This week, I spent a lot of time playing with edublogger.  There are tons of resources for teachers on the site.  Literacy is my passion and blogging has many links to literacy skills beyond just basic writing.  

I've always felt that every student has the potential to be a writer, it just takes a patient and possibly very creative, or at least resourceful at finding creative ideas, teacher helping to tap into that skill.  My son is one of the most creative people I know, but getting him to put his thoughts on paper was absolute torture for both of us when he was learning to write.  This was 15 years ago so not as many technical tools were available, especially to ordinary consumers. We were homeschooling and most of the ed tech options were only available to schools.  After a lot of trial and error I figured out that his biggest obstacles to getting words on the paper were that he didn't like the sound of the pencil scratching his paper and if there was a mistake that needed to be erased...there would be tears for sure! Blogging would have been perfect for him. I think writing is such a personal thing and when that writing gets covered with the teacher's red ink, it hurts! The blog allows the teacher to comment, off to the side in a much less intrusive way.  

One of the resources talked about how to incorporate video into a blog.

3 Ways You Can Use Video In Your Blog Posts

Since I love TEDTalks, I thought I'd try that out here.

This is a TED Talk I watched about blogging with students. It's short and the speaker has a lovely British accent, check it out.

 

Here is one about networking from TedEd.  

If you have not explored the teacher resources on edublogger I would encourage you to put that in your planner for the week.  The writing prompts, picture prompts, and ideas for blog entries will keep students engaged for a whole year.  Edublogger Ideas

Where's the sample?

This is my second class in the Instructional Design grad program.  It's no secret that going back to school after 20 years away from the academic world was a daunting task for me. EVERYTHING has changed, including me. Twenty years ago I was a young, confident teacher working on a Masters degree at night and teaching during the day...no big deal. Now, I am questioning everything I do in a class and feeling insecure with my abilities to jump into this whole new world.

 

In my first class, the professor gave multiple samples for every assignment.  This probably would have been super helpful if I had known this at the beginning of the class, but the samples were just kind of hanging out, inconspicuously, in the corner of the room and I didn't notice them.  The examples were all very different from each other.  I looked at them all and some just did not appeal to my style at all, others did provide a starting point for me.  

When EME6414 started, I got the feeling that there would be no strict guidelines and no samples to follow.  I will admit this made me uncomfortable.  What if I'm not up to par? I would love to see examples of the projects we are working on, but I know there is a purpose to not sharing examples. I am trying to embrace the feeling because after all, growth occurs at the edge of your comfort zone and that's where I'm standing.   There is a quote by Henry Ford on the wall of Ford's Garage (the burger restaurant) and it says, "If I asked the people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." This immediately popped into my head when I read, "innovation does not occur by copying an example" in Dr. Dennen's chapter. Things don't get better if you just keep doing the same old thing all the time.  

Boom! There it is, that's why there is the freedom the develop assignments in a way that works for the student. Innovation does not occur by copying an example.  I am slowly coming around to the concept of trusting the process.  I do understand the educational value and I wholeheartedly agree I get more out of assignments that are constructed this way than if I just followed a template.  If only, there was not the stress of an arbitrary grade being placed on authentic learning.  

via GIPHY

Tools of the Week

 I checked out all six of the new tools this week.  While I have been enjoying playing with most of the tools we have been learning about in the class, this week was probably the the first time I was able to visualize using some of the tools in my elementary classroom.  Edublogs was my favorite new tool.  This looks ideal for showing progress (hopefully) in a student's writing throughout the year.  I really like the options that are available for customizing, great way to bring in an art lesson also.  I love that the teacher can leave feedback for a student and the privacy settings are important, especially for the young kids.  I found an article on the site with ideas for writing prompts and different types of blog entries for students to try.  One of my students' favorite activities in History was taking on the role of a historical figure and writing journal entries for that person. It would be so much fun for the kids to do this as a blog!

Padlet is a tool that I have used once during a teacher inservice, but I did not know there were so many things you could do with it.  I liked the timeline feature and I added a tidbit of information there. I think it would be better if you could click and drag things around after you added them though.  I put mine in the wrong spot the first time and I had to delete it and redo it.  I didn't try it yet, but I saw one of my classmates post an AI-created image with a tool located in Padlet and that looks like it would be fun to use also.

I was a little skeptical of Symbaloo at first. It looked like my homepage on Google without the need for adding another tool. I dug a little deeper and realized there is more to it than I initially thought.   I recently learned how to make folders to organize my links. This has made things easier for me, but Symbaloo takes it a step further with the visual element.  You can organize links by subject and color code them so they are easy to find.  I found the ads to be very annoying though and not sure I want to pay a fee just to have an ad-free experience when my Google folders are working ok.

Hypothesis was ok. I do like being able to collaborate with other people on a document.  It was a very simple layout and easy to use, that's always a win for me!

Piazza was not a hit for me. Dr. Dennen mentioned it is used more in f2f settings and that the math/science people seem to like this one.  It was just "too much" for me.  I like the concept, but not the actual execution.

Cluster was actually familiar to me.  My son's coach uses it at, sporadically unfortunately, at swim meets to keep parents updates on the timeline, events, and results. It saves him from answering 50 texts when he remembers to update it! I have also added pictures on there to share with parents. 

I definitely added some tools to the belt this week! 

My Plant and the Water Drop

 

I should be doing homework, but I take a minute to look out the window and this water droplet catches my eye. I haven't watered this plant recently and it's an indoor plant so it's not from rain. How did it get there?  I spend the next ten minutes playing with the camera on my phone, trying to capture the drop in the most interesting way possible before it plops off.  

Got it, now I can get back to work.  

Well...wait just a second. I have this picture that I think is pretty interesting, I should do something with it, but what? My family is still sleeping and I doubt they'd share in my enthusiasm if I woke them up to show them my picture.  

I think I will just leave this picture of my plant and the water drop right here on my blog.  Maybe it will bring a moment of peace to some of my classmates who are feeling the stress of a heavy course load or who are being stretched too thin with the demands of life.  Take a moment and find the little things in life that bring you joy! 

Networked Knowledge Activities

image by freepik

 I enjoyed the readings this week. I always appreciate the Choose Your Own Adventure approach where we can take what we want/need and skim or leave the rest.  This week I was having FOMO so I had to read a bit more from each of the sections!  I think all of the puzzle pieces are starting to come together and I see how they fit with each other.  It's like I have the edges done, now I'm working on the middle.  

As I was reading, I couldn't help but think way back to my early days of teacher prep classes and Bloom's Taxonomy.  Maybe it is because there are six parts to NKA and six parts to Bloom, maybe it is because the NKAs also fall into a loose hierarchy.  Maybe it's because when I got to the end of the chapter, the parallels were spelled out right there! 

The activities associated with Networked Knowledge Activities are: collecting, curating, sharing, brokering, negotiating, and constructing.  

1. Collecting - Gathering information.  Similar to the remembering level of Bloom, although in the digital world we can use something like a Pinterest to help us remember.  This would be considered one of the lower level activities.  

2. Curating - User creates an intentional collection for a specific purpose or audience.  Understanding, for the Bloom model, would be a user explaining why a certain artifact belongs in the collection.  

3. Sharing - Taking something that has been collected and sharing it with other people. When sharing, a user has to evaluate what the audience wants and needs. 

4. Brokering - This involves connecting groups with information that both groups would find useful.  For instance, I belong to a Homeschooling High School group and a College Athletics Recruiting group.  There have been several times that a parent in the high school group has wondered if their student can participate in college sports and also times that parents in the other group wonder if their highly competitive athlete would be better served in a homeschool environment.  I'm able to share my Pinterest Board with both of them and help them do their own research.

5. Negotiating - For this activity learners have to work together and communicate effectively to determine meaning.  

6. Constructing - This is where all the pieces come together and learners create something new with all of the things they have collected, curated, and shared.

Connections in my Digital Worls

I could not have planned this any better if I tried.  We have been learning about intellectual property rights and it was kind of just something that I had in the back of my mind and wasn't too worried about it on a personal level at this point.  UNTIL...a connection was made between student life and my teacher life.

I was reading comments in a FB group that consists of tutors for the literacy company I work for, but the FB group is not affiliated with the company.  We recently had to sign a new contract to continue working with this company and one of the things that changed pertains to intellectual property and materials that tutors create to use with the students during a tutoring session.  The discussion naturally got a little heated, not within the group but tutors vs. company. Since there are no company reps in the group it was really more of a venting session than an actual discussion.  Keep in mind, tutors are contract employees, not direct employees of the tutoring company. 

Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

The new contract states that the Company has ownership rights to anything the tutor creates that is related to reading instruction while the tutor is under contract with the Company. So if I make an activity about sorting words with short vowels, the company now owns that activity.  If the activity is an extension of a company-created activity, using their materials, I can understand that. However, according to contract, I can make something completely from scratch, not at all related to a specific story or lesson within the company-provided materials, and the company says they still own it.  None of the tutors were asking for compensation for the materials, but why should the company own these materials? Many teachers either sell their materials or freely share materials they create with other teachers, but this new contract would prohibit that.  I think that's a huge disservice to the tutors and students who are ultimately the ones who benefit most when teachers collaborate. 

Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

What do you think? Should a company own the rights to materials a tutor creates on their own time for their own use with students? 

SumItUp Sunday

Write a blog post that reviews your daily Instagram activities for the challenge and your new insights on the medium. Okay...well for starters I completed this challenge over the course of three days, instead of the whole week so as a research participant, my experience would probably have to be thrown out! As a blogger, my experience is 100% valid and that's the cool thing about blogging, apparently there is no wrong way to do it. 

I am still struggling to embrace everything Instagram so I'm really glad I did this challenge. I learned more of the ins and outs, but I still needed some help.

For the Monday challenge, I may have gone in a different direction than what most people think of when they think of technology.  Hopefully, it doesn't turn into anything controversial or break any rules of the assignment.  I just want to motivate everyone to vote in their local elections as well as the state and federal elections.  

The Tuesday challenge was the first one I posted and I noticed a comment on that one. Hopefully, the app will transform someone else's life as well! Honestly, there are so many recipe apps available now, but this one is simple and clean without an overwhelming number of options.  I used Canva to create the post very easily. It took me a while to figure out how to post it directly from Canva, but I think I've got it now. I've only been able to do it from my phone though. I create the post on my desktop and post it from my phone. If anyone knows how to post directly from the desktop, please let me know. I'm all for cutting out extra steps.

Wednesday - The reel.  This was something completely new for me.  I did it, but not sure I completely understand the difference between a reel and a regular post.  Again, I used Canva to create my reel.  I did watch some reels from previous students and while I love watching videos of other people on their reels, my comfort level isn't quite there yet.

Thursday - I modified an infographic that I made for another class.  I don't know if there's a way to post it without all of the white space, but I wasn't able to figure it out if there is.

Friday - Create a poll. This one was definitely the biggest challenge for me.  I had to call for some expert help on this one.  I do like using my computer more than my phone so apparently that's part of my problem.  My son, the same one from the mac and cheese post last week, interrupted his golf practice to walk me through this! What I did not like about this one though is that is went back to posting on my Facebook page!! I tried to delete it without deleting it from Instagram and I was making a huge mess. In the end, I just left it.  Maybe my FB friends can weigh in on my poll and give me a bigger sample group.

Saturday - I wasn't quite sure if this meant one post with multiple pictures or a post where you have to scroll to see all the pictures. Since we already did a post like that I opted for one post with multiple pictures. Canva came to my rescue again for this one. 

So that was the week of challenges in a condensed version.  Check out my page if you haven't already. I am eme6414_kellyg. 

        

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An update and thoughts on OER

UPDATE on the mac and cheese post:

This is what I received after dinner last night. It's GIF that says, "I have not been entirely successful" and was followed by a picture of some interesting, yellow, gloppy stuff that most likely ended up in the trash. I think the Redditors would have a field day if he posted the picture of his culinary masterpiece. Alas, mom is still good for something.

"Open Educational Resources: Enabling universal education" was an interesting article. This is a topic that I have very little experience with.  I absolutely love the idea of education being free to all (who can access it).  I love everything about it, but as I was reading the cynical side of me wondered what is in it for the university.  Towards the end of the article the author did talk about this and I like the point that "if educational materials can bring people out of poverty, and information can now be copied and shared with greater ease, there is a moral obligation to do so." Information should be shared, because it is the right thing to do. Education, in my opinion, is the key to solving the problems in the worlds: war, hunger, climate change, and the list goes on.  Sharing IS the ethical thing to do and in the end, it will benefit all of us.  Now, that's all great in theory, but I was curious about these courses so I did a little digging. To be fair, at the time I'm writing this I only looked at the MIT OER site, but the courses offered are probably not going to lead to the end of hunger in under-developed nations y bringing people out of poverty.  Quantum Physics and Programming in Java are great courses for people who already have an education, but what about a course where an illiterate adult can learn to read? Again, that's probably available somewhere, just not MIT's forte.  My mom, who is not a native citizen but has lived in the US for over 60 years, would like to learn more about our Constitution. An OER course in American Government seems like it would be ideal for her. 

Interestingly enough, there was a segment on the Today show this week about a new-ish website called Quill. This is free and uses AI-assisted technology to help high school students learn to write.  It's not the same as OER, but definitely something exciting to watch as it becomes more widely used.  The students highlighted in the story all felt it was helpful and they are getting ready to take their first standardized tests since starting the program so teachers and developers are eager to see the gains students have made.

I definitely want to learn more about OER. I can see myself becoming a user of this resource if I could find the right course.  

Caswell, T., Henson, S., Jensen, M., & Wiley, D. (2008). Open Educational Resources: Enabling universal education. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 9(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i1.469

Crowdsourcing vs. Momsourcing

 

After a week of way too much time on the computer and the twists and turns of life throwing some real curveballs,  my brain feels like mush.  I've been down too many rabbit holes while working on the Community Norms paper and I've learned more about social media than I even knew possible.  I learned that you can discover just about anything you ever wanted to know on Reddit and probably some things you didn't want to know.  Fortunately, I didn't come across anything deep, dark, or disturbing, but I've heard it's there and you don't have to look too hard.

With this vast amount of knowledge at his fingertips, and I know he has the ability because I pay his cell phone bill, why does my extremely intelligent (forgive the mom slant on the description)19 year old son  call me at least once a week and ask me the simplest of questions?  Today it was, "How do I make macaroni and cheese?" In fairness to him, I never used the blue box for the 18 years he lived in this house so he's a little spoiled.  I grew up with Kraft and I still love it once in a while, but I never made it for my kids.  I feel the blue box is a necessary part of college life. Maybe not.  He wanted mom's mac and cheese and he was calling me from the aisle of the grocery store.  Truth be told, I don't have a secret recipe. It was always a little of this and a little of that, but I didn't want to burst his bubble.  What did I do? Of course, I hopped on Reddit and found a recipe while I talked to him!  I rattled it off like it was engraved in my brain.  My boy got mac and cheese and I got to talk to my boy.  He did some momsourcing and I did some crowdsourcing.  It was a win for both of us.  

You want to use my work?

I read "Ownership of digital course artifacts: who can access and use your words, images, sounds, and clicks?" written by our very own Dr. Dennen.  

This topic actually came up last semester.  I had just finished my first semester of school in over twenty years and my fears and insecurities were still pretty strong.  I excitedly told a good friend that the professor had asked to use my work as a sample in her future classes.  I was expecting a  pat on the back. Instead, she looked at me like I'd be crazy if I said yes!  I was floored. It never occured to me that I would not want to share. By the way, I have since learned that this same friend also has completely opposite views as me on the subject of AI also, but that's a story for another day.

 I am a teacher to my core.  I am most definitely guilty of oversharing everything!  If it will help another student, I want to be help.  If I can help a professor in some small way, I want to do that.  I still have work samples from students I had twenty years ago.  I don't do anything with them, they're collecting dust in a box.  I remember sharing samples for a literature project with one class and the new projects they created blew my samples out of the water. The next year, I shared the new samples and that class improved upon the samples again.  

For the record, I did say yes, and I'm still thrilled that she thought my work was good enough to use as a model for other students.  

Now, the thought of my  clickstream data being valuable or interesting to someone never entered my mind. To be honest, I don't know how it works, but if someone wants to see that it took me eight attempts to post this blog in the proper format or that I spent seventeen minutes reading a class assignment description, more power to them.  I consider myself to be a rather boring lab rat for those studies! Do instructors actually use this data for anything? The article states that if an instructor plans to access and use clickstream data, the students should be made aware of that. That sentence me pause and think, "Did our professor, who wrote this article and knows quite a bit more about this topic than the average professor, tell us she would be using our data? Maybe she's not using any of it, maybe she's using all of it."  Either way, it sounds like exactly the kind of thing that would not become part of my cognitive load if she did mention it. 

How about you? Are protective of work you complete in a class? 

Dennen, V. P. (2016). Ownership of Digital Course Artifacts: Who Can Access and Use Your Words, Images, Sounds, and Clicks? Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 17(4), 5-.

I Forgot the Flickr!

 Oops! I almost forgot to post my Flickr challenge. This was a good one for me because I use Flickr as the "photographer" for the swim team.  It wasn't my choice, it's what the person before me used so I had to  learn how to use it and like it! I actually do like it though.  Each season I learn something new.  The first year I learned how to upload and then how to upload to specific albums.  The next year I learned that you can tag people, this was a GAME CHANGER for me when it came to the end of season slideshow.  I also learned that you can edit photos on the website.  That's really nice for someone of my skill level, also known as click the shutter button and hope for the best.  Next year my son will be a senior and I will be handing over the reins to a new sucker  parent. Lucky for them, I'll also hand over my years of wisdom instead of just the login info.  

Here are the photos I posted in the Flickr Challenge this week.  My photoessay about my "online life" was created in hopes that some of you can relate.  I have a photo showing my joy when a classmate interacts with my post, a photo showing my frustration at not being able to find the info I need at the click of a button, and a photo of the status bar just loading which always happens at the worst possible time.  I also posted a photo to show what online learning looks like to me. I am a literacy teacher and sometimes 7 year olds can be super adorable! 

Wait did that actually work on the first try?

Rambling Thoughts from Week 4 Post # 3 (Warning: Sensitive Topic Ahead)

I am sitting here with a little bit of writer's block for my 3rd entry this week.  I actually have written volumes and volumes of profound insights in my head this week, but when I sat down at the keyboard I didn't know where to start or how to organize my thoughts.  When this happens for my students I always tell them to just start writing and see what comes out, you can clean it up later...or not.  

This class has made me more aware of my social media activity-how I use it, when I use it, why I use it. I notice things I didn't notice before like just how much people talk about social media.  I had a group of teen athletes at my house the other day. As any good mom of a teenage boy does, I listened in on their conversation from a distance. Some would call it eavesdropping, I'm calling it reach for my Web2.0 class.  The boys were flopped all over the family room and they were casually talking about swimmers they "know" and swimmers they follow on Instagram and have become friends with through that platform. They also talked about the need for an Instagram account for recruiting purposes, some of them keep their accounts very private and professional and a few of them are like an open book that could potentially be found on a banned book list!  In the span of 15 minutes they talked about a few different platforms. Snapchat and Instagram were definitely the most popular.  I found it interesting that a music app where your friends can see what you're listening to was the line in the sand for some of the boys.  They were mortified at the thought someone would be able to know what song they listened to and how many times they played it. Really? That's a problem, but posting a photograph of yourself doing some "non-Disney activities" is ok???

I tried to dip my toe into the Diigo world, but I am not hooked on that yet.  It sounds like a great idea because I'm forever asking myself, "Where did I read that?" I'm also spending more time on Reddit as part of my community paper assignment. I'm really liking that. For my job, I posted on the community forum about an unfortunate incident that happened in one of my classes.  I generally don't post there because they aren't the friendliest group...shhh, don't tell them I said that! I was pleasantly surprised at the positive comments and support that was left on my post, including one reply from management that confirmed my belief that I am working with the right company.

Finally, my thoughts on social media this week also took me to a sad place.  I learned about the passing of my friend's wife through a Facebook post.  She apparently struggled with depression. I have a family member who also battles depression.  Although some people do share their struggles publicly, depression is often a lonely battle.  My family member is pretty open about his struggles, but I feel it's not my story to tell so I won't go into details.  I will say the power of social media most likely saved his life one day.  He was on a message board, I can't recall which one although it was not related to mental health issues, but he was chatting with a total stranger.  They were talking about music and that somehow turned into talk about his bad day.  In a twist of fate, the stranger worked for the suicide prevention hotline.  She talked to him for a long time and has since become a "friend" and checks up on him sometimes.  It turns out my friend's wife was fighting the lonely battle. It reminded me that you can't always believe a person's social media presence is the whole picture. It also made me think that if we were more open and honest with our posts, maybe the world wouldn't be so lonely.  RIP - SJF

Digital Badges

 

I've never put so much thought into badges as I have in the last week. OK, that's not exactly true. As a Den Leader for Cub Scouts I put a lot of thought into badges! Maybe that's why those little badges are what keep coming to my mind.  The boys were competitive and tried to see who could earn the most badges, some of the badges had to be earned outside of our meetings which made it challenging for all the boys to have a chance at those.  It was my job as leader to plan opportunities for some of the badges to be earned during our meetings.  I did have to consider the order in which they'd be earned.  For the most part, the Boy Scout badges were a positive experience for the kids, even though some collected their badges at a much faster rate than others, there never seemed to be hurt feelings from those who weren't earning bunches of badges.

To shift my thought process to digital badges in the educational world took some work.  I didn't know there was so much to consider or so much value for the learner in a digital badge!  I'm aware of badges as motivation, even for adults.  My Apple watch badges are very important to me!  Badges can create a framework so learners know where they've been and where they are going.  I'm interested in the notion of using badges for more than just a motivational tool. That's how I used them, well we called them stickers, as a student and as a teacher.  To think the badge design and development process can improve program design and subsequent learner experience is something I'm interested in learning more about.

Crowdsourcing

I read "Crowdsourcing and self-instruction: Turning the production of teaching material into a learning objective" as one of my choices in the Choose Your Own Adventure series for class this week. I poked my head into the other articles in that section, but honestly fell asleep while trying to read them! This article was able to keep my attention! I always enjoy learning about creative ways to engage students in their learning. 

I've heard about crowdsourcing before, but I never thought of using it in the way that was described in this article. Crowdsourcing is the practice of acquiring information or task inputs from a large number of people. I usually think of crowdsourcing related to my social media communities. One of my communities is for homeschool moms and at least once a week there will be a mom posting that she is in search of a specific book for a lesson. Inevitably, one of the other moms has it sitting on a shelf, collecting dust and is more than happy to pass it along. I especially love the crowdsourcing posts that are trying to reunite a lost teddy bear with its owner or a newly engaged couple is relieved that someone found the ring that was dropped the ring in the sand during the most romantic proposal. 

 In case you didn't read this one, it was about a professor who had his students design learning materials that would be used in a future class. The students conducted guided research individually and then worked collaboratively to produce a timeline of events for one Latin-American country, resulting in a collection of historical outlines. The instructor was a bit surprised to discover that there was more educational value in researching and preparing the materials than he initially realized. The students were engaged and commented on how much they enjoyed the process, much more so than if they had been asked to write a traditional paper. It makes sense really, the best way to learn something is to teach it! In fact, this worked so well another professor in his department tried it with a little modification and it was equally as successful. 

 I really love the idea of getting students involved, as stated in the abstract of the article, this makes students both producers and users of the content. 

 Wilson, M. C. (2018). Crowdsourcing and self-instruction: Turning the production of teaching materials Into a learning objective. Journal of Political Science Education, 14(3), 400-408. doi:10.1080/15512169.2017.1415813