 Photo credit: @rlabonte Welcome to the June CANeLearn News.As we retire another school year and recharge for the next, it is time to reflect on the cycles of life and anchor to the rock that holds us steady. The summer break is a time to step back, go fishing, or just stretch out with a good book. We hope that you mark the dates for important learning opportunities that await in only a few weeks: CANeLearn Leadership Summit – Now Friday, September 16 [online]
20th Annual Digital Learning Symposium – October 19-21 – Vancouver
We hope your summer break helps to recharge and refocus. Scroll down to check out our annual list of summer reading suggestions to help with the refocus. Read, watch, listenSecondary School Teachers’ Experiences of Implementing Hybrid Learning and Quadmester Schedules in Peel, OntarioThis OISE report discusses responses from 87 K-12 teachers in the Peel District School Board in Ontario about their experiences with the combination of hybrid learning – live synchronous teaching to students in a classroom and remotely connected to that classroom from home. The report concludes there were challenges with the hybrid model and quadmester schedule resulting in undue stress on teachers. How do we continue to engage students in online learning environments?The Digital Learning Collaborative (DLC) published the results of conversations with DLC members that found three common themes as keys to keeping students engaged in online learning environments: relationships, data, and communications and support. K-12 Saskatchewan Distance Education: Digging Deeper Into 21st Century Classrooms during a PandemicThis study explored the educational opportunities for K-12 Saskatchewan learners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fives steps to improve K-12 distance education in Saskatchewan were identified: 1) Decrease the Digital Divide; 2) Provide adequate and relevant professional learning for educators; 3) Increase post-secondary experiences for new educators; 4) Educate educational leaders about the complex world of online learning; and 5) Provide parents with more opportunities to learn more about distance education.  Photo by @scottgraham on Unsplash What’s your region’s plan to recover from pandemic school disruptions?CBC asked Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial governments about their education recovery plans. Here’s a summary of what they were told. 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. 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. Read the full article here and a related article here
  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 July 30thFor questions and further information contact conferences@bcedl.ca.
Register hereFrom previous newslettersFour 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.
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. 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.
 Resources for the Digital Classroom Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash Check out these sites with updates shared previously… Wordtune – A Great Artificial Intelligence Based Writing Assistant 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 |