Mission…Accomplished!

Photo Credit: Patti Leigh

Wow!  I can not believe that the end of the semester is here!  I am very excited to say that the summary of learning that I created along with Tyler is complete!  We had a lot of fun using the “Mission” theme for our assignment.  This is the third summary of learning assignment I have completed for Alec and Katia.  For my first summary of learning for EC&I831  I used an story telling app Toontastic to create a video that discussed the beginning of my journey and then I created a Prezi to explain what I learned along the way.  The Prezi ended with a song that I created to wrap up what I learned about in that class.  For EC&I832 I created a video of the book I wrote “Twas The End of The Semester” inspired by the book “Twas The Night Before Christmas.”  Since it was December I also created a short Summary of Learning Jingle to the tune of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

Photo Credit: sumanmehta6548 via Compfight cc

For this assignment Tyler and I had many conversations trying to decide on our direction for this project.  For our debate we used a green screen to record our presentation so we wanted to try something new.  I was wanting to use an app or website that I have not used before and so we turned to… of course Google!  When we looked up fun video presentation websites we saw PowToon was one of the options suggested.  Tyler and I decided to check out this website to see what it had to offer.  You can create your own presentation by scratch and they have some templates that you can use to help get you started for the first few slides.  We saw the template “Mission Impossible” and were inspired to use that template to help us create our vision for our project.  We got busy discussing highlights that we learned about from each debate and began to figure out what order to include our ideas in the script.  It was a lot of fun working with someone on this assignment and it led to many great conversations about the class and all of the different topics that were covered.  I am usually very long winded and sometimes struggle with focusing on key ideas and often want to discuss everything so Tyler was very helpful in that area.  In the video we had to complete “missions” through researching the topics and had to report back to discuss our findings in the different areas.  Tyler and I worked hard at talking about the key things we learned about from each debate and the assigned readings.  I would recommend PowToon! Once Tyler and I discovered that we were able to do voiceover per slide in the program that made it go by a lot easier.  Originally we were trying to take sound from audacity and transfer it onto the program, but that was not working for us. There were some really neat features and I know next year I want to try using PowToon with my students.  I think they would have a lot of fun and it would be great tool for them to use to practice many skills such speaking.  They could practice how to speak clearly with expression when they record their presentation.   There are so many great tools and websites that can be used in the classroom to allow students to showcase their learning.

Photo Credit: Source

I loved the debate format for this semester! So many colleagues from this class are at different points in their degree and in their career.  Each bringing in a wealth of knowledge and experiences.  Also some fellow colleagues were very familiar with educational technology while for others they did not know a lot about digital citizenship and other topics discussed in class.  This class shows the power of asking a question or leading with a debate topic can open the doors for a lot of learning to occur.  I have been lucky to have some background knowledge on the topics through previous classes and each week I learned so much.  I was able to expand on my prior knowledge and the debates allowed me to think critically about technology in many different contexts.  This class was a great way to finish my Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction because it has helped me to continue to shape my pedagogy.  The debate topics have allowed me to think a lot about technology and what I need to be teaching in my classroom to support my school division’s  motto “success for all my students.”  All of the classes that I have taken over the past two and a half years has helped me shape my philology of education and my education beliefs.

I encourage you to check out Kayla and Chaylyn’s summary of learning!  They used PowToon for their project and they even used the same template!  It is neat seeing how different  websites and apps can allow people to put their own creative spin on their project and allow each piece to look awesome in their own unique way.  There are so many talented educators in my class and I encourage you to check out the blog hub to read their reflections and check out the videos that they created to showcase their learning.

Here is our summary of learning!

A quick shout out and thanks to Tyler!  I enjoyed working on our debate and our summary of learning together.  Also a huge thank you to Katia, Alec, and everyone in our class.  I have learned so much in these last two months through the debates, reading your blog posts, and exploring the resources that everyone has shared through Google+, Twitter, and their blogs.

“The journey of our lives is not just about the destinations we have reached. Our wisdom, education and personal growth come from the people we meet, the paths we choose to follow and the lessons we have learned along the way.”  

– Unknown