Hosted by Shey and Shae with special guests appearances by Liz and Amy
Old School vs. New School Projects
In episode 336, hostesses of The Robe Report Shey and Shae along with special guest appearances by Liz and Amy explore the shifting landscape of student project creation to determine the best path forward for modern education.
While “old school” project-based learning fosters tactile collaboration, modern methods offer the efficiency of AI and remote teamwork. Our goal was to talk about the pros and cons of both approaches to find a happy medium: is it better to go fully digital, return to hands-on work, or merge the two?
When we hear the word community, we often think of a neighbourhood, a digital forum, or a local club. But over time, I have come to realize that community isnāt just a specific place that you go to, rather itās a feeling of safety. Community can be anywhere and everywhere. It is what connects people together.Ā
To me, community is a brave spaceĀ where I can be my true, authentic self. Itās an environment where the conversation doesn’t have to stay on the surface. Being part of a community means feeling comfortable enough to pivot from “How was your weekend?” to “Iāve been struggling lately.”
When you find a group where you can discuss your fears or your daily frustrations without hesitation, you have found your community. Itās knowing that the people around you are interested in the real version of you, not the curated one presented on social media.
Oak Bay Half-Marathon, early race start pace leader
This week’s topic was a new area of learning for me. The pre-class videos were very helpful that helped to explain coding and computational thinking. The video Hilarious peanut butter and jam sandwich instructions was a great example that demonstrated the importance of clear and detailed communication, not only for person to person interactions but also for generative AI to work effectively.
During our first hands-on class time, I really enjoyed playing around with Code with Anna and Elsahttps://studio.code.org/s/frozen/stage/1/puzzle/1 that helped to make block coding approachable and fun. I liked that it was a visual drag and drop method, allowing players to code by putting together blocks.
The introduction video tutorial was well done and very entertaining, it reminded me of a Disney commercial. However, when it came time to experiment with the moving Elsa, I was only able to move her a maximum of 2 steps before being prompted to reset. I presume if I spent more time experimenting with block coding, I may be able to have Elsa continue to ‘run’ to make interesting shapes.
For our second hands-on class time, we spent a few minutes exploring GetBadNews.com https://www.getbadnews.com/en/play. The key concept of this game is psycological inoculation and teaching players through gamification, about the importance of critical media credibility and how misinformation spreads. The format was a simple but interactive game where players were able to choose their own path which then resulted in credibility rating, followers score, and the ability to read Twitters users reaction. I think that many students would enjoy this game as it is authentic to real-world context, but it would be very important to scaffold this game with prior media literacy learning.
In summary, although there are many positive aspects of digital games to help support learning such as engagement and instant feelings of success. I plan to approach digital gamification cautiously in my future classrooms to help mitigate the impacts of adolescent screen oversaturation.
When I first joined Frontrunnerās half marathon clinic https://frontrunners.ca/pages/training-programs, the hardest part wasn’t the fact that I was really out of shape and that every part of my body hurt while running. Instead the hardest part for me was overcoming the persistent “mom guilt” of leaving my kids at home so that I could focus on myself. For a very long time, the needs of my family always came first. The concept of self-care wasnāt in my vocabulary.
At both the running clinic and at Oxygen Fitness https://oxygenyogaandfitness.com/langford-location/, Iāve noticed a theme among the parents I train with. We arenāt just running away from our responsibilities, we are running toward regaining the old version of ourselves.Ā
By documenting these weekly sessions, I am personally experiencing that the mental health benefits of group fitness are practical, not just theoretical. I am learning that taking time for my health isn’t a “break” from my family, it is the fuel that allows me to show up for them.
Each week, I find myself counting down the days until I meet up with my running group. Out on the pavement, we can talk about anything and everything from the mundane details of the week, to giving each other life advice (real-estate, birthday gift ideas, and even big decisions like marriage proposals)!
In those moments, I am fully present. I am not managing a household or checking off a to-do list in my head. When I am out running, I am not Mom, I am just simply Amy. The old version who I used to be.
This week, my classmates and I had the opportunity to tour Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry located in the heart of downtown Victoria https://psii.ca/
Before taking this course, I had never heard of PSII or knew that schools that offered non-traditional, experiential learning institutions in our city even existed. Ever since week one in our course when we were assigned to review the documentary film “Most Likely to Succeed” http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/videos/view.php?vfn=Most-Likely-To-Succeed-(2015).mp4, I have been looking forward to having the chance to learn more about alternative education systems.
Pacific School of Innovation & Inquiry approach to learning and teaching is unlike the traditional school system that we are familiar with. The shape of their learning path is a combination of an emergent curriculum, where students inform their own unique learning and the common BC curriculum.
Prior to touring PSII, I had the chance to speak with one of my neighbour’s daughters, R.D. about her experience at PSII after leaving the public school system just 3 weeks ago. Our conversation was fascinating and I was excited to learn more about her education journey at PSII as a grade 9 student.
Amy: “What are some of your favourite things being a PSII student and what are you most looking forward to in your education journey at PSII”?”
R.D: “My favourite aspects of being at PSII definitely include being fully supported in my learning, getting guidance on any projects that I want to do, and having my ideas supported rather than dismissed. I also love the fact that the teachers really listen to you, and can help you make connections with people or businesses outside of the school.I am really looking forward to learning about things that interest me, and better preparing myself for courses that I want to take in post secondary because of that. I love that the students are not segregated by grade, as Iāve already made so many friends in different grades than me. I feel as though I can take my education to its full potential at PSII, because the environment helps you not be afraid to think for yourself.”
Overall, my time spent at PSII was a very positive and an eye opening experience. I really enjoyed meeting and listening to both Jeff and Jessica, who are the co-principals and teachers at PSII. Many aspects of what they shared with our cohort was fascinating. I had many key take-aways, but what was particularly interesting is how their curriculum is based on their learners meeting 8 competencies versus BC curriculum’s 3.
PSII’s approach offers their learners authentic learning and assessment which will help to prepare them not only for their academic careers, but will provide their learners with important soft and hard skills to support them to be successful global citizens.
This past BC-wide Professional Development Day, I had the opportunity to learn about A Grades 6 to 9 Learning Resource about Black Canadians. Facilitated by Maureen Ciarniello and hosted by Focused Education Resources https://mytrainingbc.ca/focuseded-iabwa/index.html, the one hour session was a preview of the fantastic on-line resource to help support educators teach Black History within our Canadian education.
As a teacher candidate, I feel a sense of “pedagogical anxiety” when thinking about how I would approach teaching Black History. I worry about my lack of foundational knowledge and not being able to teach it authentically or respectfully. However, participating in this Pro-D day workshop has provided me with reassurance that with this resource, I will be able to teach this important subject with more confidence.
I deeply appreciated many aspects of the on-line resource and am excited to spend more time navigating it. Some of the highlights that I found useful were the ideas for lesson structure which align with BC curriculumās Big Ideas, Learning Standards, and First Peoples Principles of Learning. I also really valued that the resource not only addresses the realities of racism and slavery, but it also prioritizes Black Joy and positive narratives.
One of my key takeaways was learning about Ubuntu philosophy, a South African Indigenous worldview which the resource is grounded in. I really enjoyed learning about how the Ubuntu philosophy and the First Peoples Principles of Learning are both centered on belonging, community, and interconnectedness.
I am grateful to have been provided with this learning opportunity and to know that when we enter into our teaching careers, that there are amazing resources such as this available.
In my last post, I talked about why I started this inquiry project, the belief that the “struggle” of a workout is actually a bridge to meaningful connection. This week, Iāve been focusing my time at Oxygen Fitness in Langford, and the experience has been transformative.
There is something unique about the environment at Oxygen. When you step into that infrared-heated studio (37 c to be exact), it is a space for being real with others. In a typical gym, people often wear headphones and avoid eye contact. But at Oxygen Fitness, the atmosphere is different. We are all breathing the same air, facing the same HOT heat, and pushing through the same fatigue. When the instructor encourages us for ājust one more rep.!ā, you can hear the entire room groan in unison. It is in those moments, the “strangers” in the room start to feel like a team.
Pre-class set up
One of my goals for this project was to see if the vulnerability of fitness could help bridge the gap in mental health conversations. This week, I had the chance to chat with a few members after class.
I asked a simple question: “What brings you here on the days you really don’t feel like showing up?”
The answers weren’t about “getting shredded” or hitting a specific weight goal. Instead, I heard:
“I need to quiet the noise in my head.”
“This is the only hour of the day where I feel like I’m in control.”
“I knew if I didn’t come, I’d miss the energy of this group.”
These snippets of honesty confirmed exactly what I suspected, we aren’t just showing up for the workout, we are showing up for the healing power of the community.
This weekās focus on GenAI and education was a very important topic to explore. As a teacher candidate, developing an understanding of how GenAI operates is essential so that I can facilitate informed classroom dialogues and incorporate digital literacy in the classroom.
As I possess a very basic skill level with GenAI, the pre-class videos were very informative particularly Jeff Suās Googleās AI course for Beginners.
Before viewing the videos, admittedly it never occurred to me that GenAI is a large language model, meaning that the information that they provide is sourced from anywhere and everywhere! That user’s inputs can be used as outputs for the general public. I naively assumed that the information provided by GenAI was accurate and the information credible .
In light of the videos and todayās lecture, I now have a heightened sense of awareness that makes me feel awkwardly uncomfortable in a sense that I feel that I have been āduped.ā Some in the tech. savvy world may even label someone unfamiliar with AI like me as a ‘black-box” user in which Google Gemini defines this as:
“Characteristics of a Black Box User”
An AI Black Box User is an individual or organization that uses artificial intelligence systems without having visibility intoāor an understanding ofāhow the AI actually reached its conclusions.
Outcome-Focused: The user cares about the result (e.g., “Is this credit card transaction fraudulent?”) rather than the logic behind it.
Reliance on Trust: Because the process isn’t transparent, the user must trust the data used to train the model and the reputation of the developer.
My personal inexperience with GenAI highlights the importance of providing digital literacy skills to students to ensure that they understand that GenAI is not 100% accurate and that āhallucinationsā do occur. It is important to teach students who choose to use GenAI to utilize quality, detailed prompts and to always evaluate the quality and reliability of the outputs.
Notebook LM generated infographic. Information prompts sourced from Rich McCue’s “Hands on Lab time” instructions.
As GenAI is reshaping education at an alarming speed, understanding how it works and critically evaluating its impact on learning is essential. To turn a blind eye to its presence knowing that a vast majority of students engage with it daily, is to fail in our responsibility to equip them with essential skills to navigate a rapidly changing world.
This week’s learning objectives of how multimedia material can help to make learning more engaging was very useful as a teacher candidate.
To establish a baseline of understanding of multimedia design, we were provided with two pre-class resources that helped to build a foundation of knowledge of the learning topics. One resource was a Soundcloud audio by Kevin Alexander on “Multimedia Design for Learning”:
and the other resource was a video by Dr. Ray Pastore on “What is Multimedia Learning? What is Multimedia”.
During the Dr. Ray Pastore video https://youtu.be/g-sknUVq1mk, I attempted to sketchnote my thoughts into a visual format, tieing ideas and thoughts into sketches. However, my final result was surprising as my so-called ‘sketchnoting’ resembled a text-heavy mind map. Upon reflection, I noticed that it took me longer to think of how to represent thoughts into drawings than if I just wrote the words down in a text format.
My own experience demonstrates that learners have individual learning preferences and diverse learning styles, highlighting the importance of integrating varied formats like multimedia learning.
Sketchnoting attempt
As a teacher candidate, I do think that including H5P interactive tools would be effective in teaching secondary level social studies classes. By utilising H5P in the classroom can help students to become active and engaged learners rather than passively absorbing knowledge. In addition, by incorporating H5P helps to provide personalized learning and student agency with the ability to pause, replay, or fast forward a video.
By editing an assignment medium with video editing, would allow a teacher to highlight important concepts for student learning such as by: bolding or italicizing historical dates during the video, incorporating speech bubbles to emphasize important facts, and even having the video pause to display a formative multiple choice quiz.
In summary, while today’s class was challenging, learning a new skill pushed me outside of my comfort zone. However, a few deep breaths helped me pivot and refocus, turning a technology obstacle into a positive outcome .
