Emily's Ed Tech Portfolio

"Think first about what you want to achieve, then find the technology to get you there."

Author: emilyshorthouse

Doggy data

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On November 11, 2019

In Free Inquiry

According to the Canadian Animal Health Institute, there are 8.2 million dogs in Canada, a close second place to that feline species who populate the land with 8.3 millions. “41% of [Canadian] households have at least one dog.” For the latest Canadian pet population numbers visit the Canadian Animal Health Institute.

What is it about the human-canine bond that has so many of us giving our four-legged-friends a seat at our table and branch on our family tree?

NPR posted a great interview about how dogs and humans became acquainted thousands of years ago. Listen to the interview here.

Interview Highlights:
On puppies
“There’s something about them that makes us friends with them. There are people who dislike dogs for sure. But dogs also have an uncanny ability … to walk in a room and pick out the one or two who seem to dislike dogs the most and make friends with them. It’s happened to me with some of my dogs on numerous occasions. I think there’s a deep — some people call it love, I call it a ‘deep empathy’ between these two species that resonates with each other in a way that makes them comprehensible to each other, even though they don’t speak the same language.”

On the cultural evolution of dogs
“This is one of the reasons why people like to speak of the dog as a separate species than the wolf, even though they’re so closely related. The dog lives with us in a way that wolves don’t. It is created by us in different ways.”

 

Fido catches a tune

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On November 11, 2019

In Free Inquiry

How to Train a Dog!

I may have taken on more than I can chew with training Cocoa to play dead. Perhaps, I should go with something a little easier…I am trusting there are amazing resources out there that will lead me down the right path to getting our loving pooch to try something new.

A friend lent me this book: The Best Dog Tricks on the Planet by Babette Haggerty. The book is filled with easy-to-follow dog tricks that go from simple to more complex as the page count rises. I was originally looking at getting Cocoa to ‘Play Dead’ but after looking through this book I think I will change it up to have Cocoa’s husky-wolf pack genes come out and get her to ‘Sing’.

According to this book, training a dog to sing should take an average of 7-10 days, if practiced three to five times a day.

Difficulty: Advanced! Eek

 

 

 

All right, here we go!

Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry

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On November 11, 2019

In EdTech

PACIFIC SCHOOL OF INNOVATION AN INQUIRY

Our class got a chance to visit PSII and learn more about how an inquiry-based high school leads students to be in charge of their own learning. On their website, PSII includes the below graph to show how their approach to high school education differs from the traditional model in schools across BC and Canada.
Most high schools PSII
Subjects, courses, and classes Subjects are segregated into separate courses/classes where BC curriculum is  covered. Subjects are integrated; the BC curriculum+  is uncovered in interdisciplinary combinations.
Level of personalization Courses are pre-designed for a batch of 20 to 30 students with some post-design differentiation after the fact based on student need/interest in some cases. Personal learning paths are co-created by learners and teachers. Intersection points and emerging needs/goals inform what is done individually and what is done in groups.
Curriculum design Curriculum is built on “behavioural outcomes” where every student is asked to demonstrate the same learning behaviour. Some competencies are also referenced, but are lower on the hierarchy than the outcomes. Curriculum is built on personal curiosity through a close learner-teacher relationship, with room for occasional “nudges” by the teacher in to areas of learning the learner may not have thought of alone. Learning is based in valued human attributes, then competencies, then personal and universal learning goals.
How learners are grouped Students are typically grouped by age/grade level. Classes are organized ahead of time and groupings do not change for a semester of a whole year. Learners are grouped when it makes sense in whatever configuration makes sense. Sometimes by interest, sometimes by similarity, sometimes by difference. Groupings are dynamic.
Learning environment “Classrooms” are the main units of learning, so school buildings are organized into rooms of 20 to 30 to hold the average batch size. Some rooms are specialized but many are generic. Learners are the main units of learning, and so the school has micro-environments of many different shapes and sizes. Some areas are specialized, but almost everything is flexible.
Connection to the greater community Schools try to offer hypothetical models within the school walls to allow students to demonstrate learning and skill development. Community-based projects are the exception. Learners are encouraged to develop real projects, based on their own inquiries, and to access the world outside for mentorship, modelling, ideas for future projects, and as a place for them to contribute to society.
Face-to-face or virtual? Most high schools are either face-to-face or are based in a “distributed learning” model where students access learning via technology. Almost all face-to-face is with a teacher alone, and almost all virtual access looks a lot like correspondence courses, only on a computer screen. PSII learners will be in a hybrid environment by necessity. There is no substitute for face-to-face (at least 90% of what students will experience each day) when human relationships are valued, but because learners could be learning almost anything at any time, virtual experts will often comprise part of the resources learners will access.
Physical health Physical education is taught in a gym, with team sports as the main method of providing physical activity. Everyone in a PE class usually does the same thing at the same time, regardless of experience, preference, body type, or health status. Learners will learn about a holistically healthy lifestyle, including physical health, and will co-create a physical health plan (and assess progress) with a teacher, but will experience it at the Victoria YMCA and other locations that best fit the personal learning goals.
A few take-aways I got from founder Jeff Hopkins:
  • students use guiding questions for inquiry and learn to generate questions that will then be used to build their curriculum
  • teachers co-construct with students
  • students create their own learning portfolios using Trello. This allows for  collaboration between teachers and students ⇒ can invite users to comment and edit
  • classes are composed of students who have similar inquiries and teachers can direct and guide smaller class sizes with students’ questions
Watch Jeff talking about inquiry-based learning on his recent TedTalk

PSII Core Values
  • Open Inquiry
  • Consilience
  • Emergent Curriculum
  • Learning Happens Everywhere
  • Learning vs Learning About
  • Competency-based Assessment
  • Co-construction

 

The PSII space is in downtown Victoria in a second-floor office space that is comprised of one big room where students sit to work on their inquiries, then smaller ‘classrooms’ that allow for discussion and learning.

???????????????? What is your wondering ????????????????????

How might this model work in elementary years?

What should we do with the vending machine?

Even the vending machine had a question!

 

 

 

 

 

A few other resources to check out:

 

Go for Goats!

by

On October 8, 2019

In EdTech

Fun with iMovie

Thanks to Rich McCue, our class got a chance to play around in the world of video/audio editing, and screen capturing. Rich manages the University of Victoria Libraries Digital Scholarship Commons, which I hope to explore more as it offers workshops and advice on how to use digital tools.

Video editing with iMovie

What can you use it for?
Interviews
Trip recap
YouTube tutorials
Class inquire project
Music videos

Check out this 6 minute iMovie tutorial here.

Below are a couple samples of what I created in iMovie, adding in titles, audio, backgrounds and transitions. Here is a link to Rich’s intro workshop we worked from.

 

Audio editing with Audacity

What can you use it for?
Art project
Podcasting
Music recording (GarageBand)

Rich was kind enough to pass on some easy-to-follow instructions on podcast recording and editing with Audacity, which I unfortunately ran out of time for in class. Here is the link to Rich’s google doc for future reference.

Screen capture with screencastify

Here is the link to Rich’s google doc on Screencasting for future reference.

What can it be used for?
Screenshot videos for tutorials
Screen or audio recording

 

#FridaysForFuture

by

On October 4, 2019

In EdTech

How social media connects a movement.

Last week we attended the Global Climate Strike. We had been talking at home about why this is an important day for us and how it affects our daily lives. I am in awe of the millions in the world who have embraced the message of the remarkable 16-year-old Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) and how, with thanks to social media, the Climate Strike movement has grown over the past year.

We made our signs and headed down to the Legislature in Victoria to march in solidarity with all those demanding our politicians and business leaders act faster to make legislation, policy and support innovation that will shrink carbon emission and stop the extraction of the earth’s resources.

So, we strike!

                         

The vibe was amazing, the chants, signs, smiles.

It was inspiring to see bus after bus (standing-room only) coming downtown, people on bikes, pedestrians and carpools happening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past weekend, a teacher recommended Our House is One Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet by Jeanette Winter. Just published by Simon & Schuster, this picture book explains Greta’s path on becoming a leading voice on climate action.

Welcome to the Twitterverse

by

On September 20, 2019

In EdTech

Photo by Clarisse Croset on Unsplash

ExpAnding my Personal Learning Network (PLN)

I am excited to start connecting with educators and relevant topics happening in schools via my PLN. I started my Twitter account in 2009…wait…what!? A full decade ago. Well, it has been pretty much dormant for the last couple years so maybe things will change now. In the past, I loved being able to follow news stories as they were unfolding and have accessibility to people and companies that would otherwise be out of reach.

Well….Hello, retweet! My first Twitter post in a couple years thanks to @BCEdChat. They hold online discussions every  Sunday night at 7 pm, a great resource for BC educators . My calendar is marked and I hope to join in and view what is happening in regards to SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) in BC.

Also, just a note to myself to check out BC Principals’ & Vice-Principals’ Association @BCPVPA on Twitter.



Below are a couple organizational tools available

Tweetdeck is an organizational tool to use once I start checking out all the hashtags and influencers on the Twitter platform. I’m not sure if I will start using it but I do like the layout and useful columns to display whatever or whomever I am following at the moment. 

Trello ~ The sticky notes of the web! Good for organizing workload or to help you know where you are at with various “to do” lists.

Reflections on Most Likely to Succeed

by

On September 19, 2019

In EdTech

I found there was much to ponder and question in the refreshing documentary
Most Likely to Succeed. by American filmmaker Greg Beck Whiteley. A few notes I wrote while watching the film included:

  • Soft-skills ~ Big push into inquiry based learning to focus on communication, team work and problem solving to prepare students for today’s work environments. The difference being that the current education system was built during the industrial revolution and was focused on creating a work force that would conform to factory time clocks and a specific skill set.
  • The parent factor ~ How do we talk to parents who are skeptical about new ways of learning or unsure about switching from traditional methods of teaching.
  • Grit and perseverance ~ both were mentioned in the film and point to resourcefulness, resilience, and a growth mindset that tie into being a lifelong learner who will succeed at times and fail at times. The filmmaker showed this by highlighting a San Diego high school High Tech High, and its students who were working towards a final year-end collaborative project.
  • It’s all a gamble ~ Or is it? I liked how the filmmaker left the big question of will schools like High Tech High succeed in producing a new generation of learners who will carry our society into the future.

Fall in Mystic Vale

Cocoa

by

On September 14, 2019

In Free Inquiry

Meet Cocoa. Cocoa is our three-year-old husky mix from the North. We adopted her as an eight-week-old puppy from the Victoria Humane Society not knowing who her parents were, nor how big she would end up. She has grown into a 75-pound, smart, affectionate, intuitive Cocoa bean. We like to call her our northern dog with an island edge.

Now, Cocoa may not be an old dog, but she is a stubborn dog. The question is: Can we teach her new tricks? Her current rotation of dog tricks include sit, down, stay, come, shake a paw, roll over, spin around and the occasional bark on command.

As my free inquiry project I am hoping to teach her how to play dead. I will look into online sources, library, social media and any dog experts out there to help us get to our goal. I like the idea of working with Cocoa for this project because what better way to pair a busy, work-heavy schedule with a little stress-relieving doggy love.

I hope you enjoy this inquiry and feel free to join along with your four-legged pup!

I’ll leave you with this cute puppy video of Cocoa at the beach.

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