I have just completed going through Jay McTighe’s (2004) Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook to develop my online introductory module for Assignment 2. I took my time investigating and considering each one of the steps, even though he advises against approaching the model prescriptively. I figured that for the first time around I would benefit from a direct application of his methods.

The process really forced me to consider whether or not I could connect each stage to my original goals. UbD tightens-up the design of a course or module and forces you to focus on harmonizing understandings and performance with a learning plan. My intention is to use this introduction in my Geography 12 course in September, so I wanted to be sure to include certain goals resulting from my previous attempts at a blended model. At the same time I want to have students experience success with geographic tools in a collaborative exercise as early as possible in the course. The introduction seems like the most logical and practical place to do so. I had to be careful not to let my desire to include GIS pre-empt design-based decision. I was glad to discover that it was a good fit.

In the past two experimental units with blended Geography 12, students biggest issues revolved around their resistance to new technology, working in teams, and the ill-structured and student-centered nature of Problem-Based Learning. In previous MET courses, I have written papers on technology acceptance and student resistance to Constructivist approaches to learning. The literature emphasized being proactive and addressing the issues at the beginning of an online course. At the same time, I know that the introduction of the course is a critical time to present geographical thinking and how it differs from other types of inquiry.

After a longer period that I can really afford in terms of my time, I have determined the three goals of my introductory unit, complete with understanding, essential questions, assessment evidence and learning plans:

1: Demonstrate how geographic thinking empowers people to address local, regional and global challenges concerning Earth’s natural environments and its diverse cultures.

2: Participate and consider different modes of learning

3: Develop 21st Century Workplace team-based skills

It took a considerable amount of time for me to familiarize myself with the components of geographic thinking. It’s been a year since I taught Geography 12 and I am long overdue to re-invest myself in the big-picture purposes that characterizes the discipline. It’s so easy to get lost in the content, particularly the old and tired geomorphology of the BC curriculum. Many thanks to the Canadian Geographic Society, the National Geographic Society and ESRI for their excellent online documentation and plethora of engaging media and tools.

The Vancouver School Board’s policy on banning teachers from friending students on social media sites like Facebook regulates how students use mobile devices for educational purposes during and after school hours. The article “Facebook for Educators: Should it be Banned?” by Kathleen Kalk (2013), which is linked to the UBC Digital Tattoo site outlines the VSB’s attempts to address the issue. The reality of students working on mobile devices in my classes is that they are multi-tasking. Yes, they are spending most of their time on the task at hand, but I also see that they are checking and updating their social media. When groups are working collaboratively, it is not uncommon to see at least one of them on a short ebb before they re-engage in the activity. The Board exercises some control here through access to the wifi in the room; however, some students with large data packages do not use the wifi.

The VSB policy is not really intended primarily to affect the situation above; rather, it is a weak attempt to direct teacher to “monitor all content” posted by themselves or class members that are interacting on a classroom site. It clearly makes the teacher responsible for ensuring that all communication of social media sites is consistent with Board policy.  I am not a Facebook user, so the discussion of timelines etc. is slightly lost on me, but I get the gist of it. Kalk does a good job of pointing out the contradictory nature of the policy: encouraging social media use in the classroom via a class group page, but expecting interaction in an environment where students cannot access the teacher’s timeline.

She goes on to suggest two alternatives: setting-up professional accounts where updates, announcements and discussions can take place, and isolating students and parents from a teacher’s personal account whereby the latter can choose who sees any given post.

Given the plethora of valuable information for consideration on the UBC Digital Tatoo site, like social media presence, protecting your mobile, online gaming and privacy in the cloud, using Facebook seems wrought with unnecessary risk if it is simply going to be used for updates and discussions. There are better, more effective and safer web tools with which to do this.

Facebook for Educators: Should it be banned? (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/2013/06/11/facebook-for-educators-should-it-be-banned/

Working collaboratively on the delivery platform evaluation was a learning experience. My five team members and I spanned 3 provinces, two states and 12 degrees of latitude as we worked away on our Google Doc. I really should say docs, because they seem to grow and reproduce: from a single page to 17 pages, then from 1 file to 4.

It is certainly a challenge trying to work together and meet at common times. The work flow accelerated through the week and continued all the way to submission time. I joked with Sylvain that despite my best efforts in this MET program, I have not encountered one deadline without uploading in the last hour. It seems to be inevitable.

Google Hangouts and Docs really make the process possible. The ability to speak to classmates while you all share ideas in different colours on a shared, interactive document is so effective. I was reflecting to my wife today that group work as a teenager and undergraduate was always a grind and never something that I looked forward to. In this Masters program, more often than not – and especially with this current group – classmates demonstrate how intelligent people with a common purpose and drive can produce impressive results. We get to walk-the-walk for successful collaborative learning.

Not everything went smoothly. Because not everyone could be on the working doc at any given time because of busy lives, critical decisions can be made that change the direction of the project. In our case this was complicated by the technology. As a result, one member discovered that his work had been completely edited without his knowledge as we moved in a new direction.

It was a credit to his good character and professional manner that he was able accept the situation and continue-on in the stretch. It was very impressive. I don’t think that most people could have handled it so well. Credit goes to the group too, who explained their decision and the technical glitch in a friendly and supportive way. Well done, team.

My experience with attempting to get grade 12’s to use LMS-like functionalities on blogs or wikis was part of extended PBL units. The more I read in this course, the more restrictive I recognize the main players in LMS like Blackboard but I also feel like their main value is as a base of mothership to other web tools.

In my first PBL experience, I jumped right in with an unstructured format and the students panicked. They were used to the structure and predictability of a traditional classroom and the only way they could rationalize what I was attempting was to believe that I was “making it up as I was going along.” It got better as soon as they began to understand PBL but they always pushed-back when it came to using sites as an LMS (“we can do this on paper; why use a computer?).

In retrospect, if I had started on Moodle and introduced the concept behind inquiry and PBL, I could have had more buy-in. At that point I could encourage them to make appropriate web tool and media choices. I don’t think you can start unstructured and then attempt to go back to a structured system: it’s one way traffic.

This ties-in with experience and context. My students resisted PBL because they were unfamiliar with it. If and when I teach students in the future who have experience with it and acceptance of LMS-like web platforms (like Wikispaces, Edmodo etc), then the jump to a full LMS with companion sites would be normalized. The insidious problem that I see in the public school system is that many teachers perpetuate they way that they were taught as the norm an silo themselves away from progressive pedagogies. The result is students that come to expect those traditional methods.

As new teachers come into the system who have used LMS in their own education – and have strong opinions on what they liked and didn’t like – there is an opportunity for change. Unfortunately there will be a lag time before that happens (let’s hope those new teacher will not be copying the linear delivery and control functions of Connect).

Right now I’m thinking of an approach where my blended class starts the year with an LMS an gets familiar with its functionality. After a period of time, we assess the LMS for likes and dislikes, then both students and myself present other web tools where the desired functions are outsourced. The class would then decide as a whole on those tools versus making it wide open, which would put demands on everyone to have logins to view each others work etc.

I am a teacher at Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver, where I teach Social Studies and Physical Education. This is my 6th course in the MET program and one that is particularly timely for me, as I will be teaching a blended Geography 12 course this coming fall. Our school is in the process of being rebuilt with an emphasis on design that allows for 21st Century Learning. Important decisions about educational technology and instructional design are still in the planning process, so I am hoping that this course will help me to contribute to those discussions.

This space will document my efforts and learning throughout the course and a place for me to reflect on the process. I am looking forward to sharing my ideas with everyone – please feel free to comment.