Level Up Learning: Publishing, Gamification, AI Podcasting and more!

Wow! I never know what to expect when these classes start, but I really had a great time researching and writing on my topic and also enjoyed the discussion format. My group had a great time discussing course related things and non-course related things. I know I have made friendships that will last a lifetime thanks to working through the hard stuff. I was a little intimidated at the beginning, but the discussions really helped break it down and make it come a little more naturally.

👍 What is going well?

This course gave me a confidence about writing and being a little bit more of an "expert" about something. As I have gone through the ADL and started to apply concepts in my own classes I've seen things come to life. Being able to write about it gave me confidence that I am learning and growing as an educator. Technology is not something that is always welcomed in my field and I think it is because people simply are not doing it. We do not have time to play around and do a lot of trial and error so being able to have research backed practices and then take them to my classroom has been a great experience.

🌷How can I grow or improve?

Grammar! I have been dinged on this in every course. I'm not sure if Google is just not catching my mistakes, or if I am simply writing the way that I talk too much. I may need to install Grammarly back on my computer, but I have also heard that this is not the best extension to use. So if any of my AI friends have a great recommendation, I am all ears! I also have been told in both my classes that my topics for integrating gamification or technology with dyslexia should be published, but I am not fully credentialed as a CALT yet, so that research will have to be tucked away for another day. However, I can take what I am learning here and continue to observe and research as I finish that credential and hopefully really pioneer something in the dyslexia field that is new and innovative.

👩🏼‍💻 My Work

Publication Outline: Getting started is always the hardest part! I struggled with what to write with and from what authority since as mentioned above I am still working on my CALT. However, I do work with students each day in a small group intervention setting, so felt confident taking that angle.

Publication Draft: This was actually really fun for me to write. I started about thinking about situations that had actually happened in my classroom and started off with dialogue that my students had actually shared. Aliases used of course. Again, writing this gave me confidence that this is a topic I could really feel good about giving advice and maybe even presenting to colleagues about.

Media Project: This was so fun! My dyslexia instructor had mentioned she had written an article and then played around with an application called GoogleNotebookLM and shared a brief snippet of a podcast that the app created from her article. It was amazing! One of my group mates and I decided to give it a try for this project. I was amazed. I had to give it a couple takes and tweak a few things with my file to get it to call it something normal and not call me "the source." You can read more about the process, on my blog New AI Toys.

Final Publication: The final piece is here! I received some great feed back to add a some research to go along with my class experiences, so I added an article about the benefits of student teamwork in an elementary classroom. I also added a consideration about preparing for the social and emotional needs of your students before, after, and during play. Working with a lot of special needs students there is a wide range of SEL needs to be considered and by no means does this mean they cannot play these games, but there is a level of preparation and things to consider to get them ready. I thought this was a great suggestion in my feedback and was glad I was able to add it to my final publication.

🛑 STOP, 🗣️ COLLABORATE, 👂🏻LISTEN

I love my collaboration group! I was in a group with Cristy Silkin, Ayla Rightenour, and Ann Zastryzny. This group of girls and I had so much fun in our group chat but we could also get down to business. We decided to use Padlet for our discussions like Cristy and I had done in previous courses. It makes it very easy to tell who is talking and talk a back and forth. I think it would be cool if given the opportunity in another course to find a platform that does maybe like video messages back and forth or something a little more interactive.

Conclusion

This course, like many of the ADL courses, has shown me that I can do things that I do not think I am capable of doing. That I can be an expert in something and communicate those ideas to others. I look forward to my last two classes this summer. It has been a whirlwind of a year, but I'm excited for what is to come!