Hybrid Approaches to Facilitating High-Impact Experiences
With the global pandemic, teachers are being challenged to teach online, face-to-face or both. The current situation, in addition to shifting practices in education over the past decade or more, causes us to wonder:
How can we virtually facilitate high-impact, place-based learning experiences with our students? What practices might be most effective and which tools can support these approaches?
In an online and outdoor workshop session facilitated by: Dr. Patrick Robertson, Teresa Rowley & Yvonne Dawydiak as part of the Classroom to Communities (C2C) conference on October 23, 2020, we connected with nearby places and people around us in search of a balance of practices. We hoped you enjoyed the session and thank you for your participation in our activities and for sharing your ideas.
Below are resources from our session*.
- PBL in a Pandemic Field Experience Resource Package.docx
Activities adapted from: Get Outdoors, An Educator’s Guide to Outdoor Classrooms, written & compiled by Sue Staniforth. (purchase: https://www.hctfeducation.ca/product/get-outdoors/ or View the Sample Resource: http://www.metrovancouver.org/events/school-programs/K12publications/GetOutdoors.pdf ) - Jamboard (pdf and link posted following the session)
- Learn more about Jamboard and alternative ‘digital whiteboard style‘ applications.
- Our Collaborative Map: https://c2c2020.opened.ca/ was set up using a template developed as part of an open source apps community. IF you’re at all familiar with WordPress, you’ll find setting one up fairly intuitive. If not, I’m working on some instructions as a more ‘step by step’ set up and will post here when ready.
- OpenETC Free Range Ed Tech: The FIPPA compliant interactive map we used is just one of the amazing open source technologies created by this dedicated community of volunteers made up of learning technologists, designers and educators from all levels. To access and make a copy of your own map, you will need to set up an OpenETC account and then access the ‘Clone Zone’ area of the site where you’ll find a variety of templates you can clone (including the Map – Toolset Mapping Master Template). Once there, you’ll be prompted to sign in or register for an account before cloning and setting up your own map. *Watch for some step by step instructions coming soon! A note: this is part of an open, volunteer run and under-funded project so having a plan B is valuable but also please ensure you’re respectful when asking for help or improvements.
- A few favourite apps to support outdoor experiences
- iNaturalist: a citizen science app to support crowd sourcing ID in the field. An amazing bi-product of this application is the development of a large database of images available for research. Or try Seek by iNaturalist with your students to support ID – fairly simple interface: the Seek camera will draw from observations posted by members of the iNaturalist community to try to ID the photo. You can even scan the environment for common species of plant, birds, amphibians, insects!
- LeafSnap is a free app created by the Canadian Wildlife Federation that allows you to learn to ID trees by their leaves, flowers and seeds.
- Plantsnap was developed as a collaboration with several non-profits along with SnapChat that helps you ID plants by taking a photo and getting instant feedback. Their goal is to map out the world’s plants.
- iPhone and iPad users can use the Visual Look Up feature to use Siri’s AI to identify plants, insects, landmarks, and more in pictures they have taken. You’ll need to update your device to the latest iOS. To start, open a picture on your camera, press the Visual Look Up button (‘i’ in a circle with stars on the left), then press Look Up and it will offer ideas based on a web comparison of images.
- Using the Museum of Vancouver’s Indigenous Plant Guide, you can hear and learn the Squamish and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ words for a variety of plants that are native to BC.
*We will post a complete set of workshop resources here, including collating links, ideas and questions from the chat following the session.
About the presenters:
Teresa Rowley
Teresa is an outdoor learning teacher with North Vancouver School District, and an adjunct teaching professor and faculty advisor working with teacher candidates in the Education for Sustainability cohort at UBC. Definitely not a techie, Teresa has been ruminating on simple ways educators can utilize technology to enhance place-based learning experiences.
Patrick Robertson
Patrick is a teacher educator and educational consultant working collaboratively with a wide range of partners in B.C. and Canada. He teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia and is a director of various community organizations focused on place, sustainability, social justice, climate and the environment. Patrick is the current Chair of the Classrooms to Communities Education Network.
Yvonne Dawydiak
Originator and Editor of this blog, Yvonne is a long time teacher passionate about taking learning outside the confines of the classroom – both ‘in place’ and ‘virtually’. As a Teacher Educator and Masters of Educational Technology graduate, Yvonne is currently the Learning Design Manager in Teacher Education at UBC helping to support faculty and teacher candidates in effectively integrating 21st Century approaches including digital technology integration for face-to-face, online and remote learning contexts.
