Hello, world! My name is Leah Tschetter (she/her), I am an educator living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on Treaty 4 Territory. I live here with my husband Tim and our dog Mia. Mia became internet famous when I taught virtually, and had to participate (cause chaos) in every lesson. Students still write me letters to ask how she is, to which I always answer “spoiled”.
I have what I like to call “itchy feet”. I have moved and travelled across 4 continents. Moose Jaw is the first place I’ve ever put down roots!
Black Temple, Chiang Rai
I have 7 years of teaching experience including K-12 at rural, Hutterian, virtual, and city schools as well as adult EAL courses. I am currently a Learning Consultant for Prairie South School Division. My focus areas are elementary support, new teachers, EAL, and coding and robotics. My passion is creating meaningful and engaging content with a dash of humor.
I truly believe in being a life-long learner. I attended the U of R for my Bachelor of Secondary Education with a major in English and a minor in Health Education, graduating in 2014. In 2020, I completed my CERTESL through the U of S. Now I am taking my last two classes in my last semester for my Master’s of Education in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership through the U of R. I’m still deciding on what my next degree should be, but I know I can’t stop here!
Goals
I hope to use this space as a place to create and share digital resources by experimenting with new technology, building community with my peers, building my online presence, and critically reflecting on my technology use and responsible practice. Connect with me so we can #learntogether!
While I was teaching Grade 3 virtually I had to rethink the way I taught. This meant my teaching philosophy was challenged as I navigated a new context. Some of the resources I created worked for my context and students, some did not. So here I am to share a few of the resources I made. Please note that these resources do not include the teaching around assignments or our hands on practice. I hope one person out there finds this useful!
I’m notorious for going over time limits on assignments, so I am quite proud of myself for not going over this summary! Although I do have to admit, the first recording was over the 9 minute mark. Whew, I’m a little emotional as this is the final assignment for my M.Ed. It has been a great opportunity to connect with upcoming leaders in education through this program, and I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you in person someday!
I’m late to producing a podcast, but it felt right to try something new for my final (for now) assignment. It’s never too late!
I wish all my classmates the best of luck in continuing their education and to those that are done this semester, we made it! I can’t wait to see the difference you all make.
It is only fitting that our last two debates were just as heated as the rest of them. I feel fortunate to have met all these passionate leaders in this class! I begin each section with my pre-debate thoughts. Next, I took the main points from the groups introductory video and rebuttal and formatted them into a list, then added comments made during the debate beside each debater. I finish each section with a reflection of the prompt and how the debate influenced my opinion.
Before the debate I disagree with this statement. We should be allowing student’s choice in curating their own digital footprint to reflect their identity. I think educators have a responsibility to teach about digital footprints and digital citizenship, but not to develop it. I am glad I don’t have my digital footprint from when I was in school. We still need the right to forget.
Agree
Parents, policy makers, and care givers are important, but teachers are better equipped to teach about digital citizenship
Families need education and support in this work as well
Building a foundation in a safe and controlled environment
Digital technologies and 21st century skills are important in becoming citizens
We must consider students developmental age
Create a personal brand in a public space
Rae: Teacher’s don’t need to upload photos of students. If it is portfolios or blogging, they only need selective
Funmilola: Student mistakes are permanently online, if we are starting earlier they are digitally naïve, so we have the responsibility to present preventative strategies
Disagree
Students digital footprint is already created by students and updated outside of school hours
Teachers and schools are not prepared to support an evolving a digital world
Risks displaying student information, data collection, and identity theft
Inaccessible to many families
Canadian law doesn’t differentiate between children and adults
Kimberly Kipp: Students have digital footprints before they enter schools, by the time it is taught in school we are implementing a reactive approach. We need to address these issues systemically. Parents are signing these media release forms, but students are not. Online is not a safe space for students and we are exposing their identities in this unsafe space. We need consistent education.
Gertrude: We can’t control their digital footprint or responsibly monitor student work. Code of ethics for online activities.
There was lots of debate about digital citizenship vs digital footprint in the chat during this prompt. There was also lots of debate about whose responsibility it is to build digital footprints. Many felt that there is a larger responsibility from government policies, curriculum, and companies that needs to occur. Students also need to give their own consent, not just the parents consent for autonomy. Placing another responsibility on teachers without building capacity will not be sufficient in keeping our students safe. Overall, this debate confirmed my bias. I still do not think educators should be responsible for developing student’s digital footprints, but I do think we have a responsibility to educate the effects of a digital footprint and how to become digital leaders.
Debate 8: Online education is detrimental to the social and academic development of children
Prior to the debate I strongly disagree. I do see potential impacts on physical health but by keeping student centered pedagogy in your course development there is equal opportunity for social and academic development of children. We do have to be additionally prepared to plan for social engagement and problem solving skills. Some student may even thrive in this setting because it takes away anxiety, there are multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding, and greater possibility for accessibility.
Agree
Additional costs to families
Unable to provide equity to students
At-risk students ‘vanishing’
Negative effects of screen time
classes aren’t true to their intention as they do not have access to materials (music, arts, PAA)
Loss of authentic assessment
loss of extra curricular
No teacher supervision
No division of home and school
Physical schools offer access to food, clothing, and a safe space for students
Colton: can online learning stand alone, not just supplement? There are a variety of levels of supports students may need.
Britney: parents may take away from class time, and some may not have parent support. Social anxiety can continue online, and we can’t assess their mental well-being. Relationships are needed to connect with students.
Kayla: K-4 curriculum is learned by play, inquiry, and social interactions that can’t be replicated online. It is not realistic for students to have independent work habits.
Disagree
Flexible, accessible, inclusivity
Cost saving
Teaches time management skills
Smaller class sizes and one-on-one support
Student autonomy is increased as students can review as needed
Virtual classroom is available anywhere
Digital skills transfer to the workplace
Customizable learning experiences
Constructive and timely feedback
Flexible schedules
Christopher: the more options student’s have, if the option is there it can be chosen. It works best when presented as a choice, not like the pandemic.
Arkin: has affordable options to meet their needs
Katherine: Students who chose online can still attend in person activities. Pandemic teaching is better than no teaching in emergency situations. Parents can decide if their children are capable of independent work habits.
Maybe I’m stubborn this week, but I maintained the same position. I do side with the disagree team that digital learning needs to be presented as a choice, because it isn’t going to be a successful option for everyone to consider. Some families will need this flexibility to be successful (many of my previous virtual students had a variety of health needs), and some will need the in-person supports, some will need blended or hybrid. I think that it is important that online education is developed with planned opportunities for interaction, which may require a mindset shift on defining social development. The disagree side emphasized that online education doesn’t mean online extra curriculars, students still have access to community services and programs. The distinction of Emergency Remote Teaching and online education are vital to this debate as well. There may need to be some policy updates in the future surrounding online education to include attendance and welfare checks to make sure it is implemented with student safety and wellbeing in mind. I think the benefits of online education can’t be overlooked, and it is a great option for families to have!
Challenges children face today are similar to the past, but in different formats. For example cyberbullying/bullying and social media pressure/magazines. Is this the responsibility of educators, parents, or policy makers? Do we need to model and teach how to use these devices responsibly and thoughtfully? Are we setting limits because we are having difficulty keeping up with evolving technology?
Prior to the debate I agreed with this statement. In the wake of several TikTokers who are being accused of violating their children’s consent and even safety. However, I love getting snapchats from my nephews, it allows me to see their daily life (and sometimes they show me cool bugs), but it is a controlled environments where they only have family added. I also had to make sure to remove them from viewing my stories, so there was trust between our family to maintain a safe space for them. Here are some notes I took during the debate:
Agree
Childhood play used to foster imagination, curiosity, and creativity. Social media has ruined this.
Play is an important way children learn
negative influencers on social media
cyberbullying
online predators
false marketing
Fasiha mentioned that kids will always find a loophole like fake accounts, factory reset devices, and they will find a way to get uncensored content
Disagree
Online socializing improves social bonds, and creates connections with people with similar interests
Can share your narrative
We must educate about safety and security
Jennifer during their opening statement mentioned the generational change of viewing the past with rose-coloured glasses. The assumption that we all want the same social experience.
Mike said it is a shared responsibility to teach responsible use and has observed that students are better at navigating social media in the past years.
Jennifer mentioned we need to continue pushing for laws protecting children. There are other apps to build responsibility by using safe platforms.
I actually changed my mind after the debate (as did many of us according to the pre and post debate votes)! I think there are ways to introduce social media on safe educational apps and scaffold responsible use. I think many of these issues come down to understanding guardians and educator roles in social media. There is a large responsibility on guardians to monitor, removing devices when necessary, and engaging children in a variety of activities. Kelly mentioned in the chat that maybe social media is ruining parenting. I think defining roles of parents (monitoring), teachers (modelling responsible and safe use), and policy (laws) are essential to protecting children online.
Debate 6: Cellphones should be banned
Prior to the debate I disagreed with this sentiment. I think that there needs to be an acceptable use policy clearly upheld for students; I believe we should model and practice responsible use in all situations.
technology addiction is similar to cocaine addition
decreases distractions
50% of young people experience cyberbullying, we should stop this at the schools to create a safe space
Students spend up to 20% of their in-class time on cellphones
disconnect to connect
Echo brought up how students may use cellphones to spread rumors and gossip, and then schools are responsible for disciplinary action
Lovepreet shared that cellphones are distracting to those around them, not just the student
Amanpreet shared that students can take unwanted photos and distribute them.
Disagree
teachers need to do significant planning for the learners in their classroom, the first step is a drastic mind-shift. This means taking the time to discuss and explore digital literacy skills
Should they have two identities in school and at-home?
Increased accessibility. Cell phones give us a way to have a better tech to student ratio
Integral part of life, help students live one life, not two
Virtual and augmented reality, can make learning experiences more tangible to students.
Leona shared that teachers and parents have a hard job of being enforcers, but when our classroom has etiquette use cellphones can be valuable learning tools
Reid shared that they are useful for emergencies, and to communicate with families. Nicole R shared the dangers of having students creating mass panic and jamming cellphone towers during an emergency.
In our group discussion we talked about how not allowing students to access wi-fi to use apps like Snapchat and Instagram increases the digital divide because some students don’t have access to this at home and school is an opportunity to engage in the digital world. As always there is a need to define roles of teachers (modelling responsible and safe use), and policy (consistent/universal rules across schools/divisions) on protocols for cellphone usage in schools. There are also always nuances of specific contexts. Kim shared that they had a grade 6 class give access to cellphones, had the resources to build capacity, but there was still a miscommunication that caused a parent to misinterpret police presence at school. Gertrude shared that there are also cultural differences that influence the need for wide-spread awareness and come together to create a universal protocol. Many of these issues are part of a larger narrative surrounding technology use policies that needs to be addressed systemically rather than a teacher-by-teacher case where it becomes another issue that educators are expected to take responsibility for.
In regards to guardians, teachers, policy makers, and tech companies who is responsible for protecting children? How can we clearly define these roles?
This week it was time for Sushmeet and me to debate! We spent almost two weeks preparing for the debate, but lots of our classmates wrote diverse arguments for both sides with perspectives that surpassed my limited lens and subjectivity. So, lets get started!
Debate 3: Schools should no longer teach skills that can be easily carried out by technology (e.g., cursive writing, multiplication tables, spelling).
Pre-debate I felt that many of these skills will be replaced by technology in classrooms. To me, it makes sense that our language code develops as time progresses. As words and phrases are added to our dictionaries, the code increases to reflect cultural changes and spread of language codes. Sometimes it seems as if language is regressing back into visual images like emoticons, gifs, and memes. This translates into many areas of the curriculum like multiplication facts (calculators), spelling (spell check), cursive writing (fonts), and even graphing (exporting to charts, graphs, and tables). Now let’s get into support for both sides.
Agree
If we want a more equitable educational program we must reimagine our education system to make space for social justice practices, by removing unnecessary skills for today’s society there is more room for higher level thinking, 21st century skills,
“the whole education process can be reformed and restructured, including the main drivers and principles for reinventing schools in the global knowledge economy, models for designing smart learning environments at the institutional level, a new pedagogy and related curriculums for the 21st century, the transition to digital and situated learning resources, open educational resources and MOOCs, new approaches to cognition and neuroscience as well as the disruption of education sectors” (p. v, Shaping Future Schools with Digital Technology)
More personalized programming through implementation of technology.
Future education will fully consider the personality and development of each student. With the effective and wise use of AI technology we can surpass the personalized and small-scale education of the agricultural society, we can surpass the non-personalized and large-scale education of the industrialized society, and we can then establish a personalized but large-scaled educational system (p., v Shaping Future Schools with Digital Technology)
Faster formative feedback to guide the learner and more time for teachers to give learners quality feedback from higher-level thinking tasks.
Knowledge and skills delivery will be dramatically supplemented by artificial intelligence while other aspects of educating and cultivating become more and more important. New technology will save teachers’ time and help them care more for the students’ soul, spirit, and happiness since there would be time for them to have further communication with students, to inspire students for more motivation and interest to do more creative and innovative learning. Future education will enter the era of co-working between teachers and artificial intelligence. (p. vi, Shaping Future Schools with Digital Technology)
Now I have to say that I agree with most of what we argued, but I do believe that some of these basic skills are foundational to higher level, complex problem-solving.
Disagree
Spelling affects marketing and quality of work. Without it we lose our language code.
“That advice reflected a societal approbation of the ability to spell—which at the time could be defined as the capacity to write words that conform to the orthography of a given language—that had been pervasive since at least the 16th century and grew in importance with the rise of the printing press and printed books” (Spelling, (2021), Pan, S.C., Rickard, T.C. & Bjork, R.A.)
Cursive writing is linked to motor skills, memory, comprehension, and other improved brain functions.
“there’s plenty of evidence of cognitive and academic benefits. Brain scans reveal neural circuitry lighting up when young children first print letters and then read them. The same effect is not apparent when the letters are typed or traced” (Cursive Writing: Berger, T. (2017, March 10))
Students cannot complete higher-level problem solving in mathematics without basic skills.
“students do not know their fractions, cannot do long division or basic subtraction and borrowing operations. The bottom line: “Students don’t have the skills at hand to engage in problem-solving and higher-level math.” (Mental Math and Computation Skills: Bennett, P. (2021, June 6))
I agree that some of these skills are valuable, but also that technology has an increasing role in our daily skills. Overall, technology isn’t quite ready to overthrow these skills.
Debate 4: Educators have a responsibility to use technology and social media to promote social justice
Whew, we had two heated debate topics this week! Let’s get into the team’s arguments.
Agree
Teachers shouldn’t be neutral about social justice issues and we have a responsibility to use our privilege to speak up against discrimination.
“for us to say our role is to be neutral is to operate from a place of privilege. Not privilege as in wealth — that’s just one of many types of privilege, and one that most educators don’t have. Our place of privilege is choosing not to pay attention to these stories or take a position on them because we are not personally impacted” (Angela Watson’s Truth For Teachers: Some Things a Teacher Shouldn’t be Neutral About (September 1, 2019))
Social media can increase student voice can make a difference in communities. Our classrooms can be sites of activism.
What I learned from this assessment is that young people are ready, willing, and able to engage in difficult conversations. They are interested in fighting for their lives, our lives, and their nation. They are leaders—even the quiet ones.
“There is power in student voice, and it isn’t a voice any teacher can give. We don’t give voices. We make space for them in our curricula and classrooms, or we don’t” (Using Social Justice to Promote Student Voice: Lorena Germán (2020))
Disagree
There are more effective ways that students can engage in social justice.
“Without offline action, gestures like using a hashtag or posting a black square come across as performative, opportunistic, and lazy. Critics are often quick to call out these minimal efforts as “slacktivism.”” (Genuine Social Media Activism: A Guide for Going Beyond the Hashtag)
If teachers engage in social activism, there is a possibility of professional repercussions and possibility of influencing students beliefs and opinions.
“They want to preserve their objectivity in front of their students. They don’t want to hurt their relationships with parents, students, or colleagues who might have different beliefs than they do. They worry about professional repercussions, especially when posting from an account that they use for work-related reasons” (Teachers, Politics, and Social Media: A Volatile Mix)
Overall, I believe teachers should be able to engage if they choose to. There are some who wish to engage in social justice, and some who do not. For me, I will choose to use my privilege to be an ally. If there were to be repercussions I am privileged to be able to either use a lawyer to speak more, or find other employment in time. This isn’t a choice everyone has, so they should also have a choice in engaging in social justice.
It is no secret that I love technology, it permeates my work life, social life, and my hobbies. However, I don’t simply choose my interests based on the technology, the technology supports my interest. Although, sometimes I do!
As discussed in class by Sushmeet and Katherine, technology needs a balance. Nicole W. brought up a relevant point that COVID-19 learning is emergency learning and not a true reflection of technology impact learning, as there was a variety of factors including support at home which influenced student achievement.
McKnight et al. emphasizes the effect that having pedagogy driven technology usage can improve communication, collaboration, feedback, interaction. They were also transparent about the support teachers had to successfully implement technology integration strategies “essential role of leadership and community support for spurring […] transformation” (p. 206). The importance in the argument is the focus on student-centered approaches supported by technology positively impacts student learning and achievement. As Jason Brown says in their TEDx talk, we don’t have to be afraid of technology. McKnight et al. write about the potential to redefine teacher roles in schools- to help students gather information on their own rather than focusing on content delivery. While there is fear in changing these roles, such as AI, why is there fear in using technology to support pedagogy. I have blogged in the past about how I have fallen victim to technology-driven pedagogy, but I still use technology to support pedagogy. I thought it was important that Nicole and Daryl said that the use of technology doesn’t automatically improve student engagement and learning outcomes, we do need training on selecting appropriate EdTech tools.
I think we often confuse tech with gamification. Gamification doesn’t have to include technology! Just this week I had a group of EAL teachers competing in Level Up, Hot Seat, and Trash-ketball with no tech options. As Brittany said in their rebuttal, tech isn’t just screen time. Megan also supported that we don’t have to be inside to use technology, we can still explore outside (think about the Pokémon Go craze– my dog got so many walks).
The debaters also disagreed on the impact of relationships. Brittany and Megan shared how we can have greater connections by connecting with Elders, communicating with classmates, and getting immediate feedback from teachers. Nicole and Daryl argued these relationships are “artificial” and doesn’t meet Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I have friends that I have never met (hello, Patricia!), and I see my online and offline identity as interwoven, not separate. I am very privileged to have the access to technology I need and training to engage in digital citizenship. As always, educators have a responsibility to be responsive to their own situation in regards to tech use and equality. This brings us to our next debate:
Debate 2- Technology has led to a more equitable society
Both teams for this debate addressed how the pandemic highlighted inequity for vulnerable students. As Amundson and Ko wrote, for some students learning from home will be the path to success. Tracy, Nicole, and Steven’s opening remarks share how technology has supported inclusive practices in schools and society, roughly impacting 5.3 million Canadians. Amundson and Ko support this concept by sharing that technology makes personalized learning less time consuming. Personalized learning is proven to positively impact student achievement and learning, and if technology can help drive that pedagogy, why shouldn’t we?
Kymberly DeLoatche shares how inclusion can change the culture in the workplace by narrating John’s story, and further shows how technology has improved the life of many people with disabilities. Matt Jenner writes how technology increases access to education, but:
There are, however, still many cultural and societal issues when it comes to a fair, inclusive and equal access to education. This issue is global; too many exclusions still block the fundamental right of access to education
Christina, Amaya, and Matthew argue that technology exacerbates the inequality gap that exists between higher and lower socio-economic students, and will lead to an academic divide between communities. Tracy, Nicole, and Steven argued in class that society blames technology for systemic issues that contribute to inequality that has been flawed for decades and call for an overall redesign of education.
Similar to debate 1, is the funding that is needed to implement technology equitably for all students. With government funding for education continually decreasing, it is likely we will see the long-term effects of inequity of technology access in communities and schools. When Elon Musk gave internet access to Ukraine in support, it can be seen that this gap doesn’t have to exist but is systemically kept.
In the end it both debate topics come down to money!
How are you responsive to your classroom/community context with technology usage? Let me know in the comments!
Last semester I blogged about A Day in the Life of Mrs. Cheese Robot Lady (my last name is pronounced cheddar and this is how students identify me), so I thought I would switch it up and create a vlog of my tech use. Fridays are typically my office days, so sadly there were no robotics lessons to film today. Watch my TikTok below:
Throughout the course I have been blogging about my encounters with Flipgrid and TikTok. I have a smaller update for both of those, but in the last three weeks I have spent a considerable amount of time with Minecraft Edu and Canvas. I decided to include these two for my Major Project. I understand if you relate to TL;DR.
Flipgrid ended up being integrated into my practice more than I originally planned! When beginning this journey I had pondered Dr. Mike Ribble’s 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship, and used this to build a Digital Citizenship Lesson for Bart’s grade 7/8 class. For this lesson I focused on Element 3: Digital Etiquette and connected that to Element 8: Rights and Responsibilities via discussion about online communities.
Prior to returning to Bart’s class for our scaffolded practice lesson I created some lessons for my EC&I 834 Module for Grade 3 Structures and Materials. In this module I planned and developed scaffolded practice for using Flipgrid to show their understanding.
Lesson 1.4 Functions of Structures
Lesson 1.6 Design a Playground
Lesson 1.8 Design a Structure
This first encounter with Flipgrid is a low stakes, no assessment attached practice. During this assignments students were completing an experiment where they were testing the strength of shapes. Then they are going around their house to find any of the shapes we tested that day. There is an example for students to watch, but the only skill they need today is “point and record”
The second encounter with Flipgrid is a moderated topic. Students are again just “point and record” while they explain the playground they designed. This time they have to comment on their classmates using a structured 3 part comment. This is a formative assessment with a self assessment component.
The third encounter with Flipgrid includes a screen recording component. This topic is unmoderated and students are able to freely view and comment on each others structures. Check out the video below for a full walkthrough of this module (it is long- watch at an increased speed to reduce this time). I review this assignment in more detail under “Minecraft Edu” in this post.
Once Bart and I discussed our Flipgrid goals, I structured a lesson focusing on privacy, netiquette, and features of Flipgrid. Bart prepared three Flipgrid assignments for his students: solve a math problem, social unit project update with a text comment response, and a future Flipgrid uses with a video comment. We kept all these topics as moderated, as the students were not consistent in their practice of netiquette. We spent an entire afternoon completing this process with his students. There was a variety of levels of engagement, but Bart really engaged them in critical thinking about the uses of Flipgrid by reflecting on the positives and negatives of each format and context we tested.
Bart modelled note taking while I demonstrated Flipgrid featuresStudent positives and negative reflection on each Flipgrid assignment
I was impressed with students responses, and they were critical about what they enjoyed using Flipgrid responses for. The biggest barrier they identified was the background noise, and needing a quiet space to record. They also reflected that while they could be more creative with their videos, sometimes those creative features were distracting for the viewer. Essentially they came up with the result we wanted to hear- to carefully curate how you use these features to impact the viewer. I would say the group struggled the most on responsible commenting. This would be good to practice again before completing an assignment with unmoderated comments.
I have to thank Bart again for letting me join his class for this project. It was good to do some coteaching and get into a classroom again. Thank you, Bart!
TikTok
I began my journey with TikTok by downloading it. My initial fears were the amount of time that I would spend on the app, distracted from my daily tasks. Truthfully it has simply replaced some time that I spent mindlessly scrolling Instagram. My algorithms on TikTok and Instagram are still very different. My TikTok started me out on some wildly inaccurate verticals, so I did have to spend some time watching, re-watching, and interacting with videos (at least that’s how I’m justifying my time spent scrolling). How I wanted to use TikTok was for educational videos, but I seem to prefer the platform for quick videos about my dog, Mia. My TikToks that have educational content have between 18-333 views, whereas Mia has between 848-1490 views.
Throughout my increased usage of TikTok, I changed my ideas about future educational use. I reflected on how I want to build my TikTok as a curated version of my personal life that can showcase my humor. This feels like the most natural progression for my continued use of the platform. Using TikTok as a connection building tool even in classrooms I’m lucky enough to guest teach in has been very successful. Mia is always the star in these videos, and throughout the remaining time students always ask more information about Mia and tell me about their own pets. It has been a great way to build a quick connection with students.
Mia is the second dog (the first one is my in-laws best girl, Jesse), and this clip is one of my favorites of her!
Check out my last (for this course) TikTok below, which serves as my EC&I 832 Summary of Learning:
Canvas
I hadn’t considered test out a new LMS until three weeks ago! I was creating Guided Reading Professional Development for my division. I was reflecting on how I could create something open source for easy access even beyond our division as part of my digital portfolio, and remembered classmates sharing Canvas Instructure in EC&I 834. It took me about 15 hours to create this Guided Reading Module. Check out the student view course walkthrough below:
As someone who loves to create aesthetically pleasing content (but please don’t call it cutesy), there were some limitations on Canvas. I was limited by text size, colour, and heading choices. However, embedding images, Slides, and Forms was seamless.
I challenged myself to do some coding on Canvas to find a workaround to embed a Word Cloud on Canvas. I was not successful and instead hyperlinked a Padlet. I spent about an hour attempting to get my code to work, but when ran the code produced an error message. I used this as an example with some coding students, shared that code isn’t always successful, and shared this TikTok with them about the problem solving needed for coding.
A huge benefit of Canvas rather than Google Classroom (my usual LMS), is that you are able to lock pages and assignments with conditional formatting. For this PD module I wanted to ensure that participants were completing pages as they proceed through the course, so this feature is probably my favorite!
I am currently working on a Writer’s Workshop PD using Canvas, and have been asked to create a PD series for my division. I think Canvas works well for an adult context. I wouldn’t use this with elementary or middle years students, as I still prefer the ease of Google Classroom for this context.
I’d love some additional feedback on the Guided Reading Module before it goes live to our division. Let me know in the comments!
I am late to the hype of Minecraft, I hesitated to use Minecraft Edu previously because I assumed that it was a case of “using technology for technology sake” rather than having actual educational benefits. I attended two Minecraft PD events through Logics Academy, and I was instantly hooked. Bonus points to Minecraft for making me look “cool” in the eyes of my nephews (apparently gaming with them and bribing them with Nintendo Switch gift cards wasn’t cutting it anymore). Logics Academy has hundreds of lessons connected to Saskatchewan curriculum, model worlds, and offers technical support. The following information is going to come across like a promo, I promise it isn’t, but they should sponsor me- I loved it that much! Seriously, go check it out.
I created a Structures and Materials assessment using Minecraft for my EC&I 834 course. Check out my exemplar below and the accompanying lessons here.
Due to the block style of Minecraft I wasn’t able to include accessibility in the structures I was creating and instead had to address accessibility features using chalkboards and explanations. As you can see in the screen image above, I also didn’t master adding water. I’ll have to do more problem solving if I want to create an underwater world in the future. I also spent over 50 hours creating these lessons on Minecraft, so I put in a lot of time upfront. I do not think every teacher needs to do this. I think there is value in learning together with students, and the created lessons have walkthrough videos which means you don’t need to know how to use the program as an educator.
On the technical side of Minecraft I do see some potential issues that may arise. Most schools in our division have students using Chromebooks, and Minecraft worlds need to be hosted either from a saved PC file, or by having a student save the collaborative world on a flash drive. I also contacted our IT support and asked them what some potential barriers to using Minecraft might be with our network. This was their response:
Minecraft Education Edition is available for all Windows computers in PSS via the Microsoft Store – Start, Microsoft Store. For Chromebooks there is more involved:
Minecraft Education for Chromebooks (CB) in a Google Play Store (GPS) app, which we do allow however, access to Play Store is a user permission. Given GPS will install on any CB a user signs into, we do not have this turned on unless a school has requested for a grade/school.
Once the user can use the Play Store, it automatically installs the next time they sign into a CB and approved apps can be installed by the user.
For many teachers I am sure that this would be an inconvenience that would stop them from implementing Minecraft. There is a learning curve to Minecraft, but being a gamer meant I already had most of the skills needed. If I were a teacher I would want to ensure I wasn’t using Minecraft for a stand alone lesson to justify the time spent upfront learning how to navigate Minecraft. This would require some long range planning, but the lessons that Logics Academy provides are clear and easy to follow and include assessments, which saves time throughout the school year. The next lesson I want to test out is CyberSafe- Home Sweet Hmm. If you are in Prairie South School Division and you’d like me to come introduce some Minecraft activities please contact me.
I loved Minecraft so much that I even used it for my EC&I 834 Summary of Learning!
I’ll admit I was less excited about this using it for this format. I had grand plans of adding in custom images using maps, but this feature is not compatible with Minecraft Education Edition. I originally created a structure using boards to house my EC&I 834 and completed a walk through video that was subpar. The next day I decided to restart my project to create something more engaging for the user. I used a world template (Museum) and added in my displays throughout. This ended up being a much more visually appealing and engaging walkthrough.
In the future I’d continue using world templates instead of creating from scratch so that I could focus on the content, not building the world. Thankfully there are many to import directly from the Minecraft app and from Logics Academy! I look forward to using this in the future, but I am still reluctant since the game is now 11 years old there may soon be an interest/engagement drop off for students.
Thank you everyone for the wonderful semester full of learning!
I am late to the hype of Minecraft, I hesitated to use Minecraft Edu previously because I assumed that it was a case of “using technology for technology sake” rather than having actual educational benefits. I attended two Minecraft PD events through Logics Academy, and I was instantly hooked. Bonus points to Minecraft for making me look “cool” in the eyes of my nephews (apparently gaming with them and bribing them with Nintendo Switch gift cards wasn’t cutting it anymore). Logics Academy has hundreds of lessons connected to Saskatchewan curriculum, model worlds, and offers technical support. The following information is going to come across like a promo, I promise it isn’t, but they should sponsor me- I loved it that much! Seriously, go check it out.
I created a Structures and Materials assessment using Minecraft for my EC&I 834 course. Check out my exemplar below and the accompanying lessons here.
The lessons that Logics Academy provides are clear and easy to follow and include assessments, which saves time throughout the school year. The next lesson I want to test out is CyberSafe- Home Sweet Hmm. If you are in Prairie South School Division and you’d like me to come introduce some Minecraft activities, please contact me!
I loved Minecraft so much that I even used it for my EC&I 834 Summary of Learning!
Thank you everyone for the wonderful semester full of learning!
For my summary of learning I created 2 separate TikTok videos and edited them together (TikTok only allows 5 minutes). I used Steve Boot’s method of recording each sentence independently. This worked really well, and I was able to fit in a lot of information in the 5 minutes. I felt like I was in an episode of Gilmore Girls with the fast talking supported by coffee. I did struggle with my placement for each start, and you will see my head moving around the screen each time I pressed record. I won’t make this post TL;DR, so go ahead and watch my summary. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
