Social Media And Educational Technology: Making The World A Better Place

As my final blog post for Part One of The Integration of Information and Computer Technology in Education I would like to be a little bit informal. I have been quite meticulous with my posts, they tend to be very organized, colour coded and blocked into sections but in this case I just want to share my train of thought about Social Media and Education.

I will begin with an anecdote, (those who following me will know I love these).
This Easter I was sitting at the kitchen table chatting with my family spoiling my diner with a mountain of appetizers when I noticed my ten-year-old cousin was scribbling in a little notebook. He was copying out something from his Ipad Mini. I was curious, and so I asked what he was writing? He told me that a he and a friend had been tracking the missing Malaysia Flight, looking at different news sources and twitter, and treating it like a mystery that they were going to do their best to solve. I was blown away. Later that day the same cousin’s father airplayed a video clip of my cousin reciting a speech in front of the whole school at the finals for a school wide speech competition. His speech topic was “Positivity”; it was simply about being positive, grateful and seeing the class as half full. He informed us that he got the idea from watching Youtube clips such as the one about a man with no arms and no legs who lives life never saying “I can’t”. 

I couldn’t believe it. I was so impressed at how my ten-year-old little cousin was using technology to make the world a better place. Those who work in the Tech Industry know that this term gets thrown around a lot. “We’re making the world a better place”. The term is used so often by big tech companies such as Google and Facebook that it has become a joke in the world of computer science, (side note: Watch HBO’s Series Silicon Valley it’s a hilarious parody about the Tech Industry).

We may laugh at the fact that the term is so widely used but isn’t it partly true? If my little cousin is using Youtube clips as inspiration to make a brilliant speech to inspire others to be positive then I think we really are making the world better.

Social Media is about communication. It’s about being social, reaching out and connecting to other human beings and coming together with common interests. Social Media helps educators share ideas and resources. It allows us to inspire each other and learn from one another. It even allows us to test and challenge each other as well.

Social Media allows students greater access to information. It helps them to connect with peers and gain deeper understanding of a world outside their immediate surroundings. It gives them be global responsibilities and allows them to have a global voice through tools such as twitter. It allows them to build forums such as classroom blogs for communication with each other and the outside world.

Social Media allows for better, more efficient and effective communication with Parents. Parents are also beacons of the text, type, tweet generation and they are emerging online more than ever. Many teachers communicate with parents through e-mail because that is how the parent prefers it. But think about what a classroom blog, a weekly podcast , or an online newspaper could do. Parents would get to be a part of their child’s educational life and kids might take more pride and initiative while at school if they knew their great achievements were going to be publicly shared with parents and classmates

Of course we still need to protect our children and I have posted many strategies in my blog about safety, policy, and responsibly, but why not look at the glass as half full and be positive. We have the opportunity to be pioneers of 21^st Century educational technology and I for one, am looking forward to what is to come.

Pro's and Con's of using Powtoon as a Presentation Tool

I wanted my presentation to stand out I knew that it needed to be fun and exciting to watch so I chose to try out Powtoon because after watching a few clips I thought it brought some life to the standard colourless slideshow presentations I feel I have become accustomed to seeing 


I really loved using Powtoon for this assignment It loved that it was colourful, had animations, fun cartoons and characters and great transitions. There were some ups and downs that I faced along the way.


When I was first researching different presentation tools I looked at the most popular tools that people were using. 

Powerpoint

I knew right away that I was not going to use Microsoft Powerpoint. I felt that there was nothing new to learn in using this tool. I have used it many times in the past, (high school University) and I thought there must be something better out there. I decided to Google "Powerpoint" just for my own curiosity to see what is currently being said about it. On their wikipedia page, the third sentence in the first paragraph is, "The benefits of PowerPoint are continuously debated. The term "PowerPoint hell" has been coined for long, tedious PowerPoint presentations that bore the audience". It only confirmed to me, my own thought that although PowerPoint is arguable the most commonly used presentation software, it is not exactly 21st Century cutting edge technology.

Prezi

Prezi would have been my second choice in presentation software. I really think Prezi has developed a very unique piece of cloud based software, (meaning the software is online and no external downloading is necessary). I watched a few Youtube videos including the one I will include here and I was pretty convinced that this was a very innovative way to present material.

I will definitely use Prezi in the future. The only reason I didn't use it for my own presentation is I felt more comfortable using Powtoon because the application used a slide presentation scheme for putting the presentation together; I had already started to jot down ideas for my presentation that were more compatible with a slide based program. Prezi is very different from anything I have used and because this was for an assignment I wanted to play it in-between safe, and biting off more than I could chew. Regardless, I will absolutely be using Prezi in the future!

Sliderocket

Sliderocket is very similar to Microsoft Powerpoint, but much better in my opinion. What I like about it is, like Prezi, it is also available online so no external software is required. Unfortunately Sliderocket is not currently available to users who are not currently signed up on their website. However I did look into watching a few YouTube clips to see how it works and it seems to be my choice right now over Powerpoint. This would be a great tool for University professors and high school teachers who want to transition from Powerpoint to more current technology. It's also convenient that it is accessible on the web and the presenter is not forced to carry around a thumb drive.

Powtoon Pro's and Con's

Pros

- Software is cloud based and easy to sign up for the beta version, (I used beta for this presentation).

- There is the option to sign up and with where you pay a fee and are granted many awesome tools to make an even better presentation, such as more cartoons, pictures and music.

- Many helpful YouTube how to videos make it simple to start using.

- The characters and cartoons are diverse and there are so many to choose from, even in the Beta version.

- The animations and clever, transitions make it very fun to watch and keep the viewer engaged.

- The link to the presentation is available online and once you have completed your work, you submit it, and a youtube link is sent to your computer via e-mail, (this took just over an hour) which was then very easy for me to embed on my blog.

Cons

-Because the software was cloud based I found that the worst thing was my presentation became very buddy the bigger it got. It used a lot of CPU power and my computer would heat up and start to lag as I was typing, making it so I had to type very slowly or letters would be missing in my sentences. 

- Another bug was manipulating images and text also became tedious as the computer would often not register when I clicked on an object. I would have to click different object and go back to the object I would wanted before it would allow me to click it. 

- Because of the bugs the presentation took me a lot longer than I had anticipated and it did become frustrating at times.

Overall

I am happy with my presentation and if I had many presentations to do in my career I would even think about investing in the Pro Software which is available from the Google Chrome Store.  I am hoping that the program will become less buggy over time because the finished product is really great!

A Presentation About the Integration of Computer Technology in the 21st Century Classroom

This is a Presentation I made using Powtoon for my Integration of Information and Computer Technology in Instruction AQ course.

For More Information on Presentation Software and the Pros and Cons of Powtoon, read my next post!
http://jessicajuliamarques.blogspot.ca/2014/06/pros-and-cons-of-using-powtoon-as.html

Sample lesson plan which utilizes video for pre-teaching

Incorporating video into a lesson plan is an excellent way to reach visual learners.

A fun and exciting video such as this study jams cartoon can be an excellent resource for teachers to help activate prior knowledge and get the students excited and motivated to learn about their new topic.

Videos such as the Study Jams cartoons incorporate fun relatable young characters.

Which helps the students contextualize the material they will be learning inside the classroom, without leaving their seats. 

Charts and diagrams can come to life in a video this screen shots shows a part of the video where a moving diagram helps children visualize the movement of molecules.

After watching the video. The students will have preexisting knowledge of the material and the lesson almost becomes review of the video, allowing the material to sink in further. 

The only downside to this particular video is that I could not find a way to embed it into this blog. Unfortunately it has to be linked to an external site. The site is safe and very accessible so teachers shouldn't have any trouble accessing it.

Note: that this video is paired with an online quiz that the teacher could also make great use of as a study tool.

Lesson Topic: Properties of Matter                                                         Day: 1 of 8

Date: Thursday February 5^th 2013

Overall Expectation(s): ·      3.1  identify matter as everything that has mass and occupies space ·      3.2  identify properties of solids, liquids, and gases
Success Criteria: ·          I know that there are three states of matter Solid’s Liquids and Gasses and I can give and example of each. ·          I know that a state of which matter is in depends on how fast the matter particles are moving. ·          I know that solids have definite volume and hold their shape, liquids have definite volume but take the shape of their container, and that gases have no definite volume and take the volume and shape of their container. ·          I understand that heat/energy can create changes in matter.
Materials/Resources (Teacher and student) Smartboard Study James video for pre- teaching Worksheet with space for students to fill in learning goal, success criteria is included with checkmark for them to check off when studying. A chart is included with three columns for Solids, Liquids, Gases; the students will fill in the material. Definitions list		Assessment/Evaluation: (Tools/strategies) Tool: Checklist to see completed work. Are the students able to identify the three states of matter? Can the students identify the properties of each state of matter? Using water as an example, can the student explain howwater can change states from solid liquid and gas?
Lesson Sequence: Beginning/States of Matter : Use the Study jams video to open the lesson. This will help activate the children’s prior knowledge. It will put the forthcoming information into context and help them gain perspective on what is to come. Discuss video openly before handing out worksheet: What did we learn What are the three states of matter? What state was the water in when it was water (Liquid), ice (solid), and gas (vapour)? What made the water change between these states (heat)? Now we begin the lesson with our learning goal, (to be copied onto handout): We will learn about three states of matter, solids, liquids, and be able to identify the properties of each. Students will copy the learning goal onto a worksheet and the success criteria will be printed out for them on the same worksheet. We will read the success criteria at the end and make sure that we can answer yes and check off the list. Next, ask the students to raise their hands and name an example for each state of matter and include this in their chart. Say, “Now lets look around can we find examples of each state for our chart?” Middle/Properties of Matter:  What does it mean when we ask what are the properties of matter? characteristics, traits, features, appearances etc. So what we are looking for is: what makes matter a solid, liquid or gas? Ask this question “Can we remember the video, when matter is a solid are the particles close together or far apart?” “What about a liquid?” “ a Gas?” When we talk about the volume of something what are we talking about? We’re talking about the amount of space that the matter takes up. Bring out the water, ice and spray bottle. Notice the water in the water bottle what shape does it have, The shape of the water bottle. Now if we take the water and pour it into a bowl, (do this) what shape does it have now, the shape of the bowl? What about it’s volume, (the amount of space it takes up in the universe) has that changed no it still take up the same amount of space it’s only changed it’s shape, (demonstrate the same process with the ice) note that though it doesn’t take up any more or less space than before, (volume) the shape still stays the same. With the spray bottle we want to note that the vapour has no definite volume, (set amount of space it takes up) the particles might be closer together and we can see them or they may be so far apart that they disappear. And if the vapour is contained then it will take the shape of it’s container but only if it is contained and because the particles are so far apart they are hard to contain. Closure/Setting up for the next lesson on physical and chemical changes: What do we notice happens when we pick up the ice? It changes form and becomes liquid. But why? Look at it on a microscopic level. The heat from our body creates energy and causes those particles to start to speed up and move around faster and faster. Now if we were to use something even warmer like fire. What would happen? The water would become steam and rise into the air. Explain that the water is still water. It is still made up of the same chemical properties h20 only the form has changes. As the water cools down again, the particles with come together as a liquid again; just as water droplets form on the surface of a cold window in winter or a cool glass or water. Condensation is simply water molecules cooling back down; the space between the particles becomes smaller and the particles begin to move slower. This is called a physical change because water can change from liquid to ice to vapour and still the water under a microscope will look the same. In other words, (show an H20 diagram) the chemicals that make up water stay the same. However, sometimes with matter a reaction can occur and a new substance is formed and this is called a chemical change. A chemical change happens when a new substance is formed and can’t be changed back into it’s original state. For example baking a cake. We cannot unbake a cake. The chemical properties of the ingredients mix together to form new molecules, which cannot be reversed. Tonight brainstorm and start thinking about what items you use throughout he night and whether they are solids, liquids or gasses.  Start thinking about chemical and physical changes in matter. What examples of matter can change states while still having the same physical properties and what are some examples of irreversible changes that can be made to matter.
Assessment: Formative -Students will make a chart of the three states of matter, (Solids, Liquids, Gases) and give one example of each as well as list the properties of each state. They will draw a picture of water in each state of matter and highlight what the molecules would look like under a microscope. They will explain how heat  causes the water to change states. Formative assessment. This assessment will let the teacher know whether the children understand the concept and if they can move on to the next topic.	Accounting For Learning Diversity: -  Using a video with audio is a great way to help reach the audio and visual learners in the class. The video contextualizes the material, which the teacher has presented. -  Using the physical example of the ice cube will help the kinesthetic learners grasp the concept as well. -  The teacher should also account for any other diversities such as a student with ADD who may have trouble focusing. The teacher might have the student fill out corresponding worksheet while teaching the lesson or watching the video. - A students with learning difficulties might be given a handout which is already filled out so that they can focus on the material if writing is not a strong point.
Personal Reflection:  For post teaching. It is important to reflect of how the lesson goes and especially how the media was received.