Follow Me, Follow Me!

In case you're unsure, I'm @KendaKerrigan on Twitter (and there's a bird on my head!) and tech task #3 asked me to follow between 5-10 new people on Twitter, so here are the people I chose to follow. I've created two categories of the people I followed. If I am not following you, and you would like me to, leave a comment below with your Twitter name and I will be sure to follow you. Enjoy!


Education and Technology Related

@MimioTechnology
This account keeps me up to date on all the new and cool things happening with Mimio.  I was fortunate enough to use a Mimio in my Internship and I am now wishing I would have looked to Twitter for more resources from Mimio to keep up to date and try new things.

@jenorr I decided to follow Jennifer Orr after an ECMP355 live session last week.  

@mrdfleming
Who wouldn't want to follow a Canadian named Mr. D?!? Just kidding, but this Elementary teacher from New Brunswick has a lot of great posts on Twitter about teaching in an elementary classroom with great links too.

@HRAGrayson
This classroom Twitter account shares the classes learning with many links to their classroom blog.  It is very important to teach students how to use technology and I feel that using a classroom twitter account allows students to share their work as well as learn how to properly use social media.

Entertainment and Friend Related

@BlindFilmCritic
Tommy Edison was introduced to me by a friend and he is a legally blind individual who is an inspiration to me. He has allowed me to see the world through his eyes, even though he is blind.  His instagram photos show true, natural beauty and made me realize that photography is about sharing an experience and a view, not necessarily about having the best picture. I used to be hesitant to use different types of technology in case the way I used it was somehow "wrong", but following Tommy Edison has made me realize there is no right or wrong way to use technology, the right way is the way you want to use it.

@MetroJeff Mackey
Jeff is a friend I met in the fall through a friend, and he works for a local newspaper in Regina.  Not many people can say on a weekly basis that their friend made front page news, but following Jeff keeps me up to date on the local news as well as interesting articles from across Canada.

@hannahmusic

I decided to follow Hannah Georgas on Twitter after attending a great concert here in the Queen City. This musician is fabulous! She is sweet, funny, and a great singer all rolled into one person. This video is from CBC's show Yamma Mamma, that often showcases Canadian Musicians singing songs for children. This was Hannah Georgas' song on the show.

@SheenaDubyk
Sheena is another friend of a friend I met this past weekend who is working on her Education Degree at the University of Regina.  I figured I would follow her, although I'm unsure of whether or not this is a good idea because she cheers for the Calgary Flames, but she recently joined twitter so I figured why not follow?


@Chad4Regina

This is the real Chad Novak Twitter, but there used to be a Condescending Chad Novak twitter account, poking fun at this unique character that resides in Regina.  Chad is a very active participant in the political aspects of Regina, and can often be seen on the news.  He recently posted a video online that caused a bit of a stir around the city because it was a conversation between him and the current mayor, although it is unclear whether the mayor was aware of the conversation being recorded.

Tech Task #3 Part 3

This third and final part of tech task three has made me feel like a failure.
I've tried attending some online sessions, but due to old technology and a computer that has been considered an "antique", I have not yet been able to make things work.  Since online live sessions weren't working, I attempted to take part in a Twitter Chat, and although the topic of social studies interests me, I just couldn't get into it and follow the chat.  It would definitely be something I would try again because it was a great learning experience, but after a while I became confused with what was happening and I felt like I couldn't keep up.  There was too much information coming at me and I didn't have enough time to write it all down or keep track of it.  I now have a strategy for my next Twitter Chat experience and I know it will be much more successful now that I know what is coming.
 
After planning on attending some of the #etmooc live sessions, and realizing I was in class when most of them occurred, I decided to look for other online events or sessions to attend.  This is when I discovered Google Hangout.

What is Google Hangout?

What a great question!  If you know exactly what a Google Hangout is pleases let me know because I am not really sure what it is.
I have joined a few groups on Google Hangout relating to Education, where articles are posted and discussions are had.  I have found it is very similar to Twitter, just without the 140 character limit.

I also attended a live Hangout, which I initially thought might be like the Blackboard platform used for the ECMP355 class and #etmooc sessions, but it was more like a video conference.  

I ended up attending a Hangout on Bullying and Cyberbullying hosted by Toronto Police. This Hangout was a live broadcast of what appeared to be a conference and the information provided was great,  although it didn't have the interactive component I thought it might.  I'm not sure if it is supposed to be interactive, since I am still exploring Google Hangouts, but if it is supposed to I will let you know.
* I have done a bit of research and discovered that video conferencing can only be interactive for you and a maximum of 10 friends or people at a time for free.

A friend and I out for Coffee.

Right now I am using Google Hangouts as my own personal coffee shop.  I make myself a hot chocolate or apple cider and I open up Google Hangouts to see what new articles or discussions have been posted. I find out what is new and exciting in the Education field and see what some of the other people in the hang out are discussing.

Google Hangouts is a great way to meet strangers and see what they have to say about topics you are interested in, without having to follow them and all their conversations.  I am still getting to know Google Hangouts and it's purpose, but check back later and I will let you know what I have discovered.

Great Blogs!

I'm not sure if some of you watching this blog are aware, but I am in ECMP355, an online course about technology and incorporating it into classrooms offered through the University of Regina's Faculty of Education, and there are a number of people in my class who have excellent blogs to follow.
I currently follow them and they are fantastic! These people are smart and wizards with Blogger, Wordpress, and even Twitter!

So part two of techtask #3 was to follow 3 new education related blogs.

Here are 3 that I found to be fascinating.

Click on this image to be taken to the Getting Smart Blog page

Getting Smart
http://gettingsmart.com/cms/blog/

While this is an entire website, I have recently discovered the wealth of knowledge on the blog page. There are various posts by different people with expertise in different areas of Education.  I love this blog for the variety it provides as well as the depth of knowledge that has been shared.  Right now the page I have been fascinated with is the 5 ways to use Google Docs in your classroom.  After hearing all the great things about Google from Michael Wacker, I have been searching for more information on how this great tool can be used in a classroom and this blog provided some great ideas.

Learning and Sharing with Ms. Lirenman
http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.ca/

Photo from Learning and Sharing with Ms. L Blog, click the photo to go to the blog.

I admire Ms.Karen Lirenman in her blog.  Striving to be the best educator is something everyone should do, but to still be striving after 20 years of experience inspires me and made me realize education is a constantly changing field, with something new to learn everyday.
I also appreciate her use of technology in her classroom and reading about her use of iPads and blogs in her classroom. She has also embraced online learning in her classroom, which seems terrifying to me, yet her posts explain how she has done things and why, and makes online learning experiences in Grade 1 seem not scary at all.


Professional Ponderings of a Lerd
ldrenton.edublogs.org

Photo from Professional Ponderings of a Lerd, the comment the class composed.

I discovered this blog through a posting on Twitter from people in the #etmooc group. I was intrigued by the name of the blog "Professional Ponderings of a Lerd", and was curious as to what a Lerd is/was.  After reading a bit and watching a video I discovered that a Lerd is a learning nerd. How do people come up with these things?!?  I must admit I can be a nerd, especially when learning and discovering new things, but to create the portmanteau (a word I was excited to learn recently).  Wow!  This lady must be a genius, which she is.  Her blog is laid back, relaxed, and full of information relating to her classroom and #etmooc. My favourite post on this blog was about her students responding to a parent's post on a classroom blog.  Allowing students to have complete control of their responses as a class and allowing them to work together as a group  shows them how to properly compose a comment and respond online. It was great to read about how the students worked together and how she was able to step back, give up complete control, and observe the students and their own learning.

"That" Feeling

Do you ever get "that" feeling?

You know, the one where everything in your life is going along too smoothly and everything is perfect.

That moment when you feel like you are caught up on your homework, or even ahead?!?

I have to admit I definitely had one of those yesterday, but I figured it was because of the excitement of the Education Career Fair and possibly finding a future employer.

But "that" feeling changed quickly this morning when I realized that the blog postings I had created on Saturday, and thought I had published on Saturday appeared on my Blogger home page as DRAFTS!

How could I have forgotten to publish them to my page? 

What is wrong with me?

Anyways Parts 1 and 2 out of Tech Task 3 are now published, and I am just completing my post for Part #3.

I feel like a crazy person for forgetting to click the publish button, so to make up for it here is a meme to enjoy.

Image from http://thecondescendingwonka.tumblr.com/

The Power of People

No child should ever be called a "burden" or a "vegetable".  They are children and we can learn a lot from those who have been labeled.

Using Google Forms in the Classroom

The Google Form I created was mainly to determine opinions and ideas about tipping and its purpose was for people to share their practices and opinions about tipping for service.  The paragraph/short answer type questions provided great insight into this topic and provided reasons why, or why not, people should/would tip.

As for using forms in the classroom I believe there are many great uses, especially in an elementary setting.

One idea would be to post study questions for tests and quizzes online.  This would be something parents could access from home, and if you select the option to allow those who have completed the form to view results, they would receive almost instant feedback of what questions were answered correctly, as long as the first column on the spreadsheet was filled with the correct responses.  This idea would also provide feedback to the classroom teacher on what topics or concepts may need to be reviewed prior to the test being administered.

At the university level I have used Google Docs and Google Presentations when creating essays, research projects, and final presentations. These worked well at the university level and could be used at an elementary level as long as the students have been introduced to the technology being used and had time to explore it.

I know a touchy topic in some classrooms is where the funds go.  Some classroom teachers take in a sum of money at the beginning of the year to be used, while others collect on a per event basis.  If a teacher had concerned parents wondering where the money goes to, a Google Spreadsheet could show where the money goes and how much remains in the budget.

The blog titled 74 Interesting Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom provides a Google Presentation on many different ways to use Google forms with students in a classroom setting. 

* I'm not sure who is the original owner of the presentation in this blog, but for those of you in ECMP355 it is also in the shared folder for Tech task 2 shared with us by Dean Shareski and Michael Wacker. This could also pose the question as to whether or not anyone actually owns a collaborative document on Google?

I also appreciate this blog titled Google Forms and Spreadsheets—Fun Times with Data Collection!

that shows how a teacher uses Google forms to track students and to reduce the amount of "paperwork" being completed by keeping everything online.

Finally, this blog shows how to keep anecdotal reading records with a Google Form, rather than having different binders with pages, multiple lists, and sticky notes.

Overall, I believe the use of Google Forms can decrease the amount of binders and papers in a classroom and help a teacher to stay more organized by having everything in one place online.

Here are the results to my Google Form on Tipping.

Here are the responses to my paragraph style question.

I hope you enjoy my results and thank you to everyone who participated!

Tech Task #2- Using Google Forms

Here is a Google Form with some questions about tipping practices. Thanks for your time and I will post the results right here in a few days. 

The Things We Learn

It’s always amazing to see how people learn in different environments and what they pick up.  It’s hard to believe that all of us, at one point in our lives, learned to speak, to read, to write, and even type.

I believe the basics of learning new things depend on the environment you are in and the supports around you.

Photo credit to Kate Ediger: Velvet Leaf Photography

Here’s my nephew for instance.  He is just over a year old and recognizes that I am “Aunt” and my twin sister is “Hot”.  He sees his other Aunt on a regular basis while he sees me two, maybe three times a year. So why do I get the privilege to be known as "Aunt", while the other Aunt is known as "Hot"?  Probably because I have never fed him anything hot, so I have never repeated the phrase “Hot, Hot, Hot” to him.  I have never pulled him away from the open oven door and said “Hot!”  I’m not offended that I’m not the “Hot Aunt”, but I’m honoured to be his Aunt.

Of course this post needs some cuteness added to it (not saying my nephew isn’t cute) and this is another video about learning.

How did we learn how to walk, how to climb stairs?  What if we lived in an environment without stairs and one day we encountered stairs?  Would we know what to do?

Watching this video  (also embedded below) from Manitoba Mutts Dog Rescue made me realize the importance of showing how to do something, the importance of modelling what is to be learned. Sometimes you need a bit of encouragement and a teacher that understands your perspective to show you how things are done.

One thing I am currently struggling with in my online course is that we are not shown by the instructor what to do, yet we are told and know how to find the answer through asking a question on Twitter, using other social networks or social media sources.  Even though we are not shown directly, we can find a video showing us how. There’s a concern that the internet is taking over and changing how we learn, but social media is still powered by people showing us the things we want or need to learn, so I don’t think we need to worry about the internet taking us over because we are powering the internet.

Tech Task #1

All Tech Tasks will be posted on this page, as well as under the Tech Tasks page tab in the top navigation bar.

Here is my 1st Tech Task, a video about me.

My First Official Post

Sorry it has taken a few days, but after some exploration and experimentation I have finally settled on a colour scheme and layout for my blog.

I struggled with determining a title for my blog but I felt as though Learning and Living Online were suitable.  I have to admit that I am a social media addict, with spending countless hours on Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and Twitter everyday.  I know that I live online, I keep in contact with friends and family and share important events that have happened to me all online.  I have also learned a lot online from different media outlets, so lately I have been learning and living online.

Some of the first things I added to my blog were some gadgets/widgets.
I made sure I had the blog archive appearing so I, along with some of my followers, can jump to specific posts.
I also added a translate button, a button allowing a search of the blog, and a total number of page views counter.
Finally I added a "share it" button so posts can be easily shared via social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

I struggled to determine what background to have for my blog, and after looking through different images I found one I liked.  It is a picture of the sky taken from an airplane.  I love to travel to different places and to go on new adventures which is why I selected this as my background.  I also felt as though this image represents the adventure that ECMP355 will be taking me on as I spread my wings and jump into the online world.

Colour scheme for blog posts and text was a challenge for me.  My favourite colour is blue, so I chose a variety of shades and colours of blue for my blog. I also find blue is a calming colour, so hopefully my blog won't create too much tension or anxiety for you.

Enjoy!

Hello,
I'm Kendra Kerrigan and this is my blog for ECMP 355. 

I am currently working on personalizing my blog as well as completing Tech Task #1.  While you wait for this construction project to finish you can click on my name in the top right hand corner of this page and check out some of the previous blogs I have created.

Blogger informed me that I have been blogging since 2010, which seems like a long time ago.  Unfortunately I have only really blogged for a semester at a time so my blogs are pretty short.

Enjoy!