Kevin's Education Blog

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Author: kevinzhu

Weekly Reflection image

Weekly Reflection-Oct 19th-25th

I found this week’s learning is helpful because applying videos or GIFs in the classroom is more effective for grabbing student’s attention. When I was in high school classrooms, I felt boring with a slide that contains pages of words with no photos or videos. Especially using videos in a classroom, students can relax their brains a little so that they will stay more focused in class afterwards. Playing a video in class can also get students engaged and have their attention.

Other than that, I finally learned how to create a Google document with anonymous animal icons. I found it is really friendly for a group of students to join and work on the same project.

 

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Image-Free Inquiry

Free Inquiry-Oct19th-25th

Last Week Before Midterm

This week is the last week before the midterm, which means I should reach my musical growth plan goal up to October 30th.

I forgot to mention that I have learned the A chord in last week’s post; therefore, this week’s learning is on D and E chords are just putting one more finger on the G string in addition to Em. D chord is the one I found difficult among all of the chord I have learned so far, It’s hard to put three of your fingers closely while avoid overlapping the near strings.

I have also been playing with different patterns, which is preparing for the first song I’m going to play-Cotton Eye Joe. Soon, I will post the video which filmed me playing the song with the guitar. 

Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash

Weekly Reflection-Oct 5th-18th

In this week’s class, we have learned various ways of making graphics using technology tools such as PowerPoint, Photoshop and Prisma…

This week, I tried to make images by using PowerPoint. Before this class, I never thought of using PowerPoint to make graphics, but as I dug deeper into “SmartArt,” I  found that it could be very useful in lesson plan making or class presentation.

First, I took a screenshot of my laptop wallpaper,

Then, I used “Crop” under “Picture Format” to make the aspect ratio as 16:9 and filled the slide page. After that, I chose one of the “Artistic Effects” for this image.

I also played with “SmartArt” where I discovered so many diagrams and graphics that can be used in presentations and less plan making. I made a simple diagram and used the image above as the background photo. I changed the transparency, sharpness, brightness, and contrast to give the best visual effect.

There is so much more to explore in PowerPoint and other excellent technology tools. I believe this will become more and more useful in future classroom teaching.

Other than that, I found a video which shows how to make your migae “come to life.” Check it out!

 

Free Inquiry Image

Free Inquiry-Oct 5th-18th

This week I talked with two of my classmates who are also learning guitar as beginners. We shared some reflections on our learning experiences, such as which chord was the most difficult to learn or what kind of pattern we have practiced.

Also, we have discovered a very useful tool for guitar tuning. It is an app called GuitarTuna. We have found it is really useful for beginners like us since we are not familiar with the sound of every string on the guitar.

About this week’s learning, I found that I can switch chords a little faster than better, but still not as smooth as it should be.

 

 

 

 

Privacy and Safety Image

Weekly Reflection-Sep 28th-Oct 4th

This week’s class with Jesse Miller as our guest was excellent.

The part which shocked me the most is that we are actually helping AI improving by doing some very simple things on the internet. For instance, Google sometimes give us a photo which is equally divided into nine pieces, and ask us to choose the ones contains something (traffic lights, cars, pedestrian crossing…). By the time when we finish this little “game,” AI also learned more thing and it was taught by us.

This week’s topic reminds me of a movie I watched lats week “The Social Dilemma.” This movie uncovers the truth behind social media platforms, and how they are influencing our lives. When i have watched this movie, I felt it is very hard for people to have critical thinking in this era when all the information we see were presented to us. Everything we see, everything we watch is served in our needs and political stands.

I strongly encourage you to watch this movie!

 

 

 

Guitar Learning Image

Free Inquiry-Sep 28th-Oct 4th

Busy Week, Little Time.

This week I got a very busy schedule with both school and work. Although, I still managed to find some time with guitar practicing. This week I only leaned one chord-Em, which is an easy chord but still I ran into some difficulties.

I figured out how to place my fingers on guitar for Em pretty quick, but at the beginning  it had a very dull sound. It was quite different than what it suppose sounds like. Therefore, I went to Youtube and tried to search up some video that might help me; lucky, I have found one video which solved my problem. Turns out, it makes the dull sound because of one of my figure was catching the nearby string which I should not have.

To those who might have the same question, here is the video that I found helpful.

My Free Inquiry Topic

As for my Free Inquiry topic, mainly I will focus on my guitar learning process, but I will also post some information or resources that is related to music teaching or using music in classroom learning.

I found some great studying resources on OER Commons, there are videos for guitar fundamental learning and music teaching in elementary classrooms. I will keeping looking for valuable resources on OER websites to support my future study and this Free Inquiry assignment.

Weekly Reflection Sep21st-27th

This week we were introduced to the Open Educational Resources, which is an online free-access information resource. First of all, I was surprised that there are so many websites out there that we can have access for all kinds of information and knowledge.

Before this class, I used to search information on Google, or school library webpage. I’ve always known that there are lots of information on the internet, but never knew where to I look. Through the week, I have looked into many websites which were mentioned in the slide show in class, and I can see great value in them.

One of the OER website I really enjoy is Unsplash. I used to look for pictures on Google Image which is not so great because of the photos we can reuse are not as good as the ones we can’t. Unsplash on the other hand, it has some really good quality photos, I already used one photo from it in my Free Inquiry as the featured image.

As important as appreciating the valuable resources, we also have to pay respect and follow the rules when we use these resources. There are guidelines about open licensing for online resources using, and we must follow them at all time in order to create a healthier online learning environment!

Weekly Reflection

Reflection on the First Class:

The most interesting part about this week’s class to me is that I get to create my own personal blog. This is something I’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance. I really want to keep doing this blog even after I complete this class, and I’m looking forward to see the development of this blog in the future.

Other than that, we also talked about some interesting facts about personal information in class. It comes to my attention that it is important for using personal information only if the owner of that information give his/her consent.  In addition to that, I also realized why it is important for Canada to have its own data base. The personal information we give to companies such as: Facebook, Google, Youtube…has been sent to the data base in the US which the US government can request for.

The fact which brings me serious awareness is that I have already gave my consent to the companies and the government to use my personal information. I gave my consent to them when I agreed to the terms which I didn’t read through. Those terms  are usually very long and people always ignore the content. Most of people will just put a check mark at the bottom of the page without reading any of it.

It is critical for us to understand the importance of our privacy, and be very careful when we give our consents to our personal informations.

 

Beginning!

Free Inquiry-Sep 21st-27th

Starting Point!

This week I finally decided to pick up a guitar and begin my learning!

Learning how to play guitar is something I wanted to do for a very long time. This semester my EDCI 306 class has an assignment which I need to learn a music instrument for this course, and guitar has became my first option.

I started by reviewing an online learning tool which was introduced by my music instructor. It has all kinds of online learning classes of guitar, ukulele, and recorder. I found some very useful tools like a guitar turner where I can adjust my guitar string based on the sound it provides.

Tools and classes are all set, it’s time to star!

This week I set an easy goal for myself as the first step, just learning two chords-G and C. I found G is pretty easy to play, but C felt a little bit uncomfortable for me to place my fingers on guitar that way and hold it. Besides that, I also tried to play a strumming pattern (basically what I did was just playing every string from top to bottom).

Unfortunately, I only had a little time this week with my guitar and I couldn’t learn much with it. Hopefully I will have more time next week and learn few more chords 🙂

 

The most memorable piece from this week:

My figures are really hurt.

 

Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash

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