Diane Watt

Faculty Members I plan to contact for advice: Kristin Ziemke & Amanda Murphy

The Context

I am Leader of the Global Education Cohort, in the Faculty of Education, at the University of Ottawa. Teacher candidates either choose or are assigned to one of five cohorts for the duration of our two-year program. We currently have approximately 190 students in first and second year in the Global Education Cohort. There is no formal structure for integrating cohort perspectives into our program and students do not take formal course work in global education. It is up to me to rally individual professors and seconded teacher instructors to bring these perspectives into their curriculum. I hope to strengthen what we are already doing through the use of digital technologies and literacies so we can all learn with and from one another during the global pandemic we are currently negotiating, and beyond.

Some Challenges

1. Teaching and Learning Fully Online & Lack of Digital Literacies

Our team of two will be working fully online with professors and students who likely do not possess high levels of digital literacy, and who are uncertain about how to negotiate teaching and learning online during the Covid 19 Pandemic.

2. Integration of Global Education into the Teacher Education Program

Students do not get a course in global education. Rather, global is a lens they are expected to bring to everything they do during the two years they are in the program, both in their course work and during practicum experiences. Candidates take 5 courses per semester, followed by 4 weeks of practicum experience (which is also likely to be online this year). Everything we do as a cohort is essentially an “add-on” to an already busy schedule and full program. Historically, it has proven difficult to bring professors, seconded teachers from the school system, and teacher candidates together to create a cohesive and comprehensive experience. It has the responsibility of individual instructors and professors to figure out how to bring global perspectives into their courses, with support from our team. Most do not have a background or experience in global education. I am therefore interested in findings ways to bring content and individuals together so that we can do some meaningful, creative, activism work in our faculty. 

*In this action plan, I propose that digital technologies can help me and other members of our cohort to overcome these challenges by bringing teacher candidates and faculty together in a single digital space to learn with and from each other, about: inquiry processes, global education, media production, and civic engagement.

Theoretical Frameworks Supporting this Action Plan

(Still working on details as my overwhelmed "East mind" takes time to process everything, but this is primarily where I will draw from theoretically as I design & carry out this action plan)

1. Personal Digital Inquiry (Coiro, Dobler & Pelekis, 2019)

Soure: (Coiro, 2020. Slide from Keynote Presentation at the Summer Institute for Digital Literacy)

2. Anytime/Real-time Learning Framework (Coiro, Hobbs, Friesem, Ziemke..???)

Source for image below: (Coiro, 2020. Slide from Keynote Presentation at the Summer Institute for Digital Literacy) 

Action Plan: Interactive Workshops on Zoom

 During the upcoming year, I will host four online interactive workshops for student teachers and professors/instructors connected to the Global Education Cohort.

The idea to conduct these workshops was inspired by all of the sessions I attended at the Summer Institute. Each informed an extended my thinking about what might be possible. Thank you to everyone!

Goals:

1. Bring members of the Global Education Cohort together to promote a strong, committed community dedicated to making the world a better place through education

2. Introduce and inquire into key themes related to global education

3. Promote critical digital & global literacies, skills, and practices that can be transferred to other contexts

4. Introduce and work with inquiry processes that can be adopted and used by professors and teacher candidates to promote global education perspectives in course work and on practicum

5. Promote social justice, civic engagement & activism through education, using digital technologies

Workshop #1: A Model for the Interactive Workshops on Zoom

The first interactive workshop will be held for teacher candidates entering the Teacher Education Program in September to introduce them to the Global Education Cohort. All professors and instructors connected to the cohort will be encouraged to attend. Students and professors will leave the workshop having had a common online learning experience around inquiry, global perspectives, and media making. Students will have had an opportunity to start thinking about what matters most to them and how they might engage these issues during course work, and with their own students during practicum. 

Content:

A) Anytime Learning:

Before this workshop students and professors will be sent the template below (Ziemke & Muhtaris, 2020) and asked to reflect and complete each of the three categories (world, country, community). These will be posted to a Padlet along with brief introductions (one for each class of 45). Students and professors will be asked to view these before the online workshop and post "likes" and comments on Padlet. 

B) Realtime Learning:

1. Introductions (we will already have done some online intros in August, before this meeting)

2. Brief talk introducing the cohort and global education 

3. Brainstorm in breakout groups: themes related to global education

4. Brief intro to inquiry process 

5. Breakout groups of 4 use Adobe Spark to create a short video that highlights the three global issues they hope to pursue during the program (based on the template they completed before this session). These will be posted on Wakelet. 

6. In main group we will screen 2-3 videos to everyone and debrief.

7. Follow-up thinking instructions: Draft an action plan you could use in your course work. Share on Padlet & with your PED 3150 Professor (to be taken up in that class and others). 

From: Ziemke, K., & Muhtaris, K. (2020). Read the World: Rethinking Literacy for Empathy and Action in a Digital Age. Heinemann.

I will also draw on resources and ideas from the work of Jennifer Williams (2019):