Category: Learning Design

November 29 – Class Highlights

FreshGrade (Sam, Mitra, Jess S.)

Includes

  • communication tool, between parents and teachers
  • lesson plan option
  • digital portfolios – audio/video difficult to hear if not very quiet in surrounding area
  • Announcements
  • Activities
  • Report Cards

FreshGrade & FreshGrade NEXT

  • talk to teachers about use and frustrations
  • FreshGrade NEXT is just upgraded version of the program
  • (ACTIVITY* make hearts out of modelling clay)
  • NEXT is a bit slower

Features

  • can connect to curriculum and tag posts as they connect to curricular outcomes
  • can connect to google translate – would impact privacy laws when connected to third-party sites
  • needs to be explained to parents
  • can increase pressure from parents, communicate with parents that your posting quality vs quantity and its a benefit and takes time, expectations

 

bobka – Anne

Google Teacher

OpenED!

 

Class Highlights – November 15

Guest Speaker – Verena Roberts

Open Learning Design Intervention

  • Real learning begins when we are left to figure something out, it’s about the doing.
  • Learning happens everywhere, creating access

Design for learning – teacher job to create access

Learning is learning, doesn’t matter the name

Formal learning theorists: Vygotsky, Dewey, Barth, Scardamalia & Bereiter

Informal: other teachers, environment

Personal Learning environments 

Interactions – Collaboration – Connections (outcomes, objectives, competencies)

  • Students being creative and innovative
  • Digital literacy ; space to build personal learning environments

Reflective

  • Journaling

OLDI

  • Relationships
  • Co-designing learning pathways
  • Building & sharing knowledge (assessment – using dig. Lit. to build PLNs)
  • Building Personal Learning Networks

Scaffolding has to happen slowly and be very intentional :

Learning Plan #1 – searching and communicating online

LP #2 – who is my online audience?

LP#3 – How do I solve community Problem?

LP #4 – What it my story based on? What is my perspective? How does my story inform my identity?

 

It was good to see the struggle-in-action of using technology. I think that it’s really important to really prepare and have pretested your system of communication if using technology. I will always prepare for the worst-case scenario when using technology. Just to know that my back-up pathways will work. and if all goes perfectly that’s great. I just would want to be prepared for any potential technological issue.

 

Presentations

OpenEd Resources – Hannah and Ruth

commonsense.org education

Integrating Technology in the Classroom – Anna, Sydney, and Kathleen

Using technology needs to be appropriately, meaningful and empowering.

Question use of technology; screening content – what is being accessed/age appropriateness/its the world but in a tiny mirror so rules and boundaries need to be discussed and held.

Is a supportive tool – use it only when it enhances activities.

3D design & printing – Nick & Jamie

amazing applications for biology, chemistry, any science topic really, math, design, and story telling!

 

Class Highlights – Nov 8 – Presentations

Keiro’s presentation – stop-go animation

stop motion (can be downloaded)

used imovie to fade into the graphic

Photo shop

  • twinning (allows you to take two photos and then it will make it stop go in between)

Pros

  • can be used in any subject to make it fun and engaging
  • hits all core competencies
  • simple concept that can be taken deep

Cons

  • limiting technology available
  • its a slow process and then technology can be difficult
  • takes time and error can occur

Things to watch for

  • camera stability
  • time is really needed
  • have fun!

REsources

  • makerspaceforeducation.com
  • iste.org
  • onf-nfb.gc.ca
  • wiobyrne.com
  • waldprotfolio
  • education.microsoft.com (lessons for all grades!)
  • giphy.com

Google Geographic Products

Google Maps

  • google: My Maps (can make own maps including points of interest, save in layers (stores, parks), can colourize icons, can share & collaborate, can change to satellite images)
  • can add photos and videos of places, could upload audio and link it to places
  • map out: different places in the world using language of place, map fictional settings.
  • Street view : can look at natural wonders, talking about being able to go through museums
  • Google Cultural Institute – information about cultures, arts, natural wonders, repository of historic documents

Google Earth

  • experience – high resolution 3D imagery, can be used for immersive experiences in the class
  • find your house – to get them excited about looking at the world
  • flight simulator – flying around
  • view the past – going back 15-20 years, looking at development land-use change, agriculture, growth
  • Layers: different data can be looked at over layed on maps
  • Im feeling lucky – click button and get sent to a place
  • google moon (immersive interactions with apollo missions, landers, narrated by astronauts), mars, and sky (planets, galaxies, view from telescopes around the world)
  • Voyageur : nasa, the bbc, jane goodall, and sesame street teamed up (narrated tours of places around the world)

Lesson Ideas

  • 20-questions (pick a place, ask questions have students guess)
  • math – maps, measuring, distance
  • explore different environments
  • can make own tours
  • scavenger hunts (coordinates, clues, pictures)

Lessons – My Maps

  • Grade 4 curriculum;
    • following routes travelled during Euro-western exploration
    • make own road trip
  • add journal entries in my maps, historical timelines, distances measured

Privacy

  • Google can track you if you don’t opt out
  • corporations selling information to sell you products
  • benefits – convenience
  • creation/erasure of national boarders

cartography has nationalism built into it. Originally the way that countries were delineated.

Digital Literacy

Information Literacy

      • what is fake and what is real? how to recognize, quality and credibility
      • awareness and critical thinking. who benefits from what is being said, is there bias?

Ethical use

  • citing, use, etc

Understanding digital footprint

  • what are you sharing, cookies, ip address, passwords, service provider, etc
  • what are you leaving behind when you use the internet?

Protecting yourself online

  • you have to be critical or what is offered and what you want to leave on the internet.
  • vpns, data encryption and hacking
  • self-regulation, awareness, screen time

Handling digital communication – cyberbullying

  • the internet is a public space
    •  don’t be a dick
    • there is a history of what you say
    • would you say what you are about to say to peoples faces? if not, don’t say it

Pros & Cons

Risks

Strategies, Tips, and Best Practice

  • Crash Course ; youtube series – navigating digital media (10-11 videos in series), media literacy (amazing for middle school – more intellectual)
    • fact checking – double check your info and teach students how to do this
    • lateral reading – when discovering new information, looking into who is writing articles, when was it written, is there corporate backing/who published this?
    • evaluating evidence
  • Mediasmarts.ca
    • Canadian specific content (know Can Law, applicable to Canada and BC) includes resources for all stakeholders
    • some outdated information
  • Choice & Voice
  • creation v. consumption (more creation = more interesting, increased awareness)
  • multimodalities (diversify, diversify, diversify) –  pick meaningful things, but many
  • collaboration
  • accessibility – make sure learners are given skills to use technology (physical) and apps, go over them
  • crowd-accelerated learning (citizen science – using people’s brains to categorize and process; ie NASA sorting galaxies) – involve outside school that are meaningful and authentic
  • social learning  – spend time on this peer-to-peer interaction, acknowledge role as a social guide.

Parents and Dig Lit

  • assume ignorance, figure out parents involvement in their child’s digital life
  • is part of BC curriculum (21st century citizens)
  • communicate with parent so they understand
    • digital engagement family night (class or school wide)
  • risks and benefits – be compassionate, explain why, patience

Sex, sexuality and the digital world

  • lots of misinformation, single stories, confusion, and shame
  • awareness of this, provide positive digital resources where they can find real true information
  • internet can be a safe place for all people as they explore sexuality
  • common sense education

House hippo – media smarts

 

Inquiry Mindset & Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt

On Monday, October 21 our ED 336 class went to Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt’s class to have a look at her classroom set-up and speak with her about how she implements inquiry learning into her public school classroom. Rebecca Bathhurst-Hunt and Trevor Mckenzie co-authored a book in 2018 titled Inquiry Mindset, a book designed to help teachers encourage “dreams, wonders, and curiosities in young learners”.

book

I was unfortunately unable to attend the classroom tour but have been working my way through her website and the multitude of other resources that have been provided by my fellow classmates and Michael, who recorded the audio of her talk and has posted it on our classroom website!

I am so inspired by Rebecca and her implementation of Inquiry based learning into her classroom practice.

 

Pacific School of Inquiry and Innovation – A Field Trip

On October 11, my ED 336 class went to the Pacific School for Innovation and Inquiry (also known as PSII, pronounced “sigh) to learn about Inquiry based learning.

This school, PSII, is, in my humble and professional opinion, so excellent and effective.

Inquiry is a beautiful process of learning that motivates students, provides an exceptional foundation for future learning, and prepares these young minds for the high-level executive functioning that is required to be successful in this modern world.

The students at this school start their year off by learning how to ask meaningful questions and spend their first week coming up with questions and then narrowing those questions down to topics that interest them and areas they would like to explore.  Once this is done, students are provided tools, support, and time to delve deep into their inquiry projects.

Inquiry is unique in that it is a learning style that emphasizes the process of learning, as opposed to the creation of an end result, which is the goal of project based learning or most traditional schooling models. If a students inquiry no longer interests them or they have learned a satisfactory amount they can let an line of inquiry be dropped. This often happens and is seen as part of the inquiry process.

The unique and authentic learning that occurs at PSII is inspiring. I hope that this model becomes more common place in our learning world.

 

 

 

“Most Likely To Succeed”

A great watch!

I love the idea behind High Tech High and their practices of project and inquiry based learning. I want to implement these forms of learning in my teaching practice and this movie took away some of the ambiguity around how it looks and what it entails. I still wonder about how well it will be received by parents and the students, but I believe it is a worthwhile endeavour and a risk that will pay off.

I also loved the combination of topics as I believe that the division of learning into subjects taught in isolation without even acknowledging the cross over is outdated and unhelpful to learners lasting knowledge. I believe context is so key to knowledge synthesis and the intersection of art and science helps to create richness of understanding and relevance of content to learners.

This video is worth a watch. If you would like a preview check out the trailer at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE5XRrfetu4