Mary L's Teacher Ed Portfolio

Category: Personal Learning Networks

Working with images

November 13, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Playing around with digital images

In class we reviewed a couple of things. First of all:

  • Pixel-based software vs. vector-based software

My main takeaway was that pixel-based software means that you may end up with big, grainy pixels, whereas with vector-based software, images can be expanded without that side effect. *This knowledge came in handy, as I’ll explain in a minute.

Second, we looked at some

  • Recommendations for accessible image editing software
    • Pixlr (use online through an app)
    • GIMP (free and open-software)
    • Prisma
    • Mirror App
    • And…. PowerPoint! / Google Slides

Google Slides experimentation

I have to admit that I am a bit slow on the technology uptake. Rather, I won’t learn something until I need to. Playing around with possibilities just for the sake of it doesn’t appeal to me. Since I already use Google Slides a lot, and I know that students do, too, I figured I would play around with Google Slides for image editing, much thanks to Michael’s demonstration and own enthusiasm for this hack.

Here are some screenshots of Google Slides that I put together and edited, also using the Explore tool (the tool in the bottom right, which handily offers slide compositions).

I wanted to use Google Slides to make a website header image for this blog.

It took several attempts and playing around to land on this (which may or may not stay as the header image):

Trickiness explained:

  • You can download individual slides as JPEGs or PNGs, but these, when uploaded, get grainy (pixel-based! boo)
  • You can download individual slides as Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) (vector-based!), but you can’t upload those to WordPress (boo)
  • In the end, I downloaded the slide as an .svg, opened it, took a screenshot, and uploaded that screenshot
  • The result is a little grainy, but not as grainy as the original JPEG or PNG
  • Is this the best approach? Probably not, but it does work.

Review of 3 Podcasts on Teaching & Learning

November 3, 2019 / / 0 Comments

I wanted to take the time to review the collection of Podcasts on Teaching and Learning posted on our course website. In my experience with podcasts, I only listen to new ones based on references from friends and acquaintances. Since I haven’t gotten podcast references from teachers yet, I have to go outside my habits and look for something new. Here we go! Read on for my hot takes on three teaching and learning podcasts:

10 Minute Teacher Podcast

https://www.coolcatteacher.com/podcast/

Pros: Topics range all K-12 subjects, though there’s a tilt towards tech and innovation. A new 10-minute podcast goes up every day Monday-Friday, so the ideas are definitely current. The episodes are stand-alone, so you can skip or choose depending on interest.

Cons: American focus. Host Vicky Davis has a strong southern accent – it might grate on some people.

K-12 Greatest Hits

http://www.bamradionetwork.com/k-12-greatest-hits/

Pros: Curated content. New episodes every 2 weeks, so not so overwhelming. Issues are quite contemporary, e.g. the most current today is “Knowing when to say yes and when to say no to education technology.”

Cons: Again, American focus.

The Five Moore Minutes’ Podcast

https://fivemooreminutes.podbean.com

Pros: Shelley Moore is a British Columbian local celebrity, so yay for local content, with a focus on inclusive education! She keeps it quite real on the podcast. If nothing else, the podcast might prompt you to keep exploring the resources on her excellent blog.

Cons: It is a chatty podcast, so you have to settle in to enjoy.

Reflection

Podcasts are so social! It’s weird to listen to a podcast without someone recommending it. I don’t really know what I’m listening for. I don’t have a sense of faith that I will “get into it”. I feel like it’s unlikely people will listen to these just because I reviewed them. This blog post has really just reinforced for me the importance of having a “professional learning network” or a “community of practice” –  a bunch of professionals interested in the same things – to access new resources and ideas.

Reasons to be… into podcasts

October 3, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Ed Miliband, British MP and co-host of the podcast Reasons to Be Cheerful

“Guardian of the interests of future generations”

I was biking to campus one morning this week, listening to the podcast Reasons to Be Cheerful, and I got a little teary. The episode was about future generations being represented in governmental decisions, and the challenges of short-term planning due to electoral cycles versus the long-term planning that society really needs. Anyway, I learned that Wales has a Commissioner position for just this. There is actually a person charged with being the “guardian of the interests of future generations,” as she described it. Her job is to question decisions, including budget decisions, based on long-term costs and benefits. A recent highway build was canceled, due to her intervention. Just knowing that this position exists made me tear up. It’s so obvious (as many Indigenous people might remind me), and yet obvious does not always make it into reality.

The connection to podcasts: unplanned encounters

I also thought, as I got off the bike, about this magic of podcasts – that they can introduce us to things we would never even know to look for. I only listen to the podcast because a British acquaintance recommended it. I didn’t know anything about the hosts, one of whom is Ed Miliband. Turns out he is the former leader of the UK Labour Party. I love that even as an MP now, he makes times to do a weekly podcast, in which he and Geoff Lloyds “talk to smart thinkers from around the world”. So cool.

An author on democracy wrote that for society to support a real democracy, there need to be: 1) unplanned encounters and 2) common experiences. If I remember correctly, he meant both unplanned encounters between people, like “Hey, neighbour!” or “Hey, fellow human who is joining me in public space and willing to connect on something!”, and unplanned encounters between people and information, i.e. learning about things you didn’t go looking for. Otherwise we end up in the death spirals of echo chambers, basically.

In short, I like that podcasts introduce me to things I would never even know to go looking for, by kind of easing me in with a familiar format and host, and providing enough context and depth that I can actually integrate the new thing.

p.s. Ed Miliband seems like a really nice guy, so I don’t think he would mind me using that photo of him. I got it through searching on Google with the “advanced settings” set to filter shareable content only. Here are a bunch more awkward photos from the same source.

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