Summary of Interview

On Thursday, we met with Ms.Pettie and she told us that she wanted to try to incorporate technology into her classes mainly her ESLD class. We asked her what her ESLD class was working currently and she told us that her class was currently reading Romeo and Juliet. We then told her that we would brainstorm some ideas and meet with her again on Tuesday.

Placement Update

Last week, the students who were working with geography teachers meet with Mr. Carpenter to learn what he wanted us to do. Basically, he explained to us that he wanted to incorporate technology into the grade nine ISP which is about the pull and push factors that push/pull someone to immigrate to Canada. As a group we decided the best technology to use would be Google Earth, Gapminder and wolframalpha. We split into smaller group to try to incorporate each technology. Shayan and I are working on wolframalpha.

This week, Shayan and I will continue finding ways that the students can use wolframalpha to extract data. After we are finished we will but our ideas with the other groups and make a final product for the ISP.

Placement Preferences

1. Personally, I feel that I would be best at teaching students and teachers to use technology and software because I feel that many of my strengths would be displayed in that task. Firstly, I am very sociable thus I would easily be able to interact comfortable with and teachers. Secondly, I am very good at explaining things to people in the most simple terms so that would help me teach the students and teachers very efficiently. Thirdly, I am very patient and would not get irritated if  the teaching  process took longer than I would expect. 


I would also be comfortable learning new software as it already sort of a hobby of mind. I believe that I am quick learner and I really enjoy learning new things. 


I would not be comfortable in finding online resources or designing and develop a web site as I am not the kind of person how enjoys doing research and thus not good it and also I am not creative in the design sense in the slightest. 


2. -Creativity 8: I believe that I am very good at coming up with new ideas and coming up with ways to make them work.

-Responsibility 7: I am responsible most of the time however, I need a few reminders some times. 

-Web Design 6: I have no artistic ability and have never made a website. That being said I could probably learn how to fairly quickly. 

-Developing action plans 9: I am able to make detailed plans to get my ideas out there.

-Teach other people 10: I have lots of experience teaching people as I have taught my brother everything he know :). And I really enjoy the feeling of teaching people new things. 

-Meeting Deadlines 9: I complete almost all assignments on time unless there is an exceptional reason. 


3. I have no problem leading a group, it is in fact a role I assume most of the time. 


4. I would prefer to work with a partner or small group because i believe that is the most efficient way to work as the workload is split more evenly. 


5. I would be most comfortable working in English, Media, Geography and Biology. I would not be comfortable working in History because I am not interested in the course. 

DropBox Review

The web tool I researched was Dropbox.

   

Dropbox is an online storage website.  It allows you to upload or download any files you decide to upload onto the website as long as you have internet connection.

The pros of dropbox are that you always have an online backup, you can access your files almost anywhere without carrying around a usb stick that can easily be lost and you can easily share files with anyone without having to send emails back and forth.

There aren’t many cons with dropbox but if I had to think of something I would say the fact that you have to pay extra for more storage space is the only main flaw.

The dropbox website has an excellent tutorial on the homepage www.dropbox.com and I also made a tutorial video at www.screencast.com/t/Uf8bkgL4. 

The Next Project

1. Software Development

2. Web Tools 2.0 

3. Net book Cart Team

I ranked the software and web tools projects ahead of the net book team because I prefer working in teams and a more creative assignment rather then when more based on working with hardware.

I feel that my ability to learn things on my own fairly quickly will make me be able to succeed in the software team because I can figure out the software fairly quickly. I am also comfortable teach a lesson to class.

I feel like I could succeed in any of the groups but would prefer to work in the software team because my skills can be the most useful there. 

The First Project

My groups first project was to help find out the best way to utilize to the net books in classrooms. Our group took on the role of interviewing teachers and finding out their opinions.

Completion of task(s) and/or presentation of research. (did you finish your assigned tasks)
4 - I feel that  our group completed our research and presented our findings in  an easy to understand format and completed our assignment on time.

Cooperative participation in group (did you participate well with the group, share resources, etc.).
4 - Our group worked extremely well to together and all ideas were decided upon as a group. All group members had equal roles in the project and everyone completed the assignment on time.

Creative and critical thinking (did you offer ideas, make suggestions, improve on your group’s final product)
4 - Throughout the project I feel that most of the ideas I contributed were reflected on our final product. I also helped refine and improve our final product once we were done.

Initiative (did you take responsibility for tasks, use your class time effectively)

3.5 - Our group stayed on task most of the time, however there were a few times we got distracted and we were off task.