Presentation on Using Technology in Outdoor Education:

  • Pros:
    • enhances learning in the outdoors – increases access to info
    • collaborating on a global scale
  • Cons:
    • all the apps require having some sort of device to be able to experience it
    • depends on funding of school
    • technology could detract from their outdoor experience (distracting)
  • Apps:
    •  INaturalist:
      • Useful in identifying any types of plants or animals
      • can upload photos and become part of the observational data – research grade
      • free app!
      • collaborating with people all over the world
    • BioBlitz:
      • a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species within a designated location and time period as possible
    • Seek:
      • free app by INatualist
      • identifies species that you see — much more user friendly
      • doesn’t contribute to the research database
    • ITrack Wildlife:
      • facilitates learning about animal tracks
      • there is a cost associated ($8)
    • Merlin:
      • free bird identification app
      • answer questions or take picture of bird and it will come up with information about the bird
      • will give you a map of where you can find that bird, and can play bird calls
      • live webcams to watch
      • interactive activities for kids (ie. extinct species, anatomy, etc)
    • Marine Debris Tracker:
      • an open data citizen tracker
      • can log where you’ve cleaned up beach debris and contribute to research
    • Peak Finder:
      • Can hold up your phone and it will tell you the mountains you’re seeing
      • $4.99
      • can do camera view, topographic view
    • Peak Visor:
      • free version of naming mountains
    • Globe Observer:
      • citizen science app
      • tracking weather, mosquitoes, tree height, and land cover
      • goes through scientific steps of the scientific process
    • NASA app:
      • free to download
      • amazing satellite pictures
      • wonderful way to learn about space
      • live stream of the ISS
        • could track weather patterns from this
    • Skype A Scientist:
      • can skype call from your classroom to an actual scientist
      • free service
      • resources on the website so that you can get to know them beforehand and help to come up with questions

 

Language and Communication Technology:

  • How can we bridge the communication gap in the classroom?
  • Language Technologies:
    • BC has the 2nd highest immigration population in Canada
    • Looking to the UN for inspiration:
      • use technology to connect all the different languages that come into one space
    • Google Translate:
      • how to connect with ELL students
      • can translate text to text, conversations, use the camera to translate text, can upload worksheets
      • Cons: not perfect, does make some mistakes, difficulty if in a noisy setting or with quiet voices, puts a pause in the conversation to take time to translate
      • be sure to take a close look at what it’s asking you to consent to (like keeping your images — can turn this off)
    • Powerpoint:
      • has a subtitle option to translate what you say during the presentation into a different language at the bottom of the slide
      • can also record your slide and draw on the slide and then will show as you present
        • good for students who are just learning the language, so they could take the presentation home and work on it at their own pace
    • WT2 Translator:
      • 2 headphones, one for each person to wear
      • can also translate through the app on your phone to ask questions to people in public
      • headphones are $300 – so a big investment
      • wouldn’t want to rely on this all day, and become dependent. Want the kids to work on their English skills as well
  • Assistive Technologies
    • Augmentive Alternative Communication
      • Touch Chat: pairs a written word on the screen with a photo
      • Great for non-verbal kids
    • Rewordify.com
      • kids can copy and paste a sentence they don’t understand and will convert some of the more difficult words into simpler ones
      • sense of autonomy
    • Video Modelling:
      • iMovie a student going through a daily routine, to help a student gain a grasp of what’s expected of them
    • Daily Schedules:
      • digital visual schedule
      • can add pictures of the student so that it’s more relevant
  • Have all children in the classroom become familiar with the assistive technology in the classroom so that it breaks down barriers and guides social interactions

 

Digital Storytelling Presentation:

  • Digital storytelling began by supporting personal discovery and emotional self-examination
    • has now shifted to powerful voice
  • digital storytelling is multimodal literacy that enables students to create a deeper understanding and emotional connection with their audience
  • 7 elements should be included:
    • POV: purpose of the story
    • Dramatic Question: that holds the viewers interest until the end
    • Emotional Content: connect with the viewer through the emotions felt
    • Voice: record the voice narration to help the meaning of the visual content
    • Soundtrack: adding music to complement the story
    • Economy: the way you use effects on an image changes the meaning
    • Pacing: between 2-4 minutes generally
  • Can easily link digital storytelling to the core competencies and self-assessments
    • I can statements
    • Identity – personal narrative
    • Social advocacy tool – agents of change
  • Going beyond personal narrative:
    • tale of Desperaux – using IMovie
  • Pros:
    • extremely multimodal – great way to work on their oral communication, written, technological
  • Cons:
    • time consuming
    • takes a lot of scaffolding
    • need equal access technology
    • for personal narratives – need students to feel psychologically safe in the classroom community
    • technology always has hiccups – but can use them as a learning tool (pro!)
  • Apps other than iMovie:
    • Comic Life – make comic strips — popular among elementary kids
    • Imagine Forest – focus on storytelling. Its free!
    • Speech Journal – traditional personal narratives. $3.99
  • Tips:
    • plan out stories in advance – storyboards
    • need set criteria so that expectations are clean, but still leave room for choice and creativity
    • need to scaffold learning of how to use the apps – want kids to know how to use the apps once it comes time to digitize their stories
    • can be used for lots of subjects! ELA, Socials, Science, Math, Art
    • Can use them as a teaching tool as well – flipped lessons, have students learn the concepts through teaching stories, and then class time can be used to collaborate on interactive work
    • Can increase participation with sick or absent students. Can access the content at home so that they don’t miss out on learning
    • Comprehensive way to see what students are taking away from your lessons. Content creators!

 

Presentation on How Video Can be Used in the Classroom:

  • may be thought of as a ‘cop out’, but is also a great way to engage students
  • Pros:
    • encourages digital literacy
    • can allow for experiences they may not be able to have in real life (travelling to other places)
    • can identify who the visual learners are – who’s engaging more with video than other teaching styles
    • can be used to replace written text that may not be as engaging
    • iMovie on Macs
    • Shotcut on PCs
    • youtube users must be 13 years or older, so not the best for the classroom
  • For longer videos: good to break it up into chunks to then be able to take a deeper dive into the meanings behind the videos in each portion
  • 3rd party tool:
    • EdPuzzle: way to share video with your students, can link to google classroom and show videos like khan academy, etc.
      • Can add prompts throughout video
      • can see how many students have accessed and how they’ve interacted
    • FlipGrid
  • Assessment:
    • pedagogical narration
    • how-to videos: can use flipgrid to create these. Great way to see what your students know
    • digital portfolios
  • Cautions & tips:
    • make sure to watch the whole video ahead of time
    • have a purpose behind the videos you’re using in class – be selective to what’s being shown
    • be mindful of accessibility to video creating tools
    • can use a “start at” function so that you don’t have to fiddle with where to start the video when presenting
    • can use auto-play function for when you bring the slide up

 

Coding in Education:

  • codebc.ca links coding resources to the curriculum
  • hourofcode.com – one hour tutorials for all ages
  • scratch: way to get kids involved with coding. takes puzzle pieces and put them together to see something happen
  • kids can use coding to create a story
  • Codemonkey – for much younger learners . introductory tool for coding (ages 4-6)
  • can teach coding without access to computers as well

Coding Apps for class:

 

**For next class: write a story about yourself teaching in the year 2040**