Brief Introduction of Martin Luther King Jr: Using YouTube as an educational tool

This is a video I made for a class that wanted to incorporate technology into the classroom. As I was making this video, it made me realize how I could help my students with their learning even beyond the classroom. Using YouTube, I could record my lectures for students who weren't able to join the classroom for the day, or for students who did not catch everything in class. I would say that this better than something like Khan Academy for the main benefit of being able to talk to the narrator. A student can't ask the narrator of a Khan Academy teacher, but they can ask their teacher if there is something they don't get.

Technology shouldn't be gimmicks

Even though our society is becoming more connected, more technologically advanced, there are still gonna be some companies that are going to be modern day snake oil sellers. These salesman have not died, but have thrived at the rise of the technological age.

Example of a tech gimmick: Curved Edges! Virtually useless though

 I have had my fair share of little gimmicks when it came to education and technology. When I was still in school, we would sometimes, emphasis on sometimes, use these chunky remote controller looking things that we would connect to the teacher's computer, and then we would answer multiple choice questions or give short sentences. I would say it was an incredible waste of resources, especially since they did so little. I'm sure they could have used those funds towards more laptops, pushing towards 1-1, but decided to just settle on these quirky little pieces of plastic. 

But it is not all bad! One technological addition that my high school did do was buy some very advanced calculators that were great! They were simple calculators, graphing calculators, and many other additions. This was a great addition because while it was simple at the bottom level, it could do a lot more specific and complicated tasks, and it was used almost all the time. All in all, I think the difference between gimmicks and actual good ideas is that gimmicks only have one goal, do it kind of badly, and then just stop at doing anything else. 

Image Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/gimmicks-will-not-bring-samsung-back-to-powerhouse-status/

Gaming and Education: The journey is the goal, not the ending

As a gamer, it feels wonderful to see that the field of education is finally dipping its toes into the world of gaming as a way of education, but I am also scared of how educators will use games in their classrooms.

This is a great video that explains why video games are so captivating to such a large audience. It is because it taps on the part of our brain that was curious, wants to know more, and says "Have a crack at me." To add to their points, you can't treat video games like homework or tests. Imagine you're watching someone playing a game, they show the player the tutorial, have given the player all the mechanics that are important at the time, and then they give the player a chance to actually use the mechanics.

And they lose. They die at the first chance of using the mechanics of the game to pass this first obstacle! But, the game suddenly stops and says "Sorry, I guess you're not right for the game if you didn't get it on the first time," and then shuts off. That's no game! A game still lets fail, or else there's no consequence and in turn no reason to try, but it lets you pick up the pieces of your failure and try again. Homework and tests don't work like that. No teacher has ever explained to me "If you fail, come tomorrow and do the test over again for another try!" The problem lies where I feel like educators will bring in that type of thinking to a video game, and then will be puzzled when the kids are not enjoying the game. A player at the start of a game is ignorant and weak, but by the end, they are strong and all-knowing. That is because they were allowed to fail multiple times, but also explore different options of what they can do to beat the obstacle that has been stopping them. Teachers need to tap into the curiosity of students by looking at progression through exploration and failure rather than just keeping with the same ol' "You failed once, that means you'll never get it."

Video Source: Extra Credits

Google Drive has leveled the playing field for students of all statuses.

Google Drive Logo

Google Drive has been with students since 2012, giving everyone a cloud drive to dump all of their essential documents on to the fluffy puffballs of memory for free. While this seems like such a normal thing for students now, I think we take for granted how awesome Google Drive is for everyone. With the slow expansion of 1-1 computers, we are effectively bringing all of our students on the same field of accessibility within the classroom. Before 1-1 computers, I am assuming that some students were given the luxury of owning a computer, only being able to use the computer lab at school, and some resorted to the good ol' paper and pencil; the latter having the most problems with things like transportation, keeping it clean, and the ease of misplacing it.

This amazing service has not just helped students, but it has also helped teachers as well. The ease of having tabs on a computer screen, rather than having stacks of papers, as well as being able to give a student as much feedback as you want and not having to worry about the margins of a paper impeding you.

Connect all of these positives, and you have an environment where students are able to share all of their works with their teacher without worry, any amount of their classmates can leave feedback, and without leaving a paper trail. Let's see where drive.google.com takes us next.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logo_of_Google_Drive.png)

Google Earth and its integration into education

Within this year, Google has unveiled a new perspective with their Google Earth program. https://www.google.com/earth/ has been updated to allow even further exploration of wherever you want to search for. As an example, I searched my house.

Picture of my house in Google Earth

While it is not 4k, high quality polygons, but it is certainly something that has not been done before  and I think it could lead to more engaged classes in school. When thinking about what I could do with this as an English teacher, I could show my students the historical places that famous authors have been connected to. When teaching about Shakespeare, I could show them the Globe Theater and educate them on the history of the place. History teachers could use it in the same way, showcasing routes and places that are important to the lecture. The best part about this is that Google does not plan on just stopping here. I have no doubts that they will continue to refine this resource into something even greater! Or at least better polygons.

Image Source: www.google.com/earth/

My PLN at the end

Updated PLN Map

This is my PLN map now, and upon reflection, I did not realize just how many resources I found through the internet. Maybe it is because I grew up with the internet my whole life, but I never realized until now that I was almost always going online to try and find new resources for myself. I never went to a teacher and asked for books that would broaden my vision, or asked my parents for anything. My first instinct was to go to Google, or Youtube, or just the internet in general because I was taught that it had almost everything that I needed. I think that is interesting in a sense, because I do not see that changing throughout the next couple of years. With the rise of technology, I believe we as a people will become more dependent on it for the simple fact that it is able to give us the information that we want, and sometimes do not want, at the speed of how fast their router can handle. This is both a great thing, and a bad thing based on how you look at it. Personally, I believe the era of the Internet and technology is just beginning, and the students of today are in the middle of it, absorbing it all up. With this, we as educators need to steer them away from the pitfalls of the Internet, so they can continue growing their own PLN map.

Ninth and Tenth PLN

Khan Academy front page

9. Khan Academy

When thinking about khanacademy.org, I think of it as a second teacher. It is a wonderful resource for everyone because of its ease of access and resources.





How did you find/create/use this resource? It was given to my classmate and I during our high school math classes. It was for the students who did not catch all of the information, or they needed another perspective on how to do something.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? What prompted me was the fact that I was not doing so hot in math classes. I needed to put extra effort into those studies or else I would have failed. Khan Academy gave me another perspective on the concepts.

What did you learn from this resource? I learned that schools do not teach everything in a way that everyone gets. Sometimes, a student needs to be taught in ways that are not within the teaching guides that teachers get.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? I would offer it to my students, giving it to them as another perspective on the lessons that I teach them. I would rather have a student understand the concept from another source than to say "I failed the student because he wasn't understanding me."

My Group (Me, Dan, and Scott all the way over)

10. My INSTTECH 1020-01 Group

At the start of the semester, I was uncertain about this rag tag group of guys. I have trouble in groups a lot of the time, because I enjoy having all of the responsibility on my shoulders. If I do something wrong on a personal assignment, then it is all on me, but if I am in a group, then my mistake hurts everyone. At the end of this semester, I have become more open to groups because of the benefits that I saw within our group.










How did you find/create/use this resource? I saw that Dan wasn't following anybody, just standing there, and asked "Hey, you want be a group?" He said yeah, and then we saw Scott standing by himself and we asked him as well.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? Our professor told us to group up.

What did you learn from this resource? I learned that having a group makes an assignment much easier. It allows each person to take chunks of the assignment, and in turn makes it a smaller challenge. Also, if someone cannot do their part of the job at the specific time, because life happens, the other group members can come in and help them out.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? In both my life as a student now, and as a teacher, I will be more into groups than I was before. I will not come into groups as a sort of hostage, having to be in one because someone told me, but because I realize the benefits of being in one.

Seventh and Eighth PLN

NCTE Front Page

7. NCTE

This was an addition to my PLN this semester as well! It is specifically for English teachers, and it is filled to the brim with information for them. Www. ncte.org is a collection of English teachers from all around the U.S., and with that they share papers and articles that they feel are important to the field.


How did you find/create/use this resource? I found it through a professor this semester. He is a member of the NCTE, and he has spoken nothing but good things about the organization.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? One of my professors this semester spoke highly of the organization, saying that it was a wealth of knowledge for our field and it was one of the best one he's joined in his 50 years.

What did you learn from this resource? I have learned that not all English teachers are the same. It may sound like a "duh" thing, but it never occurred to me that there are some English teachers, who are in a field that is hard to grade normally, who are for things like strict grading. This is only the start of it, but it really opened up my eyes to the perspective for others in my field.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? With this resource, I'll be able to always recheck other's thoughts on topics that could benefit or hurt me. Think of it as a way of revising my philosophy on teaching all the time.

Facebook homepage

8. Facebook

Another monolith of connectivity, Facebook.com has been in used by me since I was in middle school. At first I used it as a space to get in touch with just my friends, but it has grown into a place where I talk to veteran teachers about specific topics.




How did you find/create/use this resource? I found out about this website the same way that I did with Twitter. Some of my friends were talking about what a cool website this was, and how it was soooo much better than Myspace.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? What prompted me was the cleaner interface mostly. While Myspace allowed user completely customize their page, it was also incredibly annoying. Weird layouts as well as the annoying music that the person put on. Facebook was just a lot more "professional" in the sense that it looked like an Apple commercial website with blue.

What did you learn from this resource? I have learned that a lot of companies and organizations use Facebook! It allows them to interact with their customers, let them hear their complaints, and respond accordingly. 

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? I will benefit from it in the same way that I do with Twitter, although this website will be used for more in depth discussions. I have already begun using it this way, as I am friends with my teachers from my high school, and I am able to receive insight from them on topics that will affect me when I become a teacher. 

Fifth and Sixth PLN

Example of a Twitter account's page.

5. Twitter

While Twitter.com is mostly used for rapid fire opinions, crammed into 180 characters, it is more than that in the sense that it is an wide ecosystem, connecting everyone from across the world.






How did you find/create/use this resource? I found it way back when I was in my early years of high school. Some classmates from school were talking about it, saying how cool it was, and I decided to try it out. I was amazed how I was able to connect with people that were considered out of my reach before it.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? I was encouraged to try it out when I heard how some of my classmates were talking about it. They made it seem so much better than Facebook, mostly because the interactions between people and, let's say, celebrities felt more personal.

What did you learn from this resource? I have learned more about myself in a sense. I have branched out into new interests because of the retweet and recommended people tab mechanics that Twitter has built into the site.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? In my future teaching, I will make a teacher account for myself where my students can follow me and stay up to date with things like assignments and others. As an added bonus, they have a channel to my phone that is much more likely to get a response from than they would with an email.

Edmodo front page

6. Edmodo

Www.Edmodo.com was also a website that I did not hear about until this semester either! I think it is because I was not in classes that were strictly teaching, but now that I am in classes where teaching is the main focus, I will be introduced to more websites like these.




How did you find/create/use this resource? I found out about this website through the word-of-mouth from professors and classmates around me.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? I was encouraged by classmates and professors. Most of them said the same thing: That it made education easier. It had everything they needed in one space and more. While professors did not need to care about this specific part, but teachers for high school and below enjoyed the fact that parents could see what their child was doing in activities as well as seeing how their grades were doing.

What did you learn from this resource? I learned that there are a lot of perspectives from teachers all around, and that can only help trying to find an activity or idea that would fit your classroom the best.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? I will benefit from because everyone will be able to continue the lesson and/or keep learning beyond the classroom. The students will be able to go back to the lessons while the parents will be able to see what their child is doing as well as their grades. It makes it easier for them, and me, and cuts out of the middle man of an email, phone call, or physical meeting.

Second and Third PLN

Front Page of r/Teachers

3. Reddit - .com/r/Teachers

I use Reddit a lot, because it is a website that houses thousands of communities, each with their own and specific interest in mind. Some of the ones I am connected with are things like fashion, watches, and gaming. It wasn't until around this year that I decided to check out if there was a subreddit for teachers. There was!

How did you find/create/use this resource? I found this website on the mere curiosity of myself. It just happened that one time I was on Reddit and thought, "Huh, I wonder if there's subreddit for teachers?" Typed in www.reddit.com/r/Teachers and there it was. I use this resource by seeing what other teachers, from different parts of the United States, think about teaching. Although, it comes with its share of problems as well. One does not find a shortage of burnt-out teachers, or ones where they exaggerate their stories.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? Pure curiosity really. There's communities around subjects that are so specific, so I thought "Is there a subreddit for teaching? There has to be."
After realizing this could be a tool to stay in touch with some teachers, or get multiple perspectives on politics related to teaching, I decided to stick with it.

What did you learn from this resource? "It's okay to suck your first year. No one is expecting you to be perfect." Some may regard this as small, but having veteran teachers telling newbies that no one is expecting them to be perfect was a step in the right direction for me because I personally worry greatly about whether or not I will be serving my students well right from the get go.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? I believe I will benefit from this resource in the future in the way that I benefit from it now. I will be able to capture multiple perspectives on issues ranging from the politics of education, people's opinions of certain lessons plans, or even relate to the funny stories that everyone shares of their students.

Edutopia front page

4. Edutopia

Www.Edutopia.org is a website that I actually discovered during this semester. I never really heard of it until my INSTTECH 1020 class. After dabbling in some of its articles, I'm beating myself up over the fact that I didn't find it sooner!



How did you find/create/use this resource? Some of my professors advised us to try it out, because it was a wealth of knowledge that wasn't being utilized by as many as it should be.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? I started using the resource because it broadened my horizon on the topics and issues of the education field. Some of the topics that are being talked about within their articles are not usually found within a classroom curriculum.

What did you learn from this resource? I've realized, after using this website, that the education field is a lot more complex than people usually think. There are bad things, there are good things, and their great things, but after snooping around the site for around an hour or so, one can see that teaching is a lot more complex than just "standing at the front of a classroom and educating students."

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? Like the teachers subreddit, it gives me a door to new perspectives and ideas that I have not thought about before. It also gives me insights on topics or events that I might have not even heard throughout my day-to-day life.

First two PLN

Crash Course: An educational YouTube channel

1. YouTube - Crash Course

Even though I have already showed that Youtube was apart of my PLN, I didn't specify what channels I watched. That was because I did not have a lot of channels that were more than entertainment. That was when I found Crash Course, an educational YouTube channel that educates its subscribers on a variety of subjects like politics, science, history, and many many others.

How did you find/create/use this resource? I just googled "Educational Youtube channels." I enjoy Crash Course the most because they do multiple subjects with the same veracity as some specialized channels.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? I was tired of finding channels that either specialized in one subject, or they were very casually in one subject.

What did you learn from this resource? I have learned that there is a lot more channels solely for educational use than I thought, especially when you see on the right side of the photo. It shows that they are a ton more channels than just them.

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? I can benefit from these channels in the sense that I will be able to help other educators. Crash Course, and their subsidiary channels, have talked about topics within most subjects that are within high school curriculum. If I want to look for a video on a subject in my field, or another teacher needs help finding one, we could search on this channel.

Ted.com homepage

2. TED.com

Ted.com TED talks were always the thing that, personally, I thought professors/teachers used when they could not speak about a concept themselves. I felt it the same way I do when someone uses a long video within their presentations: It's just there to pad out time. After exploring the site a bit more, I have come to realize that I was very much wrong.
It is a place where people go to to talk about concepts that are much bigger, much broader, and something that cannot be explained by just one teacher.

How did you find/create/use this resource? I found this website from back when I was in highschool. Teachers were very enthusiastic about the website because it gave them a connection to the opinions of some of the leading minds in the world.

What prompted you to find/create/use this resource? What prompted me to actually look through it more was the use of it during multiple classes. This was not a website that was just for one subject, or just one concept. It was compiling a bunch of different subjects, from different sides of the spectrum, and I thought that it was amazing because think of how much work it takes to even build up a small conference in other places. This organization is serious about teaching concepts.

What did you learn from this resource? In regards to my field, English education, some of the videos have shown me that I have to be more critical about the education system, and that I need to look at it deeper than just its surface. Specifically Ken Robinson's "Do schools kill creativity?"

How will you benefit from this resource in your future teaching? I will benefit from this resource in my school years from now on because it is another voice, another perspective, from a highly accredited mind that will teach their ideas to my students. It is the answer to teacher's woes when they wished to hear insight from qualified minds, but they were always out of reach. Now they are not out of reach.

First part of my PLN

First Draft of My PLN Map

When I first started this PLN map, I thought that it looked alright as a first draft. Although, looking at it after some time has passed, and after being in the INSTTECH 1020 class for the semester, I have realized that this map can be specified much more than I originally made it.

Another point is that during this semester, I have started looking into other websites, both general and specific, that deal with education and the theories around the topic.

Along this journey, I realized that there are a lot of resources from different avenues for educators! Especially from ones that one wouldn't think about!

Chapter 1 of Dropped Drafts

Hello, I'm making this because my Ed. Tech professor has made me, but let's see where this takes us. Maybe I become a great blogger where I'm a stay at home mom with millions of followers. No one will knowing that I'm an aging man with a semi-useless degree.