Category: EDTC 300

The 19th Hole ⛳️

- Harlieanne Wiks 1 Comment

After many rounds of golf our game has come to the end. I think I have improved my golf game by not only skill but also my confidence. I never wanted to golf with family or friends because I am a poor sport. I HATE doing things I am bad at because it discourages me and I feel like I need to be good at everything. This is why I originally chose golf for this learning project. The change in skill helped me change my mindset. I wouldn’t let my family watch me tee off when I first started because i didn’t want them to judge me if I missed the ball or didn’t hit it right. Now I have golfed with so many people and am even not scared to tee off with a group behind me.

Week 1 I shared my very small background in golf knowledge but what i was hoping to get out of this project. I also added the video I got last year of my first time golfing as a reference point of where my skills were at.

Week 2 I mentioned I had very little experience with golf and the vocabulary that goes along. I decided to look up some of the key words I have heard or would probably hear on the greens. I found a website that had lots of information and explained the definitions in a way I understood. I know I mentioned that one thing I wasn’t keen on what the explaining of ace. They used the term “hole in one” to define it but if someone doesn’t know what a hole in one means then they wouldn’t find that helpful.

Resource: https://www.golfballs.com/blog/most-common-golf-terms-definitions/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21026724382

Week 3 was an eye opener for me as the week prior I went out with friends for a round. I was in shock when I was “heckled” for not having any golf etiquette. One thing I remember specifically was when I was jokingly yelled at for talking during someone’s back swing. As a beginner I didn’t know it is normally quiet during that portion of the swing so i carried on with my conversation. Luckily no one actually cared but that inspired me to look up all the other common golf etiquette rules. The PGA had a very nice section dedicated to this. Although my golf course isn’t to strict it was nice to see what is most common if I was ever to go to a more proper course.

Resource: https://www.pga.com/story/golf-for-beginners-golf-etiquette-rules-and-glossary?srsltid=AfmBOorNslWbChvQuq7F7wR6r0-_j_nC61Hw4tI0fZoqUsnWjUK4j-bj

Week 4 was all about how to grip the club. I had been taught the traditional and interlocking method as a beginner last year but I knew from other golfers and TikTok videos that there was a few more. I am glad I decided to look into this as now I use the Vardon grip each time because it feels most natural to me. I still think the site could use multiple angles or better descriptions because I some photos were not straight forward.

Resources: https://skilledgolf.com/tips/golf-grip-guide/

 

Week 5 I had been golfing lots by now and mostly with others but I did go out a few time alone. I noticed I was often asking whoever I was playing with what club I should use for what hole and part of the fairway. I thought using ChatGPT could be a good way to get an understanding on how far each club hits on advrage and what they used for. It was also a learning opportunity as I had only used ChatGPT a handful of times. I had a few hiccups with it but mostly because human error and not giving enough detail. Like I mentioned in that post I wouldn’t use it for anything that requires a high quality source but for my personal use and for a quick straight forward answer I could see myself using it again!

Resource: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/chatgpt/id6448311069

Week 6 I decided to find an app to use. I had seen cool range fingered and golf watches out on the course but didn’t find that necessary for a beginner. Although after finding out how far each of my clubs can hit I thought I could use the Golfshot app to help me know how far out I am from the green in order to choose which club to use. I don;t own an Apple Watch but I just used it straight off my phone instead and it worked wonders. Even where the course had no service (which is majority of it) it still an aged to update and keep up! I don still wish that it would continue to show how far you were away from the green once you got closer because sometime chipping is easy to over or under shoot and that could possibly give you more of an idea.

Resource: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/golfshot-golf-gps-scorecard/id622851626

and that brings us back to the 19th hole. I learnt so much in the last. Months and improved my game and confidence. I know have an actual passion for golf and have gone at least once a week if not more. I love working out at the course even more because I know understand why our members are out almost daily. It’s a dose of joy, relaxation, getting outside, visiting with friends, and so on. I really enjoy this new hobby and know for a fact I will continue to play well after this project is done!

Here is the link to my audio/visual learning experience:

Contributing to others Learning!

- Harlieanne Wiks Leave a comment

This week is the final week of our spring EDTC 300 course. We were asked at the start of the semester to help our classmates out by commenting on blogs, following their journey, help with questions they may have, and be supportive.

I would like to think I was a helpful classmate, although I didn’t know much at the beginning I was able to help others in the discord chat or in our break out groups with tasks I either had already completed or knew how to do. Below are a few screen shots of the discord conversations to help fellow classmates!

Next I have gathered some of the times I commented on classmates blog posts. I will be honest by the end of the class it started to become less frequent because I had some personal things going on but that didn’t mean I didn’t check in on how everyone’s projects were going and what their weekly blogs were about because I did find that very helpful in finding new resources I can use personally or in my future classroom.

 

Overall I would like to say I was there to help my classmates out and support them either in the class or their learning journeys. I felt so grateful for this class and the students in it because they also helped me greatly whenever I had my own questions! Almost every other person has inspired me to start to get out of my comfort zone and try new skills such as being active, trying new recipes, macramé, and crocheting. Better yet I now have so many resources to help learn these new skills! So thank you to everyone, hope your summer is relaxing and best of luck on your teaching journey!

Ai can help you study! 📚🖥️

- Harlieanne Wiks Leave a comment

I decided to try a new ai tool I have never heard about. It took me awhile to find something that didn’t make me pay after a 7 day free trial but then I found Quizlet! It does offer in app purchases but you can still do so much with the free version which is important if you are using it in your classroom.

In Quizlet you have the option of using already created study guides or creating your own either by typing them out yourself or how I explored it was uploading my notes and Ai created flash cards, quizzes, games, and so much more.

Here’s a video of me exploring it using my math exam notes from a previous class!

I personally think I will use this app lots for my winter semester as I’m finishing up my degree. I struggle with studying because I was honestly never taught how to. I usually spend most my time creating flash cards but never have the time to look though them once completed because it takes me hours or days. I like that this had the study tools done in only a few seconds and it was ready to go.

I think this could be a great tool for my future class either for students to use on their own time or as a class where we create the study tools and play the games as a group to have a fun study session!

Give this app a go!🏌🏼‍♀️📱

- Harlieanne Wiks Leave a comment

I have been golfing with my boyfriend and his family who all have many years of experience and time to gather all the gadgets you can get for  the sport such as ball markers, divot repairs, range finders, but what I was amazed by was the golf watches. Now I am still a beginner who doesn’t necessarily need a golf watch but my boyfriend showed me an app called Golfshot that you download and can use as a range finder, keep your score, and much more. This app can also connect directly to an Apple Watch but I explored it on my phone.

I created my account and it asked to share my location and when I did it showed all the surrounding golf courses including the Pipestone hills golf course that I work and play at. At first it took a bit of navigating to full understanding what the app had to offer as I am still new to the golf lingo but I was intriguing. I also liked that it asked what tee box you were hitting from so I selected the red which is the ladies at my course and then it gave me the option to choose the tee box if I was doing my back 9 for a 18 hole round.

so as you may be able to see on the first photo it looks like I am starting from the middle of the fairway but that is because the woman’s tee box is down a hill and a few yards up from the men’s which lyes on the top of the fairway. Then I added a screen recorded video of it updating after I hit the ball and was driving up to it. It’s very cool to have since last week I used ChatGPT to help me know which club I should use when! The last photo shows that once you get close to the putting green it no longer shows you how far out you are. I think this could be because the hole location changes but it could be helpful if you needed to chip it into the green to know exactly how far you are from the edge.

Decoding coding 👩🏼‍💻

- Harlieanne Wiks Leave a comment

We were assigned to try some type of coding so I chose to do code academy. If I am going to be honest I had no clue and still do not understand what I was doing so here is what I did.

right off the bat I couldn’t understand by the written instructions but I did appreciate the drop down hint bar for further instructions.

unfortunately this is as far as I got because I was getting so confused and frustrated. I think maybe some video instructions or even text to speech option could have helped me lots but for others it may be straight forward.

I did want to add this little side note, I went onto instagram about half hour after doing this and the add that popped up was for coding which I have never had before so that goes to show that information was going across my platforms.

 

Digital Literacy in Math? 📈📉

- Harlieanne Wiks 1 Comment

When talking about digital literacy in the subject areas I hope to teach in, physical health and wellness is something that I have seen being misleading, untruthful, and overall the opposite of healthy sometimes. So many ads on my tik tok for you page are AI calorie counting apps which can be helpful for some but also create an unhealthy relationship with food for some users. I also get lots of workout routines that are advertised as “quick results” on Pinterest which is creating an unrealistic goal and expectations.

Math is where I was a bit stuck on why digital literacy would be so important because most times math only has one answer. I was taken back when watching both of these TedTalks about media literacy.

Now that I am aware of this I think a great way to share this information and expand on digital literacy in math would be to explore in a statistics unit how and where we may see misleading graphs and stats and how to spot what is true and what maybe adjusted to look a certain way. Diving in even further you could tie it into an assignment where students gather their own stats, display them as they were taken but also create a skewed infographic to compare to the actual data.

I think digital literacy can be both useful and enjoyable to learn in a classroom as we encounter fake news/info daily on tik tok, instagram, YouTube, and so many more platforms all in the palm of our hand. Most YouTube videos use “click bait” as a way to get people to click and watch their videos but in reality they are stretching the truth. In the article Why do people fall for fake news?  They talk about how fake news isn’t something new it has been around for a while now. They go on to explain how and why people might fall or believe it to be true and the reasoning behind it. It’s an eye opener for sure because I am guilty of seeing something and questioning “how could someone believe that, It’s so obvious its fake” but have probably scrolled past and fallen for the next fake thing.

 

I think I need to dig further my own digital literacy skills and learn more than the surface things I have caught onto during my time on the internet. It’s actually a very interesting topic to me and I think going forward I would like to challenge myself to think using what I have learnt about digital literacy in my own life online.

Cue a club🏌🏼‍♀️

- Harlieanne Wiks Leave a comment

Now that I have got the feel for holding a golf club and hitting the ball. I have went golfing a few times by myself. One issue I always run into is when I get to certain holes I never know what club to use as they are shorter than the rest. Typically, I ask who I am with “ What club should I use?” But because I’m trying to learn more about the game of golf, I decided to use ChatGPT and figure out for myself, what club should be used when?

this was one of my first Times using ChatGPT so I did have to be a little bit more specific and ask how far a beginner woman can hit with each club and this is what it said.

I had one last question for it since all of the people I played with weren’t sure what the difference between a pitching wedge and a utility wedge was.

Overall, I now understand why so many people use ChatGPT. Yes, it might not always be accurate, but I did find it quite helpful and I am now able to use this information in my golf game. I think I could’ve got better answers by narrowing my search about being a female beginner golfer, as well as being specific about what golf clubs I do have in my set since I don’t have a five iron, but I do have the utility wedge.

chatGPT is not something I will personally use all the time but it is a good source and I’m glad I explored it. I don’t think it should be used When you are needing a credible source but for personal use where you might not need it to be 100% accurate it is a very helpful tool to be able to explore.

I grabbed a blank scorecard to fill out what club to use when teeing off for each hole and I am going to put it in my golf bag to use in the future!

 

My Digital Footprint👟

- Harlieanne Wiks 2 Comments

After a discussion in class about digital footprints I decided to take a look at my own. I went onto Google and searched up my first and last name. The majority of what came up was my past job posts and my small business I was a part of during high school. What shocked me was a photo with someone I went to high school that she nor I had posted online on google. I may have been posted and deleted but that goes to show the phrase “internet is forever” is actually true.

I think creating an assignment about digital footprints could be a very effective way to teach students about why they should be cautious on what they post/share and how it could affect them in the future.

Digital Citizenship within the Classroom

- Harlieanne Wiks 1 Comment

If you have read any of my other posts or been in classes with me you might have heard me say “teaching is a career that is ever changing”. This is what I believe is a very important part of teaching because our world is ever changing so for a person to be a successful teacher they must be open to the changes and the teachings that come along with them.

Through elementary and high school we never learnt about what digital citizenship was or even heard of it. In my later years in school we have touched on the topic and maybe been shown a video or two on how the online world can be dangerous but as a kid you brush those things off your shoulder and never think back to it.

The document Digital Citizenship Continuum from Kindergarten to Grade 12 is a great resource to have in a teachers back pocket to check in and see what a that grade level should be able to comprehend and learn about digital citizenship using it as a way of cross curricular outcome’s and using technology in the classroom.

I think a new challenge we might face as future teachers is that even in our elementary schools we have students with phones and social media. students coming into kindergarten most likely understand how to navigate a phone or iPad on their own so instead of teaching how to use technology it will be more focused on the proper and safe way to use it.

Get a Grip!

- Harlieanne Wiks 3 Comments

Last week I decided to explore different ways to grip the golf club. Since I am a beginner holding a club in my hand feels unnatural anyway I hold it. I looked up many different type such as:

The Traditional

Interlocking

Vardon (overlapping)

The baseball

I did not like the baseball grip as I felt I was moving my wrist to much when I swing which causes me to top the ball. I am in between the interlocking and Vardon grips as these feel the most comfortable when swinging and I have less mobility of my wrist which benefits my game. I did need to find videos explaining these grips which are hyperlinked on each name because simply looking at a photo wasn’t enough for me to understand.