Category: EDCI 336

This is a category for the EdTech course. Please add this category in addition to the relevant edtech assignment category(ies).

Free-Inquiry Week 1

September 23, 2024 / learningjourney / 0 Comments

For my free inquiry, I will be knitting a sweater. Knitting is something that my sister is very knowledgeable about and is something I have been wanting to do for a while and I thought this was a great opportunity to do this. The pattern I have chosen is a simple sweater that only requires the knowledge of two stitches and a very basic understanding of knitting. This is a photo of the sweater that I am knitting.

I will include the link here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/step-by-step-sweater.

I have just started the project; it took some time to set up. I had to pick the yarn and since I am allergic to wool it is a bit of a process to pick what I want to use, there is a limited selection of non-wool yarn. For the pattern that I am using I had to use a specific size of yarn and that narrows it down even further. Now that I have all of the necessary materials I have cast on the project and begun to knit the sweater.

This is a photo of me “casting on” my project which is how you start any knitting project.

Image citation: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/step-by-step-sweater

Week 2 Reflection

September 20, 2024 / learningjourney / 0 Comments

EDCI 336 – Weekly Reflection

This week we took a look at educational resources and the tools that are available for teachers and students. We created an interactive video on a website of our choice, my choice was The Spinnacle Yarns website a local yarn shop. Creating the interactive video allowed me to look at video creation differently. Having to create an interactive element of the video made me look deeper into how videos can help teach learners difficult information while continuing to have confirmations throughout that make sure learners are paying attention and engaging with the information. Including different confirmations such as questions or polls can also gauge how many students are interacting and how well the information is being retained.

My video

The multi-media learning theory describes how the use of multimedia is beneficial for learners if used in the right way. Multimedia is a combination of media, this could be text and image, image and sound, or text and sound. It has been found that the combination of text and sound, such as someone reading the text, is the least impactful combination of media. The combination of image and sound is the more impactful combination, where there is an image related to the topic on the screen as someone speaks in greater detail about the topic. For example, if the topic is goats, having an image of a goat on the screen with very little text while the speaker goes into greater detail about the information. This combination allows for learners to be engaged in the subject matter and learn from the speaker while simultaneously having external stimulation that can continue to engage them. By using this knowledge of multimedia learning theory, instructional videos and tutorials can be improved to limit the amount of text on the screen and increase the amount of information that will be retained.

In video image citation: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/step-by-step-sweater

image showing person walking in pre-painted footprints — Photo by Flickr user jfchenier under CC license: BY-NC 2.0

Week 1 Reflection

September 15, 2024 / learningjourney / 0 Comments

Do we need to reimagine education is such a thought-provoking question, in my mind education should always be changing. The current way that the education system is structured mainly revolves around students learning information and then subsequently regurgitating it on tests or exams to prove they understood the concepts. By structuring education this way, we place more emphasis on the regurgitation and memorization of facts and concepts rather than the true understanding.

When educators do try to change to pedagogy of education, they are met with resistance from both students and fellow educators. The students may resist because the way they have been taught has worked for them and they do not wish to change the structure that feel comfortable within. For educators it could be a similar issue, where they have taught a certain way they whole career and that is how they were taught and it works so why change it?

The potential benefits of using Creative Commons-licensed images in blog posts are the variety of media that you present the more interested a viewer will be.

Welcome and Introduction

September 9, 2020 / edtech

Before proceeding with this first blog post, we expect you to consider your privacy preferences carefully and that you have considered the following options:

Do you want to be online vs. offline?
Do you want to use your name (or part thereof) vs. a pseudonym (e.g., West Coast Teacher)?
Do you want to have your blog public vs. private? (Note, you can set individual blog posts private or password protected or have an entire blog set to private)
Have you considered whether you are posting within or outside of Canada? This blog on opened.ca is hosted within Canada. That said, any public blog posts can have its content aggregated/curated onto social networks outside of Canada.

First tasks you might explore with your new blog:

Go into its admin panel found by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL
Add new category or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “EdTech” category or sub-categories, Free Inquiry and EdTech Inquiry). We have also pre-loaded the Teacher Education competencies as categories should you wish to use them to document your learning. If you would like to add more course categories, please do so (e.g., add EDCI 306A with no space for Music Ed, etc.)
See if your blog posts are appearing on the course website (you must have the course categories assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL)
Add pages
Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works)
Under Appearance,
- Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, etc.)
- Customize menus & navigation
- Use widgets to customize blog content and features
Delete this starter post (or switch it to draft status if you want to keep for reference)

Do consider creating categories for each course that you take should you wish to document your learning (or from professional learning activities outside of formal courses). Keep note, however, that you may wish to use the course topic as the category as opposed to the course number as those outside of your program would not be familiar with the number (e.g., we use “EdTech” instead of “edci336).

Lastly, as always, be aware of the FIPPA as it relates to privacy and share only those names/images that you have consent to use or are otherwise public figures. When in doubt, ask us.

Please also review the resources from our course website for getting started with blogging: