edtech – Atalaya Learning Portfolio 335

Before proceeding with this first blog post, we expect you to consider your privacy preferences carefully and that you have considered the following options:

Do you want to be online vs. offline?
Do you want to use your name (or part thereof) vs. a pseudonym (e.g., West Coast Teacher)?
Do you want to have your blog public vs. private? (Note, you can set individual blog posts private or password protected or have an entire blog set to private)
Have you considered whether you are posting within or outside of Canada? This blog on opened.ca is hosted within Canada. That said, any public blog posts can have its content aggregated/curated onto social networks outside of Canada.

First tasks you might explore with your new blog:

Go into its admin panel found by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL
Add new category or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “edci335” category).
See if your blog posts are appearing on the course website (you must have the the edci335 category assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL)
Add pages, if you like.
Include hyperlinks in your posts (select text and click on the link icon in the post toolbar)
Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works). To embed a YouTube video, simply paste the URL on its own line.
Under Dashboard/Appearance,
- Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, new header image, etc.)
- Customize menus & navigation
- Use widgets to customize blog content and features
Delete this starter post (or switch it to draft status if you want to keep it for reference)

Do consider creating categories for each course that you take should you wish to document your learning (or from professional learning activities outside of formal courses). Keep note, however, that you may wish to rename the label of the course category in menus (e.g., as we did where it shows “Learning Design” as the label for the “edci335” category menu. This will enable readers not familiar with university course numbers to understand what to expect in the contents.

Lastly, as always, be aware of the FIPPA as it relates to privacy and share only those names/images that you have consent to use or are otherwise public figures. When in doubt, ask us.

Please also review the resources from our course website for getting started with blogging:

WordPress resources
Using RSS feeds to read blog posts from your networks (e.g., Feedly)
Privacy resources
Copyright resources
Finding images you can use

What is your preferred mode of remote communication?

My preferred mode of remote communication is Facetime videos or text messages. I think you can be very personal with facetime and texts are a way to communicate quickly and easily.

What are your communication strengths?

I am a very good active listener and am able to provide constructive criticism to others.I am also open to hear other peoples critiques and change my work along the way as needed

What are your communication weaknesses? Where would you like to grow?

Sometimes, I avoid confrontation and having serious talks with others when something needs to be solved. I think I can grow in this aspect by talking to people when there is a problem instead of letting it get too big to the point where confrontation is overwhelming.

Do you consider yourself an introvert or extrovert?

I consider myself an extrovert. I grew up surrounded by siblings and family members and I prefer to be surrounded by others than alone. I also prefer to go out and spend time with others than have a relaxing night to myself.

What time zone are you in?

Pacific Standard time zone (P.S.T.)

What time of day do you prefer doing academic work?

I prefer getting my work done in the late morning/ early afternoon.

When you are upset do you tend to share this with others or keep it to yourself?

I think I am pretty good at expressing my feelings and sharing when something is bothering me.

What do you like about group work?

I like working in groups because you get to hear different opinions and perspectives on topics that you may not have thought of on your own. It’s also amazing to be able to incorporate different skills into assignments. For example someone may be really good at art and another person really great at grammar and you can combine your skills to create the best overall assignment.

What don’t you like about group work?

Sometimes group work can be challenging if all members are not putting in the same amount of effort and time into work.

What else would you like your team to know?

I am excited to work with you all and get this course started!

Author: edtech

Welcome and Introduction

Learning Pod Self Reflection