to try out a spring class and experience the feeling of working full time while doing a night class, and also trying to keep up a social life with others who do not have class again until the fall. From the instructor I don’t really expect, but instead hope that he will just be a teacher, as I hope is the outcome from all my professor’s that I come across in university. In this class I hope to accomplish a better understanding of what technology is present in the world today, and from this, what can/should be brought into the classroom, as well as what should be kept out of the classroom. As for what the instructor should know about my previous experience or lack of experience with technology, I know some about technology such as surfing the internet and slide shows and such, but blogging and such things as video’s being made and put onto youtube.com are all new too me. That is one thing that I defiantly hope to change with this class.
Tech Task #2
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Lindsay%20Rogers/My%20Documents/
[both lines need to be added together (beside each other) in the URL in order for it to work properly]
Tech Task #3
Tech Task #4
Tech Task #5
Media Literacy
I agree with the concept of media literacy. As a teacher, my goal is simply to educate the youth. Educate them for what is to come, and for what they are to face. Educate them, because they’re the ones who will run the show when we’re gone. Most importantly, educate them so they can educate their kids, so that we can continue to grow as a human race.
Media literacy plays a huge role in the collective intellect of humanity. Knowledge is said to be power and nowhere is this true more so than in the media. I like the fact that I, as a future teacher, can empower the kids… I can make them into the people who will one day run the world.
The fact that we are aiming to simply teach is not enough. Educating them is different than teaching them. Educating, rather than teaching, will allow them to teach themselves in the long term. I really think that this is such a mind-blowing concept that it almost speaks for itself. Really, what can you say about the fact that your actions will definitively change the world? That’s just another reason I want to be a part of making it a reality.
Educating people on the value of the media and the interpretation of the media is a serious and challenging role. Misconceptions are rampant, and the pursuit of the truth is the only acceptable mission. I like to know the truth, and the truth should be the most important lesson taught. Making sure that people know the importance of the media is paramount when we are looking to become more media literate.
The last thing to mention is that we need to make sure we not only make sure we educate on the truth of the media, but also its importance in daily life. The media can be as true as it wants when no one cares to watch, right? To end it for today, I think it’s fair to say that media literacy is important to me, and I see it as one of the most important gifts we can pass on. The future depends on it.
Tech Task #6
Tech Task #7
Blogging
Blogging has been quite the scandal for me this year. Somehow I could not get a conformation e-mail to my account for edublogs.com. At first I believed that I had deleted it, and then I had to wait two business days every time to use either the same username and/or the same e-mail account. I later came to realize that this simply was not the case. The e-mail never did show up in my e-mail account randomly, none of the times that I tried to sign up for a blog. For the wordpress.com site, I had the same problems, except the conformation e-mail actually did show up, but I deleted it by accident. The most nerve wracking experiences that I had with blogging was probably the amount of times that I had to come up with new usernames or a new e-mail account. I even was on my way to opening up a new hotmail account for a new e-mail address to use. On top of it all I had an infection on my way to pneumonia from taking care of another with actual pneumonia, so as people may have notice for class, I was sick quite a few times for such a short class. Now that I am done my rant, that of course I hope has been enjoying, I will get to the proper point of this tech task entry #7…..
Having the opportunity to create and participate in my own and many other blogs has been quite a learning experience for me. If not for this class I would never have started a blog in the first place. There have been friends of mine in the past that have blogged for in past tense, but it was always been too personal of an option for me in my original opinion. I still do not fully agree with the concept of blogging as a proper hobby for me, however I have also come to realize that blogging has more branches than I had every realized. It is a broader concept than I had ever anticipated. In the beginning of my understanding, when it came to blogging, I had understood it to be a means for people to create diaries or journals online for the entire world to see. A way for people to rant about upsets in the world, tell their life stories, or put other people down. I have read so many blogs, but I never commented, where people would tell a story making another person look, and then try to use the phrase, “not mentioning any names”, when it would be quite obvious to other’s who they were talking about no matter how much the writer denied it. It was just sick and I did not care to be a part of any of it.
Presently I have learned that blogging is so much more. It is a means of learning, teaching and sharing thoughts on different subjects with people all over the world. As a teacher this is a very exciting concept. Educators have the ability to share their teaching ideas with people everywhere. If I was looking into the dinosaur unit for a grade two classroom and was not sure of the best tactics to present it to the class, I could blog with other teachers here or across the world about what they have done in the same situation. I could figure out what would work the best for the student’s grade level and abilities according to other teacher’s own experiences in a broader perspective. This could be an example of blogging in the classroom.
Another situation that can be explored for blogging in the classroom could be a means for a classroom website. As a teacher I could blog about how the classroom is doing, and what we have been up to within the curriculum. It is a means for parents to see, read, and understand what is happening with their child is up to at school, a way to keep up to date when their child tells them that they did “nothing” at school that day.
I only wish that I could have commented on all of the blogs; however the time just was not there unfortunately. A couple of blogs do tend to stick out in my mind. I tended to notice blogs where concerns were mentioned in ways that may have people become frowned upon by other faculty members or even parents. With this it is noticed that as teachers we have to watch what we say in areas where others may see it because we always have a reputation to upkeep both inside and outside of the classroom. Other students’ blogs have also helped me in concerns of what needed to be put within my electronic portfolio including such things as EPS 100 class material.
Thanks to everyone for such an interesting experience and I hope everyone hope everyone has a fantastic summer, classes or no classes! Hope to see more of some of you in the fall!
