It was a great experience being within this class with a diverse group. Many of us were different ages, at different years within our education journey, and all have different experiences related to teaching, tech and more. Having all these different backgrounds is great for contributing to each other’s learning process. We were set up in many different ways to be able to contribute. I was very happy to see how we all played a role in contributing to each other’s learning in many different ways throughout the semester. Some of the contribution opportunities includes class time, blog comments and discord – Here is how I personally used each – 

Class Time –  I really enjoyed this class overall, the time we spent in class I found to be very valuable and engaging. I specifically enjoyed having the opportunities to be in breakout rooms often within class time. It is definitely much easier to contribute within these breakout rooms than it is as the whole group. I always tried my best to offer my input within these breakout rooms and do my part to ensure the task at hand was getting done. These were also great for having some time to get to know our other classmates and make those connections to be able to help each other throughout the course.  

One example that stuck out to me was doing the CRAAP test on the Pacific NorthWest Tree Octopus website. We were in our breakout rooms and all had a chance to discuss the CRAAP test and explore the website using it. We decided to take some time on our own then come back together as a group. It was great hearing everyone’s different interpretations of the websites and our experience using the CRAAP test. We were even able to go above and beyond and take time to discuss how we would go about/how it would look in our future classrooms. 

Blog Comments – Blogging is something I did not have a lot of experience with. It was great having blogging broken down to us and allowed us to be successful creating our own blogs throughout this course. I also greatly enjoyed having easy access to my classmates’ blogs so I could frequently check up on them and see what they had to say about each class’s topic and how they are doing on their learning project. I enjoyed reading all these and seeing how different or similar everyone would interpret the topics along with choices made for learning projects. When it came to commenting on others blogs I thought about my personal experiences when going about it. I understood the good feeling of someone reading your post and giving it compliments or suggestions and I wanted to give that feeling back to others. 

One example that really sticks out to me was on a classmate’s learning post. I was reading about her experience taking photos using her phone and I instantly thought of an app that I have been using. I took the time to comment on her post and suggested that she try out the app! I was happy to go back a few weeks later and see that she not only checked out the app but she really enjoyed it and even made a post about it. This made me feel good about my contribution to her project and definitely inspired me to give out more suggestions whenever I could!

Check out just some of my many blog comments!

Discord – I have heard about discord before but it was not something I have ever used myself. I was excited to be a part of it and be able to learn how it works and overall how beneficial it can be in so many different situations. I would often check discord for updates on class and to get a lot of great resources from my classmates!

One example of contributions through discord was during the time we were learning about coding. I loved learning about this in class and being able to explore it further. Like many of the topics we discussed in class I was inspired to do some further research on my own. During this time I found a great article about how coding is incorporated within the curriculum in England. I copied the link and shared it to discord for my classmates to also check out. I got a great response from many classmates telling me how great of a resource it was, making me very happy that I was able to contribute in this way!

Wow! I am already at the end of my learning project but I feel like it is still just the beginning of my journey. I truly feel like I have come very far in my journey and I definitely do not want it to end there!

Let’s take a second to look back at where I started, my introductory post I stated – 

“When I originally heard about this project my mind quickly went to playing guitar. I have some minor past experiences with guitar that never turned out too well. That being said, I am hoping this one might turn out a lot better. I first found interest in guitar when I was in grade 6. I got a guitar as a Christmas gift and began some one on one lessons once a week. I was able to pick up some simple songs but was easily frustrated by the more challenging songs. This led me to stop playing after only a few months. The next time I picked up my guitar was in high school during Covid. Obviously being locked up and not having much to do I wanted to try something new out and already having a guitar I thought it would be a good idea. This again went pretty well at the start but I slowly started playing less and less until I no longer picked it up after a month or two. Fast forward to now, I am pretty much starting from the beginning, I do know simple things like how to tune a guitar and a few basic notes but can not play any songs at the moment. Overall I am excited to get back into this, I am going into it with confidence and excitement to challenge myself. I know I am going to be able to find a lot of great resources to learn from and grow within this journey.”

Reflecting on this I can definitely see the improvements that I made. I went from not being able to play anything to now where I can play at least the intro to about 10 different songs! I think my biggest improvement is my mindset overall. I definitely have developed a lot more patience and understanding of the time it takes to master a song. Having this patience has definitely made me want to play guitar more, and unlike previous attempts I definitely see myself taking this further than just a few months. I definitely think that finding all that tech has to offer through social media, websites and apps has made me a lot more comfortable and confident with this process. I honestly did not know how much tech had to offer, you can truly find so many different ways to learn absolutely any song you can think of. This has me excited to see how far I can go!

Here is my original plan vs how I went about it –

“Now looking at how I am going to go about this. I have the hardest part done in having a guitar available for me to play, now it’s looking at finding resources I will be able to learn from along with time to practice. As for time, I definitely have a busy schedule with work, training for football, and school. Having a bit of a background with playing I know that just a small amount of time a few days a week can go a long way. I plan to for sure set time aside Thursday nights along with weekends to find resources and practice along with using any small breaks I find throughout my week. For resources I have already started some research and found a lot to choose from. Just some of the many incredible techs I will use include Youtube, TikTok, iPhone apps, websites, online coaches, and so much more. I plan to begin with some simple songs and continue to challenge myself more and more to see how far I can go. I am excited to continue to find teaching resources and begin this process that I hope sticks long after I complete this class!”

Week 1 – Back to the basics – To begin I had to start with the simple steps, pulling my guitar out of the storage, finding a tuning app and tuning it, and doing some base research on the different techs I wanted to use throughout this process.

Week 2 – Chasing Cars – For my first week of learning I used the app TikTok to learn the simple song Chasing Cars! This was simple but a great start into my journey that inspired some more finger picking styles.

Week 3 – Every Breath you Take – For my second week I found out that the tuning app I was using was also a great learning resource. I used it to learn my second song which was the song Every Breath You Take. I was amazed by how great of a resource this was that I didn’t even realize was right in front of my eyes the whole time.

Week 4 – Love Yourself – For my third week I used an app I already spend a lot of time on being Instagram. I found a great tutorial on the song Love Yourself by Justin Bieber. I was able to learn this song pretty fast and add another resource to my list of great learning sources!

Week 5 – Fast Car – Week 5 was when I was introduced to Marty Music, who I would say was my favourite resource overall. Marty is on Youtube and does an amazing job breaking down songs on guitar. I was able to learn the quite challenging song of Fast Car through Marty’s video. 

Week 6 – A Bar Song – For my final week I chose to learn the popular song “A Bar Song”. I used the app UltimateGuitar.com which was another great app. This app was definitely a bit more challenging and required some more experience before using. I was able to find this song that fit well with my skill set and learn it quickly!

As you can see, I used a wide variety of techs. All that I will definitely continue to use, but I also found a lot that I did not have the chance to get to that I can not wait to check out! Seeing how fast and easy you can learn something new when you find the right teacher/resource was eye opening to me. OveralI, I was glad I gave myself this challenge over the course. It makes me think of all the other things I could possibly learn to do just using the internet!

AI has seemed to slowly take over everything. If you would have asked me two years ago what AI is I would have had little to nothing to say on the topic. Seeing how big it has gotten in the past few years I now feel like everyone knows a lot about it because you almost can not avoid it anymore. It is crazy to see that all these apps that we have been on for years have started to incorporate AI in their own ways. 

Dr. Alec Couros gave us an amazing breakdown of AI and all the ways it can be used especially within the classroom. One part of his talk that really stood out to me and opened my eyes more on AI was when he discussed the interconnectedness of all these AI apps, especially the power of chatgpt when you understand all that it can do and how to properly use it. A few other notable things Alec discussed that stuck out to be was the fact that AI began in 1998, the “sell me this pen” website, the Sask curriculum AI, and the idea of generating stories for youth who may not be that into reading otherwise. These are all new ideas to me that either shocked me or greatly intrigued me. 

I decided to explore a website called curipod, which is an AI site focused on making interactive lessons filled with creativity, reflection, and critical reflection. The possibilities are truly endless on this sight, it is a great resource for teachers. It gives you the capability to chose a grade and write a quick blurb of what you want to focus on within the lesson and within about a minute will give you an interactive presentation all about the topic along with questions/assignments related for students. Overall I think this website’s greatest feature is how it allows a great amount of creativity that as teachers we may not be able to think of along with eating very engaging content for students.

An example I was able to create which only took me about a minute was a lesson that takes students on a quest in which they have magic powers that they must use correctly in order to defeat the dragon. To use these magic powers they will have to analyze short text and create a short argumentative paragraph using evidence to support their claim. What a great idea that took me such little time!

What I found to be the downfall of Curipod was spelling errors and gets repetitive often, that being said it can give you a good outline or idea but it is important you take the time to go through it and make edits yourself.

My overall opinion on AI within classrooms is that there definitely is a place for it when used correctly. It is on us as teachers to not only properly teach but properly model the positive ways we can use it. I think of it as keeping up with the times, why use a typewriter when you have access to a computer? Still creating a large amount of opportunities where students have to do the thinking/learning themselves, but also having them understand that there are tools and technology out there that can help assist us in the learning process. Having the AI talk with you students early on and setting boundaries and expectations with them regarding it is important. This is a good time to have a talk about taking responsibility and the consequences of cheating yourself.  

“AI won’t take your job, someone using AI will” – Scott Galloway

This week I decided to cybersleuth Dylan McCabe. I spent time googling his name and looking through social media accounts that I could find to see all the information I could track down on Dylan. 

Me and Dylan have both had similar experiences in being heavily involved in sports throughout our life. This definitely takes a big part of online presence whether it be different rosters or articles about teams from now all the way to teams from elementary school/high school. I quickly found out that the name Dylan McCabe is popular among athletes including baseball players, lacrosse players, golfers, and soccer players from all over Northern America. To avoid this I added tha tag “Regina” to the end but was still only shown sports related links. Other than sports related websites, the only other thing that popped up for Dylan was social media accounts including instagram, facebook, and X. Quickly going through these it was obvious that Dylan has not used his facebook or X for a long time and even when he did, he did not often post on either. Instagram he definitely still uses often in which he shares photos of himself with friends and family. Other than this I really was not able to find much more on Dylan.

Overall Dylan definitely has an overall positive digital Identity. Mainly highlighting his high level sports accomplishments along with showing friends and family throughout his social media platforms. As for suggestions for Dylan, my first one would be to keep it up! After spending time looking everywhere I could I was not able to find anything negative which is definitely a great start. One suggestion I have that I also want to challenge myself with is putting out more than sports into the digital world. This would include having information about my schooling/teaching journey, jobs and different volunteering I have done. It is definitely great to see all the sports accomplishments but we are so much more than just athletes so it is important to show that off when we can!

More Related to Digital Identity 

A reading that really stood out to me was Split Image by Kate Fagan. It was the story of a college students named Madison who put out a very positive digital identity but was dealing with many personal issues which brought her to eventually committing suicide. This was a great read and really shows you the truth on how we put our best image out on social media even though we can be going through unimaginable struggles within our everyday lives. This is a reminder to not always believe what we see online and the importance of checking in on our friends no matter how good it might seem like they are doing. 

Another great resource was the video “How One Tweet Can Ruin Your Life| Jon Ronson” posted by TED.This is a great video that highlights social media giving “a voice to the voiceless” which can be a good and a bad thing. A good reminder that the internet is forever and we have the option to put out a positive or negative image of ourselves so make sure we take time to think before pressing post.

To explore more of the world of coding I decided to check out the app Scratch! I have actually seen this website used within a classroom before making it very intriguing to me. during my pre-internship my cooperating teacher brought in a few representatives from the  Saskatchewan Science Centre into our grade 6/7 classroom where they were introduced to coding. They did a quick presentation on what coding is and the importance of it then guided the students through creating their own game. The students were absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to do this and were excited for free time to have more opportunity to code! seeing this really opened my eyes to how great and beneficial coding can be within classrooms!

Onto my experience with coding! Although I watched this being done I never actually go the chance to do it myself. This was a while ago so I really did not remember too much. I really enjoyed using Scratch, it was very user friendly and allowed me to create a cool project pretty quick and easy! There were many tutorials that you could follow along with to create whatever you wanted, but it is also pretty straight forward to the point that you could easily make a creation yourself!

I was able to create a background with two different sprites in which I was able to code both do do what I wanted from them. I was then able to make a variable to give my game a point system where the player gets one point each time they make the Dinosaur touch the donut.

I definitely find coding to be important. There are a lot of jobs in coding and I have even start to see different simple coding basics being used within company communication apps. Coding also involves a lot of simple critical thinking skills and definitely keeps you mentally involved. If all else, it is overall fun to do!

Try out my game here!

With the growing world of tech, especially tech that is used within classrooms it is essential that teachers and students both have the knowledge of how to pick accurate articles. Understanding the grade level and subjects you will be encountering within your classroom is a great place to start when deciding how to focus on digital literacy for your specific classroom. Understanding that students are easily influenced and heavily involved in technology within their lives. When I think of my future classroom when it comes to digital literacy my two focuses will be choosing sites for students when possible and doing the background search myself, but also educating students properly to be able to do it themselves when needed (understanding that I won’t always be there for them to do this). 

Personally, I have been grateful to have an amazing presentation during my university years. Kim from the GDI library in Regina came in and discussed digital literacy with us as both students and teachers. She created a presentation for us along with guiding us through activities to help us find real from fake, identifying bias, and more. I really enjoyed these presentations and learned a lot from them. It is nice having this connection to Kim and definitely something I can consider looking into for my future classroom. 

There truly is an endless amount of resources out there when it comes to digital literacy. Here are just some of the many I will definitely incorporate into my classroom whenever I see fit – 

CRAAP – The Craap test is definitely something I will not only discuss but keep displayed within my classroom. Having this reminder and these steps is a great way to ensure a chosen resource is credible.

Choose Quiz – I really enjoyed doing the choose quiz and it was a great interactive way to  learn! When you can take these important teachings and turn it into a game it will definitely get students more engaged and allow these lessons to stick with them longer.

Oatmeal Comic – A really cool comic resource about how fake news comes up and how it is spread. This being a comic style would definitely make it a great resource to educate 

Media Literacy Skills Videos – This is a great playlist on Youtube that is full of amazing short kid friendly videos on digital literacy! Something like this could easily be fit into a lesson right before students are given the free time to do research on their own.

Overall, as educators we play a large role in teaching our students the importance of choosing proper websites while doing their research ensuring they are getting credible information. It is not enough for us just to tell out students this it is also important that we teach them the proper ways and resources to do these. The curriculum allows time and space for this and creates many opportunities where these skills will be critical in using.

Digital citizenship is very important to not only talk about but also implement within your classrooms. I really enjoyed reading the article on the 9 elements of Digital Citizenship. It is important that students learn these things at a young age whether they are learning it in school or at home. As we are seeing, kids are getting introduced to the digital world at younger and younger ages. This makes it that much more important to introduce and discuss these elements as soon as possible. Obviously in a perfect world I would like to introduce all 9 of these, but understanding the limited time you have to teach outside of the curriculum. That being said, here are some of the elements that I would ensure to highlight within my classroom – 

Digital access – I find digital access to be very important within classrooms. There are so many different kinds of technology that can be greatly beneficial within classrooms. Ensuring students have access to different school resources so they are able to access assignments, grades, ect. Many of which will ensure that parents also have access to and students can access from home as well as school.

Digital communication and collaboration – Digital communication will definitely be used within my classroom. Examples of this could include communication through email or school resources such as google classroom. Not only will these be used within my class I will make sure students understand the proper and appropriate ways of using these. 

Digital Fluency – I really liked the article’s way of describing this, I will definitely focus on many of these components mentioned such as “understanding technology and its use” “make good decisions online” “supporting others” and “media literacy”. 

Digital health and welfare – This will definitely be one of my biggest focuses as a teacher. Understanding the positive and negative effects of technology and finding a good balance of lessons that incorporate tech with lessons that do not. 

As previously mentioned I hope to have the opportunity to teach all 9, but it is also my hope that they will be getting this education outside of school as well. Overall putting most of these tech decisions on the students will be a focus. Making sure they understand my expectations when using technology and the consequences of not using it correctly.