As my course is coming to end I want to take the time to reflect on what I have learned.
Overall, throughout the course I really enjoyed the flip grid discussions, I liked watching them and even making them at the end, it made me feel like a youtuber!
In general, this class took me out of my comfort zone by writing these weekly blogs and posting the flip grid discussions.
While this experience made me uncomfortable and nervous to share my ideas by writing or through videos, I think that is what truly made this class so enjoyable. The class was so different that it made it not feel so much like a class but a community of people really working on blogs. The assignments didn’t even really feel so much like assignments, once I really felt like I got the hang of it!
My favorites
Of all the assignments, I enjoyed the blog banner the most and being able to edit and play around with pictures.
Of all the modules, I feel that module 2 on accessibility was the most useful module to me throughout this course and as a special education major looking towards working with a population that potentially needs accessibility in all aspects.
When reading and watching more about how to evaluate websites, I was shocked at the amount of things that are suggested for you to look at. It made me think, after all these years I’ve really just been settling for any website I think may have what I’m looking for regardless of how credible it actually is.
Typically, I’d search whatever I was looking for and pick the most relevant title, maybe the first or second article to the top and without looking further, I’d take the information I needed as the absolute truth without looking to see if there was any authority, bias, currency, or documentation.
Now after reading all this information in regards to website evaluation, I feel like a fool! Like I have been mislead this whole time that I have been using the internet. Sure, I knew not everything on the internet was the truth but I would trust websites that look legitimate by the way they have been set up, with their headings and pictures and nothing about the actual content of the website.
Now, I wish I had been checking for the actual content of the websites I use because it is not difficult at all! Also, by using credible websites, I can include them in the papers I write for my college classes without looking stupid!
How to Check for a credible website?
You could first start just by checking the url! You can tell whether the website will be commercial through .com, whether the website is an organization run website through .org, whether the website is education based like .edu, and so on!
Then, once you have picked your website, it’s as easy as ABC… and d’s
A– check for AUTHORITY, who wrote the site? You can check this by looking at mission statements or about us pages.
B– check for BIAS, you can check this by looking at the advertisements on the page.
C– check for CURRENCY, how up to date is the article, when was it written?
D– check for DOCUMENTATION, did they site their sources?
Look around you. Anywhere you go, I bet you’ll see someone on their phone, texting, calling, facetiming, or on social media. If not directly on their phones, people will AT LEAST have their phone on them: holding it in their hand, in their purse or pockets. People won’t go anywhere without their phones now-a-days.
What does this mean for our webpages?
Taking in the fact that we are addicted to these tiny rectangular screens, it’s important to consider what that means in regards to our web content. Considering most people will access the information they need while they are on the go, on their phones, rather than waiting to use their computers at home; it’s important to make our web content accessible through our cell phones. Most people will try to gain access to the things they need using their mobile phones.
By the time someone gets home from their busy day, the last thing on their mind is to hop onto their computers to check out the website they couldn’t get to on their phones.
Mobile phones in our classrooms?
In the classroom, by making your information accessible through the phone, you are making things SO MUCH EASIER. Not just for your students who might not have access to a computer at home, but also parents, by allowing them to access important information regarding their children’s learning anywhere!
get to the point! don’t draw out a long introduction
make your writing and the organization of your cite easy to follow and read
Are our blogs accessible on our phones?
SO, of course after looking into all this information about using our phones and websites and all this STUFF, I went ahead and looked at my own blog using my i-phone. If I do say so myself, it looked good! It was easy to follow, all I had to do to access my posts was scroll down. It was simple and very accessible, in my opinion.
Other websites flowed just like mine and others looked different on my phone then they did on my laptop. On my laptop some websites were all laid out and easily located but when I would switch to my phone it was much different and I had to click on a menu to access the subdivisions of the website. It wasn’t hard to find, just different and unexpected!
Mobile Learning
What is Mobile Learning?
Mobile learning, also known as m-learning, is a new way to access learning content using your phone. Mobile learning supports continuous access to the learning process through the use of your hand held technology. This can be done using devices like your phone, laptop or tablet. You can learn wherever and whenever you want!
^ check out this link for my HTML remix of the super popular meme “keep calm and carry on”
I put my own touch on my remix for my blog. First, I changed the background color to light pink because it’s my favorite color. Then I got caught up in changing the colors and made my border black… but then, I made my border even bolder. I also played around with the sizing of my font from ‘lighter’ to ‘normal’ and then to ‘bolder’ because I wanted it to stand out! I also changed the meme itself to “Keep Calm and Blog on” because I wanted to make it relatable with me making this blog!!
Keep in mind, I have never ever had any experience with HTML, I barely even knew what HTML was, it was basically just something I would hear the tech guys around school say every now and then.. but hardly even then! So, I have had ZERO experience with HTML, coding, and pretty much all technology type things.
Even though I found the whole process of remixing the HTML super confusing and hard to get because of my lack of experiencing, I had a lot of fun playing around with it! I think this tool could be great for the classroom as well because there are several things that you could remix based on what you would like your students to do. You could use it as a way to teach one thing while also teaching coding too!
Before this week the only time I have ever heard of coding was my sophomore year of college, when my roommate was complaining about some assignment she had to do with coding. I just laughed with her not even understanding what ‘coding’ meant!
Now that I’ve looked into it further, I feel kind of dumb! This stuff is important!
When we look at coding through the lens of education and school, advocates for teaching coding in schools explain that it is a necessity when kids today are growing up with all the technology that they have. The advocate.org explains that, “There is merit in school students learning coding. We live in a digital world where computer programs underlie everything from business, marketing, aviation, science and medicine, to name several disciplines.” Therefore, its important to know the coding behind these tools to take full advantage of the technology we have in all domains. It also helps gives those students more appreciation for the technology they use so often and what goes into it!
Others may so that teaching kids how to code is probably just a waste of time. Hackaday.com wrote an article on a news report and said, “When you teach a kid to code, what benefit do they actually get? I mean, we can all agree that teaching a kid Python isn’t necessarily going to help them get a job in 10 years because Python will probably not be the hot language in a decade.” Which again, makes sense; what if we don’t even need coding then? What if its a whole other language and system we need to learn with the newest technology then, then coding was only wasted time.
While I haven’t had any formal coding instruction ever before, I wish I had! For one, it would have made all of this much easier for me to understand. But also, by looking at HTML and coding more I was able to see a different side of the internet I never understood. And with the internet and technology becoming more and more advanced I think it puts you as a teacher or student at an advantage to be able to understand all the stuff that is behind the technology we are using!
So, either side has its points regarding teaching coding but I don’t think teaching coding would be a disservice. Honestly, I think we should be doing it, even if times change our students will have understand of the technology that they are using right now!
Sooo… I’m thinking we should definitely teach it!
While Mozilla’s Learning Network is super helpful for educators, here are some more helpful tools for teachers to teach coding! Get to it ladies!!!
Okay so first, what the heck is Creative Commons? Basically, it is a website that aims to share and help share content and images legally by giving credit to those who have created the original content. For me, I never really thought about citing information for a photo but now after reading about creative commons I see how important it really is. After all, if someone had copied a picture I had taken and claimed it as their own, I’d be peeved! Because of this new found incite and reflecting on how I feel about my own work, I would, for sure, use creative commons licensing to share my work.
How I chose to incorporate Multimedia
For our assignment using images, I chose to use pixlr, an image editing website. When using pixlr, I chose to use my own photos because I thought it would best represent me to use my own photos, but it also helped me to avoid any licensing or copyright issues. (Don’t forget to check out my very own images in my banner at the top of my blog!) If I had used images from other sites I would make sure to provide the proper attribution as it can create problems legally. It’s also just not right to steal other people’s work too!
More Multimedia!!
I also created my own video during this module on how to use pinterest to create boards for your classroom and lesson plans! Check it out!
The Images that I used for my banner were my very own! I chose these pictures to show more about me with a picture of myself and my puppy!! To edit my header I used pixlr express. I used the adjustments crop and airbrush for the picture of myself… because who doesn’t want to look flawless? I also used the rotate function of the adjustment section for the left hand photo of my dog. I then used effects to put a filter on the center picture of myself… again, embarrassing myself with the amount of editing I need to look decent!
Additionally, I used a vignette for the overlay on the center picture to add a little more of a dramatic effect to highlight the picture of myself. I also used type to add my name into the photo of myself. I did not use borders in any of the pictures because I felt like the collage had already given each photo the white border.
Now that I’ve explained what I’ve used for the banner, let’s talk about the process.
The Process
I LOVED IT, I felt very comfortable finding my way around pixlr and found the whole process very simple and easy! I loved editing the picture and adding filters and stickers to make it all more me, which was the goal of my banner, I really wanted it to represent me and serve as a way for my readers to see me (plus some pictures of my dog because who doesn’t love dogs?). Anyway, I think the banner represents me because it shows my very favorite thing, my puppy and also shows me in an off guard picture that my boyfriend took using his new phone’s portrait feature, which if I do say so myself, came out pretty good!
What is accessibility? Specifically, what is web accessibility?
According to web accessibility initiative or http://www.w3.org, “Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them.” The site then describes, that by making web pages accessible, it helps people perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web as well as contribute to it, and do so better! Additionally, accessibility considers all disabilities such as auditory, visual, cognitive, neurological, physical and speech!
So, basically what I have gathered is how important web accessibility really is. It isn’t even just important for people with disabilities but EVERYONE! Like David Berman said in his video “Web accessibility Matters: Why should we care” we pretty much alllll benefit from the things created for the benefit of those with disabilities. Specifically, his example of texting and how it was developed for people who are deaf! I mean, come on, who doesn’t love texting? Sooo, if we all really benefit from the innovations that come from helping those with disabilities, it only makes sense to do the same thing for the web!
The video, I mentioned above for those who do care! (like you should!!!)
So really…WHY is accessibility so important?
Think back to a time when you felt left out, like everyone else knew what was going on but you didn’t or everyone else was at some party, or were playing some game on the playground (yup, think way back), but you weren’t. You were all alone, out of the loop, excluded!
Okay, now think about everyone who may have a disability or maybe even more than one. Well, according to worldbank.org, “One billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability and One-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experience significant disabilities. Now think about how many people (ONE BILLION) who feel left out, and excluded, because of the internet not being accessible.
Starting my own blog is SCARY! Before I sat down with my laptop and a cup of coffee, I struggled with thoughts like, what will I talk about? What can I say? Why am I doing this? Who care’s about what I think? The list goes on.
You guys are probably saying, “Okay… so why are you writing this then?”
Well… I am writing for a summer class. So, I plan on writing on topics that relate to us college students. I’ll also talk about the things that I’m over here going to school for: Special Education and Speech Pathology!
So here I am pouring my thoughts out to a bunch of strangers online. But, don’t worry I’m going to make the most out of this class regardless of the anxiety I feel towards posting this, I plan on making this fun.
So I’m going to jump right in; To start my blog, I decided to begin by addressing those fears I had about writing this blog!
What Will I Talk About?
First things first, what’s this blog going to be about? Well, I am going to discuss the topics in which I relate the most to: being a college student, special education, and speech pathology. Since, I also have a second major in social and behavior sciences with a minor in social work, I may even touch on matters within social and behavior sciences too! Really, the question turns into what can’t I write about? The limits really are endless.
I’m going to share the things I see, the things I hear, what I read about, my own experiences, and so on. I have lots of things on my mind so buckle up! On top of the things I notice in my fields, I’m also going to share my opinions on the things I choose to write about!
I think that this experience of blogging about my ideas regarding my future career in special education and speech will really help me express how I feel on matters that are apart of the communities that I will soon join once I graduate. This will also help me learn more about things going on in the fields that I have chosen. It is also an opportunity for me to get involved in the community of educators and speech pathologists in a way that is out of my comfort zone (you know what they say about comfort zones)! Maybe, there will be some teachers or speech pathologists that actually enjoy my blog!
“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
― Roy T. Bennett
How will I make this ‘engaging‘?
I want this blog to be fun! There’s nothing fun about writing papers or essays so I intend on writing like I talk, not how I write… I think having a conversation is much more interesting than reading a paper so that’s one strategy I plan to use in my blog; like “Writing for the Web” by Lynda Felder says, “Use a conversational style”! I also love gifs and bitmoji’s which I plan to include in this blog to liven up my assignments. I’m definitely addicted to my phone, I love twitter and finding funny meme’s so of course I’ll include some of that in here too! I mean how fun is scrolling through twitter, I want my blog to be that fun too!
People Reading my thoughts…
AHHH.. people reading my thoughts makes me want to cry but at the same time, I’m pretty fun so I think people miiiight get a kick out of it… hopefully!
Last but not least, this is a great opportunity for us to share our ideas to our class and hear what they think too! I think commenting on others is great and I think that by providing comments for each other we will all be able to improve our blogs!
Blogging by Popi 