Reflections of an Experimenter
The three experimenter activities I chose were:
- I chose Get Silly with Animated GIF’s (https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/response/im-fun-just-
ask-me/ )
- Survey’s and Polls (https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/response/google-for-all-kinds-of-
information/ )
- Infographics (https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/response/who-doesnt-love-an-infographic/)
I chose these activities for two reasons; first they were the items I felt I had the least experience with
which gave me an opportunity to learn new skills and second, they were the ones I could see myself
most using in a classroom setting. As I mentioned in my GIF activity, I tend to be a bit of a “less fun”
kind of person, so I feel like these activities helped me consider the importance of engaging learners in a
way that is, well, fun! In addition, I tend to be a bit wordy at times, so the GIF and Infographic activities,
in particular, helped me hone the art of being more succinct. As I think about making the transition in to
teaching, I can see myself using all three in different ways. The GIF I could see myself using as a way to
break up monotony through laughter. The Infographic is useful for providing succinct information in a
creative and engaging way. The surveys and polls are a great way to capture a snapshot of where
learners are in their knowledge of the subject matter at any given time.
Because I am an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber, I chose to do the Infographic activity using the mobile
Adobe Express mobile app on my iPad. I do typically find the creative work of photo editing and graphic
design a bit finicky on mobile apps and I found Adobe Express no different. I couldn’t get the text lined
up within the box shape and found swapping out shapes to be quite difficult. But overall, I was really
impressed with what was possible to create on a mobile iPad app.
I have 2 children, one that just graduated highschool and one in grade 11. In addition, I work in a
college. Youth use their mobile devices as an extension of their body. I see so many teachers fight this
to no avail, so as I think about transitioning in to teaching, I find myself thinking of ways to incorporate
mobile devices as a way to encourage participation. Certainly, the Google suite makes it possible to
complete a variety of assignments over a variety of devices, but what this activity demonstrated is that
with a little creativity, there are a lot of options available.
TweetExample for "Reflections of an Experimenter":
https://youtu.be/XxCIJustbPA