Category: TIEgrad (Page 1 of 4)

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Assignment 3A: Evidence-Informed Design and Content for Learner-to-Learner Communication in High Schools

July 27, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 0 Comments

“books” by stebulus is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Learner-to-Learner Online Communication Review

Moore stated there are three types of learning in online environments: learner-to-learner, learner-to-teacher, and content-to-learner (1989). Since spring break, teachers have made adaptations for delivering content to students, and have used alternative methods for communicating such as e-mail, phone calls home, creation of websites, the use of centralized online learning spaces, and the use of video conferencing. However, I feel one of the foundational pillars Moore stated has been left out, and that is learner-to-learner interactions.

Learner-to-learner communication is a part of the British Columbia curriculum. It is outlined by the B.C. Ministry of Education as one of the three core competencies that is fundamental for students to acquire (“Communication | Building Student Success,” n.d.). Informally, my online students described to me the challenges of not being able to talk with their peers freely, feeling disconnected, and not having the opportunity to have small group conversations with their peers. In order to meet the education guidelines set by the government, we need to change our online teaching practices.

Lev Vgotsky stated, “Human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them” (1978, p.88). Vgotsky’s social development theory describes how social development is imperative for cognitive development. If we are limiting student social interactions, we are limiting cognitive development.

Additionally, Ted Aoki’s ideas on the polarization of the lived curriculum and planned curriculum (1993). The planned curriculum being the core competencies mandated by a governing body such as the B.C. Ministry of Education, and the lived curriculum, the stories, metaphors, personal aspirations, and the phenomenological expression of the students themselves. It is an embodiment of celebrating the uniqueness of individuals, and how those shared experiences with others enriches the learning experience.

In an online learning setting, you can’t replicate the same experiences in a classroom. However, you can be more proactive by giving the opportunity for learners to communicate with their classroom peers online by establishing clear expectations and guidelines for parents, educators, and high school students.

References:

Aoki, T. T. (1993). Legitimating lived curriculum: Towards a curricular landscape of multiplicity. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 8(3), 255-268.

Communication | Building Student Success. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies/communication/

Moore, M. G. (1989). Three types of interaction. The American Journal of Distance Education, 3(2), 1-6.

Vygotsky, L., & Cole, M. (1978). Mind in society. Harvard University Press.

Evaluation and Rationale of the Resource Document: Expectations for Communicating with Peers Online

July 27, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 0 Comments

“Books” by Jules Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Resource Purpose

I have reached out to multiple school districts in British Columbia on finding clear policies that outline peer-to-peer communication for high school students, and found that there is a gap with this resource. The British Columbia Ministry of Education is going to roll out their back to school plans any day now, and quite possibly accompanied resources may follow. At the present time, I feel it is better to add material to the learning community and provide a document that can be modified and changed to fit the school culture and policies of not only British Columbia, but those of all educational facilities that want to support peer-to-peer communication in learning spaces without the continuous presence of an educator. An example of such an environment would be students working in groups of two to four in break-out rooms facilitated by the teacher using Zoom video conference software or the use of Microsoft Teams.

The Expectations for Communicating with Peers Online document is intended for educators to use in communicating with parents and students for use in the following:

A guide for structuring lessons that reinforce the principle outlined in digital citizenship and peer communication.
A document that students need to acknowledge prior to building online relationships with their peers.
Communication for parents with an understanding of school policies and online expectations for their child.
Acknowledgement from parents on expectations of student behaviour with communication in an online school facilitated environment.
Information on consequences with unexpected behaviour for all parties involved with student communication online
The document is intended for the reader to make modifications to tailor for school policies surrounding bullying and harassment. The school policies in the current document are a reflection of Prince George Secondary School’s policies, which are a reflection of my work environment.

It is recommended modifications are made in the document that reflect your own school’s policies on harassment and bullying.

Date of Publication and Resources

The resource document was created in July 2020 that relied on resources from the British Columbia Government and from the current high school I am working at as a teacher. Resources for creating the Expectations for Communicating with Peers Online document can be found in the document itself.

About Me

I have been teaching in Canada since 2009, but started my teaching career in South Korea in 1999 as an ESL teacher. I have taught in various roles from K to adult learning in both countries, but currently teach at Prince George Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada, as the newly designated business education teacher. Over the years I have drawn on support from my peers and administrators in teaching various subjects by integrating technology tools with the new British Columbia curriculum guidelines. I am also a part-time student and currently engaged in my second year of the Masters of Educational Technology Program at the University of Victoria through online education.

Final Note

The University of California’s Evaluating Resources guide was used as a guideline to provide a rationale and reflective evaluation of the Expectations for Communicating with Peers Online document.

The Challenge for Youth in Indonesia

July 25, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 0 Comments

Traditional Balinese dancer in costume wearing a mask to ward off evil spirits.

“Balinese Barong Dancer” by Hoks is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In the news we see varying degrees of responses towards schools reopening with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our thoughts are aligned towards how the re-opening of schools is going to take place, as it is the centralized space for learning in our community. However, the reality is many youth in the world don’t have a mandated right to attend public school especially when living in poverty.

Full article from video here

For homeless youth in Indonesia, the priorities are food, shelter, and a safe place to sleep. Social distancing and fears of contracting Covid-19 are the least of these young people’s concern.

Children with supportive families in Indonesia don’t have the same social net as we have in Canada. We have been very fortunate that Canadian citizens are able to receive $2000 per month in social assistance through the CERB program in supporting their families in facing the reality of job losses.

With in-laws living in Bali, Indonesia, they have shared with me the realities of life under the strain of Covid-19. There are no hand-outs from the government, and people with contracts working for the government have gone through a reduction in wages. At one point no wages were received for two months due to office closures, although employees were expected to still volunteer their time, for the sake of job security, helping to disinfect public areas. Bali is a densely populated island that heavily relies on the tourist industry for over half of their revenue. Schools on the island are either private or public, with the difference of private schools costing more and public schools costing less. Education is not free. When parents lose their income or have it reduced, it increases the risk of food and health security for children.

Elementary schools in Bali have not re-opened. Teachers use their phones to text students assigned work with expectations that parents provide the support. Students receive participation marks, but no assessment on the learning outcomes takes place. My eight year old niece last week received thirty-five math questions for homework but only did three. I think it is challenging for parents to get students to engage who have been socially and mentally disconnected from school for a few months now.

The Balinese provincial government has a tentative plan to re-open the borders for international tourists September 11th. The hope is to bring life back to the economy. It is an uneasy balance between supporting the livelihood of the community and increasing the risk of Covid-19 with no easy answer.

A close up of a CPU chip sitting on top of a keyboard — "Computer Processor on Keyboard" by danielfoster437 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Supporting Resources for Peer Online Communication in High Schools

July 19, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 1 Comment

“Computer Processor on Keyboard” by danielfoster437 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Expectations For Communicating with Peers Online.

With a pivot in providing learning opportunities for students outside of the classroom, it is important that students learn what is expected and what is not expected in being a digital citizen when interacting online with or without the presence of an educator. The British Columbia Ministry of Education has made adaptations for our School District to include online cloud-based tools into our teaching methods to keep students connected and moving forward with their learning. The following resources are pieces to the puzzle in supporting peer to peer collaboration.

For each resource selected, I used the University of California’s Evaluating Resources guide. It outlines six criteria to determine if a resource is relevant for consideration through the following guidelines:

Authority – Who is the author? What is their point of view?

Purpose – Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience?

Publication & format – Where was it published? In what medium?

Relevance – How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?

Date of publication – When was it written? Has it been updated?

Documentation – Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?

Resource Links:

B.C. Digital Literacy Framework (PDF)

The framework can be found on the Government of British Columbia’s website as a guide to identify the tools, thinking, and learning needed for finding success with a 21st century environment. The document is more relevant now due to our unpredictable circumstances with Covid-19, where we need a back-up plan for remote learning. The document was created from resources based on the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE)-NETS Students Standards and Performance Indicators. The B.C. Digital Literacy Framework was published in 2015, with clear headings and learning objectives for students from kindergarten to grade twelve. You can also find links to resources used in creating the document. The B.C. Digital Literacy framework encompasses more than expectations of peer-to-peer online communication, and overall find it a credible resource that is still applicable to B.C. educators. Educators can justify lesson plans and activities in relation to the building of peer-to-peer relationships in online environments through this document.

Harassment Brochure (PDF) from School District 57 (Prince George B.C. and Surrounding Area)

The brochure was created in School District 57 for Prince George Secondary School (PGSS). The document has greater relevance for me, as I recently transferred to teach at PGSS. The brochure is nicely organized and is targeted towards parents and students. The document was created in 2015 in partnership with education staff from various schools in Prince George, and with Perspectives Hr Consulting. Since this is a school district document, the actions and consequences towards bullying online are specific and relevant for me in the upcoming school year. All schools in British Columbia have a action plan for bullying, which brings into mention the next resource for B.C. educators.

Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship

The website is run by a non-profit organization based in the United States with offices located throughout the country. Their website focuses on supporting students with technology and media, with their section on digital citizenship supportive for educators and students. There are lesson plans with developed resources that are free to use within their website. The grade nine to twelve content on Relationships and Communication provide support on appropriate communication with peers online. I found the grade eleven curriculum on Connecting to Digital Audiences very supportive, as it presents strategies on communication with others in an online environment. Materials have a Creative Commons license that attribution must be provided along with restrictions on making modifications to the content. All content was created by Common Sense Media.

Fostering Student to Student Communication Online (PDF)

A great two page outline stating the benefits of online communication between peers and tips to facilitate peer communication. It is a document that was created in collaboration with three different universities in providing post secondary instruction. The foundational pieces on peer online communication expectations are concise and to the point. Links for additional resources are provided in the document to explore as well.

7 Rules for Online Etiquette

A quick seven point guide for supporting online communication that was composed from a variety of online sources. A publishing date is not shown, but from the date of the sources cited one may conclude the document was created in 2015. The document was created to support online learning for high school students and adult learners in Indiana.

Student to Student Interaction Online

Fantastic resource that outlines the following:

evidence that supports the positive impacts of online interactions between students
how to facilitate student to student interactions online
additional resources for the reader to further inquire about student to student interactions online

The document is geared towards post-secondary learning at the Rochester Institute of Technology. There are various links on the website, and a downloadable PDF version is available with built in links to provide extra resources for the reader. Although some of the documents were published in 2014, all of the information relates to communication in online learning environments for adult learners. I found the the tables, headings, and the organization of all documents very easy to read and understand.

So You Want to Temporarily Teach Online

The material was written by Stephanie Moore and Charles B. Hodges in an online publication titled Inside Higher Ed in March 2020. Both of the writers are professors at post secondary institutions in the United States with backgrounds in instructional technology. The article gives some great tips in facilitating online learning. The document appears to be tailored for post-secondary education, but with simple modifications you can tailor your pedagogy for high school students.

A Beneficial Resource Not Listed

A resource that I’ve had challenges finding is a specific set of guidelines that outlines expectations of peer-to-peer communication in online classroom environments. It would be exciting to have small group collaborations between peers online with the educator acting as the facilitator.

Mike Caulfield, a professor at the University of Washington, gives an excellent presentation on the possibilities of utilizing technology to facilitate learners who are either physically in the classroom, synchronously online, or a communicating asynchronously. Although geared towards post secondary education, the foundation for building relationships between learners is created with his approach.

The next step in my project is to create a document that is transparent for students, teachers, and parents for the facilitation of collaborative, social, and emotional learning for students. With Covid-19 not going away anytime soon, giving educators and students the flexibility to build online relationships is a need not only for learning, but for mental health as well.

Reflection of the Planned and Lived Curriculum

July 19, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 0 Comments

“Children Fishing into Reflections-1=” by Sheba_Also 17,000,000 + views is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

I found Sarah Olsen’s summary of Aoki’s work on the planned and lived curriculum very familiar in terms of my teaching practices, but also supportive in emphasizing the importance of the lived curriculum.

In elementary schools, it is easier to draw into the lived curriculum of students and facilitate their stories. Having the same group of students for ten months allows the educator to grow the collective bond and celebrate the diversity of learners. Teaching at grade five and six split class, the opportunity to communicate in talking circles where the curriculum becomes more personalized and flexible in responding to the “now”, and the teacher can pass between curriculum topics with an interweaving of student led interests, stories, and muses is within itself the lived curriculum.

This is not to say high school teachers can’t respond to the support of bringing the lived curriculum into their classrooms. However, there is more tension in the planned and lived curriculum, where specific content learning objectives are foundational pieces for students to understand more complex ideas as they move through the planned curriculum. It is in this realm where you find master educators balancing the lived experience of learning in the class and connecting it to learners with their analogies, storytelling, and giving the platform for learners to voice their experiences. Travis Fachs gives incite on his own practices with using artifacts in the classroom to provoke the lived curriculum.

In our current environment, we need to think back to Aoki’s thoughts on the lived curriculum and teaching in a blended or online environment by giving students their voices. We need students to have the opportunities to talk with each other, share their experiences, and allow teachers to respond to those voices and give guidance towards their interests. We have an amazing opportunity to facilitate pedagogy in a new way as opposed to the traditional in-classroom instruction by unlocking online learning tools for students. Online classrooms shouldn’t look like live video lectures that are teacher centered with students listening to content and not having the opportunity to engage or feel disconnected. Online or blended classrooms need to promote collaboration between learners by allowing the freedom to communicate between each other in small groups that would naturally occur in the classroom. Allow students to have their video cameras on and let them talk. Having policies in place to create the online lived curriculum allows the learner to engage, socially, emotionally, and personally.

Reflecting on the Pivot

July 11, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 0 Comments

“Finding a Line” by vpickering is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Everyone had to pivot their approach to education without a choice after the spring break, but we are very privileged to be living at this period of time where technology has allowed us to support both teaching and learning online. In our current summer course session we are focusing on the pivot moving towards remote learning, and how we can best support our learning community when we meet in September. We are fortunate to have already been immersed in an online learning group with the ability to find resources, communicate with peers, and to have a sounding board to bounce off ideas with each other.

In reflecting the past few months of teaching in an online environment there were things that worked, things that didn’t work, things that need tweaking, and things that you knew should be there but weren’t present at all. It’s challenging to find the best solutions to all of these “things” and even define what that missing “thing” is. As such, it is natural to start with a messy canvas of thoughts and ideas before a clearer picture can be presented.

One valuable activity that worked for one of my courses was for students to communicate in small groups with each other in designated Zoom rooms. Some of the communication revolved around curriculum, but it also blended into a social and emotional support for students who have a natural need to connect with people outside of their isolation due to Covid-19 restrictions. I was unable to be present in each Zoom room at all times; however, I am not always present at each student space in the classroom. Creating a safe online learning environment with transparency for all parties is imperative for the opportunity to continue peer to peer interactions to continue. In September, we may not have the opportunity to develop those interpersonal relationships within physical proximity of each other. Having a system in place and a set of consequences to deal with harmful behavior is needed. My current goal is to reach out and find if there is anyone who has already developed the wheel on this topic. If not, with help from a community, we can develop the wheel and share it to all.

A Metaphor of Curriculum

July 10, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 3 Comments

“You missed” by Mike Burns is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

To me curriculum is a game of darts in a bar. The dartboard stands for the learning outcomes an institution has designated that learners must hit, and the bar is the institution that holds all the facets of the how curriculum is directly and indirectly taught. The darts are thrown by the player (the learner), with younger players standing much closer to the dartboard and older ones standing further away. We find players of the same age in groups throwing darts while supporting each other’s play and engaging in conversation. Each individual carries in their own set of darts when entering the bar. Some players have an edge with darts that have been passed down from parents, who already had success playing the game, and went on to become masters in other games based on darts. Some of the players don’t have those well used darts, and are quite new to the game finding it an uphill battle. In the past, some of the players in the bar had generations of family members who were experts at playing a game that had nothing to do with dartboards, bars, or darts, but instead played a game called lacrosse (first nation’s way of knowing and learning). Lacrosse created challenges because it couldn’t be facilitated in the restrictions of a building. Presently, everyone plays darts here with a new video game edition where you can also play online. In the bar you have servers (teachers) who direct the game, bartenders who you can get advice from (counselors), and the bouncers (administration) that run the game consistently for ten months out of the year, but decide to close in the summer. Recently the bar has found that not everyone likes to play darts, and has created compromises by bringing in a pool table. On one of the walls there is a poster of lacrosse. People talk about the game, but overall many have forgotten how to play.

Maker Spaces Outside of School and Building Social Emotional Learning

April 5, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 2 Comments

“Which Way Now” photo by Mike Beales downloaded from Flickr CC BYND CC BY-ND 2.0

The Question

In kindergarten, the essential elements of learning are social and emotional development. Students are able to interact with their peers in a classroom, learn to play with each other, share, help each other, and build together mentally and physically. Social and emotional learning continues far beyond kindergarten and into adulthood. With our group project in the creation of Rube Goldberg machines, we have to face the challenge of students working from home. We must ask ourselves how students can continue their social and emotional development outside of the classroom in completing their science project? How can students create meaningful connections with others from their learning?

Interactions

Students can receive support and input from their siblings and parents when building their Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg machine has no limitations as to what it can be built out of, and the objective for the function as to the purpose of what the Rube Goldberg does is limitless as well. Students can interact with siblings and parents in the household for finding recyclables, developing their ideas, and researching various Rube Goldberg machines by watching created projects from others posted on YouTube.

Students can use social media to post their video on what they created with their peers and get feedback. Videos can be used synchronously or asynchronously in sharing some of their learning challenges, design ideas, and current progress. A video journal can be created of their learning experience, and

Technology

Flipgrid

Learners can record videos and post them on the Flipgrid group site for other members in the classroom to see. It is an asynchronous forum in which learners are able to provide stickers, emojis, and comments towards the created content of other members in the classroom. The videos have privacy protection so that general members of the public don’t have access to student content.

Zoom

Zoom is a synchronous video streaming service that provides audio and visual of all participants on a screen. Students can share their learning in a larger setting with all participants of a classroom, or the administrator of the meeting can create breakout groups and have students meet in a smaller forum. The groups are randomly made with the size of each group being decided by the instructor.

Microsoft Classroom and Sway

Our school district is moving towards setting all student accounts to Microsoft and the use of Microsoft software such as OneNote for classroom organization, and the use of Sway for students to build digital stories. Sway is described by Microsoft as an easy tool to incorporate video, pictures, text and other media into interactive digital stories. Students can use the tool in creating a video journal, and use Sway to share with their peers what they have learned.

There are many options available for learners with interfaces providing similar experiences to the programs mentioned above. Students may choose to use social media platforms they may already use in their lives to have social interactions with their peers.

Challenges

Not all students will have the resources at home to create video journals, record their learning experiences, have internet access to share with others, and the hardware needed to create content. Flexibility is needed as such that students can make phone calls with their peers to share the learning and get feedback. Additionally, students don’t need to create video journals of their experiences, but instead can create journals from pencil and paper with text, drawings, learning from others, and personal reflection.

On another note, any technology tool needs to abide by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Final thoughts

Adaptations can be used in delivering the curriculum and assessing the learner’s final project while still incorporating the core competencies such as social and emotional learning, digital literacy standards, and science five curriculum. However, the reality is screens cannot replace face to face interactions with learners. At such a unique time in our lives, finding alternatives that can at least create some personal connections between learners is the second best option.

Design Thinking

March 29, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 2 Comments

What is a Design Thinker

We live in a digital information age, where sharing and communicating data invokes people to find inventive ways to solve the world’s problems. Student flexibility in critical thinking and problem solving is the premise for being a design thinker. We can see some of the skill sets needed for design thinking in the British Columbia core competencies: thinking, communication, and personal social development. However, design thinking goes beyond core competencies and involves strategies into finding new solutions to problems.

I found Tim Brown’s introduction video on design thinking outlines how desirability of what we need or want, viability with consideration to the cost, and feasibility of the technology that can be used in finding the solution to a problem. In addition, Tim Brown also brings the value of divergent choices, whereas finding new approaches to problem solving as opposed to using the alternatives already around us to make the best choices. It doesn’t take much effort in finding real world examples of how design thinking can be used in problem solving in relation to finding solutions to wicked problems.

Screenshots are captured from Tim Brown’s TED talk on Design Thinking Youtube Link

From reading Buchanan, a wicked problem is best described as making either better or worse decisions in order to solve a multi-layered complex issue that involves multiple stakeholders. Design thinking is one approach into tackling complex problems.

In our current environment, we can consider the wicked problem in which we have a global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization, and ask ourselves the following question:

“How do we prevent global pandemics from happening and how can we prepare for them?”

It is a multi-layered problem that requires the coordination of governments, communities, health care professionals, business, industry, and citizens of the world to flatten the curve of infection rates. Global pandemics have happened in the past, such as the Spanish flu Pandemic of 1918, and will most likely continue in the future. It is a problem that will most likely never be solved, and will change depending on the next viral or bacterial outbreak which will have its own unique characteristics of transmission. However, we can challenge ourselves with a design thinking approach in which we diverge our thinking to find new solutions that haven’t been thought of before, and create positive steps into getting closer to answering the wicked problem.

Image is obtained from Transition Design Seminar 2020 based on work from Rittel and Webber

In an article written by Tom Perry in Upworthy.com, Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli, two engineers with access to 3D printing technology, developed and patented a valve that can be used in conjunction with scuba gear to make a ventilation mask. The prototype has been tested and deemed successful with a patient in Italy, but remains uncertified as a technology due to the immediate demand in supporting an overwhelming number of patients in the Italian hospitals. The viability of producing the valves, one dollar to print in addition to a 3-printer, the desirability in finding solutions that aren’t approved by testing medical boards is side stepped, and the feasibility of using existing scuba gear technology to create a ventilator is reached. Extraordinarily, it only took three hours for the engineers to create the prototype. By thinking divergently and creating new choices, in addition to reaching out to supportive partners, hospitals, and patients, in developing their prototype, we can chip away at solving wicked problems. We can also share innovative and creative solutions to the worldwide medical community by using social media and personal learning networks to create new seeds and new ideas for others to find solutions to the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Youtube

How does Design Thinking Relate to Educators in B.C.?

Educators in British Columbia are moving into an unknown direction with supporting student learning without the physical presence of students in the classroom. It is another wicked problem that has been created from the ramifications of a global pandemic. Tomorrow, with the end of spring break, many educators are asking themselves the following:

“How can I best support my learners from a distance using technology?”

In the upcoming months, teachers are going to face problems in which they make either better or worse solutions, make decisions that best suit their own unique learners, and make decisions or develop new solutions that best support how teachers deliver the curriculum. Educators are mandated to social distance, which then creates unique challenges with working from home in alternative spaces with limited resources. I personally don’t have a final answer or solution in best supporting students, but using personal learning networks, reflecting on how other educators are using resources, and sharing data can help all stakeholders in best finding solutions to meet learners’ needs. Design thinking…. welcome to tomorrow.

Final Thoughts

Reference articles

Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked Problems in Design Thinking Design Issues: MIT Press, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 5-21

Rittel, H. W., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155-169. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01405730

Digital Bubbles

March 22, 2020 / Trevor Hood / 1 Comment

Bubbles “Bubbles” by blondinrikard is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Digital Bubbles as an Educator

What is the writer trying to sell and what are they wanting you to buy? Why would the writer frame the subject into an untruthful context, and how do you know if the writer is being truthful? Personally, I start with this frame of mind by asking myself these questions when reading content online. In a digital world where information moves quickly, and the phrase “Fake News” is an oxymoron to truth, finding multiple sources on a topic and understanding the writer’s motivation in covering the topic allows the reader to get a bigger picture of the story.

On January 8th, 2020, Ukrainian flight 752 was shot down in Iran. In the next 24 hours there was denial from the Iranian government and accusations from foreign entities outside of Iran that the plane was shot down. In my Science 9 class on January 10th, I showed students the English newspaper website the Tehran Times, and the news website in the United States called CNN. With both sites contradicting the events which occurred, we expanded our research into other news organizations such as The Guardian based in the United Kingdom and press the release from the Canadian government stated on CBC news. I then asked my students who is telling the truth? What story are they wanting you to buy, and why without giving my own personal thoughts on the subject. Over the weekend, with overwhelming evidence supplied by Iranian citizens with video from phones and American satellite detection of two missile launches from the Iranian military base, the Iranian government admitted fault. Having students consider the motivation of people in creating false narratives, and how to process information as to truth and untruth is an important digital literacy skill set students need to be exposed to.

Howard Rheingold’s online book on Crap Detection 101, provides a variety of supportive tips and strategies on determining if a source is valid or not. If I was to pass one piece of information from the article to my students, it would be asking yourself if you can find three reliable, separate, sources of information which validate the context of information. By having separate sources of information, it helps avoid confirmation bias where a website might hide the validity of their information by hyperlinking their sources of information to alternative false narratives. Mr Rheingold’s book also presents how alternative sources of information such as Twitter are being used to help validate what is happening in the real world, as was evident with Ukrainian flight 752.

Digital Bubbles influencing the Digital Project

Reading through my peers’ blogs have added to my understanding of how my group project can be improved upon. Through peer review of digital tools with my online cohort, it allows a filtering of online tools that can be helpful and supportive in addition to the context in which they can be used. Following the progress of our project, we initially used Ice cream Screen Recorder software in recording our brainstorming sessions, but we found the 5 minute video recording limitation challenging. We then switched to using screenshot software built into a group member’s Mac Book. However, not having a Mac book myself poses a challenge into the type of screen capturing software that I can use with a PC. OBS Studio is free to download, and has been used by Andrew Vogelsang in our cohort in creating screen capture content for his Digital Project.

Below you can find my own introduction video on OBS Studio in which I captured some of the digital tools we are using in our digital project.

OBS Software Intro Use by Trevor Hood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

In context with communication, we have been using the Blue Jeans software in collaborating with each other, Slack when we aren’t video conferencing, and shared Google Docs. There are various alternative social media tools we could have used instead, but I feel we made a decision in using these tools for the following reasons:

User accounts are already set up and established on Slack, making it easy for group members to continue with the same social media platform
Blue Jeans and Slack platforms were introduced to us when we started our master’s program through our professor which set familiarity and prior knowledge
Google Docs being extensively used in prior research projects and with previous professors in providing and sharing information

Trello was also useful in organizing information and setting up project deadlines with the possibility of a greater capacity in its use. Notably, this was another digital tool that was introduced to us earlier in our master’s program.

In general, the tools that have been introduced to me in the master’s program have been implemented; therefore, I can conclude the main filter in making choices on the use of digital tools is the professional learning community in the University of Victoria Education and Technology master’s program.

Digital Bubbles and Students

It is unrealistic to expect students from kindergarten to grade twelve to use the same digital tools we are implementing in creating our digital project. There are lots of options as to how our students can communicate using digital media platforms, as various schools have alternative hardware and software tools at their disposal. Our group is focusing on students creating a ‘How to’ video on their personal learning with respect to the creation of Rube Goldberg machines. With a grade five target audience, we want the digital material created to follow the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Notably there are opportunities to share content online such as using Fresh Grade, where parents can review digital profiles and video content of their child’s learning while still making online content private and only accessible to parents or the teacher. Overall, the software tools that can be used must meet guidelines in protecting the privacy of students.

Final Thoughts

Considering how our world is moving into an online environment, and possibly more so in the next few months as the world struggles to contain the coronavirus, I have been fortunate in already being exposed to online learning as a student. In the upcoming month it will be interesting to see if there is a possibility of switching roles from being a student to being a teacher, and if I will have the option of choosing which digital tools that I would like to use in engaging my students.

Category: TIEgrad (Page 1 of 4)