REMIND YOU ABOUT THIS APP

For my EDTC 300 class I was given the task of reviewing some type of app that I was unfamiliar with that could be used in the classroom. From here I had to decide what direction I would take it in and go from there. I wanted to go with something regarding communication so I did some research and that’s when I came across the app Remind.

You must be asking yourself what exactly is Remind? Well let me tell you all about it. Remind is a messaging app that allows teachers, students, and parents to communicate together seamlessly. You can send messages and pictures and it is a very easy to use messaging app made for school use. Speaking from past experience when I was in high school we really had no way of communicating with our teacher other then email. The reason that this wasn’t the best was because you might not get a reply until the next day anyway but if the teacher implemented Remind in their classroom, I feel it could be quite beneficial.

How Remind could be used in the classroom is quite easy actually. At the beginning of class you get everyone to write their name and the number or email they would like the remind messages to come to. After that the teacher can add all their students to a class group in a screen that looks like this.  

The benefits to using Remind are great because in our society technology is such an important part of life and the vast majority of students have tech devices. The first benefit is how its main way of being used is through the app. Everyone now usually has a phone and is spending lots of time on it checking various apps. So a student may look at the app because they are so used to checking their notifications. Another benefit is that kids will easily be able to ask questions to teachers from home and even send them pictures of their work. This will make it easier for teachers to answer any questions that their students may have outside the classroom. For these reasons, I feel that Remind is something that every teacher should look into and make a part of their classroom.

Regarding where Remind fits into the SAMR model. I feel as though it would go under the Augmentation category because since the technology that is replacing the old way comes with functional improvement. The functional improvement is in the form of convenience as it is easier to get answers from students and parents if they are able to download the app.

Photo Credit: tim.klapdor Flickr via Compfight cc

Let me know what you think about Remind or if you have any questions on how it works feel free to ask!

WEEK TWO – ICING UP SWIRLS AND… ROSES?

For week two of my learning project my goal was to hopefully build on what I learned from week one and try something a little out of my comfort zone. I decided that I would use the same cupcake and buttercream recipes because they worked so well the first time and then I would focus on my icing techniques. The cupcake recipe was for white wedding cake cupcakes and the icing was a simple buttercream frosting. So after a couple of hours in the kitchen I had another batch of cupcakes ready to be decorated.

I decided that I would start by using the wilton 1M tip that I used in week one so that I could practice on my skills as they clearly still needy work. However, I still wanted to change it up a little and that’s when I came across this video.

I wanted to add a little challenge to the simple swirling techniques created by the wilton 1M tip. For this I had to make different colours of icing which wasn’t very difficult. However, when I put the three colours in the piping bag I had to make sure that they weren’t mixing together and forming a gross brown because that wouldn’t be very appetizing. It was a little harder then I thought considering this was only my second time using a piping bag but I think I did a fairly good job. These were the results for this technique.

I feel as though that the swirls were better then my previous work with the same wilton 1M tip that I did in week one. This just showed me that I was right to practice a little more instead of only trying to advance for this week. However, I still had 6 cupcakes left and wanted to give myself a go at a harder icing technique and that was roses. I researched and came across a very informative video on the process of piping roses.

It was very daunting at first while watching the video but I had the 123 petal tip that she suggests. So I decided I’d give it my best shot and if I failed horribly it would still be a fun and productive experience. As I begun, I felt frustrated as I felt my petals weren’t coming out right. I watched the video again and picked up some key pointers that I some how missed. She mentions that the icing has to be chilled so it does not melt or run at all and that it gives more defined petals. The other pointer was a simple mistake by myself, the 123 petal tip has a fat and skinny end and I was using it the opposite way. After that I feel as those my roses started to look noticeably better. Again, I’m not stating that they look anywhere near as good as the video but I feel I did a pretty good job for my first time.

Overall, I think that this was a very productive week for my learning project. I built on what I did in week one by doing more simple swirls to continue to practice. I felt this was important because I got into a rhythm and it just felt more natural compared to the first week. I’m also glad that I did put the effort in and made the different colours of icing because it was something that I thought would be very simple but it was actually a more difficult task then it appeared. It reminds me that many aspects of icing and decorating baking is harder than it seems. Then for the roses, I’m glad I challenged myself with attempting this. I wanted to improve my skills with decorating and that won’t happen if I don’t try going out of my comfort zone. Next week, my plan is to use my decorating skills to make my first cake so make sure to come back and see how that goes!

TIMES ARE CHANGING

Our society has always continued to evolve as time goes forward and that is no different now. Technology seems to be advancing more and more and becoming a staple in life as we know it. It’s crazy to think about how much it’s changed, I remember growing up the technology I used was the tv and my gameboy. Now a days almost every kid has a iPad or some sort of electronic device that they almost can’t function without. Comparing my upbringing to today, say at a restaurant I never had my devices out at the table that was considering disrespectful but things have changed. Thats why the stats shared in the lecture weren’t very shocking to myself.

Seeing facts like these may be looked upon as bad because we are not used to it but it’s just where our future is headed and you can’t really stop it. It’s important that as educators we see the changes that are happening in our society and adapt with the times. We have to teach our students so that they know they are creating their digital footprint whether they like it or not so they have to be careful with what they post. It’s better that we make them aware because again it’s not as if technology will ever stop being a huge part of their lives, as shown below the ages in the stat should continue to only get lower.

Also, when we are in charge of a classroom we will be the ones who are deciding how much technology is used in our lessons. We should be trying to find a healthy balance between using new technology but also showing the students that they can function without it at times as well.

Looking at Michael Wesch’s video titled “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube” it further proves the point of how our world is ever changing.

The video was posted in 2008 and brings up multiple good points that are relevant to today. For example he says how the web isn’t just about information but in fact is about linking people which is true because all the resources we have usually come from other people on the web. Then one thing that I think can really relate to us as teachers is that we will have to adapt with the times because he says that we can’t even predict how to adapt because it feels as though there’s a new tool every six months. I feel this just leads to us having to stay on top on what is new and relevant in our society.

TWITTER NEWBIE

The whole twitter thing is still very new to me. My history of twitter is very limited, I’m not sure why but I feel as those my generation or age group I’m not sure which it is, but I feel as though we just skipped the whole needing a twitter phase. Most people my age are more likely to have Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. However, when it comes twitter I’ve had my account since January when I was told we needed it for my ECS 100 class but we never ended up using it so my account was still without its first tweet. Well that is no longer the case as since the day we did the online chat on tweet deck for EDTC 300, I have been using the account consistently. This is what my account looks like at the moment as you can see, I’m still trying to show some of my personality.

I feel as though that as I move forward it will be important to have a twitter account. I plan to share and gain new resources from other members in the education field that will help me for the future. The other positive for having my twitter account will be the fact that I will be improving my digital footprint. The reason that this is important is because I want when people search me up that it is positive interactions and professional behaviour that they see.

On May 16th, our class was able to take part in a #saskedchat on Twitter using the Tweetdeck option. When we first got going, I’m not going to lie it seemed a bit overwhelming at the start. However, I soon found out that it was relatively easy. We answered multiple questions and viewed others posts and it was a very unique experience. The questions were related to education and I feel I gathered new information that could help me for my future which is always helpful. I also liked how almost everyone has different experiences in their career so far, so nobody’s answer is likely to be the same.

At this point, I feel as though my thoughts on using twitter as professional development tool have been nothing but positive. It is helping me connect with people in my field that have plenty of useful resources to share and just getting to know more people is always nice! I think that this class has helped change my stigma on twitter not being for me or that it was useless. I’m eager to improve my twitter skills and help build my digital footprint!

WEEK ONE – SIMPLE SWIRLS

Before I could even start baking and decorating some yummy treats I had to do a little research. I had to find some recipes and look for what I might all need to decorate some cupcakes. I found a helpful article and from there I made a list and headed off to the store.

I decided quite early on that I would start off with cupcakes before moving on to cakes in the later weeks. I figured I would start off with my favourite cupcakes and they are called white wedding cake cupcakes. I remember having them at some point of my childhood and thinking they were the best baking of all time. However, this was my first time attempting to make them from scratch so I was not sure how exactly they would turn out.

                                 

After finishing up baking the cupcakes, my next task was to make the icing. I choose a buttercream frosting recipe as that is the most common when decorating cupcakes. I completed it and after I got the right consistency, I had a very important choice to make… what colour shall I make the icing? I ended up going with a lavender as it is one of my favourite colours and thought it would look somewhat modern. For these cupcakes I wanted to go very simple as I have relatively no experience in icing. So I searched up what were the most common icing techniques and came across this video.

These are the end results:

Wilton 1M

Wilton 2D

Wilton 2A

Wilton 4B

As you can see from my work I clearly did not have secret amazing icing abilities. However, for arguable my first time icing cupcakes in my life I feel I did a pretty decent job. Its very subjective to which ones look the best but in my opinion you can some what see the improvement when I iced my first compared to the third. I think you can especially see this in the Wilton 2A tip where the first cupcake I iced was all over the place but by the third I seemed to almost have a better grasp  of it and it looked significantly better. I knew that this wouldn’t be super easy that is why I started with cupcakes, one colour of icing, and 4 of the simpler icing techniques. Obviously I have work to do if I want to improve my skills but this is why I choose this as my learning project. Next week I will try to challenge myself a little more and make a bit more creative cupcakes. I feel I still need a bit more practice before moving onto a more difficult task like a cake.

DISCOVERING FEEDLY

While discovering how Feedly worked I was able to come across a few sources that I found would be quite helpful. They appeared to not only have reliable and useful content but posted quite a few articles. Some of the sources I looked at had some good articles but only would post roughly once a month when the other sources posted like 5-16 times in a week.

The first source I choose was called “Educational Technology”. The account has over 33k followers and is extremely active with roughly 14 posts per week. These were indications for myself that others trust this site and they are consistently putting out new content. I looked through and it was genuinely good work and it was not as if they were putting out more content that was just irrelevant just for the sake of creating new content. I’m looking forward to learning as the had very informative articles such as “9 Good Educational Apps Free Today – Grab Them“. Overall, I feel that this source will be quite beneficially to my learning.

The second source that I choose was called “Free Technology for Teachers“. The reasons I choose this site were fairly similar as I looked at the number of followers they had and how many articles they were releasing per week. However, looking at some of the articles I like how it seemed to range quite a bit from different topics. There were articles like “5 Good Options for Making Digital Portfolios” that can help not only students but anyone who is making a digital portfolio. So, they have articles that can help out a teacher who may not be the best with technology.

I think I have a handle on how to work my Feedly account. This is good because I’m now seeing how beneficial it is and how it can help me now and in my future as an educator. As time goes by technology is becoming more and more essential so it will be key to have sources like Feedly. This is what my Feedly page looks like so far!

LET’S GET BAKING

Welcome to the beginning of my adventure. For my learning project my goal is to learn how to decorate and create excellent looking baking.


Photo Credit: afagen Flickr via Compfight cc

Throughout my life I have always considered myself a “foodie” as I like to make new recipes and dishes. However, one thing I have shied away from would be baking. I was more of the person to buy the pre-made cookie dough and to not start from scratch. This is why as I thought and looked on the internet for ideas of what skill I could learn, I kept coming back to making appealing looking baking. I remember in my childhood trying to ice a cake and it ending in disaster so I think this is the reason I may have never attempted it again. The most I can currently do is slab a piece of icing on top and calling it finished.

As I begin my journey of improving my ability to decorate various types of baking, I am going to start very basic. First, I’ll try to gain knowledge on icing techniques in general before I move on to the baking.

This was a video I found and at first it made me feel a little over whelmed but I will try my best. After I feel as though I have learned some icing techniques, I will try them on cupcakes. Eventually when I feel I have made significant progress I will try decorating cakes. I will have to gather more information because I’m sure there is more to learn than just icing techniques. That’s why I think this will be a fun experience because I’m eager to know what goes into creating great looking baking!

As the project begins, I feel as though I will be taking a trip to the store soon to gather a bunch of new supplies. It should be a fun and tasty journey!


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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY BACKGROUND

My name is Karter Lafontaine and I come from a small town called Montmartre that is about an hour away from Regina. Growing up on a farm has helped shaped me into the person I am and created the work ethic that I have to this day. I would like to consider myself an empathic and passionate person and there are many interests I have in life. This includes hanging with my friends, fitness, food, movies, and video games. That’s just a little about who I am.

When it comes to my experiences with educational technology, I would not consider myself an expert at the moment. The first session where we went over blogging went a little over my head as I have never done it before. I have also never used twitter before as you can see from on my profile, I do not have very much activity at the moment on it. However, I have used zoom before for my ENGL 100 class that I took when I was in high school so I was already prepared for how this class would work in that sense. Overall, I feel that I have plenty to learn on the topic of educational technologies and am ready to get started!


Photo Credit: Jim Makos Flickr via Compfight cc