I am a firm believer that there are lessons to be learned from everything that happens in life. How Covid-19 has altered education for the present and future is no exception. As Mme. Leah Bissonnette points out, we need to accept that there will be a new normal in education.
While some of the finer details of education change over time – curriculum, adaptations, pedagogy, assessment – many details have remained unchanged for decades. Kids go to a building, sit in a classroom, work on core subjects…rinse, wash, repeat. While there are many benefits and factors that necessitate this structure – learning of basic skills, socialization, childcare (let’s face it, this is a function of schools) – it is time for us to consider if this is the most effective structure moving forward. Our world is changing more rapidly than ever. It is time for education to take a long, hard look in the mirror to see if it is meeting these ever-changing needs.
I am excited to get my project off the ground this semester. I think it is going to be very meaningful for me as a teacher. More importantly, I think it is going to be very meaningful and impactful for my students.
As we are all well aware, mental health is a challenge for many students with what is going on in our world today. As such, my project is going to focus on making sure my students are okay and developing strategies and tools to assist them in being just that. Most of you are likely somewhat familiar with the OurSchool survey. The results in my school have told us year after year that students are struggling with anxiety, depression, and many other mental health challenges.
This is my second class with Alec. Experiencing 831 in the fall, I excitedly signed up for this class, only to be waitlisted. Thankfully I am in! Coming from the Education Leadership world where things are paper focused, I appreciate the way Alec does things. He allows you to guide your own learning and explore areas that are useful and of interest to you. The world of technology is uncomfortable to me. We have a love-hate relationship – maybe more days of the latter! 831 pushed me outside of my comfort zone and forced me to learn some new tricks. I look forward to more of the same in 832, particularly with my major project which will focus on some mental health initiatives. More to come on that…
I am in my 13th year of teaching and third full year of a vice-principalship. Covid has been a learning experience, to say it politely. At this point, I feel like I have learned enough haha. Throw in some beautiful weather, some cockroaches, and 2022 can only get better from here lol.
I am taking my 9th and 10th classes this semester. This is the first time I have taken two classes at once. I know it is going to be a busy few months, but it will be worth it. Bring on April 11th!! It is kind of surreal to be so close to being finished.
I can identify with many of you who are figuring out the blogging world for the first time. Trust me, it gets easier. Once you get everything set up, it is actually fairly easy. I look forward to learning about the projects everyone is doing. As we did in 831, I am confident we will all learn a lot from each other this semester.
I have come to the end of my maiden voyage into a social media/technology focused class. Way (well, maybe not that far) back in September, I expressed my ambivalence and some of my grievances and hesitancies towards social media and tech. While those still exist, I think it is fair to say my thinking and openness to these platforms is evolving and expanding. I must give props to both my classmates and to our professor, Alec Couros. This was my eighth Masters course, and I really appreciated Alec’s approach to the class. He allowed us to embark on our own journeys, allowing us to make our learning meaningful and engaging. I am hoping to get into Alec’s class in the Winter semester of 2022. I am currently stuck at #3 on the waitlist. Here’s hoping I move up and secure a spot in the next few weeks.
EC&I 831 has taken me on a valuable learning journey. It was a journey that took me outside of my comfort zone into a world that I am uncomfortable with and hesitant to fully enter. With an open mind, I entered and had my thinking challenged and expanded. I have emerged with many questions, but also with a renewed mindset for how to adapt my teaching practices to include social media, open education, and technology.
Thank you to those who have come along and taken this journey with me. There are so many great educators doing so many great things in their classrooms. Your knowledge, creativity, dedication, and support of other professionals is important as we continue to shape the future of education.
Over the past two weeks, I have cut the strings on using the myfitnesspal app to count my calories. While counting calories using this app has been very effective on my weight loss journey, I know that I can’t rely on the tool forever. I decided to try a couple weeks without counting calories to see if I continued to lose weight, and hence learn if I have formed healthier habits of portion control and caloric balance.
I chose to have a look at the CK-12 Foundation OER resource this week. To be honest, I had never heard of OERs prior to our class a couple weeks ago. Navigating through some of the sites and exploring what they have to offer has been a good learning experience.
I approached my evaluation of the site through the eyes of a teacher at different grade levels, and also through a lens of a teacher in a specialized subject area – i.e. Health, Phys. Ed., Science.
When it comes to grade levels, this site is definitely geared more towards the higher grade levels. While there are some great resources, including interactive experiences, for primary Math, the majority of resources are for higher grade levels. I suppose this makes sense in many ways, as learning becomes more complex as grade levels progress. Content at lower grade levels might be easier to plan for and create resources (excuse my ignorance if this is wrong – I haven’t taught a lot of primary classes).
Examining the array of subjects that are available on the site, CK-12 has an amazing library. It makes sense that there are many resources for core subjects like Math and Science, and limited resources in very specialized subjects like Health and Phys. Ed. I am extremely impressed by the quality and variety of learning experiences. They are not just basic worksheets with standard questions. They are creative and very interactive. For example, this screenshot is from a physics activity that shows you the effects of force and resistance on a bobsled. It allows you to change the variables and the bobsled moves to show you how it would react. This is way beyond my level of understanding, but I am sure it is very interesting to someone!!
Something that I found really interesting about CK-12 is that it has a student section and a teacher section. I like that students can go in and easily navigate to specific subjects and topics within them. For teachers it offers assessment options and tracking, and compatibility and integration with other platforms like Google Classroom or Clever.
I think CK-12 and other OER sites can be very useful to teachers. I know many teachers who spend valuable time searching for resources. I am confident in saying that many of them have never heard of OERs. With sites like CK-12 they can find great resources to supplement their teaching.
As I have done some reading and watching to educate myself on the concept of open education, I have come up with a few thoughts. Here they are, in no particular order:
Education is built on sharing. Dean Shareski noted this in his video. I look back thirteen years ago when I first started teaching and think of the endless hours I spent thinking of ideas and developing resources. Times have definitely changed. Ideas and resources are available at our fingertips now. They were when I started teaching as well (to an extent), but I didn’t know about them and was never guided toward them. In some ways I think I took some foolish pride in developing my own resources – I didn’t need someone to do my job for me! Today I would rather spend time at home, as opposed to being at school until 8:00 every night. Where I am going with this is that I see access to resources everywhere. The internet is full of places to find materials (more on this in my next point). I also think teachers are great at sharing with each other. I see it weekly in my school with teachers offering resources or sharing ideas. While some may not share on a public or global scale, I think the vast majority of teachers are always willing to share in their schools.
2. I’m giving Curtis full props on this one. Teachers pay teachers is a rip-off. I have personally never bought anything off the site, and I realize I may be one of the few that never has. Maybe this is my foolish pride coming into play again, but I have trouble paying someone for a lesson plan. I also have fear that what I pay for will not meet my expectations. When it comes down to it, are sites like TPT really open education? They seem more like a side business to me. I am all for making money and getting your dues, but if we are going to take pride as educators in saying that education is built on sharing, we shouldn’t be turning it into a money making venture.
3. Where should shared resources come from? I often wonder, and have had many teachers ask the same, why there are not standard unit plans prepared for teachers by our government. We are all teaching the same curriculum, why are we not provided better resources? Don’t get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the freedom we are given to teach outcomes how they suit us and our students, but it might be helpful to have some concrete resources. I have also found myself looking at certain outcomes and wondering what exactly they mean. I do appreciate the opportunities that a ‘grey’ area provides us, but sometimes it is nice to have black and white outcomes…and providing resources for these outcomes would be a helpful starting point.
4. What is the correlation between open education and social justice? We have discussed our role as educators and our use of technology as it pertains to advancing social justice initiatives. There is no doubt that we have some role to play, and I think the notion of open education is directly related to this role. Dean Shareski stated that an obligation of school is to teach beyond students in the building. Do we have an obligation as teachers in a developed nation to share resources with teachers who are trying to educate in environments where they don’t have the resources and abilities to find and develop their own teaching materials? I think a pretty good argument could be made to answer this question affirmatively. We are teaching students beyond our building by helping to provide effective learning resources for them.
“When faculty use OER, we aren’t just saving a student money on textbooks: we are directly impacting that student’s ability to enroll in, persist through, and successfully complete a course. In other words, we are directly impacting that student’s ability to attend, succeed in, and graduate from college. When we talk about OER, we bring two things into focus: that access is critically important to conversations about academic success, and that faculty and other instructional staff can play a critical role in the process of making learning accessible.”
This thought can be extended to learning at all levels. Open education provides access to teachers, and therefore students, to resources and opportunities that will assist them in being successful. Us, as teachers sharing resources openly, do play a critical role in making learning accessible.
In summary, I believe open education can transform education as we know it. There shouldn’t be any reason for a teacher of any grade or subject to not have access to the absolute best resources. These resources should be shared openly, and free of charge. We are always most concerned about the students in our classrooms and buildings, but we can also play a role in improving the education of students outside of our walls and borders.
It has been six weeks since I began my journey, with a goal of losing 8-10lbs. As of Monday morning my weight has decreased from 194.1lbs to 183.7lbs. This is a loss of 10.4 lbs. I am definitely celebrating this success, but have my sights set on a new goal…
As social justice issues continue to be at the forefront of society, it makes one realize the depth and breadth of need and injustice in our world. As such, I am a believer that any act of social justice is worthwhile and important regardless of whether it takes place in person or in an online environment. With that said, I believe the environment in which social justice work takes place has a significant effect on the level of impact that is created.
The website RESET, in an article titled Digital and Online Activism, notes that one of the benefits of online activism is the ability for a variety of voices to be heard that may not normally be heard through traditional media reporting. The online environment allows anybody to state their opinion. However, this article also points out that “digital activism often enjoys the biggest success when it is used as a complementary tool to offline action or is used as the introductory method to encourage people to engage in offline action.” The Problem With Social-Media Protests from The Atlantic furthers this sentiment by pointing out that although online activism can stimulate movements of social justice, they often lose momentum and may not lead to any real, effective change in a real world environment.
We say all the time that actions speak louder than words. In this case, actions in a real world environment speak much louder than words/posts/likes in a virtual environment. Yes, by sharing and being vocal online you can bring issues to others attention. You can voice your opinion and push others for support and change. This is an important step in making issues visible, but does this translate to real change in the real world? I think back to the terrible events in the United States that led to the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement. There were both online and in-person protests and support for change. Without much immediate connection to the issue, I often wonder how much influence those protests had on real change for Black people in America and around the world. Did it create lasting change, or has it failed to maintain momentum and purpose over time?
Perhaps a current event closer to home will give me more perspective. @campmarjorie1 in Regina has its own twitter page. It has been effective at bringing awareness to homelessness and poverty in Regina. Many have responded with meaningful action – bringing food and supplies to those in need. It has also increased political pressure on multiple levels of government. What remains to be seen is how long the movement lasts and whether it leads to lasting change for those in need. I will be following closely to see.
