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This week we used Zoom again, but it was significantly slower than last week, probably due to the high volume of classes using the platform during the COVID quarantine. This made it so that the audio and video lagged (more significantly for some people), and Zoom kicked us out a few times. It did start running more smoothly once we got going, though, probably because some classes finished, or because Zoom was able to fix some of the problems. We had group presentations again, and my group’s presentation went smoothly. We then learned a bit about coding and discussed a few websites on coding education, like Code BC.

Code BC has English and French resources for teachers like lesson plans, which I think is great. I feel this way, not only because we are a bilingual country, but because I might eventually teach French immersion, so it is good to know that Code BC is an available resource. The lesson plans are grouped into many categories, including those such as subject and grade, which allows for easy subject integration for every grade. Computer Science Unplugged, Hour of Code, and Scratch were also mentioned. 

The website I used to practice coding was Code.org, and gave me an easy introduction to coding. The activity was very basic, and felt more like doing a puzzle than what I expected. There were different coding activities with themes that would be interesting to children, like the movie “Frozen” and the app Flappy Bird. I chose the “Frozen” activity, since it was basic, and was able to ease me into coding with minimal discomfort. The website also had videos of real people explaining the tasks, as well as how coding is interesting and relevant to their personal life, which I liked. Despite some uncertainty I had prior to this class, I think I could became comfortable with coding very quickly. Since technological literacy is so important now, I think coding is a good skill to teach in elementary classes, so I am interested to explore it more.

Pictured: one of the designs I made in the coding activity.

This week we had our class virtually, and started the group presentations which were all very interesting. Each of the presentations were on a technological teaching tool, and we also learned about the program Zoom while doing so, as our call was on this platform. I found it interesting that one of the presentations was on Kahoot and we were able to play a Kahoot over the Zoom chat, which I did not know was possible. I considered it to be a success as I managed to be on the leaderboard with the moderators and achieve 2nd place.

Zoom requires that students have a device, adequate wifi, headphones with a microphone (preferably) and a quiet space where they can be undisturbed during the call. While this can be attained by many students, there will almost always be a few that have issues. I, for example, live in a very busy house, and my laptop has broken twice in the last 6 months. These factors could easily have been an issue for me, and it almost seemed that the latter would be, when I had to restart my computer a few minutes to the class’ call. One of my classmates could not get on the call because of internet issues.

Overall, if the students have access to all of these resources, I think Zoom is a great platform to conduct classes from, if being together is not an option. Students also do not need an account, so they will not have to sign up for anything if it is only a one-time, or emergency solution.

In this class, we had guests who taught us how to use Minecraft as an educational tool. This was a very interesting experience which I believe taught us all the basics of how to operate Minecraft. We also were introduced to the administrative side of Minecraft Education, which is how we would control the game as the teacher. This allows us to set up the game so that students can have access to certain features, and are restricted from others. The teacher has special access and can give their own avatar different access, such as being able to teleport to certain students to see their work or chat with them.

Although I did not know much about Minecraft before this class, I was convinced of its effectiveness as a teaching tool quickly.

This is a lesson plan from the Minecraft education website focused on creating sustainable cities. There is plenty of opportunity for conversation that can result from this lesson, as well as possibilities for cross-curricular integration.

https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/sustainable-cities-project/

This next link is a lesson that focuses on Florence, Italy. The students can explore Florence and its different landmarks, which can teach about the history of the area, and give a visual for any lessons that might pertain to the area. 

https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/the-city-of-florence-italy/

I really enjoyed this class, and look forward to exploring the opportunities that Minecraft Education provides.

Microsoft – Powerpoint

Microsoft has one of the most widely used presentation applications for businesses and schools everywhere. Microsoft Powerpoint was initially launched in 1987 by another company named Forethought, Inc but was soon acquired by Microsoft for $14 million. Powerpoint is identifiable by the trademark orange colour and capital P logo. The use of Powerpoint is to allow users to display information from simple presentations to complex multimedia presentations. In Powerpoint, text, graphics, movies, and other objects are placed on individual “slides” to present. “Slides” is a reference to the old fashioned slide projector.

As a Uvic student I use Powerpoint daily. Almost all of my professors exclusively upload Powerpoints to our class websites (coursespaces) for download. We use Powerpoints as class notes, explanations for assignments, as a visual reference for presentations and for many other functions. While making my own presentations I prefer Powerpoints templates to other competing presentation software and I find it the easiest to use and navigate. 

The only issue with Powerpoint is if groups want to collaborate they would all need Powerpoint. As I mentioned last week with the surge in Mac users in universities, most students have Keynote by Apple. Moreover, whenever we collaborate in groups for presentations we often find ourselves using the collaboration function of Google Slides because all of us have G Suite accounts. I think this is most likely because most people do not know that Microsoft offers collaboration, or at least one member of the group doesn’t have Microsoft apps. 

Apple – Keynote

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Keynote is the native presentation application for Apple. Keynote was first introduced in 2003 to compete with the most common presentation software at the time, Microsoft Powerpoint. Some of the features of Keynote include adding transitions between slides, including graphs from Numbers or photos from your iCloud devices, embedding YouTube videos, customizing the toolbar above the slides, and using another iOS device as a clicker while still being able to read presenter notes.

Keynote has a similar set-up to Pages and is still very user-friendly to children. Once students learn how to work with these tools, they could create a multitude of projects on slideshows. Students could create slideshow presentations on projects and subjects that spark their interest. Students could also create storybooks using Keynote, using each slide as a page to tell their stories. In some of our classes last semester, people created posters and handouts using slideshow presentations by changing the size of the “paper.”

Similar to Pages, Keynote can only be useful for collaboration if everyone has an Apple device. If the school uses Mac or iPadOS, then Keynote would be an effective presentation application to use. Although, I believe most students lean towards Google Slides or Prezi for presentations.

Google- Slides

Google Slides was created in 2006, approximately 20 years after Powerpoint, and just three years after Keynote. It inherited many of the perks that come with being part of the Google empire, and is an easily accessible application for users. It is free with a Google account, which is a manageable standard to meet for anyone with access to technology. Google Slides shares similarities with the other Google applications in that it gives the option of sharing and working simultaneously with others. It also is available on any device, and refreshes instantly, eliminating the hassle around switching devices and updating versions on a USB every time an edit is made. This allows groups to collaborate easily, even from afar. There are also applications available for IOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry which increases accessibility. Google slides has some catch-up to do regarding their bells and whistles, aka transitions and effects. The design is still sufficient for those who want a well laid-out presentation, but someone looking to pull out all the stops might opt for one of the above programs.

As well, media can be embedded into Slides presentations, but videos are limited to Youtube or those saved to your Google Drive. This is slightly more constrictive compared to Powerpoint, where you can embed videos from any source. If these pitfalls are a problem for you, or if the platform is crucial to your presentation, remember that Google Slides is compatible with Powerpoint. This means that you can collaborate and create with your Google project, then convert it to a Microsoft presentation if needed. This process works vise versa if you do not have internet connection or prefer to do your work on Powerpoint, before converting it into a Slides presentation. 

Overall, Google Slides is a solid option for creating presentations, whether they are for professional or leisure reasons.

This past week, I started learning the words to a song called “Pensare Male” by The Kolors & Elodie. It is an Italian pop song that I chose randomly from the “Hit Italiano” playlist on spotify, and I decided to examine its lyrics. My understanding is that the song is about a complicated relationship, where the singer doesn’t quite know how his love interest feels about him. There is quite a bit of vocabulary that I am not familiar with, so I will have to continue this project in future weeks.

To be completely honest, I am again having trouble staying inspired to study my Italian. The last week was an emotional one for me, so I am trying to recover my motivation and get back on track with my projects. Because of this, my progress has been nothing more than steady, and while I want to push myself, I know I am not capable of anything more at the moment. I will soon, however, be back to my regularly scheduled ambition

In other news, I heard that the CODVID-19 virus has caused all of Italy to be quarantined as of today, so there is a high probability that my trip will be cancelled, unfortunately.

I apologize that this is not the most optimistic blog post, but such is life, and it is important to acknowledge the difficult situations as well as the happy ones. While each day presents its respective challenges, I have an amazing support system backing me and I know it will be rewarding to push through.

This week I have continued in my Italian lessons and some things I have noticed are that I am retaining more vocabulary, but after almost 60 days of studying, I am starting to get bored with my daily Duolingo lessons. Because of school, work, and extracurriculars, I don’t have much free time, so it is easy to push tasks to the back-burner. At this point, I feel like I should continue to practice sentence structure and grammar, because I think I can remember and guess enough vocabulary to get by. In my opinion (and from my experience of learning French), it will be the lack of connecting words that will confuse me in a regular conversation.

In a recent music education class, we were studying musical terms, some of which were very similar to Italian, because of their Latin roots. Although I have learned music theory before, it was interesting to be able to look at these terms through a different lens. 

As a student, it is easy to get stuck in a rut of repetitive studying that doesn’t hold much significance, so the challenge I am setting for myself is simply to be reinspired. As much as I would like to set a goal to learn grammar and do it, I know myself, and I am geared towards understanding. For me, passion is required for learning in a way that I retain and understand material.

I am still enjoying using Duolingo, but I think I will try to challenge myself again in the coming weeks with another test of my comprehension, which means listening to some more authentic Italian.

Photo by Nadya Spetnitskaya on Unsplash

The first complete sentence I learned: Dov’e posso mangiare una buona pizza? (Where can I find a good pizza to eat?)