AI Declaration

I am typing this a bit facetiously…I have not posted a blog in many, many, let’s just say an extremely long time.  Chat GPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have sprung up for public consumption since my last post.  This is my declaration that I will not be using AI to write posts on this blog.

I make this declaration since I have read online at Business Insider that many books are showing up on Amazon that have been written by AI.  As a once-inspiring author, that does depress me a bit.  I like the concept of the human mind and imagination firing up stories that excite and hold our attention.  I may just be getting old and falling behind the times, or I may be a bit bitter that someone with a sentence or two into a website has completed a manuscript that I haven’t been able to complete as of yet.  The jury is out on where I fall.

In the meantime, I want to reassure my dedicated readers, thank you Mom, that the words that appear here and on my personal podcasts will be my own and not those of any Artificial Intelligence entity.

Chaos of Choice

This past week in class I had my students begin preparing for a Discussion Board assignment: straightforward, direct, rather basic discussion board assignment: they were going to respond to a classmates’ initial discussion board post.

There was one catch…they had to get approval from me as to whose post they would be responding to. As I suspected, they all wanted to respond to their best friend’s initial post. I shot that idea down and made them choose another student’s post to respond to. That is when CHAOS reared it’s mischievous head. Students asked for the same friend a couple of times, others asked for their “other BFF” from class, several tried to argue/debate the reasons why they should be allowed to respond to their friend, others inquired repeatedly as to why they could not respond to their friend, and other students went back to their seats and sulked.

The purpose for my not letting them respond to their “BFF’s” initial discussion board post was to get them out of their comfort zone and to have the interact with other students. Being able to comfortably, confidently, and appropriately interact and respond to others is a necessary skill. And in my not so humble opinion, it is becoming a lost art. I attempted to explain this to the classes, unfortunately my message was not making much headway.

A number of students then wanted me to pick the post they were to respond to. That was also something I did not want to do. The students were encouraged to read over the initial posts again and choose a post that they connected with. Just not a connection based upon being friends with the student. They were to focus on the message, not the author. It took some coaxing, but eventually they came around and chose another post to respond to, even if it was only grudgingly.

In the end the students overcame their angst and the CHAOS settled down. Students used this GUIDELINE to form their responses and overall did a great job for their first attempt at responding to others in a discussion board format.

Wednesday April 1 Assignment and Class Update

Day Three Assignment. ALL SUBJECTS. The video directions are embedded below the written directions.

For today’s assignment,, we are going to try and have a little fun.  We have a multi-part assignment:

First, how confident are you in moving forward with content in the course?   Give me a detailed answer and explain why you feel the way you do. Your answer should be several sentences to a paragraph in length.  By content we will move forward with readings.  I will give you reading guides along with Google Docs and the online text.  I can add video notes/short descriptions to explain topics to go along with the readings. 

Second, what has been your favorite (school appropriate) song over our most recent break?   Go to YouTube and grab the share link from your favorite song. Once again, please make sure it is school appropriate.  I want to create playlists from your submissions.

As with Day One please submit your reply to this assignment via email or in Edmodo by noon Friday.You may reply to this email, or send me a separate email, or respond in Edmodo.

Type:  DAY TWO ASSIGNMENT across the top of your email.

In the spirit of the assignment, Here is my favorite tune from break…https://youtu.be/HUobIqf3tdk

It is a throwback to the 1980s, but the overall playlist is from the 1980s through the mid 2000s.

I will share other links randomly with posts just to help break up the monotony of the stay at home order.

The Grand Experiment

So, during this quarantine I have been doing work for school, attending virtual staff meetings, working on family crafts, reading books, watching movies and shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and getting outside when the weather allows..  Today I came across an offer for THREE MONTHS OF FREE GUITAR LESSONS, I happened across this on Social Distortion’s Instagram page.  I will chronicle my travails here, please do not judge…I do not play well, but I play LOUD!  Self taught to play loud…now I will try to play well.  Stay tuned…we’ll see if I can even tune my guitar…

 

This post is currently under construction.

Wakelet Student Ambassador Create an Account

So…here is the first step to the Wakelet Student Ambassador Extra Credit Assignment.  Just create an account, I also encourage you play around on the site and see what you can do with Wakelet.  The detailed instructions are on the embedded video below.

For those of you who do not want to watch the video, here are the instructions:  Go to Wakelet.com and click on “Sign Up It’s Free” and create an account.  I suggest using your school Google Account to do this.  Once you have done this, email me with your username, so I can keep track who is who.  Lastly, play around on the site and see what it does, studies on learning indicate that people learn more by experimenting and looking around on their own before being handed a set of instructions.

PLEASE DO NOT WORRY, instructions on how to use Wakelet and a brief video tutorial will be sent out tomorrow, along with the assignment for the first badge.

In the mean time…take care.

Wakelet Student Ambassador Optional Extra Credit

Hello, this is an optional extra credit assignment for my students.  The video below gives them a general overview of the assignment.  I will give them specific details later on each task.  Those details will be posted here on my blog as we move forward.