Final & Summative Blog Post

Excitement. Panic. Relief. Sadness. Disbelief. 

The end of the semester is here which means my final year as an Education Student is just a few days from being over. Ah! Where did the time go? It seems like yesterday I was enrolled in my first technology course with Mike and here I am almost finished my second!

I remember on that first day of Internet for Educators being so uncertain, sceptical and in a small way upset that I had to take a technology course. Now after taking that course and the ICT course this year, I am glad that I did. My view of technology has changed drastically and so has my attitude towards it.

I find myself using technology more and for things that I never thought I would! For example it is my Dad's 50th birthday in a few days. The big 5.0. When trying to think of an appropriate gift to get him, I was at a loss. Nothing that I thought of was good enough, grand enough, or in my price range haha. After all of the digital storytelling and multimedia presentations we made this semester it occurred to me that the perfect gift was right in front of me. So I, with the help of my sister, started going through and scanning photographs of our Dad's important/memorable life events. After that I decided to turn it into a type of letter thanking him for everything he has done for our family in the last 50 years and had a sequence of pictures to follow/further emphasize the specific thank you note. After I had added music and finalized it, I was actually really impressed with the result! I was so excited to show it to him... so naturally I wasted no time and I showed my Dad his video right away! His response? "You're going to send me a copy of this right?" PERFECT! I had done it. I found the perfect 50th birthday gift through an Education technology course, who knew?

I never thought I would say it, but I am grateful for the technology courses that I have taken. I feel more prepared and confident entering the real-world of teaching. Really, my thanks and praise goes out to one individual in particular.... my professor Mike. Without his patience and expertise I wouldn't be where I am today. Thank you Mike!

As I start wrapping up this final blog post I encourage everyone out there to start learning more about technology and to start experimenting! You never know what you might find!

As this is my final blog post, there won't be any "Until next time..."s. Thank you for reading and I wish you all luck with your own adventures with technology. With that being said...

Wish me luck!... JD

Maple

On February 20th, we had the pleasure of having John Evans present in class about Maple. John is a Maple administrator and Web Technologies Consultant for Brandon Education. So what exactly is Maple? Maple is a social network for Manitoba teachers and education professionals to exchange ideas, offer and receive support. If you are a Manitoba teacher and want to sign up for it here is the link!

John frequently shares all sorts of resources and link to sharing posts on his website and also shares resources on Maple for educators to use in the classroom.

Maple has a lot of different features. It includes a dashboard for access to fast up-to-date information and updates, including links to PDs/conferences. It is available for Manitoba teachers to search and sign up for workshops. The hope is that Maple will become the primary way to sign up for PDs and workshops in the future. There is also a large library which can be used to store/save what you want and to search through a collection of lesson plans/ideas. I love this feature! Through the library you can search and find books for personal or classroom use. To add to the awesomeness of Maple, it also includes all curriculum resources on their wikis.

Perhaps the strongest part of Maple is the groups. Groups are made for curriculum consultants, administrators, and subjects/topics. There are a diverse number of resources and to take full advantage of a group is to join it. There are 3 levels of groups. The first level is "Open" where any Maple user can join, participate in discussions, share resources/lessons/videos and find information easier than using Google. The second level needs a request for membership where an administrator will accept or deny request. This group contains the same features as an open group does, but it is more exclusive and private. The third type of group is a "Closed" group. Most closed groups are invisible to regular Maple users and the only way to gain access is to be invited to the group.

It is safe to say I recommend Maple to any and every Manitoba educator. All of the pages included are advantageous and created for your use. One benefit that John shared with us that should is quite appealing is that it is available 24/7. So my question for you is, why not use and get connected with Maple? - rhetorical question :)

Until my next post... JD