Category Archives: Student Cafe

These Challenging Times

Dear class,

Cullum wrote the poem,

The robin sang and sang, but teacher you went right on.

The last bell sounded the end of the day, but teacher you went right on.

The geranium on the windowsill just died, but teacher you went right on. (Cullum, 1971, p. 58).

In the spirit of Cullum, I have been compelled to write given the tragedy in Canada. I know many of you are reaching out to your own students this week about painful events in the US and Quebec City. We cannot hear accents, see physical limitations, or know that you might wear a headscarf in this online place. In some respects, online education might be akin to a borderless classroom. I cherish the fact that we can and are able to participate in this environment.  But I recognize too that we must work to maintain an inclusive environment that honors the diversity of our community and society at large. This we can do with our welcoming words that communicate the value of such diversity with our students and colleagues. Our actions with our children, such as introducing a science project that began in a country from “the list,” might also go a long way too– and you will have other classroom ideas. I would also like to share with you a book about how institutions and organizations can respond to challenges in these times in society written by my colleague, a sociologist, Dr. Robert VanWynsberghe http://www.utppublishing.com/Adaptive-Education-An-Inquiry-Based-Institution.html.

Attached is a link to a statement from our Canadian Society for the Study of Education on the US and Canada sent today and below are resources for UBC students in these challenging times and responsive panel events being held at UBC.
Thank you for allowing me to share here, Samia
Sent on behalf of Diana Jung, Strategic Initiatives & Special Projects Coordinator-Wellbeing
Good morning Everyone,
 
In light of events in the U.S. and Quebec, we wanted to reach out to share some of the key supports that are available to the campus community.  As Wellbeing Liaisons, it is helpful to be aware of these resources and supports and to share them with your colleagues. Many of the following Vancouver campus resources were highlighted in a recent update/message to the campus community from President Ono (http://president.ubc.ca/featured/2017/01/30/ubc-condemns-violence-against-muslims/ (Links to an external site.)):
 
Emergency
If you have immediate safety concerns for yourself or others, call 911.
Information about hate crimes: hatecrimebc.ca
The non-emergency phone number for the RCMP on Campus is 604 224 1322

Equity & Inclusion Office (Links to an external site.)
For anyone experiencing racism, harassment or discrimination, the best resource on campus is the Equity and Inclusion Office, in Brock Hall, 604 822 6353 or info@equity.ubc.ca (Links to an external site.).
 
International students who would like to speak with an advisor about immigration questions or travel advice or questions about their student visa can contact International Student Development at 604 822 5021 or international.house@ubc.ca (Links to an external site.). After hours, you can contact Campus Security (Links to an external site.) and you will be directed to an on-call advisor.
 
Counselling Services (Links to an external site.)
Students seeking mental health support can contact Counselling Services (Links to an external site.).  Faculty & staff wishing to talk to a counsellor can call Shepell (Links to an external site.) Care Access Centre at 1 800 387 4765.
 
After hours community resources:
Vancouver Crisis Line – 1 800 SUICIDE (784 2433)
Crisis Centre BC (Links to an external site.)
 
Emergency Financial Support
 
Provides 24/7 security services, including safety planning, and can be reached at 604 822 2222
 
Chaplains at UBC (Links to an external site.)
Chaplains of several different faiths offer support to UBC students, faculty and staff.
 
Additionally – these events may be of interest to our community:
 
Vigil
Students, faculty and staff wishing to express their solidarity can attend a vigil on Saturday, February 4 at the Al Masjid Al Jamia mosque: http://vancouver.carpediem.cd/events/2439016-vigil-in-solidarity-with-quebec-city-mosque-at-al-masjid-al-jamia-vancouver/ (Links to an external site.)
 
Ban the Ban: A Learn-in for UBC Students, Faculty, and Staff
This panel is an immediate and urgent response to President Trump’s Executive Order which imposes a 90 day suspension of visas and other travel documents on nationals from 7 countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen.  Join UBC Students and Faculty for a discussion that connects the ‘Muslim Ban,’ the Keystone XL/ Dakota Pipelines, and Standing Rock; historical precedents to the Order; and how the ban will affect Muslims in the identified countries and beyond.
St. John’s College, Social Lounge
Friday February 3rd, 2017
12-1:30pm
University of British Columbia
Unceded Musqueam Territory
 
Within the Vice President Students portfolio, we are working in collaboration with campus partners to address the needs of all students. If you have specific student concerns that are not addressed with the resources listed above, please let us know and we can work together to address these concerns.
 
Best,
Diana & Patty

Technology and Design

Dear class,

Like many of you have already expressed, I am very much enjoying reading the diversity of definitions for technology that have emerged from our class discussions thus far. We are learning together how each of you are conceptualizing technology. The additional definitions, readings, and visual images you are bringing in have enriched and broadened our scope of what might “count” as a technology. This is an important starting point in any program on edtech.

It is also interesting to note  how we sometimes conceive of ourselves as designers and what becomes designed in the math and science learning space. From the posts that I’ve read already, design is broadly conceived of as moving beyond the interface to include the environment and interactions within the environment.   As we enter Module B, we shall begin to extrapolate, extend, and elaborate upon our visions for technology-enhanced learning in math and science environments.

I look forward to reading more,

Samia

Cult of Pedagogy – The Teacher’s Guide to Technolgoy

I have recently come across this resource that a teacher has put together. It seems to be the ultimate resource for teachers on different types of technology that can be used in the classroom by students and teachers. There is a good video that she has put together to explain how it is used and the handbook itself is in plain speech, easy to understand. It is not a free resource (25.00 on TPT) however, it seems to be an excellent resource for people who would like to integrate technology more and need information on the different types of options available.

Here is the link to her blog and the resource.

http://cultofpedagogy.com/teachers-guide-educational-technology/

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Teachers-Guide-to-Tech-1768537

 

CiteULike Help Answered by Me! Kinda funny

Ok so in my previous post I said I was having difficulty finding the resource folders in citeulike, well that trouble continued over the past couple of days. I watched and rewatched the videos contained in lesson 3 but still foundered. Then about three minutes ago the brain fog cleared. If you like me were lost here is some help.

Join the ETEC 533 group
Then click on the ETEC 533 group link BESIDE the link that says myciteulike.
When the drop down menu appears -choose TAGS
When you click tags they appear alphabetically.
Scroll down until you see resource folder 1, etc.
Hope this helps someone.
Catherine

CiteULike Help

Hi Everyone,
This is the first time I am using CiteULike in MET. I have registered and joined the ETEC 533 group. So far it looks like there are three of us from this course there. My problem is in the class notes for lesson 3 it says there are resource folders by subject area on CiteULike. I thought I would go on the site and see the folders and accompanying documents for each folder but I don’t, I see different articles from different resource folders in one spot and no articles from other resource folders. Do I search a specific topic of interest and see what appears? I think I just have brain block but sometimes that is when its time to ask for help.
Catherine

Interview Help with Google Docs

Hi,
If you haven’t done your interviews yet I have a couple of suggestions to help you make life easier. If you have any tricks I would love to hear them.
I just did a google hangouts video interview and screen recorded it. (Permission form already signed and ready to go), but also used another feature that is really helpful. We tried it for this video chat and it worked great. If you use GAFE’s you can open a google doc and under tools click voice typing. It does (or at least in this case) it did a great job of transcribing the voice interview into a typed google document. It doesn’t catch the punctuation in fluid speech but it certainly saves time transcribing the notes.
If there are any sections that I am unsure of I have the video to go back to.
Hope someone finds this helpful.
Catherine

Are we supposed to provide a link…

to our e-folios somewhere?  I think I remember reading something, somewhere, but I am unable to relocate this information. Maybe, the e-folios are all published at the end of the course?

Also, I see that some of us are tagging our e-folio posts to this site—I have yet to do this because my posts are already elsewhere on the STEM site. I may be erroneous in thinking this, though— just wondering what others are thinking/doing with their e-folio posts.

(I am certain that most of my questions would be self-resolved if I addressed them before 11:30 at night.  I tell my students not to work on things too late— yup.  I’m a hypocrite!)

Thanks in advance,

Dana 🙂

Module A Lesson 2 Cases 2-8

HI,
Has anyone been able to open the video’s and interviews for cases 2-8. Case 1 was fine but I have tried in Safari, Chrome and Firefox and I am unable to see anything in the boxes where the video or audio should be. At the moment I am working on an ipad and wifi (my mac book is at the apple hospital at the moment 🙁 Not sure why I can see the video of the first case but not the rest.) I can read the scenarios but that is it. I have tried accessing through the course module A as well as the message that Samia sent, but still no luck.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Catherine