Category: EdTech

I’m going to be honest, doing classes online has been a toughy. While I’ve really enjoyed the classes themselves, there’s been a lingering feeling of negativity around all of these zoom meetings for me.  Today’s tech class offered a boost in my attitude towards it by breaking down both sides of online vs. in-person learning.

Photo by Wouter Beijert on Unsplash

I’m going to breakdown the pros and cons of online learning below, sharing some logistics of it as well as personal opinions towards it. I’ll start with the cons, as I’m feeling a lot of those, and follow up with the pros to remind myself how online learning can actually be pretty darn great.

Cons

• No commute
  This may be a pro for some people, but I’ve always really enjoyed by bike commute. It’s a great way to start and end the day and I really miss it.
• So much sitting
  I really have to remind myself to get up for walks, otherwise I find myself in one spot the whole day.
• Technical difficulties
  Like with any technology, glitches and wifi issue happen.
• Zoom fatigue
  I magically thought I could avoid this, but it is a very real thing.
• Physical strain
  Because of many of the points listed above, my body is not happy. Not having to leave the house and sitting at a computer all day for classes and homework is a great way to have a sore body, strained eyes, and frequent headaches.
• Personal interactions
  There is something about talking to someone in person that just feels better sometimes.

Pros

• Accessible
  As long as a student internet, online classes can be accessed from wherever they are.
• No commute
  What? I thought this was a negative? Well, after reflecting on it, it’s both. Having an extra 30-60 mins per day to work on schoolwork, especially during busy times, is a plus.
• Asynchronous and/or synchronous
  Having options on how to present content can offer accommodation for many situations and is a nice way to switch up teaching/learning.
• Quick group work within synchronous classes
  Breakout rooms have proven in our own classes to be a great tool to quickly get students into random or assigned groups. From last year, many of us know that doing this in person takes much longer and does not usually happen as smoothly.
• Meeting everyone
  Having classes online and using random breakout rooms is a great way to meet everyone in your classes. In-person, people often sit in the same spots and group together with the same people, so this helps create a more together, whole class.

Seeing as we will likely be doing classes online for at least another semester, my end goal of this post is to act as something that I can come back to when I feel online classes wearing me down again.

This week’s class was lead by guest speaker, Chantelle Morvay-Adams, from BCEdAccess. BCEdAccess is volunteer-run organization helping to bring equitable access to education for families of students with disabilities and complex learners. Chantelle plays a big role in the organization, bringing her own familial experiences into her advocacy, pushing for true inclusion within school communities.

Hearing her speak from a professional stance, as well as personal through her experiences as a parent navigating these issues, was such a treat as a future-teacher. I was furiously scribbling down notes, as there was just so much good information to remember! These are some of the bigger points I took away from her chat with us:

Lack of Tech

While this didn’t come as much of a surprise, it wasn’t something I’d thought a huge amount about yet  – the lack of technology available for those who would benefit from it most. For learner’s with certain disabilities or designations, diagnosed or not, having tools available for them to successfully participate at, or close to, grade level makes a world of difference in their continued learning, social wellbeing, and personal feelings towards school and learning.
This helpful tech, whether it be certain seating for a child with ADHD, or a keyboard for a student who had difficulties writing, is often difficult to acquire. The job of advocate lands on the teacher and the parent to push for these tools.

Lack of Tech Support

Even if/when the tech is available to use, there is often a huge learning curve in terms of how to use it.
Teachers may not know what specific approach or tool is best for a student and there is no go-to person for technology at schools.
Parents are often suggested to use certain tools, with no guide or prior knowledge of how to use them. Especially for parents who may be working through the initial struggle of a fresh diagnosis, this can add another layer of overwhelm to an already tough situation. A way that schools can help with this, may be to offer videos or tutorials on how to use specific pieces of technology.

Communication

Through any step in the process of working with a learner who has a learning disability (diagnosed or not), it’s crucial to keep communication open between teacher and student, and teacher and parent.

One of the best ways to get through to a student and figure out their struggles is to simply ask: What they liked/didn’t like? What works well for them? What is frustrating for them? This can help you gauge what approaches to take or tools to use to help them thrive in class.

For parents, creating an open, and inviting channel of communication can help both parties feel comfortable reaching out. This can be a tricky situation to navigate though, as every family will be at a different stage of their journey. One parent may be working with you and pushing towards getting helpful resources, another may still be working through a new diagnosis and seemingly less receptive, as they’re already feeling overwhelmed, and another parent may be refusing test and diagnosis all together. Regardless of where they are at, it’s important, as their child’s teacher, to read the situation and respond accordingly, but always have the  door open for if/when they’re read to talk.

Coding is being used more and more in classrooms as it becomes more relevant in today’s world. It also has been shown to provide many benefits including:

• Providing logic for things we use and see in our everyday lives
• Develops problem solving and computational thinking
• Builds up a job skill
• Can be fun!

Coding in the classroom

When many of us think of coding, this is what comes to mind…

"New Coding Language" by Matrixizationized is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

But there are tons of programs, websites, and manipulatives that are making learning coding more accessible and fun for young learners.  Instead of simply focusing on coding languages and rows and rows of symbols, these new programs are focusing on aspects of coding like putting pieces of logic together to make a sequence or presenting the learning as a game to get students into it. Some sites, like CSunplugged, are even taking the screentime out of the equation, while teaching the principles of coding without being online!

Glitch

During our breakout rooms, I spent the most time working with Glitch.

While I could see it being (maybe) easy to use and fun for someone with more coding knowledge, it was too much for me and my group mates to work with. We had no prior experience, so we were feeling pretty lost with it. This is definitely a program for a more experienced learner, who already knows the basics of coding language and some know-how of formatting it.  Without this, there not really much that can be accomplished.

We all agreed that this was a program suitable for older learners (upper high school) with previous experience, likely in a coding elective.

Other group reported back with some rave reviews for programs like Grasshopper, Scratch, and CSunplugged, which would all be better for younger students.

Thoughts

I really love the idea of teaching coding in the classroom! I completely agree that it’s hugely beneficial for all the reasons listed above. However, I’m someone that is a little leery of adding screentime in the classroom (I’d say I personally lean more towards a nature/outdoor school approach to things), so while some of the websites can be fun and effective, I don’t know about using them often enough to produce much benefit. Programs like CS unplugged or using coding manipulatives that the students can actually get their hands on is something that is so exciting to me, and something I would happily bring introduce to a class.

-Megan B.

This week’s class was the first time I’d ever heard of EdCamp, but after our time learning about it and experiencing our own mini version of it, I’m absolutely interested in learning more and participating in it again.

What is EdCamp?

EdCamp is a model of Pro-D conference (on “unconference”) that centres around what educators want to learn about. It’s participant-driven, with no special guests, experts, or key speakers leading, but rather teachers proposing discussion topics, engaging in discussion, and sharing experiences with each other.

The hope of this model is that it is more engaging for those attending, and gives the educators more of what they need and are interested in learning about.
Participants can switch between discussion groups as they want, tailoring their learning and their day to benefit them most.

-Megan B.

Using video as a learning tool can be a great way to engage student and present info that may be difficult or not as exciting to present otherwise.
Presenting classes via pre-recorded video also allows students to review lessons afterwards, and re-watching can help clarify info for those who may not be comfortable asking questions aloud.

I’ve listed below some ways in which video can be used as a helpful, learning tool to help boost a lesson.

Helps answer questions

Like the 1878 clip of the horse running, video can help us gain the tools to speed up, slow down, manipulate, or see from a different perspective things that would be difficult to know otherwise.

Before this recording, people were unsure whether or not a running horse ever had all hooves off the ground at once. Using a series of photographs to create a video, they were able to show that this was the case.

Captions

A huge part of making a classroom inclusive is making sure that learning resources are available for all students. Using a video with captions is a hugely helpful way for those who are hard of hearing or Deaf  to be able to learn and participate in the lesson at hand. These captions can be added by the content creator, or if the video is being uploaded on Youtube, there’s a handy tool that creates (mostly) accurate captions for you.
Additionally, it’s important to note that captions can be useful for all learners. Hearing the audio while reading along is a good practice for reading skills and helps in taking in the info being presented.

Read-a-long

In a similar vein, read-a-long stories allow student to read along to stories while watching the pictures on the screen. Some read-a-longs offer highlighted words to follow and animations.

Timelapses

These are a fun way to show something that would take too long to show in class, but is significant to know.

Screencasts

Screencasts are videos of someone talking over a separate screen (ex: a powerpoint presentation or animated clip). These are useful if explaining diagrams, charts, or images. They also handy in explaining processes for detailed written works like math equations. Khan Academy is a popular, but well done example of using these effectively.

This week’s class topic was presented by Jesse Miller of  Mediated Reality, and expert in the world of effectively and safety integrating social media into business and education. He offered a fresh point of view on a couple topics that I wouldn’t have thought of, and gave great reminders about things like our own digital privacy.

As someone who is not hugely into tech, Jesse’s talk left me with a few tidbits (and kicks in the butt) that I’ll be holding onto in regards to not fighting technology, but rather embracing it in the classroom. He mentioned the practice of some schools taking student cellphones, or not allowing them at all in schools or classrooms at all as being archaic. The idea of disallowing cellphone use was not a hot button topic on my radar, but I can see now that it can be a big deal to students, teachers, and parents alike. I really loved the example he gave of a class schedule he has seen to be effective in terms of incorporating cellphone use at designated times to dissuade students to use them during class time. Even such a simple example as the one he gave was eye opening to me, and absolutely something I want to keep in mind for the future.

In terms of personal technology use, Jesse brought up some great reminders and pointers for us future-teachers to think about. Social media leaves a bread crumb trail of the things we’ve said and the photos we’ve posted; it’s so important for us to think about the people that may find these things, whether it be employers, students, parents, or colleagues. This online version of ourselves needs to be tailored to be an extension of how we’d want to portray ourselves to these people in-person. Additionally, being teachers specifically puts us under a bigger microscope in that even a harmless photo of an educator holding alcohol is reason enough to get in trouble.

It was interesting to do the activity he suggested; doing a google search of your name and location to see what may pop up if someone were to look you up online. Not surprisingly, as someone with an incredibly generic name, I couldn’t even find myself through multiple different searches! I guess this is the upside of only having one social media account that is set to private.

Jesse’s talk was thought provoking and his messages are ones that I will keep with me through the different stages of my teaching career, as the technologies that learners bringing into the classroom change.