My name is Sunaina. I moved to Canada in March 2022 from India. I have Master’s in Biological science but got into teaching right after finishing my master’s. I was a biology and chemistry teacher for 6 years back in India. Now even after moving to Canada, I want to pursue my passion for teaching as my profession. So, I am enrolled in B.Ed. AD. in the University of Regina.
I am excited to share that I have started my pre-internship at Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon. I will be working with teacher Ms. A. She is an amazing and kind teacher.
It was my Day one in the school. I supposed to be teaching two biology classes. In morning we had guest speaker coming for EAL students to solve their queries regarding their future. In afternoon I started with BI30-OL2 outcome (Compare the anatomies, physiologies and behaviours of multicellular organisms including protists, fungi, plants and animals. (SI)). For my first day, I introduced myself then asked one essential question so students can think about it. For visuals, I prepared Prezi presentation on Kingdom Animalia. Talked about all the phyla. After that we watched a video based on this same topic, so that students can imagine something how these animals in different phylum look like.
Activity I planned was the exciting one. Students had to observe specific specimens I provided to them, and they did very well.
“We need technology in every classroom and every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world” – David Warlick
I believe this quotation has explained that technological knowledge is a must in today’s world. I have learned a lot of things in my EDTC300 course. Even I used some of the concepts in my pre-internship. I learned from others and helped others to learn by using different platforms. These platforms include Twitter, Discord, My Blogposts, and comments on other blog posts. Here is a little summary of how I contributed to EDTC300. But first I would like to talk about my takeaways from EDTC300 class.
Learning Summary-
Twitter
Since this term, I am continuously using Twitter every single day. In requirements, we were asked to share one post and one comment every day but when I started using Twitter it became a part of my everyday routine. I used Twitter to share my blogs, educational resources, articles, and retweets. For my pre-internship, I took the help of different resources available and shared them with others on Twitter. Here is an overview of my Twitter account and Tweets & replies section-
Also, I contributed to others’ tweets by commenting on them-
Here are some examples of chat and questions I did comment on-
#SaskEdChat
#TeacherstoTeachers
#mathantics
#Mathantics was my savior during my pre-internship math lectures.
Discord
It was the first time I was using discord. After that, I am using discord for chat discussions for group assignments. I believe it was the least used platform in this course but still, I tried my best to get involved on discord. Here are some screenshots of when I contributed to others’ questions or asked questions.
My Blogs-
For a very long time, I was trying to start blogging or vlogging but due to my busy schedule, I never get this chance. Through this course, I started writing my blog posts and I expressed my areas of interest. The learning project provided me with the opportunity to fulfill my dream of photography. I shared resources and videos in my blogs that helped me to learn professional photography. Also, try to help my classmates how to click good pictures based on my learning.
Here is a snapshot of my blog collection-
Blog commenting-
Commenting on others’ blogs was a way to connect with others and learn from them. It allows me to participate in others’ learning. I realized reading and commenting on others’ blog posts made me learn different things such as Knitting, different dance forms, drumming, etc. it was a fun journey for me and I would try to keep learning from others’ blog posts.
So, While I am writing this blog, this is still more like just a starting point into life long journey of learning in Digital space.
Around mid of this journey, I had planned to wrap up this learning blog series with a final blog: “Saskatoon-City of bridges-in land of the living sky”: Where I intended to write photo storytelling about Saskatoon by clicking the picture of all Bridges. The plan was to jump onto my bike ride along the meewasin trail and write a final blog in form of a photo story. But, I can’t dare to step out in this cold. (This is the first winter in Canada, and I think It’s gonna take me a few winter seasons to get conformable with being outdoors in winter.) While I couldn’t what I wanted, Still this journey has been a great learning journey on its own. I might not have become an expert in photography. But I find myself way more comfortable in using “technology to learn technology” ;). During this process of “learning to see through the lens”, I have also ventured into many different areas. Let me list out things I have improved along the process.:
Basic Computer literacy: As I mentioned in the very first blog, I have never been a computer-savvy person. I know a lot about way more tricks and nicks of computers and the web.
Blog Writing: Let me be honest, I would have never imagined having a website of my own. While I will be setting up and adding blogs. While now it all seems basic, that seemed a whole big step at the start.
Going beyond point-and-shoot in photography: I have used a mobile phone for a year. Over the last few months, I have developed a new thought process (not good enough yet:/), which makes me think of a lot of variables than just making sure that thing is in the frame.
Photo Editing tools: How to use basic tools, default photo editor of phone, snapseed.
Video Editing tools: Quik App: Video + Photo Editor,b Youtube video editor, Kdenlive, Ibis paint.
Photography tools: Default camera app of phone, Nikon D5500 DSLR.
Being honest, While there is much difference between quality of picture between baseline slide final slide. But big difference for me is, in the baseline slide all the pictures are few just accidental good clicks; But in the last one all the picture is intentional click of what I want to click. 🙂 🙂 .
Moving from what I know to finding out what I don’t know, really help me to set up goal for myself. This is really digital web resources helped me out. I hunted for many awesome photographer and took inspiration/motivations for myself.
How is digital self learning is possible without digital tools. So, digital photography is made easier with many digital tools. In this blog I have captured many digitals tools which I believed to be useful for this journey.
Most excited day was when I got my hands on Nikon D5500 While it have been overwhelming, still for 3 weeks I had this DSLR with me. I have gotten to understand very technical stuff behind the lens.
Here I captured more in technical basic with hands on mini-assignment by stepping up in good weather. I am glad I choose photography. on same day i captured many photos and got chance to just sit outside and admire nature in this little hidden spot in Saskatoon and met many many beautiful big small fish.
Biggest mystery for me what, how same scene capture in different picture can either look amazing or just a noisy background. Topic of photography composition had helped me to decode this mystery. and more hidden tricky I leaned and jolted in this blog.
During mid way of photography journey, there still a lot more technical background I need know, And went back to google to ask more question and bloged new finding in this blog. And it made more sense, after already had my time Nikon.
One of My bucket list thing, to see northern lights. It only makes more sense to know, how I would capture northern lights I ever get chance to see them. So, spend the whole week learning how to capture Northern Lights. Even I stepped out on many cold nights, but failed to have any good luck. Well, now I know what I need to know when I get my chance.
I started off this final blog with my final plan to do a photostory. I took this inspiration from learning I had from this blog. Still, this blog talks about emotional aspect of photography.
While this final blog is document what we have leaned in last 9 blogs and summarize it. But I think I far from finishing this journey. I am still finish my photo story about saskatoon. Well, after finishing this journey I feel much more confident in using technology to learn new things. And change I my perspective from “I don’t know how to it”, to “Let me figure out using internet.”
This week I have tried to be an investigator as I cyber sleuth one of my classmates. I did not know that I can be a detective. This blog was one of the fun blogs. So here are my investigation results.
I put my classmate’s name on Google and that took me to her education blog website. I got most of the information from their blogs.
Also, I was able to find their Twitter account and there was a lot of educational material shared in the tweets. Overall, her digital identity talks a lot about education, maths solutions, and video games.
So, one thing I noticed, is her digital presence is what she has decided to share via her blogs and Twitter handle. In another, she has a positive digital presence, because she shares what she wants.
Talking about digital Identity, recently I taught about digital footprint in my class. In my opinion, these two terms are very close as both deal with the online presence of an individual. In this broader sense, a digital identity is a facet of a person’s social identity and is also referred to as an online identity. Nowadays it’s very common for all of us to search for unknown people on the internet. I think our digital identity represents us in front of visible as well as invisible audiences and it is sufficient to leave a positive or negative impression of ourselves.
Sometimes our identity can be used by others to get benefits from it. As discussed in the blog My example of cybersleuthing is that catfishing is one of the activities in which people use fake digital identities to engage in online relationships. In that way using social media can create problems but with the proper knowledge, it can be an asset.
Today’s world is changing and getting more and more digitalized. So, all of us need to adapt according to the changing surrounding otherwise we will leave behind with limited access to knowledge and benefits. I am learning a lot about digital literacy in my EDTC300 course. Even last week we discussed trolling and the Media bias chart. Trolling is a mischievous activity that may or may not have the intent to cause distress but sometimes it Is used to defame someone or to destroy the reputation of some organization(Media manipulation and disinformation online).
So, one aspect of photography is it is a very powerful tool for storytelling.
A picture can say thousands of words.
As I am practicing my photography, this week yet again I have spent quite a time following various photographers. One thing, I have realized is one drawback of self-driven digital learning; we often get lost or hit a wall without any clear direction. Until 2 days back I wasn’t sure at all what I want to write my blog about this week.
In my 2nd blog <link> I mentioned; Saskatchewan is called the “land of the living sky”.
And my long been bucker list is; to see “northern lights”. Before I moved to Saskatoon, I had no idea light are visible from here. I was so happy when I got to know; we can see the northern lights from here. To my disappointment, I am yet to see one almost after being 7 months here. Mosely because of myself, being hesitant to step out in dark. (Though, I have been able to gather the courage to go out for light hunting, both times with no luck).
I am a person who always hated coding. I am not sure why but the first time when I saw code in my life, I always tried to avoid everything associated with coding. Here we are learning and doing the coding. I can’t believe that I did the coding myself. As learned in the EDTC300 lecture, First I tried to use scratch. I signed up and tried to explore scratch with hope, hope that lasted for 10 minutes as it was confusing for me and I gave up on scratch. Then I tried to explore option 2 Hour of Code. It took me to its first page, and I saw Mario Game. I used to play this game a lot when I was a child. So, I chose to play Mario’s Secret Adventure: Build Your Own 3D Mario Game.
In a world of technology, it is essential to stay connected with technology and media. Everyone has digital access in form of gadgets and the internet. In EDTC 300 lectures we are learning a lot about digital citizenship and cyberbullying lately. Additionally, I believe every innovation has its pros and cons, and so the technology. On one side effective use of technology can keep us updated and increase our chances of success. On the other hand, overuse, and misuse of technology create chaos and difficulties for us. In this context, digital access is no different than nuclear energy, It can be a force of environment-friendly source of energy, but can also be a force of destruction as we have seen in the past.
“The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know” –Aristotle
As I am trying to do more stuff with DSLR and phone cameras. And every question “How do I do that”, is taking me down one rabbit hole to another. Thus, this week again has been back to books for me and my google hunt has bought me to this yet another wonderful article:
