Major Project Blog II: Introduction to Sewing

I finally got the opportunity to start learning how to sew. To start things off I decided to start off with learning about the most basic sewing technique, the straight stitch, or a single and short embroidery stitch. I decided to turn to Youtube to learn the basics of the straight stitch. After reviewing the video I asked Samantha, who is my critical friend for the project, how I should start my project. Sam came to the conclusion that sewing a mini pillow together would be a great hands on experience for a first timer. 

Supplies for the pillow

Lucky for me Sam has enough crafting supplies to open a mini Jo-Ann Fabrics store stashed away in one of our closets. She supplied me with felt fabric, polyester fiberfill (I call it stuffing), a needle, thread, and some sewing pins. She decided to start me off with felt because it's an easier fabric to sew and she gave me a larger needle so I could thread it easier. The pins are there to help hold the fabric in place as I sew.

Threading the needle and straight stitch sewing

Straight stitch shown before the flip

Towards the end of the sewing Sam noted that I should leave a part of the fabric open for the stuffing and so that I can flip the fabric inside out. She said that this is common because the stitching won't show. She also tipped me off with the thought that you don't want to keep the fabric too open because it will be a pain to sew the pillow closed when the stuffing is inside.

Sam demonstrating the ladder stitch

Sam taught me another sewing technique to close the pillow without the stitches showing. This technique is known as the ladder stitch. The ladder stitch (often referred to as the hidden, slip, or blind stitch) is a technique that is mostly used on dolls and stuffed animals. Steps on how to sew using the ladder stitch technique can be found here.

In my first major project blog I noted that one of the benefits of sewing was that it can help you focus better. I bring this up because I have a history of finding it difficult to focus on one thing at a time. This often leads me to straying away from whatever my current task may be.When it came to sewing the pillow I can say that I was definitely focused on it without hardly any distractions affecting me. Maybe it was because I wanted to be extra careful so I didn't accidentally poke myself with needle. I hope that my focus when sewing continues and that it could eventually lead to an improvement of me being able to focus outside of it. Despite what I believe is a very poor stitching technique I have to say that sewing the pillow was an entertaining experience and I am looking forward to doing more!

Final Product

Blog Entry VII: EBooks

Technology is always providing us with tons of new educational opportunities. When both education and technology are brought up together I think that the topic of ebooks is something that is thought of quite often. Implementing the usage or creation of ebooks into classroom instruction can prove to be beneficial. 

As a college student two questions come mind when I first think about textbooks: How much does the book cost? And How am I going to get my hands on the book? An option to get an ebook version makes things convenient. Due to being electronic the book can be cheaper and it is always available. Just this semester I had to wait 2 weeks before getting a textbook for one of my classes. By that experience you can tell that the option to not have to wait for a book is very appealing to me. Even in grades k-12 access to ebooks can help lower expenses. 

Ebooks can be used by teachers regardless of their area of curriculum. Not only can you use them for different subjects, but you can also use them in any grade level. Software that creates ebooks also provide a great opportunity to get students interested, promote creativity, and keep them engaged in classroom activities. Ebook creation can be used to create formative and summative assessment, project based learning. There are plenty of ideas that students can use when creating their own ebook. They can create "How to" books (how to build something, how to cook something, a step by step process to solve a problem), "About Me" books, poetry books, both fiction and non-fiction books. Ebooks also provide an opportunity for students to share their work outside of the classroom.  

Whether it's the possibility of including audio, videos, enhancing font size, saving trees, lightening backpacks, getting students more involved, or other unmentioned benefits, ebooks offer a ton of them without hardly any downsides (I personally can't think of any). I think that students would really enjoy getting the opportunity to use and create ebooks. Ebooks are definitely something that all teachers should consider researching and working with. 

Cool Tool Blog Entry III: Jing

Jing is a device that is used to take snapshots of your desktop, or can be used to record a screencast. A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output and often contains audio narration. It is free to download and use after signing up and can be found on the techsmith website. The website also offers other devices available for download such Snagit (screen capture and screen recorder), Camtasia (video editor), Relay (lecture capture solution).  Techsmith also offers much appreciated tutorials and tech support with their devices so that their users don't have to struggle to learn how to use the device. 

  When downloaded, Jing will take up a tiny spot on your computer desktop (pictured above). Jing is easy to use. It's easy to start a recording and you can even select which parts of your screen you want to screenshot or record with ease. Jing also promotes online learning, professional development with technology, and can even promote student created content via technology. When it comes to the classroom, you can use Jing to give lectures, give tutorials, give tips on an assignment, and give feedback to students. In this article from techsmith, a technology specialist talks about the positive responses she got from her students when using the device to grade their papers. Down below I used Jing to create a screencast. The video is brief but shows a how well the program can be by just knowing the basics.

When it comes to student usage, I think of students using Jing to potentially share ideas, or if they are woking on a presentation they can use it to narrate. I think that some narrating to go along with a slideshow presentation would be a good idea.
The downside to using this program is that without paying for the better version (Snagit), you are going to have some trouble sharing your videos online. This is because the original format that the recording is saved as is a small web format (swf). Swf is not a common format and it took me a bit of time to find a converter so that I could change the file to a mp4. I did manage to find a way to convert the video here, but as you can see in my video above there is a brand on the top left of the screen. Overall I think that Jing is a good device, but I would probably look for better options that don't include the hassle of format converting.

Blog Entry VI: Copyright

When it comes to education I have always believed that making your content available for others to access is important. We all know that internet has done a wondrous job of expanding openness by allowing us to communicate, share, and work together through easier methods. By making content more available we are providing students with better learning opportunities. Although the internet has provided us with an extraordinary amount of content, some of it is protected through copyright. 

Review:
Copyright is what protects our ideas and work. When we create something, whether it's a work of art, a song, a video, a book or something else it automatically becomes copyrighted. When your work is copyrighted, it means that other people cannot share it without your permission. There are alternatives to copyright in case you don't want your work to be completely protected. The alternatives are known as Creative Commons. Creative Commons allows you to create rules or conditions for those that want to share your work. Some of these rules include:
Attribution: requires that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request
ShareAlike: You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms.
NonCommercial: You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.
NoDerivatives: You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first. 

As someone that heavily supports the idea of sharing content, it's also important to understand the laws of copyright and creative commons. Because of how connected the world is and how easy it is to access digital content, it is very easy to duplicate material. For this reason teachers may access content illegally; and sometimes they may not even realize they are doing it. Understanding and abiding by these rules is part of what being a digital citizen is about. As teachers we should want to be trustworthy citizens and reflect so that our students can see. By understanding the rules of copyright, we can teach our students about them as well. As I've mentioned before, it's important to teach them about setting the bar for ethical standards. It's about responsibility, and supporting the future work to help make our world better. 

Major Project Blog I: Threading the Needle

After spending quite some time thinking about the major project I finally decided to take the option to learn and share and something. After the intense brainstorming session I finally decided that I would take the time to learn how to sew and how to construct simple garments.

Why sewing? In the simplest of words I can just say that I find it interesting. How I came to the thought of doing it is a little out of the ordinary. My girlfriend. Samantha, and I enjoy attending anime and comic book conventions. We even dress up sometimes; Sam dresses up quite more often than I do. Making costumes that aren't produced often lead to them having to be handmade. Sam has quite a bit of experience with making costumes. Her having this experience often means that if I decide to dress up for a convention, Sam is the one stuck making my costume. Hopefully by learning how to sew I can help her make costumes while adding another useful skill to my collections of talents!

Sam as Peter Pan and me as Peter Pan's Shadow from Halloween

One great thing about learning how to sew is that there are a wide range of resources available on the internet. These sources range from tutorials, videos on Youtube and other websites, patterns, plus more. Not to mention Sam has already agreed to be my critical friend for this project. I'm confident that her sewing abilities and craftsmanship will do a phenomenal job of supporting, reviewing, and assisting me and my work. 

Learning how to sew comes with some benefits. You could patch up a hole or sew a button back on to a shirt, you make your own gifts for loved ones, and it can ultimately save or even make you some money. I think that sewing can help build your motor skills, it can help you focus better, and also help promote creativity.

Throughout the major project I intend to learn the basics of both hand sewing and sewing using a machine. I will also be looking to document my progress through text, pictures, and hopefully video recordings as well. I'd like to be able to sew patterns and end up sewing together something like a quality t-shirt or a pair shorts. Maybe if I become awesome I can create something even more complex. I'm excited to get started on this project!
        

Sewing machines look simple on the outside, but are actually quite complex.

Blog Entry V: Digital Citizenship

What is digital citizenship? When it comes to technology use I like to think of digital citizenship is about knowing how to be responsible and knowing what behavior is appropriate. Upholding these standards and leading by example is also important. Becoming media literate significant when it comes to digital citizenship. Think for a moment, how well do you understand online terminology? Do you know what phishing is? Would you be able to tell me what the word "cookies" means when it comes to technology? Luckily if you're ever curious about the meaning of an unfamiliar word there are websites that can help you (or you could always "Google it"). Because we are so heavily dependent on technology, knowing how to access and being able to create or evaluate media is essential in today's society. Becoming a digital citizen offers many opportunities. Some of these opportunities include gaining a better means of accessing information, expanding connections, and also being able to participate and collaborate with learning communities.  

We all know that digital citizenship affects both our personal AND our professional lives. In what ways they affect you are based on the decisions that you make. In my opinion I think that you could say that your digital citizenship in your personal and professional life even overlaps. There have been many people that have been fired for sharing certain social media posts. Despite there being an overlap I think that it's important to try to keep them as separate as possible. Take our class for example, there's a reason why we created brand new twitter accounts instead of using existing ones. We don't want to see a retweet about something stupid a famous person may have done or said (although it may have been hilarious) while we're looking at our educational based twitter feed.  

 Privacy is important online. Lots of adults fear for their child's safety because just like the real world, there are also dangers on the internet. Due to the large amount of anonymity there is, the internet may in times be more dangerous than the real world. I can happily say that I have neither been a victim of online harassment nor have I hurt someone over the internet. At the same time it hurts to know that some of my closest friends have been victims of harassment through the internet.  

Whether you're a teacher or a parent, it's important teach kids about the internet.  Growing up in a linked community where everybody is sharing and participating, it's important to teach them about setting the bar for ethical standards to combat cyber bullying; it's important to teach them about privacy and the consequences of sharing information or pictures. Just like the real world, ethical behavior needs to be implemented into the digital world. By teaching students about ethics, what's important to share and what to keep private we can build a safer community on the internet.  

Cool Tool Blog Enrty II: LucidChart

The cool tool that decided to review for this week is a web based program called LucidChart. LucidChart allows its users to collaborate and work together using many type of charts. Some of these charts include: flow charts, organizational charts, mind maps, and other kinds of charts and diagrams. Signing up to use the content on the website is free; and you can also sign in using your gmail account. Even though the website is free to use, there are some features that are only accessible to those who have a paid subscription. As you can see in the picture below, some of the features you receive for the paid description include: more space to make your charts/diagrams bigger, third party integrations, and simply more content to work with. Even though some of the features provided are locked behind a paywall, there's still plenty of resources that can be accessed with the free membership. The program overall, in my opinion, was enjoyable to use.

 Subscription Options

LucidChart is integrated with applications that include Microsoft Word, PowerPoint,  Excel, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and many others. This is pretty convenient, especially in education where some of these apps are used quite often. I found LucidChart to be very user friendly when working with it. It is also packed with many tutorials that are easy to follow. When starting out LucidChart helps start its users off by "tailoring" the user's experience to the website. Below you can see some of the categories you can choose from. If you select education there's also an option to pick between a teacher and a student. 

    Experience Categories

I decided to take the opportunity to test LucidChart by using it to create an old buddy from math class. That old friend would happened to be named "Measure Man". I learned about Measure Man when I was in 5th grade. Measure Man (which is pictured below) was created with hardly any trouble. It was a fun experience to make him again while learning how to use the website. What's great about the picture is all of the units presented are in ratio, so if you were to cut them out you could put  2 cups would fit in a pint, 2 pints would fit in a quart, and 4 quarts into the gallon. I think that this accuracy could prove to be quite beneficial for students to learn since some students learn better visually. 

Measure Man in all of his glory

I think that implementing LucidChart into classroom lessons would be a great experience for students. I think what makes LucidChart a really good website to use is how easy it is to learn how to use it. Because of how easy it is to use you wouldn't have to waste much time teaching the students how to use it. LucidChart is great for many subjects. You can make use it to make timelines for social studies, you can use it to it record data by making a table or graph for math or science, you can also use it to map out important parts of a story for language arts. I think that LucidChart is a great way to implement technology into the classroom, and I really do believe that it works well with visual learning. This is something that I will definitely remember for future use. 

Blog Entry IV: TPACK

As time goes on and we progress in society, teaching in a classroom becomes more complex. The idea of technology wasn't always associated with pedagogy and content knowledge. The use of technology has grown exponentially, and has become an important part of our classrooms. TPACK (or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) is the perfect example of this. I think that the model of TPACK  is something that all teachers should consider from time to time when planning for their classroom activities and instruction.  

The TPACK Model

The image above shows the model of TPACK and a quick rundown of each section will be give below: 

Content Knowledge (CK): Understanding the content, concepts, facts, procedures.   

Pedagogical Knowledge (PK): Understanding the principles of instruction. Knowing what model, activity or strategy a teacher can use to teach content standards or to meet the needs of the learners. 

 Technological Knowledge (TK): To understand and operate with educational technologies.  

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PKC): Important for understanding the methods to teach certain standards. 

Technological Content Knowledge (TCK): Understanding the role of technology in the subject matter. 

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK): Use of technology as a tool for instruction, and to support student learning. Knowing what technology to use to make instruction more successful. 

TPACK: Understanding all of these and making learning more engaging, efficient, and effective. 

Growing up I would always hear from my friends who were struggling in math say "The teacher doesn't know how to teach". As a person that is preparing to teach math one day, this is something I want to avoid when becoming a teacher. I want to strengthen my pedagogical knowledge so that I will be able to plan and use strategies that will help my students meet and go beyond expectations. 

Using technology in the classroom is important, but it can also be tricky. When implementing technology into instruction it's important to take certain things into consideration. For example, is the technology you're using actually making the instruction better? Are the students engaging in it? Some students learn in different ways and at a different pace than others. Because of this the technology you may choose for an activity may not benefit those students. Certain technological devices may distract other students as well.  Another question you may want to ask yourself is "Am I using this technology to its fullest potential"? I say this with smart boards in mind. Based off of my personal experience as a student I know that not all teachers use smart boards to their fullest potential. Remember that you can always get feedback from your students after these activities to see what uses of technology are effective for your class. 

TPACK is a great model to follow because it helps teachers understand different domains of teaching. It can help teachers recognize what their strengths and weakness are when it comes to instruction, which allows them to work on the weakened areas. It helps promote active learning, it enriches the curriculum, strengthens relationships between students and teachers and can heighten expectations. TPACK also helps promote communication and collaboration with other teachers. Remember, sharing is caring!   

Cool Tool Blog Entry I: SlideGo

SlideGo is a website that you can use to create slideshow presentations. SlideGo is free (which is always great) and is integrated with your social network. This mean that you can sign in with your pre existing Google, Yahoo, or even your Facebook account instead of having to go through the process of creating and registering a new account (which is still offered). I think that this is a pretty convenient feature. 

Index Page

SlideGo has some notable features. The content can be both edited and played on mobile devices. It is also compatible with programs that facilitate learning like Moodle and Edmodo, two programs that I think are very popular. SlideGo offers a feature that allows multiple editing. This is a great feature seeing as partners won't always be able to work together. Being able to work and edit while not being together can help make a project or presentation go much smoother. SlideGo also offers the option to either broadcast live, or to present offline. SlideGo offers a support forum on as well so that you can get questions that you may have answered. 

The site has a lot of content that can be viewed. One notable stand out are the collections that the website has. Pictured below shows lessons that were created and uploaded by teachers to be shared on the site. 

 Collections

I personally had some trouble navigating the website. I couldn't figure out where you could start to create a powerpoint, so I had to upload a previous one and edit it just so I could test it out. After testing it out I can personally say I don't like how the tool works. Despite having a forum for support there isn't a tutorial to use the website either and the quick glance video displayed on the index page seems outdated. I think that it's more simple just to stick with Microsoft powerpoint or the google powerpoint for creating the slideshows. Since I think that it's more simple to use Microsoft Powerpoint  I don't think that I would have my students use this site to make presentations in the classroom. Despite its shortcomings I do really enjoy the idea of sharing lessons. I think that using the website for sharing is great, but I'd rather create my slideshows using something else and then uploading them onto the site.