• EDTC 300

    Connecting With My Classmates: Final Networked Post

    December 4, 2022

    I wanted to share my interactions with classmates on where I was least succesful to most succesful to end on a high note. To begin with Discord, then Twitter, then my blog.

    Discord

    I am very new to all the platforms we used this term so I didn’t feel confident in answering many questions. I found most questions everyone else was asking I was wondering as well.

    I was able to help my partner out for the cybersleuthing project and explain the assignment a little.

    Explaining an assignment.

    I asked a fair share of questions this term since I am not tech savy and everyone was very very helpful. My classmates made it a very safe space with zero judgement for the questions I was asking. I always ensured I acknowledged the help they offered.

    Acknowledging the help I recieved.

    I did struggle with a tech aspect of discord that challenged me a little. I try to disconnect from my laptop as much as possible on weekends to have a good school balance. The problem is I could not get Discord on my phone due to tech issues. Then when I would log on to discord on Monday many questions were always answered already.

    Twitter

    My Favourite Tweets

    I created my Twitter account in September for this year. I have never used Twitter before so this was very new. At first I was lost about what to tweet about but slowly through seeing my classmates tweets and talking with some I found what to look for. I am a math major and could talk about math all day so evidently most of my tweets were about math techniques, activities, and statements.

    Example of math tweet that I really enjoyed.

    I really enjoyed focusing on math tweets because It was relevant to me. As well, often math is a very disliked subject by most students because it can be very challenging. I found many tweets that focused on positive words that were encouraging.

    In the photo to the left it shows a high school class learning the unit circle outside. I really liked this because I want to teach high school calculus one day. When I was in calculus in high school every day was sitting in a desk for an hour taking notes the whole time. High school students are often forgotten about when it comes to fun ways to learn.

     

    Following Classmates Journey

    The main focus of the posts I was searching for was math posts. But, I also used my Twitter to follow along with classmates in their learning project and those who are teachers already in there classroom.

    Replying to a classmates tweets about her classroom.

     

    I really enjoyed replying to my classmates who are teachers already about there tweets that include what they did in the classroom. It was cool to see what they were doing and look forward to what I will hopefully get to do in the future.

     

    My response to a classmates tweet that I really liked.

     

     

    Reply to a classmates tweet about learning project.

     

    Many of us in the class this term used our Twitter accounts to promote our blogs. I took this as an opportunity to 1. Do this myself and 2. Interact with my classmates about their projects.

     

     

     

    Replying to classmates tweet about learning project.

     

     

     

    I liked to comment on my classmates comments about there learning project on Twitter as well on there blog posts itself because on Twitter it felt more like a conversation than an assigned blog post.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Me promoting my blog post.

     

     

    I used my Twitter account to promote my blog posts because I was hoping to reach people that are not in the class. I would give a little snippet of the blog post and link it in the Tweet. I don’t think I ever did reach other people but I still think it was good to do this. I enjoyed when other people promoted their blogs because if I was scrolling on my Twitter I would come across it and could read their posts all the time rather then when I sat down to intentionally read some blogs and make comments.

     

    Twitter Chats

     

    When I tweeted that I would attend the #SaskEdChat.

    I planned to participate in the #SaskEdChat from week one but I had a small thing in the way. The #SaskEdChat takes place every Thursday at 8 pm and unfortunately I work every Thursday evening. In week one I had tweeted that I was going to participate hoping I would get off work early enough. I didn’t get off and missed the whole thing. Someone tweeted to me to “speak up and don’t be shy.” This terrified me!

     

     

    My replies to the questions after the live chat.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    My plan was to attend and watch but I learned that wasn’t much of an option. I got very scared from this! Since I could not attend the chat live I would read the questions and replies every week. However, I got very discouraged week one to tweet because it was clear people read these chats and paid close attention to what is being tweeted in the chat. It was not until late in the term that I got the courage to answer some questions after the #SaskEdChat had already happened.

     

    Interactive Tweets

    I tried to post tweets that gave my classmates a chance to interact with. I posed questions or statements that may generate a discussion. Some of them definitely did!

    A question I asked that created a discussion in the comments.

     

     

    When I did get responses to my posts like these I tried to respond as a thank you to those who commented in the first place.

    A statement I made to see if anyone else has “I Believe..” statements.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    These are all the ways I tried to make the most out of my Twitter account this term.

    Blog Posts

    I think I did a really good job this term when it came to interacting with classmates on our blogs. I made sure to comment every week on multiple blogs. At the beginning of the term I would schedule time to do this as I do with all my homework but as the term went on I found myself reading blogs while I was waiting for my classes to begin because I enjoyed it. I found that in peoples blog posts there was so much content that there were perfect opportunities to ask questions or asking questions.

     

    I tried to help Jozelle with her coding project.

     

     

    During the week of coding I was able to offer some advice/ answer a question a classmate was asking in there post.

    I connected with Jordan about learning a language because he has learned from the same sources as me in the past.
    Finding something in common with Amy!
    Sharing that I learned something from their blog post!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    These are some of the comments and interactions I had over the blog platform this term! I commented on multiple blogs every week. I probably made around 50 comments on blogs since September!

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    The End of a Learning Project

    November 26, 2022

    In my EDTC 300 class we were tasked with an assignment to pick a skill to learn all term and blog about our progress! You may have been following along and know how it went or you might be new and therefore I will recap it.

    So when I needed to pick a skill I was trying to come up with something with meaning and that interested me. I landed on learning Ukrainian. This was important to me because my family is ukrainian but almost none of us know any ukrainian words. My grandma can understand some words but not speak it. I felt like I wanted something to be more connected to my grandma and the culture.

    Week by Week Recap

    Week One – Connecting To My Grandma: Learning Ukrainian

    In week one I outlined my plan for the term and decided on some resources I wanted to use. I explained why my project was important to me and why I chose this skill to learn.

    Week Two – Learning My ABC’S

    I started the learning process with the basics of the alphabet. I learned 17 out of 33 letters this week and focused on learning the order and look of the letters. I printed a sheet and followed a video on YouTube to learn. I tried to practice each night to try remember but the memorization part came later in the term.

    Week Three – Learning Project Inside A Learning Project

    We were challenged this week to use a new medium to share our progress. I learned the entire alphabet this week, how to write the letters, the order, and the pronunciation. This was the first time I was ready to share my progress in a video. The medium I chose was iMovie and YouTube. I have used iMovie before but I tried some really cool editing features. I have never posted on YouTube before so that was also new.

    Week Four – Duolingo не безкоштовний? (Duolingo isn’t free?)

    I was humbled by Duolingo this week. I learned an assortment of new words with not much of a category to them. I came out of this week knowing random words like cat, home, and mother in Ukrainian. I was humbled because you need “hearts” to keep learning and I was quickly running out of them.

    Week Five – It Was A Грубий (Rough) Week!

    For my learning this week I dug out a Ukrainian/English/French childrens picture book dictionary. It was the week after thanksgiving and the only thing on my mind was the food I ate. Truly though, I really struggled this week with sickness and felt like I took a step back in my learning after the long weekend. I used this book to learn some common Ukrainian foods.

    Week Six – Добрий день (Hello!)

    I found my new favourite medium this week to learn with! It was a total twist from the week before and I learned some helpful phrases/words if I ever travelled to Ukraine. I put all my work together from the week in a video using the skills I learned in week three.

    Week Seven – Ukrainian Lessons on Spotify!

    I utilized my time well this week by listening to a podcast on Spotify during my commute to and from school on the bus. I tried and kind of succeeded at learning the numbers. This podcast was not ideal for learning but I still learned numbers one through nine and could use that to learn the rest just like english.

    Week Eight – Hopping On The TikTok Trend

    By before and after using Canva

    This week was inspired by other classmates blogs and I am glad I tried it. I found a creator that I loved to learn from because she had so many videos. The learning this week of specific words was limited but I feel like I learned about the possibilities on TikTok as well as some random information that the creator was sharing.

    Week Nine – Ukrainian Colours and a Little History

    I felt the pressure of the end of the term this week and wanted to make sure I learned the colours and some history. I regret not learning the history earlier but better late than never. I went back to the website that I used previously in week six since I liked it so much. The video linked in the blog is really awesome to give some history to the country.

     

    When I review what I learned all term I am really proud of myself! I struggled some weeks more than others but still learned so much. I can now say I know the Ukrainian alphabet, colours, common phrases, and so much more! I can’t wait to share the videos I made with my grandma!

    My Top Three Resources

    YouTube:

    My number one online resource to learn from is YouTube. There is millions of creators to learn from and endless things to learn. I learned from How To Read The Ukrainian Alphabet by Speak Ukrainian. I loved this resource becasue there is a visual and audio aspect. I struggled when I didn’t have both of these things to learn from. There is never a lack of content and if you don’t like one creator there will be another one.

    TikTok:

    I enjoyed learning from TikTok for three reasons.

    • The convenience of it being on my phone and being able to learn anywhere.
    • So many creators and lots of content.
    • Audio and visual aspects.

    TikTok is a great place to learn for the reasons listed above. I learned information I didn’t even know I was wondering because I found  @Ukrainian.with.ira TikTok page. I would just keep scrolling and scrolling until I learned so much information that I never would have thought to Google.

    iMovie:

    I am not a tech savy person and have never done video editing before but iMovie was so easy to use and has cool features. I used YouTube to learn how to use it and made a video showing how to add images on top of the video in week two. I’m not sure about the compatability on andorids or other devices but it works great on apple products.

    I really enjoyed this project because I learned so much about time management, technology, and ukrainian!

     

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  • EDTC 300

    Cybersleuthing 101

    November 23, 2022

    I thought I was pretty savy when it comes to cybersleuthing people so I was excited for the task this week to cybersleuth a partner. However, Taylor Derbowka is sneaky on the internet.

    Typically when I am searching for people online I do the following:

    • Search name on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, etc.
    • Check for mutual friends with the person to find info on friends accounts.
    • Read comments and captions on some of the simplest photos.
    • Search through accounts I think they might follow to locate socials.

    I tried all of these things but didn’t come out with much information. I found Taylor’s current and old blog from a google search. Plus some photos that had been on the blog under google images. I could not find a facebook or Instagram by searching “Taylor Derbowka” but I did find a facebook page and TikTok account when I searched for the discord username that was available to me. The pages are kept private very well with selective information shared.

    After searching and searching for information and didn’t find much I thought I would reflect on what Taylor has done well to have a professional online identity.

    • Uses different last name for social platforms.
    • Private accounts.
    • Appropriate profile pictures that are public.
    • Building a professional online blog.

    I’m going to adopt some of these things to create a better digital identity for myself.

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Ukrainian Colours and a Little History

    November 16, 2022

    This week I wanted to learn the colours but while I was searching for a video to learn from I came across a video by Olly Richards titled “The Ukrainian Language: The Heroic Story of a Language That Just Won’t Quit. The video did a deep dive about the Ukrainian language and also talked about some basic facts. I wish I watched this video at the beginning to have had a better understanding of the language but now is better than never. It is a long video but worth the watch.

    Photo by Ukrainian Lessons

    After the video I found what I was originally looking for. Names of Colours in Ukrainian by Ukrainian Lessons. I have used this site before but I really like it because there is pictures, pronunciations, the option to be read slower, and overall just super great for learning.

     

    Screenshot from UkrainianLessons

    I really struggled this week with my learning. I have been beyond sick for two weeks now. I’m not sure if my brain is cloudy from the sickness or if this is a sign I should be practicing more. I am going to review all the old stuff I learned and go over the alphabet again to help spark my thinking for next week.

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  • EDTC 300,  Resources

    Digital Literacy in a High School

    November 16, 2022

    Digital Literacy is becoming more and more important every day. As technology and widgets get fancier so do fake news and bot accounts. Digital Literacy is the understanding of digital technology. In order to keep up with fake news we need to constantly be teaching about the internet to stay on top of it.

    In the future I hope to teach high school students and I think this is a critical age to teach about digital literacy. Teenagers can be influenced by people while they are looking for answers to questions they have.

    Specifically, during covid there was a rise in talk about statistics and the word statistics is associated with numbers, facts, and hard truths. This video is a great resource to debunk this and give a proper way to look at statistics to ensure you are getting the whole truth. I think this would be a great resource to add into a statistics curriculum especially since I want to teach math in high school.

     

    A resource released by TRU Libraries seems to be extremely helpful. It has resources about bias, fake news, how to spot fake news, etc. I like that there are fun memes, videos, and honest information. I think this would be great for teaching youth.

    In our EDTC 300 class on Wednesday night last week we did a quiz to spot fake news. I was bad at this even though I thought I was doing well. I was looking for the obvious signs of fake news like no followers, date the account was created, and scam links everywhere. But, on Wednesday I quickly realized that bot accounts can be way fancier and sneakier. I think this quiz is a great resource for teens to show them how sneaky accounts can be.

     

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Hopping On The Tik Tok Trend

    October 31, 2022

    I feel like I am running out of places to learn from and this week was a challenge. There seem to be a ton of places to learn from but many apps and websites charge. I found a huge lost of websites but they all require a subscription. Does anyone know of any websites or apps to learn languages from for free?

    Since I have seen so many people learning from Tik Tok I wanted to try it myself. I was surprised that their were so many people wanting to teach others on Tik Tok. This week was reassuring and really interesting. I watched many many videos this week and learned from many many creators. Some of the videos were teaching me the basics like hello, bye, and how are you which I have already learned so it was an opportunity to test me on what I remembered. One video I found taught me tricks to some ukrainian words related to english words. It was cool to see similarities in the lnaguages cause I often think they are disconnected.

    My favourite creator to learn from is @Ukrainian.with.ira and I will link some of her videos below

    This creator is so awesome and has thousands of videos to learn from! She taught me some things I didn’t even think to search about. One video explains that word order isn’t important in Ukrainian which I never would have expected because it is so important in English. She also has videos appreciating Ukraine because it is such a beautiful country.

    Overall, I really liked learning from Tik Tok because of all the different creators available. The videos were really short but I could watch as many as I wanted because there was so many. I also loved the video options and getting to learn from multiple creators. As well, it was super convenient to watch some videos while on the bus, or eating lunch and get some learning in.

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  • EDTC 300

    Flying Hippos!

    October 28, 2022

    I created my first coding project! I used Scratch to create a little interactive clip with a hippo. Check out an interact with the hippo with the link here.

    I have actually used scratch once before in elementary school. I remeber it being fun but at the time I didn’t see the point of it I guess. I think coding was newer when I was in elementary school so my teachers didn’t really know the point either. There was zero explanation and no assignment we just played on it for a day.

    For my Scratch project I played with drawing backgrounds and using Scratch provided ones. I wanted to incorporate sounds, text, and something interactive. It is short but I think it is cute and I got to use all the features I wanted to.

    I think today coding is important for kids to learn. It is becoming more and more important each day. I think that aside from the technology part of it you get to be creative and create something. The worst part for me in elementary school was when we had to create story books and I am a terrible artist. This is a great platform to tell stories on! I will be taking a computer science class next midterm and though the coding is very very different Scratch is an introduction to it. With math we don’t start with calculus we start little and get bigger and this is the same. I think each year this will become more important!

     

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Ukrainian Lessons on Spotify!

    October 25, 2022

    Another week of learning Ukrainian! My platform this week was a podcast from Spotify. Ok so I thought I was going to love this because it is by the same people who I learned from last week on a website. They spoke so slow and repeated the word. This podcast was nothing like that! It was so quick and hard to learn from. I definitely struggled without a visual of the word to follow along. I was supposed to learn numbers this week. This podcaast was cool because it had little tests in it to help learn. I am struggling to read the words but I can repeat some by memory. I also learned that it is similar to english how if you know numbers from 1 – 9 then you can figure out the rest based on root words. The convenience of this method was awesome! I take the bus to and from school so I had the perfect opportunity to sit on the bus and listen and learn. I think this podcast is for people a bit more advanced than I am.

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  • EDTC 300

    Digital Citizenship in the SK Curriculum

    October 23, 2022

    I think the relationship between the Saskatchewan Curriculum and Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenships are very outdated. We are in a time where technology is the fastest growing and changing thing we have ever seen. The benefits from tecfhnology are endless but that means so are the dangers. Kids know the typical “don’t take candy from strangers” and “don’t get into strangers cars” but predators are smarter than that now. Kids aren’t expecting a grown adult to be pretending to be a young kid. We need to update the curriculum to protect kids.

    Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship:

    Digital Access: This could be linked to RW3.3 in Social Studies 3 under the section Resources and Wealth.

    Digital Commerce: This could be linked to CC7.1 in Career Education 7 under the section Connections to Community.

    Digital Communication and Collaboration: This could be linked to W4 in Wellness 10.

    Digital Etiquette: This fits into classroom rules since online etiquette should match in person etiquette.

    Digital Fluency: This could be linked to USC2.5 in Health Education 2 in the section Understanding, Skills, and Confidences. This outcome is for understanding how to be safe in “play areas” and since technology is so common for kids it is a play area as well.

    Digital Law: I think this should be talked about the same as classroom “laws” are.

    Digital Rights and Responsibility: This could be linked to PA3.3 in Social Studies 3 in the section Power and Authority.

    Digital Security and Privacy: This could be linked to PA1.1 in Social Studies 1 in the section Power and Authority.

    In my future classroom I want to incorporate these nine elements as soon as I can. I won’t shy away from talking about hard topics and I will demonstrate that I am here for support.

     

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