I was able to help plan and implement our College of Education’s First Annual EdCamp ECU. EdCamp is an unconference where attendees comes to lead and facilitate technology sessions based on participant interests. It was a great success, and I am glad that I was able to be a part of it!
Original Source/Read More: http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/coeblog/2016/04/community-outreach/ecu-college-of-education-hosts-first-edcampecu/
Whitney Wilson, MA (c), MS (c)
This week I attended the Teaching with Technology Summer Academy. Here is my presentation from the academy:
Whitney Wilson, MS (c), MA (c)
For this assignment in my graduate school class “Instructional Graphics” at East Carolina University, we had to create a webpage in Adobe Dreamweaver and upload it to the ECU student webpage server. Along with the creation of the webpage, our class had to create a “rollover” image complete with the appropriate “web safe colors.” My completed webpage can be found here: http://myweb.ecu.edu/student/wilsonw06/Interactivity_Whitney-Wilson_EDTC6135_April2016.html. I completed a short piece on photography.
Black and White Photography to Tell a Compelling Story
Black and white photography is seen oftentimes as a visual interpretation of emotions felt in order to grab the viewers’ attention and convey a strong story. The most basic concepts in utilizing a monochromatic palette in digital or portrait photography are the following:
(1) Capturing the raw emotion of the individual. I once heard a vivid quote, by David Allen Harvey, which read: “Don’t shoot what it looks like, shoot what it feels like;”
(2) Implementing the “Rule of Thirds.” This rule places each portrait within the proper gridlines to illustrate the best possible image angles;
(3) Engaging in conversation with people throughout the photography session is important, adding context to your portraits overall, as well as to your visual interpretations of it.
Whitney Wilson
MS in IT Student, East Carolina University
MA in Educational Media Student, Appalachian State University
For our Group project in Digital Technology in Education (ITC 5220) at Appalachian State University, we were tasked with developing an Instructional Technology Infogaphic about the following Mindtools in Education: Semantic Organization and Dynamic Modeling.
We had an amazing time gathering the research and information for this infographic and ultimately in developing it in Piktochart. I can now begin to utilize these mindtools in my instructional career in order to help facilitate better, more insightful learning.
Whitney Wilson
Bakir, N. (2016). Technology and Teacher Education: A Brief Glimpse of the Research and Practice that Have Shaped the Field. TechTrends, 60(1), 21-29.
Whitney’s Discussion Points
This article was chosen by Lisa Moniz, and is relatively new. It was published online on January 22, 2016. The article “Technology and Teacher Education: A Brief Glimpse of the Research and Practice that Have Shaped the Field” focuses primarily on supporting teacher technology training. It started out by discussing the challenges that are associated with integrating technology into education as well as the time, money and efforts that are often put forth by government and national professional organizations to support such teaching with technology integration.
Bakir observed that the type of technology initiatives that are most likely to be supported in education are those that are led by federal, state and local educational organizations. The current status of technology integration in teacher education programs was evaluated by the federal government. This study found that current teachers and those who are planning to teach, have not formal education or training in technology-related disciplines. Consequently, it was determined that teachers should receive ongoing training to learn how to properly implement technology in the classroom. I can appreciate this stance because it reminds me of our institution here at ECU. The faculty often have many opportunities to register and attend live seminars and technology professional development sessions in order to push their skills further. Our office here on campus, in particular, provides the bulk of the instructional technology support for the College of Education. We often see our local school partners from various districts attend the sessions in order to further develop their skills in the classroom as well.
The federal student conducted by the federal government also found that technology was not typically emphasized as a learning tool. This is very telling to me, considering the technology wave and era that we are in. Students must be equipped for these resources in order to be better prepared for what they will have to come across in their own teaching environments. The study also revealing mentioned that only three percent of teacher education graduates felt “well prepared” to use technology in the classroom. If the teachers are not receiving the proper training and instruction in technology, how will the students learn? I would think that the learning would have to be self-directed if the teacher is not initiating it. These students are graduating from their institutions with little to no advanced knowledge of technology use in educational environments.
The article further went on the summarize the various technology education plans that were implemented and put in place by the federal government, such as the 1996 plan to improve technology literacy among teachers, and the 2000 plan that states that all children should have access to technology in the classrooms. Of note, this 2000 plan aimed to have children learn “21st century literacy” skills in technology. After the implementation of the two above named plans, a 2004 plan came about that revealed how students are “revolutionizing expectations” placed upon them in distance education learning. The last and fourth plan was published in 2010 was about learning that was backed by technology in order to prepare the educators of tomorrow.
After expounding upon the technology plans that were founded and implemented by the government, Bakir went on to share the national professional organizations that offer funding to teacher education technology initiatives. Of these organizations, ISTE (The International Society for Technology in Education) was of particular note since we recently took a self-assessment on it in this class. The ISTE standards began to become the norm in technology integration and implementation initiatives, urging teacher education institutions and programs to modify their teaching parameters significantly. This reminds me of the current technology standards that we have in place for teacher candidates at ECU. Students are required to submit an edTPA portfolio as part of their final submission work here at ECU. The edTPA portfolio consists of teaching videos of the students in action at the schools, as well as feedback from the assigned evaluator. Teacher candidates are required to utilize technology in order to submit this portfolio, from the initial video and uploading, to the online Taskstream webfolio, to the actual submission online of the edTPA portfolio. It is quite extensive the technology that the students here are required to use! I definitely see a shift in the graduating teacher candidate expectations!
Whitney Wilson
McEwen, R. & Dubé, A. K. (2015). Engaging or Distracting: Children’s Tablet Computer Use in Education. Educational Technology & Society, 18 (4), 9–23.
Whitney’s Discussion Points
Overall, the article “Engaging or Distracting: Children’s Tablet Computer Use in Education” discussed whether or not children’s tablet use in education is engaging or distracting. The article discussed how interaction with tablet devices are “highly interactive,” activating nearly all of the senses (touch, sight, audio), oftentimes at one time.
The article further went on to investigate and address any potential effects that tablet use can have on cognitive structure in children. The main research points were: (1) user engagement and (2) cognitive load/ability. I found the section about “cognitive load” of particular interest because it brought up the point that technology can have an overbearing effect on us if the technology is in high use. Our minds have to work twice as hard to engage with the hyperactivity of the content (the bright screen, the constant moving parts; e.g. games, etc; the noise/sound).
According to the authors, tablet use cannot “effectively” be integrated into structured learning because a child’s cognitive capabilities are split between two channels, such as looking at pictures and listening to audio. I agree to a certain extent with this finding, especially with children because their minds can only handle a certain amount of information thrown at them at one time. Adults, on the other hand, may be able to split their cognitive functions, but will probably still have limited functionality.
The authors’ research found that iPads and computer tablets fostered more engagement, while devices geared specifically toward children, such a LeapPad, generated the most engagement in their respective areas. The engagement evaluation metrics used were “fixation count, “fixation duration” and “gaze.” These interactive devices are engaging, so there is no surprise that children were captivated by them all. The cognitive evaluation metrics used were “memory tasks,” and “attention tasks.” Whether or not an activity or engagement was geared toward a learning task was also taken into account. If it was not, it was categorized as engagement with “extraneous content.”
Further findings are that low-cognitive functioning children tend to engage more with simple tasks utilizing tablets, while high-cognitive functioning children have no preference. This finding suggests that the lower cognitive functioning children find greater interest in the tablet activities that line up the best with their cognitive ability. The authors also found that extraneous content on the tablets can interfere with learning ability. The way that children each extract information from tablets, is directly related to the cognitive abilities. This is important to note. I found this interesting because it suggests that children only do what they are capable of. Not all content is engaging to all children; and overall, extraneous content is distracting to all children, whether or not they have similar or dissimilar cognitive abilities.
Whitney Wilson
Since we have already chosen our group projects for my Web 2.0 and Social Networking class, this brainstorming session will be more geared toward delving deeper into my individual projects planning. I would like to use the ideas that I came up with earlier to begin fleshing them out here.
Individual Projects
Infographic Ideas
Group Projects
Whitney Wilson
CI 5530 Web 2.0 & Social Media
Week 8: March 2-8
Post: 1 of 2
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It’s been a pretty awesome week. Although fairly quiet on my end, I’ve been busy checking out our assignments for this week in our Web 2.0 and Social Media course.
Social Media and Web 2.0 Matrix
This week we had to collaborate on Google Groups to create a social media matrix. It was basically a chart that comprised the majority of the social media and Web 2.0 tools that we have learned about up until this point in our class. We had to fill in each section regarding whether or not it could be used in the classroom, whether it was an interactive tool, etc. It was fun because I was able to see a few new tools that my classmates added to the matrix. I added Dropbox, Google Plus and Moodle tot he matrices.
EdTech on Twitter/Private University Follow-up
Every week we are to post atleast three tweets to our social media profiles. This week, Edtech tweeted me on Twitter about a new website called Galaxyz.com. It is an interactive platform with a fun science curriculum and digital learning environment that inspires kids to be interested in Science! It’s funny because it reminds me of the Private Universe assignment where we had to explain the phases of the moon and the seasons; which reminded us that we may not be as sharp as we think that we are! Perhaps we need something like this in our school systems that will inspire students to want to learn more about science at an early age! If schools had this when I was younger, I’d be glued to it!
Whitney Wilson
What creative license would you choose? (Commercial Use, Editorial Use or Retail Use)
I have heard of the concept of licensing intellectual property before. I work with photography a lot, so I am aware of the creative property that it is constitutes, and the rights or lack of rights that come along with it. I have never licensed my photos before, but after this class it may be something to consider since I do photograph small events every so often and work with various clients.
Being a member of the Flickr community, I have heard about and read about Creative Commons. The type of use that I would anticipate my photographs to be used for is for editorial use, so I would choose an editorial license. Being that I have experience in the news and editing sector, I can foresee my photographic content being used in this area. The other types of use are commercial and retail. Commercial use would be if a company or organization was using the photograph to promote a product, service or idea. Retail use is for personal use, and editorial use would be for the use in newspapers and similar press outlets.
What conditions might make you change your mind?
Certain conditions that might me change my mind on which type of license that I choose would be if the commissioned pay was greater in a certain area of photography use than in the other. Other conditions that may make me change my mind are if I have a client who needs the photographs for a different use than what it was initially to be used for. If this was the case, then the license type would be modified to reflect that.
Non-restrictive creative images and/or content
When I have a creative project to complete, I prefer to use my own photography or content, as I know for sure that these have no restrictions on them. If that is not an option, I usually choose from plain wallpaper and backgrounds via a simple Google image search (e.g. digital paper samples), next I verify that there are no restrictions, and then proceed with using it for my projects.
My Creative Content Item of Choice
The content that I chose to use is a simple patterned circle. I would use this to create buttons on my webpage after having customized it to fit my website. The image came from a blog hosted by Mel of Mel Stampz. I am confident that there are no restrictions on this particular creative content item because the terms of use are listed on her blog. She states that the content items are free as long as you do not try to sell things from them and try to make a profit from their use. I believe that the author made this particular item available for free use because she gets credit for it, as she clearly states on Flickr where various sizes of the images are, to please link back to her page and give her creative credit if any of her images are used.
Overall, this was a learning experience. As, I now have a better understanding of the types of creative licenses out there and which one would best fit for professional and career use.
Whitney Wilson
AudioBoom is a new audio sharing website that I have discovered. Since suggestions and class examples of various audio sharing websites and applications were not given, I began doing a little research. My first reaction was to use iTunes to create a podcast, because I know that Apple uses podcasts for audio sound bites. I went into my iTunes account and found the podcasting element. It turns out that you must submit podcasts for review before they will be available and readily accessible in the iTunes Store. I did not want any of my podcasts to be downloaded by external nor internal members of iTunes. So, it worked out well by not choosing iTunes as my audio sharing web portal.
Further searching for audio sharing services, and I found Clip.it, but it would not allow me to edit my profile content and photo, so I switched to AudioBoom. I uploaded a quick sound clip as an introductory post to AudioBoom, along with two other sound bites as required by our Web 2.0 and Social Networking course. AudioBoom can be used like a microblog for my graduate school journey, similar to what I am doing with blogging, only it would be as a sound clip instead of actual writing (or, say, blogging).
In summation, I have added AudioBoom to Moodle on my AppState profile for accessibility, along with my Flickr and YouTube resources.
Whitney Wilson
diversity affairs 