Category: EDCI 336 (Page 2 of 2)

Today for our 5th class, we had a guest speaker teaching us about 3D printers, and we got to design our own print. This was very interesting and completly new to me. After learning about 3D printing and design, it made me think about how useful it can be in education within a vareity of ages. I played around with it and made a small heart jewelry box, but it can be cross-curricular for school ages. For example, 3D printing could be very useful in language revitilization for many Indigenous languages or even braille. 3D prints can be used as a part of an interactive story or game or as signage, and the list continues. As a teacher, I could 3D print characters, objects or places in a traditional story to help engage learners. This is helpful because these peices are tangible and that may help students learn and understand better. In this situation, this can be cross-curricular because the students are learning language and culture.

Here’s the box I designed in class:

There could be many pros and cons to using 3D at the school level. The main pro would be the hands on engagement the print offers, this could further engage the students because the technology is new and different. The students would have access to learn the newest technology they may use in their future career, such as engineering, medicine, manufacturing etc… We could use 3D printing to make learning more accessible for disabled students. This could look like creating braille models for visually impaired students. On the contrary, there are also many cons that could come along with this. As it is new technology, it will be a learning curve for teachers and students, taking plenty of time when time is already limited. Secondly, the finding. Equipement may be expensive, along with maintenence and having to refill the materials. Schools with higher funding could find this useful, but schools with lower funding may not be able to afford the printer. Meaning this tool is not equitable for all.

The image below is what a 3D printer looks like, which we got to see during class!

Here’s a link to an explaination of 3D printing for kids, if you’re planning on teaching about them:

This weeks learning was all about GenAI and very useful ways we can use it to enhance our education. GenAI can be very useful at generating ideas, using it as a correcting tool, and the possibilities are endless. Because of this, there is a very fine line of abusing the tool, and copying it word for word. Situations like this could quickly fall under copy-right and using misinformation. To use this tool, we must know how to properly, and use with caution.

Check out this video for a quick explanation:

As future teachers, and because of the unpredictable nature of GenAI, we need to have some control on how our students use this tool. AI uses all platforms to form its responses, therefore the tool has harmful bias’ that kids may not understand nor need to know yet. Along with this, kids could be exposed to bullying, and a lack of privacy. To be safe, children should have a solid foundation of education before having access to GenAI. Roughly around high school would be appropriate to used this tool, supervised.

GenAI has only been around largely for the past couple years, and was first introduced to me during my post-secondary education. As I am navigating this tool, I have found it to be very useful in my education. When I first used this tool though, I did not have the understanding of how harmful it could be if used incorrectly. I have used GenAI for many different things, but the most helpful has been to sum up large amounts of text, to generate ideas and to create activity plans while working with children. I tutor K-12 students for work, and using GenAI has been amazing at helping me explain things in an easier way to children. For example, I can understand difficult math, but struggle explaining it to the kids for them to understand. Going forward, I am excited to see different ways this tool can help me in my career as a teacher!

Today, we learned how to make an interactive video while explaining a game. In my video, I chose to play the game Coconut Chaos, which is a great game to help teach children about musical notes. While recording, I found the screencasting part straightforward. In the past, when I have had to do virtual presentations while sharing my screen, I have used Zoom. In the future, screencasting is a tool that could be very useful in this situation, or for creating a pre-recorded lesson. As for H5P, I managed to add interactive parts to the video, but the installation was not intuitive. However, with more practice, this tool could be very useful to engage students in class. For example, sharing a video with the class and including multiple choice questions with H5P, allows students to answer and engage in the lesson.

Multi-media learning can help us create more engaging and effective instructional videos because there will be multiple modes of sharing information. For example, having a photo, text, and speaker is much more engaging than just a speaker. If there were to be just a speaker, the listener could get lost or bored not having anything to follow along with. As for using the Flipped Classroom teaching model, we value the time in class as hands-on learning instead of 50%-100% lecturing and lesson time. As teachers, we would give pre-class work therefore there is more time to work in class. Myself, wanting to teach grades 3-4, I could give them simple reading homework and have time to do interactive assignments about the story in class. Although, this method may be more effective with secondary or post-secondary students.