#LIBE477C - THE LAST POST... CUE MUSIC!
MY FINAL REFLECTION...
It is with great relief that I type this final post for LIBE477C. When you sent out the first email, I was the most anxious I've ever been to start a university course. What made it uncomfortable mostly for me was the technology requirements and the fact that my learning was going to be public. The time of the year was also challenging. Being able to BALANCE teaching, marking, end of year concerts & shows, family and report cards with the UBC course was very difficult this time around. Requiring me to have a greater online presence was also trying. I know that this aspect of the course was not my forte but I did what I could do with the time I had.
In one of the earlier blog posts, I talked about how LEARNING IS MESSY, and it was! Figuring out how to blog and use the tools available to insert links, videos and images for example took some time. I'm still frustrated at times when things go wrong. For example, my font changed color from grey to black on the Vision Project post and I have no idea why. When I looked it up, it's apparently a common thing in Blogger... the formatting doesn't always match the draft text. That is annoying. When I designed the infographic in CANVA.com, I added live links to the key words on the graphic, but when I uploaded it onto the blog, the live links disappeared. I have no idea why this happened. I spent hours trying to figure it out, researching online and talking to tech-savvy friends, yet no one could figure it out. This stuff stresses me out about technology. If I had better skills at fixing things with technology, I would be less fearful about using it. Funny, I feel the same way about knitting actually... and I digress...
Finding a focus was also challenging. I have so many interests that I had lots of options and therefore was having trouble finding some focus. What is interesting is that the focus popped up fairly early and was present throughout most of my posts without my knowledge at the time. Now that I am at the end, the thread of IBL/Genius Hour was evident.
Once I chose to look at IBL/Genius Hour, I went through several options and CHANGED my mind often. My first idea was to design a website in French on Genius Hour/Heure de Génies. Understanding that you had limited French but were still supportive of the idea, I thought that this was too large of a task given the time we had left to undertake such a project. My second idea was to design a French video like Chris Kessler to introduce "Heure de Génies". So, I opened an account in PowToon and spent over three hours learning how to do a video and once again I realized that I would need more time. My third idea was related to what I produced in the end. I have applied to be a presenter at the BCSSTA workshop so I thought I could prepare my Power Point presentation and submit this as my final artifact. My presentation structure was not clear enough in my head to be designed at this point and again, I thought to myself, I just don't have enough time to figure it all out. However, when I looked at the infographic on "Top 10 Skills for 21st Century Workers" produced by the University of Phoenix, I thought, I could make one of those. I had recently collaborated on an innovation grant project and my colleague and I designed a large poster using Canva.com to design it. And so, that is what I did. Despite having a little experience with this program, it still took hours to design it.
When the graphic was done, I was able to explain my final vision by using the guidelines you set Heather, but also looking at what BCSSTA wants to see in the presenter application. The final vision blog post will be submitted as my application. Hopefully you noted my personal application of IBL/Genius Hour. I started with a topic: IBL. Then I identified a problem to solve: Why do kids hate Social Studies? I am in progress of creating my workshop for the BCSSTA Conference this fall that will share a possible solution to shifting the mindset of students.
This was only my second class in the TL Diploma program at UBC. The first was very practical but relatively easy. This course was intellectually stimulating and challenging. I was uncomfortable enough though to learn something new. You sparked curiosity through the use of technology and inquiry and now I have some practical skills that I can pass on to my students. So thank you very much Heather. It has been a pleasure learning with you.
LaGrandeJAM... OUT!
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| (Image courtesy of Pixabay) |
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| (Image courtesy of Pixabay) |
Finding a focus was also challenging. I have so many interests that I had lots of options and therefore was having trouble finding some focus. What is interesting is that the focus popped up fairly early and was present throughout most of my posts without my knowledge at the time. Now that I am at the end, the thread of IBL/Genius Hour was evident.
When the graphic was done, I was able to explain my final vision by using the guidelines you set Heather, but also looking at what BCSSTA wants to see in the presenter application. The final vision blog post will be submitted as my application. Hopefully you noted my personal application of IBL/Genius Hour. I started with a topic: IBL. Then I identified a problem to solve: Why do kids hate Social Studies? I am in progress of creating my workshop for the BCSSTA Conference this fall that will share a possible solution to shifting the mindset of students.
This was only my second class in the TL Diploma program at UBC. The first was very practical but relatively easy. This course was intellectually stimulating and challenging. I was uncomfortable enough though to learn something new. You sparked curiosity through the use of technology and inquiry and now I have some practical skills that I can pass on to my students. So thank you very much Heather. It has been a pleasure learning with you.
LaGrandeJAM... OUT!
Technology can be very frustrating and challenging at times. Despite some technical setbacks, you persevered and came out of the course with more confidence around the use of ICT schools. Have a relaxing summer!
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