My learning pod for EDCI336 met via Zoom on November 29th for our presentations of our Resource Assignments.
Kiana and Emily had a wonderful presentation on FreshGrade.
I learned that FreshGrade is a fantastic tool to engage parents in their child’s education. Although FreshGrade requires a fair bit of time and effort to curate everything and input it onto the app/website, it’s overall benefits outweigh the cons. Parents are able to see their child’s work and virtually be a part of the classroom which promotes parent engagement and allows easy communication between parents and the teacher.
Julia’s and my project was on TED-Ed in the classroom. TED-Ed is an educational platform that provides free, short, animated videos that are geared towards students and cover a wide range of topics.
Here is a recording of Julia’s and my presentation on TED-Ed in the classroom:
TED-Ed is a wonderful resource, which I plan to include in my future classrooms!
My virtual breakout box has been coming along steadily, and I am very excited to share the finished product soon. Recently I have been busy plugging away at inputting all of the concepts into each of the activities and formatting each of the games, and I hope to be finished within the next week or so once classes are over.
I do not have anything particularly exciting to show this week in regards to my breakout box (without giving away part of the final product), so I decided that I would make a post talking about my experience designing and creating a slide show for an inquiry presentation in another class.
In EDCI250 Elementary Field Experience Seminar I, we had to come up with an inquiry question that is related to education within the classroom and then research and present our findings.
My research question was, “How can I create interactive, hands-on learning opportunities that promote critical thinking?”.
This was an interesting and exciting topic for me to explore, as someone who enjoys hands-on experiential learning myself, I thought it was fun and interesting to see what experts in their field have to say about this topic.
I did some research, and spoke to some educators, and was ready to put together my findings. We had to present our work in a synchronous online meeting, with having approximately 5 minutes to present. But how was I going to do this? I have not presented a project since I was about 13 or 14 years old, nor have I ever created a slideshow before.
I decided to go with Google Slides as my document was easily shareable and I can access on any of my devices.
It took some getting used to and organizing, but once I figured out some of the kinks (user error, not technological error) my slides were well on their way!
We presented our work this past Wednesday, and I was pleased with my overall product. Now that I have made one, I feel confident that I can use this platform to present projects in the future.
Check out my practice presentation of my EDCI250 Final Inquiry Project below!
Thank you for checking it out! I am happy with the journey that I have taken so far, and I look forward to the future!
Recently in EDCI336 we explored the positives and negatives of online classes and the types of classes that are experienced while online learning.
We worked together to brainstorm the positives that we have experienced with online learning this year so far. Here are some of our results:
Breakout rooms encourage group collaboration
Don’t have to commute → gives more time for school work, less money spent
Comfort of your own home, can learn anywhere (don’t have to be in Victoria)
Equal interaction because of breakout rooms, not always being with someone you know
Easy to meet up with others for group projects
We also brainstormed of some the negatives that we have witnessed or experienced in regards to online learning:
Classes aren’t always on the same page as to workload and expectations
Hard to separate school time when at home
Tuition is the same price
Zoom fatigue (sore eyes, tired, etc.)
In addition to the positives and negatives, we also explored asynchronous and synchronous classes and activities. We took a look and made a diagram of where we believe all of our activities and learning in EDCI336 fall within these realms:
It was interesting to see that activities are not completely asynchronous or synchronous, and that many of them (not only in EDCI336) are a mixture of both.
Finally, we finished the class off with brainstorm qualities that are only made possible by face-to-face learning, and those that are only made possible by online learning. Here are some of our results:
Only Face-to-face:
Most physical activities as a group
Chemistry and Biological labs (experiments that require specific resources – dissections, chemicals)
PE class, team games
More interactive
Only Online:
Breakout rooms providing a private space for groups to talk and work on projects
Remote learning
Grouping up is quicker online, if teacher directed. Takes longer face to face to break into groups.
Access to shared doc’s to work on together
I am both sad and excited that this term is nearing an end. I do look forward to seeing how our learning takes shape in the future, whether it be online or face-to-face, and I am looking forward to that journey.
Our last EDCI336 class on November 16th, we had a very special guest speaker from BCEdAccess, Chantelle Morvay-Adams.
Chantelle spoke with us about equity in the classroom. With having first hand experience, she was able to provide an interesting and eye opening session on inclusivity in schools.
During this session, Chantelle had us break into groups and she posed some questions for us to discuss. This questions included:
How can you assess a student’s needs?
What technology can you use if the child is averse to touching paper?
How can you include a student in music class who is physically incapable of holding an instrument, but does have mobility enough for an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device?
What if the student has fine motor challenges and cannot write well? What technology can you use and how will you go about applying it in the class?
What are some ways you can build a relationship with the student?
How will you build a relationship with the family?
My group had a lengthy discussion about all of these questions. The thoughts and ideas from everyone was an interesting and insightful learning experience.
Chantelle also shared the following videos with us. The videos show a glimpse into the reality of having a disability and being within the BC school system.
After viewing these videos, it opened my eyes to what being an inclusive educator really means. How what I do may do, even if the right intentions are there, may still create the sense of segregation.
I will be taking these lessons to heart and carry them with me during my future endeavors as an educator.
We’ve had some discussions in class about privacy and security online and how we need to take this into consideration when including technology into the classroom.
This article put out by SecureList states that in June “the education industry accounted for 61 percent of the 7.7 million malware encounters experienced by enterprises in the previous 30 days” (Kaspersky, 2020) .
I decided to take a look at the platform that I am using to create and share my Virtual Breakout Box, Deck.Toys, and see where they sit on the cyber safety scale.
I used the site, Common Sense Education, to see if I can find a review and safety rating for Deck.Toys. Without any luck, I was unable to find a review for this platform. So I decided to explore further.
I was able to find reviews from G2, where people have given Deck.Toys a 4.5 star review. Sadly, it does not go into detail about cyber security.
Exploring further, I was only able to find positive remarks and reviews about this platform. I was unable to find any concerning features in regards to cyber security.
Despite only finding positives, we should still be wary of what we do and use on the internet. Just because it appears safe, we are still taking that risk of a potential online hazard.
I look forward to continuing exploring how I can safely integrate technology into the classroom.
Last week I worked on changing the activity’s path to assist in a more linear line of play. I also added check-in points at the request of the teacher that I am working with.
This week I spent some time configuring the background image of my virtual breakout box.
Check out the video below to see how I did it!
I can’t wait to display the finished project. I am certainly getting closer!
I’ve mentioned in some of my previous posts that I have been developing my virtual breakout box in connection with a grade 6 / 7 science class.
Recently, the teacher of this class was able to share their entire Evolution unit with me. This addition to my resources has been fantastic. Not only as a resource for future classes, but it also allows me to draw upon concepts that are being directly covered in their class and include them in my breakout box.
I was speaking with this teacher the other day and I asked them what might be something they would like to see included in this virtual breakout activity. They responded these requests:
That the activity will act as a form of review
Could possibly be done in pairs or small groups
Has checkpoints where a student needs to check-in with the teacher
These points were great ideas for me to consider when continuing the development of my activity. I was already planning on this activity to act a fun way to review, as it will be drawing on previously known concepts and ideas rather than instructing and teaching new ones.
Luckily this activity is pretty easy to work on in pairs or in groups of three. The students can work together to solve the puzzles that they are presented with. The teacher suggested this just in case they were unable to use a full set of iPads or Chromebooks.
I loved the idea of having teacher check-in’s throughout the activity. This makes it more interactive than simply being on the iPad the entire time.
The video below shows how I’m making changes to my activity to allow check-in’s with the teacher:
Next week I’ll be sharing my progress with customizing and sprucing up the appearance of my virtual breakout box.
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