This year has been very abnormal from the usual learning system. With hybrid learning, it was an entirely new experience that I feel ambivalent about. I think overall I preferred hybrid, although with my lack of experience in high school learning the “standard” way, it’s hard to compare. I think hybrid was more comfortable for me because I was at home half the time. It allowed for me to have a little more freedom and work where I feel most comfortable. However, it made it harder for me to be efficient as there were many distractions. One being my phone. It also increased the pace of everything, so I wasn’t able to keep everything I learned in my head. We also had longer classes, so at times the subject we were covering could get monotonous. Although with hybrid, came a large benefit. If I were to finish early during times I was at home, I would essentially have free time. Overall, I think because of all the trade off’s, I’m split between whether I would choose to continue with hybrid or not (assuming I had a choice). There was probably a more effective way of overcoming the challenges that came with the pandemic, although it accommodated the sudden change.
Hybrid learning introduced a lot more technology use because of having to do independent work at home. I think without it, we as a class would not have been able to get accustomed to this system. Having technology made online learning easier and effective. With online learning, teams became an everyday app for assignments. I think that teams really benefitted all that we did because of all the features. We had a place to talk without being face to face, could turn in assignments online, could have a video meeting, and work on all assignments on the app. I think the use of teams helped me become a more well managed student. The scheduling/organization of having all the information about the assignments really helped me manage my time better. I received notifications so that I could see the work I had to complete. I also began to use the reminders app more which prevented procrastination and put me into a good habit of scheduling my work and spreading it apart based on my workload.
< Email that there was activity on teams. I also get notifications although I already cleared them all by viewing them.
< 550 reminders completed (not all within this year). What the app looks like. I am able to schedule when to receive notifications and I check this app at least once a day. It is also connected from my laptop and phone so I receive notifications on both devices.
Throughout this year, I didn’t feel very impeded by technology. However one that comes to mind is having technical difficulties. I noticed that it was only during online calls where it was apparent. Since everyone was adjusting to video calls, trying to figure out how to use it wasted a lot of time. It also depended on Wifi, which meant an unstable connection would slow everyone down from progressing. The teacher would have to re-explain to students, or if the teacher was lagging, then they would have to repeat what they said. It also made me reluctant to participate. Raising your hand and having to talk through your bad microphone was almost embarrassing. It would get awkward very easily and since almost no one had their camera on, it felt like you were either talking directly to the teacher or talking to your laptop. Like I mentioned, it was very easy to get distracted from your learning. I don’t think it affected my work habits, although it may have affected my work quality.
<says “We ran into a problem. Reconnecting… Refresh now” This wastes time and on calls, starts affecting audio quality which makes communicating frustrating due to not being able to understand and cutting out.
I hope that we continue to use teams a lot. Even before the pandemic, I think we were, although I hope we use it as much as we have during hybrid. I mostly prefer the assigning portion of teams to in class. This is because I don’t love carrying around papers that I can easily damage or lose. I think it’s also a good way of communicating because using the chat is easier than emailing. Everything you post is also permanent and your conversations are shared with the rest of the class. I found it to be a good way of keeping track of the school timeline and all the assignments I completed. It is easily accessible to look back to, so even though it was hard to process all the learning, we are able to review by looking at past assignments and lessons. This is only slightly tied with hybrid learning, but I also hope the quarter system remains. I would like if it were to change into more like the semester system where we have more classes and less time in each. This is probably not possible because of the amount of courses each student has. I liked the quarter system because we were spending less time on each course. I feel like half a year on the same 4 courses can become a lot, so switching it up regularly would make learning feel more fresh.
< on teams assignments, everything is here. Rubric and instructions. This means I don’t need to carry around papers and hand them in afterwards. I can just click and view everything I need to.
< archived channels that I can go back and view. The assignments are all there and I can easily go in to look at my work.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJbVYW8D000&ab_channel=Sinu
This was a video made for the textbook crush project. The biggest use of digital technology was the video editing. The editing helped capture the essence of the video style we were going for. Without it, I think the video would have been a lot less entertaining. Editing does a lot, and if I were to keep everything raw, it would have been a lot longer, unnecessary, and probably very boring since it’s just us looking at a camera. I believe that people are more attentive when they notice that something is funny, and I think with the editing, I was able to capture the attention of my classmates well.
2. https://sd43bcca-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/telinburg_sd43_bc_ca/ER00QmUeVm1EkDx2OIrPFYMBMFG6H6l0r6iDVzqpLx86uw?e=3Knpbc
(you need adobe cloud to view unfortunately)
This is a simple animation I created in Media Arts 9/10. It might be unfair to include this because without technology and the use of adobe animate, it wouldn’t have been possible. Although, I think the tools I used really enhanced my project past the point of just a moving ball. I used a graphics tablet and designed a little to make a small rip off super mario preview. I think if I hadn’t made it animated or designed it, it would have been not as visually pleasing or cool as it added depth and creativity. Adding all the effects I did made this project of a moving ball into something completely different. It became a (without trying to sound so pretentious) piece of “art”. It had more than just one simple component to it. If I also didn’t use a graphics tablet, it wouldn’t have turned out as good because it is a lot harder to draw with a mouse.