Category: EdTech (Page 2 of 2)

So far, I have really enjoyed the various workshops we have been able to participate in through our program. Our Ed Tech and Multi-literacy classes have utilized the Digital Scholarship Commons (DSC) at UVIC to help facilitate understanding of audio/video editing, Twine story telling, sketch-noting and graphic novels.

Outside of our course structure, however, some of us have found the time to sign up for additional workshops though the DSC. On September 27th, I attended a 3D printing workshop, where we were guided through the design process of creating a 6-sided-dice using the software TinkerCad.

Unfortunately, we were not able to print our dice during the workshop (due to the time each piece takes to print). We were, however, given the steps to take if we did want to print our own 3D models! We were also introduced to a website, Thingiverse, that provides design files for 3D printing projects, for free! All of the free designs are licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution License.

My only critique for UVIC’s 3D printing service is the lack of colour choice for trinkets – they explained that for small projects they will generally use what ever is currently installed in the machine at the time. I had found a keychain design for geometric pug ( https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2800898 ), however I did not want to print it in a mystery colour. They do allow their customers to request a colour if it is an important feature for the project (they have a bone colour for printing skull replicas!), but I didn’t think my pug preference was enough to warrant a colour change 😉

For EDCI 336, Technology Innovation in Education, we were required to watch the film Most Likely to Succeed. This documentary, produced by Ted Dintersmith and Tony Wagner, walked us through a new education system that has been adopted by a California high school, High Tech High.

This film highlights that the school system in North America has not been upgraded to account for changes and developments in the 21st century. They claim that students need no longer study for knowledge, as all information and hard facts can be reached instantaneously through devices that are kept in our pockets. Rather, school should be a place for learning skills and motivation to drive learners to successfully pursue their passions.

In this model, students do not study the full range of the current curriculum. What they may lack in breadth, the will make up for in the depth of one or two core subject areas. For example, there were two groups of students highlighted in the film. One of these groups chose to write, produce and perform a play that demonstrated a social and cultural view into the Islamic movement, the Taliban. Contrarily, the other group focused on a large hands on engineering project, involving connecting gears and switches.

My question is this: How certain can we be that a grade 9 student will choose to be involved in the project that truly caters to their interests, rather than those of their peers? Personally speaking, had someone presented these two projects to me at the age of 14, I likely would have chosen to partake in the theatre project. For many, school is a chance to exercise one’s social muscles and groups are often formed based on social connections rather than content interest. For this reason, I do believe that schools must work to develop student’s individual sense of self, something that the BC curriculum is really developing with the Curricular Competencies. I would have then proceeded to spend the term focused on a theatre production, rather than using mathematics in a hands-on, engineering project.

The latter of these two projects identifies with who I am as a person today. But, maybe, if I had been given the chance to explore my inner actress during an impressionable time in my youth, my life could have been a lot different than it is now.