Author: myahmatthes (Page 1 of 3)

The group presentations this week were lots of fun! It was great to see our classmates present and was a learning opportunity for us all. Of course I loved the BandLab video, but I want to reflect on Classroom Screen.

The introduction to the Classroom Screen presentation was awesome. It’s true that most of us won’t have our own classroom for many years. Classroom screen can allow us to personalize part of our teaching experience and bring it with us if we have to switch rooms or even schools. I also loved the randomizer component. A teacher at Royal Bay told me that she uses randomizers all the time to ensure fairness in the classroom. With Classroom screen, this becomes even more accessible!

I could also use classroom screen to set up time limits for tasks or share fun images during attendance or in other situations with students. I found on the website that it has a canvas feature for students to use their creativity. One drawback would be making sure what students add is appropriate for a classroom setting.

I’m curious to know which technologies my classmates will use in their classroom. Let me know in the comments, especially if it’s one that wasn’t mentioned in class!

This week we continued to talk about AI in education. One question posed is how we can minimize plagiarism in the classroom. I know a lot of teachers already use google classroom. A useful part of google docs is being able to see the version history and how the student has worked on the assignment over time. This is a good tool to detect any potential issues. If we suspect plagiarism, we need to address the issue gently because we don’t ever want to send the message “I don’t think you’re capable of creating this work”, especially if we could be wrong.

I have been especially interested in AI this week and have tried to understand what’s going on with the firing and hiring of Sam Altman. If you want to look into this like I did, check out this article. If you read this, let me know what your thoughts are in the comments below.

With the future of AI uncertain, and the possibility of it all going behind a paywall, many ethical issues come up. If only the rich and privileged get access to AI, this is a huge issue because knowledge is power, and open sources can somewhat reduce this discrepancy.

I tried using AI in the creation of this post, but unfortunately, it’s down. This reminds me of an analogy I learned. Elevators and escalators do make movement within buildings faster and more efficient, but what do you do in the case of an emergency? You take the stairs. Do not remove stairs just because elevators and escalators exist. In the same way, we all still need skills that we can draw on when AI is down, even though it’s a great resource.

During this week’s class, we talked about gamification and teacher education. We watched some informative videos on games like minecraft and had some thoughtful discussions about using games for learning. For example, I hadn’t considered that games could trigger health problems in students such as motion sickness. I looked into this issue more and found a really interesting article on kidshealth.org. It is also important to note that not all kids enjoy video games and those students would maybe not be reached through introducing games to the class. 

Another issue when it comes to video games is age appropriateness. If a game is introduced with social ‘chat’ functions, it’s important to check if these chats are being monitored for inappropriate content. Games with reward systems can also produce decreased intrinsic motivation once rewards are removed or not present for a task. Of course, games do have many benefits and can increase engagement in even completely disinterested kids. 

I already mentioned Gizmos as a resource for games related to science. Another platform is called Habitica which can gamify your entire life. You can create your character and give it rewards for doing something as simple as chores. Teachers can also use it in their classrooms as a class points system. This is a really interesting resource that I definitely want to look further into. 

If there are any other cool ways to incorporate gamification into the classroom, comment them below!

I learned a lot in this week’s zoom class. We talked about accessibility in education and tailoring lessons to be accessible to all learners. Not all disabilities are visible and I was reminded how important it is to make accommodations all the time, not just when someone asks for them. Something that stuck with me from the first video we watched was that trees grown on sidewalks make them inaccessible. I didn’t intuitively realize this from my point of view, so it showed me how important it is to hear other people’s perspectives.

The lesson today reminded me of a cool accessibility feature I noticed this summer while travelling. On the Tube in London, there are signs that remind others that not all disabilities are visible. Those who wish can get pins that say “please offer me a seat”. I think this is good practice that can be used in Canadian public transit, or be modified to make other services more accessible as well.

We talked about UDL a bit in multiliteracies but our talk today reinforced the power of the framework. Providing options for many aspects of learning is definitely needed and I will consult the UDL website as I create my lesson plans. I also find the UDL framework table super helpful. While a drawback of the UDL may be too much planning time, a benefit for us new teachers is that we can use it as a baseline to build all of our new lessons.

I also tried using speech to text and it was a new experience I don’t feel too comfortable with yet. This was my speech-to-text output: “I’m using SpeechTexter to test out speech-to-text. To be honest I think I’m slower in speech-to-text because I think so much about what I’m going to say versus with typing I know I can go back and delete part of my sentence and it still will make sense. My sentences out loud don’t always make sense.”

Are there places and services that stand out to you as being very accessible/ inaccessible? Could their strategies be used across many different services and situations, or are they specific to the service? Let me know what you think!