RSS Readers! Breathing Fresh Air and Collaborative Learning

This week, I subscribed to Feebly, an online feed reader that organizes information from the web into one place. A few categories I set up to organize my favourite topics are: Education Resources and Yoga!

Two favourite education resources I discovered are:

  1. Ted Ed

Ted Ed consists of short educational videos. This site is an offshoot of the Ted Talks, with videos designed specifically around educational topics.

I watched a cool video about the air we all breathe – this feels especially relevant in the era of global warming and the season of the covid pandemic and continual mask wearing. We need to think about our air!

  1. Teach Thought

This site offers a wealth of teacher resources including quotes, inspirational and ideas lists, podcasts, workshops and webinars.

I read a great article about Reciprocal Teaching, where students take on both roles of teacher and learner within small groups as a method of improving their reading comprehension. I love collaborative learning approaches, and I like encouraging learning that involves using multiple areas of the brain to help solidify understanding and information consolidation.

I am looking forward to using Feebly! I have never used this app before and it’s cool to try something new! It’s got a great set up – right off the bat, it seems very organized and easy to set up! The one downside seems to be that the search options seem limited without paying for a subscription. For example, when I went to search for #naturekids (a topic I am very interested in), it said nothing was available without a subscription.

Fresh Learning: Ed Tech!

What is my experience with Educational Technology?

-For a long time, I have been fascinated by the use of tablets for communication support in kids with disabilities. For several years, I have followed the story of Carly – an autistic person – who learned to communicate with the use of a computer. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4311223&page=1

-My bonus daughter is a huge fan of the math learning game that she uses on her tablet at elementary school. It’s called Sum Dog! https://www.sumdog.com/cn/

-I have seen how some schools in Whitehorse make use of websites for building community and sharing learning adventures with parents. I think it’s a really cool way to get connected! Surely, it must instill a sense of pride and joy in children to show their work online to their parents and caregivers too!

-I follow some Facebook groups for teachers – one of my favourites is called “Teacher Memes” – It’s memes made by teachers trying to let off steam at the end of a long, hard day of teaching.

-Some of my classmates used Twitter in previous courses.. This one is new to me – I am open to learning.

-I use Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends. My Dad takes many beautiful photos of Yukon animals and landscapes. Here is a photo of an owl that he recently shared on Social Media:

Tony Gonda Images

What are my thoughts on Blogging?

-The best approach is to just sit down and write. Having a bit of an outline, or starting with a point form summary, seems to help me when I get stuck. Then I can just fill in the blanks for each topic!

-I feel relieved that I already have a blog set up from a previous course- it makes it easy to get started on making posts for this one! It’s also nice to have a written record of my learning experiences and journey.

-It helps me to write out my thoughts, and to articulate my ideas.

-I like the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas with others in the class, to receive some feedback, as well as receiving guidance from the teacher.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL