How it all started...

This blog was birthed from a school assignment.  Yep.  That's right.  You've been reading my homework!

And since the course is coming to a close, I feel I should let you all know what the program has been about and maybe give a little shout-out to the post-secondary institution that spawned all this blogging magic.

I'm currently enrolled in the Vancouver Community College (VCC) School of Instructor Education.  Specifically, I'm working on my BC Provincial Instructors Diploma.  Now, don't let the name fool you - either the "BC" part or the "Diploma" tag. This program is offered and carries relevance beyond beautiful British Columbia's borders, and "Diploma" hardly does justice to the relevance, rigor, and practical nature of the program.  Here is where you learn all about adult education, from its foundations to its effective practice.

I've been impressed by the diversity of classmates - people from the trades, people who are in corporate training, teachers who are already teaching but whose institutions insist they go through the certification, and all kinds of professionals looking for a career change.  The range of participants and the longevity of the program is evidence (to me, anyway) of the good practices and reflective methods the program fosters.

If you're curious what piques the curiosity of students like us, I'd suggest checking out the VCC School of Instructor Education Facebook page.  There are piles of resources for adult educators relating to all sorts of aspects of teaching and learning, from student engagement techniques to assessment strategies and tips for web-based tools that translate well to the classroom.  Lots of good stuff there!

Or if you're curious about the program itself, the participant's handbook is a great resource.

Now, this really wasn't meant to be such a shameless plug, but what can one do but stop typing?

And on that note...

This Week in Science: Alice the Camel had a Parka?

Well, the Twittersphere was abuzz today with articles about fossil evidence in the high arctic, suggesting CAMELS once roamed Ellesmere Island!

Free creative commons image from Wikipedia

CBC has two articles on the find: here and here.

And there's a photo slide show of the discovery here.

But the best resources (including a video!) are here, from the Canadian Museum of Nature, whose team made the discovery. 


According to the news feeds, the fossils are from 3.5 million years ago, when Ellesmere was quite a bit warmer.  Also, the camels were much larger than today's camels.  But they're not the only camels found in the north: camels were know in the Yukon region as well.

Canadian Museum of Nature Educational Resources
For the educators on the other side of the screen, the Canadian Museum of Nature's website (http://nature.ca) has a great set of resources for the classroom, including teaching kits, classroom activities, and interactive learning modules online. This link is a great starting point.

Twitter me this

I've been trying for a few weeks to get the Twitter gadget to work on my blog, but can't seem to make it work.  Thus, I'll go for the less glamorous option and link to my Twitter feed from a regular ol' post.

Annika's Twitter Account

Follow @tundramunkie

Poor returns on educational investments?

This article from the Globe and Mail is over a year old, but the situation hasn't changed much in Canada: students are getting deep into debt for their education and having trouble finding related work and shoulder a substantial level of debt as a result.

CBC even has a documentary on the trend, called Generation Jobless, which you can watch here.

Even tonight on the Lang and O'Leary exchange, they discussed the federal government's thoughts on revamping student loan repayment criteria (you can see the link here; the education segment runs from roughly 27:00 to 33:00).  They talk about changing the repayment timelines, the interest rates, making loans dependent on grades, and more.  Kevin O'Leary provides a particularly *ahem* interesting point of view, as usual.  Leave no (rich) man left behind, basically.

It seems student loans were on everyone's minds today, east to west: the BC government issued a press release concerning changes to the BC student loan system to better accommodate students.

Online Research and Critical Thinking Skills

Microsoft has a great page, full of resources for educators who want their students to do research online while using (and developing) their critical thinking skills.

There are lesson plans, handouts, worksheets and demos on topics like searching, plagiarism, validity and reliability, citing web sources and civil discourse.  There's also a great guide available for download called Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills.

Consider using this in your class!

Boat or Bandwagon?

Tony Bates’ blog, which is a class resource for PIDP3240, has a posting on forecasts for online education.  In it is a chart that is meant to speak to the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs), and the course Tony predicts they’ll run over the next few years.

The technology hype cycle: from www.tonybates.ca

I can’t help but see myself in this graph.  Perhaps I’ve skipped the “peak of inflated expectations” altogether, and am starting instead in the trough of disillusionment about using social media and piles of technology in the classroom.  I clearly need some enlightenment to get me to a more productive plane.

I suppose I like my classes the way they are, in many respects, and would introduce only the tools I deem most useful or applicable (using course objectives as a reference point), rather than the most popular or trendy.   If a web tool or social media platform can be used to foster curiosity, reflection, and/or peer/self-directed learning about the natural world, I am game.  If these ends can be equally met in the classroom or a field outing, I will chose the unplugged version most of the time. 

 

Why?  Because I believe that first-hand observation and experience are two of the greatest learning tools when it comes to science and biology.  Let the students type and be screen-bound in their other classes.  Let them see, touch, smell, experiment, explore, and create in mine!

I feel that I am tremendously fortunate to teach sciences, because it lends itself so well to experiential learning.  

 

But like I said before: maybe Tony's got it right.  I just need a little enlightenment to find a way to reconcile my teaching philosophy and strategies to this trend in education delivery.  I'm hoping to find a happy, productive middle-ground on this one.

 

"If you see a bandwagon, it's too late." - James Goldsmith

 

I don't mind missing a bandwagon, but I'd hate to miss the boat. 

This week in science: the tooth, forsooth!

Did you know that the narwhal tusk is actually a modified tooth?

Free image from Wikipedia.  

To tie into my earlier post on traditional knowledge (TK), here is a great instance of scientists working with local TK holders to conduct their study on narwhals in the eastern Arctic.  This article isn't quite from the last week, but "This fortnight in science" just doesn't have the same right to it.

Enjoy the article, including a slideshow of the research team in action!