Category: EDCI 336 (Page 1 of 2)

This week, we explored EdCamp. I had never heard of this concept before and even after watching the pre-class videos I was feeling a bit skeptical about the idea of “unconferences.” How is effective learning supposed to happen in such an unstructured way with such little planning? I was pleasantly surprised though when my EdCamp group had a meaningful and productive hour-long conversation about incorporating outdoor learning in diverse subject areas. Liz was our “chair” and prompted some really great discussion about challenges associated with outdoor learning, how it can be incorporated into humanities-based classes, and how to approach outdoor learning for different ages and grade levels. It was great to hear from a wide variety of teacher candidates sharing their personal experiences with outdoor learning in their own subject area and also providing ideas for colleagues in other areas. I liked noticing that despite all going through the same program, everyone’s experiences and takeaways are different enough to allow for really meaningful co-teaching. Hearing from other EdCamp groups, it sounded like everyone else had pretty good success as well in their discussions. Had I not experienced an EdCamp firsthand in this class, I’d most likely continue to be skeptical of them going forward.

I think that computational thinking is an incredibly important skill for students to learn. It’s applicable to so many subjects and aspects of life in general. It feels like with the way things are going with mainstream AI, computational thinking is one of the skills that human brains are beginning to neglect in favour of asking ChatGPT. Things like “I have _____, ______, and ______ in the fridge, what can I make with them?” or “I want to go on a road trip around Vancouver Island for ____ days and do lots of _____ and _____. Where should I go?” There’s so much personal gratification to be felt when you sit down and work through a complex problem using computational thinking, it’s the reason I almost like planning trips better than going on the actual trips! Computational thinking is especially important in math. It can mean the difference between conceptual and procedural understanding of concepts and algorithms which is a gap that many high school students never bridge.

In terms of educational gameplay, I’ve seen and experienced a lot of success with games like Kahoot in the classroom. This is actually what my group inquiry project is about. I think that the key considerations of introducing a game into the classroom are: Is it meaningful? Is it accessible? And is it engaging? What I mean by meaningful is that the game serves some kind of purpose in the classroom space. Even if it isn’t directly related to content, the game could work on problem-solving skills, help strengthen connections between classmates, or act as a transition between bigger activities.

Using Google Gemini, I was able to code this simple Flappy-bird-inspired game with a black-tip reef shard swimming through a coral reef! This would be a fun game for any Biology class during a Marine Biology or Food Chain unit. I’d like to alter the game a bit so the shark can collect points by eating little fish.

I tried out the GetBadNews game and got a score of 18. I thought this game was really well laid out and very insightful. I can understand why some people in my class felt bad about playing it, but I think that’s the point. You’re supposed to be disgusted and angry, that’s what’s going to help the message stick, especially for teenagers and young adults who are even more susceptible to misleading media content.

This week I got to tour the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry and hear from the founder about the school’s structure and pedagogy. I found PSII really interesting, it’s obviously extremely different from my own small-town public high school experience and I can see how the independent inquiry-based structure can really align with some student’s learning styles. Personally, I don’t think teenage Annika would’ve thrived in a learning environment like this; I’ve always done well with well-defined structure and assignments. As a teacher, I feel similarly about the importance of routine and structure, for my own style and needs at least and I left the tour still feeling unsure as to what exactly a teacher’s day-to-day looks like at PSII, but I suppose that’s the point.

Some things I noticed missing from PSII’s structure were regular student collaboration and physical activity. Two components of traditional school that students often don’t actively seek out but are absolutely integral to adolescent development. I believe it’s important for students to experience productively challenging situations, like working with people they don’t naturally work well with or pushing themselves physically even when they don’t necessarily want to in the moment.

Additionally, I can’t help but consider how the aspect of tuition affects the school’s success. The founder mentioned that PSII experiences very few student behavioural issues and he attributes this to the school’s structure and environment. But I think it’s important to consider that the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students implies that they likely have more than just financial support from their families and this certainly contributes to a more regulated and peaceful school environment. In this way, PSII’s student population is not a mirror of the average public school student population so fair comparisons between the two are hard to make.

I used ChatGPT to “create a lesson plan for a one-hour lesson about fermentation and its real-world applications, including a 30-minute activity to help students remember what they learned and sources.”  ChaptGPT provided an in-depth overview of a lesson plan that met all the requested parameters. Including learning objectives, assessment ideas, and a wrap-up activity. The sources it listed were mainly from Britannica, Wikipedia, and Chemistry LibreTexts, and from my general understanding of fermentation processes, the science described is accurate. The classroom activity involved setting up station for students to rotate through, each station focuses on a specific type and application of fermentation (Bread and alcoholic fermentation; yogurt and lactic acid fermentation; and ethanol as biofuel). I would need to do some research into the validity of these topics but they feel like solid jumping-off points at least.

I asked perplexity.ai to outline the differences between resident, Biggs, and off-shore killer whales. The response included accurate information from verifiable sources and even summarized the information into a really concise overview in a table format for easy comparison. I noticed, that many of the sources were relatively old (2+ years) and very few  were peer-reviewed research articles. When I asked the AI to only use peer-reviewed sources, it responded saying it wouldn’t be able to do so reliably.

I created an infographic of my Week 1 Reflection blog post using NotebookLM. I specifically asked for it to “use neutral, earthy colours and a watercolour style, and focus the infographic on the currency of learning concept.” I haven’t spotted any glaring spelling errors in the graphic and I think the overall summarization and organization is pretty decent.

As a science teacher, I personally plan on using AI to help create rubrics (I’ve been recommended magicschool.ai) and for brainstorming engaging in-class activities and demonstrations.

In my own education experience, I’ve mainly used AI to help summarize long articles and create study guides for exams.