Last week, we talked about the value of having a digital curation or collection as teachers where you can compile all your resources in one place. It was discussed how digital collections are often a lot better than physical collections or files because they can often be accessed from different devices (eg. Google Drive you can sign into on other devices), you do not have to lug around a bunch of papers, and the searchability is much better. For example, with physical files you would have to rifle through a stack of papers looking for what you want, whereas digitally you could simple search the file name and find it almost instantly. I think going into practicum, having a digital curation system will be incredibly valuable to keep track of all the lesson plans as well as to have a place to store all the resources we are learning about in lectures that we might want to use during practicum. Up to this point I just have a file on my computer for such resources but because of this I decided to create a google drive, as seen below. It makes it easy to separate resources into categories and as previously mentioned, can be accessible from multiple devices, so far I’m liking it. I’m planning on adding more categories as I gain useful resources. Some other good digital curation apps (more for note taking) were mentioned including Obsidian and Google Keep and Notion.
Aside from digital curations, we also talked about the value of educational videos. They can be used as a supplementary component to a lesson to further encourage student learning. I know that for myself, educational videos like CrashCourse or Kahn Academy have been very useful in helping me understand a concept I was struggling with and they could be similarly useful for younger students. Other things that were mentioned that could further engage student’s in learning were computer simulations, gifs, and virtual reality. For example, if you were teaching a lesson on earthquakes you could show a computer simulation of the fault lines or the plates hitting one another. Simulations allow important processes that are not normally visible, be made visible to students. Virtual Reality, whether through 360 videos or actual headsets, can also help increase learning. One example I thought of was if you were teaching a lesson on ancient civilizations you could show students around the ruins of Rome or inside an Egyptian pyramid. In our science class, we are planning on creating a lesson plan to teach Grade 6’s about the Northern Lights and are considering starting the lesson off with a 360 VR video of the lights as a way to peak their interests about the topic. There are really so many cool things you can show students that can help them engage more with their learning!
I’m excited to possibly use some of these resources to improve my own teaching.