Reflecting on my peers posts
<Anastasia and Jason’s Orignal Posts in Brightspace only>
Hi Anastasia,
I really like that you touched on the bullying that can come from various types of social media. I have taught middle school in the past and so much bullying was done via Tik Tok it was unbelievable. In a way, it is less sneaky and easier to catch kids because it’s quite easy to find if they don’t have proper privacy settings in place but on the other hand it’s very difficult to make it right because it spreads like wildfire and everyone has already seen it by the time teachers or parents intervene. A school I taught at, Lansdowne, had a school-wide lesson once a month on digital hygiene that the whole school participated in synchronously. It was a neat program and I did see fewer instances of cyberbullying at that school.
You talk about teachers needing to teach how to use the tools and skills for online learning and I totally agree but the curriculum is quite time-consuming here in BC and this isn’t really a part of it. Dr. R brought my attention to the fact that teacher education programs in BC do not require any kind of classes that would teach them how to teach these skills to students. Do you think we need to integrate this into teacher education so teachers have the skills to teach students about open and online learning? and/or include it in the curriculum so teachers are more inclined to do so?
I look forward to your thoughts.
Hey Jason,
I think it’s really amazing that you are using your “downtime” to improve as an educator. Your students are going to be lucky to have you one day.
I really appreciated how you discussed decolonization in this post in such an authentic way. Often I am so afraid of getting it wrong in this area I fail to do anything at all and I know that is something I need to work on. Thank you for the resources, I will be sure to check them out.
With regards to the UDL guidelines, I think you will become a lot more familiar with them as you progress in your teacher education program. They are a great way to structure your lessons in an inclusive way and have proved to be very useful to me in the past when designing lessons. Like you said teaching is not without mistakes and I’ve made many but at least the guidelines give you a place to start.
Thanks for your insights.
Hi Jayne,
Thank you for your post. It was good to hear I’m not the only one struggling with this. I still have many questions about HOW do we get open learning to kids who don’t have access to personal devices or the internet. You have experience working with children in Africa who face this barrier but unfortunately a huge part of my job in 2020 when the pandemic hit and I taught at Shoreline was to make sure kids in Victoria who lived on the reservation had a stable internet connection and many did not. For a lot of those families, the internet was a luxury they just could not afford which connects back to Jason’s thoughts about decolonization and how we can produce equitable learning environments for all learners, especially our First Nations students, who have been weighing heavily on my mind as we discuss equity given the state of the country right now. I honestly don’t know but I think looking into it and thinking about it is a good first tiny baby step as at least we can bring awareness to the problem and possibly discover a way to be more successful at this in the future.
Hey Lisa,
I want to piggyback off of what Jayne has said as well when referencing “who is at the table, who is missing?” As that’s something I’ve really been struggling with throughout this course. In chapter 17 of the Open at the Margins book, Cathrine Cronin states that Open education is being called for by the privileged and the resources (OER’s) are also being created by the privileged. I know it’s something we discussed a lot in assignment one with regards to equity and accessibility and I still feel so lost on this one. One thing I am taking with me from the principles of Open Education is that learning doesn’t necessarily happen within the set timeframe so I’m hoping this will become clearer in the future.
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