Open education is essentially a concept, a practice, and a movement with the primary goal of increasing education for everyone’s accessibility, inclusivity, and effectiveness. Sharing resources, open content, pedagogical techniques, and resources that others can use or reuse is one of its key functions. Using digital technology, open education, in my opinion, is education that removes barriers globally, is available to everyone, and is unrestricted by any kind of barrier, whether financial, technological, or legal ones. In spite of this, open education is very important to me. In the same way, it may always make any kind of resources and content available.
In my personal life, I place more value on open education. It is increasingly significant in our daily lives. It aids in my ability to work with the institutions. For instance, when I was in India and enrolled in a six-month accounting programme at Lovely Professional University, open education enabled me to collaborate with university materials and information online for no charge. Even so, it is a free, convenient way for me to evaluate a variety of course assignments, due dates, and materials. Even still, I have to share the online resources with people who are unable to purchase books or other items online.
I believe it has a favorable effect on my professional life. It plays very significant role in teaching and sharing resources online. Teachers can independently share their resources. It is scalable in the sense that it can be freely distributed to everyone. However, it helps to reduce the financial burden that students feel while buying textbooks and paper copies of textbooks. According to me, it is the role of the educator to share their internet resources, materials, and information with their students. As a result, they are able to collaborate and assess at will wherever in the world.
During a pandemic, however, I would prefer to share my lectures, as well as resources and presentations, with my students online. Schools were shut down during the time. The student’s education was a worldwide concern. I was able to share my resources as part of an open education with the aid of zoon meetings. In spite of this, it benefits the pupils. While in class, students are more engaged and like listening to lectures. They become more intelligent and inventive with technology as a result. They are unable to share resources online or conduct screen shares. They become more aware of it and enjoy it more when open education occurs in their lives.
This ECI 831 session was unbelievable, the learning that took place over this short one and a half months was incredible. I was able to learn a lot first about myself and social media, how I evolved my own sense of ownership, comfortability in usage, and the obvious learning through social media
I make cake, how could you not love it?!?! I generally focused on using the TikTok social media platform to showcase my learning and OOOOOOH MY WORD do I need to give content creators all the credit in the world, it truly took me longer to make the TikTok videos then it did to actually bake/decorate the cakes. One day I spent over 2 hours just working with the editing tools, getting things to splice and slice and find music UH. I was exhausted so kudos and all my respect to anymore who makes a living based off of social media videos; they look easy but man do they take work. I am really happy to say today I tried something new and I took my summary of learning TikTok video and uploaded it to YouTube so I did not have to make it public for everyone to see on TikTok; to be honest I really do not love that I have no control over who sees my TikTok videos; I wish there could have been a way that I could share it to people and they could view it only if they had the link or something along those lines. I was quite proud of myself for dipping my toes into uploading a video onto Youtube. I am sure Youtube has much more to offer then what I did but I am very happy with it. Secondly, theweekly blogsfrom the class really gave me some things to think about and I have learned a lot about myself through blogging and I felt I could showcase “me” a little more in my work rather than needing to be who I think my professor wants to be and and write how I think they want me to write; this was freeing and liberating with an academic purpose and I very much liked it.
Besides talking about “me” because that it always selfish, I would like to say that learning
about how social media, open education, AI & all other technology topics discussed can play a role in a classroom was pretty profound learning for me.
I have loved learning from all of you! When you click my google slide link below please hit present and the magic will just happen.
This semester has been a wild ride! I decided that I didn’t want to wait until fall to complete my degree, so decided to take the final two classes of my graduate degree in one nutty, six-week semester.
In my professional life, I would say I am definitely more of a serious personality. But after the formality of writing a final reflective paper for my Capstone Synthesis class, this Summary of Learning was an absolute breath of fresh air, where I got to harness my creative, silly side and make something a little nutty (to match the nuttiness of the last 6 weeks).
The format of my video was inspired by Chris, a classmate from a previous class (EC&I 832), who did a radio countdown video with song titles/lyrics that connected to topics from the course (think “Oops! I Did It Again” to link to Digital Citizenship faux pas). Unfortunately, I don’t think his video is viewable anymore, so you can’t see the awesomeness of his project (I reached out to Chris on Twitter to see if his video still exists somewhere on the interwebs, but haven’t gotten a reply yet).
Remembering Chris’ clever idea to link well-known songs to content from the course, I decided to add my own spin to this idea: I would write my own lyrics to the tune of popular songs and present them as a cheesy infomercial selling “Greatest Hits” CDs – circa the 90s/early 2000s. Check out the video below for an idea of what I was going for (Nostalgia Alert!).
Anywho, I now present to you my completely goofy Summary of Learning informercial! I hope it brings you a smirk or a giggle – I know I sure cackled away at myself for how outrageously campy and absurd my project turned out.
As I enter the final week of my project, I start to reflect on the overall growth that I have had as a learner, runner and teacher.
This goal, as I mentioned before, really aligned with goal setting that I just finished completing and assessing with my students. At the beginning of the unit I teach about the importance of connecting mind, body, spirit and emotion through some medicine wheel teachings. Quite often, students find when they work on one of the four quadrants of the medicine wheel that there is growth in other areas as well. So, I thought that I would make a visual to represent the growth that I have seen in the four quadrants myself.
It is not “new news” that running helps, but sometimes I just need that little push. At the end of the exhausting day, I can use a run to help regulate my emotions rather than being a grumpy pants all night. When I feel as though my mind is racing, I can use a run to help clear my mind.
I have a plan to print off this visual and hang it on my fridge or somewhere visible. Then I can be sure that I am seeing the importance of running.
Looking forward, I have to make a plan for how I am going to make this sustainable for the long term. This is not about just getting a good mark in EC&I (but that wouldn’t hurt me).
Here are some great tools that I found to make and keep running a sustainable activity for my overall well being:
This link gave me some support in how I can fit in smaller runs throughout the week. Sometimes 30 minutes is a lot, so some smaller runs just a few times a week could help me maintain the health and development of my running.
One of my biggest obstacles here in Saskatchewan is trying to figure out how maintain running in the winter. There sure aren’t many resources out there that support running in the cold, deep snow winter that we have. This Tik Tok had some relatable snow depths, but I am not sure about how cold this person really is as they run.
Finally, I found an inspiration Instagram running coach that can hopefully pop up on my feed in a regular fashion for motivation. @trackclubbabe has regular motivation and real life posts that can keep me motivated through the good, the bad and the ugly!
To finish, I am going to share a beautiful photo that I took during one of my runs these past five weeks. It was a reminder to stop and smell the flowers, or canola, or whatever else is out there to give me allergies!
Hey there, awesome ECI 831 readers! Welcome to my final blog post, where I will be sharing my journey of my 5k running project. In just six weeks, I went from a beginner to a determined runner…..just jokes, I am still at the beginner stages, and my “running” is more of a jog, but I am ok with that. My journey was filled with growth and excitement. Let me dive into the highlights, lessons, and triumphs that made this learning project MY learning project.
Getting started: it all began with me wanting to sew a quilt, but then I realized it would cost me $200 in material…..beep that! NO thank you! I had to switch gears completely……
So, it actually all began with a simple goal of completing a 5k run within six weeks. As someone new to running, this was a big challenge that required discipline, commitment, and a positive mindset. To kick off the project, I researched some training plans and settled with From Couch to 5k! The plan looked easy enough, however reflecting back I feel I probably needed more time to work my way up to the running times. Realistically, I should have trained a few months for this run.
Weeks 1-2 was about building the basics and focusing on a strong foundation for my running journey. I was reading articles if running was good for you? Still not sure I agree with this hahaha. I worked on my running form, gradually increased my endurance, and added some stretching into my routine. It wasn’t always easy, but I learned that staying patient and keep going were the keys to successfully completing my learning project.
At this point, I was regretting not spending the $200 on material!
Weeks 3-4 I was working on better nutrition and planning some meals, based on the reading Your Guide to a Runner’s Diet. I came to the conclusion I do not like meal planning, prepping, or cooking. Why can’t I win the lottery and have my own personal chef? During the running process I entered a more intense phase of training. I was increasing my time to eight and ten minutes and I was achieving milestones that were giving me a great sense of pride and motivated me to keep going.
Week 5-6 I tried my creative hand at creating the iMovies for my learning project. I have never worked with iMovie and so I watched full tutorial on YouTube. It was a smooth process and I found it easy to work with. I feel like iMovie is tool I will be using again for future projects. A few things to note when you watch my videos, yes I did cut my hair half way through the class, this made it difficult for re-takes! Also, why do I look down at my feet so much? Well, there is a funny story behind that. I tried running once before, back in 2008, and I tripped over my feet and broke my finger. True story! So, this running project was a big feat (feet LOL) for me!
Race day! Finally, the big day arrived, and I found myself feeling defeated before I even began. I read some running tips on how to prepare yourself for a long run. I wasn’t sure how I would ever run for a full 5k without stopping….As I put on Vanderpump Rules, started the treadmill, I embraced the challenge. I don’t know if it was the culmination of all my hard work or the fact that I knew I would never have to run again, but I pushed myself throughout the entire run. When my fitbit alerted me that I had reached 5k, I was left with joy that it was over, a little bummed that my episode of Vanderpump was over, I mean, it was getting juicy! I think in my video, you can tell I am watching tv as I was looking up at my screen (and not my feet this time!).
Important Lessons Learned:
Consistency is key: Regular training, even when I didn’t feel like it, helped me improve and build my endurance.
Patience pays off: Progress takes time, so I learned to be patient and enjoy the journey instead of rushing results.
Mind of matter: Running is not just physical. It is also about mental strength. Staying positive and believing in myself helped me pushed through…..or maybe it was the fact I was able to be away from my kids and watch Vanderpump Rules instead of Sonic Boom or Dance Monsters! Either way, I pushed through mentally and was able to overcome the struggles.
Reflection: I’ve come to realize the power of setting goals and working hard to achieve them. Training for my 5k run not only improved my fitness (a little, but I will take it) but also boosted my confidence, and determination to want to continue on my fitness journey….maybe not with running.
This was my first time blogging and using Twitter and all this techy stuff. As I read other blogs throughout the semester, I could see I needed to step up my game, as I felt behind everyone else. Looking back at my overall learning project, there are some things that I would do differently. I would have incorporated more running apps, and maybe included my Fitbit more into the process. To be honest, I only started wearing it again because of my learning project. I didn’t do a lot of flashy posts as I didn’t have the skill set, but I kept learning and trying to do my best and I think that that is what is important for me. I learned some new things this semester and I am proud of my growth and learning.
As I say goodbye to this project, I eagerly look forward to new adventures and challenges.
Thank you all for reading my posts and the comments. This has been a great class. Have a great summer!
The day has finally come to wrap up my ‘how to’ mom learning experience… maybe. Who knows if I will continue to share my journey from time to time? I will say that I’m amazed at just how many new experiences came my way in such a short amount of time. Being a first-time mom I had no idea what to expect. I anticipated sleep regression and some milk increases but I hadn’t expected to be feeding my 5-month-old full meals of solids, taking him swimming and him loving it, and him growing at such an incredible rate.
SLEEP
Kolt’s sleep has improved incredibly. He went from fussing and taking short periods of sleep or naps to whining for a few minutes when he’s tired, accepting his soother, and then sleeping for 6 hours at a time at night. I can’t say that I did anything special to change this. I just held him if he was fussing to calm him down and then placed him down to see if he would fall asleep on his own. If he couldn’t, we had an assisted sleep and if he did, GREAT! Unfortunately, I can’t refer to any sites at this time because in the thick of it all, I just went with my ‘mommy gut’ and responded to what I thought he needed at the moment.
When researching for tips and information about sleep patterns, sleep training, and sleep regression I found a lot of useful sites. For the most part, they seemed to align with one another. What varied were the beliefs about what is appropriate and what is outdated and should be avoided. Of course, this is going to be common on any topic depending on parenting styles and how people were raised. Narrowing my searches from “sleep regression” to entries like “4-month sleep regression AND tips” or “3.5-month baby sleep regression AND signs” yielded far better results, obviously, but at least then the results were more consistent. Most inconsistencies on the topic of sleep were due to a 3 am mom-brain while feeding Kolt or pumping.
SWIMMING
We have ventured out to the local swimming pool once again and this time my husband got to come with us! Once again we started in the warm lazy river water and made our way out to the deeper water. He loves to be bounced in and out of the water and he was even more comfortable being laid back into the water. He still shrugged his shoulders and became slightly tense when we laid him back in the water but after repeated attempts, he became more confident each time.
After 35 minutes in the water, we moved to the shallow end (which has warmer water) where we sat and he could stand. He did some splashing and jumping but quickly became tired. My husband laid him in the water and slowly drifted him back and forth and we could see his eyes starting to close and he was nearly falling asleep. The swim adventure had not only tired him out but it made my heart happy to see how happy and relaxed he was in the water. My entire goal of taking him swimming so early is to build his confidence in the water, have him be happy and calm in it, and eventually become a strong swimmer.
When searching for information about taking babies swimming the information was fairly generic but easy to find. A lot of results focused on swimming lessons but with more refined searches like “baby AND swimming first time” I was able to find the information I was looking for. I often wonder how moms felt prior to the internet when they were deciding what to do with their babies when it came to topics such as this. I’m aware that they never had anything like the internet to compare it to but I can only imagine that some must have felt some angst or apprehension.
I feel comfortable bringing him to the pool on my own now and I know he will grow to love the water more and more over time. I plan to take him to the pool a few more times in the next few weeks. I am hoping that by the end of July, the lake water will be warm enough to take him for some shallow water swims on weekends.
FOOD
We’ve come a long way since my last food post with Kolter. We went from pureed avocado to now eating apples, potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pears, carrots, peas, bananas, and peaches. I love prepping the food for him and feeding him has become an event. He’s such a good eater and loves his food. I’ve started calling him meatball because when he grabs his feet he is so round I could roll him!
I did look for some guidance from Pinterest to see how much food is recommended per feeding but I quickly realized that the information I was finding was inaccurate largely due to the fact that solids are uncommon under the age of 6 months.
This is something I found very common when searching online. If the topic or event I was searching for was uncommon or not “widely recommended” then the results were minimal, varied, or incredibly inaccurate. For example, this site that I found seemed very well written but when I took notes and asked for clarification from the local feeding specialist, Naida Hawkins, she said it seemed as though that was a personal preference and not at all what medical experts or specialists would recommend. In fact, the recommendation from both the feeding specialist and the pediatrician was to feed Kolt until he lost interest or stopped asking for more (holding his mouth open) because stopping early can cause an association in the brain that food is scarce. This connection between being fed and food possibly being scarce can cause babies to become gluttonous and anxious while eating. This can also trigger indigestion and reflux in a baby.
When I was searching for what to feed Kolt the information was very consistent. It seems that no matter what the information remains relatively the same - avocado, banana, sweet potato, and apple. These seem to be the most common starter foods and I was relieved that the information was consistent because, as a nutritionist, food is something we take seriously in our household and we love ALL food. I was happy to start Kolt early on foods so that his likeliness of food aversions could be reduced. My plan is to continue introducing new foods to Kolt each week and hopes that he shows no signs of sensitivity or allergies! So far we haven’t had any issues, luckily. We also ensure we take him grocery shopping so he becomes interested and involved in the process and will grow to want to help and be interested in trying new foods.
For the Future
In the future, I’m going to use refined searches from the get-go to raise my chances of desired results. I also have collected a few sites that I prefer in comparison to others.
These sites were frequent with results and tend to be in agreeance and up to date on information.
I also found Instagram to be incredibly useful and will likely continue to search there for like-minded accounts. Twitter sometimes yielded a few results but it was sparse. It scores high for education but lower in specific parenting searches. Pinterest will always remain high on my list as I am a very visual person and I love that I can easily organize my saved content to refer to later on.
I hope that you all found my posts entertaining, if not informative, and I think you for all the input you offered and your kind words. Thank you Katia for your wisdom and #teacherhacks. I cannot wait to continue using what I have learned and guide my students to do the same.
Abe, P., & Jordan, N. A. (2013). Integrating social media into the classroom curriculum. About Campus:
Enriching the Student Learning Experience, 18(1), 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21107
Berk, R. A. (2009). Teaching strategies for the net generation. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, 3(2).
Browning, L., Gerlich, R. N., & Westermann, L. (2011). The new HD Classroom: a “Hyper Diverse” approach to engaging with students. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 5.
Elavsky C. M. Mislan C, & Elavsky S. (2011). When talking less is more: Exploring outcomes of Twitter usage in the large-lecture hall. Learning, Media and Technology, 36, 215–233.
Levine, A. (2023, June 12). Open Education. [EC&I 831 Zoom Meeting].
Open education. Hewlett Foundation. (2023, March 7). https://hewlett.org/strategy/open-education/ .
After a whole two weeks of running at the same pace, I am finally starting to feel some progress being made. I had a serious head cold last week — yay for my physical health taking a toll on me try to work on my mental health! YAY!
I am back on Tik Tok again this week to try and learn some tricks. The best thing about learning on Tik Tok is actually listening to people talk. That lead me to my second source this week — Pinterest! Her are some of the resources that I found and how they helped me!
This link taught me about eating and supporting yourself through runs. Since doing some research about how to eat to support my body before and after running, this has been super helpful in the recovery but also the stamina that I have built. A co-worker actually did something called a “bun run” this week and I could not believe that someone could eat a dense cinnamon bun while running!
Although I have never considered running a super long run, this link https://www.tiktok.com/@hannah_miller0/video/7205237002999057710?_r=1&_t=8d7YicaCE6v gave me the ideas of how to prepare in the hours leading up to a run. I find I am still balancing how much water to drink because it can cause some problems for me when I hear that swooshing around in my stomach. Again, it is all a learning curve.
This post that I found on Pinterest https://bestplaygear.com/how-to-get-back-into-running-after-gaining-weight/ allowed me to give myself the mental support that I need. It really did break down the ideas of not letting the mental block I create for myself reaching success. I am mentioned in my previous post that I play numbers games, and I quite regularly think when I weighed 15, 10, 5 pounds lighter. I am working to revere that so that I can be comfortable in my own body.
I am starting to really get back into it, and I have now realized I need to give myself grace as I am working really hard and that is what matters. When I look at my students in my class and watch them crush out their 6 day action plans over the last week or so, I realize that they have also inspired me to strive for and reach my goals that I have set for myself. This has been a humbling experience for me.
Embarking on this journey of learning to bake bread using online resources has been, actually, quite great. There were tears, laughter, frustrations, some swearing, but also some joy. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I’m impressed with how much I’ve grown in just 5 short weeks. I don’t know why I was surprised about the wealth of information available: recipes, techniques, tutorials, tips, videos, apps, and history lessons from the seasoned vets, professionals, and then just the regular people, like Larry. From regular ol’ white bread, to artisan loaves, to soft and fluffy buns, and from herb-infused focaccia to flavorful bread knots, the online baking community offers a wealth of knowledge and creativity.
Independent, online learning is no joke. It was actually quite overwhelming to see the amount of resources, suggestions, recipes, tutorials, and videos.
I think it’s really important to read reviews and feedback from those who have made the recipes. This was a crucial step in choosing the right recipe to follow. As much as I was looking for tastiness, I was also looking for recipes that didn’t take hours upon hours, and recipes that were easy for a beginner. That said, I’ve realized that the online baking community is very passionate and often shares tips on achieving the perfect texture, consistent results, and experimenting with various fillings and toppings to elevate bread making skills. Bread is not something that can be mastered after one bake. It takes patience and time….kind’ve like waiting for the dough to rise….it’s all about the journey.
Here are some of my key learnings from the past 5 weeks:
Quick rise yeast is the MVP.
Before beginning, read the whole recipe and watch the whole video.
“Kneady” is a super cool app that I’m legit going to keep on my phone and use
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers suck at kneading dough – USE YOUR HANDS.
Breadmaking is a time investment – there’s not quick way about it ***pssssssst: you could also just buy frozen dough from the grocery store – I won’t judge you.***
Although Jaime Oliver is a superstar, he’s relatable and easy to follow. I will 100p be using his recipes in the future.
Coat your herbs in some olive oil or they will have no flavor.
Larry is deadly at making homemade bread.
Focaccia is the best and easiest bread to make. DO IT.
Mamma Val is the best, and she gave me a solid base of cooking knowledge to start this project. Thank you for all the years of teaching me how to cook and bake. Love you.
In the end, I did enjoy the learning process and felt a lot of satisfaction creating my own homemade bread from scratch. My house smelled incredible over the past 5 weeks. It was a delightful adventure, and although I’m no expert, there may be a little bit of a bread enthusiast inside my bones.
Thanks for following along with me. If you’re ever thinking of trying out basic bread, buns, or focaccia, I encourage you to embrace the opportunity to let the internet (and the “Kneady” app) be your guide as you experiment, adapt recipes to your preferences, and share your creations with those you love. Overall, I give this learning project 5 doughballs/5.
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