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Busting Out – Field Trip!

July 25, 2015 • mvstoller

This first week of MALAT residency at RRU we had the opportunity to go on a field trip to two unique places. The first was Open School BC. Open School BC designs, develops and distributes educational resources. We heard from a number of their project managers about projects they have, or are currently, working on. There were projects to design K-12 resources, and projects for the public sector.

I was captivated by the visually appealing designs, varied project themes and also inspired by the use of innovation and technology to produce education and training resources that fit with the outlined outcomes. It was evident that this was not always an easy task. This was a eye opening workplace to see as I have, at times, worried and wondered about career possibilities outside of the traditional school environment. This showed me that there are outside possibilities that would compliment my creativity and passion for technology.

The Open School BC website says that “With over ninety years of distributed learning experience, Open School BC continues to grow, keeping pace with evolving educational technologies and practices in support of Learning 2.0”. From our brief experience, I would agree with this. I was impressed with the innovation and creativity and from listening to the project  managers, could see how well they understood their client and their particular needs.

I was especially interested in the new resource being developed for teachers with respect to the Historical Wrongs Curriculum Revision. “In the Grade 5 curriculum, learning tools will be used to deliver a major unit on Chinese Canadians in the “Immigration and Development of Canada” section” (Education Supplement). The website that has been developed looks amazing and seems to have a wealth of information for teachers. The partnership with the Royal British Columbia museum is a complimentary connection and the artifacts that will be within the website look interesting and plentiful.

One question that came to mind as I was looking through this though, was whether there had been any consideration of making the website more student, as opposed to teacher, centered? During the past three weeks I have been learning, reading and researching learning theory and have been reflecting on which of these most resonate with me and align with my epistemological ideals. When looking at constructivism, a theory I strongly align myself with, students are encouraged to take ownership for their learning with the teacher acting more as a facilitator and guide. Constructivists strongly support experiential learning models and there is evidence that when designed properly, authentic learning experiences are highly engaging for students and lead to better long term memory (Bates, 2015). I wonder if there are experiential learning opportunities within the curriculum revision since this was the perfect opportunity to include more aspects of a 21st century competency model including collaboration, critical thinking and authentic learning.

When the website is available I will be very interested to look at it in more detail. I think there was amazing opportunity here to design learning experiences that fit with constructivist learning theory and the inclusion of technology tools.

References:

Open School BC Website: http://www.openschool.bc.ca/about.html

Bates, A. W. (2015). Teaching in a digital age. BC: Campus.

Education Supplement: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/our-history/chinese-legacy-bc/legacy-projects/education-supplement

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