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Author: nicole7 (Page 2 of 2)

Week 5 Reflection

3D Printing and Design

This week we learned about 3D printing and Design. We all got to create our own 3D design in class using Tinkercad, https://www.tinkercad.com/dashboard. Tinkered is a free and easy website to use to make your creations that will be able to be printed with a 3D printer. During this weeks class, I made a keychain with the letters “A, X, O” which stands for letters of the Greek alphabet.

3D printing can be used in cross-curricular activities. For example, while our class was in the digital scholarship commons, we got to see 3D printed dice with indigenous letters on them. The idea of dice could also be used in severall types of games in the classroom. This could include number games, letter games etc. that need a dye or dice! It would be neat for students to create their own pieces to a potential learning game within the classroom.

The idea of 3D printing and design being a part of the education system holds its own positives and negatives. I think that a strong negative is funding along with safety. As time goes by hopefully the printers can become more accessible. The safety aspect really varies depending on the age range of students that you are trying to work with. Although there are some negatives, the positives do outweigh them. Having 3D printing available in classrooms produces more opportunities for the teachers and students. It also helps build students creativity. While working with younger students this can be used to build things like shapes, and other physical objects that they can use for more hands-on learning. While working with older students you could create an opportunity for them to physically produce their own ideas to be printed like we did during class this week.

Reflection Week 4

This week we learned about GenAI. We discussed the positives along with the negatives and how GenAI affects different age groups in a classroom setting. GenAI could be useful if you are using it for the right things.

We talked about how it works. GenAI produces results based on the amount of data that it has accumulated in different areas. This results in limitations on what GenAI is able to do for us. It can pick up fake news and misinformation when it is accumulating its data. For example, GenAI struggles with math problems due to the complexity. Past history has shown that when giving an AI a word problem they can come up with something that has nothing to do with the problem itself. another possible negative could be in a classroom setting where students get a hold of this technology in means to use it for cheating on assignments. I have specifically seen this done with writing assignments likes essays or math problems. When students use this in hopes to get things done faster and “easier” it often turns into a negative result like a lower grade.

Although there are some negatives when working with technology like GenAI, it can have its positives as well. This could be beneficial in a classroom setting with younger students when a teacher is trying to create lesson plans. It could also help students and teachers generate base ideas that the teacher and the students can elaborate form afterwards.

After class I took some time looking into Generative AI some more. I found this website https://itrexgroup.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-generative-ai/. This website talks about the benefits, challenges and limitations of using generative AI. I found some concepts that didn’t get talked about in class as much like the positives of AI including enhanced creativity and cost optimization. The challenges and limitations that I read about in this website were all spoken upon during class on Friday but this reading helped me learn about it in more detail.

Hiking (4)

For this week I didn’t have the time to go on a hike, but I decided to research the benefits to hiking. While looking into this there were lots of great websites that provided lots of benefits to hiking. The one that stood out to me was done by Cleveland Clinic, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/9-benefits-of-hiking. This stood out to me because it wasn’t just a list of benefits, each benefit had a description of what it means. They provided 9 benefits and I chose 3 to talk about in this weeks reflection.

The first one I looked at was the benefit hiking has on lowering blood pressure. High blood pressure is something that is hard to identify but people can prevent it by staying active. Keeping the body moving keeps the blood flowing and constant temperature regulation.

The second one I looked at was the benefit hiking has on reducing anxiety and depression. When the body starts moving it releases endorphins which increases the bodies sensitivity to serotonin and norepinephrine, this reduces the feelings of depression. Being outside in nature also the body and mind when you interact in fresh air.

The last benefit that I looked at was how hiking improves sleep. A big thing that hiking does to help people sleep is getting you outside so that you can capture vitamin D. Getting the body moving will increase the bodies temperature so when your internal temperature decreases it will be easier to fall asleep.

Adventures of Hiking (3)

When I first started thinking about what I wanted to do my inquiry project about, I was having trouble coming up with a topic to choose. I heard some talk about hiking places on the island being very worth it. I am not from the island and have not yet adventured enough to find the hiking spots I always hear amazing things about. I thought that this inquiry project would be the best opportunity for me to get out and go on hiking adventures along with having somewhere to document and reflect about it afterwards.

I am planning to explore the island through hiking trails I have found on apps as well as places I’ve heard from other people. I am also going to take this opportunity to look more into the history of hiking and the benefits for the mind and body.

This past Sunday, September 22 I went on my first hike here on the island. For my first hike here, my friends and I went to check out Thetis lake. I found this hike on the ‘Victoria Trails’ website https://www.victoriatrails.com/trails/thetis-lake/#google_vignette The app suggested that the Thetis lake hike difficulty was “easy” and its trail was about 5km. I would agree to this difficulty rating, it was more of a walk with some elevation than it was a hike.

My star ratings would be:

Difficulty- 1/5 Stars

Views- 2/5 Stars

Accessibility- 4/5 Stars

Reflection week 3

This week we learned about multimedia design principles. We learned the benefits of using visual along with auditorial engagement. As long as we as teachers don’t overload our learners with too much multimedia in your videos/ slide presentations etc. then this theory should be effective. When a learner receives a visual and an auditorial lesson at the same time it helps the reader understand what is being represented. when there is too much text or non relevant photos included in a lesson, it can direct or disengage the students you are trying to teach.

We also looked into H5P interactive tool. This tool can help us create interactive videos to add to our blog posts as well as in slides for a classroom. This interactive tool adds things like replay and skipping forwards into the video itself. This interactive tool could be useful with the right age group. For example the ability to reply, or skip forwards helps the learners work at their own pace and be able to re listen or watch to refresh the activity. If this is used with the wrong age group, it can have more of a negative impact on the lesson. As stated before students can become distracted.


Another thing we looked into was a flipped classroom. A flipped classroom is possible but not gaurnteed to be effective in younger aged students. For example, in a grade 3 classroom it could work as long as it works for all the learners and is done in a simpler stance compared to older age students. I do think that this idea would be more effective in older aged classroom where students can work more effienctly in groups to reach specific conclusions. Students have many different learning styles that work for them. If a flipped classroom style is one of them then there would be lots more hands-on learning opportunities for students. When teaching a lesson whether it be reading, writing, or math, these subjects need to be more interactive. This could include videos, conversation and for example math games.  There are pros and cons to this approach. I definitely feel like it would be harder in a younger classroom just because they may not understand things without a more direct approach. But, it could be good to capture another aspect/ way of learning.

For this weeks reflection I created a tutorial video on how to play Papa’s Cupcakeria!

Reflection Week 2

While watching this video it was neat to see how the education world has changed and improved throughout time. I do believe that we as future teachers need to reimagine education. This is not a change that can happen in a day but with trial and error this is a change that could have many benefits to the future generations. Something we need to keep in mind is that something that may work for one person may not work for another. We need diversity in our ways of teaching along with our teaching environments.

As I reflected before, change may not be able to happen right away. There will be obstacles that educators need to get through in order to change the pedagogy. New ways of thinking are a part of the unknown, they are experimental. Parents and authorities may not agree with this change but over time the positives will be revealed, it just takes time.

A learning plan approach can be scary as it is less structured and new! On the flip side, learning plans give new outlooks on teaching and learning ideas. The idea of trying new things like not doing written, multiple choice exams and instead finding better ways to show off the students capabilities is a lot more beneficial for both the student and their educator. Parts of this movie reminded me of our own seminar meetings. When everyone was sharing what they were thinking and everyone was learning from each other. When students get the opportunity to share what they are thinking on their own terms and are in encouraged to, it helps them become more confident in themselves.

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