DR VERENA ROBERTS

Today we attempted to have a conference call with Dr Verena Roberts from the University of Calgary. She was kind enough to agree to talk to our class on the day of her convocation. The topic was meant to be related to open learning designs. Unfortunately, we were unable to hear her speak due to a bad connection. That said, her topic seemed really interesting and relates to my seminar inquiry. Hopefully Michael will share her presentation with us and I can take a closer look at what she was trying to say. I was able to catch a few comments from Verena during her call that stuck with me.

She mentioned that learning happens everywhere and that we need to consider how we access all that learning  and ensure that students have access to those learning opportunities as well. In connection to that, she said “learning is learning – it doesn’t matter how”. In this comment she highlighted the idea that learning doesn’t have to happen in formal environments and as teachers we need to learn how to harness learning experiences that happen informally and formally to create and build learning ecosystems. Verena highlighted that two important components to creating learning ecosystems are reflection, from both teacher and students, and building relationships.

She mentioned 4 stages in the process of building learning ecosystems with students.

Stage 1: Building relationships

• find out who these students really are
• get to know them and how you can best support their learning

Stage 2: Co-design learning pathways (with students)

Stage 3: Building and sharing knowledge (use digital tools to share knowledge)

stage 4: Building a personal learning network

She also provided us with a couple bit.ly sites for us to look at:

(A high school program where students learn core competencies through building houses)

(Open Readiness Assessment Rubric)

It’s really unfortunate that we weren’t able to hear all of Dr Verena Robert’s presentation, but in the meantime I found a few websites related to the topic that might give me a basic understanding of the topic:

Proposing OLDI (Version 1): An Open Learning Design Intervention for K-12 Open Educational Practice

7 things you should know about open education practices

TALKING ABOUT INQUIRY

Dr Verena Roberts attempted to share with us some ideas about inquiry learning and how it related to her topic. As a result, we had a class discussion about inquiry. Through this, we began to discuss the importance of building strong relationships with students and allowing students the opportunity to find connections in their learning to support inquiry learning.

The following videos touch on these topics.

DISTRIBUTED LEARNING 

Some notes from Michael’s slides:

Distributed learning is becoming more prominent and might be important/ common in our future careers.

Some examples of how it is being done:

• robotic presence
• conference calls
• table top robots for learners who are stuck at home

Traditional classrooms – if you are there you are there, if your’e not, you’re not.

• lots of different configurations but often some forced configuration with the teacher at the front

Online courses:

• a big problem is that a lot of people think online courses mean just putting content out there for the students
• can have asynchronous, fully online or blended
• most people that teach online courses were thrown into it and it is a totally different kind of learning
  • video conferencing (every connection to that environment is dependent on its personal connection to the environment)
• synchronous online classrooms

Blended class

• some face to face and some online
• want people to prepare with online and then can use the most of the face to face time

We have to be flexible for learners who can’t make it to school – how can we support all learners needs and preferences?

OPENED RESOURCES – Ruth & Hannah’s presentation

We have looked at openEd resources in class before, but Ruth and Hannah did a great job sharing the possibilities and usefulness of Comonsense Education. This is definitely a resource that I will make use of. It has webinars, lesson plans and resources. Hannah also showed us that we can use the site to look up teacher reviews of tech tools. For example, we could look up apps or videos and see how other teachers used it, why they used it or maybe why they didn’t use it.

Ruth also mentioned the Math Through Stories website, which would be a great website to support learners with math.

Finally, they reminded us that we have fair use for what we use in the classroom but if we choose to share what we created outside the classroom, we need to consider all copyright laws.

HOW DOES INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY AFFECT STUDENTS? – Kathleen, Sydney and Anna

When tech is integrated seamlessly students become more engaged and take more control of their learning:

• students can construct their own meaning
• empowers learners
• less teacher directed, more student directed

3 questions to ask yourself when considering using screen time with young children:

is it appropriate?

is it meaningful?

is it empowering?

The main take away of this presentation is that a lot of our concerns around screen time come from myths. We should focus on the content on the screens as opposed to the screens themselves.

Other considerations:

• the same technology tools need to be introduced and used over a period of time so students aren’t wasting all their time getting to know how to use new tools
• preview all content before sharing it with students
• be comfortable with the technology tools you introduce

3D PRINT DESIGN – Jamie and Nick

Jamie and Nick’s presentation was really interesting. This isn’t a topic that I would have considered or looked into on my own, so I was happy that they were able to share some information.

I loved this video that they shared with us.

They mentioned that Spencer Middle School already has a 3D printer. I found a few videos that discuss the use of 3D printing in the classroom:

So today was the start of our group tech inquiry project presentations. I was really impressed with what people had put together and will definitely be taking some time to look into some of the resources.

Stop Motion

Keiro started us off with a presentation about stop motion animation. This is honestly something I have never given much thought to, certainly not in the classroom, but maybe it is something I need to consider. Keiro was so enthusiastic about stop motion and I can see that involving students in a stop motion video could be really engaging and exciting. I think it would be a good connection to ADST. Like Keiro said, stop motion is time consuming so I doubt that it is something that I would be doing without the students, but I like the idea of becoming more capable myself so that I could potentially aide students in projects.

I will take a look at some of the resources Keiro mentioned, like the waldportfolio website and the education microsoft website.

Google Geographic Products

Connor, Anne, Eliza and Kelly did a wonderful job explaining the various features of google maps and google earth. I was not aware of all the features and how well they would apply in the classroom. Of course, we have to consider FIPPA if we want students to be individually working on these applications, but many schools in Victoria give out  consent forms automatically for students to have Google suite accounts. Connor, Anne, Eliza and Kelly gave a lot of great classroom application ideas, so I will link in their presentation here when I have access to it. In the mean time, I found a few resources on my own:

Ten Ways to Use Google Earth in Your Classroom – It’s Not Just for Social Studies

10 Ways to Use Google Maps in the Classroom

DIGITAL LITERACY

Taylor, Brie and Katrina looked at the question “what is digital Literacy and how do we teach it in the modern classroom?”

This was a particularly relevant questions and they did a wonderful job walking use through what digital literacy is, strategies and best practices, pros and cons of tech use, how to talk to parents about digital literacy and also why we should consider digital literacy in relation to sex ed. There was heaps of information, so I won’t go through it all now. Instead, I will link their slides when I have access.

Brie shared some very useful resources for our own education and also to share with students:

She mentioned that the following video would be good for middle students, but fast so we might want to slow it down or take bits:

She also suggested the MediaSmarts website for Canadian specific content. She did mention that they had some slightly outdated lesson plans but that they could be easily updated and used.

Another thing that Brie mentioned was citizen science projects. I think this is a great way to get students to apply their learning in meaningful ways. I found a list of citizen science projects on the National Geographic website.

Katrina shared some good websites that could be excellent resources for tweens or teens. One website was Scarletteen and an app to look into is Okayso.

ON TO THE 336 CONTENT

Michael shared a quick google doc hack for us. Instead of going into drive to open a new doc or slides, you can simply type in  doc.new or slides.new etc. into the browser bar.

The we talked about how to integrate tech into the classroom, focusing on the SAMR model.

SUBSTITUTION:  tech as a direct tool substitute with no functional change

AUGMENT: tech acts as a direct tool; substitute with functional improvement

MODIFICATION: tech allows for significant task redesign

REDEFINITION: tech allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable

A good website to check out is: https://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

Although I am familiar with inquiry as a method of teaching, our visit to George Jay has given me a number of resources that I want to explore further explore. Rebecca was kind enough to provide us with a link to her presentation along with examples and sites and ideas. A few of the major ideas that I took away from our visit were:

a) inquiry can and absolutely be scaffolded. As shown in the top pool photo illustration, there are various levels of inquiry and students need to feel confident and comfortable at each step as they work toward a free inquiry, or the benefits will be negated.

b) provocations are key, not only to the start of an inquiry, but also throughout the process to maintain student engagement and encourage depth of though.

Rebecca’s classroom was full of provocations that were not related to any specific inquiry, but simply available to incite curiosity and wonders. She mentioned the need to value questions and model being inquisitive to help foster an environment conducive to inquiry.

I was especially interested in her work with Padlet as it relates to my seminar inquiry question. This is not a program that I was familiar with before, but I can see it having a really positive impact on collaboration and connection making at all age ranges. I hope to have some time to get familiar with Padlet.

Here is a video that outlines how Padlet can be used by teachers.

I would also like to explore Canva a bit more to see if it would be a valuable tool for me as a student and potentially as a resource for my future students.

So today we looked mainly at PowerPoint as a means to create graphics. Although I did learn about a few new features, I am quite comfortable with PowerPoint because I used it for most of my lessons when I taught in Indonesia. However, the version that I used was quite old. So I decided to explore some of the other new features in PowerPoint and now I am super excited! I have only explored a few features, but this is what I have discovered so far.

The first feature is automatic, but I love it. It’s the design options that come up on the right hand side of the screen as you start to work on your slides. You can see it in the image below. I love this feature because it does tend to show you a number of unique options and usually with themes that are not listed in the designs.

The next feature blew me away. If you choose the Quick Starter when you open PowerPoint, you can search for your presentation topic and get a PowerPoint layout that matches your topic. It gives you a general outline of subtopics that could be explored and some slides will even include information and notes. It is sort of a bare bones presentation, but could really help a student who struggled with organisational skills and needed a bit more scaffolding for essays, reports or presentations. It does appear that most of the information comes from Wikipedia, so if you were to use this with an older student, you could challenge them to find similar information from more academically recognized sources. The pictures below show my steps when I used Quick Starter to access a slide about rubrics. It wasn’t exactly the type of rubrics I was looking for, but still had some relation to the PowerPoint I had just made for our 407 Assessment class.

The next few features I discovered at about the same time. First I discovered that if you have a subscription to PowerPoint you can access all these free 3D images to insert into your PowerPoint. Some of these images are animated and just oh so much fun! PowerPoint also has a build in instructional presentation about how to use the 3d animations. Following this presentation, I also discovered that my duplicating a slide, moving around desired items and then pressing ‘morph’ in the transitions menu, you can automatically create an animation that moves all the items you moved around in one click.

Just image the interactive lessons that could be created with these new features! I’m so excited!

I then found that you can record your slides. While recording your slides, you can also record your voice, draw on the slides and erase what you have drawn. Later, when you go to the slide show, your voice and any drawings you did on the slide will play automatically.

Finally, I discovered that you can put subtitles on your slide. Unfortunately, you cannot record these subtitles; they only work live. However, I tested them in both English and Indonesian and found them to be pretty accurate. What a great option if you had ELL students in your class. Here’s what it looks like.

Needless to say, I can’t wait to do some more exploring and see what other features PowerPoint has included! I realise that not all classrooms will have easy access to PowerPoint presentations and that not all lessons lend well to being presented this way, but it’s so great to have this as an option.

One last think I found was the Microsoft accessibility checker. While trying to find a way to record with subtitles (not possible apparently) I found myself on this website. It has some great tips and outlines methods for making Microsoft documents and presentations more accessible for all:)

    Our visit to Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry was inspiring. Although we had all watched Jeff Hopkins’ TedTalk, Education if people mattered, visiting the school and seeing how all the students went about their day was eye-opening. I was surprised that the space was so small and that the “classrooms” were so tiny, but after Jeff explained that classes only really occur as specialized workshops for students who need it, it made a lot more sense. Most students were just hanging out in their common room working on their own projects but also socializing in small amounts with their friends. The amount of autonomy given to these high school students was incredible, they seemed to thrive in it.

Although I am familiar with inquiry, PSII’s style was next level! I have to admit I was pretty jealous of the students and the level of agency that they had developed through this process.

In his talk, Jeff mentioned a number of good resources for inquiry based teaching. Here are a few that I hope to look into:

An education that fits your child.

Kathleen Gregory

https://www.trevormackenzie.com

Jesse Miller’s talk today gave us a lot to think about. He highlighted the need for us as future educators to (a) be responsible and conscious in our use of technology and (b) be ready to have open conversation about technology and technology use with students. This all through the lens that technology is not going away. On his website, Jesse says: “THE CONNECTED SOCIETY IS THE NEW NORMAL, WE KNOW IT, OUR CHILDREN EXPECT IT. WE HAVE CREATED THE REALITY.”
Instead of fear mongering, we need to discuss, inform and model responsible technology use for our students. This led to the idea of digital citizenship. I think that this is a really important concept. I found this website   website with some good resources for teaching digital citizenship.

When talking about internet bullying, Jesse also mentioned Erase BC. I looked it up and found that not only does it have online portals where students can report issues, it also has an online support system for student and provides help to schools. The site also encourages students to share positive, caring stories from their community using #erase.

I was really shocked to hear how video gaming has become something of a professional sport. I found this documentary style video about it on YouTube.

Jesse also has a Ted Talk that I haven’t yet watched, but will hopefully find time for soon.

Today’s workshop on  iMovie, Audacity and Screencastify  was a useful learning experience for me. I will have to remember to look over the workshop instructions again later on. Students in my classes have always amazed me with their ability to create movies, but I never knew how to do it myself. Although I think creating movies on iMovie may be a little to time intensive for an everyday lesson, iMovie could be great for documenting or for creating examples.  I also think it is really useful as a teacher to understand how applictions like iMovie work so that I can provide support to students who may want to use it in the future.

I also really liked the Audacity part of the workshop. My colleagues and I have taught a podcast unit in middle school before and never knew how to use this application. Although I am pretty sure some of the students used it, again it is good to have an idea of how it works.

I didn’t get a chance to try Screencastify yet, but I imagine it could be a very useful teaching tool. It could be used to show examples during class or videos could be given to students so that they could watch it on their own and at their own pace, all feeding into a universal design.

I had some fun playing around with video and audio from my son Noah after this workshop! Check out what I created!