 Photo credit: Ellen Kinsel Welcome to the May CANeLearn News.As we flow into the closing month of another school year, holding rock steady but letting those things we cannot control flow past us is the focus. In this issue are several new announcements and an incredible new report on potential privacy breaches during the pandemic. We also have several resources worth checking out. Announcements :
Also, take a look at the Governments Harm Children’s Rights in Online Learning article below. It draws attention to technologies adopted during the pandemic and their ability to collect student data without approval and/or awareness of school districts. Many in the online community are shocked, including Tony Bates. We hope your journey to school year-end is smooth. We will send another newsletter with our annual list of summer reads toward the end of June.
Read, watch, listenFour lessons from online learning that should stick after the pandemicOvernight, institutions scrambled to keep education moving, while bridging the physical distance between teacher and learner. These efforts resulted in digitally mediated physical classrooms using the internet — not online education. While these two options sound the same, they are not. Bridging physical distance through technology alone doesn’t address additional adjustments required to address learner needs. Four distinct aspects of online learning that should stick post-pandemic: learning to learn online, designing online teaching with purpose, blending space and time online, and continued disruption with AI. Remote learning continues to affect student outcomes – studyResearch shows 64% of Austrlaian parents say their kids have been seriously impacted by continued disruptions due to COVID-19. More than half or participating parents feel their children have fallen significantly behind academically and are struggling to catch up. In addition, 46% of parents also feel the constant disruptions will also lead to long-term impacts on their academic progress and job prospects. K-12 Students’ Experiences of the Synchronous Remote Teaching and Learning EnvironmentThe use of online, distance, and remote teaching is a growing phenomenon in the K–12 context. However, within this field of research, focus has primarily been on the use of asynchronous (not real-time) remote teaching and with a specific focus on the experience of teachers. The aim of this pilot study was to explore K–12 students’ experiences of the synchronous (real-time) remote teaching and learning environment. Game-Based Learning Prepares K-12 Students for a Digital FutureAs educators seek tools for online environments, one of the solutions they’re increasingly turning to is game-based learning. One of the best ways for students to learn is through play, and growing up in a digital world, they are already playing video games outside the classroom. Remote teaching during the pandemic disadvantages students in New Jersey’s lower-income school districtsThe rollout of remote teaching in New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic was haphazard, under-resourced, inequitable delivered, contributed to student and teacher stress and may exacerbate digital and social inequality.  Photo by @scottgraham on Unsplash Indigenous pedagogies and online learning environments: a massive open online course case studyArguments based on a case study and analysis “that forms of Indigenous pedagogical practice are possible in the online environment” The Indigenous pedagogy described takes a holistic approach to learning, using the Medicine Wheel to incorporate all four aspects of being: spirit, emotion, body, and mind. EdTech — Three Things to Stop, Improve and StartThe sixth and final installment in a series that looks at current trends and research to help faculty, instructors, and education providers meet the evolving needs of students. Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute: Research ClearinghouseLinks to 10 recent publications on topics ranging from educator preparedness to K-12 students’ experiences in a remote learning environment to parental satisfaction. Why They Come and Go: Comparing Special Education and General Education Students in Cyber SchoolsConsiderable published research explores drivers of parental choice of face-to-face schools, but few works address reasons for attending cyber schools, and how student characteristics affect those reasons. This study tests whether students with designated special education (SPED) status differ in stated reasons for attending a multistate cyber charter school network. Remote classes affected students and teachers differently worldwide: Waterloo studyA Waterloo study found that switching to remote learning affected university students and teachers quite differently in developed and developing countries. While students and teachers in developing countries had trouble related to infrastructure, such as a lack of internet connectivity in some rural areas, student challenges in developed countries were more related to distractions or not having a dedicated space at home for online learning. Governments Harm Children’s Rights in Online LearningIn a report released by Human Rights Watch, governments of 49 of the world’s most populous countries harmed children’s rights by endorsing online learning products during Covid-19 school closures without adequately protecting children’s privacy.  20th Annual Digital Learning SymposiumOctober 19-21 – Downtown Vancouver BCRegistration is open!More information here Call for Proposals is NOW OPEN!Deadline for Proposals is June 15th, 2022For questions and further information contact conferences@bcedl.ca.
Register here Julia M Cameron via Unsplash Computers for SchoolsFor Ontario Schools, Libraries, Charities, and Not-for-Profits. Computers for Schools Plus Renewed Computer Technology (RCT) is a federally funded not-for-profit, charitable organization that refurbishes computers and delivers them to schools, First Nation bands, charities, non-profits, individuals, and families living with limited income in Ontario. We provide this equipment through our largest program, Computers for Schools Plus, which has been successfully operating for over 25 years. In 2017, the national program, CFS+, celebrated the delivery of it’s 1.5 millionth computer! Launched in 1993 by Industry Canada, Computers for Schools Plus program is a national, federal government-led initiative that operates in cooperation with a network of non-profit organizations across all Provinces and Territories, and in Ontario, through RCT. RCT has distributed over 455,000 computers to date! To learn more about the CFS+ click HERE! OR to watch our CFS+ video, click HERE! Resources for the Digital Classroom Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
Wordtune – A Great Artificial Intelligence Based Writing Assistant Check out these sites with updates shared previously… Stephen Downes: A Dozen Neat NASA Resources for Students and Teachers Stephen Downes: List of Educational YouTube Channels 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 |