Category: EDTC300

Learning Project/Kade’s Kitchen: A Sweet and Sour Adventure on Facebook

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my journey in the Kitchen!

*Disclaimer* I did not follow through on the NYT Cooking app this week because it is a little bit more advanced for my current comfort level, and there is a paywall behind the app. So, it can wait for a few weeks! So, I narrowed it down to a noodle stirfry or a take-out favourite of something covered in Sweet and Sour sauce. I chose the latter because of the ingredients and because I would love to learn how to cook Asian food.  I also made white rice and boiled buttered cabbage with my S&S Chicken to complete the meal!

Picture of Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe

The video recipe is here, and I found it on Facebook. I decided to give that social media platform a starting edge in my learning project because they constantly pop up on my feed. I chose a relatively safe recipe without exciting ingredients to make the result edible! In that regard, I succeeded in a yummy meal!

The cultural history of Sweet and Sour sauce: it was created in China during or before the 1800s. On the surface level, it combines a sweet sauce and a sour meat taste that is prevalent in other Asian regions/countries like South Korea. Mine and the American versions have evolved to become the deep-fried Cantonese-originated scrumptious sauce of our dreams from Chinese take-out restaurants.

The dredge for the chicken used flour and eggs (which was quite fun, coating it with vigorous tossing movements in Ziploc bags). I don’t think it was an orange chicken like the home-cook content creator’s kids called it because the recipe did not have fruits or other traditional items. The sour category had vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic (salt). It uses ketchup, apple cider vinegar, and sugar as sweets. This means I cooked a semi-traditional Sweet & Sour Chicken; if you want a more historical recipe, the S&S Chicken is not for you.

Reflections and Overall Thoughts: 

  1. I thought it was a healthier meal that only took an hour, and the recipe had some ingredients out of my comfort zone. Being confident is a new kind of calm in the culinary arts for me!
  2. I also acquired new skills, such as chopping chicken, dredging, frying it in a pan, and cooking it in the oven with a sauce.
  3. I am learning a task like cooking because of the transferable skills this can have for the classroom and life. As such, I notice how students feel about consuming content in different processes or even assignments.
  4. To survive, a person needs to know it is a part of life, and doing it for university brings some fun to education. Seeing a different side to myself with technology is efficient and not draining!
  5. This video’s technological use was significant due to its quickness and the ease of cooking the meal. Videos are the bread and butter of Facebook recipes since the commentary adds to my self-awareness when preparing and cooking the food on the screen. It is not one of the AI or fake pictures that do not follow through with the authentic recipe. I would use it again and could even compare it to the fake pictured ones for a learning objective during a week.
  6. A part of me feels I should be doing two recipes a week: the first is a cooked meal, and the second is a baked dessert. I also want to start being prepared for this and have Sunday as my Learning Project day! What do my fellow learners/commenters think about this?

In week 3, I will explore another cultural dish through online recipe forums, try to improve my cooking, and be excited to learn more about the mysteries of the kitchen. Until then, have a fantastic week, and strive for curiosity!

The Life of a Technological Addict and Procrastinator

Technology is all around us daily; it depends on how you use it to achieve objectives such as coursework, your job, or even your much-needed leisure time. I remember waking up and having breakfast from a toaster at a very young age. Then, I would watch cartoon shows before school in the morning and laugh with my favourite characters. To get to school, my parents would drive me into town, and I was constantly distracted by the radio’s music, especially during the cold winter months. My education focused on projectors, computers, ipads, and the information said in post one. After school was pretty much the same as in the early morning except for the trickling of homework before bed. As I got older, my view and reliance on tech strengthened, with social media becoming a bit of an addictive nature!

I frequently use online platforms for leisure, such as YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Discord, and various video games. YouTube has become my new TV, with its algorithm of different creators that I enjoy watching. There is a lot of history/politics with the upcoming US election, commentary videos, comics, playthroughs, podcasts, and music. For coursework, I use it to review for tests and try to figure out how to do something in a math class. That said, I could spend hours on it without doing anything productive, which is a big problem for me. TikTok is the same for me as YouTube, and I often doom scroll on my FYP because of procrastination. I need the willpower to stop and be productive; I love and hate it simultaneously!

Meanwhile, Snapchat and Discord are used for my social interactions with friends, to chat about life interests, and to play video games. They often share videos complaining about something happening, and then I snap back to keep the streak alive! On Discord, my friends and I have crazy server names and conversations. At the same time, we talk and play video games like Dead by Daylight, Overwatch 2, Minecraft, and other indie games. It is helpful because most of us are at different universities or post-secondaries and could not physically be together during the school year! Side note: I also have used it for communication in group projects and joined servers for courses like this one. The last personal social media is Reddit, which I look at for other people’s opinions on my interests and even the Canadian Teacher community (it can sometimes be toxic). Sometimes, I post and comment occasionally, but I mostly lurk in the shadows. Next up is the online technology use in my academic life!

I use UR Courses the most with my classes and handing in assignments. It has the tools my student schedule needs to survive university now! I have a calendar to track my workload, even though I have a personal one to figure out how long I need to work on a task. Also, it has some of my readings, and I also use online textbook software, which helps me focus better than a physical book with my different coursework. I check my emails constantly and use them as reminders to get stuff done during the day. Other than that, I use Google Docs to write assignments because of the auto-saving feature, and I am accustomed to it. This has me wondering what is better, Microsoft Word or Google Docs for university? A feature or gadget I use for my writing is Grammarly, which helps my writing in ways I usually would not notice. Even though, as Katia said, it is frowned upon in some departments. As such, I use it cautiously because my professor for ENGL 110 was unsure if it was academic misconduct. This is due to the ever-changing world of AI and technology. Be careful; it can be the saving light or lead someone down a dark path!

The best way to minimize these constant distractions is to put my devices away in rooms and focus on the tasks that must be done. I look on social media only during special small breaks for snacks, water, or lunch/supper. I looked into Stay Focused and will use it on my laptop because it should help me complete my assignments without distraction. At night, I try to stay off technology or use it for only 30 minutes to an hour as a reward for doing work. Anyway, I can’t wait to read and comment on everyone’s posts! Have a great week, and seize the day!

Intro to my Learning Project: Welcome to Kade’s Kitchen!

At first, I had trouble figuring out something to learn or improve that would pique my interest. I could choose between learning a language like French, which I am doing right now in a course, getting better at different drawing styles, or trying to bake and cook recipes outside of my comfort zone. After tossing and turning the ideas around, I decided to follow the culinary arts because of shows like MasterChef, the influence of cultures on food, and the variety of recipes online.

Man in white chef uniform holding chopsticks

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels

My first exposure to cooking was as a teenager when I cooked eggs, microwavable noodles (KD and Ramen), and pancakes at home. Then, I cooked in Foods class from Grade 8 to Grade 11. I learned a bit about cooking and baking tasks in a kitchen group with other students and the theories behind it all. Since then, I have only cooked prepackaged meals and want to eat homemade meals without relying as much on fast food. I am not confident in doing most dishes or recipes at the moment, but I am ready for a challenge to become better versed in them.

I plan to search for a basic recipe for a beginner on NYT Cooking: Recipes & Tips and for suggestions from classmates in the comments. After accomplishing that, I will go one step further each week by discovering new dishes on Facebook, websites, cooking shows, YouTubers like Nick DiGiovanni, and Celebrity Chefs, asking AI for recipes on platforms like Chat GPT, and comparing some to ones found in a cookbook. One of the weeks, I also want to figure out recipes that a teacher could teach in a home ec class. My ultimate goal in this plan is to see the unique ways a person could cook and bake from the information of technology in the overarching age of the internet. How does it consume these everyday tasks? Are there ways that it could make a person a better cook? Follow me on a culinary journey in Kade’s Kitchen!

Introduction about Myself, Ed Tech, and Blogging!

Hi everyone! My name is Kade Aseltine, and I am a second-year pre-K-5 education Student. I grew up in Tisdale, around three and a half hours away from Regina. I enjoy spending time with my friends, family, and two cats, Phinn and Bonnie. When I am home, I enjoy reading, playing video games, watching movies, and spending time at the lake during the summer. I am also passionate about Social Studies, mainly Canadian and Saskatchewan history. This past summer, I worked at my local museum and toured people around all the buildings. It was fun, but not when it was hot out. Experiences like that have inspired me to be a cheerful and motivated educator, always looking for something new to learn!

Looking back upon my K-12 education, educational technology was used in many ways. Teachers always use communication assignment platforms, such as Class Dojo in elementary school and Google Classroom in the upper grades. I think this was because Class Dojo was more interactive and motivational than a place for links and videos. It also evolved from computer labs to iPads to laptops and Chrome books. They became more personalized and accessible to specific learning goals like reading programs and math in Grade 12 as a financial calculator. However, I had never considered how teachers elevated education through these tech domains. Specifically, computer simulations on Projectile Motion in Physics and using SMART Boards were always hit or miss because they never seemed to work correctly during graphing tutorials. As such, I look forward to learning about educational technology in class and throughout my learning project!

Regarding blogging, I want to share my thoughts on life, education, and other essential things. I also think of a person in the early 2000s sharing their day, which could be tiresome and time-consuming to the wrong audience like me. The education site and ePortfolios in the week one readings were quite interesting; Gretchen C. Seibel’s site will inspire me on this journey. Blogging seems inviting without being full-on academic; instead, it is an environment for all educators, wherever they are on the same path. Also, has social media replaced the popularity of blogging in 2024, or is it a simple evolution of technology? I can’t wait to read other people’s posts and stories!