Dr Hans Rosling demonstrates Gapminder World

I was looking forward to creating Unit 2 because I had already planned for it. The Backward Design model has been an refreshing way to re-think planning. I feel like I’m looking through the walls of a glass house to all the different rooms and spaces, rather than having to move through opaquely, not really understanding what is on the other side or whether or not the door will be locked. O.K. – I’ll stop with the metaphor, but leave it so say – Understanding by Design allows educators to see and plan for the big picture and the details at the same time. I outlined Unit 2 way back at the beginning of the course. Since it represents “getting into it” as far as the course content goes, I already had the roadmap and the motivation to design the details. Another motivating factor has been my intention to create a course that is ready to go in September. I feel like I’ve succeeded.

I know my patterns, and I fell into one of them right away: creating a mobile game and supporting video that is time-intensive. Our digital storytelling activity in class was serendipitous with the first two activities in my new unit, creating a mobile game based on a family geographic journey. ARIS is the game platform that I planned to use. I had a slew of new ideas that I wanted to try-out with it after the ARIS Summit in Madison in July and the Unit 2 game provided me that opportunity – or should I say, temptation. I have a history of going down the rabbit hole of concentration and focus at the expense of other commitments, and I did that again with this activity. Eventually, I knew that I had to carry-on with just an incomplete demo game and video that shows my intentions. I’ve just got to re-make the video with some more images and a voice-over so that it is operational.

I had originally designed the game-based learning element of the course for the third term. Its current placement is much better suited for a number of reasons. First, pedagogically it provides a venue for students to practice good geographic questioning by virtue of its immersive storytelling design. Second, it give students the opportunity to create and pilot a game before one of the long term inquiry projects, so that they can make a more informed decision about using it as a presentation format.

Another serendipitous situation was my need to source a fieldwork data collection App, and the release of Siftr at the ARIS Games Conference. Here was the perfect means to demonstrate how geographers collect and categorize information. It even leverages students social media practices and skills, like tagging and comments. Siftr is in a beta form right now, but Field Day Labs at the University of Wisconsin has big plans for it. It is due for release on the Apple App Store and Google Play in September.

This unit also provided me with the opportunity to use Gapminder World, the online database aggregator and visualization tool. I love watching and listening to Dr. Hans Rosling on TED Talks and other media. He is such an intelligent man with such an important message about international health and well being. His tool is a more understandable and entertaining introduction to using Google Motion Charts than Google Public Data Explorer, and his videos are just plain fun. I have a hunch that students will see the potential in databases and visualization, as well be infected by his passion.

The final section of the unit is about putting all activities from the introductory unit and Unit 2 into a cohesive group inquiry. I really believe that the scaffolding the course provides up to this point increases the chance that students will have success in the bigger PBL projects for the rest of the year. They progressively gain more and more awareness, knowledge, skills and confidence as they move through the various activities. Introducing the e-Portfolio at this stage is timed with the need for students to have a presentation and communication space outside of Moodle that others can visit.

Moodle gave me a bit of a ride this weekend. I’m not sure if it was the UBC server, upgrades by CLTC or by over-stretched computer, but constructing and editing my site got slow and slower. On Saturday afternoon I just shut it all down for an hour and tried again. I’m hoping that this isn’t a harbinger of future issues with the LMS. That remains to be seen.

My last comment is that having the opportunity to “noodle with Moodle” has been important on a number of levels for me as an educator. The work flow and preparation timing has given me a much better sense of the planning that must go into creating a fully operational online course. It also makes me understand why Moodle has been such non-started in the Vancouver School Board in most cases. Without training, practice and a course like this one, teachers will have to be highly motivated and persistent to make it work while managing the rest of their job.