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Communities of Practice  according Etienne Wenger have a recognizable life cycle, which passes through the stages of planning, start-up, growth, renewal and closure (Wenger, 2002.). Like this piece, there is a definite start and finish. There is also a theme that is developed throughout the piece. As the piece becomes more complicated the original theme is always present, however, the effect of arpeggiation creates degrees of separation between notes within a certain scale.

At one point the music becomes chaotic. This is purposeful and relates to the idea that connectivism draws on chaos, self-regulated learning and a “cross-polinating” learning environment (Siemens, 2004).  The music reaches a point of critcal mass at the end eventually calming down to a simpler version of its most intense self and fading out at the end.

Given that these theories build upon each other, I hope that it would become clear how this piece relates to a PLN. I really like this image from a former student in EdTech 543 and I hope that it is alright that I use it to further my explanation.

If you were to use this image describing concentric groupings of people within a certain network and apply it to notes on a scale. The core melody or what I have been calling the theme is the PLN. As time progresses, connections between these notes and other notes, chords or rhythms become the more complex as peripheral groups form around the center, as shown in this image. Imagine raindrops on a body of water as it begins to rain. The rain starts with a couple drops here and there, which would represent PLNs. As the rain intensifies, each drop or note and its resulting ripple create many overlapping ripples spreading out forever until the intensity of the ripples dies. Eventually this rain will cease, but the water (knowledge) left behind will remain there until another effect acts on that body of water (knowledge).

Phoenix, R. (2015). Connectivism, PLNs, CoPs – in a few words. Retrieved June 12, 2016, from http://edtech.reneephoenix.com/creative_express/

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved June 12, 2016 from www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

 

 

 

This term of course has been a wonderful experience. While, I currently do not specialize in Education Technology, I have been working in schools for the past 8 years that have placed technology as a focus of their curriculum. Therefore, I find that the coursework has been greatly helpful in advancing my learning experiences to further address the needs of my students’ education. I look forward to continuing the journey and I hope to have Instructor Saba again in the future.

What challenges did you face in this course? 

 

This year presented many changes. My biggest priority was developing a challenging curriculum that suits the characteristics and academic needs of my students. This being my first year at a new school teaching a new subject matter, I had to do a lot of work to prepare myself for class each week as well as keep on top of my assignments for the EdTech program. I did not find the assignments excessively challenging and I know if I had had the luxury on only focusing on these projects, I could have done better. However, we take on as much or more than we can handle as a part of our adult life and I still found time to pick up the guitar and spend time with my new wife whom I love very much.

What strategies or other creative resources did you use to address these challenges?

 

I, thankfully, have Tuesday afternoons to spend in what is called the Learning Commons at my school. It is a place for students to spend their time quietly studying after school. It also gave me a quiet place to study as well. This was a special time for me to get to know some other students after school and to dedicate myself to my Boise State assignments each week. The MyMoodle portal was a great resource for getting me organized and helping me see due dates as they approached.
Which artifact do you feel was your best and why?

My best artifact for this course is Tech Trends: Musical Composition . This was also the first time in my entire life as a student that I sent my work to my professor to get feedback prior to turning it in. I feel like this was a huge boon to be as a study skill and I wish I would have picked it up a long time ago. As for the artifact, I very much enjoy music. It is one of my passions and I love finding opportunities to incorporate it into my curriculum. Professor Saba was very helpful in finding creative ways to bolster my lesson plan and I look forward to using that kind of creativity again in the future. 

What is one thing you plan to do in your school or business as a result of this course?

I plan to incorporate Learning Logs into my class curriculum for my Sophomore Theology class. I have already started using them with my students and they are an excellent way for students to see what they have been working on throughout the school year. And, it is also a wonderful way to show my administrators and department chairs what I have been doing in class students with my all year.

Education Technology is one of the most amazing aspects of the teaching field. It is constantly changing and it is driving the development of the classroom practices around the modern world. I look forward to discovering new opportunities to use technology in my own classroom, but ultimately I would like to pursue designing policy for technology administration at a school-wide or district level.

The graphic above, expresses the definition of Education Technology described in the text, but also incorporates on several visuals that I think are appropriate. The first is a linear graph showing the progress of classroom related technology over the last 60 years. Including the statistic, which may be dated now, that over 2300 school districts are using iPads in the classroom. The adoption of education related technology in schools is creating a demand for Education Technology specialization, which is why we are here studying this topic. The next graphic shows two hemispheres of the brain  indicating the potential for technology to integrate engagement with artistic creativity and quantitative analysis. Lastly, the triangle and circle image indicate the level of interaction between three key components on Education and Technology indicated by the text, management, usage and creation. These three elements work together to form the primary functions and aspects of Education Technology in the classroom and in school districts today.

I created his graphic using Venngage. This tool was very helpful, though I had never used it before.

Hello,

This week we were asked to created a tutorial on one of our Makey and Scratch projects. I chose the Meditation Center. I realize that this project is rather simple. But I find it relevant to virtually any classroom setting. The animated gifs and sounds create a simple and beautiful virtual reality where students or teachers can enter a world of peace and tranquility.

The Makey Makey controller is rather simple and can be made with any conductive equipment. In my example, I used apples with letters carved into the tops. The animated gifs were taken from some public video content of water and a grassy field. The sounds are from one of my favorite artists, Brian Eno. But any of the images or sounds could be customized by the user.

I look forward to see this used in my own class, where I use meditation weekly as a way to de-stress students. In my senior classes, students over burdened with stress about grades, school activities, college applications and test scores. I use meditation extensively to get students to a place where they can worry less and enjoy life more.

The use of Voice Thread was very new to me. I do not know if I will use it again, as Adobe Voice seems to be a nice combination of VoiceThread and presentation software. Once I created the presentation in Slides (Google), I converted it to a PPTX file and uploaded it to Voice Thread. From there, I could do minor customizations. Some of the slides looked fine in Slides, but did not upload correctly into Voice Thread. So I had to make some adjustments along the way. Once things were finally corrected, I was able to add voice over audio without a problem. It was kinda of fun to hear your own voice speaking over the slides.

Happy meditating!

Hello All,

I went to the movies today to see the Steve Jobs movie. I though it was quite inspiring. Seems that he is a very authoritarian figure with a strong vision for his company and I respect what he accomplished, even though he had many failings in his relationships with his peers and family. All of that aside, my inspiration came from the 20 minutes of ads and previews I saw before the movie began. I will never show up early to a movie again.

I have a strong feeling that modern society is overly stimulating. Television geared for children and adults is a bit like that Simpsons episode mocking the Japanese cartoon that reported gave children seizures. This constant sensory overload creates students accustomed to a level of stimulation that is very difficult to create in the classroom.

See:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

A Nation of Kids with Gadgets and ADHD

Here is an my scratch project.

I decided with this weeks project to use technology, which is something that usually creates stimulation, to allow students time to hear a pleasant ambient composition and watch an animated gif of something pleasant and beautiful. In class, I teach comparative religion. I use guided meditation often to allow students time to be peaceful and center themselves. Students ask for it and some have said they have started meditating at home too.

 

With the introduction of Makey Makey and Scratch, I have been attempting to incorporate my religion curriculum. At my high school, we study Islam in the Senior comparative religion course. I used the scratch platform to engage students in a opportunity to use scratch as a way to experience different sights and sounds of the Muslim world. In this experience students can hear, see and read important lessons about the religion.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/84446862/

This past week has been an unpleasant one. I was taken down by the flu and set back nearly over a week. I finally got the makey kit at a local Toy’s R Us. I was really challenged by what sort of project I could pursue using Makey Makey. I wanted initially to do something musical. However, I could not find an application for music in a game that would be useful in a classroom in a way that it had not already been used.

I thought hard about it for a while and reminded myself that I am a religion teacher at a Catholic School. What do we do in religion? We pray. I came up with an interface that could help students pray the rosary. From there the project really was not terribly challenging, so I decided to construct two scripts. Seeing how reciting the rosary in English is not that challenging for most students, I created one in English and one in Spanish. So that older students who are practicing Spanish could use the interface to practice through prayer.

Click the screenshots to see the projects.