Final Project (yay)

     I would like to introduce myself. My name is Roanny Rodriguez. I was born and raised in Providence with my Dominican roots deeply rooted in my blood. I come from a two-parent household with a younger sister and four pet birds. I went to the University of Rhode for my undergrad where I obtained my bachelor's degree in Human Development. Since I graduated back in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, I decided to take a gap year off school. Throughout this gap. I took a class to become a certified Teacher assistant. I was able to get a job right after at Highlander Chater Elementary School. I was also able to enroll at Rhode Island College to get my Master's in Youth Development. This seemed like the perfect route to take since I already had a Human Development background. Over the course of my Youth Development journey, I obtained a lot of knowledge. Half of my program was spent online which was a new way of learning for me. I had gotten so accustomed to having online classes that when I had to go on campus for the first time during year two, it felt like I was starting school all over again. My experience at RIC was way more fun than my experience at URI. The reason for it was the community that was built with the cohort and the professors. Throughout the two years, in EVERY Youth Development class, we did a Moo-in sign-in. It was our icebreaker in disguise. Before being part of this wonderful community, I hated icebreakers. I didn’t like introducing myself because I would always think “It’s pointless” and “They are not even gonna remember me.” Little did I know, they were so meaningful. Professors do remember my name and my facts, and so do my peers. Spending two years in the same cohort with the same 9 to 10 people was also very helpful because it was better to be more vulnerable in a room where you know people than in a room full of strangers. 

I have spent the last 3 years working at a Charter school with third graders as a Teacher assistant. I absolutely loved working with young children, but after obtaining my Master's in Youth Development, I knew that it was time to conclude my time at this charter school. The reason for this decision was that given the degrees that I now have, I should be getting paid for my hard work. As much as it pains me to walk away from the beautiful relationships that I have built with the children and some staff members, I was not being valued the way I should have been. I will cherish all my fun memories from that school as I transition into my new position as a Program Coordinator for New Urban Arts which is a nonprofit organization at Central High School. Since this is a new position that I will be starting in the fall, I am not sure how the organization actually runs, all I know is that I will be working with teenagers in a high school setting. This jump from elementary to high school is very big for me. I am somewhat nervous because I do not know what to expect. 

In this class, I was able to define my digital technology position. Before COVID-19 I would consider myself to be a techno-traditionalist, but throughout the pandemic, I have grown into a beginner techno-constructivist. Scott Noon describes a techno-traditionalist to be someone who uses technology proficiently to accomplish traditional classroom tasks. The examples he uses are being able to use word processing lesson plans, electronic grade books, and emails in digital slideshows. As I grew up, I was very into technology. By third grade, I had a computer that I was able to use all on my own. I was part of the generation that grew up and saw The big impact social media was developing on us. In my freshman year of high school, we were doing a lot of stuff online. Yes, we still had our notebooks and pencils to take notes on but we would transfer a lot of it to the computers. By senior year and on I was writing emails back and forth, typing all my assignments online, and taking most of my exams online.  He describes a techno-constructivist as a person who uses technology to completely change the approaches to teaching and learning in the classroom. The examples that he draws to this are online projects, virtual field trips, WebQuest, digital portfolios, and virtual classrooms. Since I graduated from URI and was living through a pandemic, I was forced to rely more on technology than I was already relying on. I was introduced to virtual field trips and how to actually plan something like that for the kids to enjoy. To me, this seemed absurd but after actually doing it, it was pretty fun.

I believe that it is essential to know each other in order to build a strong community. I also believe that it is crucial to allow students to make their own choices. Lastly, I believe that students should have an opportunity to freely express themselves. My beliefs are connected to my Youth development experience. Toward the end of my program, I was responsible to create a capstone. I was given little instruction and was just told what were some examples of the expected outcomes. All the examples that were shown to me were extremely different from each other. I wondered what the prompt or objective was and the truth was that there was none. We were responsible to create our own project and inform the audience why it was important to us. Although it might sound very simple, it was one of the hardest tasks I have completed. This capstone gave me the freedom to express my voice. It allowed me to venture out on my own and figure out what was truly important to me. I ended up dedicating this project to my family. As I was digging deep, I truly found that my family was what matters the most to me. By doing this, I learned a lot about my family and myself included. Although I didn’t have the instructions that I would want to have, I had the guidance. My professor was always there to answer the questions that I had and guide me through them. And the times I doubted myself, the most, they believed in me the most. This was very beneficial to me. I believe that the reason for this was the fact that they knew me, these professors actually knew me.

With that being said, I have created a deck of cards that supports my beliefs. This deck of cards contains variations of mini icebreakers. The deck can be split up into three separate color-coded decks. The pink deck is for individual activities. The blue deck is for the activities that can be done with a partner. And the orange deck is for the whole group activities. Students can choose which deck to pick from. They can either choose two cards from one of the colored-coded decks or three cards including one from which deck. Allowing them to do this creates a sense of a choice. 

The activities included in the individual deck are to be done alone and then share out as a whole group. Some of the examples that they can choose from are creating a collage with different art materials, clay making, drawing, creating a recipe to make their own physical selves, showing us a picture that they resonate with, blackout poetry or even creating their own poem from scratch. And lastly, they can create a safe room Google slide that represents most of the things they love and they would also include their personalized Bitmoji. Marc Prensky portrays the youth to be so tech-savvy and upholding so much digital power which he refers to as digital natives. Danah Boyd challenges his beliefs and states that these youth are just exposed to technology more. Just because they are exposed more to technology does not mean that they should not be taught how to develop digital tool skills. It is always important to keep in mind that students are not digital natives like society paints them to be, so before letting them create their slide one should go over how to actually make it. These slide threads would originally be created by me with my example and shared out with the students. Once the slides are all completed they can go through them and explore their peers' slides.

The activities included in the partner deck are to be done in pairs or trios and then shared with the whole group. I am still working on this part of my project but the three activities that I currently know they can choose from are teaching their peers a TikTok dance that they love, playing a variation of the game 2 Truth and 1 Lie which is instead 5 truths 2 lies, or play the blind drawing activity. The way this activity is played is one of the partners attaches a piece of paper onto their back. Then the partner behind them draws something onto the piece of paper on their partner's back and then they have to see if they can feel what they are drawing and then draw it onto their piece of paper. The goal is to try to match the same drawing on both pages. 

And lastly, the third deck of cards is to be done as a whole group. These activities are more based on the community-building part of my belief. One of the activities included here is Peek-A-Who, which is where they are separated into two different groups and compete with each other in a name-game face-off. Another activity they can do is Rock, Paper, scissors, and cheerleader. In this activity, they will battle it out to see who is the champion of the group, they will be broken up into pairs, and if they lose the mini-round they have to cheer the remaining winners on. Other activities that they can choose from are commonalities, group juggling, or moonball. Moonball is played with a beach ball and the goal is to score as many hits up in the air without letting the ball touch the ground. 

By creating these cards, I hope to create a fun atmosphere where these children have a chance to express themselves and also get to know each other. Icebreakers were always something that was hard for me to enjoy because I was so shy. I believe that if I was offered a choice to pick from many different ways of expressing myself, it would have been more enjoyable for me. 

Seventeen, Self-Image, and Stereotypes

I read the Seventeen, Self-image, and Stereotypes chapter from this book. I absolutely loved this. This chapter goes over topics that I had problems with growing up. I knew I was influenced by a lot of the media stuff. But I didn’t really pay attention to how much of an influence the media really had on me. Bakari Chavanu how students are walking advertisements and consumers of media. I remember growing up in middle school, and how big of an impact popular brands had on us. Brands like AéRopostale, Hollister, and Abercrombie ruled the middle school. These brands demonstrated your popularity and if you were wealthy or not. If you had to close you were bound to be popular if you didn’t push aside. I remember I would beg my parents to buy me these types of clothes, but I was only able to buy a couple of pairs of outfits. When I was in high school, your popularity depended on the latest iPhone and how fast you were able to get them. I had an iPhone 5SE throughout high school and stuck with it. I noticed that I didn’t care to be popular, I was more concerned about my body. The Kardashians were a huge part of my teenage years. The amount of surgeries that have gotten, the media never discloses as their headlines. They are well known for their beauty. Kim Kardashian alone has inspired so many plastic surgeries. I remember I would waist train to obtain the tiny waist they had. I was ONLY 16. My body was still developing!! After reading this chapter, I came to the realization that I hate the media and what it did to me growing up. I believe if I was not as influenced by the media, I would have been able to enjoy my adolescence a bit more. No media, no stress, just living a good life.

Blog #6

I really enjoyed this Turkle portion. I found it very interesting that this Ted talk was uploaded 11 years ago and it is now so much more relevant to society. She talked about people hiding behind a screen and choosing to be more vulnerable online than in person. This is very relevant to me because I would say I grew up in the social media times. During elementary school, I had a MySpace account. I loved the fact that I was able to show off my best friends on my profile listed under my top friends. I also enjoyed switching my profile backgrounds and music. During middle school, I had a Facebook account. Facebook was huge for me because it was the way I would communicate with my friends after school. I also liked Facebook because of the number of games I spent hours playing. In high school, I had Twitter, Vine, and Snapchat, which I used throughout college. Twitter and Snapchat quickly replaced Facebook. I felt very intrigued by these social media platforms. I believed they were more engaging. Twitter was my public online diary and Snapchat was used to document videos of my day-to-day life. Vine was one of the most exciting social media apps that I have encountered yet. It was very amusing to see how much content could be captured in just 6 seconds. When the pandemic struck, I made a TikTok account because of the fact that I was bored and needed something new to do. TikTok reminded me of Vine so much that it was something I always go on to get that quick laugh. But through all the social media, I can completely relate to what was said in this TED talk. I have been a victim of preferring to be online than in person. I always found it much easier to express myself and be more social through texting than I was when I had to talk to a physical person.

She also talked about the Goldilocks effect. She describes a Goldilocks effect as not too close, not too far, just right. Through this, she goes over how people love to text or even email instead of actually talking. The reason for it is because as human beings we love to be able to edit and retouch the human connection that we might make mistakes through. I have always been the rather text-than-call type of person. For me, I prefer to type 30 different emails instead of having a phone call longer than five minutes. I even get anxious when it comes to ordering food inside the restaurant at a fast food place. I find too much pressure when I know people are expecting me to say something. When I order fast food, I prefer to order it online. It gives me more time to think, and more time to think again, and think again. This all correlates back to what she said. As human beings, we like to clean up human communication.

I resonated a lot with what she said when it came to the moment that people are alone, they become anxious, panic, fidget, and reach for a device. I am constantly on my phone. Yes, I said it. I am guilty. The way she explained the reason for it made a lot of sense. I tend to go on my phone whenever I do feel anything other than the feeling of happiness. I remember when I was in high school and my friends and I would always talk about how awkward it was to pass by a group of people, especially guys. The way we would combat this awkwardness was by passing by the group and pretending to be on our phones. To ask this made the situation much easier to go through. 

In the article, she talks about how the pandemic made us fully depend on technology. Yes, we were “connected” but we were more isolated than ever. We couldn’t physically see each other. And we’re forced to see our loved ones through the screen. Now to me, this was something that I have always wanted. I never liked being close to people in lines. I loved the fact that we were virtual for school. I enjoyed that people are being more aware of their cleanliness. But as much as I loved what the pandemic brought, it cost me a lot of things. I wasn’t able to cross the stage and have the graduation I most anticipated back in 2020. And in 2021 I lost my uncle due to Covid. It was very tough to know that he was in the hospital, and there was no visitation allowed. We were forced to see him through a screen. We saw how he suffered. And couldn’t physically be there for him. Yes, we were connected, but we were also so far away. This piece resonated so much with me and I could go on for days, but I will just end here.

Blog #5

I have always loved to play Kahoot games and quizzes back in school. I remember playing them back in high school and throughout my undergrad. I love how diverse it can be and the fact that it can be very anonymous depending on the name the players create. because it can be anonymous. It creates a more competitive atmosphere, which relatively becomes more fun since it’s also a mystery. Although I have always used Kahoot as a player, I have never actually created a profile or even a quiz. Through this mini tutorial, I will be able to show you how to access Kahoot and make your own.

What is Kahoot!

Kahoot! Is a game-based learning tool. Users can create mini multiple-choice quizzes for students or any audience that can be accessed through the internet or app with the code provided. Kahoot can be used for many purposes covering different subjects and various age groups. 

How to use Kahoot! - Mini Tutorial

Part 1 - How to Create an Account

Step one: Create an account. It only takes a couple of minutes to create an account. You would first click on the type of account you would want to create.

Step two: Choose your intended audience. 

Step three: Enter your birthday

Step four: Create a unique username or click the blue wand to get a random username.

Step five: Enter your email and create a password or sign up with the email options listed.

Part 2 - How to create a new Kahoot quiz/game.

Step one: Once you have created your account, you will be taken to this main page which is your homepage. You can either click the ‘Create’ button on the top right corner or the ‘Create a new Kahoot’ box.

     

Step two: You could choose from different premade Kahoot templates or choose a blank canvas to create your own.

 

Step three: Choose the category for the Kahoot

Step four: Type your question and add a picture if you feel like it.

Step five: Add the multiple-choice answers and select the correct one.

Step six: Create a title for your Kahoot quiz and a small description if you want to.

After all that, your Kahoot is ready to be played! 

Part 3 - How to Play

Step one: Start the game. Players can join in various ways. They can join by going to Kahoot.it with the Kahoot app, or by scanning the QR code.

 

Step two: Once players have joined with the code they will have to create a username and then they will be able to appear on the main screen where all the players would be on.

Step three: Start your Kahoot and have fun! 

Blog #4

This Ted talk was very informative to me. The experimental project that was conducted several times in different locations all prove the same thing, which is that digital natives are not an actual thing. The digital native term is canceled out and does not apply to these children in these different communities. The communities were exposed to a computer in a box (hole in the wall) and given no instructions on how to use it or what it was. Since children are naturally curious it became their objective to learn how to use the screen in the box. After nine months, the kids were able to use the computer and also teach others how to use the computer. Many of them learned from just standing and watching the other kids use the computer. This comes to show that anyone can learn just as long as they have time to learn. These children are prime examples of self-teaching each other through technology. It is also important to mention that the computers were just in English, and were placed in areas where English is not spoken or even read. This could’ve been a huge barrier for these children but through time they were able to understand and access everything on the computer properly.

This Ted talk made me think about the different ways that I make an impact on students' lives in an online environment. I have worked as a TA for the last three years and I understand that children are fully capable of doing things on their own. I also understand that children know how to access social media very well, but I do tend to struggle when it comes to actually learning through digital tools. My role as a TA has always been to assist students wherever they need help. I have also learned to give the students space and let them go through their trial-and-error experiences. I allow them to try doing things on their own a couple of times before they ask for help. This itself is a huge thing to help them scaffold. This Ted talk helped me better understand that children only need a supportive person to be around them in case there are questions. 

Blog #3

I personally enjoyed listening to this 1619 podcast. I loved how it had music and different sets of tones. I believe it delivered the message that we should all have universal healthcare and gave us many reasons that support the message. This would be very beneficial to allow high school students to listen and open it up to a discussion afterward. In my opinion, a podcast would be a great educational tool to teach high school students. Many youth in students are interested in having their own podcasts. Many of them have created some but most of them do not know how to properly create content. This goes back to the digital native versus the digital immigrant. Students aren’t being taught how to use these technological educational tools. Many believe that they already know how to use them. 

Since I have been working with third graders, I find it a bit harder to keep them actively listening to a podcast without any visuals for a long period of time. Thinking of the third-grade class I was in this previous school year, I would say that they were more engaged in videos than actually hearing us talk. I also believe that they would gain more knowledge by learning how to make videos instead of podcasts at this age. These third graders were very into TikToks and learning new dances, so I much rather give them a learning opportunity to create a video, teaching the class something, instead of teaching them how to create a podcast. I believe it would be a fun idea to love them to actually teach their peers through their work of presenting their short videos. These videos could be on any topic. They could teach the class how to skip count through a song. They could teach the class how to tie their shoes or even multiply. The possibilities are endless.

Blog #2

Disney was and has been a huge part of my life. I was raised watching Disney movies and the Disney Channel shows. I loved all the princesses but most importantly the little mermaid. Ariel was always my favorite princess. Although I can’t pinpoint the reasoning behind my favoritism for Ariel, I believe her hair color was what drew me in the most since it is my favorite color. I grew up having princess and Barbie-themed everything. My parents would call me their princess and show me all the princess movies. I resonated with the princesses since I believed I was a princess, but I couldn’t quite find myself completely through any of them. Growing up, I was never able to connect with them at a level where I felt truly represented. All of these princesses were mostly white with one Indian and one Chinese princess to create a sense of diversity. Although I felt like Jasmine’s skin color matched mine, I was still not represented since I am not Indian. I remember when The Princess and the Frog debuted and how big of an impact that made on me. I was amazed at the fact that Tiana was the first black princess on Disney platforms. As I grew up, and rewatched this movie, I viewed it differently each time. It was great that Tiana was the first black princess but it would have been extraordinary if she would have been in human form for most of the movie instead of a frog. 

Reading Christensen’s piece, I was hit with the reality that I have secretly been running from. I did not want to face the reality of the injustice that Disney portrays because as I said, I grew up with this it was all I had known. The impact of this reading did not surprise me at all because I too was like Justine and was choosing to be ignorant and happy. As much as I watched all the princess movies, I knew I didn’t ultimately want to be a princess “when I grew up”. I grew up watching the Cheetah girls and resonated so much more with them. There were four girls in which three of them are people of color and one is white. I remember I loved watching this movie simply because I felt like I was being represented and I was able to relate to Chanel who was the Latina cast member. The songs they sang were very empowering especially “Girl Power” and “Cinderella”. The title of the song “Girl Power” says the main message that the song is sending out. The song “Cinderella” has some very powerful lyrics which send the overall message that girls do not need a man to do things for them. The chorus is important, but this one stanza is powerful “I can slay my own dragon, I can dream my own dreams, my knight in shining armor is me”. This means that they, girls, are capable of doing things that are normally portrayed to be a man’s thing and that they are also independent and capable of taking care of themselves. Because of these powerful girl role models I watched, I was able to look past being a princess and consider myself a fierce Cheetah girl instead.

PS: Just a cheetahlicious picture of myself embracing my fierce cheetah side