Marginalizing Confusion With Maximized Confidence

Author: johntitanic (Page 1 of 3)

I created this video of my roommates at night. The music is me playing Blackbird which I recorded on my phone, then emailed it to myself and added to imovie.

I wanted to create this film because learning how to make these short videos has been a major take away for me from this course. I enjoyed  many aspects of learning how to use different technologies however what has so far been most useful to me has been the ability to make these video’s. They are both enjoyable and educational to make.

Third Recording

I am becoming much more comfortable with the song. It is coming a lot more naturally. Unfortunately I am unable to upload the recording I made on garage band but I find the recordings I make in voice memo sound a lot better anyways.

To find out why the recordings I made on Garage Band sounded so off, I recored my roommate playing Country Road by John Denver. Although he was both strumming and singing quite loud, It still did not sounds right. The sharp noises of his guitar were picked up much more clearly then any other noises. Furthermore his voice sounded quite distant. If I was going to pursue this kind of recording further I would invest in a proper microphone.

 

Garage Band

After playing around with Garage Band on my Mac for a while I have come to the conclusion that things would sound a lot better with a proper microphone. I feel as though the background is very empty and only the sharp sounds of my guitar are picked up.  I played around with the program trying to get it to focus on all the sounds of my guitar evenly but no matter what it seems to only focus on the high, sharp noises. It does not help that I am not very good at playing the song. But since taking my roommates advice the song sounds a lot better.

I am also running into a lot of difficulty uploading what I have just created on Garage Band to this blog post. I was hoping to add my recording on Garage band and compare the sound to what I recorded on my phone but I am unable to. I will continue practicing and continue adding other forms of recoding until I learn how to upload what I have done on Garage Band to this blog.

Second Recording

My roommate is a very talented musician. After hearing me practice the song the wrong way, he showed me the proper way of picking the tune so that I would sound better. I can already tell the song sounds much more like the Beatles version. Although now I have an entirely different element to practice. I do not think i will be ready to sing this song anytime soon as singing while picking can be difficult for me. Once again this recording is not the best but I have improved from last time.

In terms of recording I would very much like to  practice using Garage Band to record myself. I have heard a lot of great things so I am thinking I will research it, learn how to use it and then for my next recording use that tech on my Macbook.

 

Notes from class November 22

Apps for Outdoor Ed

– Can provide students with amazing information they would otherwise not have available.

  • They require tech not all students may have.
  • Unfortunately students spend more time looking at screens.

Cool apps:

  • inaturalist
  • seek
    • identify species, user friendly, hold up device to anything you’d like to identify and it will tell you what it is.

-itrack wildlife

    • Looks for foot prints to identify animal. Costs money unfortunately.
    • Merlin: bird identifying app.
    • Seaweed sorter: good for identifying seaweed which are difficult to differentiate.
    • Peak finder: can be used for interest when hiking/ traveling. Also good for navigation.
    • Glob observer: tracks weather, mosquitos, tree height.
    • Nasa app: live stream from ISS
    • Skype a scientist: call a scientist from your class. Hundreds you can choose from.

Most of these do not require data but do require pre-downloading of information.

Language and communication Technology

  • In the UN they use tech to communicate with each other.

  • Google translate is the main resource some educators are using to communicate with students who are learning english.

    • Download the app for the best features.

    • may want a device specifically for this purpose so that emails, texts are not coming in while working with a student.

    • Touch chat: an excellent tool to communicate with non verbal people.

    • Best practices and tips: visuals, new tech always, keep tech separate from devices that have fun.

Notes From Class November 15th

Today we listened to a presentation about introducing open learning design intervention. Speaker Verena R. Spoke to us via web conference from Calgary. Bellow are some interesting take aways from the conference.

  • Learning is learning: it doesn’t matter how you got access to the learning.
  • Older students were very interested in power point.
  • When doing video conferencing, or using technology of any sort in the class it is important to have back up plans incase the primary technology does not work.

Notes from our immediate class.

  • We have to be flexible in supporting learners. They have preferences and we can use technology to accommodate those preferences.

How we can use Open Ed resources:

  • very accessible
  • context is timely
  • overcomes a variety of barriers
  • Issues such as lack of access to tech can arise.
  • Tech difficulties can hinder lessons
  • Teaches digital citizenship.

    -Common sense education has lesson plans to teach specifically about digital citizenship

How does Tech Integration affect students?

  • when it is seamless students become more engaged.
  • Maintain a balance between the physical and virtual world.
  • Slender man documentary
  • Talk about safe use of the internet
  • Use the settings available to you to protect students
  • To integrate tech you need routine and transparency. If you only use it once then students will spend the whole time exploring it.
  • 4h40m a day of screen time can impact a students psycho- social functioning.

3D printing

  • video about printing prosthetic. A man named Easton created a print design and released the rights to it so now anyone can access it they just need to pay fro the printing.
  • 3D printed homes are becoming a reality.

Minecraft Tutorial

Learning how to play Minecraft from grade 8 students was an awesome experience. I learned about Minecraft about 7 years ago while watching my friend play it in Montreal. I didn’t understand the appeal but he really enjoyed it. Then more recently I found out it was huge amongst gamers.

The way in which this teacher was using Minecraft as a means of building community in the classroom and teaching the curriculum was so creative and inspiring. I am excited to practice listening and learning from students when I become a teacher.  I know that my technological skills require a lot of development so I will surely be asking students for assistance when it comes to using computer programs and apps they are more comfortable  with.

My main take away from this class was the amazing confidence the students had while interacting with us adults. I feel although they must have been quite proud of themselves to be able to blow future teachers away with their skills and knowledge of this game. Furthermore they were able to facilitate our fun and education. This demonstrates the value of putting students in the position of the expert. It benefits the lesson and their confidence.

Exploring How to Edit Images

I very much enjoyed learning how to edit and photo shop images. When asked to explore this technology many of my classmates began creating an interesting looking version of their name, or they created a logo for themselves. I started out trying to combine images in powerpoint when Michael told me that the website Pixlr was much better for what I was aiming to do. So in the end I created a billboard for a pretend film. It was a blast. I really enjoy the freedom we have to explore the new forms of technology we are introduced to in this class. I made some other notes of suggested website and online tools bellow.

Mac screenshot is shift- command- 4

Prisma is a great for photos.

Comica takes photos and makes them look like they are from comic books.

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