Chapter 7
Quote: "Most traditional approaches overlook learning through hands-on activities, although it requires a deep and practical knowledge of the thing one is trying to create, and it can alter one's personal investment in learning considerably." Question: In what ways could standardized assessments be changed to better reflect the changing ways in which children learn? Connection: 'Learning by doing' is the quite possibly the best method to learn anything. Throughout the first two classes we have created videos, podcasts, and participated in a gamified learning experience. All these activities has ensured that we participate in our own learning. Epiphany: Sitting through 'tech trainings' usually means sitting through a lecture where the instructor gives step by step instructions. Break one of the steps and you are unable to complete the task. Instead, trainings should have a goal with some minor instruction, and then the rest of the time teachers should be left to tinker with the technology. It creates a much more involved lesson and the teachers learn where to find things much more easily. Chapter 8 Quote: "Geeking out asks the question: How can I utilize the available resources, both social and technological, for deep exploration?" Question: How can teachers become better at helping students 'geek out' over topics the students may not have originally been interested in? Connection: I have found that some topics are easier to geek out over, such as technology research for personal reasons (the 20% Project) than others, such as creating a podcast. That drive to want to create something is usually reserved for passion projects or because of a need (sometimes both), and it is interesting reflecting on how it is that one gets excited for certain projects, but maybe not for others. Epiphany: In the near future, finding great teachers that are also great learners will be more important. Teachers that are willing to learn new concepts and technologies will be just as important as teachers that can instruct well, as technology use in the classroom continues to expand. Chapter 9 Quote: "Only when we care about experimentation, play and questions more than efficiency, outcomes, and answers do we have a space that is truly open to the imagination." Question: Younger students tend to learn through experimentation, how can we accurately measure what it is that they have learned in a meaningful way outside of projects? Connection: Near constant experimentation and use of trial and error to solve problems will be a way in which students learn. As we have learned in our classes, we must continue to find ways in which to help our students be willing to take risks when it comes to their learning and not fear failure, but rather learn from it. Epiphany: I hope to one be able to come up with assessments that can still be valid even if they are taken more than once. Then, I hope to be able to implement that in a gamified classroom setting. That way, students are able to participate more in the classroom and not be afraid of getting poor marks on assignments. Chapter 4
Quote: "In communities, people learn in order to belong. In a collective, people belong in order to learn." Question: Since collectives are essentially the antithesis of our profession as educators, should/could we harness their potential? Connection: Doing research for the 20% Project, I have noticed that there are quite a few people interested in doing what I would like to do (maybe not in the same way) and are willing to share, thus creating small collectives of knowledge. Epiphany: Learning how to harness the power of peer-to-peer learning will be a way that I as a future educational technology leader should further investigate and learn to use. That way, future teachers that I am helping, can create learning communities and collectives to help each other and explore new ways of doing tasks using technology. Chapter 5 Quote: "Sharing something personal with a collective, therefore, is very different from taking something private and putting it into the public domain." Question: As students continue to use new technologies that teachers may not be comfortable using, what support can we provide to those teachers to better guide them so that they can find ways of using those newer technologies in their classrooms? Connection: We are creating our own digital selves through the EDL program, selves that are capable of taking part in online discussions and are able to adapt to new technologies Epiphany: Through or PLNs and our class groups on Google+, we are beginning to create digital representations of what a modern elementary/high school should start beginning to look like. Chapter 6 Quote: "The twenty-first century, however, belongs to the tacit. In the digital world, we learn by doing, watching, and experiencing." Question: Is technology necessary for tacit learning or does it help with that type of learning? Connection: Learning by doing is the best way to absorb new concepts, this is again apparent in our 20% Project. This is where we take steps to make sure that what we are doing is correct, that the goals that we set are being met, and that we can understand what we are trying to learn. Epiphany: Quantifiable evidence of learning may be efficient, such as multiple choice exams, but they are not accurate measures. Instead, we should be aiming to find ways of making sure that students are creating projects that truly reflect their learning and understanding of school material. Chapter 1
Quote: "The new culture of learning actually comprises two elements. The first is a massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything. The second is a bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries" Question: What are some ways in which I know what type of boundaries I can set within my own classroom when assigning projects to students and still provide sufficient room for them to explore? Connection: In this chapter I saw how important collaboration can be to this new generation of students. Students need to be able to connect with others so that they can continue to expand their knowledge, just like how we are expected to collaborate and contribute in this program. Epiphany: The "Click Here to Start Learning" section intrigued me as it demonstrated the power of building a community online, no matter how small it may be, can have lasting positive impact on people's lives. Chapter 2 Quote: "Unlike the traditional sense of culture, which strives for stability and adapts to changes in its environment only when forced, this emerging culture responds to its surroundings organically. It does not adapt." Question: In what ways will teachers that grew up in the new culture of learning affect teaching practices in the future? Connection: This new culture of learning emphasizes participation with the world to create/share/distribute/modify knowledge. I have always been reluctant to participate in this type of sharing, but through EDL 630 I am slowly becoming used to sharing what I am doing. Epiphany: The 'mechanistic view' of learning is being replaced by a more organic way of learning. Granted it may not be efficient by the mechanistic standards, but it the learning is much more meaningful. Chapter 3 Quote: "…traditional approaches to learning are no longer capable of coping with a constantly changing world." Question: The cubicle was implemented in offices in order to maximize efficiency, how will the workplaces of future workers look like when they begin to adapt those places to suit their needs? Connection: In EDL 621 we learned how we could gamify our classroom so that we could appeal to the way in which students are now used to learning. Epiphany: As an educator of new world learners, I must constantly find ways of engaging students in such a way that appeals to them and covers topics in such a way that they become interested in the material. Focus of this week will be on trying to find an acceptable network attached storage (NAS) solution for my home that is compatible with my home devices, as I have already proven that they can at least be connected to the PC. I would like to be able to not have to run my PC every time I want access to my files (video, music, pictures, etc.) After a quick google search and some reading some review, I came across some potential NAS servers. While the reviews were useful, I was unable to find something that suited my needs (at least initially). The WD My Cloud was the most promising one. While looking through the features, review, and customer reviews, I learned that it would not support Plex. As of right now, Plex is the most convenient solution I have for streaming video to my TV. Plex support was not important before, but seeing how easy it made everything, it has made itself a feature to look for when searching for a NAS. Deciding to temporarily drop the WD NAS, I attempted to search for Plex compatible NAS drives. Thankfully, Plex had the following google doc with the most updated list of compatible NAS drives. Everything is neatly organized, one of the categories being video quality support. Unfortunately for me, all the 1080p compatible NAS drives were well over $800. For half of that I can build a low power computer built specifically to be my home server. If and when I can spare that much, I will look into NAS Plex compatibility, in the mean time, The WD NAS is a very viable option now. I tried searching for some NAS drives in the $100-$200 range with good reviews on newegg.com, but that just resulted in a diskless drive. Supposedly the WD NAS has DLNA and UPnP compatibility. This means that it should be easy (in theory, in practice it could be very time consuming to set up) to have my files accessible on my home network. My TV also is supposed to natively support .mkv video files and if all goes well it should be this easy: The review for the WD NAS appeared to be fairly positive, hopefully the write speeds are not hampered by my router as it not a gigabit router.
Diigo Research This week the focus of the project is streaming video files to my internet connected TV downstairs from my PC upstairs. Thankfully this week I will not have to fumble with Apple devices and their over the top walled garden approach to containing their technology in check. My TV downstairs is fairly new, we purchased it early this year. Besides watching regular TV and running Netflix on it, I have yet to really test its streaming capabilities. To start off, I began researching what I could use to stream videos to the TV and found this guide: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/connect-pc-samsung-smart-hub-72573.html It seemed to easy to be true and while I did connect to the PC, I was unable to view my videos as I could not access the folder since it was not in the default folder for streaming on the PC. I continued my search on Google and came across a few suggestions to just convert .mkv files to something the TV could easily play, but that is too much effort for something that is supposed to be easy: streaming video. A few searches and forum visits later, I found out that there is an app for the TV called Plex. The program also runs on the PC and creates a seamless and easy integration experience, or so they claim. https://plex.tv/ I installed the server program on the PC first, very easy to install and has a simple interface. Unfortunately, I did have to create a user account with their service, for reasons I cannot explain since I am trying to only stream within my house and not over the internet. But, if it allows streaming to the TV over my home network, then I shall try to not complain too much. I set up the server, which uses a browser interface (Firefox/Chrome/etc) for navigation. Loaded up a folder with .mkv files and was surprised at how quickly it synced and even displayed an image for one of my folders. Knowing that the files were at least recognized and hopefully on the home server, I headed downstairs hoping I would not have to go back up for minor adjustments. Finding the Plex app on the Samsung app store was easy and free. After launching, setting up the connection to the PC did require a trip or 2 upstairs to input a couple of codes, but the process was not too painful. Once the account was registered and connected, the server was easily found. Unfortunately, the menus were confusing and I was unable to find things easily at first. Once I figured out that all I had to do was hit enter (trial and error), I was taken to a hierarchical file structure similar to those found on PCs. There I was able to access my videos. I found my files but then encountered something interesting, there were different ways to stream the file. Direct play, direct stream, or transcoding. I know transcoding is NOT what I wanted, as that takes significant computer resources. After a little research on play/stream (https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200250387-Streaming-Media-Direct-Play-and-Direct-Stream), the different is minor and relies on whether or not the TV supports the file container (.mkv in this case). After attempting both modes I was able to successfully play an HD video file in both 720p and 1080p. There was some blocking and some visual artifacts in the video, but overall the quality was actually a lot better than I expected. I am going to assume that the only reason the playback went so smoothly was because there was nothing else connected to my wifi connection to take up any bandwidth. Hopefully I can find a way to attach networked storage to my network and not need the PC to be running as it is quite the energy hog.
This week I will be attempting to stream .flac music files to my phone (which is android based) from my PC as well as hopefully streaming a .mkv video file to the ipad in regular definition and high definition (720p). I am hoping that my wifi bandwidth is capable of streaming the video file in hd without any issues. Since I have yet tried to stream .flac to my phone, I began by digging through the avsforums to try find out what my best solutions were. Some people suggested some NAS (network attached storage) solutions, but because I am not ready to invest yet, I am hopefully I can get it working with my PC. (Every great project always begins with a google search) And I did manage to find an app called "Subsonic" that I am hoping will work with the network modifications I made last time to my PC. After Installing the app and launching I am met with: The first disappointment of this session. I am not interested in streaming my music over the internet to my phone, I am looking for an in network solution. After a few more searches and some time on the android app store I managed to find an app Xenoamp. Initial set up was fairly easy, had to input my network settings and PC credentials to access my drives. It was able to successfully read my drives, but the next issue I encountered was not technical. The app aims for simplicity, too much simplicity. Switching songs, albums, folders, etc. is actually a hassle as swiping or other gestures do not register too well. Here is a sample of the interface: I have successfully managed to stream my high quality CD backups to my phone. Unfortunately the interface is not very usable, and in a party setting where I would like to just play something I like quickly, I would probably end up fighting with the user interface. Now the iPad: Streaming video files to the iPad I know is not that bad, if you are playing by Apple's rules and are only using their approved/supported file types. Unfortunately, my preferred video container has been shunned by the awesome people at Apple. I looked through a few of these videos and most required converting, streaming over the internet, or downloading the file to the iPad. All methods I know work, but it is not what I am searching for: Watching one of those videos I see that PlayerXtreme supports most of what I am looking for and decide to try out it. Within the first minute it tells me that I need to purchase the full version to access most of its features. After finding out that the OPlayerHD that I used last time supports video file access as well I decide to give it a try, and managed to successfully load up a video: Unfortunately it appears as though the age of my router is beginning to show. It does not play the video smoothly. It could be any number of factors: hard disk speed/access, wireless bandwidth, too many connected devices.
After reading Wagner's The Global Achievement Gap, I have to agree with his seven survival skills are ones that our students and schools will need:
Skill 1 - Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Students need to be able to think critically about everything that they are learning. The time of memorizing facts and using tests to measure how much you have memorized is over. With the proliferation of the internet, students, workers, and people in general no longer have to go to library and read through tomes of books to get a few simple facts. New information, new facts, new date is generated daily at a rapid pace and information can be outdated in a matter of weeks. Students need to be able to gather data, analyze it, and think about how they can use it to solve the problem that they are working on. They need to generate solutions to novel problems by using the information that they research. Skill 2 - Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence: People are already working from home, in different countries, and at the office at the same time. Tomorrow's workers will need to know how to plan and coordinate with the different types of people they will encounter at their work place and work with them successfully no matter the location. Not only that, but they will have to be leaders themselves. The will have to learn how to become those leaders despite the fact that they may not be able to interact with the other person in the same room but rather through a computer or other form of communication. Skill 3 - Agility and Adaptability: Technology has hit a point where knowing how to use the newest programs and operating systems is not feasible. Instead, we must learn how to rapidly adapt to continuously updated software efficiently. Students and workers will have to develop the skills necessary to troubleshoot and adapt to new programs and obstacles efficiently. One way to teach students this skill is through discovery learning, where they set their goals and reach a solution through their own means. Skill 4 - Initiative and Entrepreneurialism: Students have to learn how to initiate their own projects and their own learning, just as they will have to initiate projects in the workplace and execute them. Skill 5 - Effective Oral Written Communication: Knowing how to communicate is just as essential now as it has been in the past. The advancement of human knowledge has always been dependent on ideas being communicated properly. It is no different in the workplace, if workers cannot communicate effectively they may cause miscommunication issues. Amazing projects may never be approved if the creator cannot communicate his/her ideas properly. Skill 6 - Accessing and Analyzing Information: With the vast amount of information available to us in the internet age, being able to collect and evaluate information is a much needed skill. Students and workers need to know how to separate information that is meaningless or incorrect from the information that is useful and peer reviewed. This way, misinformation is not spread. Skill 7 - Curiosity and Imagination: Students/Workers need to always be curious, they need to want to learn new things, seek out new solutions, and use their imagination to find those solutions. Incorporating some/all of these skills in my school does not have to be difficult. Project based learning is one way to incorporate most of these skills into the classroom. Teachers can create assignments where the topic that needs to be learned is done so through week long projects where students choose what they want to learn (within the topic of the assignment) and then go on to create a meaningful project that they have to present to the class. This can be done individually or in small groups, depending on the skills that the teacher wants to promote. In my classroom I do plan on using some shorter term projects where students can choose what they want to learn, create something that reflects what they learned, and then present it to the class. I have not decided on what specifically, but it is something that I plan on doing. In order to measure if the students were successful in their learning, I will be judge their final products and their presentations within the guidelines/rubrics that I set out for them at the beginning of the project. If the students enjoy the learning and are engaged with what they are learning, then I will consider the project to be successful. They must create meaningful products of what they learned, whether it is a poster, film, or audio recording, as long it conveys what they learned then it will be successful. |
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