Category: Weekly Reflections

This week we had our presentations on different technology tools to use in the classroom. One of the stand out presentations for me was on Semiconductor, an AI system used to conduct a virtual music orchestra. The group presenting this tool suggested it would be a great solution to involve students with disabilities in a music classroom. I thought this tool was genius and I definitely see it being used for that in the future. It is relatively user-friendly and allows the user to feel as if they are engaged in the music-making process. In my future classrooms, I can see this tool being used to get my Spanish class more involved in the cultural aspects of the language by using it to have them create Spanish music. I could have them come up with some of their own lyrics for their song to accompany the motions of conducting through AI. Furthermore, I can see this tool being used as a game. It could invite all students to participate in a fun activity without excluding non-able bodied people in the class. One potential drawback to Semiconductor, however, is that it is not completely synced with the movements. As Rhys pointed out in the presentation, music will sometimes continue to play without any arm movements at all. The potential successes, however, far outweigh the drawbacks and I think it’s only a matter of time before some of the kinks are ironed out.

This week the class discussed AI and its implications in education. As a future teacher, I think AI can be really beneficial to supporting a work-life balance and helping us to provide better materials and lesson structures to our students. It presents the opportunity to do the job effectively while also taking care of our own mental and physical well-being by taking on some of the work load. However, I think that its implications for students come with both positive and negative aspects. The main contender, ChatGPT, can streamline student task performance, but I feel it could also take away from authentic learning and prevent students from acquiring valuable skills that come with the work processes. ChatGPT is incredibly convincing for some of the work it produces, so it can make it difficult to properly evaluate student learning if they are relying on the chat bot to produce their work. For this class, we were allowed to use ChatGPT in our reflection. Showcasing its abilities in generating a text that meets the guidelines of the assignment, I inputed my notes into the chat and asked it to create a text that discusses the negative implications of ChatGPT on student learning. Please note how real it sounds and the incredibly educated points it makes! The text is as follows:

ChatGPT and similar AI-driven tools have their advantages, but they also come with drawbacks when used in educational settings. One significant concern is that overreliance on AI can inhibit critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students. While these tools can provide quick and convenient answers, they often discourage students from engaging in deep research and independent thought. Instead of exploring topics in-depth, students may simply look for shortcuts, which can hinder their ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, essential skills for lifelong learning and success.

Furthermore, AI tools like ChatGPT are not immune to errors or biases. They may provide inaccurate or incomplete information, mislead students, or reinforce existing biases. Relying on AI for fact-checking without proper critical examination can lead to misinformation and a distorted understanding of subjects. Students may develop a false sense of confidence in the accuracy of the information they receive, which is detrimental to their overall learning and knowledge acquisition.

Finally, the use of AI in education raises concerns about privacy and data security. ChatGPT often collects data on users, which can include personal information and patterns of interaction. This data can be misused, exposing students to privacy risks. Additionally, AI-driven tools can sometimes be distracting, leading students to disengage from classroom discussions and face-to-face interactions with their peers and educators. The overuse of technology can diminish the quality of the learning experience and lead to a disconnect between students and the learning environment.

In summary, while AI tools like ChatGPT offer convenience, they can hinder critical thinking, introduce the risk of misinformation, raise privacy concerns, and distract students from meaningful interactions. It is crucial for educators to strike a balance between utilizing AI technology and maintaining a focus on fostering independent thinking and responsible use of technology in the learning process.

This week, we looked at the concept of Gamified Learning, using games as a teaching strategy. Harnessing the intrinsic connection between learning and play can majorly benefit student development. We discussed some pioneering companies that have recognized the potential of using games to help with learning, such as Duolingo. They, for example, took the mundane and repetitive process of language acquisition into an exciting journey. Duolingo and other gamification companies leverage a reward system to have their users feel a sense of accomplishment derived from completing challenges. These elements can be integrated into the realm of education to captivate learners and foster a more versatile and engaging learning environment. I myself have been an avid user of Duolingo and have seen it used in the classroom during my Link2Practice sessions. The badges and accomplishment streaks within the game make learning languages more engaging and motivate me more to pick up the app and try for another reward. I especially like using Duolingo to learn a different language than the one I focus on in school. For example, I have studied French and Spanish throughout my formal education, but used Duolingo to learn Korean at the same time. Because it was fun and exciting, I looked forward to learning it simultaneously and didn’t feel overwhelmed. I think I will encourage my future students to do the same and hopefully it can be used to pique their interests in more languages outside of what’s offered in the BC school systems. From my standpoint, I seen gamification as a means to inspire students to become proactive and enthusiastic learners. Learning should inspire and I feel that inspirational learning comes from genuine enjoyment in the material, which is easily accessed through play.

However, it’s important to acknowledge that Gamified Learning isn’t without its obstacles. Budget constraints on teachers makes access to these resources an issue for some teachers, as well as access to technology may prove to be a challenge. Additionally, maintaining healthy competition between students could prove to be an obstacle, as some students don’t take games and light-hearted competition in an appropriate way. Mitigating the challenges of competition could be difficult for some teachers depending on the class demographics.

This week we discussed accessible learning in an online classroom and the tools that play a key role in fostering inclusivity within the learning environment. We watched an informative video dedicated to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL, as a pedagogical approach, aspires to create a classroom atmosphere that caters to the diverse needs of each student and supports equitable education. We engaged in a classroom discussion about how to adopt the UDL approach and how it allows flexibility in molding teaching methods. Personally, I find the UDL approach to be particularly enticing in the modern context, as it resonates with the evolving landscape of our world, which increasingly prioritizes accessibility. There will always be students who require accommodations to learn to the best of their abilities and it’s our responsibility, as educators, to provide them with the tools to do so. To me, UDL symbolizes a tangible manifestation of this shift.

As class progressed, we were presented with a heartfelt video featuring students who grapple with disabilities sharing their experiences and insights on how educational environments that actively strive to accommodate their needs can be transformative. Their perspectives shed light on the profound impact of inclusivity and how, in the absence of such efforts, they often felt like burdens or outsiders. This served as a reminder that, as an aspiring educator, I aspire to be empathetic and considerate of the unique requirements of my students. It’s important to me to initiate dialogues with my students, collaboratively striving to maximize the accessibility of both my classroom and course materials.

Here is a link to the UDL guidelines in a visually-engaging format.

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.

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.

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!

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.