"Develop practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc."
For our OLTD 509 course, I was in a group that did a
presentation on Tablet use in the classroom. While we planned and implemented
many things such as a app review panel, some readings, etc, what was the most
interesting for everyone was the ‘use only your tablet for the week and see
what happens’. We gave our colleagues the challenge of trying to complete all
of the required work for the week solely on their tablet or mobile device.
Designing a seminar does cover all of the points of this learning outcome but when we started planning our seminar, we had no idea the learning that would come from it. With our challenge, we had people send out a message with #tabletproblem if they encountered an issue that they could not overcome and there were plenty! If someone came across a problem that they had an idea about, they were encouraged to give a solution which in turn worked on the technical skills of both people involved and anyone else who read the posts. Planning this seminar gave me great ideas about how I would like to implement the same idea with my students and see if at some point I could get them to design their own seminars as well. Since I am unable to have the seminar functioning at this point as it is completed, I have put my blog post of my experience as my actual ePortfolio piece.
Developing practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc is the learning outcome discussed above. This learning outcome is something that teachers are constantly doing (or at least the 21st century ones are) to best teach their students. When we have the skills to carry out seminars and lesson plans in a way that is engaging and interesting, using the tools available through web 2.0 and the like, we are helping both ourselves and our students. If our students are engaged by what we are doing, learning will be that much easier. We as teachers need to be aware that the world is constantly changing and with that change, technology is becoming more and more prevalent and we need to be able to adapt and move forward with it.
Designing a seminar does cover all of the points of this learning outcome but when we started planning our seminar, we had no idea the learning that would come from it. With our challenge, we had people send out a message with #tabletproblem if they encountered an issue that they could not overcome and there were plenty! If someone came across a problem that they had an idea about, they were encouraged to give a solution which in turn worked on the technical skills of both people involved and anyone else who read the posts. Planning this seminar gave me great ideas about how I would like to implement the same idea with my students and see if at some point I could get them to design their own seminars as well. Since I am unable to have the seminar functioning at this point as it is completed, I have put my blog post of my experience as my actual ePortfolio piece.
Developing practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc is the learning outcome discussed above. This learning outcome is something that teachers are constantly doing (or at least the 21st century ones are) to best teach their students. When we have the skills to carry out seminars and lesson plans in a way that is engaging and interesting, using the tools available through web 2.0 and the like, we are helping both ourselves and our students. If our students are engaged by what we are doing, learning will be that much easier. We as teachers need to be aware that the world is constantly changing and with that change, technology is becoming more and more prevalent and we need to be able to adapt and move forward with it.
| breanne_q_tablet_seminar.docx |
"Examine current research around best practices and emerging practices"
For this part of my ePortfolio, I have chosen my critical
thinking blog post that I wrote at the beginning of the OLTD 509 course. For
this course we were asked to think about two critical thinking questions so I
wrote this blog at the beginning of the course to see where my thoughts were at
and to be able to have something to come back and look at once the course was
completed to see how my thoughts had changed over the six weeks.
When writing this blog post, it forced me to think about how I learn and how I teach – more specifically how emerging technology fit into that thought process and how I was going to use what I learn with my students. As teachers we are constantly having to change and adapt to what is available or else we become stale. The same teacher doing the same thing for 20 years is not only going to get really bored and fall into a rut but they will also be doing their students a big disservice. I hope to always stay on the cutting edge of teaching and lead the way with new innovations but that takes effort to be aware of what is out there and what will work for me. As stated by one of our profs – it is like a smorgasbord of information, you do not need to use everything but taste it and see if it is what you like. Thinking about why I am using the tools I decide to use and how I will use them will also help me to best adapt them for my students when the need arises.
Examine current research around best practices and emerging practices. This learning outcome is important because, as I stated before, if we as teachers are not up to date on the latest tools available to us, we are doing ourselves and our students a disservice. I had the opportunity to work in an inquiry based learning classroom and that was an experience that I will never forget. The teacher I was working under was an international speaker on the topic of inquiry based learning so to see the leader in action was amazing. I aspire to follow in her footsteps. By being in the know about the latest and greatest and see what others are saying about it, I will be better equipped to help my students with all of their different learning needs as well as hopefully engage them more and make learning fun.
When writing this blog post, it forced me to think about how I learn and how I teach – more specifically how emerging technology fit into that thought process and how I was going to use what I learn with my students. As teachers we are constantly having to change and adapt to what is available or else we become stale. The same teacher doing the same thing for 20 years is not only going to get really bored and fall into a rut but they will also be doing their students a big disservice. I hope to always stay on the cutting edge of teaching and lead the way with new innovations but that takes effort to be aware of what is out there and what will work for me. As stated by one of our profs – it is like a smorgasbord of information, you do not need to use everything but taste it and see if it is what you like. Thinking about why I am using the tools I decide to use and how I will use them will also help me to best adapt them for my students when the need arises.
Examine current research around best practices and emerging practices. This learning outcome is important because, as I stated before, if we as teachers are not up to date on the latest tools available to us, we are doing ourselves and our students a disservice. I had the opportunity to work in an inquiry based learning classroom and that was an experience that I will never forget. The teacher I was working under was an international speaker on the topic of inquiry based learning so to see the leader in action was amazing. I aspire to follow in her footsteps. By being in the know about the latest and greatest and see what others are saying about it, I will be better equipped to help my students with all of their different learning needs as well as hopefully engage them more and make learning fun.
| breanne_q_509_blogpost.docx |
