August 2021 Newsletter

Photo credit: Ellen Kinsel

As the summer fire season embers lose their glow, we launch another school year still searching for clarity on what the new year may bring us. With a fourth wave flourishing, how prepared are we to successfully engage active learning amidst disruption? Often looking back can help steer a path forward and CANeLearn is doing that through its pandemic series and will be offering insight and analysis at the September 24th Leadership Summit.

Check out the fifth report in the pandemic series, highlighting each jurisdiction’s strategies to provide supports, resources, and technologies appropriate for the continuation of teaching and learning over the 2020-21 school year (all reports here https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/ ). Join us on September 24th for a cross-Canada analysis and discussion about successful strategies for addressing disruption, including recommendations from school and district leaders. Check out all the learning opportunities below – we hope to see you online!

From all of us at CANeLearn, our best for a smooth start to your school year.

CANeLearn Annual Leadership Summit

Looking Back to Look Forward: Online Successes and Lessons Learned

Online/Virtual September 24, 2021

Join us as we share pandemic experiences and insights from Canadian education leaders

Details on our Summit Site

Cross Canada Roundup & Building Nimble, Tech-enabled Learning

CANeLearn Board and our invited Leadership Panel sharing cross-Canada strategies and models
Facilitated discussions specific to your own circumstances to build resiliency and flexibility

Full program posted here!

Thank you to our Sponsors

Prezi Video

Attendees who sign-up for a free Prezi “Basic” Education account will receive a complimentary 6-month Prezi EDU Plus Upgrade. Five lucky attendees will receive a special, limited edition Prezi Video t-shirt.

Canvas

School start-up reading, watching, and listening

Decolonization is Not a Metaphor

Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. Social justice, critical methodologies or approaches that decenter settler perspectives have objectives that may be incommensurable with decolonization.

Access the full article here

Decolonizing Your Syllabus? You Might Have Missed Some Steps

Decolonizing your syllabus is different than including some Indigenous writers on the reading schedule. Inclusion is a form of diversification but it can also be violent. Inviting voices into spaces not built for them or that undermine their messages, lived experiences, and expertise can often work against the well-intentioned goals of inclusion.

Classroom Activities

Online or Face-to-Face

Photo by Zbyněk Skrčený on Unsplash

Common Sense Education

Free advice, articles, and tips Access the website here

The Cobblestone Collective – Take an Adventure with Us

The Cobblestone Collective team joined thousands of classes across Canada through a co-taught lesson series. They explored Sustainable Development Goals, the Design Thinking Process, digital citizenship, mindfulness, and gratitude. Students coded in CS First and Minecraft, looked at using PowerPoint as an art canvas, Sway as a storytelling platform, and Google Sites as a new resume!

Lessons are either 60 or 90 minutes and recorded so you can still use them with your students at any time. These lessons are great whether you’re teaching in-person (project on your screen) or virtually (send the link directly to your students). Each YouTube video’s description provides any instructions you may need.

Access lessons here (click images in graphic) More Cobblestone Collective info

Resources for the Digital Classroom

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Videoconferencing Alternatives: How Low-Bandwidth Teaching Will Save Us All
When we try to replicate classroom experiences in an online environment, it’s easy to think of video conferencing as our go-to tool for all sorts of learning objectives—and for good reason. Most of us have participated in a video conference at work or had a video chat with friends or family at some point. We like the idea of being able to see and hear our students while interacting with them in real time just like we do when teaching face to face. But there are two key factors that make this approach problematic.

From previous newsletters…

Teaching Online Resources
The online teaching experience involves pedagogical methods that can be very different from those that many instructors are accustomed to using in a face-to-face environment. Fostering self-directed learning in a digital environment, conceptualizing the learning goals and methods of assessments, requires learner-centered practices and intentional instructional design. Includes resources providing foundational support for teaching online.

Frameworks, Tools, Resources
A directory of links to resources compiled by BCcampus. Updated frequently.

Information Directory: Blogs and Opinions, Books and Videos, News, Research and Reports
An information directory created to fill the need for Canadian-based information, specifically British Columbia, on open education; however, content from many English-speaking countries is included. This is an ongoing resource that is updated as information becomes available.

Embracing Ways of Knowing
BCcampus supported the co-creation of the OER Pulling Together: A Guide for the Indigenization of Post-secondary Institutions. These resources are designed to

Engage with varying audiences, including administration and educational leadership, teaching faculty, student services personnel, researchers, and instructional designers;
Include resources and considerations on meaningful and authentic engagement;
Supplement rather than replace training currently offered.

Conferencing Tools for teaching & learning: Best practices
Included are considerations for general etiquette, hosting virtual office hours, facilitating group work and presentations, lecturing, showing videos, hosting external presenters, and managing the space. Additionally, theoretical frameworks to support best practices when teaching online are provided.

BlendEd
A UK program of professional learning by and for teachers to support the pedagogy of blended learning. BlendEd helps teachers, school leaders, and other educators design effective teaching and learning that makes the most of digital technologies – in the classroom and from home, live and self-paced, in-person and online.

Creating and Using Rubrics for Assessment
Useful ideas for creating and using rubrics with guidelines for assessing a wide variety of activities, including e-portfolios, video and multimedia projects, teamwork, and research process.

Tips to Make Your LMS Content Accessible
While focused on Moodle, the information contained in this post can be applied to any LMS.

Designing for Accessibility (PDF posters)
Includes tips for designing content for accessibility for special needs such as autism, dyslexia, users of screen readers, low vision, physical or motor disabilities, deaf or hard of hearing, and anxiety.

An Important Distance Learning Resource for Teachers, Students, and Parents

Wide Open School offers free learning activities for all grades. Students can browse activities related to various subjects including social studies, emotional wellbeing, reading and writing, math, arts, music, science, English language learning, digital citizenship, and more. Within each of these activities, you can search for materials by grade level or search label. You can for instance search for activities that include videos, worksheets, lessons, etc. Some of these activities offer free downloadable materials. You can also share them to Google Classroom.

Tools for Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning, or PBL, challenges students to design and engage in more authentic, extended, and complex learning. But while PBL is a trusted strategy for increasing student engagement and learning, it’s not easy to orchestrate. If you’re doing it right, students will be engaging in a variety of interest-driven projects all with various needs and on different schedules. So how do you manage it all? Tech can be a huge help. This list gathers some useful productivity and organization tools that can help both teachers and students keep track of, finish, and assess projects. There are also a few tools designed specifically for PBL, as well as plug-and-play PBL experiences. Learn about these tools here

Rough Guide for Spotting Bad Science

Being able to evaluate the evidence behind a scientific claim is important. Being able to recognize bad science reporting, or faults in scientific studies is equally important. Includes 12 points to help separate the science from the pseudoscience. Download the PDF here

ABC Learning Design

Spreadsheet template to facilitate the collaborative design of learning scenarios. Check it out here

CANeLearn’s Emergency Remote Teaching Resources, Tools, Ideas

CANeLearn has published a page with a collection of resources from other organizations, emerging tools, and ideas about pivoting to remote teaching
Check it out here