- Source of Funds: UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Funds
cc image pixabay.com
- Year: 2018-19
- Total Funds: $31,720
Principal-investigator
- Yvonne Dawydiak (MET), Faculty Wide Programs Instructional Specialist, Professional Development Community Engagement
Co-investigators
- Dr. Wendy Carr, Associate Dean, Teacher Education
- Henry Lee, Adjunct Teaching Professor, LLED/EDUC
- Liza Navarro, Graduate Student, Language & Literacy (Project Coordination)
- Wendy Traas, Education Library
- Dr. Meike Wernicke, Assistant Professor, Language & Literacy
Project Impacts:
√ Student engagement and attitudes
√ Instructional team teaching practice and satisfaction
√ Awareness and capacity around Open Education and Digital Technology Integration
Since it’s start in June 2018 until completion in June 2019, this project successfully created and curated French resources to share with French teacher candidates (TCs) on the Scarfe Digital Sandbox Blog. We have actively shared informal findings and resources with both the local and wider education community through workshops, social media and at conferences. 
Liza Navarro, the project coordinator, was granted a Research Fellowship by the Open Education Group and was able to learn from and share with others in the field of OER at the annual Open Education Conference in Buffalo New York. In February 2019, she attended WestCast 2019 in Calgary, AB, along with project PI, Yvonne Dawydiak. Liza Navarro presented on findings (at the time) from this project. In addition, she and Yvonne shared project findings in May 2019 at the TLEF showcase during Celebrate Learning Week at UBC. Liza Navarro also participated in UBC’s Investigating Our Practices in which she discussed an aspect of this project and it’s links to approaching culture in the language classroom.
To raise awareness of the possibilities of integrating digital technologies with French BEd TCs at the beginning of Winter Term 1, we held Makerspace workshops in French and since then, we have had the pleasure of working alongside several French instructors to conduct multiple workshops in primary and secondary classes to expose teacher candidates to the plethora of resources available online and within the open education community. In one particular session, teacher candidates experienced and discussed ways in which they might bring the wider world into their classrooms by participating in a Skype in the Classroom interview with a French speaking teacher from Mexico.
The TCs relished in this opportunity and learned a great deal about how Skype in the Classroom and other virtual learning experiences can bring people together from around the world in support of cultural exchange and language learning.
In January 2019, Liza Navarro extended her service from this project and volunteered at Séjour UBC, a biannual gathering in which French TCs, grad students and in-service teachers have an opportunity to expand their pedagogical approaches, learn about new resources and connect with their peers in a French speaking environment. Liza conducted a workshop highlighting the innovative and dynamic virtual experiences offered by Google Tour Creator. Participants navigated, created and relished in creating virtual field experiences with Google Tour Creator thus enabling them to experience how they might bring their students to places that would be otherwise inaccessible – such transformational uses of digital technologies help to enrich learning experience, lead to deepened student understanding and support a Know-Do-Understand model advocated in BC’s Redesigned Curriculum.
French teacher candidates showed great interest in this project and were eager to integrate technology into their classrooms. As a result, the team offered Cyber-Cafés during their lunch period in Winter 1 in order to help TCs with selecting and evaluating digital technologies to support authentic and even transformative learning experiences in their classrooms. In addition, in January and February, we teamed up with the Scarfe Digital Sandbox Team and UBC education librarians to offer Gearing up for practicum sessions in French to help French teacher candidates prepare for their practicum. During Winter 2, we also had 
the opportunity to come into a few French teacher candidate classes to discuss the purposeful integration of technology as well as digital literacies.
In order to understand French TC perspectives and use of technology, Liza Navarro received ethics approval (BREB) to collect data via online questionnaires and focus groups with TCs. Moving forward this data will allow her to share project findings with other educational communities and scholars on Open Access journals to further support French TCs. This experience has granted Liza the opportunity to develop her research skills, apply for conferences and seek further opportunities.
Project team responsible for instruction, co-teaching & resource development:
- Liza Navarro (GRA Project Coordinator)
- Eric Lee (S 2018 through W2 2018; Project WorkLearn student, media and web support & development)
- Alix-Anne Bush (S 2018 & W1 2018; GRA)
- Nick Bartlett (W2 2018; GRA)
I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with these exceptional students and my FoE colleagues on a valuable Teacher Learning Enhancement Fund project. Yvonne Dawydiak, PI
FINAL PROJECT REPORT: 2019-05-28 TLEF Final Report
TLEF showcase poster:
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this project provided by UBC Vancouver students via the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund.
We would also like to acknowledge the support provided through UBC’s WorkLearn Program to subsidize the salary of one of our project assistants.
