Week+8-+March+8th

Class Reflection

Guest Speaker- Barbara McLaughlin
 * Comic Life has a similar writing process to writing papers
 * Horizon Report- a means for empowering students in communication and socializing.
 * Know what expectations you are targeting in Comic Life and how to assess it
 * Can be used for assessment (of and for learning)
 * Comic Conventions- Shots (establishing the setting, close up), Format (colour, font), Bubbles, Panels (tilt, shadow), Gutters (inferring, time), Z pattern (direction)

Here is the Comic I made in class:



I just took a joke I found on the internet and made a comic strip pertaining to it. This could be used as a hook to intrigue the students about the next topic in class. As I looked on the internet, I also found teachers using it for instructional purposes. For example, in labs, the procedure could be shown with pictures accompanying them.

Here I am as a Comic Book character generated through Bit Strip:

Multimedia Link



Barbara referred to this book in her lecture today. The main theme that Barbara pointed is that the medium is the message. The way we tell a story can be altered or changed by the way we portray it. A graphic novel about a topic may not have the same message as an essay about the topic. This is important to remember in our schools.

Reading What If? Technology in the 21st Century. This is a document put out by the Ontario Public School Boards' Association and can be retrieved at http://www.opsba.org/files/WhatIf.pdf.

Reflection on Reading
 * The **classroom scenario** as written in this document seems like a **very possible reality** for Ontario classrooms. Students using netbooks with information and class documents at their fingertips seems like a rich learning environment. This is the exception right now, however, it could be the rule.
 * **Teacher education** should include more technology so that upcoming teachers are more current with the possibilities in education.
 * This is a feel good document of where we want to with technology in Ontario but not yet a reality. It is encouraging to read the different ways technologies are being included in Ontario right now, even if it is in small snap shots.
 * The document discusses using technology not only in the classroom but for **professional development** as well. I wonder if professional development days will be online soon.
 * Including technology in the classroom will help us to be leaders in teaching as **student engagement** will increase and hopefully this will lessen the achievement gap.

Technology Corner

http://www.4shared.com/

This week my biology professor shared pictures of the field trip we took to MacSkimmings Farm. We have a class website and he linked the pictures to the website above. It appears to be a similar idea to Google Docs in that you can store documents in the 'cloud' and share them with others instead of keeping them just on your computer. I recommend checking this website out!