Category: EdTech

My teachables are Social Studies and Theatre. Our conversations today surrounding cross-curricular learning and 3D printing excited me greatly. The obvious cross-curricular potential is that students will be learning computer science alongside whatever their intended goal is for their creations. For example, Mr.Hayano, a high school computers teacher from Wyoming, crowdfunded for funds to buy filament so he and his students could continue to use their 3D printer. Specifically, they planned on using it to build solar-cars for the science class, as well as furniture for a teen living (Looked it up and its basically home-ec and careers combined with a lens of family and community) classes doll house.

How can this be taken further?

Penn Libraries used 3D printing to contribute to set design. Combining computer science, theatre, and art all in one. As a future theatre teacher I find this super exciting, and am eager to do similar work with my classes. As a future social studies teacher, after seeing the archive of printable objects from museum artifacts, to dinosaur bones, I instantly began thinking of how printing those visuals for class could enhance a lesson. Further, what about an inquiry project based on students researching a specific artifact or object from a set time-period where it culminates with them printing and decorating that object? We could create a museum within the room displaying all of their pieces alongside the research they did surrounding their context/use.

Funnily enough, here is another wordpress blog delving deep into the potential of 3D printing for social studies classrooms!

@Tomspentys

Something I appreciate about 3D printing, or any graphic design for that matter, is that while some technological proficiency is needed, the process is largely one of creativity and art. I had never considered ever using, let alone designing anything for, a 3D printer before this workshop. They have had this air of mysticism and complexity that I thought would be too complicated for me to understand. I wonder how many other things I think of as too complex could be harnessed as easily? Maybe I need to fight harder against that complacency when I hear of new technology. Hopefully this new perspective will carry forward throughout my teaching career!

During our edcamp breakout room we discussed the concept of story-telling in education.

Some people see storytellers and “think it’s a theatrical, exaggerated show more akin to acting,” (Friday) and would be hard-pressed to see teachers in that role. Matthew James Friday‘s article Why storytelling in the  classroom matters counters this stance saying that teachers are story-tellers, and story-tellers are teachers. Friday’s stance is quite literal, saying teachers should brush up on their folk tales and story analysis, whereas my attention during our edcamp was on the classroom and lesson as the story being told.

It’s cliche and cheesy all at the same time, but my background in improv has shown me how our lives and interactions can follow patterns; some patterns are more pleasing and exciting than others. In our classes we are already discussing lesson construction, when to have a “hook,” how to transition subjects, etc… I think fully embracing a “lesson as story” mindset can allow for more natural “hooks,” and engage the student by making them a part of the story, not just it’s recipient.

Role-play is a particularity good example of this in practice. Carleton College in Northfield shows examples of how role-play can be extremely helpful in teaching students entry-level geoscience. I myself took part in a very similar role-play last year at UVic. The professor had us split into groups and take on the roles of various tribes or organization in Africa who were attempting to resolve a land dispute. Each had different invested interests in various plans or outcomes, and we were to work amongst each other, making deals or alliances where possible to further our cause. I do think this specific role-play was problematic for a class of predominantly white settlers, as it had us take on the role of displaced indigenous peoples and try to compromise with colonial powers, but the structure of the lesson was wonderful. Further, role-play exercise could be done while still letting the students engage with their own priorities and ideas. This could be accomplished through the teacher taking on a role, but the students remaining themselves and acting in whatever way they see fit. I am mostly approaching this from a social-studies perspective, as this is one of my teachables and history is rife with important persons that the class could “converse” with.

Pushing this concept further , I think we as teachers can plan our lessons in such a way that provides opportunities for our students make decisions and engage without overtly presenting it as a story-telling exercise like role-playing. Our lessons have a beginning, middle, and an end. What can we learn from our favorite stories in terms of their structure that we can bring into our classroom? If we lecture too long is that basically a never ending paragraph? If we see unit’s as chapters, why not include some sort of cliffhanger from one to the next, segueing content?

All in all, this edcamp brought up a ton of useful dialogue, and I am excited to participate in the format again!

@californong

It was hard to get excited about Screencastify after already interrogating Techsmith Capture and integrating it into my tech usage, and I never really did get excited. After trying to compare the two for long enough and looking into their respective companies, I came to the conclusion that I won’t use either.

While these two programs are sleek and user-friendly, OBS (Open Broadcast Studio) offers even more tools and in depth editing options while being a free and open source software. Obviously the flaw with this is that user-friendly options will provide higher consistency and accessibility for teachers everywhere, but as someone who is eager to explore the intricacies of the software I use, OBS is the clear choice.

This is not to say that Screencastify is a bad program, it is quick, convenient, and does what it says on the box; however, I see any opportunity for public entities to avoid reliance on private companies as a win, especially when those funds can go to either other programs or supporting the open source software. Using open source software such as OBS or Mattermost can also be used as a talking point in the classroom around community and the possibilities of collaboration.

Below is a screencastify recording of me showing of ANOTHER one of my favorite open source programs, WinDirStat.

Since I was one of the first to annotate the article, I found the highlights and annotations to be sleek and welcoming additions to the piece; however, I can easily imagine that by the time our entire class has gone through the article, that it would less pleasant, and potentially overwhelming to sparse all the overlapping annotations and long threads of replies. Once many annotations are already in place, it my also disincentivize further contributions from the folks who join later on, as they don’t want to further clutter up the page.

Where I can see this tool being extremely useful is in smaller groups.  If 4-5 colleagues need to analyze a few articles or resources, Hypothesis could be invaluable in sharing thoughts and ideas asynchronously. It could even be good for dividing the readings and having each person annotate and summarize their respective sections and the others could read their summaries while skimming the article at large.

Hypothesis could also fill a niche, as I am sure it will in our course, of teachers providing assessment to online submissions such as blog posts or website creation. I can imagine a computers teacher loving this program as it would provide them with a quick and convenient method of delivering feedback, and provide the recipient with clear highlighting and direction as opposed to general feedback at the bottom of the page. This also entails that a class that explicitly does not use online resources will find no use for this program.

Something the article being annotated above puts forward is that technology does not implicitly help our pedagogy and learning outcomes. For Hypotheses I would agree. As mentioned above, factors such as class size and course content narrow the scope of Hypothesis tremendously; however, under the correct circumstances (and with enough enthusiasm from all group members) Hypotheses promises to be a very rewarding tool. I am excited to use it within our class, and maybe in some of our programs group assignments, to be able to fully evaluate the software and decide whether or not I will incorporate it into my own pedagogy and classroom in the future.

Seconds turn into minutes turn into hours turn into days turn into weeks turn into months turn into years turn into decades turn into lifetimes…

It would be impossible to calculate how much of my life has withered away hitting “print screen,” pasting my image into paint, cropping it, and finally copying it. If only there was a tool available to me, a lowly Windows 7 user with no built-in capture device, well it turns out there is!

TechSmith Capture answers prayers I never knew I could make, and the god of I.T. now shines down on me.

To celebrate this newfound boon, I will be providing a screen recording (ironically from OBS as I want to show you TechSmith Capture and it cannot capture itself) of me putting the program to good use!

I have never read a blog that did not have a recipe at the bottom that I quickly scrolled to, bypassing the cookbook advertisements the author was so intent on me seeing.

I am excited. WordPress seems intuitive, the course content for EDCI 336 seems engaging, and maybe by starting a blog I will finally fill that everlasting need for attention, even if its just by the one or two folks who will offer it. If a third shows up I will classify my blog as viral, despite any naysayers who might challenge that label. One can only assume that only one has viewed their blog and they’re jealous of my fame.

I have chosen chess as the focus for my free inquiry, as I have just started learning to play, which is evident by how often I lose, but starting out at the bottom only means I will have tons of “material” to build up with. That was a chess pun, if you didn’t get it then I can wholeheartedly recommend this cool new blog all the kids are talking about that just (abcblog.)opened(.ca) up. I also just enjoy that “A Beginner’s Chess blog” can be shortened to ABCblog which is fitting as a teacher in training.

Me (HenryHolmvik) losing at chess circa September 15th 2020 (Colorized).

Jokes aside I am finding how fluid both creating and absorbing information in a blog format can be effective in learning. I cannot fathom the amount of time spent referring to the back of textbook to find a source, to then attempt to find said source online, or even in print! In this format I can easily implement links to sources while maintaining the a bite-sized approachability that might be lacking in other online academic sources. For example, chess has two players. While some people are skeptical I do believe Wikipedia on that one.

Excited to learn with all of you!