Timm and I collaborated on all of our prior blog posts. They are on his blog.
Here is our presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NXIY0NDaKzEQhULD5hyCF_5BuDZMrdQBKF-LNlaqvOQ/edit?usp=sharing
Category: EdTech (page 1 of 2)
We had Rich McCue come into our class today again and this time he was speaking about coding! I have a little bit of experience in coding. I took CSC 100 and we were required to do a lot of assignments centred around web design and using cyberduck.
In Rich’s blog post he outlined a couple different coding programs used in classrooms right now. His blog is linked here: https://richmccue.com
An this specific blog post is linked here:https://richmccue.com/2019/11/22/introduction-to-coding-4-educators/
The specific programs Rich outlined were:
- Scratch
- Grasshopper
- Hour of Code
- TinkerCad
- Code BC
We had the opportunity to use one of these programs during class time and I chose Scratch:
Here is a little video on how you can create the infamous flappy bird game on Scratch:
From my experience:
It was pretty easy to use and very fun. There is a lot of freedom to create what you want and all of the coding options allow you to do all sorts of things. Here is the link to a little animation I made:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted
Coding in the classroom:
I can definitely see how something like scratch can be used in the classroom. The amount of things you can do on there is amazing. Since there are so many different backgrounds, characters and prompts a teacher could use this program for any class; history, science, ELA, social. It is very engaging in my opinion and I only used it for a couple minutes. I think that introducing coding into the classroom is a very good idea and it is exciting to see it being implemented. Its stuff like this that makes me excited for the future.
I was doing some research the other day on different video cameras and equipment just out of curiosity. I was blown away. I knew stuff like this was expensive but I didn’t think it was THAT expensive. Heres an example. I went to Chris Bryan’s professional website. He is one of the lead cinematographers on mostly all of John John Florence’s videos. This is the URL to his website:
http://www.chrisbryanfilms.com/
and here is one of his latest videos:
MOCEAN. A film by Chris Bryan from Chris Bryan on Vimeo.
He has a really cool website, it was very aesthetically pleasing and at the bottom of the home page he can a continuous rotating gallery of the equipment he uses to shoot his videos.
Lets look at the first 6 cameras listed (all retail prices based on google):
- Phantom Flex 4k
- Retail Price: $109,000 – $164,000
- Red Epic-W 8k
- Retail Price: $49,500
- Red Weapon
- Retail Price: $50,000
- DJI Ronin 2
- Retail Price: $10,000
- ARRI Alexa Mini
- Retail Price: $36,000
- Gates Phantom 4k
- Retail Price: $20,000
So in review, that is only half of his camera collection and that is $274,500. More than a quarter of a million dollars in cameras and that isn’t even including all the different customizations and accessories. I know that Chris Bryant had to start somewhere and that he is a professional now but its just hard to imagine how he got started and what he first used to get started because me trying to improve my cinematography skills looking at how expensive these cameras are is very discouraging. I know I just have to keep doing my thing but its just crazy to think of.
This class was so much fun! Who would have thought you could do so much with a game like Minecraft. This is what our society looks like now a days in terms of technological advances and using technology in classrooms and Minecraft is a perfect way to learn while using technology! On my Wednesday visits i quickly realized that a strong interest the class shared was in Minecraft. I also realized that gaming on youtube is a huge interest of this kids. Here is one of the most popular Minecraft youtubers:https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDiamondMinecart
Here is one of his most viewed videos:
This video of his has 2.4 MILLION views on meaning 2.4 million people have watched it. This is a crazy number to think about and i can bet that most of those 2.4 million were young kids.
I havent seen much of Minecraft being incorporated into education but what these young students were talking about it sounds like SD61 has successfully done just that. I thought this was the coolest part about the whole class: One of the students we had with us today said that they used Minecraft to create an ancient world for social class. They were in survival mode so they had to sleep, eat, and fend off predators which i thought was so cool. Thats just one of the ways this game could incorporated into schools and classes but i think its a pretty good example of how far you could take this.
This is the resource they use, it is called Minecraft EDU:https://education.minecraft.net/
Here is a youtube video outlining how Mincraft EDU works:
Our PSII visit was very cool! Meeting the principal, Jeff Hopkin, was very informative and interesting. He obviously knew a lot about his school and it helped me understand the motivation behind the creation of PSII as well as the interworkings of it. I was very surprised at how small the school was but it was amazing to see the types of things they fit into the space. There was the sensory room which was very neat, they had multiple secluded group study rooms, a couple large meeting areas and of course it was very technology oriented.
I do think the whole inquiry technique of teaching is cool. I can definitely also see how it works for students in some cases but there is a limit. I really dont think that this type of learning and teaching is for everyone. This is true for me because i know that if i was in a school like this i would be completely lost. I would really like to learn more about the implementation of schools like these but i do not think that they should become the norm in the future. Making these schools the norm not be very beneficial to students as a whole in my opinion.
This may be my lack of information and experience talking but all that being said, i am very open to learning more about this and i am definitely open to incorporating it into public schools just in a toned down way. (Kind of like in Rebbeca Bathhurst Hunt’s class from what i heard)
Check out what PSII has going on here: learningstorm.org
I would like to say that the videos I have made in the past are pretty original to me or so it felt. I had of course seen other examples of videography and cinematography but when I started making my own videos, everything I put into them and every way I edited them just kind of came to me and I didn’t really feel like i was pulling certain ideas from any specific places. That being said, I do have some people that really inspire me to expand my capabilities and creativity when it comes to video making and thats this
The first person I will talk about is John John Florence.
John John Florence is and American surfer born on the North Shore of Hawaii. When he’s not surfing, or even when he’s surfing, he is an avid video maker and photographer. I knew about him before I came out here to the island but once i got here and immersed myself the the west coast surf culture i started following him more and more. Down below is one of my favorite videos by him and definitely one of my favorite videos of all time:
Space from John John Florence on Vimeo.
In this video, the landscape shots are absolutely stunning but the majority of the video is shot underwater which is equally amazing. I would absolutely love to be able to shoot videos under water but frankly that is just not a reality for me right now in terms of money but I will definitely continue to look at it all day.
Another one of John John’s videos, which is his most recent, features a lot more clips shot on land which i think are really really cool. This video (below) is a video i can totally see myself taking some inspiration from:
I really just like the , for lack of better words, “vibes” that John John’s videos exude. They are full of light hearted fun moments mixed together beautifully with intense surfing clips showcasing one the most raw and gnarly things this planet has to offer. All of his videos are presented so clean and crisp that it makes you want to watch them over and over again just so you can appreciate not only the time it took him to make and produce such a beautiful work of art but also to appreciate the feats he had to carry out within the videos themselves.
Here is my midterm video!
So I have kind of hit a wall. This past week was probably the busiest week I have had this semester and i just had no time to practice. I tried to make time but it just didn’t happen. I did however make time this Sunday to practice for about 2 hours. That 2 hours went very good. I went through the major chords countless times, even until my fingers hurt, and from the time started that night I definitely improved. My two problem chords (B & E) have become way easier to transition into since I started this project and my fingers are starting to fall more naturally into position for the rest of the chords. Theres not much ill be able to do for my midterm video since I haven’t started on any songs yet but I guess on my growth plan I said that I would only be running through the chords up and down so thats what I’ll do. I’ll use this final blog before the midterm as a little bit of a self reflection:
- It is very hard to find time for this amongst everything else but I will definitely have to be better at this for the remainder of the semester.
- I am better at ukulele than thought I would be. Im sure it has a little bit to do with my past experience with guitar.
- It’s very fun to play. The times I did get to sit down and practice, I found it very relaxing and enjoyable. I didn’t view it as homework just as something fun to do.
The name of this blog post is a bit misleading as I didn’t exactly have any turkey this weekend, rather a roasted chicken pizza for my Thanksgiving dinner! Anyways, I brought my ukulele with me to Kelowna this past weekend where I spent my thanksgiving this year. My whole family is musically inclined (especially on my moms side) and even though I wasn’t going to be seeing them this year i thought i would bring a little music of my own to the gathering. There is always a lot of downtime at our family gatherings especially at thanksgiving so i knew that it would be the perfect time to practice my skills! I didn’t have my laptop with me so i didnt bother practicing any of the songs quite yet but i did have a lot of time to practice the major chords. Everything is starting to come together and its quite exciting to witness. When i say everything is coming together, that definitely does not mean its perfect but i can for sure see improvement and promise in what ive done so far and whats to come. I am still having a little trouble transitioning to and from the B and E chords but it is definitely getting easier which is great. I still feel like i could have done more up until this point but im doing the best with the amount of time i have and i still have a week until the midterm check in so i am not freaking out just yet.
So this is my first blog post for my music assignment. I honestly have had trouble finding time to practice lately just with everything else going on but that being said i have had a little bit of down time to pick up the uke and practice my chords a little bit. I find it pretty relaxing and really fun i just wish i had more time! I had to narrow down which chords i am going to learn and which songs i want to be able to play by the end and here they are:
Chords:
Major Chords – A B C D E F G
Minor Chords -Am Bm Cm Dm Em Fm Gm
Songs:
I’m with you – Vance Joy(Chords – C, Em, D, G, Am)
K – Mac Demarco(Chords – F, Dm, A, Cm, Am, C7)
I haven’t attempted the songs yet but I find it handy that both songs only have chords that i will be learning (with the exception of C7). I have started to learn the major chords and I’m finding it fairly straight forward except for the chords B and E. Im finding these two chords in particular very tough to play correctly let alone transition into and from what I’ve gathered online, they are a couple of the toughest chords to play. Im not going to let it hold me back though and I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to learn them and transition into them in no time. This upcoming week I’m going to try to do a little bit more especially because I’m going to have to broadcast my talents through a video pretty soon and thats a little nerve racking!