Shanyces EduAdventures

Follow me through my learning of educational technology!

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Week 6: Free Inquiry Project Progress- How is it Going Learning the Ukulele?

October 17, 2024 /

Over the past week, I have set aside a bit of time to continue my progress with the ukulele. As the semster is getting busy, I did my best again to strum the instrument while following a video, and although I have not yet mastered it, I began watching tutorials on learning My little Sunshine on Youtube. As a result of our technology class a few weeks ago regarding generative AI, I thought I would ask it some questions about tips and resources it may have for my learning.

Check out some of the resources it gave me!

A screen shot of chat gpt, giving tips and resources to help me learn how to play the ukulele. Includes apps, websites and books.

I’ve found Chat GPT to be very useful because it has given me resources I had never heard of. Like stated above, I have never heard of the apps listed, and I am going to make it my goal to download and play one of them. As this is an independant learning project, I find it helpful to have all of these resources to support me along the way. I have been having trouble learning and keeping up with the beats and chords in my own music class, so listening in to my students in practicums music classes has been the biggest help. Being taught this at a very basic and beginner level is exactly what I need. Because of this, their music teacher showed me the site MusicPlayOnline, and it includes lesson plans and grade levels for teachers, games and quizzes. I am also going to continue to check out this site for any additional resources.

I like the video below alot because it only includes 3 chords, C, F and G7. This is simple enough for me to teach to myself and get me comfortable beginning to play a song!

Week 6: Assistive Technology and Equity, Accesible Learning Classwork.

October 17, 2024 /
Here is a photo of the website Waves we used in class as a tool to asses the accessibility of our website.
The video above should have closed captions included, making it accesible for a larger variety of children to learn Coconut Chaos.
accessible-docsDownload

This week was dedicated to accessibility and being conscious of our diverse audience needs, specifically with our personal blog posts. The photos and videos above are included as they were practice on using accessibility tools. For example, the first photo includes alternitive text, and the video has subtitles for people who may be hard of hearing. Often times though, there are digital accessibility practices that are often missed or forgotten, even in my own practice. Things such as Alt text for images is often included, but not in a meaningful way. The text should be not only describing the literal image, but explaining its relevance and importance as well so all audience members can understand. Secondly, colour contrast. This was a learning curve for me as I had to make changes to my own blog. I had never thought of how colours that are similar make things more difficult to read, especially for the visually impaired, until I saw my own blog. In my case, I had too many vertical lines and pale colours which interfered with my work, but I made a change in hopes of being more accessible to all. There are several reasons that these practices are not very well-known. To list a few, there is a lack of education regarding accessibility. Many educators and creators were not trained to keep accessibility in mind, and it is not included in elementary or secondary curriculum. Especially in todays day in age, there is a keen interest in aesthetics over accessibility, and a misconception that it is complex. With the proper education and training though, we can see that this is not true. This is where I have had the majority of my learning this week, and I am excited to continue to learn about accessibility going forward!

Week 5: The Past Week of Learning the Ukulele, Free Inquiry.

October 7, 2024 /

Over the past week, I have put in some more time into learning the ukulele. I have found it to be somewhat of a struggle making time to learn a new skill in the midst of the semester, but it is also nice knowing I am setting aside this time for myself. It has been very useful for me to watch videos of people teaching the basics, as I have trouble learning on my own and teaching things to myself.

I decided this week that the first song I learn will be You Are My Sunshine, it is a classic beginner song and nastolgic of my childhood. I am still getting comfortable with chords, so I have been referencing videos such as the one above to begin learning the song. Learning the ukulele has taken patience and time so far, so I have been taking the learning proccess slowly. This week, I tried putting chords together with strumming. I am somewhat slow at switching chords and strumming, so my goal for next week is to get more comfortable with this.

Your First Ukulele Lesson: A Beginner’s Guide to Playing Ukulele

I have also enjoyed reading blog articles such as this one above because it has very useful images that videos sometimes may not use. Feel free to check this one out! Theres an endless supply of beginner ukulele information on the internet, but I find that I register the information best when I am learning with others. Next week, I plan to work with some peers on practicing the instrument, and seeing what they have learned this far. If I work with others and continue working on my chords and strumming, I will be one step closer to completing my goal of learning the ukulele.

References:

Your First Ukulele Lesson: A Beginners Guide to Playing Ukulele, Ukulele Magazine, October 20, 2023.

Week 5: 3D Printing and Design, Reflection 4.

October 7, 2024 /

Today for our 5th class, we had a guest speaker teaching us about 3D printers, and we got to design our own print. This was very interesting and completly new to me. After learning about 3D printing and design, it made me think about how useful it can be in education within a vareity of ages. I played around with it and made a small heart jewelry box, but it can be cross-curricular for school ages. For example, 3D printing could be very useful in language revitilization for many Indigenous languages or even braille. 3D prints can be used as a part of an interactive story or game or as signage, and the list continues. As a teacher, I could 3D print characters, objects or places in a traditional story to help engage learners. This is helpful because these peices are tangible and that may help students learn and understand better. In this situation, this can be cross-curricular because the students are learning language and culture.

Here’s the box I designed in class:

There could be many pros and cons to using 3D at the school level. The main pro would be the hands on engagement the print offers, this could further engage the students because the technology is new and different. The students would have access to learn the newest technology they may use in their future career, such as engineering, medicine, manufacturing etc… We could use 3D printing to make learning more accessible for disabled students. This could look like creating braille models for visually impaired students. On the contrary, there are also many cons that could come along with this. As it is new technology, it will be a learning curve for teachers and students, taking plenty of time when time is already limited. Secondly, the finding. Equipement may be expensive, along with maintenence and having to refill the materials. Schools with higher funding could find this useful, but schools with lower funding may not be able to afford the printer. Meaning this tool is not equitable for all.

The image below is what a 3D printer looks like, which we got to see during class!

Here’s a link to an explaination of 3D printing for kids, if you’re planning on teaching about them:

Also helpful in learning the basics of 3D printing!

Week 4: What is my Free-Inquiry going to be?

October 1, 2024 /

Over the past week, I have decided for my free inquiry project to be about learning how to play the ukulele. I am a beginner at learning the instrument, and haven’t played one in 10-15 years! Therefor, I have dedicated my time this week to relearn the basics. I have used my music professor and other classmates as a resource, as learning on my own isn’t natural for me. As I have worked with this with my classmates, I feel like I have a strong understanding of the basics, and think that this method of learning has been successful.

The photo above shows the notes I have taken to refresh my memory of music terminology. As you can see, I have been trying my best at learning musical notes, the lengths of their beats/rest, and what the different notes mean. I find taking a photo of the notes and uploading it works best, but as I learn how to actually play the ukulele, I plan to record my progress to share!

Although the video above is intended for kids, I found it to be extremly helpful at breaking musical notation down for me. This video brought me back to the basics, and now I feel confident and prepared for next weeks learning. Along with this, finding helpful videos like this now will be beneficial for my future self, because I can set them aside for when I am teaching music to my students.

https://www.twinkl.ca/teaching-wiki/musical-notation#:~:text=Music%20notation%20are%20the%20symbols,ways%20of%20writing%20down%20music.

This link above is also a very useful website for me to refresh on. It has similar information to the youtube video, but is just another way of explaining it.

Week 4: Generative AI, Reflection 3

October 1, 2024 /

This weeks learning was all about GenAI and very useful ways we can use it to enhance our education. GenAI can be very useful at generating ideas, using it as a correcting tool, and the possibilities are endless. Because of this, there is a very fine line of abusing the tool, and copying it word for word. Situations like this could quickly fall under copy-right and using misinformation. To use this tool, we must know how to properly, and use with caution.

Check out this video for a quick explanation:

As future teachers, and because of the unpredictable nature of GenAI, we need to have some control on how our students use this tool. AI uses all platforms to form its responses, therefore the tool has harmful bias’ that kids may not understand nor need to know yet. Along with this, kids could be exposed to bullying, and a lack of privacy. To be safe, children should have a solid foundation of education before having access to GenAI. Roughly around high school would be appropriate to used this tool, supervised.

GenAI has only been around largely for the past couple years, and was first introduced to me during my post-secondary education. As I am navigating this tool, I have found it to be very useful in my education. When I first used this tool though, I did not have the understanding of how harmful it could be if used incorrectly. I have used GenAI for many different things, but the most helpful has been to sum up large amounts of text, to generate ideas and to create activity plans while working with children. I tutor K-12 students for work, and using GenAI has been amazing at helping me explain things in an easier way to children. For example, I can understand difficult math, but struggle explaining it to the kids for them to understand. Going forward, I am excited to see different ways this tool can help me in my career as a teacher!

Week 3: Free Inquiry Options.

September 26, 2024 /

Throughout the past week, I have been trying to decide between two options for my free inquiry project. My options are either doing yoga and taking time to try classes and styles I haven’t before, or learning the ukulele. I am learning the ukulele for my music class, so it could over lap, while I focus on the recording and technilogical side as my inquiry. I was very passionate about the ukulele as a child, and it was my favorite instrument that I learned. Using the ukulele as my free inquiry topic could rekindle a past interest of mine. If I choose the ukulele, I will record while I play, assesing if the quality and sound is better with my phone, Mac, Ipad and keep notes on the technology. The link below is a video I’ll check out to get started:

As for learning yoga, I am passionate about it, but can never find the time. It is hard to afford yoga classes and fit them into my schedule. Although, yoga is something I love to do when I have free time, and using it as my free inquiry topic could hold me accountable. This could be very helpful in setting aside time for myself in a busy schedule. If I coose yoga, I will record small clips and photos if possible and keep track in a journal.

Week 3: Learning Screencasting and H5P, Reflection 2.

September 20, 2024 /

Today, we learned how to make an interactive video while explaining a game. In my video, I chose to play the game Coconut Chaos, which is a great game to help teach children about musical notes. While recording, I found the screencasting part straightforward. In the past, when I have had to do virtual presentations while sharing my screen, I have used Zoom. In the future, screencasting is a tool that could be very useful in this situation, or for creating a pre-recorded lesson. As for H5P, I managed to add interactive parts to the video, but the installation was not intuitive. However, with more practice, this tool could be very useful to engage students in class. For example, sharing a video with the class and including multiple choice questions with H5P, allows students to answer and engage in the lesson.

Multi-media learning can help us create more engaging and effective instructional videos because there will be multiple modes of sharing information. For example, having a photo, text, and speaker is much more engaging than just a speaker. If there were to be just a speaker, the listener could get lost or bored not having anything to follow along with. As for using the Flipped Classroom teaching model, we value the time in class as hands-on learning instead of 50%-100% lecturing and lesson time. As teachers, we would give pre-class work therefore there is more time to work in class. Myself, wanting to teach grades 3-4, I could give them simple reading homework and have time to do interactive assignments about the story in class. Although, this method may be more effective with secondary or post-secondary students.

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