It seems like just yesterday we were starting our first EDTC class. The semester went by so fast, and I am so thankful I got to be apart of this class. I am sad that it is ending, but guess what… You have not seen the last of me ED Tech! I am so excited to be taking EDTC 400 next semester and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me!

For my summary of learning I decided to team up with the friends I have made through class. Paige Hamann, Brandon Rumford, and I tried out yet another website that we thought brought our presentation to life! It would also be cool for students when making presentations. You can check it out here! We met through Google meets, and used Audacity and DaVinci Resolve to edit our audio and videos.

Without further adieu, please enjoy our Summary of Learning for EDTC 300!

At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to keep track of your contributions to other’s learning. I was not sure why were asked to do this, but throughout my time in EDTC 300, I came to understand the importance of collaboration and supporting your peers and coworkers.

I wanted to share some of my contributions to the learning of my classmates.

• To start off, I want to talk about my twitter. I have been fairly active of twitter, sharing many articles that I found helpful, from teaching resources to study hacks for my fellow university students. I even found some resources for a fellow classmate’s learning project that I thought might be helpful. I also like, retweet and comment on other tweets to either save content other’s have found, and show my support for them.

• I also participated in the #saskedchat, where I contributed my ideas and thoughts about the questions asked. I chatted with other teachers and was hopefully able to contribute ideas not only to my classmates but to educators as well.

• Next I would like to share my contribution to our slack community. Although our slack community was not super active, I was able to help out classmates when the need arose. 3 instances include helping with using tools from class like CC Search or Feedly, as well as trying my best to answer general questions.

• I have also commented on several of my classmates blogs, showing support, sharing advice, and offering collaboration. I had a lot of fun reading my classmates blog posts and seeing their progress throughout the learning projects and EDTC 300. Here are some examples of the comments I have left. One thing I wish I did was take screenshots of my comments because there were ones I remember making at the beginning of the semester that I have to dig through to find them back.

• The last show of my contribution would be my behind the scenes contributions. I know a few of my classmates from outside of class. We tend to go to each other for help when we need it. I have helped by sharing videos of how to work WordPress, reminded classmates of blog posts and learning project posts, as well as sharing resources for learning.

I really hope all my contributions helped out my classmates and made them feel supported in all of their work. I also want to thank all of my classmates for jumping at the chance to support me and give me advice. It helps us all grow and learn together which is so important in education.

My hour of code experience was super fun. I have previously had a just a little bit of experience with Java script coding on my own time as well as block coding in high school. I wanted to try another sort of typing coding because I found the block coding less challenging. So, I searched through and found a tutorial that involved a dog, and of course I clicked on it. I really like how it has teacher notes, which makes this perfect for incorporating into lesson plans.

This one had the option to do block coding or using java script. I chose to use java script. I think it so much fun to code like this. I could move Karel and make him drop or grab tennis balls. The only thing that I did not like was that he could only turn left, so turning right meant I had to code 3 lines! In the beginning, It was relatively easy and I went through it quickly, having a little experience beforehand. I really had a lot of fun relearned some java commands.

One thing I really liked was it shows where you made a mistake if make one. It also shows you why it was wrong and how to correct it. This is really helpful in learning the coding language as well as how to start problem solving when something does go wrong (as seen below).

At the very end, the last task was to create your own design. I took this as a challenge to make something much more complicated then the previous tasks. I decided to create a paw print outline. I thought how long could it really take me. Trust me it took a while. I changed my mind a few times in between, and tried to make slight adjustments. I then had to go through and problem solve to make sure the rest of my code still worked correctly.

Finally, after over 350 lines of code, I finished my pawprint! Take a look at the code running in the video below.

I had so much fun going through this coding. I think it teaches and makes you practice many important skills, like problem solving, comprehension, creativity, and mathematics. I think students will enjoy programs like this especially because there are programs geared towards having fun while coding. For examples, some of them are like games and you code to finish the game. It makes the learning fun for the students.

Today, fake news fills up so much of the internet. The world is full of it. A lot of people see something and share it, thinking it is true. Many times I have been sent something into a group chat about some sort of news. I remember a time during high school when my friend sent an article that popped up on Instagram. The headline read “Bill Nye Arrested”. This was something that shocked us all and immediately I knew something wasn’t right. So, I fact checked it, and turns out he was never arrested. I hated to burst everyone’s bubble and stop the conversation but I told them it was not true. The point is, everyone at some point will deal with some wort of fake news, and it is becoming more and more common.

But, how do we combat all of this fake news? For one, we need to teach and use digital literacy techniques. Teaching digital literacy means teaching kids to understand what the digital world is, how to navigate it safely, and how to avoid misinformation and fake news.

A good way to introduce this topic would be by playing a game like “Can you spot the fake news headline“. Then, follow up by playing them this Ted Talk about fake news. It theory behind fake news and how it spreads. This can be a general introduction to the idea of fake news and how it connects to understanding our digital world.

Digital literacy is becoming more and more important in the recent years. In today’s world, we are bombarded with information overload. There are so many places were we can find information, so teaching students how to identify trustworthy sources and how to find the true from the false is very important. It is especially important now to sift out fake news during this pandemic. Updates are of huge importance to everyone in the world right now, so there is a need to find good information and not spread fake news.

How much of your life do you think is public knowledge? It is probably more than you realize. This week I participated in a cyber sleuthing activity. One of my classmates and I partnered up and googled and researched each other. The goal was to discover as much as we could about the other person through online sources. This was a really interesting experience, and I learned a lot about my fellow classmates.

This exercise helped us discover what our online identity reveals about ourselves. Some of the information about us comes from us. It is information that stems from our involvement online, our online profiles, and our social media. Other information about ourselves can be found by what others post about us. I also googled myself and a lot of the information I see is articles in the newspaper about my involvement in sports, interviews I’ve had for a variety of things, and information from other people who know me. I also see how I portray myself online as well. It is important to understand that our online identity is not made up of only what you put out there, but what others put out there about you.

Everyone presents an edited version of life on social media. People share moments that reflect an ideal life, an ideal self. 

Kate Fagan

This quote from the article “Split Image” shows exactly what I mean. We try to present ourselves as the best parts of our life. We do not usually see the ugly or hard parts of our life. We show our ideal selves. We want people to see the best parts about ourselves, and that is exactly what we put online.

Our digital identity shows a lot about ourselves. It shows how we portray ourselves, but it also has stuff that we did not post, but others did. I suggest this cyber sleuthing exercise to help students and yourself understand what your digital identity says about you. I do not think we realize how much of our lives is online, and this exercise is a great way to learn about your online identity.