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To Tour or Not to Tour: Uzbekistan

October 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Hey, hey, hey!

Welcome back for another weekly post about travelling Uzbekistan!

This week I want to talk a bit about some options to consider when looking at travelling a new destination: taking a tour through an organized company or travelling independently. Both of these have several pros and cons and can be determined depending on the complexity and logistics of a country vs experience of the traveller.

Taking a tour can be a great option for those who are not as confident in their abilities as a traveller and are looking for their trip to be done with ease. Tours will usually include stops at popular sites, which can be a good thing if you’re looking to see all the main points of attraction. They often have transportation covered, too, which can sometimes prove to be the most difficult aspect of travel. However, tours can come with a hefty price tag and typically occur with other masses of people touring the same popular points of interest. In my opinion, they offer a less authentic experience of a destination. But, and I cannot stress this enough, sometimes there is a time and place for tours. For example, a tour for the entire country of Morocco would be insufferable for me, but a few day tour to the Sahara Desert within my independent travel in the country, was totally worth it and appropriate! The logistics of driving myself into the desert and camping independently as a non-Arabic speaking foreign woman would be a nightmare.

In the case of Uzbekistan, I think I would do a combination of tours and independent travel, such as I did with Morocco. I feel confident in my travel abilities thus far and feel that I want to experience Uzbekistan in an authentic way. I would fly myself there, tour myself around the cities, and arrange my own accommodation and food, but I might consider a tour for more rural excursions, for example. Another great time for a tour can be if you’re planning on crossing multiple boarders or checkpoints, where the tour operator handles all of the logistics. In a place like Central Asia, a tour that handles all of these affairs can be extremely helpful with all of the complications that can arise from land-boarder crossing. Here is a cool tour I found that crosses “The Stans.”

Tune in next time for more!

Photo attributed to: Federico Mata https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-concrete-building-under-blue-sky-during-daytime-e7WPAbCzGnw

Week 5

October 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week we discussed the pros and cons of online learning. With the Covid-19 pandemic being the most recent global event that impacted the way in which we go about learning, this topic is very relevant to today’s teaching. In my personal experience, I hated online learning in the beginning. I am and always have been a pen and paper person, someone who takes their notes by hand and minimizes the about of technology used in an educational setting. I think our world is already very much online and sometimes it’s best to keep aspects of our lives not involved in the online space. I found it incredibly difficult to focus in my classes with this adapted instruction and found the lectures to not be engaging. They made me lose interest in subjects I would have otherwise been excited about. I sat for hours a day staring at a screen and had no meaningful engagement or socialization with my classmates. Group work was made more complicated and painful to complete with online classes, too, with arranging meetings and generating quality discussions proving to be overly complicated.

On the other hand, I slowly learned to love aspects of online learning. It allowed me the freedom to complete my schooling from anywhere, which presented the opportunity to live in Mexico while completing my Spanish credits, as well as to live at home and save money while attending classes. Living in Mexico while taking mostly upper-level Spanish credits presented a special opportunity to master aspects of language acquisition that I would have otherwise not been able to experience confined to a UVic classroom. Online learning also offered a seamless transition to submitting assignments. I no longer needed to be physically present in class to submit a hard-copy assignment and could format everything digitally.

If I were to use online learning in the future, I would adapt my subject areas to focus less on group work and more on written or spoken assignments with creative elements. For example, I would have my students in social studies make a short video of them discussing the events of WWI, or my Spanish students create a voice-over presentation accompanying a PowerPoint of a Spanish speaking country. Furthermore, I think there is a great opportunity to allow for artistic creativity and incorporate something like Canava into practice.

Photo attributed to: Nick Morrison https://unsplash.com/photos/FHnnjk1Yj7Y

Researching Things to do Part 2: Uzbekistan

October 11, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Hey!

Thanks for coming back to The Blog. For this week’s post, I’ll be showcasing another way in which I conduct research before travelling to a new place.

Aside from watching videos, I like to read blogs about the country to get even more detail and insider perspectives on new places. I find that within blogs, I can get a comprehensive list of attractions, do’s and don’ts, and a glimpse at individual perspectives on the country. It is within blog posts that I find the most hidden or niche information, such as specific restaurants to try, or what to pack for certain activities, or the logistic of travel within the country (ie. checkpoints, potential bribes and boarder crossings, etc). Alternatively, blogs are great for simply providing practical information and laying them out in a written format that is easy to understand. For example, they often contain information about the cost of travel within the country, or they discuss the language and cultural differences to be aware of prior to travel. This blog is about Uzbekistan is an excellent example of this kind of resource where this information is listed clearly and concisely, making the task of researching a lighter load!

Other than blogs, I really enjoy using Lonely Planet as a researching resource. I use both the online version or, if I’m feeling nostalgic and want some eye-candy for the coffee table, I splurge and buy the book. This, however, I only do for big big trips where there’s TONS of research to be done. In my head, this makes the cost of a tangible book worth it (haha). For example, a three month trip across Central Africa might warrant this purchase, and possibly an extended trip to Uzbekistan, too! I really like to check out the local Indigo store for these books. Lonely Planet makes them on all sorts of destinations and my store has quite an extensive collection to choose from.

The last form of general research I recommend when planning travel is to talk to someone who has actually been there! While this won’t be possible for all destinations, this truly is the best way to get first-hand knowledge of what the country is like. If you know the person well, then you might value their input more as they know you and your interests and vice versa. You can also ask around to people in Facebook groups to gain deeper insight and recommendations, if you don’t know anyone personally who has been to where you’re headed. There is likely a Facebook group for Uzbekistan travel, but if there wasn’t, you could also search for information on the greater region, such as Central Asia. This could give you a general idea of what it’s like in that part of the world regarding cultural norms, cost of travel, weather, government stability, etc.

Stay tuned next week for more content on the incredible Uzbekistan!

Photo attributed to: Snowscat https://unsplash.com/photos/2O8sAwInqT8

Week 4

October 11, 2023 / / 0 Comments

During this week’s class, we looked at different digital tools and their integration into the classroom. We considered the significance of adopting a multimodal approach to information delivery, emphasizing the need to incorporate diverse media forms for better learning. The more images associated with descriptive words, the easier the concept is to grasp. For instance, we discussed explaining how a bicycle pump works. With a written description of its processes and an image of the pump, it’s less effective than a written description and step by step images of the pump’s functions. Key media is necessary for better understanding overall.

Our class also highlighted PowerPoint as an often-underestimated tool with immense potential in the classroom. While other animation and video software can be costly and challenging to master, PowerPoint stands out as a cost-effective and accessible alternative. It has a capacity for animations and slide customization, which makes it appealing to me a future teacher as a way to engage my students. It can be used to create simple worksheets or printables.

We also discussed other graphic creation tools to use in teaching. For example, we highlighted the use of word clouds and distilling clouds into graphics to demonstrate and express big ideas in learning . This could be used to make your own Wordle which, as a language teacher, will be beneficial in my future classrooms. Having a more visually-engaging and multimodal tool to use with my students, or have them try out themselves to practice vocabulary, would stimulate classroom learning in a better way than traditional methods. Furthermore, using something like photoshop in teaching would also be beneficial as it could be used to embellish images, making them humorous or edited to be more relevant to class content. As a potential assignment, students could use photoshop in Spanish class to create a powerpoint slide of what to do in a Spanish-speaking country and photoshop themselves in various tourist destinations. This would engage them with technology in different ways than a classic PowerPoint.

Photo attributed to: Onur Binary from https://unsplash.com/photos/wi3xBnWZlvQ

Researching Things to do: Uzbekistan

September 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Hi!

This week on The Blog we are going to dive into my favourite part of the pre-travel checklist, researching things to do!

There are many ways to go about looking into a new country and all it has to offer, but one of my personal favourite methods is watching YouTube travel vlogs. Different than the initial documentary research from week 1, YouTube vlogs allow for a less-curated idea of the country and allow for people’s first-hand experiences to shine through. It also gives the physical geography and layout of a country a different lens, instead of a professionally-edited and colour-corrected video of the country’s highlights. They allow the viewer to observe the positive experiences, the funny travel stories, the negatives, the dos and don’ts, solo female travel experiences, food recommendations, the list goes on. They also highlight a different kind of travel that you wouldn’t be exposed to in, for example, Condé Nast. I have used YouTube as a resource for as long as I’ve been travelling as it showcases different parts of the country or region and different things to do. If you don’t want a highlight reel of, then look to YouTube. Have you ever heard of jungle trekking for wild Orangutans in Sumatra instead of Bali’s resort scene? Or, have you ever considered adding hiking in the Atlas mountains to your Morocco itinerary? Without YouTube research before these trips, I would have never done these things.

So, let’s dive in. Uzbekistan, what’s good?

When I start this research, I simply open YouTube and type in something along the lines of: “Uzbekistan travel,” “Uzbekistan travel vlog,” or a specific region I’m interested in to narrow the search like “Samarkand vlog.” Adding the word “vlog” takes me away from the BBC-style documentaries and shows me videos from travel content creators. I then pick which video seems the most interesting.

While Samarkand is a popular destination in Uzbekistan, it is popular for a reason and I definitely must see it! However, I am more interested on where to eat in Samarkand instead of some of the other tourist attractions. Here is a video I found of a content creator showcasing some of the best places to eat and things to try in Samarkand in particular! Pro tip: Mark Weins from Migrationology will never let you down for food recommendations all over the world! He is a resource, both on youtube and his blog, that I constantly reference!

Tune in next week for more Uzbekistan travel research content!

Photo attributed to: Otabek Xatipov https://unsplash.com/photos/MHt_fHi6a3M

Week 3

September 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week we had Rich McCue as a guest speaker talking about multimedia learning and screen casting in the classroom and some of its benefits. For some background info, he spoke about how our working memory has a limited capacity and how our brains must process short term memory to then encode it into long term memory. He said it’s important to attach new info to prior knowledge to help with this transformation. Audio and visual stimuli can help to make these connections with, for example, videos. Sometimes videos employ both audio, visual and written stimuli, which can result in students being overstimulated and distracted. For example, he said picture and picture videos are distracting to learning because there is too much going on, making them difficult to follow for learning purposes. Showing traditional videos to students in class can also be less engaging because they mindlessly follow along without having any aspect of engagement other than to simply watch.

Rich’s recommendation to solving this video engagement problem is using H5P, a plugin for WordPress that is used to make videos more interactive. We tried to make our own screen casts in class, but we were unable to upload it and utilize H5P, so we pivoted and took a look at the H5P website for tools. On H5P.org, they have a multitude of of examples and applications one could use to make their video more engaging. Many of these options I think would be beneficial in the classroom. For example, as a future Spanish teacher, I see H5P’s word search plugin as being useful to engage students in vocabulary. The template provides a table area where I could input my own vocabulary words and then complete the crossword puzzle interactively as a class. This might prove to be more engaging than a traditional paper word search that the students compete independently.

On the flip side, H5P might not be possible for all teachers to utilize, being that it requires a wifi connection. In Canada in particular, there are many schools in remote communities that might not have access to wifi and, therefore, it’s not accessible to all teachers to use as a resource. Furthermore, not all students prefer to learn in the same way. For some, a video itself might be stimulating enough and, when adding more interactive features to a video, might result in overstimulation.

Overall, a very insightful and helpful lecture!

https://unsplash.com/photos/zFSo6bnZJTw. Attributed to Kenny Eliason

Booking a Flight: Where to Start

September 26, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Hi!

Welcome back to The Blog. I’m so happy you’ve made it this far.

So, Uzbekistan. It’s piqued my interest enough that I’ve officially decided that I have to go! It’s been on my mind and it’s time to dive in.

Certain places in the world come at more expensive price points for travel within the country, but also for flights. In my experience, the more high traffic and popular the destination, such as Italy, France, Mexico, etc, the less it costs to fly there from Vancouver, Canada. On top of this, the time of year travelling drastically affects the price point of flights and in-country activities. For example, although Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is a high-traffic destination with many frequent flights to and from Vancouver, in the summer time, it is an ultra desirable destination that results in a price jack. On the other hand, some destinations that are less frequently travelled to and from Vancouver can be ridiculously pricy (I’m looking at you, Madagascar). Uzbekistan is, unfortunately, one of those places, too. However, don’t let this steer you away from an incredible country! If you don’t pull the trigger, then you’ll never get to know all that a country has to offer and, at this point, I’m already too set on going, so there’s no turning back now. All that being said, it’s important to do some research and try to find the most economical flight options.

Whenever I look at travelling to a new destination, I always look at airports within the country on google maps. This is important because a flight landing in one part of a country might be cheaper from Vancouver, but the area with the attractions is in another part that is expensive to get to, making the “cheaper” flight not so cheap in the long run. Also, factors like long layovers and abnormal takeoff hours can affect the cost. For example, if you have to stay 12 hours in an airport, that will cost a lot in food and entertainment, or if you have to leave early in the morning, you might need to factor in a hotel to stay close to the airport the night before your flight.

After searching for potential airport hubs, I look for flight options, but ALWAYS using a VPN and an incognito window. The VPN allows for me to change my location to somewhere that might offer a better currency for local airlines. I’ve done this before with Peru and LATAM airlines and had major success. I did have to book in Spanish though. An incognito window allows for my browser to not track my searches. High interest in a particular flights can result in price increases. Now, I’ve heard this has been debunked recently, but I still do it out of habit. Here is a link to a video speaking more on that if you’re interested!

The next step is comparing flights across different websites. A few of my favourites are Google Flights, Skyscanner, or the airline website itself! Some of my best flight deals have come from catching a mistake fare directly through the airline.

Without further ado, here is a screen cast of my process searching for flights to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

I hope this information helps! Tune in next week to dive into more how to travel to Uzbekistan content!

"Uzbekistan on the globe (Eurasia centered)" by TUBS is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
“Uzbekistan on the globe (Eurasia centered)” by TUBS is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Week 2

September 22, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week we discussed SAMR and its role as a framework for evaluation of technology integration in teaching. Simply put, SAMR stands for substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition. We discussed how SAMR is a spectrum of what is possible with technology and how we can use it to facilitate learning in the classroom. Having enhancing and transformative outcomes using technology is exactly what teachers need in the classroom today. Without consulting the SAMR model, I think educators are limiting their potential to connect with students and allow for student success in their own learning. In our pod, we discussed how the substitution aspect of the SAMR model could be beneficial for many subjects, but English in particular. For example, we discussed how a traditional essay assignment in an English class could be substituted as a TikTok about the same topic. By considering different learning preferences and multimedia tech options for students, their potential to learn and express their understanding and knowledge of a topic is increased. Substituting, in this case, offers an advantage over traditional methods. It makes the task more efficient or convenient for the student.

However, SAMR does not come without its drawbacks. While I’m on board with the idea of incorporating tech in the classroom to diversify teaching strategies and learning potentials, there is something to be said about excessive exposure to technology, or rather the devices that provide us with these technological tools. Our learning pod’s idea of a TikTok instead of an essay is a good idea for including relevant and engaging media in the assignment, but it requires a cellphone and time spent on said device. There is a lot of research out there discussing excessive cell phone use in adolescents and its negative impacts, with this being one article I found interesting. While the way in which the students are interacting with this technology is different to mindless scrolling on the app, they are still required to engage with a screen. We, as a society, are constantly consumed with technology and, while not always negative, sometimes there is such thing as too much. It seems to be forced down our throats these days, always pressured to keep up with the times and keep up with the world. This can feel overwhelming and overstimulating for many people. This a potential drawback I see to using the SAMR model and finding any possible way to incorporate technology in future teaching.

"TikTok on iPhone" by Nordskov Media is marked with CC0 1.0.
“TikTok on iPhone” by Nordskov Media is marked with CC0 1.0.
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