ILP “Design” – InfoGraphic

     For my final independent learning project I chose to create an InfoGraph on classroom rules and behavior. I thought this would have educational benefit to students in younger grade levels who benefit from having rules posted around the room. I made the graphic using Canva in a flow chart style so that it was easy for students to read and come to a conclusion.

ILP "Design" - iMovie

     Instead of participating in a research participation pool, I chose to do an extra Independent Learning Project. For my ILP a made an educational video on the different types of triangles and their properties. This video would be good for students in grades 5-6. I made the video using iMovie editing software.

Survey

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https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0pO4FbySwSNILZP

Journal #10

     As a future teacher, I believe that it is important to have organized ways to record student information within the classroom. Microsoft's Excel program is one of the best recording software tools because it allows teachers to develop their own lists with personalized functions. I can see how Excel could be useful for recording grades, marking who is/is not present, or listing out which student might still need to tern in paper work or fees. As an elementary school teacher, specifically 5th grade, there would be plenty of "end of the year" items to check off. Say all students are given the opportunity to purchase a class shirt, Excel could be used to list students by name, mark their shirt size, and make not of who has or has not paid. Surveys could also be done within this grade level to record which middle schools the students are graduating to and their final grades. These tools and collections of data are important to teachers since they can easily organize large lists of information.

     When reviewing my classmates' blogs I found it interesting how many of us shared the same ideas or opinion on our own individual assignments. Both me and Alissandra shared the same visual aid and site when talking about the flipped classroom. Many female students such as myself, Madison, and Lauren chose to talk about Pinterest for our content curation post. This is not to accuse anyone of copying another, but it's interesting to see the parallel thinking among students and the different ways we chose to talk about the subjects. One post that I saw that interested me was Hannah's resources for technology trends in Journal #8. The article she provided was one I had never seen before and was interesting to read, I would have never previously looked to Reader's Digest for news on technology.

     The next technology related skill I would like to master would be video editing. I think there is a certain art to creating visually pleasing but also informative lessons through video. If I was able to make quick informative videos varying by subject for my students I think it would add a nice personal flare to my teaching, and also keep my students entertained. I have a basic knowledge on how to trim clips and put them together using iMovie on my phone, but to truly learn how to add graphics and make more complex content I would want to download a video editing software to my computer. Tutorials on YouTube, or Lynda.com would be my main educational source and would help me practice this new skill. I am unsure how long it will take me to become completely comfortable editing on my own, but am thankful that I have plenty of online resources to help me.

Journal #9

     Today the idea of a flipped classroom is being used more prevalent all over the country. This teaching style strays away from the typical setup of a teacher standing at the from of the room and lecturing the entire class. A flipped classroom utilizes the idea of independent student work and learning. Here students are expected to have done there own learning of a topic outside of the classroom, whether it be by reading textbook material or watching online lectures.  By putting instruction as a task outside of class time it allows the opportunity for in class activities and practice of information. The teacher in this classroom is meant to guide the students through the activities, offer some assistance when needed, but not take control of the assignment. This is meant to motivate students since all works becomes their own responsibility. Students who want to learn will put in the effort outside of class and then succeed within the classroom, while students who do not put in an effort will see the consequences. This is talked about and shown with video evidence on The University of Texas at Austin website.

     Open education is a belief that high-quality education and resources should be available to all people of the world. The philosophy works to fight modern obstructions to the availability of high-quality education. Proponents of this idea try to make as much educational content open and free to all, believing that sharing is one of the core values of education. Open content describes educational materials that are free of copyright and are available for use for all teachers. This content stretches over a far range, but can include lesson plans, images, worksheets, or even entire textbooks. In order to wave copyright most providers use creative commons licenses which give the ability to access, modify, reuse, and translate content. Open source software gives its users to modify or inspect their content. The resources is not always free, but typically provides an access code which enables users to actually edit the program and enhance it to their need. This is able to help educators as they gain control of the software can can use it to better benefit the classroom. I gained much of my knowledge of open resources from opensource.com which provides resources on the goal and reasoning behind open content.

      The two PowerPoint assignments that I have done this semester have taught me many skills which I previously did not know. I used to consider myself a PowerPoint pro, but I now see there were so many different skills I did not utilize. Before the assignments I did not know the non linear capabilities that PowerPoint had, and had never used a hyperlink action before. I also rarely used animations within my PowerPoint, and had never attempted to used more than the two most basic slide layouts. These presentations helped me be more creative with my design and instruction. I enjoyed creating a story with the non linear format and creating an interactive challenge. One element I did not like was having to record the first presentation and add my own audio. I found the recording a little difficult to edit, which made me discouraged to do too many takes. Next time I will focus more on how to record slide by slide to create a more precise and clear audio.

   

Content Curation: Diigo and Pinterest

     After working with both content creation tools I can see the pros and cons of both sources. Diigo I feel has a more professional feel, and I liked that being in a certain group, rather than just following someone, what how your content was sorted. I also Liked how diigo displayed sources by titile and then positioned the description directly underneath. I felt like this web source was incredibly organized and the use of tags and topics made all of the content extremely easy to find. Pinterest was fun to use because of its more playful layout. This site more heavily focuses on eye-catching visuals, so the descriptions of some content seemed to get lost. I did enjoy though that you were able to see content from everybody's boards and pins and nothing felt limited. Overall I feel diigo was better for professional sorting of content among peers, while pinterest was good for finding good more fun lists and articles from all different sources.

Content Curation

Here is a pinterest board I created to post curated content on teacher professional development.
https://pin.it/sjlnabtgnaeltr