Dr. Christine Ho Younghusband

Passionate about teaching, learning, and leading in BC education

Category: Activities

Janet Chow: Challenges and Purpose of EdTech

December 3, 2019 / / 1 Comment

EDUC 431 – November 5, 2019 – REFLECTION

Thank you Janet Chow for being THE CLOSER of my EDUC 431 EdTech class. You were AMAZING. I’d like to say that you’re small, but fierce. I LOVED your willing to teach and LEARN with us as you video conferenced from Burnaby to share your thoughts and expertise on EdTech with my Year 2 Teacher Candidates at UNBC. Sometimes I think it’s serendipity, sometimes I think… “hey, I planned that.” I think it’s the former rather than the latter. You were so eloquent… and PATIENT with our tech issues… you were able to capture the big ideas of PURPOSE, BC’s Curriculum, and Assessment in one short hour.

I love how you got me to make MAKER BAGS for my class. I’ve participated in a maker space activity at the Small School Think Tank in 2018 and I was super amazed by the process of making to help collaborative groups cooperate, co-create, and synthesize what we had learned and what we wanted to do next. Each maker item had a STORY. This was the underpinning of Janet’s presentation… THE POWER OF STORY… which by the way, she co-moderated #bcedchat the Sunday before talking about the use of story for teaching and learning. I thought her presentation was timely and personally relevant. It captured her values about EdTech but also about teaching and learning.

Instead of concluding a professional learning session with maker space, Janet started her presentation with students answering this question: “Build you hopes, wishes, dreams as an educator. What is your story?” In small groups, students took the time to empty the maker bags and co-construct their story.   This is something that students could write about in their blog reflections or share what they had created via Twitter. What I found so fascinating about this learning activity is that this was the first time that she facilitated this learning activity remotely via video conferencing (and relying on me to help her facilitate face to face). It worked brilliantly and I just loved that she was willing to take the risk to try. Admirable.

Here are a few examples of what was shared on Twitter:

Janet was the perfect CLOSER. She seemed to have summarized the course, highlighted the big ideas about EdTech and it’s purpose to support student learning by being a vehicle for students to create and express themselves, and made connections to BC’s Curriculum and formative assessment. By doing this, Janet was able to tie in other courses into this EdTech course to show that everything that we are doing via teaching and learning are interconnected. You’ve got us thinking about EdTech and why it is an important teaching and learning tool to include all students but also help students. Thank you Janet for coming to our EDUC 431 class to share your knowledge, excitement, and expertise in EdTech.

Janet’s Blog from SD41: https://blogs.sd41.bc.ca/learningtech/

Kristina Tzetzos: Spinndle

November 4, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 29, 2019 – REFLECTION

Thank you Kristina Tzetzos from @Spinndle for joining my #EDUC431 #EdTech class at #UNBCed. It’s so great to listen to someone who is passionate about Assessment AS Learning and student voice, who has been a K-12 Educator in the BC School System, and become an EDUpreneur with your platform of Spinndle. It takes a lot of courage to step aside and develop an online platform for students to use and unpack student self-assessment into 5 categories: monitoring, tracking, collecting, reflecting, and assessing. You really got us thinking about our assumptions and I appreciated how you carved out the time in your presentation for us to discuss in small groups our thoughts on assessment and how students can be metacognitive with their thinking, sense-make, and have voice.

Thank you for giving our Teacher Candidates and opportunity to use Spinndle as a learner to PLAY and figure out the use and potential of Spinndle as a tool for Assessment As Learning. Although we did experience some technical difficulties (which we normally do in our EdTech class… sadly… but it’s a reality), we could really see how a student could monitor, track, collect, reflect, and assess their learning using Spinndle. You were articulate with your thinking about assessment and why it’s important for learners to embrace, empower, and own their learning and learning experiences. I really appreciated how you talked about your learning journey as a teacher candidate, teacher, and EDUpreneur. I was reminded why we are in the “business of education”… to support and nurture student learning.

From Spinndle, I’ve learned that two of my teacher candidates LEARNED HOW TO CURL as part of their professional learning experience during the Provincial Professional Development Day (something that is near and dear to my heart), and that the platform is can be personalized to the student’s learning experience that can be based on an inquiry based learning framework. I love how Spinndle nicely ties into BC’s Curriculum but also as a vehicle for students to reflect and self-assess the Core Competencies as an ongoing practice where growth and development can be seen over time. Finally, I loved how META Kristina was with her presentation and she reveals how she planned for her guest speaking session with a LESSON PLAN and discusses how she plans and designs learning. Kristina concludes by inviting my students to create a lesson plan that incorporates one of the 5 areas mentioned above for practicum. Now that is full circle!!!

Sandra McAulay: Coding with Scratch Jr.

October 23, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 22, 2019 – REFLECTION

Oh yay!!! Sandra McAulay RETURNS to #UNBCed #EDUC431 #EdTech. She is soooooo amazing!!! Who does that? SHE DOES!!! That’s why I love her so much. Sandra has a thirst for teaching and learning that is difficult to describe. Her energy and enthusiasm is incredibly contagious and TRUTH… I am so happy that my students have an opportunity to witness and be in the presence of a master teacher, but I get the opportunity to be in the same room as her to watch her live as well. It’s pretty phenomenal. All of the tips she had for our teacher candidates who are soon heading to practicum are all those that we suggest and advise at the university. How affirming can that be for me as one of the instructors, but also for our students. I love the idea of asking the school principal to observe your class, to take the opportunity to observe other teachers classes while on practicum, and taking EVERY opportunity as a learning opportunity to inform you about your pedagogy and practice. Wow!!! This was incredible. I know that we were NOT team teaching per se, but I love working with Sandra. She can carry a room and haven’t started talking about EdTech yet.

I will admit… I’ve been very serendipitous with how my guest speakers are scaffolding themselves with one another. Working with an experienced teacher like Sandra is incredible and humbling. She can take what she knows and “move on the fly” with what she knows. As you can see, students were coding (without computers again). I love how physical and tactile this is… and takes an extension to Carrie Antoniazzi’s session on Computational Thinking by taking coding to the floor. Students continue to collaborate and learn from experience together, but I also like how Sandra was able to teach to “students” and “teacher candidates” at the same time. This takes a lot of skill and she was doing it. Modelling classroom management, describing how this learning activity would look like for kindergarteners, grade 7’s, and high schoolers. Secondary teacher candidates had to use their imagination, but I was surprised (and impressed) to hear their knowledge of coding and platforms in addition to their level of engagement.

Students went from coding on the floor to coding with tabs and finding their ways through paths. I loved how Sandra always checked in after an activity. What did you notice? What do you wonder about? What’s next? Students were able to see extensions to this activity and were able to understand through experience the “step by step” nature of coding and why it’s so important to learn how to code. how to debug, and how to program. Sandra managed to scaffold this learning experience with coding with other sessions my students had with other presenters such as Noelle Pepin: Ozobots and taking it further. Sandra took advantage of these previous learning opportunities (knowingly or not knowingly) and created a professional learning experience that transformed what does with elementary students to seamlessly catered the learning activity for my students in EDUC 431. I appreciated how some students in my class were able to take their own extensions or adaptations based on their prior knowledge with technology.

We concluded the 2-hour class with a third activity… CODING WITH SCRATCH JR. Some were already familiar with Scratch, but this was a time for students to play with the iPads and application to co-create a situation on Scratch Jr. Sandra gave them a challenge. Some had hitch hiking dragons catching a ride on a school bus. Some had neon green cats catching a ride on an airplane that was driving on the main drag. Some were playing basketball. I saw flying pigs. The permutations of creativity were endless and they were all coding. I loved how engage my students were. This was a beautiful BALANCE between structure and freedom… between management and leadership… and between teaching and learning. THANK YOU SANDRA for facilitating a super fun class on coding. I love your honesty, candidness, and authenticity. Your passion for this work in EdTech is VISIBLE and I believe that this was a worthwhile learning experience. The class conclude with someone saying that they wished they had these tools, apps, and tech when they were teaching a few years ago. That is the greatest compliment.

Tim Cavey: Podcasts

October 23, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 17, 2019 – REFLECTION

OK. I’m not embarrassed. It’s now a “thing” to take a selfie with my guest speakers who join my EDUC 431 class online. THANK YOU Tim Cavey (@MisterCavey) from the TEACHERS ON FIRE (@TeachersOnFire) podcast for sharing your learning, your experiences, and your WHY with my EdTech class. AMAZING!!! I have to admit, your session was “easy listening.” You have a radio/broadcaster voice… hands down. You came in loud and clear (which is phenomenal given our tech set up on our end at the university) and what you had to say to my class was meaningful and engaging. Although you had questioned during your online session if being visible on YouTube was desirable or not given that “Teachers On Fire” is audio only on YouTube, I think after this afternoon’s chat to my EDUC 431 proves that maybe showing your face via YouTube WILL have an audience. We were so captivated with what you had to say. I wanted to catch a picture of you with your phone in hand (see below). Can you see it? (um… kinda)

You can kind of make it out at the bottom right hand side of the screen. This is what I noticed. You were reading your notes from your phone. I LOVED THAT. How can you get any more META in an EdTech class. Here you are talking about using PodCasts as a vehicle to CREATE and have VOICE, yet you are video conferencing in to Prince George from Surrey via BlueJeans and you are referring to your notes and prep on you phone. This was absolutely INCREDIBLE to me. I hope my students noticed. And, I really appreciated the prep that you (and my other guest speakers) have put into your guest speaks for my EDUC 431. I loved that you spoke about your why. Your commentary about what is a Podcast and what motivated you to start a podcast was inspirational and exciting. Sure… why not? I have a week free during spring break… LET’S START AN EDU-PODCAST inspired by “Entrepreneurs On Fire.” That seems so crazy to me. When I think about having a week free during spring break, I’m thinking about SLEEP, not content creation. Your story was so impressive and I appreciated the gesture of you willing to mentor anyone in my class who would want to start a podcast. I love the modelling and the willingness paying it forward. Thank you Tim. I hope someone takes you up on your offer.

I really appreciated how methodical you were with what you had to say. I loved that you cited examples from your podcast and how your classmates from your Masters Cohort from Vancouver Island University (VIU) were willing participants as part of your first 10 podcasts. Wow. What a cohort!!! I love that collegiality and the collectively willingness to lift others up. I also want to congratulate you on SURPASSING your 100th episode this month AND successfully completing your Masters program in leadership. What I appreciated about what you had to say during your talk was starting your presentation with this accomplishment and referring to your thesis, which was about podcasting and professional learning. I loved that you were willing to share examples of mistakes and challenges and how you were able to overcome and learn from them. I love how your professional learning is learning from what you are doing from making the podcast, learning from those who are guests on your podcast, and how you are able to make connections from around the world to learn more about what’s the next progressive edu-idea you want to share in your podcast. Best of all, you accomplish this using TWITTER and I am so glad that we were able to meet face-to-face at CAfLN earlier this year. It makes these connections via Twitter REAL!

You had a tonne to say… Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset” is a MUST read for all educators!!! That was one of my biggest take-aways. I love how reading someone’s ideas can be so transformational. We talk about growth mindset in our teacher education program at UNBC, but I am compelled to return back to that book and dig deeper. I cannot believe that you thought you would be a half-hour to talk and a half-hour for questions. When people have a passion… it’s tough to capture those big ideas in 30 minutes. That said, time really flew by when you were speaking and thank you for fielding questions from my students. We loved what you had to say and we loved your recommendations and ideas. It was a fulsome hour and THANK YOU for your patience on our “technical difficulties” in setting up our A/V equipment at the university. It was our first time setting it up and I am so grateful to have students who were all willing to help out to make this video conference possible. Sorry we could not fly you up to Prince George, but having you there LIVE using BlueJeans was the next best thing. Can’t wait to listen to your next podcast. Your productivity is astounding and I hope our students will content create (like you) via BLOG, podcast, YouTube, or Twitter. Thanks Tim!!!

Karen Lirenman: Strong Advocate of Technology

October 17, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 15, 2019 – REFLECTION

I loved this edu-visit to EDUC 431 from Karen Lirenman. I was so impressed by Karen’s introduction. She’s in a new school district, in a new school, and teaching grades 4/5 for the first time and THIS was her 28th year of teaching. IMPRESSIVE. I love how a seasoned teacher was willing to take the leap to leave the comforts of their well established career to change school districts, thus expose oneself to a NEW BEGINNING. This is not easy. Although she has experience in teaching primary students, she was honest and humbled by starting all over again. KUDOS Karen. Thank you for that introduction with my Teacher Candidates. Learning is inherent in this profession and having the courage to change roles, positions, or school districts needs to be recognized and acknowledged. Yay you Karen!!!

We haven’t talked about EdTech yet. Your passion for technology shines. I love that you are a STRONG ADVOCATE OF TECHNOLOGY and understanding your why behind technology and your pedagogy matter. I loved it when you said that technology should be used to CREATE knowledge, not consume knowledge. And, that technology should enable students to work at a level that works for them and that technology enables the student to express one’s thinking and document one’s work in an effective way. You recommended OPEN ENDED APPS, like Book Creator, for students from kindergarteners to adults to use to “tap into their thinking” via voice, images, and writing.  You emphasized the importance STUDENT VOICE many times and EdTech should AMPLIFY what we are doing.

I loved how you gave us time to discuss key questions about EdTech and how it supports student learning. These sense-making times are important and I appreciated how some of our students were willing to share their thinking with you. Personally, I loved the timer. Make our intentions VISIBLE. What a model of good instruction and pedagogy. I also appreciated how you zoomed from talking about technology that makes learning accessible for students then shifted into SOCIAL MEDIA and use of a class Twitter account to teach about DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP, digital literacy, and digital footprints (with young students). Social media is an excellent vehicle to teach young students about these concepts, but also for them to connect with people FROM AROUND THE WORLD. Having a global audience is such a BIG IDEA and I love that it could be as simple as posing a question to an author, a politician, or to another class. SKYPE is another platform from us to connect with anyone from around the world. I love how your students wanted to connect with another class they saw during one of their field trips.

Of course I had to get a selfie of us. I want to start a trend… selfies can be taken in person and virtually. It’s all good. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, expertise, and excitement for EdTech with us. You spoke of other ideas such as parent permission and informed consent, other applications such as MindCraft and Virtual Reality, and blogging. I really liked what you said… ADVOCATE, EDUCATE, AND ACCOMMODATE. 🙂

Carrie Antoniazzi: Computational Thinking

October 11, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 10, 2019 – REFLECTION

Here’s the thing… one of my “things to do” is to make photos accessible to students so that they can access the collection for their EDUC 431  e-Portfolios. They can certainly access Twitter for photos like I have for this edu-blog reflection. I’ve tweeted about today’s presentation and now I have plugged my phone into my computer. What did I learn? I take a lot of photos. It is going to take quite some time for those photos to upload. So, I decided to extract tweets from the #UNBCED feed and share what was on social media. Seems to work while my phone is held hostage tonight. BTW: it’s making very little progress… sigh.

THANK YOU CARRIE ANTONIAZZI from TechUP and Science World for coming to Prince George to provide this awesome learning opportunity for my EDUC 431 students on COMPUTATIONAL THINKING without computers. I was super excited for weeks and I was not disappointed. I loved how she spoke about DESIGN THINKING, ADST and BC’s New Curriculum, and assessment & evaluation. Wow!!! A jammed packed 1 hour and 50 minutes… and there were door prizes too!!! #winning I also appreciated that it was highlighted of the many opportunities that TechUP and Science World has to serve THE NORTH (for free). I hope some of our Teacher Candidates take advantage of these opportunities during practicum or in their future practice. They seem AMAZING and why not?

What captured my attention during Carrie’s presentation of COMPUTATIONAL THINKING was what are the different parts, how does each part work or looks like, and shared a video that depicts the process really well. I loved this video.

Carrie made connections of COMPUTATIONAL THINKING to the ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technology) Curriculum (which is required for K-12) and DESIGN THINKING and how this curriculum was intended to be integrated with other curricular areas. I really loved how these collaborative, dialogical, and interactive learning activities capture and develop the Core Competencies and how Carrie emphasized that it was the student’s responsibility to identify what those Core Competencies are and figure out how they are developing them. Most of all, I loved the idea of TRIANGULATION of data for summative assessment using written evidence (as product), observations of students, and conversations with students to support your professional decision making… and that written evidence does not have to be a test or exam. Why not use EdTech strategies?

What now follows below are a series of tweets from myself and UNBC Education Twitter Handle @educationUNBC to depict how today’s presentation went. These pictures are phenomenal because we situated our learning at the UNBC Senate Chambers. THANK YOU CARRIE for being an EDU-CHAMPION. Loved today’s session on computational thinking. Lots learned… and plenty to remember. 🙂

Cliff Waldie: FreshGrade

October 10, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 8, 2019 – REFLECTION

Watching Cliff Waldie from my PLN teach was a treat. I was so wowed that he spent the time to introduce himself, like other presenters had in EDUC 431, but took a brief moment to explain WHY to our teacher candidates and the importance of making a personal connection with your audience before moving forward with the learning experience. Can we get any more meta than that?

I love this guy… he teaches with his hands. Cliff is so animated and works the room. He moves all over the classroom to create engagement… and he does. I think we were fully engaged from the hour and 50 minutes. Cliff was talking to us about FreshGrade Classic. He was so gracious and thoughtful with his time. We first explored FreshGrade Classic as students, then we played with the application as teachers. Within that time, he faced “real” teachable moments and made decisions on the fly. I am not sure what I was more impressed with… FreshGrade or his planning, prepping, and teaching abilities. Cliff can work a room. By the end of the session, I noticed another pile of handouts. I wondered if I should distribute them, but nope… he was prepared for a third learning activity (just in case). Wow!

FreshGrade Classic was so easy to use and navigate… I think that I left teaching in K-12 too early. I would have loved to have worked with Freshgrade as a secondary mathematics teacher to Communicate Student Learning. keep track of how students were learning, and give opportunities for students to demonstrate learning and reflect IN REAL TIME. I was so shocked how easy it was and how I would have loved to have used this application to check in on math understanding with my secondary math students. It would be so easy to incorporate BYOD and to make adaptations, give feedback, and communicate with parents on progress. I also appreciated how FreshGrade integrates Communicating Student Learning, assessment, and pedagogy. This program would have been amazing in my secondary mathematics classes but also for this EDUC 431 EdTech class.

Of course, I had to take a couple of selfies. What an amazing face-to-face connection made on Twitter. I love my PLN more and more. The intersection of my PLN meeting face-to-face, working collaboratively together, and we can’t help ourselves but ACTUALLY have a parking lot meeting because we can’t stop talking about education, teaching, and learning… you know you’ve met an edu-soulmate.

Valerie Irvine: Technology as Social Justice

October 7, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – October 1, 2019 – REFLECTION

What can I say? I am always wowed every time I talk to or listen to Dr. Valerie Irvine, EdTech Professor at the University of Victoria. She inspired me on how I designed EDUC 431 at UNBC for Teacher Education. During the summer, Valerie reached out to me… as “regular educator using EdTech as part of professional learning” to come is as one of many guest speakers to her #TIEgrad MEd EdTech summer intensive masters course. How could I refuse and I was in good company… Jesse Miller, Alec Couros, and Trevor MacKenzie. I was very humbled but also very inspired about the idea that Twitter is a platform where EVERYONE is a learner.

Valerie came to my EDUC 431 class to talk about “Technology as Social Justice.” I love her focus on LEARNER PREFERENCES and her mindset of WHY NOT? Take a close look of the photo above of a selfie for her #tiegrad class from the summer. Yes, I have needs. I had to do a selfie. Look carefully. She’s got people in a class setting on campus at UVIC meeting face-to-face, she’s got some students video conferencing in remotely (or locally) individually, and small groups video conferencing in who live in the same community. They are attending this class in real-time synchronously online and face-to-face. She models what she believes in: Multi-Access Learning Environments. How can learning be accessible?

Amazingly… Valerie designs her presentation to EDUC 431 using Twitter, Google Docs, and BlueJeans and engages learners by participating in an edu-chat with REALLY tough questions about student choice, bias, modality access. If students wanted to answer publicly online, they responded with the Q1/A1 format on Twitter. If students wanted to answer the questions anonymously, then they responded on a Google Doc that was shared on Twitter. This is about choice!!! And we are wrestling with some of those ideas of private versus public, but Valerie creates a learning space where students can choose and have a similar learning experience. She also taught me to copy and paste Twitter links and embed them into my blog on WordPress. Yay! See below for my responses to her questions.

Q1: Why do we need to have a required face-to-face experience as a class?

Q2: Should an institution’s or instructor’s modality preference override student accessibility? Or student preference of modality? 

Q3: Does/should modality bias exist? 

Q4: Should we allow flexibility in modality accessibility (e.g., multi-access)? What are the implications? Does your institution have a policy on cyber proxy?

To read the responses of UNBC Teacher Education program who posted publicly on Twitter, go to the hashtag #UNBCED. Their responses are incredible. Although you cannot unpack what you really mean on Twitter when given only 280 characters, so my responses were quite short. That said, much of what I was saying is that we are being policy compliant to educate and certify our teacher candidates, thus we have face-to-face learning. Valerie’s presentation got us to think about PEDAGOGY or PLATFORM? (sorry, it might not be those exact words… but the concept is there). What is good pedagogy and does the modality matter?

THANK YOU VALERIE… it was a jammed packed, passion-driven presentation about Technology as Social Justice. You’ve asked tough questions and you are so willing to inquire and challenge the status quo. I really appreciate that. Even this presentation to my EDUC 431 influenced my planning for my EDUC 491 course next semester. I am so inspired to challenge myself and my modality bias to make learning accessible to all students. I can’t wait for our next EdTech connection regarding what’s next for education and what I will learn next. Looking forward.

Noelle Pepin: Ozobots

October 7, 2019 / / 0 Comments

EDUC 431 – September 24, 2019 – REFLECTION

There is nothing I like more than student engagement. THANK YOU Noelle Pepin from SD57 (Prince George) for leading learning in my EDUC 431 EdTech Class from the UNBC Teacher Education Program. Here is another person I’ve met virtually on Twitter as part of my PLN and one of the first people I’ve met since coming to Prince George to teach at UNBC. We have been inseparable ever since… and I’m grateful. We’ve connected for FNESC (First Nations Education Steering Committee) Math Teachers Resource Guide and BEADED TWEETS (@beaded_tweets) at the Two River Gallery in Prince George. I love that we can learn together. It’s super fun. But wait… What’s more fun??? OZOBOTS.

I was so happy that Noelle agreed to present to EDUC 431, but also to host this learning experience at Nusdeh Yoh School in Prince George where they embrace the Maker Space mindset. I love the idea of learning “in-place.” These little robots can be programmed using coloured felt pens or iPads with drag-and-drop coding. Tonight, we coded using felt pens. Coding with Ozobots was a very intuitive and engaging learning activity for EDUC 431 students. They listened carefully to the ground rules of using Ozobots and how one would help students learn the social responsibility of using Ozobots and how that could be scaffolded. The class then divided themselves into groups of 3 before resuming into an incredible EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING experience. They were learning by doing. Very little instructions were given and in groups of 3, they were figuring things out. There were lots of laughs, lots of engagement, and lots of dialogue. I was so impressed that students were able to make connections to coding with their grade level and curricular areas.

Although we took time to commute to Nusdeh Yoh school, it was worth the trip. You know that things are going well when our job as instructors or facilitators was minimal. Students were learning what they were suppose to be learning without being teacher led. Certainly, Noelle and I were circulating the room and checking in to see how things are going, but students were learning from experience. They were joyful and why can’t learning BE FUN? Today was a fun day. Students were very respectful with the equipment, orderly in putting things away and reflecting on what they have learned, and very engaged in the learning experience.

THANK YOU NOELLE… and thank you for the Ozobots Certificates too!!!

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