I really enjoyed the Ed Camp experience and see now how valuable it is a a tool for collaboration and learning, in education especially. I liked how free movement between groups was encouraged and I took advantage of that by visiting 4 groups; however, I spent most of my time at my first chosen group of “naturalists in the classroom.”

The naturalists group discussed and shared great local resources for learning about native plants, including South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (SVIMS), Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary for online and in-person K-12 programs, and local native plant gardens. We brainstormed ideas and resources including retired botanists, Indigenous knowledge holders, and potentially UVic botany students as people who could partner with classrooms for nature field trips.

Check out this video from SVIMS (fast forward to 47:05 for some great mushroom photos and descriptions)

Now, GOOGLE KEEP is so cool. For those of you who are like me and have a million things bookmarked but can never find them again and also never close browser windows because you don’t know how you will ever find it again, then Google Keep was designed for us!!!!!!! I’m going to show you the beauty of it and how to get started I hope.

How can the SAMR theory of technology adoption help you evaluate technologies that you might consider using in your classroom?

The SAMR model can be used by teachers as a tool to assess and evaluate when and how technology is incorporated into the classroom and into instruction. Some technologies simply replace traditional tools while others enable experiences which would not be possible without it; dramatically augmenting the learning experience.

Examples:

Substitution: digital overhead projector to replace acetate overhead projector. The information is delivered and received in virtually the same way.

Augmentation: A word processing program with the ability to edit formatting and check spelling/ grammar improves the product over hand written text if revisions are necessary and allows for much cleaner editing without recopying.

Modification: Having a guest speaker join the class remotely modifies instruction allowing for an experience which otherwise would not be possible; however, without pre-planned materials/ questions for the class to engage with so as to increase the amount of student/ speaker interaction this technology modifies but doesn’t substantially alter or redefine instruction.

Redefinition: Connecting online with a class on the other side of the world to do a collaborative project redefines and enriches the learning experience dramatically thus redefining instruction.

How could the SECTIONS model help you select the most appropriate tool or technology to help meet your learning objectives for your class?

All of these factors should be taken into consideration when considering implementing new technology in the classroom so that learning is augmented and not perceived as creating a more challenging learning environment for some or all involved. The tech need to be age appropriate and accessible both at home and at school if necessary and reflect the approval of the school district. It should be easy to use, reliable and facilitate the learning outcomes while not detracting from teaching time. Make it clear how students can benefit from using the tech to network and connect to external learning opportunities. Finally, the tech needs to follow security and privacy policies set out by the school district so as to protect staff and students.

Could sketchnoting benefit learners in the grade level you hope to teach at? If so how? Absolutely! Grade 4s and 5s are beginning to have to take more individual notes from textbooks etc. so need to learn and practice higher level processing skills of summarizing and consolidating information. Sketchnoting is a fun way to practice summarizing, prioritizing information and making connections between information in a way that improves memory of the material. Students engage in active thinking while Sketchnoting and are shown to retain more than when copying word for word. The cognitive load theory supports that summarizing helps info get stored in long-term memory rather than overloading the working memory thus increasing retention overall.

Here are some of my sketch notes for you to admire… Ooohhh… AAAhhhh….

I also got to play around in Canva and learn some pretty cool stuff. This will definitely help me make bookmarks, infographics, and posters that are much nicer in future.

Wow, what a learning experience. We learned how to screencast which is where you can capture a video of your own computer screen and narrate over to explain concepts, teach, and share ideas. I have done a screencast and created the most basic how to video called: Brightspace for dummies. I have included the pen tool, the pointer tool, a pause and a multiple choice question with a pause. This is for those people that prefer to digest new tech info in tiny bites (bytes. lol)

Check out our what we learned from our cool teacher.

I absolutely believe that the H5P interactivity tools we have worked with to create the above interactive video would be useful for me as a teacher creating grade 4 to 6 level videos for teaching. Being able to insert pauses in teaching videos to highlight important points and including multiple choice questions to have students actually use the new knowledge so that it becomes embedded in their long their long-term memory is very helpful especially if classes go online or have an online component in the future. This may also help individualize instruction so that students who need less teacher support or intervention would be able to work more independently or in groups from an interactive video while the teacher spends time with other students who may need more one-on-one face-to-face attention.

In a grade 5 class you could use video or audio editing as the assignment medium for “Literature Circle” reading groups to summarize, explore, make predictions, and interact more deeply with the text by asking questions and having small group discussion. This exercise could be done and uploaded as a video whereby the students then cooperatively insert pauses for other students to review and contemplate as well. This is a cross curricular activity as it promotes reading and engagement with text as well as engagement with the core competencies and practice in technology knowledge.

Multimedia learning theory explains how by having audio text as well as written text at the same time as input, it overwhelms our working memory and decreases learning and decreases retention of the information; therefore, when creating effective instructional videos and tutorials it would be better to narrate over an image of just a simple picture without too much text or to put text next to a picture on the screen and not dictate simultaneously. So the message is to keep it simple; either audio text or a visual text at a time, not both. As I reflect on our one class that is offered fully virtual this semester I can see how understanding multimedia learning theory could vastly improve the lecture delivery in this course because I have felt that I want to just close my eyes and listen to the teacher talk because she is reiterating the written text on the screen and it’s too much input and now I know why I feel that way. It’s great to understand the underlying reasons behind why we prefer to learn in certain ways and it truly will help me in the future as a teacher to keep this theory in mind.

A flipped classroom is a classroom where most of the didactic lecture teaching would be given as pre-class homework assignments via videos and online text I assume. Once students arrive in class that would be where most of the active learning (Doing) would take place. As opposed to traditional classes where a teacher would give a lecture in class and students will be sent off individually to do their homework and engage with the material and content. The flipped classroom idea seems to me that it would work extremely well for middle school or high school but would pose potentially an issue for equity access to technology to work in this way. In elementary grades it would likely be difficult to get students to take on the responsibility and initiative of pre-class learning necessary to have this be a successful format.

Let me know your favourite ways to use multimedia in your elementary classrooms or what you’ve tried.

 Do we need to reimagine education? 

This is such a huge question; if we define reimagine as throw out the old and invent the new then I would say no, we do not need to completely reimagine education. However, if we declare that reimagine just means to consider future economic needs of our society and of humanity and then evolve and tweak our current system then yes, I believe we do need to reimagine education for a few reasons. Firstly, in general, students are less equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in BC‘s 21st century workforce economy. These skills are things such as collaborative work, creative problem-solving, effective communication, and leadership. These skills are not necessarily taught directly but are practiced in an environment created specifically to nurture and expand the skills through inquiry and project-based learning. Typically in the past, school has not been student centered, allowing for inquiry but has been teacher based, mostly through didactic learning. Since our education system holds many of the values from 125 years ago, it would be wise to re-examine and reimagine the system on an ongoing basis. This would create more of a continual evolution rather than individual redesigns. The video about success based on high tech high showed an education environment that had many similarities to Dewey‘s original education model. This supports the concept of not needing to reimagine education but to evolve education. It’s interesting to note that evolving our education system must be based on projections that are conjectures. We cannot know the future. Therefore, there will always be a degree of risk when evolving a system to satisfy future unknown needs. Another consideration is that in the past, solid good educational ideas have not translated from policy into practice as evidenced by the year 2000 document followed closely by the 1994 education plan. I think that teachers need to be the driving force behind an ongoing continual evolution of our education system which necessitates prioritizing collaboration and communication between educators. I think it’s a no brainer that increasing funding to allow expansion of the current curriculum for project based learning and inquiry and to improve equity across the province is a sound recommendation. Reimagining how EA‘s or education assistant support learning may be one area that is an untapped resource where there is huge amounts of lost opportunity and fiscal waste. In conclusion, I believe that there are valuable foundations within our current education system; however, I think that many areas and factors need to be reimagined in the system and as a whole it needs to evolve significantly to meet future needs of humanity as well as the province. BC has made strides in that direction with our new curriculum and I am excited to be part of the potentially ongoing evolution driven by the underlying current momentum I feel.

Check out this thought provoking you tube video that challenges technology norms in the classroom.

What obstacles do educators often face when they try to change pedagogy?

• Objections from parents based on underlying fear of their children falling behind in society even though they are growing as humans.
• A disconnect between levels of education and the workforce so that elementary schools work a bit differently than middle schools which work a bit differently than high schools which then also don’t often have the same priorities as the workforce.
• Availability of resources and materials and learning plans and physical space to accommodate inquiry type collaborative learning.
• Teacher hesitation because they don’t feel prepared for a new way of teaching.

What concerns and or excites you about this approach?

I’m excited to think that students will be more engaged in inquiry than in typical school and I’m excited to really tap into students’ love of learning and personal growth. I am concerned that efforts to evolve the education system may not succeed in practice since there are so many players in the system with different needs and priorities.

Pros and cons of lesson plans versus learning plans?

• Learning plans take more time to create as they are individualized whereas lesson plans apply to the whole class.
• Learning plans have a potential to increase student engagement as they are personalized and focussed on students” interests more than a generic lesson plan.
• Lesson plans are a great place to start and then teachers can have brief one on one conferences with students to add an individualized learning component to that overall lesson plan may be a good solution.

What are the potential benefits of developing a robust PLN?

• Sharing resources
• Become reinvigorated in your career by being stimulated by other ideas
• Constantly striving to improve one’s own practice can lead to greater satisfaction
• Support

What are the potential benefits of using creative Commons?

• Less time lesson planning as we are not starting from scratch
• Diversifying the knowledge we teach
• Exploring new ways to teach