Today is August 17 in 2021. I am currently enrolled at the University of Regina in ECS 495 taught by Vivian Gauvin. She has been so flexible to ensure that I get what I need from this course. A part of this flexibility was allowing me to share my knowledge with my small group of peers.
I recently took a course from Katia Hildebrandt named EDTC 300. It had a large focus on Digital Citizenship and use of Educational Technology in the classroom. I was able to define digital citizenship and its nine elements as per Mike Ribble, connect this information to curricula via the Saskatchewan document created by Alec Couros, Katia Hildebrandt and colleagues, share relatable and easily adaptable resources, and have some really fantastic discussion around how each of my peers would apply this to their classrooms. Click here for the presentation.
My hope is you learn something from the presentation but also to add more tools to your ED Tech toolboxes!
Hi again, and welcome to, the final blog post for EDTC 300. For this post, we were asked to compile some examples of how I contributed to my classmates’ and others’ learning. I consider myself a lifelong learner and through this, I can share new information to enhance others’ learning. Learning is not a one-sided experience for me; it is important that I learn from others the same amount as others learn from me. So, not only am I learning but I also like to focus on supporting those who are doing the same. This is what we were able to experience during EDTC 300. We experienced this by creating a personal learning network with other teachers, classmates, and other professionals. These connections will be long-lasting and beneficial to continue learning from one another.
I have compiled my contributions into the variety of social media we used throughout the semester: Twitter, Slack, Blog, and Anchor.
TWEET TWEET
Twitter acted as one of the strongest personal learning networks that we experienced this semester during EDTC 300. Due to an extensive amount of time spent on Twitter, I have made connections that will benefit me for years to come. For example, following the SaskEdChats to connect with more teachers and to challenge my biases and to learn and grow from these connections.
Not only did I participate in a few SaskEdChats, but I was also able to fill my personal Twitter feed with quality, relatable content that allowed others to grow their knowledge from class content. I also was aware of my bias towards high school teaching and attempted to share resources for other grade levels. Some examples of these contributions are below.
Tweet Reply (1/2)
Tweet Reply (2/2)
Slacking off
Slack was a less audience-directed app that we were to use, for example, if classmates had questions, whether directly to a classmate or the whole class. We used this as a method to bounce questions off of each other and this has created a sense of community because of this communication. It was great to have classmates reply with their opinion or suggestions to find an answer to the questions. I loved that this modeled what being on a teaching staff is like – it will prepare students for this transition as they enter their professions. I am a technologically literate person so I did my best to give suggestions when my classmates were having issues with their technology or any of the social media or blog platforms we used. Here are some of my contributions to the Slack community.
I B-log here
This was my favourite part of EDTC 300 – blogging and commenting on my classmates’ blogs. This is where I felt the most connected to my classmates. This is because we were all experiencing the same, new information and reflecting on it much differently. This is where a majority of my learning took place because of the wide variety of thoughts and responses to the prompt posts and their learning projects. It was great to read a different point of view or a different method of approaching the new content. It was also great to experience difficulty and success in our learning projects, side by side. It felt like a very supportive community of people with the same experience(s). Here are a few examples of how I responded to others’ blogs and provided learning in my own blog posts.
ANCHOR Overboard
Anchor was one of the apps I tried in one of my blog posts, called Lower The Anchor. I really enjoyed the user-friendly platform because students would have an easy time adjusting to this kind of app. I also loved that it was available on all devices. This means that if for some reason, there is not enough tech available, students can use their phones to participate. Due to a bit of experience in an actual classroom, I teamed up with a classmate, Tina, to provide an opportunity to share some of our experiences with our other classmates. Tina set up a Google form that our classmates had access to and, with that information, we used Anchor as our method of answering the questions from the form. We did a two-part podcast and were able to use the share function on Anchor so that we could speak into our own devices, from our own homes. We did get some really good feedback on how helpful it was to have those questions answered prior to their teaching careers. Below is our podcast and a few responses to the podcast.
Overall, I am very pleased with the exponential learning and connection I have made outside of the classroom and look forward to continuing the connections I have made on our social media accounts. I loved that this provided many different perspectives and challenged my current thinking. These types of personal learning networks are a great asset to my professional development and I look forward to expanding them. I would love to know if I have made an impact on you throughout the last 4 months. Leave a comment below and reach out when you like, I am always here to help and learn alongside you.
It has happened. It is the FINAL countdown (or the final learning project post). I have appreciated this course more than any other because I have been able to pick up my guitar and learn to play enough to feel confident in continuing the skill. This final learning project post is meant to conclude all of the learning that has happened over the last 11 weeks and to share resources that I have experienced and will be valuable to others. I hope that this post gives you motivation and confidence to learn an instrument. I will be grateful for this experience because of how valuable this will be in the continuation of learning the guitar.
An Overview of my Learning Project
Week One:Enthusiasm is everything
I started this journey of blogging by describing my personal connection, through my grandparents ability to play the guitar, and my enthusiasm towards learning the guitar after owning it for so long. I concluded with the things I needed to start this process and how I approached learning this new skill. Read this blog post here.
Week Two:Easter Bunnies Get Dizzy At Easter
Easter Bunnies Get Dizzy At Easter (EBGDAE) is the acronym for memorizing the strings. I also learned the anatomy of an electric guitar, how to hold the guitar and pick, plug into an amplifier and how to strum the guitar. The main resource I used this week was Fender Play and its’ sister app Fender Play Tuner.I used my Samsung phone to record a few songs and uploaded these voice notes to Google Drive for easy sharing.
Week Three:Strumming Along
In Strumming Along, I spent a lot of time learning the introductory courses offered on Fender Play. It consisted of learning the Batman theme song riff, strumming quarter, half and whole notes, how to read chord diagrams and tabs, and finishing with learning ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love’ by Barry White. This week was a confidence booster that I could play these songs and it started the enthusiasm train. I used my Samsung phone again to record some voice notes of me playing the two songs and shared them on Google Drive again. Read this blog post here.
Week Four: A String of Bad Luck
This week’s post explained how Fender Play started to not be as helpful as I felt it was too challenging but I kept pushing forward. This week felt a bit of enthusiasm fall off because it wasn’t giving me as many results as I was hoping for. I did learn how to play E minor and A minor notes, which are common notes in almost all songs played on the guitar. I used Spotify this week to help identify some songs that I was learning. I find it helpful to hear the original version so that I know what I am trying to generate.
Week Five:Fender Bender
This week I learned how to play more of the common notes that exist amongst songs, specifically the D, G and C notes. This was really great for laying out a path for me to continue with this journey. I skipped ahead in the Fender Play courses and found a Lady Gaga song which was incredibly fun to play. I did have to use Spotify again to learn some of the other riffs. Continue learning about this week’s learning here.
Week Six:I Know How to Shred
In I Know How to Shred, I used a new resource called Ultimate Guitar. After realizing that Fender Play was no longer helping me fast enough for this project, I researched for more resources to prolong my journey. I also used these: Guitar Mastery Method, GuitarLessons, and Songsterr. These resources aided the progress I had already made and allowed me to make even more.
Week Seven:I’m at a Payphone
This week’s blog post included the beginning of learning the song ‘Payphone’ by Maroon 5. This started to get me really excited because it felt like I was able to keep up for once. It felt like the last 6 weeks have paid off. I researched some individuals on YouTube who had tutorials for this specific song and landed on Fingerstyle Club. The guitarist had tabs and chords available through Patreon. I found this “finger-style” option a bit different than my normal but it was enticing. I also used my Macbook’s preloaded PhotoBooth app for creating the video on my blog post.
Week Eight:If Happy Ever Afters Did Exist
In If Happy Ever Afters Did Exist, I ventured a bit further into playing Payphone by Maroon 5. I attempted to use Ultimate Guitar tabs again to learn, however, I had to look up a couple of things to fill in some gaps in my skills. I found JustinGuitar on YouTube (Stop Struggling with Strumming!) and this helped explain strumming patterns to me. I also researched some other resources for this project, specifically Artist works and JamPlay.
Week Nine:Capo n’ Crunch
In this week’s blog post, I learned how to properly place a capo onto the fretboard and continued to learn Payphone. I also reverted back to the Fingerstyle Club version of Payphone because the result sounded a lot more like the song itself. In the previous resources, the guitar was usually the background music to the singing so it was not as exciting. I also tried Chordify based on a referral from a classmate. It was great but not as awesome as Fingerstyle Club Payphone tutorial.
Week Ten:All of my change I’ve spared on you
To conclude, here is a video of me playing what I have learned from the Fingerstyle Club tutorial. Enjoy and thank you for following along with my progression with the guitar! I used Photo Booth to create the video of me playing the first 3 bars of Payphone by Maroon 5. I look forward to playing the whole song one day soon!
Here are my top 5 resources for learning guitar. These resources were valuable in beginning my guitar-playing journey.
YouTube:YouTube is the best way to learn an instrument (among other things) because there are several different versions and ways of learning. I really like that you can Google Cast to a smart TV (I used this lots). I also used YouTube to upload many pieces of my learning project so that I could share things on my blog seamlessly. It is my highest recommended option for learning an instrument.
Fender Play:Fender Play is a paid app, however, it is only $6.99/month. It has a WIDE variety of lessons and courses to lead you to mastery. It is something that I used at the beginning of this journey but trailed off due to the time constraint. It is something that I will continue to pay for to further my skills. It has a variety of delivery methods which makes it great for every type of learner.
Ultimate Guitar:Ultimate Guitar Tabs and Chords is an app and a website that has MANY versions of each song imaginable. It is great because it has many options available to you including, metronome, song playback, chord diagrams (pro and chords), showing the fretboard, choosing the speed of playback, etc. It is user friendly and easy to start playing a song quickly. See my walkthrough here.
ArtistWorks: ArtistWorks is VERY similar to Fender Play because they are both created with the same concept: learn from guitar masters. It is a paid app so I did not indulge in paying for this app as I did for Fender Play. It has a lot of positive reviews from what I can find online and I would recommend it as well.
Yousician: From what I can see without paying, it looks very interactive and they make it fun to learn. One thing it does have over ArtistWorks and FenderPlay is that they give feedback to your playing. I think that interaction is crucial to learning a new instrument. Yousician offers guitar, bass, piano, singing, and ukulele lessons.
Classmate Shout-outs!
In this learning project I have been able to follow along with others from EDTC 300 that were also learning instruments. Check them out below:
I have had such a fantastic, frustrating, exciting, and defeating experience with this learning project and I feel much more confident because of it. I have many skills that will prime the continuation of these guitar skills. I have a lot to learn but I am grateful that something such as an assignment has made me pick up my guitar after owning one for almost a year and a half. Thank you to the University of Regina for having a course such as this available to its students and thank you to Katia, our professor, for providing us with the opportunity for such an assignment. I look forward to continuing this guitar journey over time. Thank you to those who have followed along and sang praises in their own blogs. Finally, I hope that you have gained something from following along with me. Rock on!
I cannot believe that this is our last week of prompted blog posts! This week we were asked to go and have some fun coding. We were given the following options to practice coding:
I chose to use Code and did the Hour of Code option: Intro to App Lab under the “comfortable” skill level because I have no issues picking up new skills when it comes to technology. Watch the progress below:
As expected, I didn’t have any issues navigating the hour of code that ended in doing a second one called Dance Party.
What I Learned
I certainly learned how easy it was to code using this method. I also understand how difficult it can be for those using it to code apps we use on our phones daily. I cannot imagine how long it took to code all of the functions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other related social media platforms.
Thoughts & Applications
I really like the idea of Code and how it has coding available for all different grades and skill levels. I think it makes it more welcoming for any kind of student. I also liked how easy it was to navigate the website and use filters to find the correct grade and level of difficulty. I also enjoyed that students receive a certificate for the completion of the coding tasks – it gives them a sense of accomplishment that they can share with their friends and family. Again, something that elementary and middle-year students would be more excited about than high school students. Ah, who am I kidding? I got one and I was excited for it.
It has many applications to the school curriculum and makes learning not feel so much like ‘work’ for students. If I taught middle years, I feel like it would have multiple applications to those curricula. I have a hard time stretching how it would apply to the high school curriculum, especially mathematics. However, I did notice that there was university-level coding available but never had the chance to check that part of the website out.
Thanks for following along with my prompted posts and you will see, in the next week or so, some concluding thoughts on the class as well as a final learning project post!
