Category: EdTech

Minecraft

I have actually had the pleasure of playing Minecraft, I grew up with it as being one of the video games that blew up in the peak of my video game phase during middle and high school. I also recently re-downloaded the game to experiment with it and build a few different things. After watching the pre-class video I was inspired about having Minecraft in education, my niece and nephew are at the prime age for playing Minecraft and love it. Because of this video and the class I am attempting to find a way to use it to help with their at homeschooling during the pandemic. As having the experience of playing it I understand the creative, collaborative aspects of the game but watching the video there is so much more. I never thought of using Minecraft to teach physics or math, architecture and history I understand because you can build examples of famous buildings from around the world etc. There is definitely a stigma about video games in education, but I am going to further explore Minecraft in the classroom and how it can help my niece and nephew. Here is the video we were assigned to watch as a pre-class activity, I found it fascinating:

I have also included a video I found on my own:

In our EdTech 336 class we learned how to use Tinkercad with Rich. For those who do not know what Tinkercad is it is a program that allows users to create 3D images and models in order to be 3D printed. Their website says “Tinkercad is a free online collection of software tools that help people all over the world think, create and make. We’re the ideal introduction to Autodesk, the leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software” (Autodesk Inc., 2020). I have included a video from their website here:

In the EdTech class we were able to choose from several exercises to go through and learn the basics of Tinkercad. I chose to go through the game piece exercise in which I made a pawn from a chess game on the program. I thought this was relevant to me because I am thinking about using Tinkercad and creating game pieces for my free inquiry project which is building a cribbage board. The more I think about it the more intrigued I am becoming, with Tinkercad you customize the design anyway you want. I was thinking about creating cribbage pegs on Tinkercad but having different animals on top of the pegs just to add a little bit of personality to the project. Before we were introduced to this program I had not thought of doing this, but now with the knowledge about the program I am thinking I may commit to doing this for my project. Here is me creating my chess pawn on Tinkercad:

Currently, I am in a seminar course at Esquimalt High School and their computer room and teacher actually uses Tinkercad as one of her EdTech tools to teach her courses. Students can create anything they want and print them off, using the 3D printers they have at the school. Learning how to use it ourselves is useful for potentially implementing the use of 3D design and printing into our classes. I think this is really interesting specifically for STEM courses and offering more practical courses and applications at the high school level.

You may be wondering to yourself what an EdCamp is. Well and EdCamp is  professional development for educators by educators, they are informal sessions run by educators, anyone can present and the focus is on collaboration. I found a great blog on https://www.edutopia.org/ about EdCamps written by Kristen Swanson, I have included a snapshot of her explanation on what an EdCamp is:

Kirsten Swanson’s Explanation of EdCamps. Retrieved From: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-edcamp-kristen-swanson

In our EdTech course we ran a small EdCamp via Zoom, this is how we did it:

1. Students posted topics they were interested in talking about on a Google doc
2. Students voted on which topics they would like to be in a group for discussions
3. The class was broken into groups dependent on which topic they voted for
4. Group discussions began and ideas flowed
5. Each group took notes on a Google doc so other groups could read what they were discussing if they were interested

My group discussed mental health and connection in a virtual world: zombies. I do not want to write down everything we discussed in the group discussions, so I will give a brief synopsis and my thoughts. In our group some topics that we discussed were about how difficult Zoom classes have been and the virtual world we are living in during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of my classmates referred to it as a virtual hellscape. Some the main themes were regarding the lack of human interaction each one of us has endured during the pandemic. We found that we are more connected to people when we see them in person, we can see their body language, eye contact, and simply going for a coffee at Biblio after a tough lecture. All of these things are compounded by being inside online for class and almost all of our assignments are done online now too. We discussed some possible remedies like going for walks between classes, stretching, or exercising, we did not solve any world problems but was it ever nice to just talk to others about concerns I had over mental health and some possible remedies. I do not think the idea of EdCamps is to solve all the issues in education but to discuss them and gain insight from your colleagues on so many topics. I thoroughly enjoyed the online EdCamp and will definitely be attending EdCamps in the future.

What is PSII?

PSII stands for the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry located in Victoria, British Columbia, it was founded by Jeff Hopkins in September 2013. At PSII the curriculum is built on personal curiosity and is completed through inquiry based learning. What is this you may be asking? Inquiry based learning is personalizing the learning experience, students are allowed to choose a topic they are interested in and research the topic throughout the term. As they move throughout the term educators work with the students to set goals and track the accomplishment (or not) of these goals. The end product is quite stunning, students are engaged in the inquiry as they are researching about something they are intrigued by, not a prescribed curriculum.  To explain exactly what PSII is and what they do is not completely doable via the mode of blog, you can visit their website here to explore for yourself if you are interested.  Below is a TEDx talk Jeff Hopkins did on inquiry based learning:

Our Q&A with Jeff Hopkins

In this section I just wanted to discuss some discussions that occurred in my classes question and answer period with Jeff Hopkins, the founder of PSII. Jeff was asked about the assessment of students at PSII, I could only imagine how  concerned parents wanting their child to go to university would be about assessment. At PSII they work with the student for their assessment, the educators have assessment meetings with the students almost daily, they have a list of competencies from the B.C. curriculum that must be met. The educators work with the students to ensure they are meeting these competencies  by accomplishing their goals and tasks for the inquiry projects. The difficult part is to take their assessment process and match it up to the B.C. curriculum and marking, but they manage to do it, and they are often audited to ensure they are doing it properly. I found one of the most interesting points we discussed was “Who is PSII good for?” EVERYONE. This is how people learn, by inquiring for themselves and getting help when they need it, having outside resources when they are stuck, but actually inquiring and searching for yourself is where you learn. It is difficult to let go of the old system when it has been entrenched for so long and people have been told they have to do things in a certain way. If people gave it time it can work, it would be a complete culture shift but it is possible. I found the talk very interesting and it really opened up my pedagogical thinking to new ideas. Since that discussion I have been thinking of ways to implement inquiry based learning into my future classroom. It is really hard to do PSII any justice attempting to explain their process in a blog, so I do encourage you to visit their website and explore for yourself.

Screencastify

This week in EDCI 336 we did a workshop on Screencastify and H5P, I actually enjoyed this workshop. For people that do not know what Screencastify or H5P is I will explain what both of these platforms are. Screencastify is a Chrome extension that allows the user to record their computer screen for up to five minutes on the free version, while recording your screen you can also talk over the video explaining what you are doing on the screen. I think this tool can be useful for showing students how to use a specific website, for example it could be used to show students how to use the University of Victoria’s library website to find peer reviewed articles. The website is not necessarily intuitive, specifically when it comes to the advanced search methods, creating a video about how to use advanced search methods and how to find exactly what you are looking for would be a great video for students (perhaps a grade 12 History class before they write a research paper).

Screen Capture of Screencastify in the Top Right-hand Corner

H5P

H5P is short for HTML5, it is a plug-in that allows the user to create and run interactive content. The way we used it in our workshop was to create an interactive video, the video I created has multiple choice question in the middle of the video. Personally mine is quite silly but I simply wanted to showcase how the programs could be used. At the end of the video there is another multiple choice question to summarize the content that was demonstrated in the video. I believe this is a great way to engage future students in some content you are trying to show them. As a teacher you could create interactive videos about a topic you are going to cover in a given class. Personally I have some ideas of making funny videos about topics that I would cover and creating interactive videos with multiple choice questions to ensure the students are actually paying attention. Overall, I think this extension and plug-in will be quite useful in the future. I have included my H5P video I created for the workshop below.

My Digital Footprint

This week our readings, videos, and weekly meeting on Zoom were about online citizenship. I had not given this concept much thought, I use the Internet every single day for social media, school work, and leisure, yet, I had never given thought to my presence online. I mean my morals I believe are in a good place and I do not post things that may be perceived in a bad manner but I still never thought about it. I see some people on my Facebook feeds posting inappropriate content on the regular and often ignore or even delete those people from the application.

Photo by Rochel Maday

After listening to our guest speaker Jesse miller and the conversation that took place after the keystone I had to reevaluate my thoughts on my digital footprint and my online citizenship. Are the things I share or the photos I post or are in are something I want for everyone to see? The short answer is no. After watching Jesse Miller’s TEDTalk I started to realize the power I had by using the internet and social media, the power I had over my own identity, how do I portray myself on the internet. After class, I went to all of my social media accounts and deleted photos I did not want future employers and students to see and I changed my privacy settings. The video and discussion really changed my perspective of my online citizenship and my digital footprint that I was leaving.

Trello

This week we were also introduced to Trello. This application allows us to create boards and lists to keep track of our blogs as well as our free and guided inquiry projects. The Trello board allows you to grab and move pins from one list to another, for example I moved this week’s blog posts from the “To Do” list to the “Completed” list, I can then create a Week 4 Blogs pin and place that in the “To Do” list for this upcoming weeks tasks.

Photo From: Trello – My Trello Board

I quite like the layout and this application also allows for Rich to view what we have to do and what we have completed, this is a nice feature because he can hold us accountable to the tasks we have set for ourselves.

Image From: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4267108/

In the past week we watched the film Most Likely to Succeed, I found the film quite interesting as it shows a school in the United States that is based entirely on free or guided inquiry learning. In most of the classes in the education program there is a large emphasis on free inquiry projects, this is something I had never really experienced until now. The concept is quite fascinating, by allowing students free inquiry to guide their own learning experience they grasp concepts that are much more complex beyond their years. At least that’s my take on the outcome. For example the one boy in the film was working in a group on a project, some of the other kids in his group were interviewed and were saying that he kept making the plans more and more elaborate and complicated. His approach was too ambitious for the project, he admittedly said this during his individual interview, he also admits to procrastination and how that negatively affects his group members. I think for a young teenager to realize these characteristics is beneficial to their learning and growth as a person. Another example I saw in the film was a girl that was put in charge to organize a play for the teachers and parents at the end of the term, throughout the term she was in charge of the entire play and managing the other students. At the beginning of the film she was shy and quiet, by working with others and managing the students she came out of her shell and became a leader, although still quiet they play was put on, and she had become a leader. An interesting part of the film was when students and parents expressed their concern about the learning process. Some students and parents were concerned that they were not being taught in a way to succeed in the current educational system, these students and parents are concerned about the kids making it into university and being able to do well on the standardized tests. This is a tough concept because you want your child to be successful in school but you also want your child to be happy and successful in life. Being successful in school does not equate to being successful in life, but, learning how to work with others and explore concepts yourself through inquiry is something that might actually equate to success in life. In our Zoom meeting some interesting critiques on the film came up in our conversations, one of the most fascinating critiques was that the film was simply advocating for the privatization of education. What was meant by this is that the free inquiry model was portrayed as only being suitable in private schools. When I watched the movie that was not the thought that popped into my head, However, after having discussions with other students who viewed the film much more critically than I it made sense. Overall I do believe that the inquiry based model of learning can be used in the public education system and perhaps this film was meant to be a means to promote the privatization of education. But for me the main point I took away is that free and guided inquiry is a means to have students create deeper meaning and connection to the material as well other students.

WordPress

Today I am writing about my experience setting up my WordPress blog and getting to know the interface. During class on September 15, 2020, we were guided through creating our own blog via WordPress by Rich. I had set up a blog on WordPress previously, however, I had not done it through https://opened.ca/. This added a new dimension to the process of creating my blog, I found it slightly more difficult than creating the blog through WordPress directly. I understand that there is a need to use the opened technology to allow easy access to classmate’s blogs and for ease of access to my blog. Rich did a fantastic job of guiding the class through the process and made it significantly easier than attempting to do it myself. I guess ‘difficult’ is not really the correct word to use but perhaps tedious is a more suitable word.

Blogging as a Pedagogy

Truthfully I had never thought of blogging as a pedagogy on its own, I thought of it as a tool to be used within a separate pedagogy. I had used blogging in several classes at university but never had the knowledge to understand that it was being used as a pedagogy. After reading articles and poking around a little I found multiple sources explaining how blogging is effective in being its very own pedagogy. This semester for the Education program multiple classes are requiring blogs as a major component of the course work, in the past, I would have scoffed at the syllabus and been frustrated by the blogging component. But after reading Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano’s short post Blogging as a Pedagogy: Facilitate Learning I was convinced that blogging can be used effectively to teach and learn, I am now committing to blogging as a way of facilitating my own learning. Tolisano’s post states that:

Blogging can support the strategies, techniques and approaches to facilitate the learning in your classroom no matter what grade level, age group and subject area. Blogging supports four primary areas:

1. 1. 1. Reading
      2. Writing
      3. Reflecting
      4. Sharing

To expand on this while blogging the student is required to read, write, reflect, and share their ideas on a wide variety of topics. By using blogs students must read and write but do so by sharing multimedia, reflecting on their own material and other student’s blogs. Having the ability to share and reflect ideas creates constant improvement in student’s thoughts and ideas, this can change a student’s ideas or improve upon them by having feedback from classmates. As the semester moves on I plan on keeping this idea in mind and striving to create insightful blogs and replying to classmates posts.

Picture Taken From http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/06/03/blogging-as-pedagogy-facilitate-learning/