Final Blog Post

Placements-20%

• I spent more time on this project than any of the other projects. The difficulty level of what was required for me was not high. However, the tasks were very time consuming and the project was slow moving.

• The biggest challenge was helping the teachers figure out want they wanted and solidifying the what was required of us. The expectations for us kept changing and we had to keep editing our work. The most challenging part of this project was finding the resources for the mac P.E page. the video tutorials were very specific and somewhere very difficult to find.  

Project 2- 10%

• I am much more comfortable with giving presentation and talking to people than I am with written projects. Though I didn't end up presenting for me that doesn't seem like the challenging part of that project. That is why I feel like this project was that same amount of work as my project 3 presentation.

•  The hardest part for me was finding information that was specific about the effectiveness of MOOC's. There was a lot of information about how low completion rates are but not much was available about the effectiveness of MOOC's for people who do complete the courses. 

 Project 3- 10% 

• This project required less research than project 2 because I was talking about material that I was already very comfortable with. The preparation involved was less about trying to understand what I was going to talk about and more about trying to find away to get the grade nines to not only understand but see that value of our presentation. 

• Actually presenting to the grade nines required a lot more effort than I anticipated but the preparation was a lot easier than any of the other assignments.This is why I gave this project the same rating as project 2.  

Project 4- 15%

• I actually think that though the amount I was able to accomplish with this project wasn't as much as I would have like to, I still learned the most from this project. I spent a lot of time learning how to use wordpress and figuring out which plugins I needed. I actually think that I am going  benefit more from this project than any other one because it gave me the motivation to start working on an idea I have had for a long time and taught me a knew skill.  

• I still am continuing to work on my website in my free time. # cognitivesurplus 

Give Back Project- 3%

• I have to admit I didn't do as much as I should have for this project. Part of the reason I didn't work hard on this project was because I didn't understand exactly what was expected of me but I really think that I just didn't feel like I had to go above and beyond. 

• I knew that I didn't try my hardest with this project but I was still surprised with how poorly I did on this because at the time I thought what I had done was decent. Looking at other peoples projects I know that I should have done more. 

Additional task. - 5%

• I haven't done much work on this part of the course yet but I am going to update the wordpress walk through for the mac guidance page this weekend and I don't think it will take very long.   

Greatest hits- 10%

• The amount of preparation involved for this presentation wasn't too much. I just had to figure out exactly what I want to talk about. As I mentioned before I am quite comfortable talking in front of people so doing presentations like aren't to stressful.

• What I am working the most on for this project is to make sure that I have a clear understanding of what I am going to talk about and how I can make it go smoothly. 

THE BLOG - 27%

• This blog was the most taxing part of my semester. I spent more time at my computer staring at the screen trying to motivate myself to finish a post than I did studying math. ( and I like studying math) I could not believe what a struggle it was for me to do every post. Every time I planned out what I wanted to say and found impossible to type out. Every post seemed more and more manageable but turned out to be equally impossible.

• I am scared of blogging. I don't understand why people blog for fun. I tried very hard to write passionately because I genuinely cared about some of the topics I discussed but the amount of effort it took made this section of the course ONE OF THE MOST FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE.      

  

Blog Prompt #8

Why cognitive surplus will change the world.

Summary:

In his ted talk Jay Shirkly explains how what people are doing online with their free time is changing the world. Our “cognitive surplus” is the spare time we have when our brains are still active. If people use this time to create, share and contribute to development of ideas then they are actively changing the world by making it a more co-operative place, no matter how small their contribution may be.  Through co-operation one person’s idea can grow into something that will change the world.

Things like Ushahidi and Wikipedia are great examples of how cognitive surplus is changing the world. People today have more creative power than ever before.  Anyone with a connection to the internet and a basic computer can create and share their ideas online faster than ever.  One programmer has the power to change the world in a matter of hours. This power grows exponentially when people decide to work together to achieve similar goals.  Imagine you’ve created software used for merging the physical and digital world using some sort of augmented reality. Making this software open source allows for anyone with a passion or idea for your software the ability contribute to the growth and development of your vision. Limiting peoples’ ability to create is a waste of the human potential.

  Not everyone has the power to create such high level programs or do any form of programing for that matter. However, that does mean these people have no value. Everyone has the power to create and share, whether it is the commenters on Ushahidi or the people who posting LOLcats. Everyone who contributes to the potluck that is the internet is taking part in something huge. They are taking the first step to contributing something of real value. People are working together without even realizing it. For example website Sick Weather uses what people on twitter to track the areas on the map where the most number of people are.  The people posting on twitter aren’t consciously conbributing to this project but are actually ensuring its success   

The ideas of one person can change the world especially today when voice can be heard globally and instantly. However, as Carson McCullers said “the most fatal thing a man can do is try and stand alone”.  People need to work cooperatively in order to unlock our full potential.     

Blog Prompt #7

Though the presentations we gave for the grade nine classes may not have seemed ideal, I was actually quite surprised at how well they went. This past summer I worked at magic camp with kids of the same age group so I understand firsthand how difficult and uncooperative they can be. There were still many students who didn’t see the value or care about what we had to offer but I was surprised by the number of students who were actually interested and asked questions. The biggest challenge to overcome was making sure all the material was covered and still leaving for questions within such a small time frame. This was because each group and a different dynamic and therefore presentation had a different flow. Furthermore the rotation time between groups seemed to change making it more difficult to manage. Another challenge was that students sometimes asked questions about things other groups were talking about so when it was that groups turn to talk to them they’re material had already been covered.

I did enjoy telling students about some of the available resources that I find helpful because though the majority of them were not interested many of them did actually seem like they were excited about it. Teaching has been an interest of mine for a long time and I found this experience to the very valuable. It actually didn’t change how I see teach, rather it reinforced my opinion of how difficult it is to teach. I think grade nines are one of the hardest age groups to teach because not only is it difficult to explain things so that they understand them but many of them are uninterested and unwilling to try and learn. 

If I could do this project again I try and make sure that people had a clear idea of what they need to talk about as well as what the other groups are talking about. This would be to prevent overlap of topics. I would also try and find a way to make the presentation more engaging and interactive. Over all I found the presentation to be a success and a more enjoyable experience than I anticipated.