This week brings about my final attempt at being able to create a “Nailed It” ready cake for my Network Learning Project (NLP). I completed researching and evaluating some different sources to finish my Network Learning Project Log.
This week led me to check out help forums and Social Media sources. Overall, I found that I liked how the posts in the help forums were broken into distinct categories. It was also helpful to be able to easily search and find posts and see how many people had interacted with the posts. However, the annoyance and distraction of the numerous ads that kept popping up on the screen outweighed the convenience of this.
I spent some time checking out some different sources on Social Media. I was not greatly impressed with what I was able to find this week. I found Cake Decorating School on Instagram that had some amazing looking cakes and short videos of how they decorated them. I was disappointed to find that there was no audio to the videos or explanations. I then noticed that they were trying to sell people Live classes on Instagram. I then checked out what I could find on Twitter. I am not an avid user of Twitter and had a very difficult time trying to navigate and search for something that would help me with my NLP. I ended up finding a site, Cake – You can do it!. This site was great for finding some cakes to aspire to and links to YouTube tutorials for them, but I did find it lacking in more information and to be able to search for specific answers that I was trying to find.
It was then time for me to attempt my final creation. Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out. I would definitely say that I “Nailed It!” However, it never hurts to keep practicing and checking out my resources for new ideas. Check out my complete baking journey:
As I was reflecting on the purpose of this assignment for this course, I was drawn back to something I had read in the Masters of Technology and Education (2020) content. According to Anna Sabramowicz, “learners in the internet age don’t need more information. They need to know how to efficiently use the massive amount of information available at their fingertips – to determine what’s credible, what’s relevant, and when it’s useful to reference” (Masters of Technology and Education, 2020). I realized that this was the driving point of this entire assignment. While it would have been easier for me to call my friend who is a home baker and have her Facetime with me to assist me with this assignment, I had to try something new. I needed to use the information readily available at my fingertips that I often take for granted. While some of the information that I came across was extremely helpful, some was not. That was ok. I needed to understand how to be able to sort through the vast amounts of information available to me to see what was actually going to be usable and help me attain my goal of a “Nailed It” ready cake. With so much information constantly available, it is overwhelming to go through it all and know what is usable. Sometimes, it is easier to simply click the first few links that pull up and use the information found there even if there might be something else better out there.
Growing up in the 21st century, students have all of the information they could ever possibly need right at their fingertips, almost all of the time. It is important for educators to teach them the skills necessary to understand and be able to transfer the information they have to their tasks. Without the skills and understanding of what is credible, relevant, and when to use it, there is no point in having all of this information in the palm of their hands because they will not know how to interpret it or what to do with it. The first place students turn to for answers when they have a question is the internet. One of our goals as teachers needs to be to help make sure that our students are ready to live and be successful in the 21st century and beyond once they leave school. To help ensure this, it is important that we are focusing on teaching and strengthening the important skills of 21st century learning, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. In order to do this, teachers must keep the idea of TPACK at the forefront of their planning and make sure that they are incorporating technology into their classrooms in creative ways that help support learning and understanding and is not the focus of their lessons.
Resources:
Bridges, M. (2020, June 21). Finally...Nailed It! [Video]. https://youtu.be/euk3IUpzVXA
Kelly, R. (2013). Searching. [Image]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/ebP8hS
Master of Arts in Educational Technology (2020, Summer). Course content from Unit 5: Explore educational technology (and a bit of philosophical history of education). Michigan State University, CEP 810: Teaching for understanding with technology. https://d2l.msu.edu.
Nailed It (2018). Nicole Beyers yes gif. [Giphy]. https://gph.is/2Ql72Cm
Nailed It (2018). Times up nailed it Netflix gif. [Giphy]. https://gph.is/2vvUdve
Outsourcing Application Development (2012). Social media doodle elements. [Image]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/poJaZD
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