Below are samples from the researchers who have influenced me the most during my time in the MET program. Poke around and see if you can also be inspired.
Pivot to Digital: A TRU Community Resource
Pivot to Digital was developed by my team at TRU and is meant to help you to make caring and ethical decisions at this unprecedented time. This community resource was developed to help TRU faculty move from face-2-face learning to fully online learning.
Check it out at: https://pivottodigital.trubox.ca/
TRU DIGITAL DETOX 2020
The Digital Detox developed by Brenna Clarke Gray, she hosted an online conversation about the intersection of technology and teaching and learning. As a bonus you can check out my first movie debut on the home page
The Digital detox is not about abstinence from technology, it is about changing the ways we think and use technology and the way technology uses us. Use this resource to help make ethical decisions when implementing new digital resources.
Check it out at: https://digitaldetox.trubox.ca/
Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning
Mazur is a true innovator when it comes to redefining assessment in education. Take a few moments to listen to Mazur explain why we need to think about our approaches to assessment. In Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning Mazur argues that our approach to assessment is focused on the regurgitation of memorized information and cookbook procedures. He focuses on the purposes of assessment and he offers a few ideas for improvement. If you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and incorporate some of his ideas into your teaching we can help. Come see us to find ways to use technology to create assessments that reflect real world tasks.
Video games, learning and literacy
Gee explains how he was introduced to video games and how he caught on to the theaory of learning behind video games. He takes an optimistic view of video games and descibes the learning principles often found in games. He discusses assessment and how it currently drives our school system, how we teach then assess. Then he brings forward a good point, we are not tested after playing video games because they are immersive, they test us. Gee pushes situated and embodied learning, teaching students to be able to use facts and information to solve problems. In Learning by design: Good games as learning machines Gee suggests that if students in formal educational environments had the ability to build their own knowledge, as players in a game do when they beat a level, more progressive learning would follow rather than the frustration that is often felt by students in academic settings.
The SAMR Model for Technology Integration
SAMR is a model designed to help educators infuse technology into teaching and learning. It provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using “tech for tech’s sake.”
The Real World of Technology – Part 1
Technology has always been part of human existence. Listen to Ursula Franklin explain how technology has had large scale-effects on culture itself.
Franklin defines technology as a system of practices (the organization of work and people) and shared values (the models that underlie our thinking and discussions about the practices)
“It is my view that today’s real world of technology is planned and run on the basis of a Looking at technology as practice, indeed as formalized practice, has some quite interesting consequences. One is that it links technology directly to culture, because culture, after all, is a set of socially accepted practices and values. Well laid down and agreed upon practices also define the practitioners as a group of people who have something in common because of the way they are doing things. ~ Franklin
Connected but Alone?
As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle looks at how devices and online personas are redefining human connection. Turkle says we need to really think about the kinds of connections we want to have. Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication—and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have.