Author Archives: borna111

Feb 28 2020
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(11) 5332

Countdown to Collaboration…Ready, Set, Go!

Have you ever worked on a presentation or research paper but can’t seem to find the missing pieces to your idea? Guess what, there is a solution and that is Collaboration. Collaboration allows you to communicate and work together with others to share new ideas and solve problems. Through my infographic via Canva, I was able to summarize the Collaborator Module created by Ontario Extend. This module explains in four sections; Explore, Engage, Extend, Empower, how to effectively collaborate as an educator. In other words, “We are all in this together”.

The first section of the module is explore which explains the importance of collaboration. Steven Johnson shares his philosophy on good ideas in terms of “hunches”. A hunch is the starting of a good idea and it is through coming together that collectively you can find the missing piece needed to develop a great ideas. This can be compared to the saying “two heads are better than one”. As a beginning teacher, you enter into this new world and it can be very stressful and scary. However, I found that in collaborating, I was able to learn from other teachers experiences when it comes to discipline, organisation, flexibility, etc. I also found it very useful when designing a lesson, I was able to build upon others ideas instead of reinventing the wheel.

Twitter as a means of collaboration

It is our job as educators to explore the different resources that we have to our disposable specifically the wide variety of information we can find online.  This also means that unlike before, we now have the power to not only collaborate face-to-face but through social media and texts. Alec Couros explains the value of Twitter as a collaborative tool and the importance of familiarizing ourselves with the hashtags such as #EdChat, #SciChat to stay connect. As a first time Twitter user, the platform has been a valuable resource for me to expand my knowledge and communicate with other educators in my discipline. On numerous occasions, I have had the opportunity to see the papers my colleagues have written and read about their pedagogical journeys. In fact, I met a colleague when doing research in Costa Rica and through social media I am able to keep in contact with him and bounce ideas for future research.

Creating a PLN

A Personal Learning Network is a mean for connection with other educator via face-to-face communication or online. When creating a PLN you decide the who, what, when, where, why and how. To be more specific, you choose if you want to “lurk”; read others posts or “share”; express your thoughts and opinions. A benefit about a PLN is that the people who you connect with are also associated with other individuals with different knowledges and backgrounds. A PLN is also tailored to your personal interests. M. Lalande explains that his PLN is focused on development in education and therefore he has selectively chosen other individuals who discuss topics such a didactics, pedagogy and tech. When designing my PLN, I would include individuals who’s opinion I value. This would include members of my research lab, influential teachers and professors as well as fellow teacher candidates. I would also include members of the opposing view to ensure that my knowledge is not bias and one sided. I would focus on the topic of science and technology as well as student engagement. I would therefore choose to interact with individuals who have done biology lessons while incorporating the use of technology. I would also have the opportunity to learn from the experience of other teachers with regards to keeping students engaged during class.

A diagram representing eight steps to cultivate your PLN

Creating a Personal Learning Network takes time and work. Similarly, to teaching, you need to take the time to explore creative way to teach you students, engage with your students and strengthen your connections to build that student-teacher relationship. Howard Rheingold proposes an eight-step process which includes the following when cultivating your PLN: explore, search, follow, tune, feed, engage, inquire and respond. In summary, Rheingold suggests that we must start by getting a sense of the field we are working in and the experts of that area. Once we are informed, we can interact with others. The last couple steps are to both share our ideas, question others and respond to inquiries relating to our work.

In image displaying the filter bubble that surrounds us when we are online.

Eli Parser reminds us that the information we encounter online can be bias and tailored to our search history without our recollection. He warns us that when creating our PLN we need to “Beware of the Online Filter Bubbles” and keep in mind who we are engaging with. He suggests that we should not only connect with people who support our ideas and findings but search for information outside our discipline and opinions. When teaching, we must be aware that we bring biases to the table and that they can come out in our lessons. It is therefore important to have an open mind and provide students with a variety of sources so that the information they are receiving is not one-sided.  

A gif demonstrating the power of maping your connections.

Lastly, the module reminds us about the importance of reflecting on our PLN, making improvements and mapping out our  future connections. This parallels one of the many hats we wear as teachers. A good educator must reflect upon their lessons and looks to see what went well and what they can do to improve their lesson in the future.  When reflecting on your PLN, it is important to identify the “nodes” on your diagram. In using tools like Google Drawing and Coggle you have the ability to visualize the names of the people you connect with, their role and the relationship you have with those nodes.

In conclusion, I think this module did an excellent job at introducing the idea of Personal Learning Networks. I believe that this skill is very valuable and could potentially be introduced in the careers course in high school so that students can start to create their PLNs. As educators, I think we need to take advantage of the connectivity we have online and share our ideas and resources to both improve and discover great ideas.  

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Oct 04 2019
(11) 5332

The Road to Success?

The podcast Questioning Learning by Chris Friend and Amy Collier was very insightful, informative and had me questioning a lot about how students learn and how we teach both in the classroom and online.

My overall experience in constructing a sketchnote can be compared to that of a roller coaster ride. It was full of ups and downs, but at the end of the ride it was well worth it. I ran into a couple of challenges along the way while creating this artifact, such as trying to find a way to express the podcast in the form of images and single words or phrases. If I had any suggestions for future users it would be to make sure you clearly lay out how you are going to connect your ideas through the use of colour, arrows, word size, etc., to ensure that it is easy to follow for the reader. Sketchnotes are a creative way to speak your mind. At the end of the day all you need is a little perseverance, imagination, creativity and a pen and paper. I would definitely do a sketchnote again and would recommend its use to future students. 

A photo of a roller coster to represent the journey that I had while creating my artifact.

According to the podcast message, the concept of “best practice” can be described as a standard way to teach, the idea that a specific way is best, and that all students can learn in that same way. This way of thinking is based on standardization, which in my opinion is a process that should be avoided in the classroom. It is important to use critical pedagogy, and question whether or not this is the best way of teaching? Why? For whom?Instead of finding the best way to simply teach all students we should be inquiring and experimenting with how specific students learn best from our teaching practices and adjusting our teaching style based on how they learn and what we’re teaching.  

The article mentions online courses being like “canned courses,” meaning the course is designed so that students do the same assignment, go through the same path, in the hope that they finish by gaining the same credentials at the end of the course. The teacher is merely there to grade assignments and answer questions when needed. Collier presents the idea of virtual office hours and bringing in online speakers. As a teacher, if I was selected to be an online teacher, I would definitely include virtual office hours and online speakers as well as add other creative ways to build that student-teacher relationship within the online world. 

A video of cans being made to represent the idea of a “canned course”. Each can in the video is being processed the same way and comes out identical at the end.

Using “Beacons instead of outcomes.”  In my classroom, I would take the time to help guide my students in creating outcomes; goals that should be accomplished by the end of the unit. The notion of creating outcomes to be interesting and inspiring (beacons), as mentioned in the video, really resonated with me. I think the idea of transforming outcomes into big questions is a great idea. In this way, students know what is expected and can also come up with their own way to answer the questions at hand. 

This gif represents the idea of creating “beacons“, outcomes that are inspriring and interesting for the students.

“Learnification” is another topic that can be described as the individualization of education with a focus on the student learning for themselves instead of attaining help from the teacher.  In this case, the teacher can be seen as a “ghost” a figure that is still present in the classroom but out-of-reach for the student.  

This gif is a photo of ghost to represent the missing presence and relationship of a teacher in a classroom based on “Learnification”.

Once again, I believe that a teacher/student relationship is key in education. When you build that relationship, you are able to get to know your students and design lessons that are built to their specific needs and learning styles. In this case, learning is individualized for the student but there is still that essential bond between the student and their teacher. 

To further explain my point, I believe the article demonstrates two main paths on the road to teaching and learning. The first would be the standardized “factory model” path, an environment in which everyone is conditioned to be like clones; depicted on the sketchnote by the red cars, brought up to learn the same way and hopefully reach the same goal in the same manner.  You will have certain students who reach success since they may learn best through, or in spite of, that particular teaching style. However, you will also have a large number of “cars” that run out of gas, reach dead ends, get discouraged or give up and in the worse case scenario “dropout.”  

This is the scetchnote that I created to represent my thoughts following the podcast Questioning Learning. The mindmap demonstrates two pathways, one following the idea of standardization, that everyone learns the same way and the other demonstrating multiple learning differences that students will have in the classroom.

Alternatively, I believe the article is demonstrating another “pathway to success”, one in which not all students are the same, one which acknowledges individuality and a multitude of learning differences.  Students on this path can be depicted as cars of different shapes, colours and size, symbolizing that each individual comes in with prior knowledge, prior experiences and prior baggage that may have an impact on their learning. Drawing on my own personal teaching experiences working with a learning support teacher, no two children learn the same or reach the same goal at the same time.  I would always try different tools for students whether that be hands on activities, comedy, demonstrations, examples, etc. and some tools would work better on one student and not at all on the other. Students may seek different avenues of learning, may branch out in different directions, obtain specific directions in order to reach their desired destination. No two people have to follow the same path in order to obtain success.  

This gif is a photo of different coloured pencils all with different shapes, colours and sizes to represent the uniqueness of each student in the classroom.