DAILY REFLECTIONS

Speaker: Tess Sutherland

Contact: tess@pinnguaq.com

Website: https://pinnguaq.com/

Take-Aways

• A not-for-profit organization, incorporates STEAM into learning applications that promote storytelling, wellness and growth. Pinnguaq embraces diversity and creates opportunities to empower all people.

• IQ principles - good life and good living

• Makerspace: "a place to connect and share knowledge - when you leave the door open you make space for others"

• KIT: Lilipads - light up projects (e-textiles)

• KIT: Danielle Moore - (memorial kit) indigenous communities and ocean conservation

• KIT: Learn on the Land - reusable kits that can be infinitely reused/ repurposed

Wheel of Privilege and Power

This wheel diagram was a brand new illustration for me. It was introduced to our class by Dr. Keri Ewart & Dr. Andrea Sator. For me, it is the most comprehensive intersectionality model I have seen. I am excited to use this as an education tool in my classes an to share it with colleagues.

From the UBC Website: The Wheel of Power/Privilege, is a simplified way to reflect on the many intersecting identities and power structures that we all engage with. Learning about intersectionality and how it affects all of us, both in our work and personal lives, allow us to respectfully communicate with peers, and deepens our understanding of the ways in which diversity, equity, and inclusion are relevant to our community.

• GooseChace App: online, multimodal scavenger hunt! Great for classroom provocation activities, problem, community building, and fun!

• Tess: Forest story about Fireflies (beauty & magic moments in nature)

• Tess: "Break down the barrier between technology and land"

• Susan Kite: “​AI is formed from not only code, but from materials of the earth. To remove the concept of AI from its materiality is to sever this connection. By forming a relationship to AI, we form a relationship to the mines and the stones. If we are able to approach this relationship ethically, we must reconsider the ontological status of each of the parts which contribute to AI, all the way back to the mines from which our technology’s material resources emerge."

• LEGO philosophy: low floor (anybody - no barrier to entry), high ceiling (achieve a ton, scale up achievement), no walls (learning moves in any direction)

Speaker: Cameron Beck

Contact: cbeck@scienceworld.ca

Website: https://www.scienceworld.ca/

Take-Aways

• Platform: Microsoft microbit

  • Create classroom - to have your own class and monitor/support students

  • Teacher version can push code to student (if you send a students code to all - all students get it but teacher code doesn't)

    • Sign in as a student and teacher

Artificial Inteligence (AI)

• Platform: Quick, Draw!

• Platform: Teachable Machine

Quick, Draw! is an online drawing Google game: Almost like Pictionary but the player is partnered with Artificial Intelligence!

The game challenges the player to draw a picture of an object. The "neural network" (AI) is trying to guess what the drawings is. If the task is completed withing 20 seconds, the player gets a new drawing (up to six drawing per game).

The AI learns from each drawing (from any/every user that interact with the software), improving its ability to guess correctly in the future!

• Cam Beck: “Code to learn not learn to code"

• Planning ProD workshops for teachers at our school - asking for ProD funding to take a day trip to Science World 1-2x per year (free for teachers!) with any Oak Bay Science Department teachers that would like to join!

• Some classroom pros to micro:bits: simple, cheap, low floor/high ceiling, compatibility (versatility)

Location: 780 East Cordova St. Van

Contact: cbeck@scienceworld.ca

Website: www.scienceworld.ca

Take-Aways

• MakerLabs started as small vision (pop-up-shop) and has since turned into Vancouver's largest maker-space (42,000 square feet of workshops, studios and common areas including a wood shop (hosting the Jenga maker challenge), metal shop (hosting the ruler maker challenge), CNC routers (hosting the puzzle maker challenge), coding (hosting the robot maker challenge) and and much more).

• Refer to Professional Learning for more reflections from the MakerLab field trip!

THE BUDDY BENCH!

Buddy Benches are making playtime less lonely: "The idea is simple - if a child feels lonely, they can go to the bench as a signal that they need someone to play with. Another child will see them, go and talk to them and include them in their games" - BBC

This idea warms my heart! I can't believe I had never heard of a "Buddy Bench" and can not wait to introduce the concept to my school. It would be a wonderful maker project to have students collaborate on for our school and/or to build for their communities.

• You can make at MakerLabs but you can also have their skilled makers, make something for you!

• "Assessment is to Increase quality; Evaluation is to Judge quality."

• Clapping exercise - teaching assessment; easy exercise to do with students. Demonstrates value and provokes conversation about self, peer and teacher reflection (1, 2, 3 trials)

• You don’t always have to have a product - that’s okay. Give students permission to not be finished and then be able to tease out their learning from what they have done (have conversations as well!)

• Successful learning products - not the end product; measuring success in what was learnt.

• <-- BUDDY BENCH!

Speaker: Paul Milaire

Contact: edmedia.med@ubc.ca

Website: https://education.med.ubc.ca/

Take-Aways

• WHY: thinking about reality - going from nature to augmented; the way we change ourselves or the things we interact with changes our reality; the principles that have always been around about reality - just using a different tool to experience reality. *Technology and narrative was still unexplored in Med Ed

• HOW: a flaw it that the body and mind are not doing the same thing so that can be very hard for some people - tactics vs non tactile, multimodal, lack of haptic feedback; Human Authentic - voice recognition and a volumetric capture - so it feels like a real conversation; Prototype → Pilot → Feedback → Iterate (Maker Mentality)

• WHAT: Contextual, Interactive, Narrative → wanting to build empathy, respect for the patients - not just another toy to play with to learn. Address the gap from classroom → clinical (provide a low stakes environment that still gives the experience)

CARDBOARD GOGGLES

Of course I had heard of Google Goggles, but I had never tried them (or looked into them further as a resources for students) - I think this is mostly reflecting the fact that I didn't think they could be very exciting (based on judgement of the no-tech construction). After experiencing them in class, and being appropriately humbled, I am excited about the affordances they can bring to my students.

Take-Aways

• Cardboard goggles can create a VR experience

• The goggles are compatible with a variety of apps - such as Youtube VR, Google Cardboard, etc.

• Google 360 can be used to create your own VR experiences to share with students.

• Some organizations (such as Historica Canada) will provide VR class sets for free

• They are very easy to make!

Today's Aha Moment was as equally simple as it was important. For our Unit of Learning Group, today felt like crunch time. We were given a lot of time to work, and while the time was incredibly appreciated, our group was forgetting to take it in strides and to enjoy the "making" experience.

When we were creating our unit of learning, we decided to represent ourselves using our "Bitmoji" characters. One of our members, Anu, did not have a Bitmoji, but our group insisted she should because she would enjoy creating it.

From the moment she began making, her enjoyment was obviously - between her smile and her own verbalized "aha's", we were smiling and laughing alongside her.

My moment of Aha was solidified when Anu enthusiastically stated, “Well this is the most fun I have had today!”

This was a reminder that although we were working toward a goal and end product we were proud of, didn't mean we couldn't be enjoying the process - all the learning and making that come hand-in-hand throughout the journey!

Speakers: Joseph Kwan & Joyce Lo

Organization: BC Association for Advancing Communication

Website: www.bcaac.ca

Take-aways

• BCAAC is a non-profit organization focused on promoting literacy for everyone and supporting *AAC users, educators, and families in British Columbia.

• PANDA (Promoting and Advocating) AAC CAMP

• Seeing gaps and needs in society and choosing to do something about it - maker does not have to be physical (going through ideation process and interaction over and over again)

• As an educator (and in daily life), pursue competence or risk limiting a person short - give chance and provide opportunity

• 21 day challenge is just using the talkier - come up with class or colleagues challenge for awareness

• Use talker in class!

• PANDA (Promoting and Advocating) AAC CAMP

• Contact for book resources!

Unit of Learning GROUP #1

UN SDGs & usable ProDs

Members: Paula, Jorden, Stephen, Kyle

Maker Challenge: to design and construct a prototype habitat that is an inclusive and liveable underwater community and create a stop motion video of the design.

Highlights

I was very impressed with what this group put together - compared to our maker group (five science/math secondary teachers) they had much more diverse backgrounds. It would have been a challenge to come up with a Unit of Learning that would be useful for all of them to bring back to the work/life. However, with their finished project, you wouldn't have guessed they had any difficulty with that.

The maker challenge they gave us was to create a stop motion film (in less than 15 minutes). Our group of four had a blast making it (more on this in the "maker challenge" section).

One aspect that was particularly exiting for me was learning how simple it is to create a stop motion! I have wanted to incorporate them into class assignments but assumed it would be difficult to do - it could not be easier! I can't wait to add "stop motion videos" as ways for students to demonstrate learning in the future!

Unit of Learning GROUP #8

EDIDA and the community mini-library

Members: Liza, Chris, Kat, Curtis, Tim

Maker Challenge: to construct a prototype mini library that most authentically represents you and your group.

Highlights

This Unit of Learning Presentation was fantastic, start to finish. It provoked great "student" involvement and the group themselves were well organized, well versed in their content, and adaptable during their presentation. It was wonderful to see them embracing the maker mentality of iteration. It was also clear to see that their unit design process critically considered EDIDA principles and was embodied throughout the lesson.

Our Maker Challenge was to design an inclusive Mini Library that represented the four of us making it. Though we did not get far in the making process, it was exciting to see where we went with the design ideas. (more of this in the maker challenge section).

What I was most impressed by with this group, was that even inside the very short lesson period, they were able to scaffold the lesson so that we felt like we took part in the intention of the entire unit. They listened to feedback and adapted as we went along and practiced creating a the makerspace by letting us "students" take ownership of their learning.