Category: EDTC 300

Well, it has come to the last blog post that will be made in the EDTC 300 category of my site. It is a bittersweet ending, as I learnt so much about technology and really challenged myself to learn more when I am terrible at everything when it comes to technology. But here we are at the end of the semester and I am here to tell you how I have contributed to the learning of my fellow classmates over the past several months.

During this course I made it a mission to comment on at least three peoples blogs every week and learning projects. I tried to be encouraging when people got stuck and I also tried to ask questions about what my fellow classmates where posting to widen not only my knowledge but theirs as well. I also tried to bring in my knowledge of stating how I struggled with certain things such as reading a pattern for crocheting or even struggling with screenshots and uploading them to this blog.

I am not going to lie, that I did not use Twitter to engage learning with my fellow classmates. I also did not use discord, I honestly completely forgot about it. However, I really did make an effort to comment on at least three peoples blog every week, as it was a Sunday night ritual for me to pull out my laptop and start commenting away. There were some weeks were I did comment four or five times but on average I would comment on at least three learning projects and three blogs.

I hope that I was able to provide some feedback or at least encourage my other classmates. I hope that people enjoyed my comments just as much as I enjoyed theirs and gaining feedback about my blog or learning project. I hope to see some of you next year and I hope to be able to keep updating my Blog throughout this crazy journey of school! Until next time!

-Alyssa

This week, I decided to give Perplexity a try, as one of the AI tools given to use in the weekly plans. I found this AI tool very easy to navigate as someone who immensely struggles with using new apps and technology. I simply asked a question, “Why is digital literacy important?” and it gave me a few different reasons and explained them. It then showed me the sources/links at the top above my original question asked, so I could go back and research or fact check these articles. At the bottom of the answer it gave me three more related questions to my original question, allowing for furthering my knowledge around this topic.

The three different options on the right hand screen the only one you have to pay for is too generate an image. I am assuming the generator image would be about the question or thread you have started. Now when I turned on co-pilot and regenerated the question, I got a more in-depth answer to the exact same question, as well as about fifteen more sources to consider. On Perplexity, you are able to search related images and videos without paying as well.

I think this tool could be used in the classroom by the teacher to search up a topic and gain starting points and facts about said topic. It would help with lesson plans and overall quality of the topic. All the teacher would have to do is fact check and add to their lesson if some details are missed. This would be a great starting point for any lesson. This tool might be able to be used by students to gain some knowledge around certain topics discussed in class and then we can teach older students how to check if this AI is using factual evidence. This would be a great tool to help students learn fact checking and to do research for projects with.

Ethic issues with this AI tool is not being able to generate the exact same answer twice or at least it could take awhile. Which would mean that students could use this tool without properly citing the articles or even using it as their own work but just changing the wording. A practical challenge might be students not being able to understand how to use this tool or having the correct technology at home to use this for an assignment. As well not being able to have access to technology as much as needed to use tools such as this in the school.

One way to engage students with this tool would be allowing them to go through the discover category, and picking their own thread to learn about and teach the class about. They would have a good start pointing with Perplexity and they could work to disprove some of the AI facts or continue based off of these facts after they are checked. Giving them full creativity of the project and allowing them to learn about something they are interested in would help engage students.

I am in the middle of believing AI tools are good to intergrade into the classroom and that they are not good tools to add. I think I am a little scared of the unknown with AI technology as it is so new. I also do not want students believing everything that AI spits out at them. As well, it would be harder for teachers to know if this is truly their own students work or the work of AI. However, I think it is a great tool to help students explore topics they are passionate about and learn more around these topics. I think it would be fun to try and disprove AI and it gives students a really good base for researching topics.

I think something like Perplexity is a good tool for anyone to get started with that does not know much about AI. I actually really enjoying using this and think I will continue to use this for my future classroom, but I will be playing around with it more!

Well here we are, wrapping up the end of the course. I feel so sad when I finish courses because I do really enjoy learning and obtaining more knowledge to help me in the future with not just becoming a teacher. But even just in general for life. This courses has really taught me a lot about social media and the problems revolving around it. However it has also showed me so many skills to add to my computer and help me with teaching when I finish my degree or go into my internship.

I sincerely apologize, as I have been very sick and just found out I have pneumonia. So my talking and loud breath sounds I was not able to control and it sounds like I am very sad. I do send my deepest apologies as this was not what I was expecting to sound like. However life happens and we get sick, so I did my best! But I really enjoyed making this poem, and getting to use what I learnt to make it.

Also here is were I found the overview of the course if anyone is interested who might be looking at my blog and thinking about taking it. Or for even anyone who wants to look at it just because. This slide is at the beginning of my video as well! Below is the poem that I wrote in case you don’t want to listen to the audio or want to read it instead!

From the beginning to the end 

Of a scary digital world 

From children being bullied 

To children being taken advantage of 

Sextoriton and adults exploiting children

Fake profiles showing what you want to see

To only belonging on social media 

Needing the dopamine rush of likes 

Without thinking about what is posted 

To false news reports hitting us in the head 

Why can’t social media be a safe place? 

Children keep safe out there

We want you here as your teachers 

Digital citizenship is a priority 

Curriculum’s have holes

Especially when it comes to digital literacy 

Sharing knowledge about the other world

Informing parents and getting ahead of the digital footprints

Lessing the cycle before it’s to late 

Social media has its problems and its perks

Extensions; one tab, stay focused, movie editors and AI tools

To Makerspaces that help support students and teachers

Learning how to engage with high tech tools

Is something to look forward too in the never ending media

Be curious about the realm of social media 

Coding is the future, coding can get creative minds working

Jobs around the world, social media and not

Coding is here, from Slack to other services

To engaging students with technological skills for different levels of learning

Here we are, in a world unknown

Is it scary?

Is it promising? 

We decide, of what the future holds

You and me teachers alike

Social media through and through 

One day it’ll be you

Teachers, jobs to inform you

To help continue and grow your digital literacy skills 

Spreading our wings to a brighter safer media world 

EDTC 300, here we are with all the knowledge 

As much as we have right now

It is everyones jobs to continue to grow and keep our schools community safe

To continue to support our students 

In an unknown world.

I look forward to watching everyone’s videos!

Digital literacy as we all know is an important skill for everyone to have. It can save people lots of human hardships or even save their lives and their families. Being digitally aware can help take stress away from people knowing that their posts or photos will not be taken for other purposes. It is our job as future teachers to educate ourselves properly on this topic, to help keep our students and their parents out of harms way in the social media world.

While reading It’s Easier to Call A Fact, A Fact When It’s One You Like   I was learning how a study was conducted, to see if people would agree with the facts (that were all true) if they liked the fact or if they would use their own beliefs to disprove the fact. This reminded me of the Gabby Petito case. Many people through social media had their own beliefs regarding where Gabby’s missing finance was or what had happened to Gabby before the police released any news. There were multiple videos posted online when Gabby’s fiancé Brain went missing, that someone had found him in the woods, even though it really was not him. Sometimes people no matter the fact believe what they want to believe, especially if they like the fact no matter how “wrong” it is.

I think that as future teachers we need to take students beliefs into account, as it might harm factual points in our teaching about digital literacy, or anything within that matter. Which brings me to fake news… During class when we were trying to spot fake news, I realized how incredibly bad I was at it. Even though I have been on social media since I was 13, I am not a pro at spotting fake news. But by showing students how to fact check properly, and do the fake news quizzes we are one step closer to teaching good digital literacy skills.

Teaching digital literacy can be scary or daunting especially with the younger students. I am in the elementary years program, which consists of Pre-K to Grade 5. I believe starting off small in grade two or three would be the best option. I think showing cute videos aimed at for students with tiny facts, such as not talking to strangers and being mindful of what people are posting on social media would be the best start. Having more freedom, leads to having to be more careful and mindful of what you are posting. This would also be something to remind older students, and to not be constantly on your phone checking news articles to get false information.

I think we can make this world a safer place for students on social media as long as we work together. I think creating something that the older students could present to the younger students would encourage all ages to participate in being safe online. It is cool to be safe!

Coding… I am going to admit that without the helping videos I do not think I would have been able to get through this NASA’s Space Jam program. I am really struggling with this blog at this point. I have screen captured off of my laptop and go to upload the photos but it keeps giving me an error that the file is too big. So I crop it where you can barley see anything and it’s still too big. Please if anyone can help me out after I post this so I can go back and upload the photos I would appreciate it!

Anyways, enough with the complaining for now. I have a certificate for completing the NASA’S Space Jam that I can not upload. But throughout this experience I do not see the point of coding. I do not really think that I learned anything besides moving certain actions to get to a certain event or point in the coding system. I got to play around with it for a long time, and I did enjoy making music with the planets and creating stars. Maybe I am just bias because I hate technology and I am not good at it.

Anyways, I can see students having fun with this because they are usually more technologically advanced then some teachers (myself). I also think it would be great for students to use their minds and get creative. It would be a good activity to do individually and as a group to create something special to themselves and represent their group. I think maybe the more I play with coding and different applications, I can learn to enjoy it and find a good use for my classroom!

Sorry about not being able to upload my ccreencaptures. Please Please, let me know any suggestions to help crop the photos or other ways to get around the size!