Category: EDCI 572 Digital Implementation

What I thought:

A couple of classes ago our instructor asked us to watch a Ted Talk about data collection. To be honest, I was confused as to why. Of course as teachers we collect data in terms of grades or where students are in a variety of subjects. But how did these two ideas connect? How could data collection relate or even inform my teaching? It took me a while to write this post simply because I had to take so long to process and determine what the video meant to me. Perhaps it would be helpful to know which video I’m talking about.

Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen?language=en

New thoughts through reflection:

Perhaps there is a correlation between data and teaching. It could have been obvious to others but I did not see it at first. When going through this video several times I start to ask myself, how does this relate? All of a sudden it hit me that he’s talking about people. Not specific people but people in general and how we’ve moved through time, adapted and changed. One part that really stood out to me was the idea of diversity within a country. In one part of his video he shows how diverse Africa is in terms of its needs. He split apart Africa into its various areas and spoke to how aid must be varied in Africa depending on the region and that regions specific needs. There are regions with more money and regions with less money and thus they should be given aid differently depending on their needs. So, I finally connected the dots and thought, this is the same in Canada. A large country with various places all needing different things. I started to scope it down from large to small and thought first we have Canada, then B.C, then Langley, then my school and finally it ends up in my classroom. I thought about taking this visual Hans Rosling used to separate Africa and using it within my own classroom. You could use it to determine whether students are given basic needs or whether they’re lacking them and how that could effect performance. You could also look at the variety of family sizes, housing and income etc. All these things determine how a class composition is shaped. Through a long winded thought process and discovery, I now see how collecting data and ‘knowing your students’ creates the conditions to have the best informed teaching.

Current Situation:

During this week people are encountering an unprecedented time where social distancing is a continued safety measure. Since this is occurring all schools within B.C. have closed.

                                       Questions:

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The question then begs, what will teaching look like when teachers return to school? Will it be a question of working from home or working within the classroom? Are we going to be mandated to use a particular online learning service such as MyBluePrint or Google Classroom? All districts and provinces will be different in their approaches. Seeing as I am on Spring Break now, which doesn’t have a normal Spring Break calmness, I am unsure of what will be expected of me when I return to work. I also wonder how long we will be required to teach online everyday? Will it be the 6 hours of normal schools time? If it is, I for see many many issues that will occur.

Options and Considerations for Online Curriculum:

Given that my district has focused and implemented MyBluePrint as their online learning space I am going to be using that to provide online learning tools. On MyBluePrint, you are able to assign lessons or activities. For example, I would record myself doing a read aloud, asking questions and ask the students to submit a typed response on their MyBluePrint to answer the questions I have asked about the book. I could even have them pose questions themselves about the book. In doing this, we can then have discussions about the questions or connections that we have made during the reading. Following this, students could be asked to submit a written reflection about a topic that I assigned to them that involved the book. Another thought I had around using MyBluePrint, is that I could send out a picture of a Story Workshop I have created and have the students write a story using that they see in the picture.

For math, I could utilize platforms that my students are familiar with such as Math Playground or Greg Tang Math websites. This will allow students to focus on specific concepts while playing games just like we would in the classroom. Furthermore, using the MyBluePrint platform I could pose open ended math questions to which students would respond with explaining their thinking and problem solving. They could provide a video or picture as well to demonstrate how they solved the problem or what questions they encountered. Students could be sent home a copy of math games and asked to play with them their parents or a sibling. How this would occur if students didn’t have a printer would be another question to consider. It is one I don’t necessarily have the answer to just yet.

Other considerations could be sending out YouTube videos, National Geographic links or using  the Digital Resources Page that would allow students to watch videos based on science or social studies curriculum. Given that I had already planned to incorporate a science specific inquiry project. Students could be given directions and resource links in order to complete this project at home. They would be required to send in weekly updates on their research, questions they have, a visual plan of how to create their project, a video of their completed project and explanation and finally a reflection. All of these pieces could be submitted on MyBluePrint.

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Overall Thoughts and Feelings:

Of course this is a stressful time for everyone but given that I have been doing my masters which specifically focuses on technology I feel that I am prepared enough to have a starting point. I will absolutely encounter hurdle after hurdle but I believe I have some necessary tools at my disposal in order to provide students with basic education. I believe it is essential for teachers to open their minds and share, share, share their knowledge so support one another during this time.

I have never heard of Digital Story Telling before and I am still slightly confused by the concept. However, my take on it is that one uses technology or digital media in order to tell their story. For example, you could host a podcast talking about your love of cooking and amazing recipes you’ve tried. My digital story telling would focus more on education, being a grade three teacher. I find the idea of digital story telling and interesting one as B.C’s grade three curriculum is all about story. It speaks to how we, as individuals, have our own stories to tell. It is also an interesting concept when bridging into First Nations learning. I still am unsure of how I would use this in my classroom. but I feel that is due to my lack of knowledge about the subject versus the actual use it has. I look forward to seeing how I can use digital story telling in my teaching and especially finding out how it can aid my students.