How I learned and helped learning!!!

Here comes the last post of my ECMP355 journey!! I would say it was a pleasant experience. When, I joined this class, I was empty handed in terms of technology. Now, if not everything, I can say I know lot more than I used to before. Technology was far away from my radius before. Now, I have courage to play around it. This class has given me positive attitude and enthusiasm for technology.

I would like to share my journey through this course here.

Blogging and Blog Comments:

We started up with “Blogs”. I was blogging through out the course period. Each week we were expected to do two blogs, which I was able to do on time. One was supposed to be on learning project and other was on weekly topics. I was constantly encouraging my classmates on their learning. Also, when I was stuck somewhere, I read other people’s blogs to get inspiration. Here, are screenshots of some of my comments and ping-backs.

Tweeting:

When I heard about twitter in my class, I was overwhelmed, because for me twitter was something like Facebook. I was not much interested in Facebook by that time, so one more similar kind of thing put me off. However, as time went by, I realized, Twitter is much more resourceful than my expectation. I never knew that it could be a platform for sharing and gaining knowledge from some of world’s renowned educators. In the beginning, we were asked to share two resources everyday. Now, when I look at my profile, I found that, I was tweeting more than expected. Its surprising!!! This was not because we were asked to do so, this was because twitter is so addictive that you can not resist sharing your learning.

Its exciting for me that in less than three months I have these many connections on my Twitter account . Here, are some tweets from me in last three months.

     

Google Plus Community: 

We are ECMP355 – Winter 2017 community on Google plus. I want to express here that, I am very proud of being a part of this community. On this, I continuously shared my technology related problems and got them sorted out. I was not a technology person, but wherever it was possible I tried to help other people of community by responding to their queries. It was a pleasant surprise when I received an email of appreciation from Katia.

Following are some of the screenshots of participation in Google Plus discussions.

 

Deciding on taking ECMP355 class was one of my best decisions of my life. It has not only given me courage of handling technology but also changed my perception towards it. Not only me, my husband, sister and brother also got benefited through it. I taught my husband about blogging and my siblings learnt about twitter, also in my school I am able to help my students more efficiently with coding now.  And credit goes to Katia, whose insight and encouraging approach kept me motivated to do my best on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summarizing Our Learning Through ECMP355

Here comes the time to wrap up Ecmp355 course!!! It was an amazing journey filled with lots of information and sharing. Following is course summary video done by Kanchan Mankotia and Anila Kanwal. We would like to thank Katia for making this course interesting and knowledgeable at the same time. Thanks!!!

Learning Project Wrap Up!!!!!

Wow!!!Time just flew by and I am doing last post of my learning. It was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed this journey a lot. There were ups and downs but still I had a great time!

I had chosen “Baking” as my learning goal. It was not very difficult to get started on it as I already had a couple of required things at home. However, with time I realized, there are some tricky things involved in it. In baking either you follow the steps religiously and achieve your goal or just be careless and ruin the things. Most challenging part was to do the preparation for recipes. Especially, with cake baking, all ingredients should be measured accurately. If I add the time I spent on researching, discussing recipes with different people, buying things, planning, preparation, baking, taking pictures, cleaning, uploading pictures to posts, writing my posts, making video, editing etc, it is 54 hours I spent on this project!! Following is the summary of all posts I did during my learning.

1. Stepping Stone: In the first post, I set “Christmas Cake” as my goal of learning . Thereafter, I worked on earning skills to get better on baking.
2. Everything you need to know to start baking: Now, it was time to get started on it. I searched through a number of sites to see what things I should have to get started. I figured, though I had a couple of things at home, but still I needed to buy lot of new things.
3. I baked today: Then finally, I baked sponge cake and cup cakes. It wasn’t bad to begin with. Me and my family enjoyed baking them together.
4. Baking treasures: After starting up with cake and cup cake baking, I thought of exploring for interesting recipes from internet. In this post I included a number of amazing recipes after searching through a number of websites.
5. Crunch to health – homemade cookies: It was a fun experience to bake cookies for valentine’s day. Preparing dough was quite challenging part of it, as I didn’t even know what kind of dough could taste best. So, I had to search through a number of websites and videos to find the best recipes.
6. A step away from Baking: A number of times, I thought about Grilling chicken but didn’t get a chance. Because, I already had started playing around with my oven, Lol! It encouraged me to try grilling finally. It turned out great.
7. Twist in plan: On You Tube, You can see a number of videos on cookie decoration. Some of them are really inspiring. So, I wanted to try cookie decoration. May be because, I was quite new to it, it was a disaster. So, instead I baked some more cookies.
8. Bake it in Italian style: This was an amazing experience. I baked Lasagna, and it was absolutely delicious. I still like to look at those pictures sometimes.
9. Cake icing – A Sugar art: Icing is an important part of baking. I would say many recipes in baking are incomplete without icing. I explored a number of wonderful sites to learn about this sugar art.
10. Enhancing my skills: After exploration, it was time to apply that learning. I baked and decorated a cake for my husband’s Birthday. Though, it was not a very good cake in my view, everybody in my family appreciated it.

Walking through these small steps of learning, I realized that this project has entered it’s last phase. On one side I was excited that, it was time to do my dream baking i.e Christmas cake, whereas on other side, I was a bit sad because this project was going to end. Following is the video of my last baking for this project.

It was a wonderful journey. I learnt a lot of things about baking. Now, I can confidently say that, it is not a new cooking style for me anymore. This project has not only enhanced my skills but also created my interest in baking. I will continue to practice baking and will make it a part of my everyday cooking.

In the end, I would like to thank all those people, who read my posts and encouraged me to do better. I would also like to thank Katia Hildebrandt for hosting this course, and providing an opportunity to undertake this project.

 

How effective Clicktivism is?

Technology has spread it’s influence in such a way that everything around us is changing rapidly. It has not only impacted the way of our living but has also influenced the thinking pattern, style and even system, which controls many aspects of our life. Today, people don’t only see technology as recreational thing but also use it as a “voice”. Clicktivism is one of such examples. It is a kind of activism which is done online.

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There was a time when activism used to be bound in limited area with a limited number of people involved in it. With technology it has taken a bigger platform now. Social media can be used to raise the awareness or spread the word in shorter time and in effective way. There are a plenty of examples in which people joined a movement for a noble cause and successfully achieved the desired goals. One of the examples is when Paris faced terrorist attack, millions of people changed their profile picture to create a sea of French flag on Facebook to show their sympathy and support to the attack victims.

There is another example provided in Sydney Hirt‘s blog in which she has mentioned a movement which started in 2014. This step was taken against Australian Government, when it decided to prevent the resettlement of asylum seekers in Australia. The government released the following picture to depicts it’s stand on it.

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In response to this picture, another picture was released by a group of Christian activists, emphasizing on  “Love Makes a Way“. It is a way of protesting the policy in peaceful manner.

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This group is protesting the Australian Government’s inhumane asylum seeker policy. It has chosen a non-violent way to stand against this decision. Millions of people around the world have joined this movement online. Hopefully, voice of these people would pressurize Australian Government and eventually accept asylum seekers whole heartily.

Is it possible to have a productive conversations about social justice online?

In my view, it is possible to have such discussions online. One thing it takes is, positive attitude. Doesn’t matter if you are in favor or against the topic, what important is, to have a positive approach, because in this way you will be able to respect other person’s perspective. Also, with this it is possible to accept new and reasonable ideas. Social justice is a very sensitive topic. People usually like to stay stuck with their pre-formed notions. However, if we are welcoming, certainly there are possibilities to explore and learn new dimensions of this subject.

 

Coding continues………

Well!! here comes the time for next post. My last post was dedicated to coding and by mere coincidence, in the following week in my ECMP355 class, we learnt about coding. While doing my last post Coding-A new literacy , I had already been explored some of the things mentioned in theECMP355 class. The best thing is Katia Hildebrandt didn’t only provide information about coding learning sites like Code Academy and Code.org , but also showed us how to make projects.

We were asked to code a short project. After watching Katia doing coding, I was excited about it. I decided to do my project on Scratch . It is a coding site on which you can start with a simplest project and go on to world’s most complex game. When I started doing it, it seemed quite challenging to me. Gradually, I figured that more you play , more you learn. If you understand how different scripts work on Scrath, it is easier to be successful in your project.

In my project, I decided to show a player playing something. So, I finalized a soccer player playing football. To my pleasant surprise, background option was available. So, I picked football ground with net. I also added a background cheer sound in my project. Here, is the link to go to the Scratch project .

I started with choosing a  costume for the soccer player , and then assigned scripts to him. Afterwards, scripts were assigned to ball. Following are the screenshots of the project ( I apologize for blurriness).

Why Coding is important?

Coding is not only fun, it  has promising future too. This is the age of technology, not only by companies in technology sector need coding , there is huge demand of coding in businesses too. More and more businesses are relying on coding these days. Coding has become a core skill that increases chances of commanding higher salary. Job prospects for those who know coding are getting better. Therefore, its important to help our children to learn this skill to have a bright future.

Children who learn coding at early age develop deeper understanding of logic. They tend to have analytical and problem solving approach towards various aspects of life.

Above mentioned coding sites are a source to create interest of students in this field.They can start it in a fun way and decide later if they want to learn further . This is a great start to get our students ready for the digital world.

I would like to end this article by sharing this video, in which some great people from digital world are sharing their ideas about importance of coding.

 

 

Enhancing my skills!!!

Last week, for doing my post Cake Icing-A Sugar Art , I looked up a new aspect of baking, without which baking is incomplete. That aspect is “Icing”. My husband’s birthday was approaching. So, I thought of making and decorating cake myself. Following is the picture of cake which I prepared for his birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though, it wasn’t the world’s best cake, but he liked it a lot.

This was the first time I had ever tried cake icing. There are some people in my ECMP355 group, who are also working on the  projects related cake decoration. One of them is Emily. I am impressed by Emily’s work . She has done an amazing job on cake frosting and related things.

I picked up recipe for doing icing from thekitchenmagpie.  I used the following ingredients to make the icing mixture.

• 1 cup of salted butter
• 3  teaspoons of vanilla
• 4 cups of icing sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons of  coffee cream (18% and up)

I followed the steps given on the site to prepare it. Then, I needed some tips to decorate the cake. I wanted something simple for a beginner. This video helped me a lot with getting my project ready.

My first experience of preparing a cake with icing went well beyond my expectations. This has motivated me to prepare more stylish and colorful  icing cakes in future.

Coding-The New Literacy

Coding – this word is something that used to scare me a lot(it still does a bit though). In my school, we have “Coding Club” in which students started learning coding a few months ago. On the very first day, I was in the classroom. In the beginning, when teacher started explaining “Coding”, everything seemed quite interesting. However, as the time passed by I started loosing hold on it. Eventually, I was completely lost. Since then I never tried to explore about it.

However, now because I am doing this course, which is completely technology based, I thought of giving one more try to it. So, I am going to explore answers for all those questions which I had in my mind about coding.

What is Coding in computer?

In simplest words, coding is set of commands for computer which you want it to follow. It is telling a computer what you want it to do, in steps. A computer language is used to develop apps, websites and software.

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Why is coding important?

Coding is life line of digital world. Almost all technical tools, smartphones, computer programme, digital washer-dryer, microwave oven, you name it, rely on coding. More and more companies are getting themselves connected to one or other kind of software. Not only this, many sectors like banking, marketing, corporate, media etc. are using coding  to develop more convenient and time saving apps.

How it works?

Computers have their own language called “Binary codes“. The capability of a computer is guided by on and off switches also known as transistors.Binary codes associate these on and off transistors with 1 and 0. Infinite combinations of these two digits make the computer work. These combinations are managed by computer programming languages. Through computer programming languages, programmers translate commands into binary code.

Benefits of learning code in classroom:

Today our students live in the world where computers, smartphones, You Tube, Video games are embedded in their life. The article “ Why every child should learn to code” throws light on what it says. Coding not only develops computational thinking in children but also help them to understand logic and science behind the technology they use. In future, computer science will be one of the major job provider. To avail the opportunities, young kids need to develop their interest in this field. To develop interest, its important to expose them to technical environment.

How to teach to code in schools?

Teaching coding is not an easy task if you are not familiar with the nuances of coding. Fortunately, a number of apps, guides, tutorials and software have been produced that make computer coding easy to grasp for young learners. Google provides tutorials about coding at “Made With Code” to encourage girls to pursue career in computer science. Projects given on this site are really easy and are meant for both beginners and intermediates. Also Code.org has posted lessons that are great to share with students. If this is not enough, You Tube is always there to help you out.

Empowering Our Students with Programming:

I appreciate the article “Preparing Kids for The Future by Teaching Them Coding” which tells about Montreal based non-profit organization, which is working towards helping children grasp the technology that surrounds them. They want Canadian kids to learn coding. They started it in Montreal and after huge success there, they are reaching out to children in other parts of Canada too. I am sure, with so many resources available to our students, they can definitely become a code-efficient generation.

After gaining information about coding, I feel  confident that I can learn more about coding and help my students learn this valuable skill….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cake icing – A Sugar Art

Cake can not be a cake without icing!

If you ask me, icing is the best part of a cake. With time it has changed it’s taste, looks and form for better, but has not changed it’s craze among eaters. Today, I am going to expand my knowledge about “Icing“, which is also known as “Frosting”. There are many different types of icings  available in the confectionery world. Here, is the list.

• Buttercream
• Fondant
• Mernigue
• Ganache
• Cream cheese icing
• Royal icing

Everybody has his own taste, but Cream cheese icing is my personal favorite. It’s not only delicious,but also very easy to make. All you need is Cream cheese, Butter, Confectioner’s sugar, Vanilla extract. For more details you can visit Allrecipes  .

When I was looking for information about Icing, I found a bunch of amazing videos about decorating cakes. I was surprised to see, how much effort and creativity you can put into this work. One of them is….

Cake decoration is an art, which takes time, patience and practice to achieve perfection. Besides this there are some technicalities too, which need to be kept in mind while carving your art. There are some tips to achieve best of best.

• Always start with cool cake, if possible freeze it for an hour, it will help to set the cake and crumbs will not get caught in icing. Also its easier to work on hard surface.
• There are some tools specifically meant for icing. For example: Long and offset spatula, bench scraper, turntable, serrated or palette knife, icing cone also called pipe and tips for it with different designs etc. These tools not only make this work easier but also enhance the quality.
• Multiple cake layers make it easier to assemble the cake. Use serrated knife while cake is half frozen to cut it into halves.
• Icing should always be started on top edge going down by spreading along the sides.
• If you use a warm palette knife for spreading icing, it will give a smooth finish to it.
• Icing pipes should be prepared carefully. Start with inserting coupler into icing cone, add tip and ring, then fill cone with icing and secure the bag closed.
• Toothpick is not only used to check if cake is done but also plays important part in icing too. You can poke holes into the surface of icing already spread on cake to outline the design you want to make on cake. If you don’t like it, you can always smooth it again with spatula.
• If you are not freehand yet, use cookie cutters. Place your favorite one over the icing and draw the design along the wall of cutter.
• If you don’t feel confident enough, snapshot a picture on edible paper and stick to frosted cake. And there you go!!!!! An eye catcher will be ready in minutes.

I would like to end this article with this wonderful video, watch and enjoy!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Prezi-Making great presenters

Communicating one’s ideas successfully to the targeted audience is the basic aim of communication. As a presenter, you don’t control the audience’s expectations. What you can do is to make your presentation interesting and add to it that can bind and connect them with it. Only if you know that can you be confident of delivering something that will meet expectations.

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There used to be only one presentation tool Powerpoint  available for it before, now software industry is overflowing with amazing and more dynamic tools. One such tool is Prezi . Prezi’s unique slick “zooming” function offers an increasingly popular alternative to the traditional PowerPoint presentations in education and business alike. Prezi is an online, Flash-based presentation creator who shares similar functionalities with other information presentation programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynotes. It is a visual learning tool which allows you to create maps of texts, images, videos, graphics, etc… and present them in a nonlinear way.

The menu for adding elements has a very unique navigational approach and is easy to master. Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software based on another software as a service model.

Prezi’s most noticeable feature is its zoom in and out function which really brings your message to life. Instead of “flicking” from one slide to the next – as you would do in your good old PowerPoint presentation – Prezi gives you a chance to explore a canvas of ideas by focussing on minute detail as well as allowing you to see the big picture. Instead of a slide show which offers information in accumulation, Prezi favours visual learning and works very much like a graphic organiser or a mind map. Therefore, it highlights the way concepts are interconnected.

With Prezi, you move seamlessly from brainstorming your ideas to presenting them. Create a more cinematic and engaging experience and lead your audience down a path of discovery.

Pros:

•  As I mentioned before Zoom feature of Prezi, Prezi’s zooming presentation software lets you choose between the freedom of the cloud, the security of your desktop, or the mobility of the iPad or iPhone.
• Prezi is 3D,  Zoom out to show the overview of your prezi, zoom in to examine the details of your ideas, or simply move freely through the prezi and react to your audience’s input.
• It works offline too. Work online and store your prezis in the cloud, or work offline with Prezi Desktop and keep your prezis on your own computer.
• Prezi Meeting is perfect for teams. Collaborate across times zones and in real time with up to 10 colleague.
• The touch screen is ideal for zooming into the finer details of your pitch or portfolio.
• You start with a blank canvas and can add and manipulate content anywhere on the page. There is no such thing as a linear, slide-by-slide display method (unless you design it that way, of course). Break the mold and present in unique ways.
• The web-based software is designed with all ages in mind. The simple icon-based design tools ensures that any age group will be successful in creating and presenting new creations.
• Another interesting feature of Prezi is that you can add background music conveniently in no time.

Following the tutorial for it.

Cons:

• One of the complaints about Prezi is that it makes some people feel a little dizzy. With lots of technical effects you find yourself lost.
• If you have limited wireless internet access, or if your internet connection at your building is unreliable, a web-based tool may become more of a hassle than its worth.
• PC users might struggle with Keynote upon first introduction. For example, the application’s design tools are nested in dropdown menus and tabs, possibly foreign to the avid PC user.
• Although Prezi is very reasonably priced, I would argue that it doesn’t offer much more in terms of features than free alternatives such as Google Docs.
• In order to work with your presentation offline, you have to purchase Prezi Desktop which is more expensive than Microsoft Office.

Prezi in Education:

Using Prezi in classrooms is gaining popularity really fast. It’s a fun learning tool which has a visual impact that kids will instantly engage with. One of the important feature of  Prezi is that it is compatible with interactive whiteboard. Which can add advancement and fun at the same time to learning.

Prezi  allows groups of up to ten students to collaborate in real time, so it’s perfect for group projects and for encouraging discussion. Students can approach each other during the making of assignment and discuss about it. In addition, being an online tool, you can make your Prezi public to allow students to access it at home via the internet, so that they can revisit it as often as they need when working on related assignments. Most critical and unlikable part for students, homework has become fun because of this tool.

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Prezi takes  students on a guided tour of subject matter, letting them hold a magnifying glass to the key elements in order to understand them more fully and zoom out to see how the whole concept fits together from beginning to end. Thanks to its super-interactivity, Prezi is a tool that student will love using and which will ensure that when you choose the right visual imagery, the message you want to convey will be a memorable one.

Conclusion:

Prezi is an extremely powerful tool. To utilize it to maximum level, consider the type of audience you have. If used judiciously, it can make your presentation  wonderful and effective.

Bake it in Italian style

Today’s post is dedicated to classic and delicious dish “LASAGNA“. Lasagna is an Italian dish. Lasagne is a wide, flat pasta shape and possibly one of the oldest. As with most other types of pasta, the word is a plural form, lasagne meaning more than one piece of lasagna ribbon. The word also refers to a dish made with this type of pasta in several layers interspersed with layers of various ingredients and sauces. This is so famous among st people that a special day has been dedicated to it. For more fun facts about lasagna, I would suggest you to go to http://mobile-cuisine.com/did-you-know/lasagna-fun-facts/

To find the best recipe, I searched several websites and videos. Some of them were really interesting. I would like to share a couple of searches here.          .            http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/herbed-chicken-lasagna

and https://www.sugardishme.com/kick-ass-chicken-lasagna/  Recipes given on these sites are detailed and explained very well. I have tried a couple of them, and they turned out great.

and my another favorite is

 

My sister Gagan is also a very good cook and baker, so I asked her for recipe too. I baked the one which I got from my sister. Everyone liked the result and infact I baked it again following weekend. Following are the pictures of Lasagna preparation. I hope you enjoy them.

 

I know it can not be enjoyed by watching pictures as much as by baking it and then eating it afterwards. So, I would suggest to bake it to have a wonderful taste.