Today we had a presentation by Nicole Kent who talked to us about multi-access/blended/flipped learning and we had the opportunity to critically think about the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid learning and other modalities of online learning. One thing that wasn’t mentioned in our discussion in class was about the impact of covid/pandemic online learning on teachers. When everything went online, teacher’s jobs were made so much more difficult for many reasons, and one of those reasons was being held to the same expectations and outcomes for when they were teaching in-person. One of the downsides of the pandemic is that students fell behind, some by a whole year or more. So now, teachers have classes which have some students who were supported greatly during the pandemic and were able to keep up relatively well, and other students who are a whole grade level behind. So what is the answer to this? Is it the implementation of multi-age learning and grouping kids by development? At the very minimum, teachers should be given a break when it comes to data results and provincial exams. Most often the lack of reaching proficiency with online learning is that exact reason: online learning. I think a lack of support for struggling teachers through this process explains a lot of the mass exodus of teachers from the profession post-covid.

Photo by Edward Jenner from Pexels

Now, this isn’t to say that all of the online learning is negative. As we have learned in this class, there are so many productive uses for technology in the classroom. I do believe; however, that direct instruction through flipped learning is not the answer (might be a controversial opinion). In my opinion, students should have the opportunities to do hands-on learning whenever possible. Viewing the lesson through a screen is not the same as doing hands-on learning, and I think the video we watched lacks the consideration of the benefits of receiving direct instruction from the teacher in real time, as well as being given the chance to collaborate with other students in the class and share ideas. I would be interested to learn more about the video we watched in class-is it an American classroom where test scores are more highly valued? How is the proficiency data being collected? How can the teacher verify that students are developing number sense/comprehension and being given the opportunity to collaborate and talk with one another? I am skeptical…

Kelsey had a good idea in our discussion about introducing the videos after direct instruction has been given so that struggling students can re-watch the video at their own pace. I think I like this idea a lot more than watching the video before class because it is used more as a supportive tool rather than a direct support in the direct instruction.

3D Design Project with TinkerCad

We also had the chance to experiment with 3D printing and I went off the average path and made this nice scene! It’s not something I will get printed… but still fun to experiment with! I imagine this would be really fun for students to do!

I also made a keychain!

I also had a lot of fun making this keychain and I am excited to paint it once it is printed!

Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Ms. J