A.Cook's Blog

Final Project: Prezi of Olympics 2010

cook205a — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:28:45 +0000

For my final project i chose a theme revolving around the Winter Olympics. I included pictures of the Canadian athletes, and all the stats(who won in what sport). This took a lot of work! Lots and lots of typing, to the point of finger cramping! The reason I chose an Olympic theme is because I love the Olympics! Unfortunately it is almost impossible to sit and watch tv morning till night when they were on. I was always looking online to see who won, and what events Canada was doing well in. I decided that since I was already researching the Olympics I might as well use it as a theme for a project.

After deciding my theme I picked the program: Prezi. Prezi is a great new tool that is difficult at first, but much more exciting than the basic slide show, or power point presentations. I found that I had two major issues. One, there is no basic templates to work with. You can do any pattern and take any amount of space. This freedom is great, but hard to work with at the start especially if you don’t know where to begin. My second problem was with pictures. I eventually worked out the kinks, but at first when I added a picture the photo would go to a large-scale and my text would become very small. There was a lot of retracing of steps in order to get my presentation back to the original scale I wanted it.

Over all, I think Prezi presentations will be a big hit and I am glad I now know how to work with it. I’ll definitely be using them in the future and make my students learn how to use prezi too!

Here is a link to my Prezi Project: Winter Olympics 2010 Enjoy!!

-Alex Cook

PostSecret-An Educational Tool

cook205a — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:52:59 +0000

During a presentation in my Education Aesthetic class, a few students introduced me to PostSecret books. PostSecret books contain postcards that have secrets on them. Holding secrets in sometimes is difficult, and as an alternative to telling someone, people can design a postcard and write their secret on them. After they write down the secret they mail them into the PostSecret company as Anonymous. The secret is placed on the website or in the book, but bottom line is the secret is out of your mind and gives you peace.

I found this to be an educational resource that can be used for many different age groups! Although, the content on the post cards in not appropriate for younger grades the idea of the postcards can be used for many different projects. Four younger students you can have them draw their favorite animal, sport, food, etc and then the teacher can mix the postcards out and hand them out to different students in the class. The students would then have to go around and find out whose postcard they were handed. This would be an excellent idea for an icebreaker assignment at the start of the year. For older students you can use the PostSecret postcards as self-esteem builders (especially for teenagers). There are so many ideas that can spring from the theme of PostSecret. I have included the link to the PostSecret website here, and reccomend buying the books! I have one, and whenever I feel down it’s a great “go to book”, kind of like a new version of the chicken soup for the soul books!

Summary of Personal Learning

cook205a — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:51:13 +0000

ECMP 355, what kind of class is that? Its not just another credit I needed to take, it’s one of the most useful and beneficial classes I think I will ever take! At the beginning of the semester my computer skills on a scale from one to ten, rested around a six. I was able to use the basic Microsoft word, facebook, google search engine, and the hotmail emailing programs. I was content with my basic computer know-how and never questioned whether I was missing out on the wonders of the web, until I entered Alec Couros’s Computers in Education class.

My first class was an eye opener! We were signing up for delicious(which I found out is not just a brand of apple), twitter (which I found out is not just used for crazy fans to creep on celebrities), and google applications like gmail, reader, calendar, and docs. I must say I was in overload mode! On top of all of the that, he introduced us to blogging. Now I never thought I would like to blog, or that anyone would ever respond to my blog entries, however within the first week I felt hooked. I actually enjoy it! It feels kind of like writing in a journal except people can leave positive comments on what i’m writing about(its pretty cool i’d say!). Blogging not only is used for journal entries but as an online portfolio to show other educators. Blogs have the power to connect you to other teachers who have interesting projects and ideas that I can use in my own classroom. Kathy Cassidy, is a perfect example! She incorporates blogging into her grade one class, now if grade one students can successfully use and learn from blogging than there is no excuse to not use blogs at any other age!

Another tool I learned to use in a classroom is the Ning website. A teacher can create a safe place for only her students to go and gather information they need for the class. It would also give the students no excuse for not doing assignments because the teacher can constantly keep posting the assignments online (a tool I most definitely plan to use). The whole idea of teachers connecting with students and other teachers can probably be summed up in the theme of networking! This would be an educational use for the internet. Using the web for educational purposes, such as networking, never really crossed my mind. However, it is true the web can be more beneficial than you think! Through taking this class I have learned that the “scary/inappropriate” internet stories are more rare than the amount of good the internet produces. Teachers can now censor certain sites, and use sites like Ning, and blogging to provide student safety on the web.

Technology is advancing every year, and our generation is becoming the age of technology. It is important, especially as teachers, to stay up to date with the students! I have learned that the incorporating computers in the classroom does not have to be the simple and boring essay projects. You can use Garageband( make your own music!), Imovie( make your own movie!), and even a thing called Prezi (the new and improved version of a slideshow!).

Now a days, everything you create can be uploaded and shared on the web! Whether it is a video on youtube or pictures on Flickr(a website to edit and share, and receive comments on). Now from the help of google docs you can even share class notes with friends or do projects online together. The danger with sharing and uploading videos or music however, is the copyright laws. The theme of copyright vs copyleft is another aspect I have learned about through this class. copyright is debatably one of the hardest concepts to teach children, we can tell them to site everything but still some copyright laws that isn’t good enough. There is even a copyright for Happy Birthday!( just a fun fact for you to know!) copyleft on the other hand, is an easier aspect to teach. If someone copyleft’s their work, it means anyone can use the work or mash it up, as long as they are not gaining profit and they give the owners credit. This is a concept everyone should go with!

There are tons of websites that I have discovered through this class, too many to share! These websites are not only for my benefit, but for the benefit of my future classrooms. We are living in the age of technology where the basic computer skills just won’t cut it. If my computer knowledge at the start of the semester was resting at a six, I would now say it rests at an eight! I find this to be a big improvement! I am now not afraid to explore the wonders of the web. I will keep blogging and maybe one day can call myself a true tech geek (still very unlikely). I can now use fun tools for projects, make music, movies, collaborate with other students, and communicate with other educators, never will I be out of an answer. So what kind of class is ECMP? Only the best class to establish yourself early on as a teacher. I believe Alec would want us to leave his class knowing how to successfully use computers in a classroom also… “when in doubt google”, and “Macs are better!”

-Alex Cook

Here is a link to the voice thread video I created for the Summary of Personal Learning Project(All images found on Flickr)

Inclusion in a Classroom

cook205a — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:18:04 +0000

Yesterday in my Education Core Studies class our topic was inclusion. Within the inclusion topic we focused on inclusion of disabled students. Some schools have included the NLD students with disabled students, however not every school has. Why is that? Not every teacher agrees about including disabled students within a classroom, whether it is because they do not know how to teach them, or they don’t fully understand how to alter their lesson plans for these students. I found out in the ECS class that studies have proven that NLD students actually absorb more information with programs that work with disabled students. These studies further show that there are no excuses to not have a completed inclusion based classroom.
Furthermore, in the ECS class our guest speaker showed us a YouTube video that really supports the idea of inclusion in the classroom. In the video a girl named Amanda shows us how she learns. This video not only inspired me, but taught me how you cannot judge someone’s learning abilities. Every student learns in a different way, and there is no right way to learn. Amanda is an autistic person who is a very kinesthetic learner. She explains that most people, teachers included, assume she cannot learn but after watching the whole video you start to realize that she is an extremely intelligent learner. Why should students like Amanda be included in a classroom? I can’t think of a reason why not.

An Aesthetic Experience

cook205a — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:00:24 +0000

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to travel to Toronto for a quick little vacation time! I had a lot of time to shop, site see(the CN tower!), visit some friends and to see the Dancical Theatre “Grief: A Common Bond”. This show was the highlight to my weekend! One of my friends created the show along with choreographer Faye Rauw. I wish words could describe how amazing this performance was but I don’t know if there are! Almost all of the dancers in this show were from the prairies, most from my hometown, which was the cherry on top of the performance!
While staying in Toronto my friend Matthew, the creator of the show, received an Email from CBC Radio in Regina, asking him to be on the radio for viewers in Saskatchewan to learn more about the show. This I found very cool because A) shows yet again how technology is everywhere! and B) I can find the podcast on the internet and share it all with you (there is a longer intro and a pause, but I truly recommend listening to it!)

I also would like to link Matthew’s blog, for any performer out there he inspires me everyday, and this show shows exactly how amazing he is!

SpreadSheet, A2+B2=Confusion

cook205a — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:52:32 +0000

Today in ECMP 355, Alec brought back the “old school” spreadsheets. I remember in Elementary school how cool it was to be able to use them, sadly my spreadsheet knowledge has been lost for some time now. One thing I found interesting, and slightly embarrassing is the fact that I actually had difficulties with spreadsheets. I got the hang of it once I rediscovered the basic formulas you need to use, but still you would think that a basic spreadsheet would be easy. Of all the new tools and networking programs I understand, the basics have been forgotten. This class definitely showed me that just because “old school” programs are not the hit thing you still have to know how to work them!

Technology at the Theatre

cook205a — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:13:56 +0000

This past weekend I went to the movie “Valentines Day”. Now I know that sounds like it would have very little to do with technology but there is. Just within the previews technology was being presented. There was a preview about the new and advanced cell phones. From the looks of it, phones are now becoming miniature computers! Personally I use my phone for two reasons, 1) to talk 2)to text. I have cool features on my phone like touch screen, internet, games, etc but I never use them. It recently occurred to me that I should have just got a really low-key phone because I’m not using my new advanced phone to the best of its ability.
When the movie finally started, I realized how some characters were dependent on their cell phones. Some of my friends can’t live without their phones, and I admit i would probably not be able to either. This is probably the reason cell phone companies are coming up with new and more expensive cell phones. My question i want to ask: Is are people using these phones for their advanced technology? Or are they just using the basic text and talk?

Manitoba and the Teacher Dilemma

cook205a — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:15:34 +0000

Recently the web has been filled with stories and video’s regarding a Manitoba schools pep rally “display”. Two young teachers displayed a lap dance routine, where one acts as if he is performing oral sex. Not only is this completely inappropriate and disturbing, it is now plastered all over the web from students cell phones onto youtube so the entire world can see this. These teachers may have just wrecked their entire career and the integrity of their school because of this dance.
I also thought this gave a bad name for Dance as a class, or extra curricular event for schools. Dance is suppose to be part of the curriculum, however it does get put off most of the time. This display certainly does not help show parents and other teachers how dance can appropriately be incorporated into studies. Teachers are suppose to be role models, and 100% of the time professional. Although we know this is a rare display of behaviour, it still shocks me how quickly something like this will get around but how slowly this is going to go away.

My Final Project Outline

cook205a — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:52:17 +0000

This year for my Final Project I have chosen to use the Prezi program. I found, after looking at examples and videos on how Prezi works, for the program to be an excellent choice. Although, I find it challenging, and frustrating at times I think Prezi is a great resource that I can use for many different classes. If I take the time to learn the tricks of the program now, I think this could definitely be the program to replace the classic power point.
Now that I have chosen a program, I began thinking about a theme or idea to work with. During my field experience for my ECS class, the students were talking about the Olympic standings, medal placements, and how well Canada had done. I decided that this was the perfect theme to use for my final project. I started by taking all events medalist and writing them down in a Prezi document. This took me forever! I did not realize how many events there actually was. However, these events by themselves do not make for a very interesting presentation, so i will include photographs as well. Hopefully if everything works out I will have a final project that everyone will enjoy!

The debate with Mashup’s and Copyright

cook205a — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:17:08 +0000

Today in my ECMP 355 class the focus was on copyright laws, particularly within music and cinema industries but also in other areas of our society. The film “Rip a Remix Manifesto”, explained past and current cases of copyright lawsuits and went further with the concept of copyrights and Mashup’s. Mashup’s of music are a debatable subject for the copyright laws, is it stealing a artists song if the mashup mixes up the order, timing, and beats but still keeps the words to the original song? Thats a pretty creative and clever way to create new music. One music mashup artist that has become popular from the film is “Girl Talk”. I have looked into a few of his mashup’s and think its so creative how he can take totally different songs, current or classics, and make them mash together and sound awesome!
The film not only talks about the artist, but the industries issues with mashups. For example, the Walt Disney corporation has huge lockdowns on their production works, characters, ideas, etc so that no one can copy or mashup any of it. Disney is also one of the largest copyrighting owning companies in the world, even having copyrights over the famous “Happy Birthday Song”. What I found interesting about this information is that Walt Disney himself was a mashup artist. This really got me confused, because if Walt Disney was a mashup artist (ex: Alice and Wonderland) than why is the company so concerned with other artists doing mashups with Disney’s stuff? Disney is just one example, however was the one that really got me thinking.
Copyright laws are coming down hard and I myself find this concept so confusing. If Disney owns the rights to “Happy Birthday” and I video tape my friends singing it and put it on youtube, can they sue me for using the song with out the rights? Now that is an extreme example, but how far can you really take the copyright concept, do mashups really pass? Or soon will they become an illegal right. This is a huge issue that lots of people, artists, students, teachers, everyone is dealing with. The film really helps set some things straight and explain a lot. I really recommend visiting the RiP: A Remix Manifesto it really hits some big and interesting topics.