Reflection #1 – Weeks 1 & 2

Week one of this course covered lots of topics, and also talked about the structure of the course and the assignments within it. The class started off by covering different types of consent as well as FIPPA which works to protect personal information, ensure transparency, inform people of how their data is used, and the purposes, rights, obligations, and expceptions related to personal data and privacy. However, we were also introduced to resources like BlueSky (a platform used to communicate with teachers worldwide), BCTF (has services and important information for teachers to reference), CUEBC (does workshops and provides insight into educational technology), LATA (provides resources and assistance to teachers that have students with learning differences), and many more. The tool tip for the week was for teachers to create an avatar. This allows teachers to have privacy in their profiles but can still be somewhat recognizable. The point of the avatar is that someone wouldn’t be able to recognize you walking down the street because it isn’t an actual photo of you. But, if someone knows you and what you look like in real life, they would be able to recognize your avatar as being you. I never thought of why teachers used avatars before, I just thought they liked how they looked, but now it makes a lot of sense and I think it’s quite smart.

Week two we talked about how school districts and schools already have their own privacy policies provided and in place to protect the students and staff in the schools. We were also introduced to a cool tool called Padlet. It’s a website that the teacher can sign into and post a question on. Students follow a link to that question and can post their answers anonymously, or have their name attached to it. This is a great tool for checking understanding in the classroom and provides students with a way to share their voice and opinions without having to put their hand up and talk in class. In the class we also spent a lot of time covering the expectations for the inquiry project more closely and looked at student examples from past years, as well as learning how to set up our blog/website. Learning what you can do on your website and how to navigate it was quite interesting. Another tool that was mentioned in class today was bit.ly. Bit.ly is a website that you can plug a long url into and it will shorten it into a new one that is easier to read and copy down if necessary.

Before the second class we were tasked with watching a video called “Most Likely to Succeed.” The video was quite interesting because it talked about a school that strayed away from the typical tests, worksheets, and lecture formats that most schools have. Instead, they encouraged non-structured blocks and subjects, as well as hands-on, student-centered, collaborative learning. All of the students that attended this school seemed to really enjoy themselves and the learning process. I see the benefit in having more collaboration and student input in how and what they learn. However, I also feel like having structure in school is very important. It makes me think about when they move on to university or college and all of a sudden they are thrown into a very structured and strict environment. Going from what they experienced at this school to what they will experience in post secondary may become problematic. I also feel like having teachers getting to pick and choose the material that they teach may cause challenges. I can’t help but think that there are some important topics that may get skipped over and/or have some of the not as important topics focused on too much. If I were to create my own school after watching this video, I would absolutely incorporate more student socialization and collaboration while also keeping a structure similar to what the current education system has (i.e. specific block lengths). I would also encourage combining subjects and/or projects like they did at this school and allow students to have a bit more say in their learning than what they currently do.