CANeLearn News Update: New Initiatives, Research, and Events
September is the time to solidify plans for the new year. CANeLearn confirmed its new governance structure at the AGM including new initiatives. One is focused on AI use and implications for parents supporting students at home.
Scroll down for info and check out the latest news and learning events.
We continue to serve our network and community, but we need your help. Join us as an organizational member or individual member. Your membership and contributions will help us to keep online and digital learning in the forefront of educational improvement.
Fuel your passion! Join us to be the change in digital & online learning.
The AI Café is for families. Two grandfathers and two cheeky chatbots tackle how parents can make homework hour at the kitchen table a learning experience.
The pilot program (free) starts in October. Share with your parents if it is of interest.
See our pilot project site.
Share the one-page overview.
Conversations with Grandchildren
Check out the latest in a new series of posts and podcasts.
- Featuring AI in Education: What to expect next – “We never really taught critical thinking in our schools, and we are not in any position to start now.”
Program Leaders Data Survey
- The State of the Nation report has been an identifying study for almost 20 years.
- Online program data collected complements ministry information, enabling cross-referencing, trend ID, and sharing.
- Survey responses are at the bottom of jurisdiction profiles (e.g. https://k12sotn.ca/bc/)
Click here to add your data to improve the renowned study.
CANeLearn Research and Commentary
Ongoing research from partners and CANeLearn’s own studies are published here.
Find insightful commentary from new blogs and podcasts in our Conversations posts.
For upcoming professional learning experiences for online educators, see below.
CANeLearn Partner Events: Check them out!
In Other News...
Assess the process, not the product.
- Set the expectations at the start of the course.
- Remind students of the expectations with each assignment.
- Look for discrepancies in the submitted work.
- Choose the verification or validation method for the assignment:
- Conversation;
- Written reflection;
- Video submission;
- Earlier drafts; or
- AI chat log review.
- Document and grade.
Read more here.
Teachers believe over half of students use AI for schoolwork.
A survey conducted by the Canadian Fraser Institute found that four-in-10 Canadian teachers grades 6-12 believe more than half of their students use AI to complete homework. The majority of teachers report declining critical thinking skills, in-class writing, and analysis
- More than three-quarters (78.6 per cent) say that in-class work is lower quality than student take-home work, and 90.9 per cent of those teachers said this difference has been increasing over time.
Read more here.
1) What does 75% mean? From the Canadian Assessment Centre
- A percentage tells us how many points a student earned on a certain assessment
- We assume that means a student knows about 3/4 of the material; but
- That does not tell us which concepts they mastered and those they did not.
- It doesn’t tell us what they actually learned. It could be they have mastered half of the learning and not the second half. Or it could mean they understand all of the learning but only partially.
The question should never be, “What did they score?”
The question should always be, “What did they learn?”
Governance Update
The AGM confirmed our new governance structure with a 3-person executive board of directors and a new Advisory Council (see the terms of reference), allowing our network education leaders to maintain a strategic relationship with the organization, providing expertise and insight without any direct operational and governance responsibilities.
This strategic reorganization ensures timely and effective decision-making while continuing to leverage the collective wisdom of our online learning community to drive CANeLearn’s mission forward.
Add your voice to CANeLearn’s direction. Connect with Advisory Council members, or CANeLearn executive board members Randy LaBonte, Michael Canuel, or Michael Barbour.
Fuel your passion! Join us to be the change in digital & online learning.
All images, unless otherwise noted, were created using Gemini. Nature photos from @rlabonte.