Category: EDCI 336 (Page 2 of 2)

This week we learned about and tried 3D design and printing. This week’s class felt more like a lab than our traditional classes, which was a nice change of pace. We met in the digital scholarship commons for a short lesson on some of the practical uses for 3D printing/design in the classroom from two guests, Brittany and Cam. After the short lesson we spent about an hour designing an item on tinkerCAD to be 3D printed, I made a keychain. (Image below, it says “Kenndawg”)

I think 3D printing/design could be a great classroom resource for many subject, especially indigenous language revitalization. If I were to create an indigenous language revitalization tool with 3D printing I would start by getting the proper education I need around the topic to help in a meaningful and indigenous led way. My current idea for this tech would be sourcing buttons that speak when you press down and can be customized. Then I’d use a resource like First Voices to download words and phrases being spoken in my school’s local indigenous language(s) and put those downloads on the buttons. Then I would 3D print the words/phrases and put them on the buttons or if that didn’t work I would try to colour coordinate in some way so students could match up the 3D prints to the correct buttons. I feel like that would be an easy and accessible way for all students to spend time hearing/learning the local indigenous language. My hope with this would mainly be to introduce students to the language and help them start recognizing common words/phrases local school elders/indigenous speakers may use when speaking to a class or assembly. I went to school on the T’Sou-ke First Nation from grade 1 to 12 and was given a lot of great opportunities throughout all stages of my education to learn about our local indigenous history, culture, practices and language. I had many presentations, assemblies, classes, etc. taught by indigenous knowledge holders, elders and teachers who would speak in our local language such as SENĆOŦEN. While I only remember a few words, it’s still more then many students ever get to learn, and me remember a few words years after I have graduated shows the impact that speaking/repeating these languages can have on the efforts to revitalize them.

I think the current negatives of using 3D printers in schools are the cost and safety which are both things that can change over time. I think the possible benefits far outweigh the cons since having access to a 3D printer in the classroom opens the door of lesson opportunities and the ability to create seemingly anything in some way, shape or form. If you are teaching kindies you can 3D print different fine motor skill activities, or teach advanced shapes and angles to middle schoolers. You could help a grade 12 students with their capstone project on 3D printing, the opportunities are endless. I’m not sure if 3D printers have become a common resource in public schools or education system as a whole yet but I hope to see them gain popularity/become more accessible during my career.

Feature photo- Unsplash

This week we focused on learning about generative AI, how to optimized generative AI use and had some discussion about the potential risks/benefits to using AI in education. I explored Perplexity during out in class practice time.

I think the largest limitation with generative AI is accuracy and the spread of misinformation. I also think the bias within AI can be potentially very dangerous and extremely limiting. While bias exists in all of us and can create many issues in day to day human interactions I think it could be generally worse in AI since AI lacks any emotional intelligence or ability to critically think. For example you may hold an internal bias against the colour blue, you absolutely despise the colour. In this scenario you are teaching someone who’s favourite colour is blue and wears a blue shirt everyday. As a reasonable adult with the ability to critically think, you wouldn’t mistreat or unfairly mark that students work because of their shirt but if an AI model was trained on your bias it may do those things or worse. Generative AI also currently uses a lot of valuable resources and energy which is expensive and possibly unsustainable.

At this point in time I’m not sure what grades I want to teach but I’m leaning towards younger ages and my Link2 Practice classroom is a grade 1/2 split. I don’t think that age of students would benefit much from using AI in class but as their teacher I might. I could use AI to help develop lesson plans, create lessons for TOCs, help find behavioural/classroom management strategies for students, and find formatting for different assignments/newsletter/etc. I also think AI could come in handy when explaining brainstorming to students, however you run the risk of under developing a student’s learned ability to brainstorm without the use of AI.

Personally I haven’t found generative AI to be very helpful throughout my education. I don’t remember hearing about it or using it in high school and once I started university it was still pretty new and all my professors scared me out of even exploring it. Last year (my second year of uni) I tried it a couple times but I couldn’t figure out how to use it well, and it never gave me the answers I was looking for so I stopped using it. This seemed to be the common experience shared by the members of my learning pod, none of us had had much experience or luck in using generative AI. Until today ChatGPT was the only generative AI model any of us had tried. I hope to develop my skills around using generative AI but I also feel very uncertain about AI and it makes me a bit uneasy. I fear what the future of AI is and how it will affect the world and humanity generally. I think it’s a pretty average feeling to be a bit uneasy in the face of big tech advancements but it’s also important to stay informed. Today’s class developed my skill and comfortability with generative AI and how to use different models.

Image from Pixabay

This week we learned about multimedia design principles and how we can use them to create more effective learning resources. When learning new information our short term memory can only hold a maximum amount of information before we stop absorbing the content being taught, which is referred to as cognitive overload. Multimedia design was created with the intention of reducing student’s cognitive overload and improve the ways we can deliver information. Using the multimedia principles we can create more engaging, useful and informative lessons and teaching resources. It is important to understand the principles of multimedia design as it can also contribute to cognitive overload if used incorrectly. Ways multimedia design can increase overload is by putting too much text on a slide for the class, including the narrators face/webcam in educational resources, etc. Multimedia can also be very helpful via signalling which is highlighting important concepts on the slides/presentation, spatial contiguity which refers to keeping relevant information together when being presented.

We also explored the multimedia tool H5P which is a tool that can help us to create engaging/interactive videos to add to our blogs, lessons, slides, etc. I think it would be a bit of a challenge to use with younger students and even create unnecessary distraction in class but it could be a great add-on for weekly newsletters or blog posts that keep parents/guardians informed. 

Here is the video I created this week. 

Multimedia theory can help us create more engaging lessons/resources since it breaks down the most effective way to keep students engaged without overwhelming them. It can also help as it provides us with simple guidelines to build slides/videos/tutorials around instead of starting with nothing, which can be a bit daunting at times.

Pic creds

Prior to watching “most likely to succeed” I had some idea that the school system could benefit from some reimagining but I wouldn’t have assumed the curriculum at High Tech High was the solution. The dramatic change from how a traditional classroom VS inquiry based classrooms function seems a bit intense but it also seems to have a lot of valuable aspects. It was super cool to watch the growth many students made over the year and to see them so passionate about their projects. Educators face many difficulties when trying to change pedagogy since we haven’t made significant changes in a long time, according to the documentary. Since the current system is so familiar it is comfortable to use and stepping outside of it is uncomfortable and awkward. Moving away from current pedagogy creates more room for failure and no one wants to fail. I imagine it would be very challenging for educators to manage everyone’s learning and keep track of students’ progress. It may also be challenging to determine the amount of structure a class requires for success as I’m sure it would change often depending on desired outcomes, age of students, ect. I think there are many benefits to High Tech High’s pedagogy, mainly the focus of the “soft skills” such as collaboration, confidence, critical thinking, ect. since our current pedagogy doesn’t reflect how important these skills are once you start post-secondary or join the workforce. I thought it was amazing to see the students so passionate about their work, they had a level of pride and excitement most students don’t get out of completing a worksheet. I’d be really excited to observe this kind of pedagogy in practice, however, I’d be really nervous to teach this way. It seems really nerve racking to leave so much in the students hands, I think I would end up questioning if I was doing enough.

Image from Pixabay.com