Teacher Placement...

Teacher's are always there to help students with whatever they need. However, students rarely get the chance to do the same for their teachers. The 'Teacher Placement' project for my IDC class, was a nice change. I was paired up with my friend Denise, and our job was to help teachers from the art department at Mackenzie. We were assigned to help Mr. Simpson and Ms. Scott, who both wanted completely different things. In breif, Mr. Simpson wanted to revamp his old website, and Ms. Scott wanted us to teach her students how to shoot, upload, and edit video.


Did you enjoy the experience? Why or why not?
Even though this project was a lot of work, I can truly say that I enjoyed it. For Ms. Scott's music class, I got to make a presentation on how to use iMovie. This was a really fun task for me since I know iMovie inside and out, I love shooting/editing videos, and I love presenting. I even enjoyed filming the Jing tutorials for the resource website that we created for her students. I thought that adding a video option for the music ISP was a great idea; I wish I would of have that option for some of my ISPs.
Mr. Simpson's website was also really enjoyable to make. Some of the work was quite tedious (like uploading and renaming all of his files), but the rest of it was quite fun. I really enjoyed making the headers on photoshop, as well as editing the HTML of the website theme. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of helping and working with teachers and would like to do it again.


What went well with your placement?
With this placement, thankfully the majority of things went well. The fact that I was comfortable with all the technology we were using to help the teachers, was really great. If I was placed with a teacher who wanted help with smartboards or clickers, I would have been just as lost as he/she would have been. Ms. Scott also had very strict deadlines, this worked very well since it forced Denise and I to do a lot of work in a very short period of time. This was a little stressful, but deadlines prevent these placement plans from being dragged on and on. The presentation that we made for the music students also went very smoothly. Even though what we were teaching was basic, the students seemed very interested in using iMovie and WMM. Mr. Simpson's placement plan also went well; once we found him a website platform everything was really straight forward.


What difficulties did you have with your placement?
As great as this placement was, there were some difficulties along the way. The major difficulty was finding Mr. Simpson a website platform that met all of his expectations. He was already using a Google sites, however for an art teacher, it's just not the best option. The themes are boring/restricting, there is no photo/video gallery option, and there is a maximum for file downloads/uploads. At first, Denise and I were thinking of making Mr. Simpson multiple websites. One for announcements and files, one for photos to display student work, as well as links to Google Docs for files that went over the maximum capacity. Even though this solved all the problems, I thought that this was just ridiculous, there has got to be something out there that combines everything Mr. Simpson needs into one website! I was determined to find a better (and free) option! I spent a couple of days vigorously searching and finally came across the perfect solution, Weebly Education. No maximum capacity for files, no cost, no ads, no restrictions. Perfect.
There were also a couple of minor difficulties along the way. One being, uploading our Jing tutorials onto the resource website for the music students (of course we used a Weebly website). Weebly allows you to upload Flash files directly onto  the website, which was perfect since our Jing videos were Flash files. However, the files were too big to upload! In order to get our tutorials onto the website, we had to upload them onto the Jing website and then embed the HTML of the videos onto our resource website. This worked, but the videos were so large they got cropped. Then we had to figure out how to edit the HTML in order to make the videos the right size. Did I mention that we had to film, edit, and upload these Jing tutorials onto our resource website over one weekend!


Do you consider your placement a success?
Even though this placement took quite some time, I do believe that is was a success. Mr. Simpson and Ms. Scott are technologically advanced, but they are just so busy. What we did for them was a big help. Everything for Ms. Scott's placement went according to plan, we presented to her class on how to use iMovie/WMM and even made a website full of resources. We gave her everything she asked her and more. Mr. Simpson's website is not quite finished since he has been too busy to give us all his files/photos/announcements. However, we are going to meet with him (when he has time) to teach him how to use and update his new website. He's going to start using the website for second semester, I would consider the website a partially finished success. Overall, both teachers were very pleased with what we did for them.


Do you think the project is useful/has value for IDC students/teachers/students of placement teachers?
This project is definitely useful for both the teachers and students. Teachers get to incorporate more technology into their classrooms, and their students get to experience this new technology. The placement allows for the somewhat technologically behind teachers to start to embrace technology, which is a great thing since this is wear our society is headed. This project also has value for IDC students since they get to actually teach teachers for once instead of the other way round.


How could the project be improved for future IDC classes?
I was lucky enough to be working with technology that I was very familiar with. However, some classmates were not so lucky. Students are very fast learners with technology but having to learn the technology before teaching it wastes a lot of time. In order to prevent this, IDC students should at least know how to use each technology tool before starting the teacher placement. In addition to becoming an expert with one piece of technology, they should know a thing or two about everything else. This is more of a way to improve the 'technology project', but doing this will improve the 'placement plan project'.

Digital Nation Reaction

Technology is everywhere and advancing fast. In my household alone, there are 2 digital cameras, three televisions, four desktop computers, five laptops, six cellphones (most of which are smart phones), six ipods, and seven gaming devices. All of these items are used on a daily basis and some are even used for multiple hours a day. As with everyone in my household, my eyes just move from one screen to next. Our society today is completely surrounded by technology, but is this really a good thing? Will the impact of technology on our society be beneficial or detrimental?

First of all, lets start with how technology is beneficial to society. Technology gives people the ability to contact others and complete tasks easily and quickly. If I want to ask someone a question, I have the option of emailing, texting, facebook messaging, or tweeting them. If I was really adamant, I could do all four. It doesn't matter where that person lives, my message will get to them within seconds. Not only is technology great for fast communication, it also improves teaching and how students learn. In the Digital Nation documentary, adding technology into a school's classrooms improved the overall behaviour of the students. There was less fighting among fellow classmates and the students actually became excited to learn.

That was just a quick glimpse at how technology is actually improving society. Now lets take a look at the scarier side of things...

Technology may seem great but it can be quite detrimental, especially for the people who cannot control their usage. In my opinion the most harmful parts of technology are the video games. This is because video games can be very addictive to children and even some adults. In china there are video gaming cafes where children can play video games all day long. Multiple children have died in these cafes from playing the games for hours straight. Even though the result of death is only in extreme cases, playing video games still results in other unwanted side effects. As seen in the Digital Nation documentary, one child was so addicted to video games it was hard to get him to stop playing even just to eat dinner. Not to mention that ever since he started playing these games, his grades slipped significantly. The boy's mother even said that she feels as if she has lost her connection with her son. Excessive video game playing is just one of the many ways in which technology is harmful to our society today.

Technology is also detrimental to our society today because it results in a great loss of face to face interaction. All these electronic devices create a very convenient and fast way of communicating with others. However texting someone is just not the same as talking to them in person. In the Digital Nation documentary, there was a woman who had meetings with her co-workers through an online community where each person has their own avatar. They do business with each other but they have never met in person. Also in the documentary, a lot of adults participate in these online video games where they can interact with other players. They even consider the other players good friends even though they have never met in person. Even though these two examples are not necessarily harmful, they just go to show that the amount of face to face communication is decreasing. Technology is replacing normal human contact with cyberspace contact. Our society is losing a very big part of what it means to be human.

If it is not clear already, I am a technology pessimist. Even though I love my laptop, phone, and ipod dearly, I feel as though I'm trapped in technology. I don't necessarily think that the use of technology should be stopped, I just think that the usage should be controlled. Technology is creeping into every aspect of life and we have to stop it before it turns us into a completely different race. We must control technology, technology should not be controlling us.

Most Effective Teaching Strategies...

I am definitely a visual learner. I find it very effective when teachers have visual aids to assist with their lessons. I find that I am not as focused when a teacher is just blabbing on and on without anything for the students to look at besides the teacher. However some teachers are exceptional at engaging a class without any technology/visual aid, but those teachers are few and far apart.

The classes that I remember the most are the ones where the learning was more interactive and less 'lecture like'. I think a teacher should have a balance between lecture lessons, interactive activities, and stories about their own life/childhood. I always seem to remember every single detail of a teacher's childhood story, but for the life of me I can't remember a single thing from the lesson they taught.

The main key in teaching teachers is to be patient! They haven't been exposed to technology their whole lives like the average teenager has. It is also a good idea to have a steady teaching pace. Don't just spit everything out at once and expect the teacher to understand. Also don't teach at a snail's pace, teachers will catch on sooner then you think. It is definitely important to actually show how to use certain pieces of technology; not just tell the teacher what to do and leave.

Technology Expertise...

Even though I would love to become an expert in using every single piece of technology out there, these are my top three.

1. Smartboard - Everytime I see a teacher use a smartboard, they think of the smartboard as just a plain old projector. But the smartboard is so much more than that. I have only seen a glimpse of what the smartboard is capable of and would really like to become an expert at using one. The make classes more interactive and interesting.

2. Blogs (or other website hosts) - Nowadays, it is extremely important for teachers to have their own class websites. I think that blog platforms are the best type of site for teachers to create their own websites on. I am familiar with how to set up blogs but I am definitely not an expert. I really want to help teachers design their own websites since it is such an effective tool for students.

3. Prezi - I have never personally used Prezi, but have seen many presentations that used this particular site. The concept of Prezi is very innovative and exciting and I would like to learn how to make informative/interesting presentations that are not distracting using Prezi.

Technology in the Classroom...

There are many pieces of technology that teachers use (or attempt to use) in the classroom. Do they really help the learning process or are they just a nuisance? I've analyzed three pieces of technology on how they affect the classroom environment.

1. Smartboards - What can I say? I really like smartboards.  They are definitely one of the more recent additives into the classroom, but yet greatly appreciated by students and teachers. That is if the teacher actually knows how to operate one of these beastly machines. Smartboards make the learning process easier, it's as simple as that. Note taking is a breeze with the smartboard, everything looks neat and polished (unlike the usual scramble of notes on a chalkboard). If a student happens to miss any particular part of the lesson, they can easily find the notes online. The smartboard has endless possibilities, but it's up to the teacher to actually use everything that the smartboard has to offer.

2. Prezi - I think Prezi is one of the coolest presentation hosting websites to ever roam the planet. It allows a student to create vivid and professional looking presentations with a lot of zooms and motions. But to be completely honest, Prezi is distracting and has the potential to give the whole class motion sickness. Whenever I'm watching one of these presentations I am completely fixated on the what's happening on the screen and don't hear a word the presenters are saying. It's great to an extent, but a presentation can only have so many zooms, jumps, and warping text.

3. Clickers - A clickers is a small portable device that allows students to answer multiple choice questions and has their answer sent to the teacher's main computer or smartboard. Clickers in theory are a great idea, they seem to be working for universities, however they way classrooms use are using clickers is not quite there yet. Every time a class wants to use clickers, they must be distributed to all the students, all the the students must sign in, ect. It would be much better if everyone would have has their own clicker that they brought from to class to class. It would save a lot of time. I do think that clickers enhance the learning experience because they make lessons much more interactive. For example, taking class polls allows students to see what all the other students are thinking. Clickers are good but they could be used much more effectively at my school.

Should schools change for 21st century?

The world is constantly changing. Technology is rapidly advancing. The children of today are completely different from the children of yesterday. Why is it that schools should stay the same when everything else is changing? Well the answer is pretty clear, they shouldn't. If we want today's children to strive in the future, we can't be teaching them like they are living in the past. The 21st century is completely technology based, and who knows maybe in the 22nd century paper will be obsolete and every single thing will be digitalized. Schools must start to adapt to the 21st century, everything depends on it.

The top priorities of school should be what is best for their students, no what is "easier" for the school. Just because changing the whole schooling system would take a lot of time and effort, does not mean that they shouldn't have to meet their current students' needs. Wasn't the whole reason school was created to adapt to a changing world? Students today are more tech savvy than any of their parents, so why are they still reading from textbooks and taking notes from a chalkboard? Why are students forced to memorize a whole textbook when all that information is constantly at their fingertips? Not only should more technology be added into schools but also the methods of teaching should be completely reconstructed. If only this adaptation started when I was in middle school... things would be so much better.