Category: community contributions

Hi Stephanie! Thanks for sharing your blog post. The first point that you make about ensuring that students have access to the technologies needed is very valid and a huge step in making sure students have equal access to learning! I also made the connection in my blog about the Basham et al article explaining the barriers that students face who have disabilities, ELLS and are in poverty. Thankfully, I have heard of schools that have rented out technology to their students during the pandemic, otherwise I do feel that a lot of students would be at a disadvantage.

I liked the point that you made about creating different spaces for students, which will hopefully make them feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. I believe that this connects with our topic one and how important it is to build connections and not lose that in an online learning setting.

Overall, I really liked the connections you made to our readings and felt that you addressed the blog prompt well! I also hope to learn about teachers and their experiences with switching to an online setting due to the pandemic!

Hi Brittany! I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I agree that after reading our course readings I felt more educated and familiar with recognizing the needs of all students, particularly in an online setting. I also hope to learn about techniques on how to create an effective learning environment!

In your second paragraph I think you do a great job at answering the prompt provided for this topic. I agree that the design of a course/lesson is very important and will create meaningful, authentic and relevant learning environment for students.

I liked your connection to the Circle of Courage and to the ED-D 301 course, as I was also in that class and I hadn’t thought about that connection! The models that you included provide as a great resource when thinking about student engagement and motivation!

In your final paragraph you bring up the following important topics:

• The importance of student choice, as addressed in the UDL guidelines.
• Communication will help build relationships, especially in an online setting.
• Ensuring that all students safety and privacy needs are met (FIPPA).

These topics bring your blog post to a nice conclusion. Overall, I felt that you made great connections to our course readings (from other topics too) to other resources (FIPPA, models, other courses, articles, etc) and answered the prompt very clearly! Good job!

Thank you for sharing your blog post Amanda! It was interesting to hear about your experience on taking an inclusion specific course and its focus on UDL guidelines. I think I have only had one class prior to this course that discussed UDL guidelines,  although inclusion is often talked about within the Elementary Education Program. I also hadn’t really considered online learning environments at the time of hearing about UDL, as it wasn’t something as relevant to us back then as it is now with COVID-19 in mind. I agree that our course readings have been a useful tool in learning more about inclusion, especially in an online environment.

In my blog post I also talked about how students who live in poverty, who have disabilities and who are ELL are impacted negatively from online learning.  This is concerning information, but also not completely shocking to me. I feel that these students are faced with challenges no matter what type of learning environment they are in and feel passionate to ensure that UDL guidelines are incorporated into all learning environments to help make sure that students’ needs are being met no matter what their circumstances are.

The graphic that you included was super useful for giving ideas on how to ensure that learning is accessible for all students. I also agree that giving students choice is a key part to the UDL guidelines and will provide students with room to properly express themselves. I liked the connection you made in this paragraph about Indigenous students as well, as I think that is a very important component to be thinking about with online learning, as we want to ensure that cultural identity is recognized and that students feel that their learning environment is authentic, meaningful and relevant.

Hi Brittany!

Thank you for sharing your blog post! I also think it is interesting how each country has different polices and structures related to the education system and how it is important for us as educators to understand and consider the diversity of online programs.

I appreciated your paragraph outlining the different forms of online learning. I also found the definitions related to open learning in Roberts’ article to be useful and gave me better insight into the topic. I also really liked SAMR graphic that you included in your blog post. I thought it did a good job at breaking down the degrees of technology integration in the classroom. After further research on the SAMR model, I found this website to provide useful information that you may want to look into: https://www.schoology.com/blog/samr-model-practical-guide-edtech-integration

I thought that you did a good job at answering the blog prompt and discussing the historical and theoretical trends. I liked the connection that you made to the different approaches and theories presented in the readings (behaviorism, connectivism, etc.) and discuss how these have helped shaped teaching practices. In your blog, it is mentioned that including various elements of these theories will help create a diverse learning environment for students, which is important as we need to consider the needs of all our students!

Hi Stephanie!

I found that I made similar connections pointed out in your blog post to our topic readings. In particular, I was also surprised about the first correspondence school in Canada opening in 1919 and how much has changed since then! I am also interested in learning about the new technologies that will be emerging as more people are shifting towards online learning/working due to the current pandemic.

It was interesting to hear about your experience with technology growing up. I also started using desktop computers at school starting in middle school and high school, however the technology used was quite limited and Ipads or Smart Boards were not introduced. It wasn’t until my post-secondary education when I really started using my computer for educational purposes.

I liked the quote that you used from Tony Bates in reference to instructors and teachers not being told how to teach. I believe it is up to us as educators to ensure that all our students needs are being met and creating an environment where students are able to learn.  I know from my personal experience in education, I did not feel that I was reaching my potential and in some subjects falling far behind because I wasn’t provided with the tools or opportunities to reach my potential. That being said, I do see the challenges that teachers may face to ensure that this happening and especially in an online setting I believe it could create more challenges. I think that you addressed an important point that human connection is vital when teaching students online. Without having this connection, I believe it would be extremely difficult to know where students need help and their learning styles.

Hi Amanda!

Thank you for sharing your blog post! After writing my own blog post, reviewing Stephanie and Brittany’s posts, I believe we are all quite surprised to learn that distributed learning started evolving in Canada during the 1990’s. I think it surprises us, as it feels like we are only now really learning about distanced learning and its presence within Canada over 100 years later.

I enjoyed reading about the teaching machine in your blog post and how it highlights that the teaching machine was able to increase interactions between the two people using it. With schooling shifting towards being online due to the coronavirus, I think it important for educators to ensure that we are still building connections and interacting with students genuinely.  So far, this course has highlighted that connections do not have to be lost in online settings. Hopefully we can continue to learn about different strategies to help ensure we are still building connections with students in any learning environment!

I also really liked your connection to Skinner’s goal regarding the teaching machine results to what we are trying to achieve with online and open learning. I never considered those connections and I thought that that paragraph laid out the information very clearly! I also like that you pointed out that technology has evolved so much over time, but some of the core values of tech related learning are still present! It will be interesting to see how technology evolves even further than it has over our careers.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog post and look forward to what comes from topic 3!

Hi Amanda!

I made connections in your blog post to my own experiences with online education, in particular your experience with SIDES. I too signed up for SIDES during high school and ended up having to drop the course because of the lack of motivation and connection to the material, teacher and peers. I wonder if in this paragraph you could add some ways that you think authentic connections could be made in an online course setting?

I thought you did a good job at making connections to our readings with the video and graphic you provided with regards to the Social Presence Model. I wonder with this topic if you could elaborate further on the importance of the five aspects of the Social Presence Model and how the social needs of students can be met by using this model.

I thought your paragraph on safety online and opening learning spaces was clear. I also related to your comment on the platforms being hosted outside of Canada, as I didn’t fully understand the importance of that either. Regan and Jesse’s article definitely opened my eyes to the factor of data safety and ethics as well.

The final paragraph touches base on what you hope to learn going forward in this course, which addresses the blog prompt nicely. I also would like to learn more about locally hosted resources and how to build connections with students online in a safe way! Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog post and think that perhaps you could add more examples of how you think teachers can build safe interactions in open and online learning spaces.

Hi Brittany!

I found your blog post to be extremely thorough and I enjoyed reading it! I felt that we had similar connections related to the power of lesson plans and the design of courses to ensure that meaningful connections and interactions are happening. I agree that group work is a good way to ensure that those connections and interactions are taking place and how there may be challenges for students who do not know anyone in classes. I wonder how as educators we can ensure that students are able to connect with other students and reinforce building connections, especially in a younger class setting.

I liked the comment you made on the idea of including various multimedia surfaces (Padlet, Slack, FreshGrade and Google) as a way to expand classroom work and build connections. Programs such as FreshGrade are a great way to promote learning and involve building connections between students, parents and teachers.

I felt that you gave a good indication of what you learned from the course readings and that you hope to further discover techniques and tools that will develop skills that are needed for online education. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you hope to learn specifically? I appreciated the connection you made to privacy and the importance of being aware of that when using technology in a classroom setting. Overall, I felt that this blog post was very clear, and you answered the questions provided in the prompt!

Hi Stephanie!

I really enjoyed reading your blog post and the connections you made from our readings. In your third paragraph you discuss the research around synchronous and asynchronous environments and how students feel a sense of isolation and lack of community in asynchronous online learning. I too feel that it is hard to build connections with both peers and teachers in any online environment. In our situation for this course and other education related courses, we have the benefit of already knowing some of our peers, which makes the process of getting into groups and communicating with peers somewhat easier. I wonder how the first-year students entering university or elementary/middle school students entering a new year feel and some of the challenges they would face in an online schooling environment. For this paragraph, I wonder if you could elaborate on the two different styles (asynchronous and synchronous) and explain how teachers can effectively build relationships by encouraging safe communication and interactions in each of them.

I liked your connection to Barbara Brown’s suggestion on using FlipGrid as a way to help build connections with students. I agree that when you are able to see and hear someone it makes you feel more connected and personalizes the experience. Do you have any other suggestions on how educators could effectively help students feel comfortable in the online school setting and how they might build connections with peers and the teacher?  After finishing the course readings, I felt that it was clear that social interaction and connections do not have to be lost through online learning, but it will be up to us as educators to ensure that we have effective pedagogical practices in place that will help establish and reinforce those social interactions and connections. It will be interesting to continue online schooling in the fall and see what we learn from our own experiences. I believe this experience will help us tailor our own teaching practices if we are faced with teaching students online during our careers as educators!