Sunday 23 September 2012

Closure of Blog






It seems that having two blogs (One for my classroom as well as a personal one) has caused some confusion.  If you were looking for updates on Mr. Bresciani's 7/8 class please go to: http://brescianisblurbs.blogspot.ca/  That blog will have all the information you need to see what is happening in Grade 7/8 this year.  In addition, this blog will no longer be updated.  This blog will now serve as an archive of the past assignments and posts I created from my ECMP 355 class.


Thanks,

Matt

Monday 16 April 2012

Is Curving Marks Fair?



Just a heads up, this is more of a rant and less of an insightful blog post!

Today I received an email from one of my professors with some last minute stuff about our Final.  In the email the professor highlighted the some basic stuff about the final but ended it by letting us know what the class average and what the highest and lowest marks were in the class.  We were also informed that the class was marked on a bell curve.  Well when I saw the class average was in the low 60's and the highest mark in the class was an 80% I knew I was in some trouble. 

This semester I legitimately tried the hardest I've ever tried in any semester of University because I wanted to end my university career with a bang (up to this point I figured I had). The average in the class was based on the 3 midterms we've had this semester each of which was worth 20%.  I worked extremely hard for each midterm and received a 88%, 80% and 96% on each of the midterms respectively.  This works out to an 88% average overall in the class.  If my average based on each midterm is 88% how is possible that the highest mark is an 80%.  From this I get my major question: How is this fair to students who have worked hard to get a mark only to have the university curve the marks down.  I've heard of some classes having the average curved down because marks were to high (which is still ridiculous) but if the average is already in the 60's why would you want to curve marks down any lower? 

Some other questions I have about the subject:

Has the class average already been set before the class begins, with the professor adjusting to marks after to reach this average? 
Who gets to decide what marks are too high or low for a class? 
Is there a specific chart that outlines what the average should be in different classes based on the Faculty?
Why should it matter how high or low the class average is?  Shouldn't students be entitled to receive the marks that they have legitimately earned and not one the university thinks suits the class? 

Students should get the marks the are entitled to without any meddling from the university!

What do you think, do you agree with curving marks?

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Learning Project Reflection


As I mentioned in my previous post, the semester has unfortunately come to a close today.  Which means the end of my favourite class ECMP 355.   While this class may have come to an end, that doesn't mean my learning and progress with the Ukulele has to.  So don't fret, I still plan to continue to learn and post more updates on what I am learning on this blog!

In my first post for this learning project, my only real goal was to learn enough of the Ukulele so I could play the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ol.
However, as the semester progressed I began to realize how much more learning I was able to experience as a result of this project.  Instead of simply documenting my progress in Blog Posts like I initially planned, I tried out my first ever V-Log after watching Michael Wesch's Youtube video, "An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube. Although my initial V-log felt really awkward and proved to be a little difficult for me to do, I decided I would continue to document my process in V-Log format rather than writing.  This turned out to be one of the best decisions I made during this learning project because making the V-Logs became easier and more natural as I made them.  I really began to enjoy them and I feel that they allowed you, my readers, to really experience my learning with along with me.

As my progress continued on the Ukulele I was also very fortunate to have various people post encouraging and helpful comments on updates.  Using the comments I was able to connect with various people across the internet who were happy to share resources and helpful tips with me as I continued my journey. The contributions of these people were crucial to my success in this project so I am extremely grateful for their help and support. (Special Shout Out to Zachary, randilyninspired, Leslie, William Chamberlain, cynthiaschultz1, Brenna Moser, Kirk Fiege, Nick Barnes and Alec Couros)

Another aspect of my learning project that I didn't anticipate at the beginning of this project was the collaboration with other students in this class who were also learning instruments for their learning projects.  After working with Kirk and Nick on a few Tech Tasks in ECMP 355, we talked about getting together and trying out a "Jam Session" with all our instruments.  This turned out to be an awesome idea because it not only made the learning project even more enjoyable but also allowed us to work together and experience what it was like playing our instruments in sync with other instruments.  It also allowed me to expand my learning to more than just the song I intially selected to learn.  Through both Jam Sessions I was also able to learn how to play Free Falling by Tom Petty and Let It Be by The Beatles.  I can honestly say I had some of the most fun during this project creating Jam Session #1 and Jam Session #2 with Nick and Kirk. 

As I conclude this blog post, I can confidently say that I have really seen progress from the beginning of this project to where I am today! I really wanted to post a V-log for you, although the string on my second Ukulele just snapped this morning.  However, I plan on replacing it this week and will definitely post a final V-log on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" because I really want to show you how much progress I have made this semester.  I'm very happy that I made the choice to learn the Ukulele for my learning project because I feel that it it will become a useful tool in my future as a teacher.

Once again I would like to thank everyone who contributed to my learning through my process.  I would also like to say a special thank you to my Professor, Alec Couros, for his constant encouragement throughout the semester and for just being plain awesome!

If you would like to review any of my previous Learning Progress Updates you can view my Learning Project Page.


Also a quick shout out to Cynthia for helping us take the Light Photography pictures on this post!



Monday 9 April 2012

How I created my Summary of Learning



Below you will find the step by step process I used to create my Summary of Learning Mario Video:

Initially it was a bit of an uphill battle to achieve my goal of inserting myself into a video game, but I'm quite happy with the end product! I began the process by finding an existing video on Youtube of someone playing a level on Super Mario.  I then copied the URL and pasted it in KeepVid so I could download a copy of the video. Once I had the video, I imported it into iMovie 11 and created a new project.  In order to break the video down into thousands of images I then shared the project with Quicktime and changed the Export Setting to "Movie to Image Sequence" which then converted the entire video into thousands of images.
Once I had all the individual frames from the video, I began opening them up one by one in Adobe Photoshop CS5 and inserted myself and other images into them.  Once I finished each image I re-saved it as a Jpeg and placed them in a new folder. (In total I Photoshopped 1395 images)

After I completed Photoshopping all the images, I then created a New Project in iMovie and imported all the images into the project and changed the length of each image to .1s.  Then I exported this as a regular Quicktime movie. However, the frames still weren't progressing fast enough so I imported the finished movie back into iMovie and sped it up 400% to get the appropriate transition for each frame.  As for the real life portion at the beginning of the video, I used the Camera from my iPhone to film and iMovie 11 to edit the video.  I also used the audio from the original video that I downloaded from KeepVid by detaching the audio in iMovie.  The final step was adjusting the audio clip so it would gel with my end product.

Summary of Learning

As my final semester of University approaches the end, I found myself completing my final project for ECMP 355.  Essentially, I had to summarize what I had learned in the course over the semester and present it in the format of my choice.  This wasn't going to be an easy task because I've honestly learned so much over the past semester I didn't know how I was going to fit it all into a 5 minute presentation.
One of the most important things that I learned this semester is the importance of connecting and collaborating with others online.  Whether it was commenting on blogs, sharing idea's through twitter or becoming involved with the online community of Youtube, I feel that those experiences have truly helped me to grow as a person.  I'm sure that if it wasn't for the connections that I've made online I wouldn't have been able to progress as much as I did in my learning project. While others have contributed a lot to my learning this semester, I've also tried to repay the favour by doing my best to contribute to the learning of others as well.  I've compiled google doc of some of my experiences contributing to the learning of others!

Now onto my Summary of learning:
As I thought about the project, I remembered how much fun I had in High School creating Stop Motion movies, so I jumped at the opportunity to try it again.  When looking about how I wanted to structure my Stop Motion project, an even cooler idea hit me-- "What if I could use Stop Animation to put myself into a video game and summarize my learning that way?"  Building off this idea, I decided to import myself into the original Super Mario Game for Nintendo.  As I go along through the level,  I encounter many artifacts that symbolize some of the most important things I learned this semester.

 Note: After the initial video concludes I have replayed it again at a reduced speed and have inserted a commentary explaining why I chose each artifact and how they were essential to my learning. 
Here's my Summary of Learning:



 If you're curious about what tools I used to complete my Summary of Learning, check out my blog post about on it!




Tuesday 3 April 2012

Jam Session #2

Back after popular demand, The "band with no name" finally reunited for highly anticipated second Jam Session.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, after much deliberation, we decided to learn "Let it Be" by The Beatles.  Once we got started, we contemplated how we wanted this Jam Session to go and how we could make it better than our first one.  Eventually we decided that instead of all trying to play the song at the same time, we would each take turns individually playing different pieces of the song.  By doing this, we were actually able to hear each persons progress with their instrument and appreciate the diversity of sound that our different instruments creates.  As we were playing we thought it would be fun if, while each person was playing their potion of the song, the other two would sing song together.
Overall I found that our second Jam Session was by far our best and I'm really impressed with the progress that both Nick and Kirk have made over the semester.
Take a look for yourself, and let me know what you think! Oh and we still need a cool band name so any suggestions would be appreciated haha

Monday 2 April 2012

Tech Task #10

For our final Tech Task we were asked to perform a comparison between two Learning Management Systems of our choice.  Rather than work on the task alone we were able to work on the assignment in a group. Big surprise here, but I once again worked with Nick and Kirk for this assignment.  As we looked at some of the LMS options, we eventually settled on comparing Edmodo and Schoololgy.  Now I don't want to spoil too much for you in my description, but we did find some really valuable aspects of each program that would be highly beneficial in a classroom for each.  However, if you want to hear which one we would recommend and our comments about each you will have to check out our podcast found below!
Here's the second episode of the Rant Show with a focus on Edmodo and Schoology:

Sunday 1 April 2012

Ukulele Update 9

To my amazement I only have one V-log for you to check out in this post! Usually I like to post two v-logs per blog post because I tend to talk forever in the first V-log and then get to the playing in the second.  Well do I ever have a treat for you today.  Somehow I managed to cut down the amount of time I talk and filled it with some of my Ukulele Skills!
Today's update is a little bit different from my past ones because I'm not actually posting about my progress on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World". Today I'm working on an entirely new song that I will be able to play for my next Jam Session with Kirk and Nick.  The last time we talked, we decided we should put a little more work into a song individually before we actually get together to play and record our results. There was quite a bit of controversy over what song we were going to play together at our next Jam session.  Kirk was really adamant that we learn his favourite song ("Friday" by Rebecca Black) and Nick was even more demanding that we learn his favourite song ("Baby" by Justin Bieber).  However, they both heard the voice of reason and agreed to my selection (Let it Be by the Beatles)
Below you will find my first crack at the song.  Oh and I got the tabs from Ukulele-Tabs site.
Enjoy!

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Ukulele Update 7+8

It's been about two weeks since my last update so it's about time that I got around to posting another V-Log on my progress.  Like usual I've filmed two V-Logs that I'm simply putting into one post because they really flow with one another.
In my first V-Log I was looking to try out another strumming style than the one I was previously doing. (just to switch things up!)  The style I ended up testing out is called a "Chunk".  Chunking is essentially just strumming the Ukulele then muting it with the palm of your hand all in one strum.  At first I had some trouble doing it the way I was being taught, so I decided to try it an alternative way that you will see in the V-Log.  I also tried learning part of a new song as well (The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars) which I am actually quite enjoying because it's not as hard to learn as some other songs on the Ukulele.  Oh and the site I learned how to "Chunk" from is Ukulele Underground.
V-Log 7
( I apologize in advance, for some reason the original recording was corrupted at the beginning and the sound is a half a second off.  I've tried re-uploading it numerous times to Youtube but it is the initial recording that is the issue.)


For my second V-log I recorded myself once again playing the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.  Since my goal by the end of my project was to be able to play this song, I like to record myself after each V-log so I can see my progress over the updates!
Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think:
V-Log 8

Saturday 17 March 2012

The Digital Classroom


In my previous post I discussed the implications that the iPad 3 has for students as schools a like.  I was curious how long it would take for there to be a 1:1 ration of students to iPads within schools.  Through some conversations I had after my post, the general consensus was that something like this was still a few years away.  However, I just stumbled across an interesting article, When Digital Classrooms Become Reality.  The article talks about the new digital classrooms that are being created in the Philippines.  The school system in the Philippines formed a partnership with Vibal Publishing House Inc. (A Educational materials publisher) and Microsoft to help create these digital classrooms.  I won't spoil the article for you too much but just to give you an idea of how this partnership is working here's a blurb from the article:

 "In September 2011, La Salle Greenhills rolled out an entire digital curriculum from their elementary to high school honor classes using 14 e-textbooks in 500 Galaxy Samsung tablets. La Salle will issue another 5,000 tablets in 2012 to cover all students and teachers." 

Now that's amazing! While the tablets may not be iPads like I would prefer, this is definitely a giant step in the right direction to creating these digital classrooms.  Hopefully school systems in North America (Come on Saskatchewan!) will see the example that has been laid out for them and follow suit in order to create these amazing learning environments. 

Wednesday 14 March 2012

What does iPad 3's release mean?


I've often wondered with all the capabilities that the iPad has, why don't more schools invest in using the iPad as a learning tool.  There are so many different programs and apps that are available on iPads that could significantly enhance students learning, not to mention that more and more textbooks are becoming available via iPad. (Check out some of the textbooks apple presently offers)  I recently had a discussion with my dad (who is a the Principle of High School) why we haven't seem much of a push to use iPads within classrooms.  He told me that this was something he very much wanted to see in our schools today, but there was just one problem, they cost far too much to be able to supply an a 1-1 ratio for iPad to students in the schools.  At the time I asked him this question, basic iPad 2's were about $499.99, which would cost the average High School about $400,000.00.  With a price tag like this I can understand why we don't see more iPads in schools let alone a 1-1 ratio.  However with the recent release of the iPad 3, the price of iPad 2's have dropped almost 25% with the basic iPad 2 cost between 299.99 and 399.99.  With the dropping price of iPads, I believe the "It cost's too much" excuse is starting to become a moot point.

While writing this blog post I did a bit of googling and stumbled upon a great article that addresses what the future might hold in regards to students learning with the iPad.  The article looked at what effects the release of the iPad 3 might have on schools today as well as an in depth interview with Vineet Madan, The Vice President of New Ventures for McGraw Hill Education.  I believe Vineet Madan said it best,  “There’s never been a better time to be a student, whether that’s K through 12 or in higher education,”

What do you guys think? Do you think that the release of the iPad 3 and the lowered prices of iPad 2 will have an impact on the amount of technology we will see in schools in the next year?

Saturday 10 March 2012

The Mystery of Mystery Skypes


It's now been a little over 2 months since I said goodbye to the school and students that I got to know so well over the first semester.  Even though I've completed my internship and am back at the University of Regina finishing up my last semester, I can't seem to stop thinking about lessons that I would have taught in my classroom if I were still interning right now.  After getting a taste of teaching for those four months, I can't wait to get back out there and have my own class once again and I think my sub-conscience feels the same way.  It seems like no matter what I do or experience now a days,  all I can think about is how I could incorporate "this or that" into a lesson.  It could be anything from a song I heard on the radio and thought "We could do an ELA lesson on this!" or waking up in the middle of the night and my first thought is how I could incorporate whatever I was dreaming about into a lesson.  It's crazy.   Now that I've gotten that taste for teaching, it's consumed my entire way of thinking and I can't go back to the way I used to be!  I know your wondering, when am I going to get the Mystery Skype part of this blog post seeing as it's the title of my post.  Well don't get too upset, I'm going to get there right away!
So today I was scouring the internet looking for another blog post or article to inspire me for my next blog post, and after about 5 minutes I found an awesome blog with a really interesting topic: Mystery Skypes.  After reading the blog post "Mystery Skype - Who Could it Be?" by Mr. Avery, I became incredibly jealous that I didn't do something like this during my four month internship.  If you're not sure what a mystery Skype is, it's essentially a skype session with a random classroom from somewhere around the world.  Once the Mystery Skype session begins the classes take turn asking Yes or No questions while cooperating as a team with the final goal of figuring out the location of the other class before they guessed your classes location. I think this would be such a fun activity to do with one of my future classrooms.  I can't wait to get my degree and get out there and start teaching so I can try something like this!

What are you're guys thoughts on the idea of Mystery Skypes? Have you ever heard of Mystery Skypes before or actually tried one out with a classroom?

Oh I should also mention that if this is something that interests you, all you need to do is go to one of the Mystery Skype Wiki's and sign up.  (There are different Wiki's for each grade level, the one I linked you to was the grade 6 wiki)

Thursday 8 March 2012

Tech Task #9

For my Ninth Tech Task I was asked to view the movie, "rip!: A remix manifesto", a documentary by Brett Gaylor which explores the the creative art form of remixing media as well as the evolution of copy rights.  The documentary addresses these issues using the the four points in "A Remixer's Manifesto" as a vehicle to justify their views presented in the video.  The Four Points presented can been seen in the image below:

I found this documentary interesting because up until about a year ago I didn't have a whole lot of insight into the art of creating mash-ups or remixing media.  However, last year my younger brother introduced me to various songs that had been remixed or mash-ed up to create an entirely new song.  I found it truly amazing because many of the remixes and mash-ups that I begun to stumble upon remixed songs of completely different genres into an entirely new genre.  To get an idea of what I'm talking about here's a couple of remixes by my favourite Remix Artists (Well the clean versions  that I can post to my blog)
 The White Panda: Mo Free Mo Falling (Remixes Biggie Smalls with Tom Petty)



DJ's From Mars: Enter Telephone (Mash-Up with Metallica and Lady Gaga)


Along with viewing the documentary I was also asked to respond to one or more questions found in the Educational Guide for RIP: A Remixer's Manifesto.

General: Do you think you can argue your creativity when it’s based on other people’s work?

Music: Do you believe there are forms of music that are not built on past works?

These are interesting questions because I had similar questions when I first heard remixes by artists such as The White Panda or DJ's From Mars.  I always wondered, "how can these artists claim this music as their own, if they are using other artists work?" On one side of this question you could argue that regardless of how much re mixer's alter a song or a piece of work it can never be considered their own creation because it already belongs to someone else.  However, the video raised an interesting point when Brett looked at the song "You need Love" by Muddy Waters and how he got the riff from the song by Son House and how that same riff can be heard again and again throughout various songs as the years progressed, in particular the song "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin.  If this is the case, and using other peoples work to create a new song, how can we possibly view Muddy Waters or Led Zeppelin as creative?  Technically they both used the past (the Riff from Son House) to build on a future creation.  Is this really a negative thing?
In response to the second question, I honestly don't believe that there are any forms of music out theerethat haven't evolved or been created without an influence from the past.  Almost all of the genres of music today have evolved as a result of music from the past.  A good example of this could be the evolution of Rock N' Roll.  This genre didn't just come out of nothing, but rather a combination of African American Blues, Country, Jazz and Gospel Music.  This example truly shows how important the past is in creating a future.  Imagine for a second,  that over 100 years ago Jazz or Blues were never created, what would today's music sound like today?

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Ukulele Update 7: Jam Session



So instead of posting another video update of myself talking into the camera and playing a little Ukulele for you, I've done something a little different for this post.  Earlier this week I talked to two of my classmates who were also learning instruments for their learning project and we thought it would be kind of cool to do a group video-blog and try to learn a song together and record our progress playing our respective instruments.  This was a really interesting experience for me because I wasn't sure what to expect going into it because up until this point I've only practiced playing the Ukulele alone.

At first it was definitely a challenge because we all had to pick a song that was easy enough that we would all be able to play.  The song we selected for our first Jam Session was "Free Falling" by Tom Petty. I liked our choice for this song because it was relatively easy to learn as it was only a 3 chord song.  On Ukulele I only had to play the D, G and A chords so it didn't take very long to figure out.  The second aspect of the Jam Session that I found challenging was definitely our timing as a group! As you will be able to hear in the Podcast and see in the Video is how off our timing is in the beginning of each.  I didn't realize how hard it is to actually nail timing down when you play in a band because when you listen to music it just seems so natural and easy, but as we learned, it takes some practice.  By the end of our recordings you can definitely see some improvement in our chemistry together as a (band?) and our next session will definitely be much easier than our initial attempt.

We are definitely going to get together in the near future to film another group Video Blog and we would love some help from you on what song we should learn next as a group as well as a possible band name for us!

Here's a podcast version of our first V-Log (I turned it into a podcast instead of a V-log because for some reason the camera picked up the light in the room like a strobe light effect and I found it difficult to watch and felt it might be easier for you to check out if it was audio only!)



Here is our second V-Log that we recorded with much better lighting! You can definitely see some improvement in our timing as compared to how we sounded in the podcast.



My group members for this Jam Session were Kirk Fiege on Piano and Nick Barnes on Guitar.  You should definitely check out their blogs to view their individual progress on learning their respective instruments as well!

Sunday 4 March 2012

Ukulele Update 6

So here's my newest Video Blog post on my learning the Ukulele. I'm sorry it took me so long to post it but hey, at least it's up now right? Anyway, this post was interesting to make because throughout the past four V-logs I've been trying new ways to strum the Ukulele and in this one I tried yet a new way.  In my last post I started using a guitar pick because I had an injured finger which actually worked pretty well.  However, whenever I listened to the version by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole it just didn't sound right.  So I decided that I would try a more natural way that could combine picking an individual string as well as strumming all the strings when I play the song.  My solution was to pick the first note of each chord using my thumb and then strum upwards using my index finger.  It took is still taking me a while to get this style of strumming down pat, but I have to admit I do prefer playing the Ukulele this way!
I want to apologize a head of time for how fast I talk in this post, I'm honestly not sure why I talked so fast throughout the entire video.  Just comment below and I'll post some subtitles if you are having trouble following!! As well just a heads up the video is by far my longest, running a whopping 9 minutes and 15 seconds.  I don't remember talking and playing for that long but I guess the saying is true, time really does fly when your having fun!
Thanks and Enjoy the video:

Teaching Technology at a Younger Age


I recently stumbled across an interesting article in the Denver Post that discusses some new efforts that are occurring in Colorado to educate children as young as 3 years old in technology education. It's an interesting article because it talks about the new Common Core Standards that have been set in Colorado that emphasize including technology as a component in subject standards.  The article continues with an example of an activity that was used to reach the Curricular Standard "gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through media." The activity that a teacher used to hit this standard was having their students create a their own podcast and then post it to their class blog.  What's truly amazing about this activity is that it an example of a typical activity for a fourth grade student at this particular school.  
When I first read this I was kind of blown away because creating a podcast and posting it to a blog is something that we were just learning how to do a few weeks ago, and we're at a post-secondary level of education.  The fact that fourth grade students today are already successfully completing Technology Tasks such as this really made realize how important it is for teachers to be educated in technology practices such as blogging or creating podcasts.  By educating ourselves with new technology skills we are able to use technology as a tool to not only educate ourselves as educators but also enhance student learning through new means.  
While articles like this highlight the importance of utilizing technology in our classrooms, it seems like this issue is more talk than it is action.  I would bet that within most school systems there are only a handful of teachers that truly know how to successfully utilize technology as learning tool.  With this in mind, do you think it should it be mandatory for all educators to attend workshops and institutes on using new technology in the classroom?





Wednesday 15 February 2012

Ukulele Update 3+4

It's been a little over a week since I last posted about my progress on the Ukulele.  I've actually got two videos to post, but rather than make them separate blog posts I figured I would post them both into the same one to save on time.
The first video you will see documents my progress from my last video.  I've learned a few new chords to help me play the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" as well as a new "Hawaiian" strumming pattern so it sounds closer to the original song.  You will also notice that I'm playing with a pick in the video, which is a little unorthodox, but you'll see why I decided to play that way for this Vlog.  Also good news...No animals appeared in the making of this Vlog!!! I triple checked to make sure I didn't have any stowaways before I started recording.
So here's the first of my two videos for this post:



The second video is my first real attempt at filming myself playing the song.  In the middle of the song I tried my hand at singing (unsuccessfully) but I've only got the Somewhere Over the Rainbow half of the song down.  I haven't really tried playing the "What a Wonderful World" half of the song yet.  When I filmed this I was kind of surprised that I actually sang a bit because I've never ever tried singing in front of any one before (aside from national anthems at sports games).  I think I found it easier to do because it was only me and my camera and I won't be able to see the look on peoples faces as they watch it which is nice!!
Here's my first attempt at playing the song on the Ukulele:

Tech Task #8

For our eighth  tech task we were asked to recreate our own version of the American Film Institutes "Door Scene". For this assignment I worked with some awesome partners: Heather, Rachael, Nick and Kirk.   Rather than go the suspenseful and scary route, we decided to go with a more comedic approach.  We had our entire scene take place using a car door instead of a traditional door.  To film the scene we used a Flip Camera and edited the scene using iMovie 11!
Here is our final product, hope you enjoy!


If you want to know more about the "Door Scene" check out the American Film Institutes Educator Handbook.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Tech Task #7

For our Seventh Tech Task we were asked to create a short Podcast and embed it in our blog. Once again I worked with Nick Barnes and Kirk Fiege on this assignment. We used Garageband to record and edit our podcast and used parts of the song "Purple Swag" as our intro/outro. Here's our polished product, I hope you enjoy it:

9 Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime


Recently I was checking my emails and I came across a forwarded email from my dad.  Usually whenever I see an emails marked with a FW: in the subject I almost always delete it because I hate chain mail.  However, I felt guilty simply deleting my dad's email, so I figured I would give him the benefit of the doubt and read it and  man was I pleasantly surprised! The email was actually a really interesting read that made me think about what the future holds as a result of our technological advancements.  The title of the email was: "9 Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime" and listed the following items as things that would be gone as a result of technological advancements: The Post Office, The Newspaper, The Book, The Land Line Telephone, Music, Television, The "Things" That You Own, Privacy.
Initially I wanted to write this blog entry about how it was interesting to think that if we were to mention something like a "Cheque" or a "Newspaper" to our future students, they may have no idea what we are talking about. However, when I typed the title of the email on google I found Doug Johnson's blog and an post he wrote in response to the email as well as his own list of 9 things that will disappear from K-12 Education.  I actually found this even more intriguing than the initial email because these predictions would really impact the way that we teach if they were to come true.  Here's the list that Doug created:
  1. Book-only libraries and librarians. Libraries will remain, they just won't be repositories and tombs, but active places where students go to create and consult with information experts. Actually these libraries are already rapidly going.
  2. Textbooks. CMS like Moodle that provide links to multi-media resources, tied to specific curricular outcomes and teacher passions will be the norm. Add curriculum guides in 3-ring binders to this list too.
  3. Paper tests, worksheets, study guides, and student essays. Paper report cards, school newsletters, and student handbooks. It's all moving to the web, boys and girls. It's just easier.
  4. Classrooms comprised of age groupings. This has been a dumb idea for a long time, only continued out of sentimentality and laziness. Students grouped, if grouped at all, by IEP needs makes more sense if we are serious about all kids learning.
  5. Closed wireless networks and prohibition of student-owned devices in the classroom. We once didn't let kids on the network? They couldn't use their own computers in school. Grandpa, you've got to be kidding me. 
  6. Technology-clueless, content-expert only teachers. Information ubiquity is requiring all teachers become process-experts as well as pedagogy/content experts. And since that information comes in digital forms, technology expertise at some level is a must.
  7. Norm-referenced/summative testing. Using tests to sort kids into A-F categories just is not needed, even counterproductive, in a society where there are no jobs for D and F students. Private schools will move to formative assessments and growth models only first, but any public school worth its salt will also do what it must to placate the politicians and do what's right by kids.
  8. Computer labs. Whether it is BYOD or 1:1 initiatives, personal student devices will make labs obsolete. I am even amazed at what low-powered devices like iPads can do with video editing.
  9. F2F parent teacher conferences. Real-time monitoring of student progress through parent portals into the student information system makes such conferences as we know them unnecessary. If they continue they will need to be conversations about students rather than one-way reporting.
What do you think? Do you agree with Doug's list? What do you think about the idea of classrooms comprised of students grouped by IEP needs rather than by age?

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Digital Story that Tugs at your Heartstrings

While I was creating my own digital story, I couldn't help but remember a video that one of my students posted in our class blog during my internship. I asked my students to each create a blog post to the following questions: "What does peace mean to you?" "If everyone wants peace, why is it so hard to attain?"  I was quite surprised with how many well written responses I received back, but what blew me away was a video one student embedded in her post to go along with her response. Most of the students wrote great responses but seemed to just type in "peace" on youtube and embed the first video they found. This particular student however, posted a very emotional video that you wouldn't find by simply googling the word peace.

Looking back on it now, I believe that this video is more than just a simple youtube video and actually an alternate form of digital story telling.  To me, this type of Digital Story Telling is extremely powerful because there are absolutely no images in this story and only vocal tracks.  The video tells the story of a young girl speaking to her father who was killed in the 9-11 attacks.  Throughout the story she tells her father about all the important moments that have occurred in her life since he passed away. This story is truly powerful because as you listen, you feel as if you are actually watching this young girl grow up, while at the same time also experiencing the pain she feels.
Here's the story:


What do you guys think? Do you think this is another form of digital story telling as well? What was your impression after listening to this young girls story?

Tech Task #6

For my Sixth Tech task I was asked to create a short digital story using any of the digital story telling tools that are available online.  Believe it or not I actually struggled with this task for quite a while! As soon as I saw this assignment I figured it would be super easy for me to do, but for the longest time I struggled with the task of thinking of a story worth telling.  I had a bunch of ideas for stories but every time I began working on them, I didn't like where they were going so I quit and moved on to a new idea.  Throughout the whole process I think I signed up for over 6 different digital story sites until finally settling on Google Search Stories as the means to tell my story.  I never imagined that just trying to come up with a story would be so hard! However, being the big film buff that I am, I finally decided to tell a story about a young aspiring film director and I'm satisfied with the end result of my story.
Here's my final product:

Let me know what you think!

Monday 6 February 2012

Brain Based Learning: Brain Breaks



I recently stumbled across the article "10 Brain-Based Learning Laws That Trump Traditional Education".    I found this article particularly thought provoking because it took myths about how students learn and turned them upside down.  Something that I found particularly interesting was the Eigth Law: "Shorter Trumps Longer".  This intrigued me right away because it explains that as adults we have an attention span of about 10 minutes.  After those 10 minutes are up our attention starts to drift away (I'm sure I'm not the only one who has trouble paying attention for the entirety of a University class).  If as adults our attention span is that short I can only imagine how short the attention span of our students must be. This law really highlights the importance of avoiding lecture type lessons and the benefit of including short "brain breaks" into our everyday teaching.

This law was actually something that I learned through teaching a science class during my internship.  During the beginning of the semester I found that on certain days when i was doing more talking and less "hands on learning" I was having issues with students not paying attention and disrupting the classroom.  At first I was angry at these students and was temped to simply remove them from the class.  However, I quickly realized that this issue was more my fault than the students.  To combat with this I started doing a quick brain break with the students every 20 minutes for the hour I was teaching them.  This was something that was fun for both the students and myself and really seemed to help keep their attention throughout future lessons.

What do you guys think? How important is it for us as educatorsto implement Brain Breaks in our lessons? How often should we use a Brain Break during a lesson/day? What kinds of Brain Breaks have you used in the past? How did they go?

Friday 3 February 2012

Progress Report: Learning the Ukulele

So I've kind of been slacking off here and haven't been posting much about my progress on learning the Ukulele! I've actually filmed 2 more Video Blogs since I posted my first one, I just forgot to post them on my blog, so I'll post them both in this post for you to see.
Vlog #2:
This Vlog was an interesting for me because I filmed it shortly after my first one and I learned quite a valuable lesson about the Ukulele: There are two different kinds, Soprano and Tenor.  You'll be able to view the costly lesson that I've now learned in my Vlog below:


Vlog #3
I actually filmed this one quite recently (Yesterday) which was about two weeks after Vlog #2.  I feel like having learned how to play guitar over the past few years is really helping me learn how to play the Ukulele as well.  While they are both two separate instruments they do have some common elements to playing them such muscle memory for your fingers and similar use of chords and the use of Barre Chords for more advanced playing (I still haven't gotten these down on guitar, and I've been playing for two years).  However there are some very big differences that I'm having trouble adjusting to such as strumming with your index finger instead of a pick, much smaller frets and the one that I seem to have the most trouble with is holding the Ukulele between you elbow and upper body while trying to change chords without dropping it.  However I feel like I have indeed made quite a bit of progress of the last few weeks as I am able (for the most part) to play a skeleton version of the song that inspired me to learn the Ukulele, Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.  While I am only able to play the first verse I think it's a pretty good start, I know if I keep practicing I'll be able to get the song down in no time.
Here's my third Vlog, let me know what you think! Oh and again I apologize for my guests in the background, I don't know what it is about me Vlogging that gets the attention of so many different guests!!

Tech Task #4

For my Fourth Tech Task I was asked to create a parody of a Master Card "Priceless Commercial" using between 4-5 pictures.  The assignment gave me the option to complete this task individually or to work on it in a group of about 3 people.  Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to work with others because I hate individual assignments and love working with other people.  I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work with such awesome group members, Kirk Fiege and Nick Barnes on this tech task.  At first we weren't sure what we wanted to do our "Priceless" commercial on, but after some spit-balling of ideas we landed on the idea of creating a commercial about "Bromance".  We also enlisted the help of expert photographer, Cynthia Schultz to help us take actual pictures of us for our assignment.  In the end we used iMovie to throw it all together, and here's our final product:

Let us know what you think!

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Tech Task #5

For my Fifth Tech Task I was asked to browse through the images in the Flickr group, "Great quotes about learning and change" and create my own picture based of the examples I had looked at.  Before I even started looking of pictures that I could use for my task, I needed to think of a good quote to use in my picture.  After some googling for quotes to use, a different quote entirely popped into my head, "For every turned off electronic device there is potentially a turned off child"  These words were spoken by Stephen Heppell in the video "Learning to Change, Changing to Learn", a video that I posted on my blog a few days ago.  I love the quote because I believe that since students today are so engaged in technology, we need to embrace it as a learning tool otherwise we may loose them.
Here is my final product for my task using Adobe Photoshop CS5:


There was also an optional part for this Tech Task that I chose to do as well.  For the task I had to make my own album cover using the instructions from meme. This was actually quite fun to do as I was able to once again use Photoshop to make my album cover.  I would highly recommend trying this task out for yourself if you are bored and want to have some fun!
Here's the info that I had to work with for this assignment:
The random name that Wikipedia gave me was Edith Picton-Turbervill.
The last four words of the random quote that I got were one. Like with pie.
The random image that I got off of Flickr was:

 And here is my final product for the album:

Monday 30 January 2012

Death of Education but the Dawn of Learning

The title of my blog post references the final words in the video "Learning to Change, Changing to Learn", as spoken by Stephen Heppell on the use of technology in the classroom.  As I was surfing the internet last night I stumbled across this video, and I feel that it really expresses why we must explore technology use in the classroom.
Here's the video:

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with them or do you think this is merely wishful thinking?

Side Note: If you want to see some interesting back and forth dialogue on the video, read some of the comments about the video on the Youtube page. There is a lengthy debate over the message of the video that is actually a good read after watching.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Tech Task #3

For my Third Tech Task I needed to create a budget spreadsheet on google docs using the data provided to me by my professor. Once I completed entering in the data and all doing the calculations(the SUM formula was great for this), I couldn't decide how to make it an attractive spreadsheet. My impulse was to centre everything, but some of the data looked out of place, so I kept everything aligned to the left. The other impulse I had was to make all the columns different colour's because it would look cool. However, once I did it I had trouble reading some of my labels, so I decided to stick with plain white text and colour the background of the cell instead. My last touch was to colour the background of every second cell to make my data easier to read. To see my final product you go to my Spreadsheet on Google Docs. 

Here's a humourous picture I found online that reminded me of my mindset when I first learned Microsoft Excel! 

Monday 23 January 2012

First Vlogs.....Awkward

So, I guess I still had more to say about Michael Wesch's Youtube video, "An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube".  Once I finished my previous post a little while ago, I grabbed my Ukulele and started surfing Youtube for some videos that could help me out.  As I was watching different videos, I couldn't help but think about the section in Michael's video about peoples first time vlogging and how awkward and difficult it can actually be.  As I was thinking about this, I remembered that I had actually decided last week to document my first day with my Ukulele via Video Log.  So I fished the video out of my Photo Booth and gave it a watch.  Man oh Man did Michaels video ever preach the truth! My first attempt is probably one of the most difficult things I've had to watch myself do.  I had no idea how to sit, what to do with my hands, where I should look, and even how to talk (I talk so fast at some points that I'm not even sure I'm speaking English) To my surprise I also had a visitor in my video that I didn't even know was there.  He however doesn't seem to mind being on camera seeing as what he does through the course of the video. 
Take a look if you want to see an Awkward first attempt at a Vlog:


What do you think? Was it as hard for you to watch as it was for me?

Sunday 22 January 2012

Tech Task #2

Wow, so I just finished watching the Youtube video "An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube" by Michael Wesch.  I'm not going to lie, over the past four years whenever a Professor would assign some boring video that was over the length of 3 minutes, I would usually just jump ahead to random sections of the video and look for answers to respond to (I'm sure that I'm not alone in this).  I must confess that the same thought crossed my mind for this task the minute I saw the 55:34 length of this video.  In the back of my mind I was thinking "Okay, this is way too long! The second half of the 49's game is going to start in a half hour. I'll just look for something that I can say was interesting and write a response about it".  Unfortunately for the slacker inside of me, the minute the video began, I was hooked! This video was incredibly interesting and it really made me think about the actual community that is Youtube, and how do I fit into everything Michael is saying. I've got so much to talk about, but I don't want to write too much or chances are you won't read this post and I'll be lucky if you've read this far on my post!
Originally I viewed Youtube as a place where people can post videos as a means to get attention.  I never really thought of it as a "New form of empowerment, New form of community, or a new way to connect in ways we couldn't before" As the video continued I began to think more and more about these words and how I use Youtube now.  I quickly came to the realization that I am actually an active member of this Youtube community.  Initially, I used Youtube solely for the purpose of listening to music or watching music videos.  However, almost two years ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to play the guitar, but I really didn't want to pay for lessons.  After some searching for tabs online, I decided to search Youtube to see if there were videos that would teach me how to play.  I typed in the words" How to play Our Song on guitar" (Yes the first song I wanted to learn on guitar was a Taylor Swift Song) To my delight, I found thousands of videos that could teach me to play this song.  I watched a bunch of different videos that people had posted of themselves playing the song and learned how to play my first song on guitar! When I look at it now, this is actually really amazing because the first song I ever learned on guitar was taught to me by people whom I've never met and have absolutely no idea who I am. Yet they connected with me through the images of themselves they posted on Youtube and I, for the rest of my life, will always remember "yourguitarsage" and "kfarrow77" as the people who taught me how to play my first song on guitar.
Here's kfarrow77's video that helped me to learn the song:



Another idea from the video that really caught my attention was the idea that people can actually form a new identity or mask in a new community space where "everybody is watching but no one is there".  It's interesting how comfortable most of the people in the Youtube community are when they are posting videos of themselves on the Internet.  Lots of these people are posting videos of themselves doing things that they might not be inclined to do at first in a public setting.  This in itself is kind of ironic because there would probably be less people watching if they were to do a live version of their video for say 100 people, then the millions that are able to view their video on the net.  An example that I immediately thought of was the "Single Ladies Guy" dancing in a leotard in front of his camera to the song all the "All the Single Ladies".  In the video he seems incredibly comfortable showing off his dance skills to the world, but the question in the back of my mind is "When he posted this video, if he had the choice to perform the dance in front of his webcam (in the comfort of his own house), or on stage, which would he choose?
Here's the video by Cubbyradio:



As it turns out, after this video gained immense popularity online, and he became a Youtube Sensation and was actually brought out during a Beyonce concert to dance with her on stage.  So again my question remains "Did he always have the confidence to perform in front of thousands of people, or did Youtube give him the confidence to perform in public after performing for millions, alone from the comfort of his home? It's much easier to remain anonymous and hide from others comments on Youtube than it is in your everyday life.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Decisions, Decisions...What to learn for my Major Project

After some careful thought about what I wanted to learn for my major project for Ecmp355, I've come to the decision that I want to learn how to play the Ukulele.  There is actually an interesting back story as to why I've chosen to learn how to play this instrument, so pull up a chair, grab a nice beverage and read on.
During my internship this past semester I created a class blog for my students and their first blogging task was to blog a response to the following question: "In our world today peace is wanted by most people of the world, yet it appears to be such a rare commodity. Why is this? If so many people want peace, why don’t we have it?" I was really impressed with my students because I read so many wonderful and thought provoking responses on each one of their blogs. However, there was one response that  the whole class seemed to like the best, not because of what the student wrote, but because of the video they posted to go along with their response.  The particular student described peace and what a peaceful world could be like using the song "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole as their inspiration.
Here is the same music video that the student posed on their blog:




After the student posted this video, my class fell in love with the song and almost everyday before religion class we would listen to this song before we began.
I still keep in regular contact with my students using our class blog, and last week another student had commented on the original post with this song on it.  So as I read the comment I couldn't avoid the temptation to click play and listen to the song once again.  As I listened to how beautifully Israel Kamakawiwo'ole plays the ukulele in this song, I knew right then and there what I wanted to learn as my major project this semester.  Using this song as my inspiration, I want to successfully learn how to play the ukulele and learning how to play this song as a particular goal.  I think learning the ukulele will be a skill that I can transfer into my classroom and my teaching for the rest of my career!

Sunday 15 January 2012

About Me!

Hello and welcome to my blog!
About Me:
My name is Matthew Bresciani, I'm currently in my final semester of my Middle Years Education Degree at the University of Regina. I hail from Regina, Saskatchewan and have lived here my entire life.  I come from a family of teachers (my mom is a Teacher, my dad is Principal and my only brother is in his second year of Secondary Education also at the U of R). A few of my hobbies include: Staying active with Intramural Sports (I usually play Soccer, Floor Hockey, Football, Innertube Waterpolo and Dodgeball each week), watching my two favourite sports teams (Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Oilers), Watching my favourite tv shows each week (I have too many to mention here, that would be it's own blog post alone), and many more!

My Thoughts on Technology:
Technology is a wonderful thing! I'm not sure I would be able to survive without my computer. I use it for so many things (Email, Photoshop, iMovie, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, just to mention a few) During my internship I don't know if I could have been able to teach as effectively without the use of technology in my classroom.  I loved using youtube videos and our systems moodle videos to help enhance my lessons.  Setting up a class blog was something that I also found worked really well and really seemed to engage the students and help them to take responsibility for their own learning.  Here's the link to my class blog if you are curious as to how it was set up, however you will not be able to read any of the content because kidblog.org protects posts from public viewing. 

Since technology is so prevalent in today's society,  most students are using and becoming familiar with new technology all the time.  As teachers we need to find a way to use and adapt this technology into our lessons as a  means of engaging our students in their own learning.  Instead of viewing technologies that students are actively involved in as a negative, we could use new technologies (Twitter, Youtube, Cell Phones, Social Media, etc.) as a tool in our teaching to actively engage our students in their own learning.  Engaging students is fundamental to learning, so why not use technology as a means to achieve this?

ECMP355:
I am very excited to be a part of this class as I feel it will truly help me to become a better teacher.  I expect to learn about different kinds of technologies (after one class I've already learned a bunch!!) that I will be able to use when I have my own classroom.  Once I have completed this class I hope to have learned how to implement new technologies into my teaching, Successfully create and maintain a Professional Blog, Successfully learn how to play the Ukulele, and many more things that will come as a surprise to me over the course of this semester!