Our prototype is finished, our journey complete!

My experience with Canvas really was neat

 

Ashley summed our finish up well, read about it here

It won’t take too long, no need to fear

 

I enjoyed Canvas right from the start

It appealed to me, straight to my heart

 

So clean, user-friendly, I could jump right in

I had no issues, right to the fin (French for end)

 

It was great to collaborate with Ashley and Nancy

On my own, I can’t be very fancy

 

It’s amazing what happens when you put three heads together

You get better ideas, the process was as smooth as leather

 

After completing this project, I find myself yearning

To do this for all my classes, incorporate the blended learning

 

Completing this project, I’ve got a sense of satisfaction

I wanna keep going, I’m gaining traction

 

I agree with something Sarah Wandy said

Being overwhelmed, so many ideas in the head

 

I just wanna go…go, go, go!

All this momentum I’m feeling, yo!

 

Can I keep going? Adapt for all my classes

Open up the learning to all the masses

 

I know that this is the style I ultimately want

I won’t use Comic Sans, people be hatin’ that font

 

This assignment was something I can ultimately use

My excitement for blended learning be hard to diffuse

 

I’ve learned lots about online education from Katia and Alec

And I’ve explored online courses thanks to Jade Ballek

 

I’ve learned so much, I want to sing and shout!

Thanks for reading y’all, and I’m out

 

Well…that kinda came out of nowhere! I sat down to start typing with no intentions of doing that and I first tried to think of a blog title, which I never do first. The idea of something along the lines of wrapping things up came to me, and when I said wrap…I thought ‘rap’, and away I went!

Seriously though, Ashley explained in her blog quite well how the process of finishing things up went for us. Nancy has also given her thoughts on the process from her perspective. Saying much more would be redundant, but I will give one quick paragraph with my closing thoughts!

From the start, I liked Canvas. I thought it was clean, professional looking, and user-friendly. Throughout the process, my first impressions were mostly realized, although it wasn’t flawless in terms of being user-friendly as there were a few things that took me a little time to get straightened out, but nothing so difficult that I would consider it a drawback to using it. I really think that it looks professional and I like this for my target demographic (high school students) because I feel that professionalism promotes professionalism and if something looks sloppy or not professional, that inspires less than the best.

While I won’t incorporate this entire prototype into my classes because I don’t teach any type of computer class, I have also discussed how digital citizenship should be interwoven into all subject areas. So when Ashley and Nancy brought up the idea of doing this course, I was happy to join because I knew that I would come across new ideas that I would be able to incorporate into my own subjects, and I also feel that it’s such an important subject that I am happy to contribute to a course like this that can have such important implications. An example of something new I learned was when exploring filter bubbles I didn’t realize just HOW DIFFERENT google searches can be for different people. I posted about this in our Google+ community today, but here is the TedTalk that shows how algorithms really tailor our experiences to our interests.

https://embed.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles

I am glad that this project was assigned to us, because it forced me to do something that I’ve wanted to do! I was nodding my head in agreement while reading Sarah’s blog this week because she discussed her desire to implement this type of system in all of her classes because she sees the value in it, as I do too. Sarah specifically mentions feeling overwhelmed, as do I, because I want to do it NOW! I know that I can’t expect that, at least to do it any justice at all. So I’m going to try and be patient, and tackle a project like this over the summer. One issue though is that I teach 7 different subjects currently, so I can’t do this for all of my classes, but I would start with the senior courses because I have worked with those students already to become more independent learners, and I can start smaller with the younger grades.

The quality of online resources continues to get better, and because of this, my role as teacher is becoming more and more that of a curator as I provide a collection of resources to my students, whether it be Crash Course videos, Bozeman Science videos, or now, thanks to this course, excerpts to the publicly available textbooks provided by BCcampus OpenEd. I try to inspire and provide the skills to my students to be independent learners. An independent learner can walk out of our schools and be up for whatever challenge life throws at them.

Live long and prosper.