Ever wish you could send your avatar to work for you? Now that common Monday morning refrain is a reality. At least it’s a Virtual Reality at UBC and some other super-cool Unis. Check it out.
I’ve seen Virtual Reality Headsets at recruitment events. I think this is a neat way to transport prospective students to campus. I’m not sure how I feel about roomfuls of my students wearing those ugly black headsets. Having said that, the occasional Monday morning might not be so bad. Am I right?
:0)
Student engagement has more looks and destinations than a supermodel during Fashion Week. When I think of student engagement I see a student who challenges fixed beliefs and typical ways of being in order to break through to some new way of understanding and operating in the world. Barkley, 2010 defines student engagement as “a process and a product that is experienced on a continuum and results from the synergistic interaction between motivation and active learning” (Loc. 425). A mouthful, right? But how can the average teacher employ this definition?
At first I found Barkley’s definition difficult to access. Then words like, community, support, challenge, and understanding came to mind. I think the things those words stand for need to be present, especially the challenge part. There also has to be an understanding of the struggle students face when they take on a big challenge. For example, I recently gave a very quiet student the task of leading a training session. I began by giving her “bite-sized” public speaking challenges. I stood by as a resource while she struggled with these challenges and provided something I like to call, “tough understanding.” Tough understanding is about acknowledgement of the struggle without providing an exit from it. We are still in a student-teacher relationship, so I can’t say yet how she will fare, but I think she’ll come out of it alive.
I love “Top Ten” lists. This one I found on Faculty Focus starts to get at what I think Barkley is trying to say about student engagement. I think that 10 Ways to Promote Student Engagement is a solid starting place for taking Barkley’s definition of student engagement off the ground.
References
10 Ways to Promote Student Engagement. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2016, from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/10-ways-to-promote-student-engagement/
Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.
So, I’ve been thinking. It really hurts. I’ve been working toward my Provincial Instructor’s Diploma (PIDP) slowly, but surely. I haven’t taken a course in about a year, to be exact. I want to share a cool little resource with you that might help you whether you are a fellow PIDP student or whether you (like me) are just having a “brain fart.” Ahem. What I mean to say is, this resource will help if your wheels happen to be a little rusty like mine.
I came upon it when my instructor asked me to google intellectual standards. One of the great things about rejoining a learning community is the sparks that can be generated by a simple signpost, like the one my instructor put in front of me. I’m not saying the rest of the course will be smooth as a squeegee swipe afterwards, but fingers crossed, it might help. 🙂
Why not take three minutes and thirty-three seconds out of your day to watch this quick vid? I can hear those squeaky wheels turning!
Digital Storytelling is a relatively new phenomena. As I get older, new phenomena are basically things that have appeared within the last ten (or twenty) years. Basically anything that’s come on the scene since I purchased my first IBM 8088 with a DOS-based OS, is new to me.
According to Lambert, (2013), Digital Story in film has the power to, “allow some shifts in perspective about the events in our lives, and we believe those shifts are particularly useful to work in identity” (p. 12). Now that’s interesting for someone who is interested in facilitating a transformational shift in students’ ways of being in the world. Who would be interested in inflicting…ugh, I mean providing opportunities for…such a challenging and downright mean kind of shift? Teachers of course!
In Lambert’s book, mindfulness expert, Jon Kabat-Zinn suggests using digital storytelling as a form of reflective practice. He says, “The plasticity of images, music, voice, the very playfulness of arranging and re-arranging meaning by visual sequence and juxtaposition, the entire process becomes regenerative for many people” (Lambert, p. 127) Kabat-Zinn also explains how working with the digital aspects of your story can change perceptions, something I love to challenge myself with.
In the classroom, digital stories can be a way for students to keep track of how they are doing over time (Lambert, 2013). This can be cathartic at times where progress seems slow or it feels as if nothing has been accomplished. Ever. Who hasn’t felt that way? Okay. I’m excited. How can I use digital storytelling in my own life and practice?
Reference:
Does it? Something I ponder daily is the question of what school is for. As a university recruiter, it’s a question I’m faced with all the time. When I try to answer it I feel I’ve done the asker a disservice. Why? Because it’s a question best answered by the asker. This past summer I created a course called Education Matters as part of the Provincial Instructor Diploma program. The course invites students to explore and discover what school is for – for themselves. My hope is that students will find what’s actually at the heart of the course, which is actually the student’s own heart. I want them to articulate who they are and who they think they were meant to be. Next I want them to be confident enough to take next steps so and learn how they will apply their individuality in the world for the benefit of others.
I don’t mean students should pick a stream and find “the one” path that will serve them the rest of their lives. Life changes, goals change. It is my belief we are never any one person with a set of static interests. Post-secondary education is about sparking the desire to change constantly and know when and how based on what’s inside, not what’s inside others.
Now, I warned you in a previous post that I’m a former art student. So the above may sound flowery and like wishful thinking. I think that’s okay. Now you try.
I am an Aboriginal Recruitment Officer and my job often involves a variety of educational tactics to inform prospective students why post-secondary is a good choice. One of these tactics is in-person visits to both urban and rural aboriginal communities across British Columbia. As a result of these visits, I have gained some new insights into current trends in the field of indigenous education and also the various roles that educators play as a result of trends.
It’s evident that the roles of indigenous educators are changing. One of the recent trends I’ve seen on the road during recruitment trips across BC and Canada-wide is that anyone working in indigenous education is now also working in recruitment. The common goal among educators, indigenous community leaders, education coordinators, support workers and others is that their community members attend post-secondary or obtain skills-based training. Recently the Ministry of Advanced Education released an aboriginal post-secondary education and training policy framework and action plan. The goal of the Ministry framework is basically to remove barriers to education for indigenous learners. I came across an example of this during a recent visit to the iCount School in Moricetown, BC. The educators at iCount shrug off commonly accepted roles and stereotypes and positively impact the lives of their students.
References
Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education and Training Policy Framework and Action Plan. (2012). Retrieved February 11, 2015, from http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/aboriginal/docs/Aboriginal_Action_Plan.pdf
Butz, T. (2013). iCount AFN student video contest 2013. Canada: You Tube. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/jvPeBp0OGXw
SCHOOL 