Corinne’s Blogfolio

My three week, pre-internship teaching block concluded on Friday, and what a fantastic experience it was – thank you, grade ones!

One of the highlights of the block was Skyping with a few special guests on the last day of teaching; the grade ones were able to talk to three Medical Students from the University of Saskatchewan.

For the last three weeks, we have been learning about healthy bodies including healthy snacks, illness, and infectious diseases.  Since the start of the unit, the grade ones have been developing a list of questions they wanted answered.

On Friday morning, each of the grade ones were able to ask their question and their grade seven reading buddy wrote down the answer.  All of us were so excited to talk to some experts on healthy bodies!

Thank you Johanna, Blake, and Veronica for providing some excellent information!

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I was in Saskatoon last weekend for a presentation and was eyeing the power point for design and presentation principles learned from Dean Shareski, and in the powerpoint, I noticed how effective the message is when the “showing not telling” concept is used through visual images/metaphors rather than through just words or too many words. I also noticed how easily it is to zone out when listening to a speaker. I was comparing the style of presenting and learning to what occurs in this class (ECMP 355) and realized how beneficial the tools we use for learning are. On a side note, I have to admit, before using these tools, I was a little skeptical of the value they had for learning but after using them for 7 weeks I am beginning to see the value. So, I wanted to share some of the ways I am learning from some of the tools we are using in this class.

1. Eluminate- I recently began logging on to eluminate while sitting in the face to face class, and I am finding it to be a great way to connect to the people online by reading and adding comments, or questions to online classmates. After getting use to the chat feature, instead of finding it a distraction, I find it a nice addition to the lectures and class discussions.
2. Blogs- I am learning so much from other classmates’ and teachers’ blogs. Reading them has inspired many ideas and blog posts and has introduced me to many websites, resources, and ideas about education and technology. I am learning so much more then I would have if this online community didn’t exist.
3. Videos- Wow, I didn’t realize the power of video to convey a message until viewing the videos created by my classmates for their final project presentations. I think videos are a great way to share ideas about a topic, promote a network, present a social problem, provide information about what was learned, how something was created, or how to use something. I am inspired and would love to practice and use this tool more in the future.

I would love to hear how these or other tools have helped people learn in this class.

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