3. TED TALKS: TACKLING TECHNOLOGY

My journey into the technological realm of teaching and learning has proved (so far) to be exceedingly frustrating. I have spent hours simply trying to work out how to get this blog to look the way I want it to... to no avail. It seems I'm stuck with this layout. I dare not try and change it in case I mess it up entirely. For me, this process is one of trial and error, of just pressing buttons and 'having a go', and it is clear that I have a long way to go.

I am learning though. I was delighted with myself when I managed to upload an image for the first time..one small step! I then managed(in my last blog) to do an online Mind Map, scan my own hand drawn bubble map and upload it, and I also managed to work out how to do a hyperlink. The problem is that it takes hours and hours just to do the simplest thing, and I'm not entirely certain that the links will even work. I have been reading all the necessary books, and trawling through educational websites to try and discover which ICT tools are available to use in the classroom, and how and when they can be implemented to the greatest effect.

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Herbert A. Simon, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economics, the A.M. Turing Award and the National Medal of Science and many other awards for his work in cognitive psychology and computer science, states," We must not use technology just because it's available. We must use it when, and only when, we can see how it will enable us to do the education job better." 

These are a couple of Ted Talks that I found interesting...now I just have to 'embed' them (another term I now understand), as opposed to just creating a link, which is not as reliable because it is not saved on the hard drive. This means that if I ever wanted to show this talk on a PowerPoint in class, because the college computers run off one server, embedding means that it will be there when I go and look for it. We discovered this in class yesterday when we gave a presentation on Cognitive Theorists to the rest of the group.

Carol Dweck researches "growth mindset"- the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and solve problems. I'm a believer! I hope it doesn't take too long though - I need to get techi if I want to engage my students, but more importantly, I need to nail this blog by 22nd January, and I still don't know what 'labels' are for, how to change the headings, or how to get each post to follow on from the next, or how to display my profile or blog archive...? gulp!
   

This is taking forever to upload!

I have just been informed that the upload speed in our area is worse than shockingly slow, it's diabolical -  which is why I have been sitting here for 20 minutes,and still nothing's happened. Can't wait to get 'optical fibre connection'!! (whatever that is..?)

Half an hour later...still nothing!? (Plan B) I'll try and embed it directly from YouTube (share button)and see what happens..?

Whoops, I've just sent it to a separate blog post...Mmmmm??? That's because it wouldn't let me save it to draft, so I pressed publish. Try again... this time I'll just type in the url and do it via Blogger (add a video from YouTube)

 RESULT!!!

Here's another.. David Pogue's Top Ten Tips for dummies (that's me) - Technology Made Easier. 

This experiential method of learning is a painful and time consuming process, but I think (Ihope) that I have just taught myself to embed a video.. now I'll have to publish it to see..fingers crossed!

IT WORKED!

Carol Dweck may be on to something!


SOURCE:
https://www.youtube.com/