Weekly Blog #4 - Don't Ditch That Tech... Literally This week we had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Rennie Redekopp discuss the importance of creating sustainable technologies. Digital technologies are creating massive landfills with components that are not biodegradable. We need to find a way to start limiting how much of this stuff we create or try and extend its lifespan. But to do this, we need to topple one big thing... CONSUMERISM! If you are unfamiliar with consumerism, here is a quick little video to get you up to speed. Right now, we are living in a world where people want the next best and biggest thing. People will go into massive debt to buy things to prove their "worth". I believe this is especially prevalent in technology. The amount of times I get asked "Oh, what kind of phone do you have?!" is astounding. There is this immense pressure to always have the best tech. I used to always get a new phone every 2 years when my contract was up because...
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Weekly Blog #3 - Social Media? More Like Asocial Media, Amirite? This week our presenter was Andy Mead, who is the new President of the Manitoba Remote Learning Centre . This was created to help teachers to deliver remote learning while we are dealing with the pandemic. He spoke about social media in the classroom and how we can use it as teachers. When digging into this subject, I found this video from Common Sense Education titled Teen Voices: Who Are You On Social Media? There were a few things these students said about that topic that really stuck with me. One student mentioned that we have lost the meaning of what social media was meant to be, which was initially to connect with other people. Now it is about showing off what you think is the best version of yourself. I think this is because of social media influencers, who make it seem like what the show on social media is their entire lives, which as an adult I know is not true. But for a teenager, that is a much harder thi...
Tech Task #4 - Making Math Fun Math can sometimes be a hard subject to teach. A lot of students find math to be frustrating and boring, which makes sense because I think a lot of teachers find math to be frustrating and boring. But I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way, and we can have a blast in a math classroom! This week I'm going to show you a little game called Symmetry Invaders . It might look familiar to some of my older colleagues. It is visually styled after an old arcade game called Space Invaders. The game teaches you about symmetry, both horizontally and vertically. This could be used in Grade 9 Math, where there is a unit for symmetry. As you play through the levels, the difficulty and amount of invaders increases. To kill the Space Invaders, you have to replicate the half of the alien visual that is missing. In classic old school video game fashion, you have 3 lives, meaning you are allowed to make 3 mistakes. I was abl...
Tech Task #1 - Walking Through the Web I like to think that when we are transversing the web, the footprints we leave are like walking through wet cement, not something like snow or sand. When we walk through sand, those footprints will eventually disappear. With cement however, those footprints are solidified. Sure, you can cover them up, but they are still there. The things we do and post on the internet are like that. You can post a picture and take it down months later, but that photo was still seen and possibly replicated in that time. Just because you remove it, doesn't mean it no longer exists on the web. I think I have done a good job of keeping my digital identity in a safe form. When I google myself, the only picture that comes up is when I was on the Brandon University curling team (see attached). This is good representation of what I want my identity to look like on the internet. It's a very proffessional looking photo, so I think its a good example of what you wan...
Weekly Blog #1 - All About Me Welcome to Mr. Short's Classroom Contemplation! In this blog, I will give you a bit of insight into myself as a teacher, as well as my thoughts on using the internet as a tool in the classroom. So, a little about me. I grew up on a farm north of Rivers, which is located approximately 20 miles northwest of Brandon. I remember being so excited to get our first computer when I was 12. Back then, we didn't even have internet. That next big step came when I was 14 and we got dial-up. I think I then spent the majority of my teenage years online gaming. It was a great time to be alive! Once I began post-secondary, I moved to Brandon to attend Assiniboine Community College. I attended for two years while obtaining a certificate in Civil Technology with a GIS Infrastructure Specialization. I then attended BU for two years while working for Ducks Unlimited. I then worked for 5 years with the provincial government as a Civil Design Technician, as well as 2 y...