Week 12: Wrapping it up

My online course, ADED 1P32, has come to an end and thus, this will potentially be the last post on this blog. It has truly been an eye opening experience, showing me how little I know about the Internet. This course has introduced me to numerous tools that have and will continue to enhance my learning. For that reason, this is the kind of course I wish I would've taken during my first year at University. Tools such as Diigo would've been helpful while doing research for a paper, while knowing that you can find Copyright friendly images on Flickr would've been helpful for presentations.
Growing up in this digital era I was exposed to technology at an early age and so I am able to easily navigate the Internet and get the hang of new software pretty quickly. I've had a digital footprint for over fifteen years; however, I didn't quite understand what being a responsible digital citizen meant up until I took this course.

Callahan, D. (2012, March 9). Digital Citizenship [Online Image] Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/

One of the biggest things I learned from this course, aside from exploring numerous online tools, was Copyright law and the use of Creative Commons media. Throughout my academic years I have created numerous presentations that included countless images which, although properly cited, might've had Copyright licenses that I wasn't aware of. I could have been committing a crime for all I know. Ever since I found out about Flickr, I've been using it to search images with Creative Commons. I use media appropriately now by reading the terms of the license for each image. Knowing what rights and responsibilities come with the use of technology has helped me become a more responsible digital citizen. I strongly believe that because kids are getting exposed to technology at a younger age, they need to be taught the nine elements of digital citizenship - emphasizing their rights and responsibilities. The use of technology does not automatically make you a digital citizenship, HOW you use technology is the deciding factor.
This course has allowed me to come out of my shell in order to collaborate with others. I had always been reluctant to joining social media sites for fear of damaging my digital footprint. I now believe that as long as I follow proper netiquette when posting on these sites, my digital footprint will remain a positive one. That being said, I plan to continue using sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to promote appropriate behaviours in others by sharing links to useful tools and websites related to digital citizenship. Edudemic and Free Technology for Teachers have become my favourite sites to share posts from since they regularly promote digital citizenship. The exploration of tools through this course and through resources from my Feedly has greatly expanded my PLN. I am hopeful that although this course has ended, I will continue to explore tools to further expand my PLN and keep up with all the posts on my Feedly so to remain informed of any news regarding the World Wide Web. Here's to life-long learning. Cheers!

Venosdale, K. (2014, January 19). Digital Citizenship Discussion Starter [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/

Week 11: Webcasting and MOOCs

Forsythe, G. (2012, July 11). What is A MOOC? [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/

Tools that allow us to create and share our knowledge with others have helped students get actively engaged in their learning. One of the newer ways of sharing knowledge is through webcasts - audio or video that is streamed online and distributed to various listeners/viewers. Webcasting is essentially broadcasting over the Internet and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have used this as a way of providing more cost-effective options to students. A MOOC is a course that is open, participatory, distributed and supports lifelong networked learning. Dave Cormier (2012) explains What is a MOOC? in the video below:

Similar to MOOCs, organizations like Khan Academy work outside the classic learning system by providing free educational resources, such as video tutorials that are stored on YouTube, to encourage individual self-paced lessons. Richard Byrne (2014) suggests taking MOOCs about search skills that Google offered a couple of summers ago but that are still available online for anyone to use in order to become a better researcher. Additionally, I have included a list of other MOOC courses available just in case you're interested in taking one.

This week I explored two different types of webcasting tools: one for podcasts and another for screencasts. Out of the many free tools to choose from I decided to try the following:

1. GarageBand - As a Mac user, this seemed like the most convenient tool to explore since the software was already pre-installed onto my computer. Although it was really simple to create a podcast on here, I learned a few tricks from this post like how to clean out noise from a recording. Note: if you're not a Mac user I'd suggest you try any of the free podcast tools from this list.

2. Screenr - It does not require software download (unlike Jing) and allows instant online publishing. Again, super simple to use: select the size of the recording frame, click on the red button to record, press Done and then Publish! Here's a helpful tutorial on how to use Screenr. Make sure you check out the screencast I created.

Personally, I don't like listening to myself... I find that my voice sounds totally different than what I think it sounds like and it just weirds me out, so webcasting is not something I plan on doing. On the other hand, watching screencasts and listening to podcasts I do enjoy doing so I'll be adding webcasting tools such as iTunes and YouTube to my PLE as they've been tools that have expanded my learning.

Last week, while on the topic of digital rights and responsibilities, I talked about Creative Commons both in a blog post and on a PhotoPeach slideshow I shared. This week, I am happy to announce that I have added a Creative Commons license to my blog (About time!!). Which brings me to a few articles that came across on my Feedly from Free Technology For Teachers:
1. Videos and Guides to Copyright & Creative Commons
2. Confused About Copyright? Check This Chart
3. 30,000+ Images of Art and Artifacts to Download and Re-use for Free (I have been using Flickr to obtain pictures that I include in my blog posts, but this is another great resource to locate Copyright friendly images)