Category: EdTech

As I am on the road to becoming an educator I am learning all types of things I never would have considered on my own. One of these concepts being how to be inclusive to those with disabilities. Reading the article on disabilities in schools made me realize how much of the population has some sort of a disability: ~24.7%.

I personally know of a teacher that teaches in SD63 who often gets students with behaviour challenges and disabilities. This year they have 5 students who need or have IEP’s. I am excited to begin my journey and start teaching in classrooms because I know that it is going to be a challenge to be inclusive, but the more challenging it is = the more rewarding it is when you succeed at what you do.

We have learned a bit about UDL in other classes so I am glad to see it being brought up again. Creating lesson plans with UDL in mind is a great idea because, as the article states, it’s a great way to avoid reworking later on.

The use of assistive technology is a great way to make use of UDL because it gives you options for students who may have difficulty communicating or understanding lessons. iPads, Windows, Kurzweil, Google, Boardmaker, Inspiration/Xmind, FM systems, Braille, and Zoom are all different types of assistive technology. One example that I use sometimes is the voice to text option on google docs when I am listening to video lectures because sometimes I have a hard time recalling what happened in class. I am also excited to learn more about tools such as Broadmaker to help students with success regardless of their abilities. Specifically, their shop which I will post here: https://goboardmaker.com/collections/all

During my field experience there was a kindergarten student who had moved from Russia and did not speak very good English. The EA used flashcards like this to help him understand what was going on:

Here is a video of me testing out screencastify for this week. This is just an extension to add onto chrome to record your screen and it is very simple and easy to use. I can see myself using this in the future as a teacher (especially if virtual learning happens in the future) because it is an easy way to show students how to find things on their browsers. Additionally, in my math class last week we played a math game called Prodigy. I could see how using the screencastify would be a great way to record yourself playing to show your students how to play the game or have students record their progress in the game. Also in my music class this week we played on a website where we create our own songs by drawing pictures. This extension could be a great way to record these songs while still seeing the picture. Overall, in the future I definitely see myself using this extension!

Below is a video of my browsing through my recipes folders and showing what recipes I have tried, and which recipes I am excited to try!

Jeff Hopkins spoke in our class this week about his school in Victoria, Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. From what Jeff spoke about during class it seems like this school is ideal for students who want to focus on subjects they are interested in, rather than the broad spectrum public schools in BC usually have. This school allows students to create inquiries based on their interests, while also qualifying for graduation in BC. In his TEDx Talk, Jeff Hopkins talks a lot about how schools should focus more on inquiry-based learning because doing so helps students understand subjects on a deeper level. He also suggests we should be teaching our students what they need to know instead of what they need to know about. In other words, there needs to be a comprehensive understanding of what you are learning about. As a future educator, I have been learning a lot more about inquiry-based learning and this has interested me because it seems like students will leave the classroom with better knowledge using this method of learning. When I was a student in grade school I remember only wanting to pass my courses and not caring about the content. Inquiry-based learning helps students explore what they are interested in and in turn, they will feel more connected to these topics.  

Competency Assessment Framework

I found this assessment guide on the PSII website and it is very interesting to me because it is a lot more simplified than the BC curriculum guidelines, although it seems much more relevant to what we need to learn in the present day. Instead of being broken down into math, science, art, etc., they break up assessment into broader terms such as collaboration and leadership which are both very important skills needed after graduation.

There was one concept that really caught my attention in Jesse Miller’s presentation during our Ed Tech class on Tuesday, and that is that the internet is safe. The internet is a safe place, but it is people who make it unsafe. This is something I have never really considered before. Generally, the internet is a place where folks can connect with friends, do research, play games, and so much more. It is people that create unsafe environments on the internet such as the dark web and try to hack your computer.

This concept is exactly why it has made me realize that children should never be on the internet unattended. When I was a kid, I had social media such as MSN and Facebook at the age of 10 years old. I do not think my parents fully understood the dangers of being on the internet at this age because they were quite older and did not use technology like this themselves. It is so easy for a child to receive a link from their friends and click on it without thinking twice. This link could always be another person who is not your friend, trying to hack into your account without you knowing. This creates so many dangers.

As a future educator, it is my duty to converse with my students about the dangers of social media. It is my duty because they may not have people at home that express these dangers to them either because they do not know, or they do not care. At very young ages children are being exposed to the internet, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but they need to know the risks (as do their parents/guardians), and they need to be monitored.

Here is a great video on internet safety for young children.

Who knew there was so much to copyright? I always assumed that if you borrow from somewhere then you need to reference them, I never even thought about open education. I have thought about borrowing lesson plans, using activity worksheets, etc. Although, I have never thought about where to obtain these resources from.

The best bet as a teacher to obtain resources is by using open licensing resources. With plenty of these resources, you can access, copy, and adapt content for your teaching needs. There are so many questions teachers have when it comes to Copyright laws and what can be obtained to use in the classroom. A very good guide to use in the Copyright Matters question and answer article created by the Canadian Teacher’s Federation. Here is the link:

http://cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/291/Copyright_Matters.pdf

Open Education resources allow teachers to use for free in their classrooms.

Creative Commons resources allow the public to use these resources within certain limitations. This might include using including attribution, allowing edits, etc.

This Youtube video presents why using open education is useful, and although it is aimed towards higher education it is equally important for grade school because teachers should be able to find resources without paying out of pocket.