New Zealand is lucky. Managed to move to level 1 during the Covid 19 crisis, which means we can do most of the things we normally do; caution is still strongly advised as we have a small number (18 as of today) of confirmed cases, all related to people arriving from overseas.
Auckland has another crisis, not enough water because of a 1 in 200 year drought. Hopefully our usual torrential rain for the winter will arrive. Perhaps Watercare could spend some of the $800,000 annual salary the CEO gets and build a new reservoir!?
On the education front, learning to be a facilitator of online learning will provide different challenges for different people. In the end, the mantra of ‘keep it simple’, reigns. Tutors and students should be very clear as to the expectations of each other; spell them out. Time management is a critical skill. Matching the learning material with the medium makes a huge difference as does effective and efficient communication systems, accomplished through exploiting the potential of the numerous ways in which learners communicate these days: Pod,Phone, Text, e-mail,video,F2F, Chat and perhaps Facebook.
Identifying, implementing and managing the communication preferences of your students for blended learning makes life a whole lot easier.
In the posting this month there are links to: Animated tutorials, elearning tool evaluation,The Encyclopedia of Life Learning + Education,Augmented, virtual and mixed reality, Effective feedback with education technology,Learner Assessment in Online Courses,How to be a better online teacher,The Online Teaching Survival Guide,The 5E Instructional Model,Learning online when school is closed, In class to online in 16hours, Publications, Conferences and the odd one out
‘Education should have no boundaries only pathways to success'[Elliott 1990].
Keep creating the pathways:-)
1.EOL Learning + Education: The Encyclopedia of Life Learning + Education website (EOL L+E) is part of the larger EOL collaborative. EOL L+E works with educators, citizen scientists and partners to make this information accessible through free tools, services and resources.
Resources abound on this website which continues to grow under the watchful eye of National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian in the USA. Worth wandering around the site to pick up useful resources and maybe learn a thing or two 🙂
2.Animated Tutorials: General Biology. Something different to get your teeth into. Some very good examples of animated resources for Biology.I ran through ‘cellular respiration’. Nicely and clearly explained.
If you’re not into Biology, have a look at the Animation Gallery and close another are, such as environmental Science ; all good learning materials.
http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/biology.html
3. Create Effective Feedback With Education Technology: Comprehensive overview of the nature, application and outcomes of effective feedback. Worth perusing.
https://www.viewsonic.com/library/education/create-effective-feedback-with-education-technology/
4. Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation from Western University, Canada: One way of assessing the suitability of e-learning tools for helping students to learn.
https://teaching.uwo.ca/pdf/elearning/Rubric-for-eLearning-Tool-Evaluation.pdf
5.Learner Assessment in Online Courses: Best Practices & More:Comprehensive overview and guide to assessment of online learning using various approaches and techniques, (written by learnWorlds Course Designer & Content Creator).
https://www.learnworlds.com/learner-assessment-best-practices-course-design/
6.Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed: How the realities are impacting our L&D reality. A useful document on the nature, use and benefits of AR,VR and mixed reality in education
https://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=3331556
7. Tips for Designing an Online Learning Experience Using the 5 Es Instructional Model:
[The 5E Instructional Model is a constructivist science learning method involving 5 key phases: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration and Evaluation;It is not a linear model]. A useful set of short video’s plus some advice for those contemplating the use of the 5 e’s instructional model. (I would prefer it if it was called ‘learning model’. Instructional always smacks of training and show and tell. Semantics of course, but different words for the same subject do initiate very different trains of thought.)
https://catlintucker.com/2020/03/designing-an-online-lesson/
8. 10 strategies for learning online when school is closed. Comprehensive outline, guide and advice to those who manage the educational institutions. Equally useful to anyone who is involved in the online learning and teaching environment.
9. How to be a better online teacher : Advice Guide. There has been a proliferation of ‘guides’ on how to teach online since the advent of Covid19.. Each has its own attributes and this one could add to your skillset and perhaps provide some useful information or help for your own endeavours.
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-online-teaching
Perhaps to read in conjunction with:
The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips: Published 10 years ago. Are all the tips still relevant today? Most, I think should still be useful in current learning and teaching environments.
https://www.mobt3ath.com/uplode/book/book-59307.pdf
10. How to adapt 16 hours of in-class teaching material to an online format in 5 days
Experiences of a first-time lecturer during the COVID-19 outbreak. Might resonate with your experience and maybe provide a few tips as well?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01178-y
Might like to follow up with:
Teach from Home: A Digital Teaching Toolkit.Lots of stuff you already know plus some useful suggestions and ideas to put your thoughts into practice.
https://www.viewsonic.com/library/education/teach-from-home-a-digital-teaching-toolkit/
11.Conferences: NOTE; Details are given of various conferences in the pipeline. As a consequence of the Corona Virus , it is highly likely some will be cancelled or move online.
11.1 Due to current circumstances, ASCILITE 2020 will run virtually. It will be held, online, on Monday 30 November and Tuesday 1 December 2020
https://2020conference.ascilite.org
11.2 Annual Blackboard Teaching & Learning Conference. The first Asia Pacific conference being held from 26-27 August and now will be a virtual conference. It will still include all that we look forward to from the face to face conference, just now online.
11.3 Mahara event: 15th July 2020. The Mahara Hui ,UK and Ireland.
It’s a virtual free event:
https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=8615
12. Publications.
12.1 The latest edition of The International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) is available from:
https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap/issue/view/385
12.2 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology:
A new issue has been published.
https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/issue/current
13. Odd one out: If you are still in lockdown or have limited access to the world outside, you could spend some time exploring the hundreds of fascinating resources on the arts and culture site from Google. Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 2500 museums and galleries around the world to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous museums around the world. If you want a starting point go to:
https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com
And then for the rest
https://artsandculture.google.com/?hl=en
That’s it until August is upon us.