• EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Making the Perfect Omelette

    This week was a bit of a difficult week to do a big meal for my learning project as I have done in previous weeks, but I still managed to get some practice time in the kitchen in. On Thursday, March 4th, me and my girlfriend gained possession of the house we had bought in January.  This past week has been an incredibly busy week of packing, painting, doing home renovations, and moving.  When we finally got somewhat settled on Tuesday, I needed a recipe for my learning project that did not require many kitchen supplies or ingredients (our new kitchen is pretty bare in terms of cooking tools and…

  • EDTC 300

    The Internet & Participation Culture

    In this week’s lecture, we discussed this idea of a “new culture of participation” that has emerged and grown as the internet has emerged and grown.  This culture of participation, to put it simply, basically means this: in today’s world, people do not just watch and consume media, they are active participants in it, and this active participation is only growing.  In the anthropological introduction to YouTube video, posted by Michael Wesch in 2008, he mentions that there are 9232 hours of footage uploaded to YouTube every day.  According to Statista, as of May 2019, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute which equates to…

  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Tik Tok Pasta

    This week’s learning project post was an idea given to me by my lovely girlfriend. Apparently, a type of pasta that has been labelled “Tik Tok Pasta” has been circulating Tik Tok and the rest of the internet lately.  She found this pasta on some social media platform and upon hearing about it, I decided to give it a shot. Lately, I have been wanting to try and eat less meat and this is the perfect recipe to do that. For this recipe, you will need cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions, black olives, your favourite kind of pasta, salt and pepper, basil leaves, garlic, crushed red bell peppers, olive oil, and…

  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Lemon Garlic Butter Chicken & Animoto!

    For this week’s blog post, we were required to pick an app/tool from a predetermined list to document our learning project.  For cooking, I decided an instructional cooking video would be best, so I settled on using the program “Animoto” to do this. Animoto is a free video maker/editor that you can use on the web or as an app on your phone.  I first tried to create the video entirely from my phone, but the app kept crashing and it would not save my video when this occurred.  After a few failed attempts, I transitioned to the web version on the computer and I no longer had any issues. …

  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    I Want My Baby Back Ribs

    So this week, I channelled my inner Michael Scott and decided that I needed to get my hands on some baby back ribs. The only problem was that I had never made ribs before and it was -40 degrees outside so barbequing was not an option. I thought I was out of luck until I stumbled across a YouTube video (embedded below) outlining how to make the perfect, oven-baked baby back ribs. I followed the directions almost exactly and they turned out great. To go with the ribs, I looked around online for salad recipes until one caught my eye: dill pickle pasta salad. Ribs are one of my favourite…

  • EDTC 300

    My Thoughts On Twitter and Social Media

    Over the years I have slowly weaned myself almost entirely off of social media.  I deleted my Twitter and Instagram over 3 years ago, and I deleted my Facebook just a few short months ago.  I do see the benefits of social media.  In this class, we are using social media as a tool to build our personal learning networks and engage with other professionals in the field of education, and that is great.  But after this class, I am undecided if I am going to continue using Twitter and I definitely won’t be reinstalling my Facebook and Instagram and jumping onto platforms like Tik Tok.   The major reason why…

  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Cooking with Branden

    This week was my first attempt at actually doing my learning project, and it went great.  I found a great beginner chicken stir-fry video by a Youtuber that goes by the name of “Pro Home Cooks” (full video below).  This video was great because he assumes that the viewers are not very experienced in the kitchen, and because of this, he took the time to fully explain everything he was doing along the way.  I have tried to use YouTube videos before to get more experienced in the kitchen, but a lot of videos do not take the time to fully explain what they are doing and why.  This can…

  • EDTC 300

    Feedly and Building a Personal Learning Network

    For week three’s class, we focused on a number of different apps and programs that will help us build our personal learning network (PLN).  The first program we went over was Twitter.  I have used Twitter in the past and had an account when I was in high school so I feel comfortable in navigating Twitter.  The other two programs we went over were Feedly and TweetDeck.  Before this week, I had not heard of or used either of these programs, but they seem easy enough to use.  Feedly is also the focus of this week’s blog post. Feedly is an RRS reader that allows you to bring in articles…

  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    The Path to Becoming A Better Chef: Learning Project Blog Post #1

    For my learning project, I have decided that I would like to become a better chef.  Cooking runs pretty strongly through my dad’s side of the family.  My dad and my grandma are both excellent chefs (my dad even owned and operated a restaurant when I was young), but unfortunately, I was not blessed with their skills.  My mother on the other hand is not the best chef, and she has and continues to admit that fact frequently.  I seem to have inherited her skills in the kitchen.  Over the course of this semester, I will use this class as an opportunity to become better versed in the kitchen.    …

  • EDTC 300

    Introduction to Me, EDTC, and Blogging

    Hey, I’m Branden, and I am in my second year of secondary education.  I am from Weyburn which is a small city located about an hour southeast of Regina, and upon graduation, I plan on sticking around the Weyburn area. My girlfriend and I actually bought a house in town last week.  We are set to move in during the first week of March.  We have been living with her parents for the last couple of years so it will be nice to finally have our own space.  It has been quite the journey to get to where I am today. After graduating high school, I wanted to avoid the…