This week I decided to try to use up some yarn I had from an old project when I just started to learn to crochet in 2021. It’s a really nice thick and soft yarn in a dark blue colour. I decided it would be perfect for a toque!
I found this tutorial on youtube that I felt confident I could follow.
It went fairly well. I am happy with how my stitches turned out because in the past I have had a trouble with getting the right tension. I often pull too tight or not tight enough making the stitches look uneven. Put this time they look fairly uniform, perhaps a bit on the tighter side.
This project didn’t take me too long. Maybe 3-4 hours overall. Although it did not not turn out exactly as I had hoped. I am not sure if I made an error somewhere along the line or if maybe my yarn is not thick enough for the pattern I was following in the video. I had measured my partners head so it would fit him and does it just came out too short.
It’s unfortunate because I had thought well if it’s too short from adults maybe it could fit a child but the width of it will be too large for children.
I’m not sure what to do with this piece now, maybe unravel it and try to use it for something else. I would like to try this pattern again because it was relatively easy to follow, I think I must have made an error with the measurements. Once I try again it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out exactly where I went wrong.
Overall I think my inquiry went really well. My original plan was just to continue learning crochet which I already had some experience with but when I started my first project of creating a Squishmallow cover for my friend I realized crocheting using such large yarn was actually really difficult. This lead me to learning how to finger-knit. I never expected to learn finger-knitting in this inquiry project but I am glad I did! It was a bit of a learning process initially, because there are no patterns or videos online for how to make a squishmallow cover I had to use a video tutorial for just a circular pillow. I was kind of making it up as I went, loosely following the video and going through the process of trial and error to figure it out.
First attempt at squishmallow cover had big gaps in the stitches.
It took a few tries but eventually I figured it out and I was really happy with how it turned out. My friend loved the gift and I even had some of her friends ask me to make them one!
The final product of the squishmallow pillow.
Furthermore, I was able to take this new skill into my work. I run a crochet after school activity at the school I work at and I was able to teach my students this new skill. It was great for the students who were struggling with crochet and becoming disengaged. I plan to use finger knitting again to make my mom a blanket for mother’s day.
After I completed my squishmallow project I moved back to doing crochet. I tried to pick up a pillow case project I had started in December. The yarn I was suing wasn’t the easiest to work with and as a square pillow case I was just making a big square which got a bit boring so I abandoned that project to try something new. I talk about this project in a bit more detail here:
I was trying to decide what my new project would be when our Science instructor Erika Germanos announced that we would be hosting an Indigneous elder in the class. We all agreed to make something or bring something local for a gift basket for this elder. So I decided then to make a market bag to put in the gift basket. I had never made a bag before so I was a little nervous it would not turn out well but I found a really good tutorial on youtube and it ended up being pretty easy!
Youtube tutorial I followed
The first step of creating the circular bottom of the bag was probably the most challenging as it required a lot of increases in the number of stitches each round which I was not very familiar with. I really enjoyed this project and have started making another already! They are great gifts!
This opportunity to focus on crochet through a course was really great and lead me to learning new skills I would not have otherwise! Thanks Rich!
Minecraft is an online game that was created by Mojang and currently owned by Microsoft with 23,000 subscribers. The game is designed for players to use their imaginations and create worlds using pixelated blocks. In all honesty, the program truly is limited to the players imagination enabling them to grow vegetables, spawn animals, build houses, castles, roller coasters and even rockets.
While Minecraft is surely quite popular with students in all grades, many educators are not quite sold on Minecraft Education. This branch of the game is specifically curated to use in the classroom and is designed to support collaboration, assessment, coding, and more. Educators are free to design a world that suits their needs or use one of the 600 + lessons and worlds that have already been deigned.
What’s on the Site
The Minecraft Education site already has a host of resources for all different subjects that educators can access for free. They include lesson plans for worlds that have already been created and are ready for the class to explore.
Screenshot from Minecraft Education by Alexandra
Example Lesson: Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Each of the sample lessons on the website come with learning outcomes, guiding ideas, students activities and even performance standards. Most of these lessons are developed to suit the curriculum in the United States, however it doesn’t take long to bridge the gap to our curriculum in B.C.
Screenshot from Minecraft Education by AlexandraScreenshot from Minecraft Education by Alexandra
We encourage readers to explore the lessons on available on the site (link here) for themselves to get a good sense of the variety of lessons available.
A Sneak Peak
The video below is a screencast walk through of the Fantastic Mr. Fox World. This world is one of the lessons that is provided on the site for English Language lessons.
It is modelled after the setting of the book “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” and includes all the major features in the landscape including the tree house where the foxes live, the farm of Boggis, Bunce and Bean, the escalation scene and underground tunnels. This lesson allows for students to explore the fictional world through their avatar and interact with the world. Unlike watching the movie, which is a passive experience, the students are able to actively interact with the world and experience what it is like to be in the story.
The Upside
Layered literacies account for multimodal meaning making and acknowledges the fluid movement within, across, and beyond online and offline space
Learning becomes individualized as students, as players, follow their own path to discovery
Students may develop and apply affective relationships in their Minecraft worlds, where artistry and emotional risk is honoured through exploration and invention
The Downside
Requires players to have some literacy in games and a willingness to play without instruction
Requires a base knowledge of how the game works
If used ineffectively* game time may fall into unorganized free time
Students already spend alot of time on screens
On the SAMR Scale
The SAMR Model for Technology Integration is a scale used by educators to evaluate educational technology in terms of their usefulness in the classroom.
SAMR Model illustrated by Sylvia Duckworth
As with any kind of Ed. Tech. the rating depends upon how the program is used. When used intentionally and purposefully, Minecraft Education fits within the MODIFICATION and REDEFINITION categories. It allows for the creation of new tasks, activities and experiences that are not possible outside the program.
Below are some questions that educators can use to reflect on their lessons
Consider if the activity can be recreated in an offline context
Does your activity create opportunities for students to engage in ways that are not possible offline?
How does your activity meet the learning goals and enrich the learning context?
A major point to emphasize is that Minecraft should not be used as a text for content delivery but as a tool for constructivist learning and content creation.
Tips to Becoming A Pro Player
To use Minecraft as an educational tool, teachers will need to spend time on the game to understand its potentials and its limitations. Educators cannot depend on the literacy of students, they must be able to instruct them on how to use the game and what is appropriate. On their website, Minecraft Education has a teacher academy. It is a course that teachers can take to familiarize themselves with the game, its platform, and how to use the lessons.
If you haven’t been sold yet, take a look at the Minecraft Education Blog. There are numerous stories of how educators from around the world have use Minecraft in their classroom to enrich the learning experiences for their students.
Can computation thinking help learners become better problem solvers?
This week in class we watched a funny video that demonstrated computational thinking.
The kids in this video are challenged to write very detailed and clear instruction for how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It proves to be quite a challenge! This challenge models computational thinking because the kids must use decomposition to break down the task into smaller tasks, focus on what details are necessary to include and organize the steps into easy to follow instructions. Through this challenge the kids learned how their instructions could be misinterpreted with out very specific detail.
I think that computational thinking can help students become better problem solvers because it teaches them to analyze problems and find efficient solutions. In following the 4 steps of computational thinking (decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithmic thinking) students develop a mindset that is not intimidated by problems they aren’t sure how to solve. They are able to breakdown problems into manageable steps. This skill not only applies to coding and math but can be applied in any context.
Learning Code
This week we also learned some very basic coding.
We used the website code. org to learn. It is a really awesome website that has tons of resources for teaching and learning code in fun and engaging ways. I chose to code the game flappy bird. It was really fun to be able to customize the game and play it immediately. The instructions were really clear and easy to understand, I was worried it would be confusing and frustrating.
I would love to use this for myself and students in the future. I know absolutely nothing about coding or computers but I know that it will likely be a very important skill that my future students will need to know. I have also felt like I want understand how my technology works in order to be a smarter consumer but it has felt very intimidating to start. This was so fun and easy!
In my last post I explained that I was created a pillow case using a new stitch I had learned. Making a pillow case gets a little monotonous because its just the same thing back and forth for rows on rows. So I got bored of it.
However, Over reading break I took on a new project! In our science course this semester we are having an indigenous elder come to speak to us about incorproating indigenous principles of learning in science education. As a class we agreed to but together a gift for him out of things we have made ourselves. I decided to crochet a market bag.
Using yarn I already had on hand and this video I finished the market bag in only a few days!
Unfortunately I forgot to take progress pictures throughout but this is the final product!
I am really happy with how it turned out and it was honestly not hard at all. I will definitely be making another one for myself!
This week we learned how to edit video clips through IMovie. I had some prior knowledge of how to do some basic editing but it was interesting to learn to use green screen videos!
What was the most interesting thing you found when you googled yourself?
Googling myself leads to many interesting articles and posts, many of which are actually related to me. It’s probably because of the unique spelling of my name and how uncommon my last name is. I was able to find old local news articles written about my softball teams, which brought up some great memories I had forgotten about. Others things I found included links to my Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram profiles also showed up in the search. An article written on my great-great grandmother was also found. Before her passing, she was at one point the oldest living person in Canada! It’s interesting to see what comes up in searches, and how far back information can be found about someone with one quick google search.
How can we help our learners manage their digital footprints?
After googling myself, I was able to find things that were so old about me, I had forgotten they even happened. I grew up and was in school at a time where social media and the sharing of personal information was still quite new, so seeing how much actually showed up about me was a bit surprising. I can only imagine how in this day and age, with the popularity of social media, just how much you can find about a student today. I think ways in which we can protect and inform students about managing their digital footprints are very important. The things they share online are there forever, even if you think it’s deleted. As an educator, bringing in other professionals to talk about these sorts of things with our students can be very beneficial. When I was in school I remember having assemblies based around internet safety and digital footprints. They were informative and I still remember them to this day, so I think those sorts of things are good ways to teach students about these topics. This sort of discussion and activities can start from a young age, when students begin to use the internet more regularly. Obviously depending on the age the content will be made appropriate, but having these discussions throughout their educational experience is an important one.
Could video creation be effective learning resource and/or class activity at the grade level I hope to teach (with learners creating their own videos)
During my time in the classroom, I’ve been able to notice just how much videos and online components of lessons and activities captivate students. I think if I were to teach an upper elementary or middle school age, video creation and editing would be a great skill to teach and would allow students the chance to express themselves creatively in a medium they may not always get the chance to do. For younger students, which is the grade level I’d like to teach, I’ve been able to see just how good they are at working things such as Ipads and computers. This is a generation now of students who have had access to these sorts of things their entire lives, so integrating them into lessons and activities has never been easier. I think video creation, of varying complexities can be used within a wide range of grade levels, with appropriate introduction and scaffolding.
This week I restarted a crochet project that I began in December. I am making a square pillow case using a new stitch a friend taught me. This stitch creates a kind of waffle pattern that I think will make for a nice texture on a pillow. I am using some fluffy pink, purple and white yarn with a 9mm crochet hook.
I got bored with this project a while ago and just haven’t had the desire to pick it back up again but I would like to complete it. Unfortunately I have realized that at some point I missed a final stitch on one row and now my shape as been getting progressively smaller as I go and is no longer an even square. I also noticed that my stitches have gotten progressively tighter which changes the look of the pattern so as I restart I want to make sure I try to keep the tension even throughout.
Unfortunately I only have enough of this colour yarn to complete one side of the pillow case. I do have a ball of yarn that is the exact same weight and texture, it’s just white. I think that will look fine because there is white in the yarn I started with. Hopefully by next week I will have finished redoing this side of the pillow case and can begin the other side!
This week we discussed intentionality in technology enabled learning. We looked at 2 frameworks that help us evaluate the potential benefits and drawbacks of implementing a new technology in the classroom. The first framework is S.A.M.R (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition). The infographic below explains the model quite well.
The other framework we looked at is called the SECTIONS model, which stands for Students, Ease of use, Costs, Teaching functions (including the affordances of different media), Interaction, Organizational issues, Networking, Security and privacy. The image below offers more detail on what each of those words mean in the context of technology enabled education.
The SAMR model helps to evaluate if the technology you are introducing will increase student engagement by looking at whether or not a task is enhanced or transformed by the technology ex. using google docs to write out a story allows for features such as spellcheck and peers or teachers can provide inline feedback.
Whereas the SECTIONS model helps to assess the appropriateness of a particular technology & identify possible barriers to integrating a new technology. ex. concerns with data security.
Personally, I think the SECTIONS model is more useful because it addresses more practical issues around introducing new technology and has the element of assessing engagement included.
The H5P videos we created previously is a good example of a new technology that could be integrated into a class. We can analyze this technology using the SECTIONS model. Creating H5P videos can be a good way to support various student needs as the video format allows for close captions, adjustment of speed of the video, louder and clearer audio if using headphones and the ability to pause and rewind. All are elements not possible with a standard in person presentation. H5P was very easy to use after watching a short tutorial, it is free but does require access to a computer with adequate microphone and sound which can be costly. It also takes time to create, which is also a cost to the teacher. As a method of teaching it is a good tool because the interactivity allows for more engagement with content and an assessment of student understanding. With many different interactive elements available the tool provides good interactivity between learner and learning material. I don’t see any issues an institution could have with this tool but that would be something to consider. The tool doesn’t provide networking outside the course, though sharing an H5P video on a blog or social media site could provide that opportunity. Finally, H5P videos seem like a relatively safe tool. There may be some risk of teacher privacy just in the fact of having to use an email and create a password to make an account but there should be no risk to students.
Sketchnotes and Infographics
This week we also learned about sketchnoting and infographics. I enjoyed learning to sketchnote however I am not sure it would be a super effective strategy for me because I get to focused on the details of my drawings and making everything look neat and aesthetically pleasing. If I ever shake my perfectionist tendencies maybe I’ll be able to use it. I like infographics as well, Canva is such a great tool that I have used a lot. In my undergrad I had a prof who used infographics as the primary assignments throughout the course. I think this was a great method of assessment because in order to make an effective infographic you have to really know the material to get across all the necessary information in a concise way. Furthermore, the prof asked permission to use the best infographics for a website so they can be used as an educational tool.
Below are my skatchnotes and infographic I made this week 🙂
This week we discussed accessibility in ed tech. This is an important discussion because accessible technology is often seen as an optional addition to schools and classrooms. In reality, assistive technology is essential to providing equal opportunity for all students.
We watched a few videos about accessibility in technology and digital accessibility. I already have some experience with this topic as I took some courses in disability studies but it was interesting to hear the different perspectives on accessibility in this video.
What felt more useful for me this week was learning how to actually make accessible content. This looks like making sure text has clear headings, fonts and print size are and/or easily adjustable by the user, images are accompanied by alt-text detailed descriptions, audio/video content has subtitles, colour contrast should be adjusted for optimal visibility. Thankfully, there are resources to help us check theses things.
When Checking this blog for accessibility I found that the original colours I had chosen did not pass the test. So I changed my colours to standard black and white. I also added alt-text descriptions to images I have previously posted.
We also learned how to make sure videos have subtitles. I practiced with this video I took regarding my Free Inquiry. However, I had some difficulty as it is only a 50 second video, youtube automatically changed the format to a ‘Short’ and the subtitles did not appear. I tried many times to get subtitles to work but couldn’t. I ended up using a new video from a concert I attended this summer. But again, for some reason subtitles would not work, in this case it may have been due to the audio quality. I ended up just typing the subtitles manually which can be time consuming. I would say that is a part of why digital accessibility practices aren’t more commonly used. Although it takes extra effort and time it is important that it is done regardless. Maybe if more people put in the time and complained about the tools available to make digital content accessible, online platforms might do a better job of making sure accessibility is automated and higher quality.
I believe that subtitles are an accessibility measure that often get missed among video content creators on platforms like Youtube and Tiktok because some people that don’t require subtitles can find them distracting or they just do not consider the online experience of those that use subtitles. Luckily Youtube has automated subtitles but they are not always correct. Creators should take more responsibility in ensuring that their content is enjoyable for everyone.
This week I completed the pillow case except I wasn’t happy with the way it turned out. I think it is too small so it stretches out and leaves fairly substantial gaps that leave the original pillow showing through.
So I took it apart and restarted to make it bigger. In the first attempt I made a chain of 20 as my base to build on. The second time I chained 30 and that worked much better. It took longer and I had to stop for a day because I ran out of yarn. In the end I used 3 balls of yarn to make this pillow.
This is the pillow about 3/4 of the way done I had to check the how the pillow would fit inside because I was really just guessing how many rows of stitches I would need.
As you can see it looks a lot tighter. After a little more work I was able to finish the pillow and I am very happy with how it turned out!
I enjoyed learning this new technique and I think I may continue with it. First I would like to finish a crochet pillow case that I have started but then I think I will use this finger knitting technique to make my mom a big cozy blanket of mother’s day! In my next post I will explain the crochet pillow case I am making and do some research on finger knit blankets.
