Jillian's Blog

Ed Tech Research When I start to think about March 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic and shifting to online learning its insane to think that were already at almost the end of 2021. In a nutshell I feel like I blinked and got here while at the same time I felt like it also took soooooo long to get here. This week I focused on researching the effects that technology has had on students because of the pandemic and remote learning. I came across some really interesting research and infographics from  Project Tomorrow . I became really interested in perspectives on remote learning and using technology in the classroom effectively for students.  Image Source: Project Tomorrow When I started looking at this infograph provided by Project Tomorrow I have to say I was kind of surprised that only 17% of students preferred a fully online virtual learning experience, now before you start asking why would I be surprised, i’ll tell you. The reason I was so surprised by 17% was because ...

Active Learning Image Source: School Connects What is active learning and why is it important? Take a look at these two images below and reflect on your experience when you were in the classroom and when you were learning as a student years ago. How different does this learning visual look when compared to your own? I know for me there was so much lecture than there was practice by doing which if you look now lecture is at the very top of the pyramids shown which means students only retain about 5% of that information given. Students learn best by actively learning. Active learning is an instructional approach where students engage with the course materials by being hands on, some activities can range from discussions, role plays, think pair share, and think aloud's to just name a few.  "Active learning helps promote higher order thinking skills such as application of knowledge, analysis and synthesis. Active learning activities engage students in deep rather than surface lear...

Digital Mapping       Image Source: David White Residents vs. Visitors? In this blog post I explored my online presence and created a digital map of what that looks like for me. I needed to analyze which apps I use most and determine if I am a visitor of that app or a resident of that app both professionally and personally. Now before you get confused like what does that even mean, let me tell you. In an article  written by David White he defines a resident as " the individual going online to connect to, or to be with other people, this mode is about social presence ". David also defines a visitor as an "i ndividual who decides on the task they wish to undertake, for example, discovering a particular piece of information online, completing the task and then going offline or moving on to another task.  In Visitor mode individuals do not leave any social trace online ". Now I had to analyze and determine if I am a visitor or a resident to these apps that...

Trends In Ed Tech  Image Source: Martin Shreder, Unsplash This week I read up on  trends in ed tech  and learned a lot about them. Although I am not yet a teacher, with E-Learning and being in the classroom last year, I was able to make connections with this list and my personal experience. I was able to review this list and determine which ones I felt I knew about and would recommend or which one I wanted to explore that is a new tool to me. I decided that I really wanted to become more knowledgeable in number 8 on that list, Project-Based Learning . I am a very visual person so upon doing my research into the 9 trends in ed tech I felt like being a super hands on learner really resonated with me and felt that once I become a teacher I can find ways to implement the " genius hour " so that students would really gravitate to their own learning in new ways. In this blog post I will focus on genius hour for project-based learning as I have found that professionals find...

Blog #2: Technology Integration in Education Image Source: Glenn Carstens-Peters, Unsplash So this week I spent a good chunk of my time reviewing the frameworks for technology integration. I'll be completely honest, I have up until this point never heard of this and this felt extremely overwhelmed. Reviewing these frameworks was interesting to say the least, I learned a lot. The framework that I ultimately ended up choosing was the Triple E framework. I scored 13 out of 18 on the  Triple E evaluation framework  which meant that I have an "exceptional connection between learning goals and tools" ( McKinley, 2020 ) . I have to say I wasn't too surprised to have scored where I did. Last year with E-Learning I did my absolute best to ensure that tools that were used by students that I researched were beneficial, had student buy-in, connected to life outside of the classroom and would make learning fun for students.  I figured with a score like that why not do a deep...