F431 – Portfolio

2024_01 Week 7 Reflections

Catherine March 10, 2024 0 Comments

Class, First a couple of teacher confessions: Emily found an error in the midterm test that’s been there since I first developed it in 2022. And I couldn’t find it so this is clearly an example of a blind spot. Ironically, it was the question on bias. I’ll be making minor adjustments in the gradebook (.33 points, I believe) to add points to everyone who has submitted their quiz to date....

2024_01 Week 6 Reflections

Catherine March 10, 2024 0 Comments

The consequence assignment is by far the hardest one of the series. There’s a lot of individual components to consider. If you have questions, let me know. If you have suggestions on how to make this easier for people to understand, let me know. I always leave these assignments with a list of possible improvements. Many of you observed that you wouldn’t use the tables provided to equate...

The Nature of Learning

Catherine December 10, 2020 1 Comment

Time to reflect on the semester and how my PLE/PLN has evolved over the past few months. This is not the blog post I thought I’d write at this point in the journey…..Life on the home front was challenging this semester. In many ways, the best of intentions remained just that - intentions. And yet, despite the demands and the privilege of being fully present for loved ones, there were...

The DNA of learning – as educators create media

Catherine December 6, 2020 2 Comments

As our reliance on educational technology increases, the role of the teacher begins to evolve with the technology itself. In order for the teacher to be effective, there must be a symbiotic relationship between the teacher, student, and technology. One analogy might be to consider the teacher and the student as the two strands of opposing DNA with the teacher's creations connecting the two. ...

Applying media within the classroom

Catherine December 6, 2020 0 Comments

A classroom environment has historically been both the recipient and the developer of media regardless of the decade or even the century in which it was developed. However, when educators speak of media today, they tend to gravitate towards that which is electronic and available in visual and auditory formats and which may allow for a more interactive exchange of ideas and reinforcement of the...

Media Creation – Finally playing with PlayPosit!

Catherine December 6, 2020 1 Comment

I currently teach a course in All-Hazards Risk Assessment for the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Major within the UAF School of Management. The course is offered asynchronously through Blackboard and attracts students across the US. It is intended for seniors although there are some who do take it a bit earlier in the sequence. There is only one prerequisite for the course -...

robot looking at mathematical expressions on blackboard

Emerging Tools

Catherine November 27, 2020 6 Comments

First a reaction to the readings from this assignment. I was fascinated and pleased to be introduced to the article by Umang Gupta and his business assessment as to why technology has not translated well into the educational environment. In this article, he assessed that the US spent approximately 1.3 Trillion in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education each year and that only 1%...

Annotated Bibliographies

Catherine November 24, 2020 3 Comments

Our PLN delivered yet again as we collectively developed our Annotated Bibliography for this semester’s F431. I thought there was a great diversity of topics and yet there were some common themes around pedagogy, history of tool development in support of education, and the willingness to share results that did not always show promise - the concept of agile testing to see if a technique even...

Adobe Spark

Catherine November 11, 2020 5 Comments

I evaluated several options before I decided to review Adobe Spark as my third emerging technology First - the ones that didn’t make the list. Playposit was suggested as an interactive video and assessment tool that integrates with Blackboard. I was drawn to the concept of how to do an assessment, but when I went to test it, realized it was similar to Kaltura and...

Kahoot!

Catherine November 11, 2020 4 Comments

I chose this emerging technology because it was described as a study/polling tool for the class. It incorporates elements of gamification and can be used on either mobile or desktop devices. I was also intrigued by the concept of implementing personalized learning. This is a program where the basic model is free, but it still made me provide credit card info. The four categories...