EDTC Blog

EDTC 300 in a nutshell

12/5/2022

Throughout this course I was able to interact with my fellow peers online in more ways than one. Whether it be through discord, twitter, during our zoom calls, or through blog posts! To show my learnings from this semester I will post below my personal learning summary as well as link it here (just in case!)

Digital Community

I think that since we went online for schooling, and still continue to offer online courses EDTC 300 has become more relevant for everyone than ever! With the state of the pandemic in recent years and still having to worry about new strains of Covid-19 arising, I was and am still able to experience building a digital community. I haven’t met many of my classmates or mentors in person yet, but with various online platforms such as zoom, blogging, instagram, twitter and even URCourses, I have been able to connect with new friends, peers, and professors over the last 3 years in university!
Learning virtually for so long can and will take a toll on the mental health of students and educators, which made social media and online communities such as the ones listed above a vital resource to everyone in recent years. I have learned about so many tech resources that I can use to teach students and build a digital community in my future classrooms.

Social Media

Some apps I looked to throughout my university career and my time learning online were twitter, instagram and TikTok. I found so many friends on instagram, partially cause I would look up their names that I found on our class zoom calls and partially because they showed up in "people I may know" as they were already following my friends.
EDTC 300 allowed me to meet new friends who were also in education as well as some in-service teachers! We connected, shared, and helped each other online. Whether we shared our blog posts from class, or cool new lesson plan ideas, or even our successes and failures in the classroom, we connected with people, teachers, all over the world.
TikTok is also full of young teachers sharing their classroom management ideas, their lesson ideas, or what their students did in class that day. Anything under the sun can be shared for others to see, and that's the most amazing part!

Trolls: under the bridge or online?

11/2/2022

Digital literacy isn't something I am too knowledgable on, and from what I've heard neither are some of my classmates. I don't recall ever learning about fake news, trolls, or anything of the sort while in school! Maybe I wasn't paying attention, or maybe its just one of those things teachers ever so slightly touch on and never look back.

Thank goodness Katia has provided us with resources to educate ourself and others about false information and fake accounts on the internet, which allows us to gain an understanding of digital literacy. One resource I believe everyone would enjoy was spot the troll quiz, this quiz-like game allowed us to stop think and identify if the picture and information we were given was fact or fiction. I think I actually did pretty well at spotting the trolls and the real profiles!
I think teachers in high school could definitely incorporate this quiz into their lesson plans, as not only is it an intriguing and fun game, but it allows them to learn about digital literacy as well. The quiz has information that is just too complex and maybe a little above the age level for elementary students. It would be interesting to see if we could find a game or quiz such as spot the troll but for younger age levels to try out. I find this game to be a great way to inform student on digital literacy while still making it engaging and less lecture like!

I did a quick skim over the entire English language arts curriculum on the Sask Curriculum website, and even the media studies and computer science sources for grades 11 and 12, and I could not find a single thing relating to digital literacy or digital identity and the only thing I really came across was something about cyber safety in the elementary years! I thought this was outrageous to say the least!

I would think schools would be teaching students about more than just how to stay safe online, like maybe what to watch out for, what could potentially be a scam, or a fake account of anything of this sort! But I guess we are just letting our students down, giving them improper education on these topics, giving them the bare minimum of "don't post this online," "it follows you for life." We don't give them opportunities to learn about digital literacy, about what their digital identity is, and instead we just scare them into thinking they shouldn't be online at all.

Even though I'm not a huge techy, I have learned so much from Katia about how it is more important than ever to create a digital identity as it may be the new resume one day. In fact more often than not people are hired based of what their potential employers find online! So why aren't we teaching our students how to build this new kind of resume, we teach them how to create a paper copy, why not digital??

Coding sick Montsters

10/26/2022

During this course we looked into coding, Katia gave us a couple options to look into when learning how to code. I personally decided to use code.org to code my very own monster game. I was kind of intimidated coming into this project, as I am not very great with technology and thought coding was more difficult than this website makes it out to be.
Code.org gave me step by step instructions to make the game more intricate and detailed.

In this photo you can see that I have set the sprites to run around when the background of the game is lime green!

You can see that after adjusting these blocks it then placed little monsters on my game preview

Newer modifications to my code/blocks will be placed on the right side of the screen then moved over to the left once we are done the step.

To create this interaction between sprites, I used the "when 'subject' touches 'object'" block combined with "(fill in blank) chance, change 'subject' costume to 'object.'" I then used this for each probability, filling in the blanks for each scenario.

Look at this cutie! All vaccinated, green and happy!

The screen was spilt into three sections. The top left had a green area which was the game preview, the top right had instructions for me to read and follow, and down below was where I wrote my codes.

After telling my sprites when to run around, it was then time to make 10 of my sprites represent healthy monsters, and 1 sprite to represent a sick monster!

I did this by choosing the "make new sprites" block and setting the number to 10 for healthy sprites, and taking another block and setting the number to 1 for sick sprites, then setting all sprite's sizes to 50, grabbing another block that says "sprite begins and connecting it to an "all sprites" block and a action block that makes them wander.

I then was tasked to have healthy monsters change into sick monsters when touched by another sick monster.
To do this I used the block "when 'subject' touches 'subject,' change 'subject' costume to 'object'" and modified it to be "when healthy monster touches sick monster, change healthy monster to sick monster"

The next step was to add masks into my game. So to do this, I took *two* "when 'subject' clicked" blocks, added the healthy and sick sprites to them and then took the block that says "change 'subject' costume to 'object'" and added the corresponding sprite to each subject, and added the corresponding monster wearing a mask to each object.

I then worked on probability of illness...

>When an unmasked healthy monster touched an unmasked sick monster the probability of the unmasked healthy monster getting sick was very high.
>When a masked healthy monster touches a sick unmasked sick monster the probability of the masked healthy monster getting sick was high.
>When an unmasked healthy monster touched a masked sick monster the probability of the unmasked healthy monster was low.
>When a masked healthy monster touched a masked sick monster the probability of the masked healthy monster getting sick was very low.

It was then time to create my own costume for the vaccinated monsters!

Decided to use the healthy monster as the template, but change the colour from purple to green! Introducing the new vaccinated monster!!

Now I needed to create a code to vaccinate monsters. So I grabbed a block, "when 'subject' clicked, change 'subject' costume to 'object.'"
Now when we click a healthy masked monster, they will become vaccinated!

The final step was to create dialog!

I took a time block, decided at what point the dialog would pop up, and the added a "print" block so I could decide what was said.

At five seconds the game would tell the player to "click the monsters to give them masks"
At 10 seconds, "masks help slow down the spread of viruses!"
At 15 seconds the game will tell you to "click the purple monsters wearing masks to vaccinate them!" and that "This will protect them from contracting the viruses."

This video shows that although I followed instructions, there were still a few bugs in the game. Whether or not could have fixed that, I don't know for sure, but nonetheless I learned a lot about coding.
1. I learned that this is time consuming, and I take for granted that I used a lot of things in my everyday like such as urcourses and other stuff like Sims games that have been carefully coded to work for me.
2. I learned that it is full of trial and error, even when using instructions, I had difficulties finding the right blocks in the menu and fitting them together to be right.
3. I am very impatient when it comes to technology, I could definitely not do this for a living, I will tell you that for free!

I did enjoy my time doing coding, but will I try it out again? Probably not on my own time, maybe when I have a classroom of my own and I am wanting to involve the students in coding, but I definitely won't be picking it up as a hobby!

Thank you for following my coding journey!

Digital citizenship in saskatchewan schools

10/19/2022

According to Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools, digital citizenship is defined as “the norms of appropriate and responsible online behavior” and the "quality of habits, actions, and consumption patterns that impact the ecology of digital content and communities.”

There are 9 elements from Ribble's Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship to focus on that comprehend and understand digital citizenship. These elements include:

digital access
digital commerce
digital communication and collaboration
digital etiquette
digital fluency
digital health and welfare
digital law
digital rights and responsibilities
digital security and privacy

Looking through the Sask Curriculum, I could find a few connections to Ribble's Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship. I chose to stick to elementary years, as those will be the grades I teach in year to come.

#3 - digital communication and collaboration
I found that this element could be connected to the grade three health; Outcome UCS 3.4 - Understand what it means to contribute to the health of self, family and home; Indicator (c) - Observe and reflect on the kinds of communication in the home and its impact on the health of the family and/or the home.

#4 - digital etiquette
I believe this could connect to grade two health; Outcome USC 2.4 - Examine social and personal meanings of “respect” and establish ways to show respect for self, persons, living things, possessions, and the environment; Indicator (a) - Develop a common understanding and use of respectful language to talk about "respect" (e.g., tone of voice, manners, behaviours).

#9 - digital security and privacy
We could make connections to grade four health; Outcome ESC 4.4 - Determine basic personal responsibility for safety and protection in various environments/situations; Indicator (a) - Examine prior knowledge and new information related to safety (including cyber safety), and could even be connected to Indicator (b) - Explore critical safety needs (e.g., cyber, hunting, water, fire, biking) of self and others in local community.

I feel that digital citizenship should be incorporated into as many outcomes as possible, to the best of our abilities. I am not saying stretch each outcome and indicator to fit into digital citizenship, but from my experience we really don't provide many subjects or lessons that teach our students these very necessary topics. As the world continues to spin around and around, our technology becomes more advanced and children and teenagers begin to be more involved in it. We have even begun to bring it into our classrooms. The online world is so important to students now a days, its always at their fingertips whether at home or in school they are using it every day, so why not give them every opportunity imaginable to teach them how to properly and safely use it?
I hope that in the future, me and teachers all over the world will be able to implement these 9 elements into our classrooms daily!

Cyber Safety experiences

10/12/2022

I don't recall too much about cyber safety throughout school. I asked one of my friends from elementary and high school if she could remember anything and she told me we were shown some videos that were meant to scare us. One of the only things I remember was from grade 4 or 5, when we talked about scenarios in which people, adults and even children our age, may ask us for information about us or photographs of us, and how this could and most likely is unsafe. I remember explicitly talking about nude photos for a whole class, mostly because rumours got around that a student was sharing another student's nude photo with classmates.
As for the video, even though I don't remember too much of it, I know it was most likely a scare tactic. From what we watched in class this term and what we talked about after watching it, it probably did not have much of and impact on my class and I at the time.
The talk we had about nude photos and how it is always a risk to send those kind of photos to people was very important, but maybe it should have been brought up a little sooner in this case. We also talked about how it is wrong to save or share these kind of photos we are sent with others, as they are sent to us in confidence, and that just because we are sent these photos does not mean we own these photos and that they are ours. I think these were the most important talks we could have had and this probably got through to us a little more that the videos ever would, because we were talking about stuff that was actually happening in our school, with people we knew, whereas, the video was just really poor acting.

Thoughts on integrating twitter into the classroom

9/28/2022

First and foremost, I would like to say that I am not huge on technology, I can easily figure out how technology and different social medias work, but I hardly every use social media in my day to day life. Snapchat and TikTok are my most frequently used social medias, and while I have Facebook, instagram and twitter, I just never remember to check them or post to them.

Throughout this semester I have had a hard time getting into the habit of posting and retweeting on twitter, but the odd time I do remember to check twitter, I spend a good half hour on it looking through interesting lesson and/or unit plans, fun activities for students, and tips and tricks for teachers.
So far, I have already shared some super cool ideas that I found on TikTok with fellow teachers, both pre-service and in-service. The lesson I linked above is posted by two teachers who came up with involving science and decomposition. It works with not only science lessons but English as well.

I think when I begin teaching in my own classroom, twitter will turn out to be how I decide to document my journey of teaching, but it most likely will not be a HUGE part of it. I think I would use it to document my failures and successes and to share with other teachers what does and does not work for my class in particular. I may use it to share my lesson and unit plans, and maybe take away from other teachers whether it be some fun and cool ideas, or other things they have shared.

The Process of movie making...

9/21/2022

This week I made a time-lapse of my This Time-lapse of my technique exploration was created using a iPhone, iMovie, and YouTube! I shot the footage on my phone, put it through iMovie, played around with it to make the video just right, and then uploaded it to YouTube.

To begin, I set up a makeshift tri-pod type of contraption, by pulling my kitchen table over to where I sat on the floor to do watercolour. I then placed my phone so the camera could video the majority of my area. When I was ready I pressed record, and began my project learning for the week.

After setting up the camera and actually shooting the video, It was time to edit it and upload it to Youtube.

I Entered iMovie and started a new project. It gave me three options, and out of these options I decided to make my own movie from scratch.

It then prompted me to choose the video for the movie. One thing I thought was cool was that it allowed me to choose multiple videos AND photos for the movie. In the future I will definitely take advantage of that!

When I was finished choosing my desired moments to put into the movie I pressed Create Movie.

After creating the movie I then pressed the video speed button and set the speed on my movie to 2x. This made it a Time-lapse rather than just a plain old video.

I then Pressed the "+" button and added audio so there was nice background music for my time-lapse!

After taking some time and playing the previews to most of the available songs, I finally settles on "Spatial Awareness" as it was relaxing and easy to listen to without getting too distracted by it.

I made sure that the video and the audio worked seamlessly together and then pressed "Done" in the top lefthand corner.

I pressed export, saved the movie to my phones photo library, and uploaded it to YouTube by pressing the "+" at the bottom of the screen. I was then asked what I wanted to post, to which I pressed "Upload a video" and it took me through my camera roll where I found my movie.

Overall, the process was fairly simple and easy to maneuver. Next time I think I would like to challenge myself with iMovie and try something a little more challenging. Nonetheless, here is my final result! For my first time I think it turned out pretty well!

Who am I? What do I know?

9/7/2022

Hello Friends!
My name is Halle Reimer, and I am from Balgonie, Saskatchewan. I moved to Regina in grade six to be closer to friends, family, and school.
Growing up I was always involved in art and sports. I took many art classes, and participated in swimming, soccer, and volleyball.
Now I am enrolled in my third year under the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, focusing on my bachelor's degree in elementary education!
I am the youngest of three, and the only girl. My family has grown super fast in the last 4 years; what went from my Mom, Dad, brothers (Nolan and Ryan), and myself has more than doubled. We welcomed my sister-in-laws Courtney, and Gerri-Lynn into the family and within 2 years I gained a nephews and two nieces!
Anson was born November of 2019, Autumn (Autie) was born June of 2021, and Aubrie was born August of 2021. The girls were born less than two months apart!
Something about me, that may come as a surprise to most people is I have cared for and owned 20 animals in 18 years. I have always been surrounded by animals for as long as I can remember. I have had three dogs, three fish, nine rabbits, and five birds. Currently we own one dog, three birds, and five bunnies... Yes, we own a zoo.
My animals have taught me many things that will prepare me to become an educator such as: responsibility, empathy, commitment, time management, and a whole lot of patience.

When I am not in class or working, I spend loads of time with my animals, friends and family. Though I don't use a ton of technology, I also enjoy spending some time on TikTok (I don't post, just watch) however "some time" always turns into a few hours!
However, as technology continues to make itself known and continues to develop on the daily, I find myself constantly scrolling, either looking for ideas for lesson or unit plans or possibly new hobbies.
With my university experiences being online, I kind of have had to deal with being online, using zoom, social media such as instagram to connect with people, and using websites such as menti during class or as an interactive part of someone presentation.
I have also been told that twitter is a big part of education, and many teachers use it to find and share resources for in the classroom, so obviously I joined!

That's a little bit about my life, hopefully we see each other again!