This week in our Internet for Educators course, we had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Reynold Reddekopp. His presentation shed light on an issue I personally have never thought of: the impact technology has on not only the environment, but also the people involved in creating and sourcing resources for the devices we all are so immersed with in today’s world. Dr. Reddekopp made us think about technology and digital tools beyond the scope of what you usually hear about Digital Citizenship.
I found a 10min. YouTube video, that could potentially be used in a classroom to spread awareness around this issue in our classrooms. I think this could spark off a small research project, where students could delve into the issue, and try and come up with solutions together in groups. I think that part of the reason that this is something that can still be happening in the world today, is that there isn’t that much wide-spread awareness about it, and if we as teachers make sure that our students know that there is an environmental and ecological impact with the technology we use, they might overall become more mindful about how they recycle their devices, and how often they choose to upgrade them. This is, of course, not enough, but with more awareness, there is more potential of finding a possible solution, as we get more minds that may want to work towards technology that is more sustainable and not detrimental to the ecology of your planet.
Here are the remaining practice drawings of Monki in the different styles. I don’t think I’m completely satisfied with either of them, and none of them really look like the style I was going fore, but on the plus side, I think I am at least making them my own. Sort of. Here’s a reference to sort of what I was going for:
So, since I’m not really satisfied with any of them, I have no idea what style to do my final product in, which means I definitely need to do more practice. I did one practice portrait with just using a couple different pencils, and this was done without the reference picture as a background! I still looked at the picture a lot, but I couldn’t actually trace any lines directly, so it was definitely more challenging! However, having drawn this picture a couple of times already made it a lot easier. As I was drawing this, I thought it looked pretty nice in just black and white, but I must have gone wrong somewhere with the colours, because I don’t think the final product is that great. But that’s okay, since I have a lot more practicing to do, so I’ll try and work on my colouring skills.
Here’s my little puppy that is inspiring me to make a digital pet portrait! Monki Roo. Isn’t she absolutely adorable? She was born on October 6th, 2020, so she is just about 4 months old. We got her from a nice lady up north, whose Chihuahua had gotten surprise puppies. They don’t know for sure who the father is, but a friend suspects it’s this little fella, so we’re telling little Monki Roo that her dad is in jail. Not that she really understands, anyways.
Mom
Dad (maybe)
Hopefully when the pandemic gets better, we will have an opportunity to head up north for a while and reunite Monki with her mommy – that’d be interesting. But more so, I’d love for her to get to know my dog-in-laws (the other pets I have been painting). Monki Roo seems really social, but with all the restrictions, we obviously have not been able to have people over or anything like that, so she hasn’t truly been socialized yet. I read somewhere that the window for socializing puppies closes at around 16 weeks, which is pretty much right now, but there honestly isn’t much I can do about that. She is super friendly with people and her tail is wagging like crazy whenever we pass anyone on our little walks, so I don’t think she will have an issue with people.
In her spare time, Monki Roo really likes chewing, running around, and playing with her toys. She also likes to look out the window, and sleep. A lot. Oh, and she also likes kisses! Which is absolutely adorable, but also kind of gross. She is not much of a barker (yet, anyways), but she does bark when she is scared or excited. Sometimes for attention, but we just ignore her then, so I think she has given up on that (phew).
Okay, first of all, I started off practicing this week with my other dog-in-law, Meesha, rather than my own puppy. Oops. I forgot that I had written in my PCE that I should practice three different styles with my own puppy, since she will be the star of my end product. While I think I should still maintain that goal in my plan, I am also a bit behind schedule, so I will adjust that to include Meesha – it is after all for practice, and practice I did.
Alright, so that’s my attempt at Meesha! I was trying to kind of follow the idea that was outlined in the tutorial in my previous blog post, but I realize now that rather than just using black outlines, I used mostly white outlines. Something to keep in mind when I practice this with my own little one. Ah, and I used the watercolor brush, rather than the brush that was mentioned in the video, and I think it worked out quite okay! I think I might have to play around with the size of the brush a bit, or maybe see if there is another one I like even better – but for now, I’m actually pretty satisfied. I realize that Meesha looks a bit more grumpy/serious in her portrait, but I think that pretty accurately reflects her personality, so…. I’m okay with that. She is the boss.
Okay, now we’re finally getting to the one and only: Monki Roo! I actually realize I haven’t even properly introduced my little puppy yet. How impolite of me! To make up for it, I think I should do this in a separate blog post, so keep an eye out for that. For now, this line drawing is all you get. I included two versions of it, because I wasn’t sure which one I liked better , and the picture in the middle was the photo I used as a reference. I don’t think I’m 100% satisfied with this, but it also didn’t take me very long to make, so in that sense I guess it could be worse. I find it very difficult to figure out what to include and what to omit in simplistic drawings like this. I think it still captures her essence, though.
This is all I have for you this time around, and as you can see, I did not set out to practice with all the styles I meant to do yet. Simply finding and settling on the styles honestly took a bit longer than anticipated, so I did not end up having as much time for the drawing. I think I can just squeeze in what I’m missing into my next set of goals, though.
I have had a hard time deciding what style to pick for my Pet Portrait, because 1) there are so many cool pet portraits out there already, and 2) what style would I actually be able to do? Right off the hop, I did decide on what style I did not want to do, though: realistic. For some reason, I’m just not the biggest fan of that, as I feel like I might as well just have a picture of the pet, you know? But who am I kidding, I wouldn’t be able to do a very realistic drawing even if I wanted to, so there’s also that.
One of my favorite artists and illustrators, is Kate Cook. I mostly know her from having illustrated cards for one of my favorite board games, Munchkin, but she does a lot of other illustrations and has her own web comic. I really love her style overall as she makes everything super cute and adorable, but what I find extra adorable, are these tiny watercolor paintings she makes sometimes:
This prompts me to want to pick cutesy watercolor as one of the styles I want to practice with for my own pet portrait. I obviously do not want to copy somebody else’s work, so I wouldn’t try and mimic exactly what she does, but try and develop something that is my own, while still being inspired by this. I’m thinking I can draw inspiration from the simplistic style of using fine outlines and a low amount of detail.
I stumbled upon another watercolor style I like on Etsy, and it’s by aStrokeofMutt. It is still a relatively simplistic watercolor style, but with more detail and less cartoony. I would love to see if I could do something similar – I just love how simple these look, but yet quite realistic. It may be hard to do digitally, but with the right brushes, it might be doable.
Photo by aStrokeofMutt (Etsy)
Another style I want to practice with, is from a tutorial I watched on doing pet portraits with Procreate. I like the use of some black lines, but mostly just using soft brushes to color in the pet – this also gives me the freedom to play around with the brushes I use for coloring and figuring out which one I would like the best, as I am not the biggest fan of the main brush that is used in the tutorial. Plus, playing around with how many black lines to use, will likely change the overall effect, so that’s also a way to personalize it to my own preference (or ability). This is also pretty much what I did with my first practice sketch, so it would be cool to just build on that skill/style.
Finally, I might also want to practice some line art, but since I already picked 3 other styles, I’ll only do this if I have some extra time, and maybe more as to practice the shape of my pet. I think I have a good chunk of inspiration to draw from and styles to practice with, so my next post will likely be with some of my own drawings, but for now, this is all.
I know I said I would talk about Digital Identity in my next blog post, but a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon this TEDtalk through Twitter, where Eli Pariser is talking about social media and digital platforms as spaces. It has prompted me to think about what kind of space we would like the different digital platforms to be, and whether it is even possible to construct digital spaces in such way. So, this blog post will largely be inspired by Eli Pariser’s talk instead, and if you want to take about 15min out of your life to have a look at it yourself, I will insert it below for your convenience.
One of the things Eli talks about, is how spaces shape behavior. For example, neighborhoods with parks have a different effect on their community compared to neighborhoods without parks, but behavior at a library is also different compared to behavior at bar. The same applies to digital spaces; users’ behavior is vastly different on LinkedIn than for example Twitter. Eli compares Twitter to a “cluster of all sorts of different things happening at once, where the owner gets paid more the louder the noise is”, whereas the behavior on LinkedIn is strictly professional. This could be an interesting concept to explore with students in a classroom – what kind of spaces are the social media platforms they are using? Can any of them be compared to physical, real-life spaces? What kind of space is Instagram, for example? Or TikTok? Do we communicate differently on these platforms?
Something else Eli talks about in his TEDtalk, is how increasingly harder it is to tell truth from fiction, and that social media is “tearing at our civil fabric”, pitting people against each other at a time where we need more tools and avenues to come together and stand united. But how can platforms bring people together in a meaningful and caring way, especially now that there is so much divisiveness going on, not only online, but also on the streets? Eli believes that rather than focusing on what tech platform shouldn’t be doing, we need to focus on what we do want them to do – what do we actually want these platforms to do? What can they do to improve our online experiences? Eli draws inspiration from cities, and how cities are constructed, since he believes that well constructed cities have been able to host a large amount of people than don’t only co-exist, but thrive together. Digital Urban Planning could potentially improve our online experiences, and Digital Architects would do planning for the people, rather than money.
While I think his idea seems sincere, it is rather idealistic. I don’t necessarily think that cities are as great as he describes them – most certainly not all cities. Don’t most cities have higher rates of crime and violence than smaller towns or rural areas? Besides, cities also tend to have more homelessness, and how would that translate online? I think it would be interesting to explore the concept of online spaces as cities, countries or physical spaces, though, as this could organically make students think about what all these spaces entail and how they are constructed. I think it could be fun to divide digital spaces into countries, cities, and neighborhoods, and explore what such an activity could inspire. You could make a Digital World Map! Which countries are thriving, and why? Are there some “neighborhoods” that we want to stay way from? Why? Are there any “universal” spaces online? Are there “oceans”?
Eli talks about social media being a little bit like Burning Man – “an amazing city that rises from nothing” – and while it’s great for a week, it’s not somewhere you would like to live in. Social media, however, has in a lot of way become a sort of home for many. A lot of people spend a significant amount of time there, and while I doubt many people spend their entire time on a single platform, I feel like you can loosely refer to it as a “home”… maybe a digital home? That could also be an interesting activity to do with students; have them describe their Digital Home. What does their digital living room look like? Do they have a kitchen? Bathroom? Do they live in a house, or an apartment building? This activity would make students reflect on their own digital usage, and how it fits in their daily lives. Maybe this could also branch out to an activity where students try and envision their ideal Digital Community, making them reflect on what it is we actually want from digital spaces.
In Eli’s TED talk, he sees it important that we have Digital Environments that we have some ownership of, because people are “giving up on online public spaces, the same way some people gave up on cities” (see, even he doesn’t agree with cities being perfect). One way of having more ownership over the digital environment you’re in, is simply by reflecting on the kind of platforms you use, what purpose they serve, and how you interact on there. By becoming more mindful about digital environments and educating your students on these, they will more likely be more aware of the influence the digital world has on today’s society, and take ownership over how they want to spend their time digitally. If there are platforms where there is no sense of ownership, there are privacy concerns, and people seem to only be arguing and putting each other down, is that truly a platform they want to keep using?
Eli signs off by saying that public digital spaces shouldn’t be places you just want to visit, but somewhere you stay at and bring our kids. But let’s be real… this is the real world, and just like in physical spaces, there will always be areas where you either don’t want your kids to go to, or don’t want to bring your kids with you. And isn’t it nice to take a vacation every now and then? In real life, it is not as easy – or cheap – to travel, as it is online, and maybe that’s the whole appeal of digital spaces – there’s something out there for everyone, and you don’t necessarily have to commit to spending all your digital time on one single platform.
Sorry this was a lengthy one, but hopefully it was worth your time.
For this blog post, I have attempted to create my own Digital Footprint, based on Apps/platforms I frequently use. I found an image on Google that I thought looked really cool, and it sparked a desire to create my own version of something similar. I wish there was some sort of generator online that allowed you to compile something like this, but alas, I was not able to find one. On the plus side, going in and drawing out all these little App icons gave me plenty of time to reflect on this project and the extent of my digital identity.
I have included 30 items on my footprint, and while I may not use all of these on a daily basis, they are all apps or platforms I at least somewhat regularly access. This is by no means an extensive list of all the apps I have ever used, but it is a pretty accurate display of what I have been using in the past year. Upon some reflection, I wonder how many accounts I may have out there on websites or platforms that I just tested out once and then forgot all about. That’s why I have tried to focus on apps or platforms that require some sort of account, as I believe these are the ones that actually cause a “footprint” – my account and data will likely still be there for quite some time, even if I personally forget all about it and don’t use it.
I have tried to Google myself, and a couple different results show up, depending on how I go about typing my name in. If I just search my first and last name, I show up in a Linked-In search and a Facebook search, but none of these link directly to my profile – they are simply searches on each website, and on Facebook I only show up if you are actually on my friends list. There’s quite a bit of hits for memorials or deceased people – none of those are actually me, obviously – but there isn’t much for anything that is actually me, not even pictures. If I search my first, middle, and last name, though, there are a few hits there that surprised me. To my horror, I have realized that a film analysis project I worked on in my undergrad degree is available for everyone to see and download from my previous university’s project library. I started reading this film analysis of mine, and discovered some grammatical errors right on the first page, so I’m way too embarrassed to even continue reading it. Imagine that – one of my teachable subjects is English Language Arts, and one of the first things my prospective employers may stumble upon is a project that isn’t even all that good.
On the other hand, a search result also shows that I was a part of the Aalborg University Shakespeare Company and participated in the play Much Ado About Nothing as an extra. There’s also pictures up from that, but since they are not labelled, people that don’t know me would not be able to tell if I’m in them or not – and since I only made it into one of those pictures, and I’m kind of in the background, even people who know me might not be able to tell. I have a bit of a story there, though, but since this blog post is already turning a bit long, I’m just gonna leave it here, and move on.
Photo by Bjarne Kondrup
A simple Google search of my name would indicate that my Digital Footprint is rather minimal, since there isn’t a whole lot that shows up, and most of the social media I use is also absent from these searches. I’m actually a bit surprised that this blog or my ePortfolio don’t show up, so if I actually want to use these, I will have to check out my privacy settings and adjust them accordingly. Furthermore, having almost no digital footprint, is not necessarily a good thing – in today’s world, it may be frowned upon if future employers are not able to find anything about me, as this could mean that I’m either just really boring and have not accomplished much, or I’m so concerned about the things that I have done, that want to hide them – and neither of those options are good. Personally, I know my Digital Footprint is much greater than what appears on my Google search, in a sense where I have several accounts on various platforms out there, and these – along with my devices – are likely monitoring and using the data that they collect from the information I put in. However, I need to work on putting some of my information out there to make my public Digital Footprint more appealing, and in line with my professional identity.
I will talk more about Digital Identity, Social Media, and its relevance on education in my next blog post!
Alright, I have now tried doing some research in regards to brushes in Procreate, and oh man, it’s easier said than done to figure out. I’ve been going through YouTube tutorials to see how people use the different brushes available, and it definitely requires some good technique and practice to get the same effect as some of the tutorials I watched. So, I gave up on trying to figure out anything fancy right off the hop, and decided to just practice some basic outlining with a number of brushes. I took some of the recommendations from the video below, but also decided to add a couple more, because I enjoyed those when I was playing around with that sketch portrait I did last week. There are so many brushes in Procreate, though, that it’s going to take some time for me to figure out which ones I like the best.
I also watched a video on some basics of Procreate, and I learned some really useful stuff that is going to make digital drawing experience a thousand times easier. For example, I discovered that when I tap on the screen with two fingers, it undoes my last action, and if I do it with three fingers, it redoes it again. That’s pretty sweet! I also learned about masks and clipping layers, which easily allow me to work within specific areas of a project. Oh, and one cool things that you can do, too, is when drawing a line, you can just keep holding it in AND IT MAGICALLY STRAIGHTENS OUT! Not only that, you can also extend and drag it anywhere you want.
It get’s even better, though… if you draw a square, you can do the same thing; by holding it in, it will straighten the lines, but if you also tap on the screen once it will also make it into a perfectly uniform square. Like, WHAT?! This is some magic stuff here. It also works with circles. Oh, and you can also have “drawing guides”, which are essentially different types of grids, and then when you draw, your bush will follow those grids. There’s also this thing called “symmetry mode”, where whatever you draw gets mimicked on the other side. It’s actually quite a bit of stuff that might not be useful for the pet portrait per se, but will definitely help me a lot if I want to pursue digital art in anyway – and if nothing else, it’s fun and magical to play around with. I’ll keep this video handy, as it is a very good basic reference guide, until I manage to memorize how to do these things.
This week in our Internet for Educators class, we had the pleasure of hearing from the wonderful Kirsten Thompson (check out her blog, Teaching in a Fishbowl), who with her strong ICT background had a lot of interesting information to share in her presentation. What stuck with me from the information she shared, is how important it is to embrace technology as an essential aspect of today’s classroom, and not see it as a hinderance or something to be afraid of. We should not be worried that machines or technology could potentially replace educators some day, but rather welcome technology in the areas where it can replace and improve certain aspects of teaching. Because let’s be honest, technology will never be able to replace all aspects of teaching… right?
Well, Kirsten Thompson had an excellent analogy for us; she compared the world of education to an ecosystem where everything and everyone has their own role and purpose. In an ecosystem, if different organisms attempt the same task or role, one will eventually win, and the other lose. Therefore, as educators, we need to ask ourselves – what is our niche? What do we have that is irreplaceable? Once we as teachers figure this out, we do not have to worry about technology replacing us, as these will be areas where our unique abilities flourish, and cannot be replaced. Personally, I believe that the connections and relationships we build with our students are vital to their learning, and is an area that technology will struggle to mimic. Being a key factor in creating a sense of community in in a classroom, a teacher is also contributing to social and personal development in students, which are both very important aspects of supportive and positive classroom environments.
But which areas can technology replace? Are there any areas technology should replace? Personally, I think that technology already brings our students a lot of content, and it would be interesting to see if one day we could perhaps completely rely on machines for the content we (or they) deliver to students. After all, the most important aspect of teaching, is teaching how to unpack and utilize the content that is being taught, as there is no use in content, if you don’t know how to apply it. In which case, the teacher could completely focus on teaching the students multiple ways of engaging with content, and developing those classroom relationships that inspire engagement and interpersonal development.
Another area where technology could replace a teacher’s job, is assessment. While I do not believe technology should be responsible for all assessment, there are several types of assessment where technology has proven to be very useful. For example, with tests and quizzes that have specific answers that are correct, or various types of formative assessment, technology can be a tremendous time-saver for a teacher. It is, however, important to note that the areas that we replace or aid with technology, get compensated by quality instruction, engagement, and effort in the other, more personal, aspects of teaching. A teacher should never just passively monitor learning, and solely rely on technology.
This idea of education (or the classroom) being an ecosystem has resonated deeply with me and prompted me to see if I could find any more thoughts on this. Upon my search for more information, I stumbled upon this excellent visual that illustrates learning in the digital age as an ecosystem:
This visual, along with Dr. Tim’s blog post emphasizes what I mentioned above, and adds some extra elements I did not consider. The digital age has largely helped teachers find new engaging instructional strategies, as well as provided us with a lot of tools in regards to differentiation and accessibility. While I do not believe technology could completely replace a teacher in these regards, technology has still been a tremendous help – especially for students with exceptionalities. There are so many digital tools that can help students that struggle with reading or writing, for example, and it is inevitable that this will vastly expand in the future and allow teachers or Educational Assistants to truly focus on the specialized areas that is their niche.
In conclusion, to answer the title of this blog post, there are definitely certain responsibilities of a teacher that can – and maybe should – be replaced with technology. It is up to us to decide if we make this change a positive or negative development, but above all, we should make sure that we always have our students’ learning as top priority, and in today’s society, this pursuit sees the inclusion and avid use of technology as necessary and unavoidable.
So, I have realized that my main struggle with blogging is that I feel like I lack creative skills in making my writing interesting. Yes, I may have a fancy paper stating I’m the “Master of Arts” in English, but that seems to be of little help here. I have taken a Creative Writing class before, but truth be told, I have not done this kind of writing – the kind that other people may read – for a very long time, so I’m a little rusty. Side note: can people literally get rusty? We have some metals in our body, so I feel like it could be possible, although I’m not scientifically knowledgeable enough to know the answer to this. Something for me to research later, I guess. Anyways, back to my blog writing skills (or lack thereof).
Is creative blog writing something that just comes naturally, or do people actually put a lot of thought and time into crafting posts that are interesting and fun to read? I’m hoping that by writing all these blog posts this semester, I will develop better blog writing skills, but is this even measurable? I was considering incorporating some writing goals related to this blog, but I’m not really sure how I would go about that. What even is a “good” blog post? It’s probably subjective, and while content is important, you also need to develop a knack for delivering this content in an interesting and creative way, so people become interested – much like teaching!
But, much like in teaching, different people are going to find different ways of delivering content interesting. What is your preferred kind of writing when it comes to blogs? Do you prefer blogs that are shorter, or longer? Is humor an important aspect of your blog-cravings, or do you prefer a more serious tone?
Martina’s Marbles 