 Photo credit: Anthony Delanoix via Unsplash Welcome to the April CANeLearn News.As the blossoms of Spring herald the warmer weather approaching, there are better days in store for educators. Our curation of online articles offers some insight into our optimism, but they also speak to the need to constantly refine our focus and to reach out and learn from each other. On that note, some upcoming learning opportunities from CANeLearn and our partners that might be of some interest include:
Note the shift of the annual DL symposium to October to align with the BC provincial Pro-D day. Watch for a call for proposals coming soon!Also, scroll down for links to resources and ideas to build into your practice now, or as you prepare for the next school year that is just around the corner!
April Digital Learning Symposium – Archives available!Read, watch, listen
Blended Learning: Three Things to Stop, Improve and Start! Blended learning is the future of education in a post-pandemic world. The third instalment of Stop, Improve, Start offers up bite-sized suggestions on how to make it work for everyone. Read the full article here Classroom learning is back, but does that spell the end of digital learning? Here’s why it shouldn’t Universities are welcoming international students back to campuses, but should that herald the end of digital learning? No says the authors, the quality of education is now tied to the quality of hybrid in-person and online learning and is one of the three top factors international students consider when choosing a study destination. School decision-makers missed the mark with pandemic policies, say parents Parents say the well-being of kids was not a priority for policymakers. Sixty-seven percent of those with children under age 18, up to 72 percent for six to 12-year-olds, said not given enough consideration was given to the well-being of children when making decisions during the pandemic. How student perceptions about online learning difficulty influenced satisfaction during Covid-19 responses This study investigates the transition to online learning during Covid-19 to identify factors that influenced students’ satisfaction with the online learning environment. The study found that students’ experience with online learning can be negatively affected by information overload and perceived technical skill requirements. Qualitative evidence suggests a lack of social interactions, class format, and ambiguous communication also affected perceived learning. Defining quality and online learning Institutions are struggling to define online or digital learning for their students. Students need to know whether a course requires attendance on campus, whether they need to be online at a set time, and what kind, of course, it will be (fully online, blended/hybrid, etc.). Online learning has several well-established sets of quality assurance standards that were established prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, in general, these standards were totally ignored as institutions moved to emergency remote learning. The Digital versus Brick-and-Mortar Balancing Game The blended campus required after two years of upheaval calls for out-of-the-box thinking about what to keep and what to discard from both digital and physical work and learning spaces. Technology leaders face critical decisions regarding workplace culture, physical classroom design, and traditional campus spaces. How I adapted my teaching and landed on my feet when COVID turned classrooms upside down A first-person account by a teacher in Alberta on how he and his colleagues used technology and ingenuity to stay connected with students with the pandemic forced all classes online.
Photo by @scottgraham on Unsplash 12 Golden Principles for Effectively Using Learning Technologies
While all school-aged children have been affected by the pandemic, it hasn’t been equal for everyone While experts are still exploring just how these disruptions are changing the learning landscape, Professor Kathryn Underwood, from Ryerson’s School of Early Childhood Studies, notes that the pandemic experiences of disabled children have been mixed, with some children benefiting greatly from being at home and being online. But many children have also experienced extreme isolation, poor educational experiences, and a lack of access to services they are entitled. Pandemic Effects: Ableism, Exclusion, and Procedural Bias The COVID-19 pandemic has changed social organizations and altered children’s worlds. The narrow focus of governments on the economy, childcare, and schooling does not reflect the scope of experiences of families and disabled children. We describe emerging findings of what the effects of the pandemic closures demonstrate about the social valuing of childhood, disability, and diverse family lives in early childhood education and care. Key Strategies for Engaging Students in Virtual Learning Environments The student engagement and relationship-building strategies discussed in this report are based on the current practices of teachers working in virtual schools or programs. Their expertise is provided as a way to aid teachers and administrators of both traditional and nontraditional schools and districts that have teachers and school leaders who are developing their skills and abilities as virtual educators.   Open/Technology in Education Society and Scholarship Association Second international conferenceOnline – May 16-20, 2022Theme: Critical ChangeTransitions of Online Learning and Teaching Addressing the New Inequities Sustaining Positive Change Registration InformationKeynote and Invited Speakers
Resources for the Digital Classroom Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash Stephen Downes: A Dozen Neat NASA Resources for Students and Teachers Stephen Downes: List of Educational YouTube Channels
Check out these sites with updates shared previously… 62 Educational Netflix Shows to Stream in Your Classroom Leveraging Tech Tools to Build Community in Your Classroom Common Sense Selections for Learning Best Digital Education Tools for Teachers to Teach Online Kahoot Guide to Creating Engaging and Fun Learning Games OER K-12 Resource List Engagement Strategies for Hybrid & HyFlex courses Beyond the Basics: Teaching with Zoom’s New Tools
The link above will take you to more information and a schedule of live training sessions. What is a Padlet? Teachers’ Step by Step Guide WEBSITES you didn’t know you NEEDED to know!! A collection of video resources of websites you did not know you need! This is the winner from Jen Giffen’s BlendEd BC Demo Slam Videoconferencing Alternatives: How Low-Bandwidth Teaching Will Save Us All Teaching Online Resources Frameworks, Tools, Resources Information Directory: Blogs and Opinions, Books and Videos, News, Research and Reports Embracing Ways of Knowing
Conferencing Tools for teaching & learning: Best practices BlendEd Creating and Using Rubrics for Assessment Tips to Make Your LMS Content Accessible Designing for Accessibility (PDF posters) An Important Distance Learning Resource for Teachers, Students, and ParentsWide 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 LearningProject-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 ScienceBeing 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 DesignSpreadsheet template to facilitate the collaborative design of learning scenarios. Check it out here |
