The months turned into weeks and weeks into days and Edtc 300 has come to a wrap – how time flies. For this last phase, I thought of putting into practice something I’ve learned from my EDTC class which is trying out a new online tool. So I used the Renderforest tool to create a short video and uploaded the video to YouTube.
Here’s a brief video of my takeaways from the EDTC class
Just before I take a bow as EDTC 300 comes to a close, I would like to use this medium to share some ways I contributed positively to the learning of my EDTC 300 family. One skill I lacked but gained in EDTC 300 is the ability to connect with people and share information, ideas, and opinions online. To achieve this, I connected with my classmates via Discord where we asked questions, got help and assistance, and shared our different ideas and opinions. We also explored Blogs where we posted our progress on individual learnings, and our views on various subject matters and got motivated by the feedback from our peers. I have learned so much from my classmates and these learnings will always stay with me. In one word, I would gladly say “We connect to share and to learn”.
It will be cumbersome if must post all my screenshots but here are some ways I feel I contributed to the learnings of my classmates.
Commenting on Blogs: I commented on at least three (3) Blog posts of my classmates per week. Here are some of the comments I made to my classmates’ posts
Responding to comments on my Blog posts: Aside from commenting on Blog posts, I also tried to respond to some comments my classmates made about my posts. Here are some of my responses.
Responding to classmates on Discord: Here are some of my interactions with my classmates on Discord answering questions and sharing ideas, and opinions.
Responded to my EDTC 300 Instructor on Discord: I shared my thoughts on the video campaign from Alberta shared on Discord by the EDTC instructor
Sharing Educational Resources on Discord: I shared some educational resources with my classmates via Discord
Asked questions on Discord: I also needed and got support from my classmates on Discord
With the semester coming to a close, so is my guitar-learning project. As part of my EDTC300 class, a class that examines the use of technology and media in teaching and learning, I was required to choose something significant that I would like to learn and share my progress openly in an online space based on the idea that individuals are now more able to learn and share online. I had always desired to back up my singing by playing an instrument but the last thing on my mind was to pluck the Guitar strings. A YouTube video of a girl plucking the strings and singing with so much relaxation and confidence changed my mindset and I decided to give Guitar playing my best shot.
In my guitar project, my main goal was to be able to play the “Happy Birthday Song” fluently in English, Spanish, and French while singing along as I intend to make it my classroom tradition to sing the “Happy Birthday Song” while playing the guitar for my future students on their birthdays.
Join me as I walk you down my guitar-learning journey
This week, I decided to take my first step in learning the guitar’s basics.
This week I decided to go deeper with the Yousician app for my guitar-learning journey. I had a lot of fun exploring this app because of the step-by-step guidance.
Week 4: Playing the Chords!
For this week, I just wanted to rock it by playing chords to the Happy Birthday song
Week 5: Fun! Playing the Notes
This week I decided to challenge myself to play the notes to the Happy Birthday song
This week, I decided to go on a strumming adventure
Week 7: Hey! Did I just Strum?
This week, I considered adding spices to the regular guitar playing for my learning journey by exploring more strumming patterns.
Week 8: Strumming – Getting Deeper
So, this week I decided to get deeper into strumming by learning how to strum in a song. I got frustrated trying to strum to the Happy Birthday song.
This week, I challenged myself to get the strumming patterns to the Happy Birthday song right.
Week 10: The Strings are Getting Plucked
For this week, I decided to revisit some sites I initially explored for my Guitar learning to gain a deeper knowledge of my guitar learning.
My top takeaways from learning and sharing my learning online
4. I would say that YouTube is a great educational resource. Before this class, I only visited YouTube to listen to songs. Now, I can’t even imagine the extent to which the resources on YouTube can enhance the ability to learn diverse skills.
5. My Guitar project experience left me with a personal theme “I can do it if I keep trying” and this is my biggest takeaway. As a future elementary teacher, I will stand tall with my head high, to play the guitar for my students on their birthdays.
As I ponder on where I started with zero skills and where I’m at now in my guitar-learning journey, I’m encouraged to keep playing and learning more guitar skills. I must admit that this journey wasn’t easy but guess what? I persevered and I conquered – Yeah!
Here is a video of where I’m at
Thanks for watching & reading about my guitar journey!
Congrats on all of your learning projects!
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, I would say that AI has come to stay. Though I hear a lot about AI, I’ve never really tried out any AI tool. For this week’s assignment, I must try out one AI tool so I decided to try Eduaide. Eduaide is a platform for collaboration. The application is designed as a way to check and balance the role of AI in instructional planning. 
Eduaide is an educator-friendly, generative AI tool designed to help teachers plan and save time. I find it interesting that the Eduaide tool was created by teachers (Thomas Thompson and Thomas Hummel) to solve real problems in the classroom. Eduaide is a planning assistant that teachers can use throughout the instructional process. It’s a great brainstorming partner in helping educators get started with planning units and lessons. It can also be used to generate engaging learning activities and meaningful assessments. The following is an outline of key features found in Eduaide.
Eduaide’s interface provides the ability to tailor your outcome around the information you provide in alignment with your teaching needs for: 
It has six main categories for telling the program what you would like it to generate: 
This tool can be used to generate six different types of assessment questions to match your academic objective or standard:
Eduaide is a planning assistant that teachers can use throughout the instructional process. It’s a great brainstorming partner in helping educators get started with planning units and lessons. It can also be used to generate engaging learning activities and meaningful assessments. As a future teacher, Eduaide is a one-stop shop for me as this is a tool where I can get help with regular classroom tasks or generate new ideas by entering a subject, grade level, and instructional objective, and then selecting a task I’d like help planning and generating content. All content is editable and flexible making it an easy-to-use AI tool to be explored by teachers in the classroom.
‘Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, and the landscape is changing rapidly and regularly.’ As a future educator, I would say that in as much as there are potential benefits in integrating AI into education, the downsides are also clear. I wonder how cheating using AI will be curbed in classrooms and how teachers will successfully educate students on digital literacy, especially in identifying fake news. The article, “Six Ways Schools Can Manage the Risks of AI While Still Getting All the Benefits!” outlines the risks of integrating AI in schools as well as the proactive steps schools can take to mitigate these educational risks.
I also stumbled on this video by CGTN America on the role of AI in the future of education.
It was hard deciding who to cybersleuth so, I called up a friend I met a year ago to obtain permission to cybersleuth him and he gave me the go-ahead. Though Cyber sleuthing is something I’ve always heard about I’ve never imagined myself digging deep into someone via the internet or playing the online detective.
To begin, I visited Google and discovered some steps on how to fi
nd information on someone online and my first point of action was exploring the Google search engine. I’ve always known him by his first and last name, so it was easy to search for his name on Google and I was able to get his middle name as well. I stumbled on his LinkedIn account from Google and discovered he has worked as a Project Engineer for 7 years and as a Site Engineer for 2 years. From his YouTube channel, I discovered he had been a marketer for an online marketing company that had folded up 10 years ago. It seemed difficult to get his biographical data from Google so I decided to search for him on Facebook. Now I had all 3 names which made my search rather easy. From Facebook, I was able to get his birthday – February 21, 1986, family/relationships, and could view some activities he does like singing in the church choir and going on picnics with family. I would say his Facebook account portrays more of church and family. Nothing political was viewed from his Facebook account rather more of religion. So, he wedded 5 years ago and has a beautiful daughter.
In my quest to discover more, I explored other search engines like Qwant and Bing. I discovered he has an Instagram page but what intrigued me most was that his Instagram page was with a different name which I suspect to be a nickname his friends address him with though his profile picture remains the same on all the online sites. His activities here seemed different from those of Facebook in terms of socializing with friends and colleagues. It seems Instagram 
is where he feels free to explore his social life. From my search, it is obvious that he portrays different personalities on different sites for different purposes which relates to the article “Having Multiple Online Identities is More Normal Than You Think”. I would say he can be trusted based on his digital footprint. I didn’t see anything implicating or suspicious about him so, I would say yes, I could hire him. His LinkedIn account will be a great start for me as an employer.
As our everyday activities shift online, the ability to trust other people’s digital identities is critical. Ensuring people online are actually who they say they are seems challenging. Digital identity can be defined as a person’s social identity in the digital realm. Any personal data that can be traced back to the real you constitutes your digital identity. For example, images you’ve shared on social media, posts you’ve written or commented on, your online bank account, search engine history, and yes, your Steam account if you’re a gamer. With these, cultivating a digital identity in responsible and empowering ways is crucial and as future educators, it is important to teach the students ways they can be responsible online.
In the TED talk, “One Tweet Can Ruin Your Life”, Jon Ronson shares the story of Justine Sacco’s tweet about possibly getting AIDS in Africa. This one tweet became a trending topic worldwide hence, leading to her being shamed and humiliated online. The consequences of this tweet affected her relationship with friends/family, her career, and her mental health.
As future educators, it is important to expose our students to how presenting themselves and sharing information online can affect their sense of self, their reputations, and their relationships.
For this week, I decided to revisit some sites I initially explored for my Guitar learning. To better transition between chords using my four fingers, I revisited the YourGuitarSage video on YouTube. I also revisited the article “Expert tips for strumming a guitar with or without a pick for beginners” on the wikiHow site and Maggie May’s YouTube channel to better understand strumming patterns and techniques.
So, I incorporated these ideas and strumming techniques into a video of myself singing and playing the Happy Birthday song in English and French using chords. I started by just letting the strings ring, then I moved to strum using the upbeat and downbeat patterns and further proceeded to play the percussive rhythm – the slap technique when strumming.
I wouldn’t say I’m there yet but I’m so excited about where I am at this point.
Please keep wishing me luck in my Guitar learning journey.
Last week was no fun with strumming to the “Happy Birthday” song. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would but guess what? I persevered and I conquered – Yeah!
Last week, I learned a new strumming pattern to strum the “Happy Birthday” song from the Good Guitarist page, and I challenged myself to get those patterns right this week. I wouldn’t say it was an easy target to set for one week but it is sure worth it.
So, I followed my newly discovered 1 (down), 2 (down, up), and 3 (down, up) patterns of strumming to the “Happy Birthday” song using three chords (G, C, and D) to strum and……. 
I DID IT!
In today’s world, where the internet is one of the primary information sources, learners must understand how to participate and navigate the networked world. The NCTE framework has outlined elements to guide how teachers plan, model, support, and assess student learning in a digital age.
The article ‘Developing critical literacies: What we need to know in a “fake news” world’, reminds me of how easy it was to discern between what was fake and what was real in the local magazines and newspapers I came across growing up. In today’s age, the reverse happens to be the case as it has become difficult to examine the credibility of the information and sources we consume from the internet due to the sophistication of today’s fake news. This article suggests ways to deal with today’s fake news. An example could be using the Media Bias Chart to understand and identify biases.
The TedED Video “How to choose your news” also provides a guide on differentiating between facts and non-facts in the news we receive. checking for the latest pieces of information at several points in a day, rather than every few minutes allowing time for complete details to emerge is one aspect I have to work on personally.
Teaching digital literacy in the elementary classroom can provide significant benefits to students. The younger a child begins to feel comfortable using digital tools, the more successful they are likely to be in the future. As a future elementary educator, it is important to educate students on ways to examine the credibility of the information they receive online. A good way to start will be to ensure that the students understand key concepts to stay safe online, by teaching them several key digital literacy skills. The EdCan Fact Sheet also outlines strategies and ideas that are beneficial in helping students examine the credibility of the information they receive from the internet.
In my search for ways to successfully teach digital literacy to elementary students, I stumbled on the article “5 Activities to Teach Your Students How to Spot Fake News”.
Last week, I attempted some strumming patterns and felt so good about it so I decided to get deeper into strumming by learning how to strum in a song. I explored YouTube and discovered the Good Guitarist page on playing the “Happy Birthday” song with easy chords and strumming. I found playing the chords to the song easy to learn though challenging to transition between the G Chord and C Chord. It’s fun playing a song with just three chords.
Attempting to strum to the song was in no way fun. I find it difficult to keep up with the pace of the music while strumming and transitioning between chords at the same time. I realized the difference between playing strumming patterns and implementing the patterns in a song. I hope to achieve this goal next week.
So, I have a goal of strumming to the “Happy Birthday” Song, please wish me luck as I pursue this goal.
So this week, I had the option of Coding a short Scratch project or doing one of the Hour of Code options on Code.org. Coding is one thing I’ve never imagined doing so, I was anxious about giving it a try. I decided to try out Coding using the Scratch website.
First, I had to learn the basics in Scratch via tutorials – this was helpful. I could choose my characters (I went with 2 human characters – Abby and Avery). I experienced a little challenge here with Avery as this character was not facing Abby. Still, thanks to the tutorials page, I was able to fix that by flipping Avery horizontally using the costume tool. I also learned how to make my characters speak using the text-to-speech extension. To learn more about these tools, I explored the Scratch Wiki website.
After successfully adding text to each character, I tried something else: changing the backdrop from a blank screen to a school setting.
My experience with Coding using Scratch is fun but time-consuming. My biggest takeaway from this app is the ability to create and make happen what I want. This app would allow students to become good problem solvers and exercise creativity.
So, here is the outcome of my Scratch project.
In conclusion, I would say that Coding is an essential skill to learn as it enhances problem-solving, logical thinking, and creativity. Teaching coding to students would help prepare them for a future where technology is limitless.
