I think that the google classroom presentation was the most interesting and I could definitly see using google classroom as a way of creating an online space for a classroom. The only problem however is that after watching the presentation I don’t really know how to use google classroom or what the limitations of it are. Some exploration of the tool will definitly be useful but I think it would make a great central point for an online space for a classroom and then other technological tools can be applied to expand on the capabilities of the online space I am creating.
How can we prepare for instances of suspected plagiarism in our classrooms? is the question that I want to focus on for this post. In order to prepare for suspected plagiarism we should create student profiles where they are limited to only their minds for writting activites. These inclass portions should be done incrementally throughout a term to show development. The profiles can then be compared to term work that is being done throughout the semester to compare for plagiarism. If plagiarism seems evident then the student should be interviewed about the topic of the work they submitted and asked loaded questions in order to test if they wrote the paper or used ai.
I’m personally very in favor of including AI in education as I believe that its going to be used in the real world regardless of what happens in schools so it would be better to have students understand the technologies that are being used in different fields so that they are better suited to work in the real world. I think that with the development of AI the way teachers assess learning should change but I don’t think that this change should only be in response to ai development. Teachers should have always evaluated how students could use the technologies they have access to in order to complete specific tasks. School should be a space for students to experiment and make mistakes so that as adults they are more capable of adapting their way of being and applying their knowledge to the various problems they find themselves facing. I think that the line should be drawn at the point where students aren’t thinking about their projects anymore and are instead becomming dependent on ai to do their work for them. If students never learn how to use ai to be advantageous to them and instead become dependent when society outdates ai then those students will become outdated as well.
I personally really enjoy the gameification of learning concepts. That said I also believe that the way it is employed also makes a big impact on the success of the gamification. For example I really enjoy being able to see my progression so that I can set realistic goals in order to progress. However if the progression doesn’t make sense to me or the outcome of my progression seems useless to me it doesn’t add any motivation to apply effort into progression. For weight training I like recording my working weight for each exercise go up and when I have free time I love to throw that data into a graph or table to visualize the progression and determining the intervals of growth but the same thing doesn’t work for climbing. I think from an educational perspective it would also be really interesting to have curricular content structured as a skill tree instead of just a list. Some concepts are essential to understand before you can explore new ones and having a visual representation of how schemas are developed would be an excellent motivator for students as they can choose which ways they want to explore based on interest and they also can see thier progression as it adds up. Overall I think gameification is great but where its at currently seems only beneficial for add ons to pre existing classes and is somewhat uundeveloped enough to fully replace conventional learning.
After discussing accessibility this week I began thinking a lot more about how to create an accomodating classroom. That said however I think that one valubale thought that was missing in todays discussion is that your classroom shouldnt be built to be accessible to every possible disability but it should instead remain adaptable to accomodate to any students who may need additional consideration. I specifically really enjoyed the section where we discussed text colours and the need to consider how certain colours look on others. This is an essential consideration when making any form of presentation or work sheet. The more readable something is the better. If for whatever reason there is a desire to move away from conventional black on white the contrast of the text to the background should be significant so that no student will struggle with reading.
Image generated with help of bing image creator. Prompt was accessibility in the classroom
My technology inquiry question is how can I create an online evolving brain stroming space with a class? This brought me and my group to mindmeister an online mind mapping software. Through exploring this we have found a number of other ways that it can be applied within our classes. We thought it was a great way to present terminology and complicated topics in a non overwhelming manner. We also thought it would act great as a space to facilitate discussion over specific questions that relate to eachother. The pros of mindmeister is that it has collaborative aspects built in which makes it great for a classroom. It is easily operated so anyone with a device can access it. The UI is also appealing and adds to the simplicity. The cons are how poorly the phone port works and how little you can accomplish with the free version. The pro version isn’t too expensive but it would probably be more valuable to find a mind mapping software that operated similarly for free. I think the greatest takeaway from the inquiry is that mindmesiter would be great for creating a FAQ for a class so that over the years student questions can be added and students can refer back to the mindmap FAQ when they have questions to streamline the troubleshooting component of learning and by browsing the FAQ students can also correct misconceptions they have about specific topics.
My involvment in the project was to look into how mindmeister could be used in a grade 11 chemistry class. I made my own mindmap and linked it to our original mindmap and then filmed a short video breaking down my mindmap. I don’t think anything I came across challenged my current perspective of technology in the classroom but I think that by playing with the tool I was able to think of some creative applications of Mindmesiter that I would employ in my teaching. If I had the premium version I would be able to create my visions in the tool and share that with students who can access it throgh the free version. The collaboration would be a little choppy but ideally I could use other technologies to streamline the process.
I liked the ability to control the speed at which I was learning at. Mostly this meant blocking oned day off to a specific subject instead of bouncing around multiple different subjects at once. I didn’t really experience any issues except for some small technological mishaps. I would probably pick hybrid style for learning so that I have the option to be in person if I want to. If we were to have to switch to online learning I’d suggest already understanding how to set up an online meeting and learning how to run one. Other than that I would also find some good online shared resources that students can engage with while also being involved with their peers. One thing I found that didn’t work was breakout rooms because most of the time people just wouldn’t say anything. I would probably use minecraft or another online game to teach science. One I’m familair with and very capable of setting up is starbound which is a space exploration game that allows you to mod it fairly easily with highly scientific concepts such as mutations and wiring.
This week I had a lot of fun generating images using AI. It is something I have tried before but it was fun to sit down with it in class. That said I personally don’t like the implications of AI art and it is something I as an artist don’t fully support because of its shameless use plagerism of other artists work. Drawing inspration from an artist is something I fully support and a great way for artists to develop their own style. I don’t really wanna encourage students to use ai art for personal gain but it could be beenficial for them to use it for something like a presentation or project. I included some of the art I generated this week.
This weeks discussion surrounding the ways technology has opened my mind to just how much the education system has changed in the last 20 years. Every day new technology is created and the world becomes more accessible from the comfort at home. After class I was left with the anxiety of how to combat new emerging technology that could damper my learners work ethic. Now almost a week later my anxiety has subsided and I now have more of a drive to explore what is becomming accessible to the public. As I continue to explore the large world of new tech my mind has started racing with new ideas for activities to include in the classroom to help learners be better prepared for the future. I hope that as I grow older I’m able to remain technologically literate so that I can guide my students towards using different online tools in ways that will benefit their learning instead of letting them use it as a crutch and developing bad habits. I have no idea how I will work to keep up to date but if you are reading this future me you should communicate with younger teachers about what they are bringing in to the classroom and scaffold with them to come up with activites that could help educaate students on how to use emerging tech. I know you are capable future me, don’t let your anxiety destroy your adaptability. I love you and I’m proud of the person you’ve become.
