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Reflection

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Reflection This course was beneficial to me as an educator in that I learned not only a few new technologies to incorporate into my teaching but also how to create a PBL, a UbD and develop a grant. In the past, I had considered all of these to be too time-consuming. The PBL is somewhat time-consuming, but if you have an idea and sources, the process goes rather quickly. The UbD took considerable time. There were many components to consider, but in the end, I had a unit that will last at least a month and provide students with a unique learning experience. I was most surprised about the ease of writing the grant. I know some grants require letters of references and lots of other data, but the NEF grant that I chose was pretty straightforward. It was a form and you basically just fill it out and get a few signatures. I also looked at several other grants and many of these were simply comprised of completing a form with three or four boxes - seems easy enough. Moving forward, I plan
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EEND 678 Artifact 2

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Artifact 2 Student Device Agreement Form The second artifact I choose was the student device agreement form that I created. With technology becoming more and more present in all schools, it is important that the first thing students learn is digital citizenship and what it means to be responsible and accountable when using technology. Often in my classes, we discuss the importance of being cautious of an individual's digital footprint, but we tend to overlook the responsibility that comes with borrowing a device. My school is 1:1 Chromebook and most students do a great job of keeping their devices maintained; however, there are approximately 2-3 students in each class with Chromebooks that are on the verge of being unusable - shattered screens, missing keys, frame coming off of monitor, keyboard not attached properly and so on. When I speak to these students about the condition of their device, they do not seem to mind or even care. In my opinion, if a student cannot m
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EEND 678 Artifact 1

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ARTIFACT 1 UbD Link The first artifact I chose was the Understanding by Design Unit. Prior to this class, I had heard of UbD units; however, I had never created one. It seemed like quite a bit of work and research would be involved in creating one of these units. After creating a UbD unit, my thinking was correct - at least for me. Creating the unit was time-consuming and took many hours to plan and incorporate common core standards with the use of meaningful technology. So it definitely took some determination to complete. The article, Understanding by Design Framework by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins was helpful in understanding the concepts of UbD units. According to McTighe and Wiggins, "Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content knowledge, skill, or activity" (ASCD Online). This really helped me in designing my unit by knowing that I would take a less prominent role in student work, but at the same time, it was a bit difficult t
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EEND 677 Artifact 2

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Artifact 2 Adobe Spark Video My second artifact is the video I made using the Adobe Spark site. I chose this as my second artifact because it, in my opinion, is incredibly neat for lack of better terms. The idea that teachers and students have access to tools to create videos is amazing. I really like how my video turned out. The video is a trailer for Macbeth. My vision was for the trailer was to be dark and mysterious and I feel that I accomplished that. Bear in mind, the video is for 10th graders. I am not sure it is suitable for elementary students. The only part of the video I don't like is my voiceover. My voice isn't deep enough to create the effect that I wanted, but I came fairly close in my attempt. At the very least, the kids will enjoy it. I was a bit uncertain if creating a video would be academic enough. My concern was that students would be just having fun and not really   showing  what they have learned in the process. The article Test Their Know
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EEND 677 Artifact 1

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Artifact 1 GOOGLE DRAW LINK I choose this artifact because I am happy with the final product. I didn't think it was possible to make such professional graphic designs using Google Draw. After spending a short time trying the various tools, Google Draw proved to be an easy resource to use. When first assigned this activity I was worried as I had not used Google Draw in quite some time and the last time I used it I did not like the resource. It seemed a bit disconnected and difficult to use. This time it was much better. It still took me a while to get comfortable with the tools and how to use them correctly, but once I became comfortable the creation of the graphic was simplistic, yet creative. I created a graphic that I plan to make a poster of and use in my classroom regarding the CUE strategy (context, use quotation, explain) for writing papers. There were no major problems when using this technology other than my biased opinion from when I had used the technology
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EEND 677 Reflection

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EEND 677Y has exposed me to many resources and tools that I was unaware existed. Two of my favorite new tools that I was exposed to include Vocaroo, a voice recording site and Adobe Spark which is a great site for making videos. This course also introduced me to both virtual reality and augmented reality for learning. I knew about virtual reality and how it is used for entertainment, but I was unaware of the potential it had when used academically. The same applies to augmented reality. I had heard of it being used in games and in some academic settings, but I have no experience or knowledge on using either of these tools in class myself. I was uncertain as to what the main differences were between these two technologies. According to the article Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality from Augment Online, the main difference is virtual reality places the user in the experience through site and sound in contrast to augmented reality which includes computer-generated enhancements
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Graphic Design

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Incorporating graphic design into the classroom is important regardless of the grade being taught. I currently teach 10th grade English for both general education students and in a special education instructional setting. In these classes, students are often involved in creating presentations and delivering speeches with visual aids. Prior to this module, I was aware of the statistic that 93% of communication is nonverbal, but I was unaware of some of the other statistics mentioned in The Power of Visual Communication Infographic, specifically that 80% of what we see and do is retained versus only 20% of what we read and only 10% of what we hear (2017). Considering this information, in order to maximize student engagement and retention of meaningful information. The use of infographics, images, slide presentations and other visual media is key to providing the best educational learning environment possible. By incorporating as much visual media/learning as possible, I will better
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