My Last Blog as a BU Student

It's pretty simple I am done at Brandon University next week.  It is bitter sweet and I am going to miss a lot things but mostly the people I have met over my 5 years at BU.  I loved living in Brandon and going to this small school.  It is so unique the person to person level you can use in your learning here at our university.  I can't even begin to describe all the memories I have had here.

I will however describe what my experience was like in Internet for Education and I will do it through this blog post via my video. Thanks for the opportunity and class Mike and good luck everybody!  Enjoy and I will keep in touch and this blog will continue.

    

TT #12 The future??

What does the future hold? What is in store for us an educators and for our students? It is easier to predict than you may first think.  I don't have to go 88 miles per hour in a time machine to get there and have some evidence to show whats 5, 10 even 20 years down the road.  We have even took the time to discuss this in class.

From what I know and what we have discussed as a class things are on the change and some of the grey area we talk about now concerning devices used, sites, apps we may not even be thinking about having in 5 years because it will be fully adapted into our lessons and curriculum.  The more flexible the division and especially the people at the top the more change that can easily occur.  As a class we discussed that the rural divisions in Manitoba have been more adaptable to the use of technology in the classroom than those of the  city or urban divisions aka Winnipeg and Brandon.

So why is this? Are they afraid that there are too many teachers and students to make it work in a positive manner? Their has been evidence in Winnipeg to show that bringing your own device (BYOD) to school can be beneficial.  I have heard that it has been a success for the most part at Dakota Collegiate in Winnipeg.  There are also risk, what if it gets damaged or stolen; what happens then?  Are students going to use them in the right way?  These are the questions, I believe it must be tried just like anything to see if it works or not, similar to a science experiment.  There are honestly too many questions that could be asked about the use of technology and devices in a class that one blog post is just going to open the conversation.

What are my personal thought on the future though?  I want to look deeper, 10-20 years down the road when I am in the middle of my teaching career, hopefully with a family and in a place I enjoy being at everyday.  I feel that books will rarely be used by middle and senior years students, it will be almost paperless in most classes besides Math.  All students will be able to BYOD for use in school. Student learning will happen a lot more on there own through module style, video tutorials and presentations.  Reading will improve but won't be done through traditional books.  Our students will have access to many more sites and apps that can advance their education.  The teacher will either have an easier time or tougher time managing their classroom.  I am on the fence about that one I do not know which way to lean to.  These are my ideas, in kind of a rambling on manner but that what the blog is for.  Not a psychic but have some predictions with some evidence and thought behind it. Let me know what you think. This was my last tech task, Yahoo!

So Long for Now,
Rod.

 Doc Brown and Marty McFly

From Back to the Future

What I'm going to Miss about Internet for Educators

I have taken 2 classes about using ICT and Internet in Education.  I got to say Mike has brought the noise in both.  It often is hard to pay attention because I want to get work done with that computer staring be right in the face.  The apps and sites I have learned about in the last 2 years are going to help me become a better teacher and support my students in a way the current student knows how, through the internet.  We have stayed current discussed hot topics and gone over the positives and negatives and now I know what to look for and commence in and what to stay away from, which I am truly thankful for.

Will I use everything I am shown in class, probably not even half.  But the ones I do like and have learned about make it easier for me as a teacher implemented tech into teaching.  I find myself using these apps and sites almost everyday and a year ago I didn't even know about them.  I am going to miss my family when I leave my ED family that is.  With only 2 weeks to go at BU it is so strange. I have been here for 5 years, this has been what I know and do. Thanks for making this year another good one ED family and thanks Mike Nantais you make the experience fun and easy going.  You know I like to joke around and appreciated the sarcasm and laughter. 

Rod.
BU at BU.

Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.

During the 7th Week I went to Westcast and....

I learned nothing.  Just kidding of course I learned a few things and had fun doing it.  Our tremendous group of Brandon University Education students took off around 9 am on Wednesday Feb 18th.  We spent about 6 hours on the bus ride there but it was so much fun it seemed like 2.  We got there and on the first night after settling in and hitting the pool we had a nice meal, a couple drinks and a few of us even went to the Saskatoon Blades game.  It was an awesome start.

Thursday morning rolled around and we took a shuttle or city bus to University of Saskatchewan. We then checked in and sat around until the 9:30 keynote speaker.  He was actually a big technology guy so it was right up the alley of this class.  The keynote was good, not too long.  The sessions than began and it was an open house type of concept.  You could go to which ever you wanted.  I tended to go to ones that catered to the early years.  I am going to be teaching grade 1 and have little to no experience with that age group so I felt that was a good opportunity for me.  I really enjoyed the Math Work Stations that our own BU early years students put on.  Those were my favourite, I learned a lot.  A few of us decided to head back around 5 in a cab and got settled in for the night and supper.

The next morning was the last day and we were headed out after lunch for our trek back to Brandon.  I myself along with Jon Filewich, Jake Weidenhamer, Kelly Whitmore and Kalena Green formed a group called PEDAL standing for Physical EDucation Activity Leadership.  We made a presentation and it was hands on and fun.  We got the feel that most enjoyed it and we even got invited to present at another conference.  That was exciting.  More sessions followed and they were quite interesting.  A great catered lunch brought us to the end of our trip and a longer more relaxed bus ride home.  All and all a great experience, fun group and cool university. Thats my story, thanks for reading.

Rod.

TT # 7 : Infographics

When I looked at this task and the word infographic I thought it might be complex and I didn't know what it was. When I googled and searched it on pintrest I found out I indeed do know what an infographic is. An infographic is a unique was of expressing graphic visual representations of information, data and knowledge.  It is made to present it quickly and clearly.

I definitely think these could and should be used in a classroom. They are great to have to present info to dress up the walls of a classroom. You can analyze them in class as a discussion for any portion of a lesson. You could also have students make their own as a form of assessment.

Here's some cool infographics you could use in Social Studies/World Issues

Now here is my infographic I made on Piktochart. I focussed on one of my favourite sports, Curling! This great for introducing the game to young students in Early Years Physical Education.

Reading the Fine Print...For Once

Honestly how often do we read all the fine print and the user agreement when updated, getting apps or signing up for different online sites? I know I often glance but never take the time to look at anything in depth. We now know from this weeks presentation that if you want to sign up for something in your classroom with you or your students involved you better take an in depth look at these documents.

The user agreements are usually long but straight forward. The biggest thing to look for is minimum age. Some sites have a restriction that should be followed such as 13+ only on this site.  In BSD you must send in a form with what social site you want to use if it is restricted. You are liable if anything goes a rye. Teachers must make sure that this site is going to be useful. If there is anything fishy or you suspect something may be off it is best to look at using something else. Use trusted sites!

I think using social media sites in the classroom can be beneficial but you have to take the time to really look through the agreements. It is much different when you are looking out for 20 people that you are responsible for during school hours than just for you personally. Be careful folks!

TT #11: Show and Tell

I have two apple applications that I find useful in Physical Education and that may be relatively unknown. The two are: Team Shake and Games for Understanding.

Team Shake is used to sort teams. You can set it up for your classes if you want to randomly select teams for a specific activity you may be doing that day.  You input the names, number of teams you want or people on those teams and shake your device. It is that simple! Fun and easy to use plus the classes I used it for liked it a lot as well.

Then there is Games for Understanding. We were told by Lee Carter last year that it is a very useful app. It is simply a collection of games for Phys. Ed that is sorted by grade and type. It is very useful for ideas in the gym.