It's eBook time!

As an assignment for tech, we were asked to create an eBook on any topic our choosing. The first thing that shouted out to me was surprisingly the guitar, and I jumped on that inspiration as soon as I could. The marvelous things about eBooks is that they are open to such a wide variety of topics and can be used in seemingly limitless ways. 

There are a number of online platforms that can be used to create an eBook, but for this task I chose SlideRocket for its ease of use, and especially because I had already used it when creating my TPACK journey. Having previous knowledge about how to embed images, sounds, and videos into a project, all I had to do is ensure that everything was given credit where credit was due!

From creating this artifact, I learned that eBooks can be a fantastic modelling tool for a teacher to use in the classroom, and it is not difficult to create - all you really need is a topic and a focus. As well, it can be integrated into a multitude of disciplines: a eBook on the first day of school to introduce yourself to the class, for instance; it can be used in Language Arts as a digital portfolio of written works or a favourite story; it can be used as a 'show and tell' method if younger grades have technology incorporated into it; or as a way for older students to share stories with younger grades for reading buddies.

In the case of my eBook, it targets the Language Arts and Music curriculum the most. I decided to focus on the guitar and what it means to me, as well as briefly explaining the instrument instrument, which fits into the Music component. However, I also chose to write out my eBook in a poetry format, which goes along with Language Arts. I chose a particular voice and point of view, as well as sentence structure. 

Without further ado, here is my eBook!

I could definitely see myself using eBooks both as a modelling tool and as an option for students to share their work as a presentation. In terms of this particular eBook, I could use it in music class to demonstrate how a particular instrument makes me feel as well as share songs that I enjoy, and then invite them to choose their favourite instrument and tell the class about it. Or, I could use it language arts class to share a poetry about any topic (in this case, guitar), and invite them to create a poem or story in eBook format.

Since I love reading books, I found it a joy to create an electronic version of one and would love to use this in my future classroom!

tools to learn

Part of my philosophy of education is to integrate technology in a way that it's not a "special section" but something that's included in almost every aspect of my classroom. Because of that, I'm using Bitstrips to create my philosophy of education. I have now completed it (take a look here), but through this process it has just confirmed my love of that learning tool and how that object can be used in a great variety of ways. 

Every Teacher in Ontario has access to, and an account with, Bit Strips - a tool where you can create your own comics based on your learning goals and lessons, and where students can join the online community/class to create their own for consolidating their learning as well.

A screencap of my classroom from my previous block - I have a pirate hat because I'm Miss R!

BitStrips is a fabulous tool to introduce to your class - it helps visual learners, ELL learners, and is a great way to 'summarize' learned concepts and Big Ideas through the creation of comic strips. For more information, take a look at this slideshow created by Zoe's tech class (collaboration for the win!) and take a look at more learning tools you can incorporate into your classroom!

"memory keys are so 2000."

"Memory keys are so 2000." - Zoe Branigan-Pipe

When my instructor said these words in our second day of tech class, I honestly could not agree more. After finishing a four-year degree of English and Multimedia at McMaster University (go Marauders!), I found that almost everything I learned during my Multimedia program felt ... a bit "old-school." No offense to that amazing program, it's just the way that technology works. Back in 2006, everyone was all about MySpace. Now, it's Facebook with Google+ on the rise. 

Back then, technology was frowned upon in my elementary school classrooms. Tamagotchis were BANNED. It just felt wrong. Now, I see a grade 5 student using an iPad to help with his education. Just shows that technology is pretty much moving at the speed of sound. It might seem frightening or overwhelming, but my advice is to just go with the flow. At least, that's what I'm trying to do. Figure out which social media sites work for me, figure out if I'm really going to update this or that or if it's just another thing I'm going to join. Today it's Google+, tomorrow it'll be Edublog. Let's see if I can keep up!