There really is an app for everything! https://www.postermywall.com/
Nerding out Extend
Wow, I had no idea it was that easy for just about anyone to make and up load a video in response to a prompt. Today’s Extend asked us to make a short video about something we are passionate about, something that makes us Nerdy.
I chose to talk about my love of the online browser game, Travian. I have played this game for nine years and every day for more that 3 years. I even have a youtube channel of instructional video about the game which have been viewed by people in 120 countries. If you are interested, you can find the link to the International English server here https://www.travian.com/international (link opens in new tab).
But as fun as it was to talk about something I love, the learning piece was finding out about Flipgrid. An online service for educators that is crazy easy to use. It took me less than 10 minutes to record and upload a short video and all the recording software was part of the site. It got me thinking about ways this could be used in the classroom and the ease at which students could participate. I even got to create a selfie with stickers to act as the front page for my video!! Check it out for yourself at https://info.flipgrid.com/
Here is screenshot of my video listing long with a couple others posted by Extenders!
It can feel risky to make a video and put it out there. It can be uncomfortable to see yourself in a video and hear what you sound like. This is yet another way to stretch and extend. If we, as educators, want to ask our students to take risks, we should be willing to ourselves.
Extend Parodealia
Today’s Daily Extend asked us to look for a face in the wild. This ability to find a pattern where one does not exist is called Paroealia. I read the Daily Extend before I left for work and decided to look but not look for a face in the wild, to just think about the idea and see what turned up. I saw a few possibilities on the drive from Chatham to Windsor but it was not until I was walking from the parking lot that I caught my first.
Mr. Tree waving me into work today!
This is the first one that I tweeted. But the idea did not leave me and later in the day, I found the one below in the rock beneath the balcony outside my office.
Woman in a storm, clutching her coat and hood against the wind.
E is for Extend & E-Juice
Today’s Daily Extend from Ontario Extend, a Learning and Teaching professional development project, was to emphasize the letter E in a picture taken with my phone. I was to play with editing this photo to highlight and isolate the E.
I had already decided that I was not going to overthink these exercises and would just do it. Sometimes, when taking a risk, I can get caught up in thoughts of “what do others expect” or “what if this is not good enough.” Bleh! My eye fell on the e-juice sitting on my desk. I quit smoking on December 23, 2015 with the help of e-cigarettes. I received my first mod as a gift, smoked my last two cigarettes reading the instructions and have not had a smoke since. I continue to enjoy vaping and recently, Canada E-juice opened a Vape Shop in Chatham, Ontario so now I have excellent e-juice available just minutes away! I took a picture of Strawberries and Creme with my phone.
It was a bit of a challenge to get my phone to focus on the bottle and not the background. Thankfully, I had a handy envelope and a container of Catnip! Here is the original photograph.
I don’t have many photo editing software packages on my home laptop, but I do have Techsmith’s Snag-it. Using Snag-it, I played with the magic wand feature after cropping the photo. Then I used the magnifying glass to enhance the E. I am fairly ecstatic with the result. I enjoyed trying a little editing!
Check out:
Ontario Extend https://extend.ecampusontario.ca/
Canada E-juice https://www.canadaejuice.com/
Techsmith Snag-it https://www.techsmith.com/
All links open in a new tab and I used 21 E words in this post!
Extend: Open Culture and Rijsk Museum
For the daily extend, part of Ontario Extend, we were to explore Open Culture, a website featuring collections and media that are shared freely on the internet. I was fascinated by Rijsk Museum in the Netherlands. Rijsk Museum digitized over 125,000 masterpieces of Dutch artists and you can explore and create your own collections. You can also remix these into a variety of projects use the whole work or just a small piece. I created a couple of collections of pieces that resonated with me. I found this to be a new way to connect to my dutch heritage as well as a new way to interact with art.
Try it for yourself at Rijsk Studio https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/rijksstudio
Also check out Open Culture http://www.openculture.com/
Note: All links open in a new tab.
Extending
I am joining Ontario Extend, an initiative from ecampus Ontario. This is an project that looks to build teaching and learning skills in educators in the realms of technology and online learning…. I think. Well, that is what the website said anyways.
Specifically, I am joining ExtendWest and the opening event is in about two weeks. To prepare, I am opening up a bit of interweb landscape to play with, my own little sandbox, if you will. So far, I have a chair to rest in set up. Extending like stretching can be uncomfortable. I don’t yet know what I am getting into with this project but I am giving myself permission now to dabble, to rest, to wiggle my toes in the sand and enjoy the experience without expectation.
“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.” — Deborah Day
