In the novel, Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice, Kumashiro defines common sense as the ideas people have about how teaching and learning should take place. Although nobody ever directly tells you, “this method, and this method only, is the most effective way to learn”, people gain commonsensical ideas surrounding education through their own experiences in school. Even arbitrary things, such as the months of the year students are in school, become so engrained into our minds as common sense that the mere thought of school taking place any other time seems absolutely ridiculous. For example, if someone in the USA or Canada proposed we begin the…
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Summary of Learning
This is my final summary of learning for EDTC 300. I learned so much about educational technology and online presence in this course. It also helped me to further develop my beliefs about education and gain a stronger idea of the type of teacher I wish to become. In this video, I talk about my three biggest takeaways from the course: Twitter, digital identity, and the uses of technology. Enjoy!
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Connection and Contribution
Twitter Twitter was the main way I contributed to the learning of others, despite the fact I had never once used it before enrolling in EDTC 300. In the last two months, I have gained over 100 followers and tweeted nearly 300 times! Since I am only in my first year of education, I was mainly focused on contributing in critical discussions about education and helping my classmates further develop their teaching philosophies. However, I did also share any good online resources or educational materials I came across. In addition, I spent lots of time replying to my classmate’s tweets. I followed along with their learning projects, provided support, and…
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The End of a Delicious Journey
In my very first learning project post, I outlined some of the ideas I had for the project. I planned to use Betty Crocker’s website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to find recipes and baking tips. I ended up using all of these platforms, except Twitter. While Twitter does seem like a great place to find new recipes to try, I just did not have enough time to utilize it in my learning project. However, there are lots of recipes I found on Twitter that I plan on making in the future to continue expanding my baking skills, such as these kinder cookie bars! Initially, also I planned to experiment with…
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Week Five: The Finale
This is it! The last week of my learning project. I have to say, it does feel bittersweet. As promised in my very first learning project post, I baked and decorated a cake completely from scratch. I have been preparing for this over the last couple weeks of my learning project. Two weeks ago, I decorated cupcakes, so I could learn about working with buttercream and using various decorating tips. Last week, I made fondant roses, so I would have some practice before making them for my final project. Since I did the preparations, I felt pretty confident going into this final project. I started by calling my family friend…
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Learning to Code with…a Turtle?
When I first heard that we were learning about coding in EDTC 300 this week, my mind immediately went back to my memories of grade nine robotics class. Although this was a class I would have never chosen to take, I had so much fun in robotics. I will never forget how proud I was when my little robot drove through the obstacle course without running into anything. Since I did have some experience with coding, I decided to explore Hour of Code for a game that would be fun but also difficult enough to challenge me. After scrolling through lots of Frozen and Minecraft themed games, which by the…
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Squash Fake News by Teaching Digital Literacy
It can be very difficult to tell what is real and fake when it comes to news on the internet, which means digital literacy is becoming a more and more vital skill. Most social media platforms are now being used to spread local and international news. While this can be a much quicker way to inform yourself about trending and important world events, what are the dangers of getting your news from Facebook or Twitter? The answer is fake news. Fake news can be defined in a number of ways. It can be an opinion-based article that is treated as fact, a misleading spinoff or incorrect interpretation of a real…
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Week Four: Facebook Fondant Flowers
It is so crazy to think that this is already the second last week of my learning project, and next week, as promised, I will be baking and decorating a cake from scratch! In preparation for my final project, I decided to learn about using fondant. I found a homemade marshmallow fondant recipe by Wilton to follow. This recipe was extremely user friendly; it allowed you to check off the steps as you completed them and included lots of extra tips, such as how to store the fondant. I had no idea how much work it is to make fondant from scratch. The recipe was easy enough to follow, but…
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How Digital Identity can Change Your Life for the Better, or Worse
This week in EDTC 300, we further explored the effects of digital identity and learnt about cybersleuthing. The term cybersleuthing is used to describe the act of vigorously searching the internet, including multiple social media platforms, to find information about someone. After class, we had to find a partner to cybersleuth. My partner was Kaeli Yoo. After a few Google searches, I quickly discovered that Kaeli is very active on both Facebook and Instagram. These accounts are more personal, but they still maintain a sense of professionalism. Three things that stood out to me from these platforms is that she is an amazing musician, she is strongly rooted in her…
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There is No Growth in Staying Silent Online
The main reason many educators or education students do not post about controversial and pressing social issues online is due to the fear that they will offend someone. If they say the wrong thing online or make a mistake in what they share, many educators worry that it would cost them their job. This fear is understandable, as there are teachers who have been fired over inappropriate social media posts. However, the majority of these cases are the result of blatantly racist comments, negative remarks about students, or sexual misconduct online. While educators do need to be cautious of what they post, this does not mean they should stay silent.…