The opportunity to think

As I work through Module 1 – THCT500 for my Bachelor of Education, 4th Year Upgrade (Primary) I have found myself reflecting on the opportunity to question my faith and belief in God as a Catholic.

I am going to enjoy the opportunity to critically analyse and question my own beliefs and to work out how to express my learning throughout the course of this unit.

I am excited about the opportunity to engage and learn together with my fellow students. At the moment however it appears that the unit for THCT500 is merely a text book course that has been made available online.  At this stage there doesn’t appear to be any opportunities to encourage interaction with our lecturer or fellow students.

Not to be thwarted I am trying to connect to fellow students through Twitter – #THCT500

I’m back….

After a long time – since December 2016, I am reconnecting with my learning space and with university.

I had a vacation from uni in Semester One and really enjoyed reconnecting with my family and myself!

At times I thought it would be good to go and find out what was happening online but never ventured any further than my thoughts.

Now I am back studying, I am studying Foundations of Christian Faith this Semester and whilst it is the first week, I am enjoying the challenge of thinking critically when reading Module 1…

 

A good reminder

When developing content for my Future Learning Space – it is important to stay focussed on the true intent of the learning space.

The learning space is to connect teachers to information and to each other to bring about social change.

It is also important to stay focussed designing the learning space for the future needs of the young learners in the Zaatari Refugee Camp.

A good way to stay on track when developing the Future Learning Space is to revisit the mission and vision on a regular basis. They are the foundations of the space upon which everything else is centered.

 

 

Keep going

Tonight, I’ve got into the zone quite late, again!!!

I’m adding content to my pages and working out where I should put the background of the Zaatari Refugee Camp eg the facts and figures about how many refugees in total, how many children, how many schools.

I’m keen to add in more information in the CFS section as to what is currently happening with some of the students…

I need to work out where I can share the stories of the children and families that I have researched that are not able to access school as they have to work or get married if they are girls…

I need to work out how I can include the Granny nannies in the learning and how I can get more information on each of my learning spaces that I want to include….

Hmmm lots to plan and think about…

I’m also keen to get feedback but don’t want to wear out my welcome with gaining feedback from Kayri….

 

Focus on my Future Learning Space

Assignment Three

Part A: You will design a future learning space that is based both in a refugee camp and on a contemporary educational concern that you identify having read the nine Teachers Without Borders initiatives. Underpinning your design will be two or more of the six learning spaces investigated during Module 2.

Your design, including your research, thinking, planning, questioning, aha moments and so on, will be housed your PLN.

Part B: At the same time as designing your future learning space, you will continue to develop your knowledge about managing a Personal Learning Network by using your PLN to show evidence of your Part A learning.

Eyes Wide Open on the Plight of Refugees

Having just read the plight of children without families in the Calais refugee camp – it leaves me thinking that we need to be more innovative in our thinking of how we can help these children and not be ‘stymied’ by decisions which ultimately creates more suffering and leaves children vulnerable.

The more I get into this topic, the more it opens my eyes to the vulnerability of the children and the plight of the refugees. It makes me more passionate about creating Child Friendly Spaces (CFS). The challenge as I see it is how we can make our CFS portable in refugee camps, especially when the camps themselves are being pulled down. I’m really beginning to see how the child’s psychosocial wellbeing is so important. To me CFS are not only important inside a refugee camp but also ‘outside’ as well to wherever children who are refugees land or end up!

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References:

The Guardian, (2016). Britain ‘did not respond’ to French pleas to take Calais child refugees. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/08/child-refugees-calais-camp-stranded-britain-ignored-pleas-home-office?CMP=twt_gu

Oh my Goodness…the time keeps a ticking and I’m still playing around

I’m finding that each night I’m going onto Leo to check what questions/posts have been added for the day. I also go to the Twitter page for #EDFD459 and then click on the links and find myself being transfixed on what is happening in a Refugee camp, or reading a blog, or an online article about refugee camps.

I have been thinking about what Kayri and Adam said last night in ACS8 – that we need to not lose sight of the fact that yes we are basing our assignment on a refugee camp but we need to ensure we include what we are going to add in our learning spaces! And we need to choose the learning spaces.

For me I’m going to choose the:

•  eSpace as there are great opportuntiites for students to learn online
• group space – as the children can collaborate with each other online
• beyond the classroom  – as they are not going to physically attend school – their school is beyond the classroom.

At the moment I feel as if I’m in the Liminal Space. Caught between wanting to do really well and with a fear of failure – not wanting to fail but not really sure where to go.

My feedback from Adam for Assignment Two was that the type of website I used didn’t enhance my content as much as it could have.

I’ve mucked around with Adobe Spark with a couple of different looks – what I want to try and do is work out how to make it easy to navigate. I’m thinking I could have links out to different pages and sites..

These are my two attempts at the moment – noting that the content and pictures are there at the moment just to see what the overall look of the site could look like:

https://spark.adobe.com/page/XbekHZSouSbmi/

https://spark.adobe.com/page/4dlXyQ0e9ThXz/

 

Learning from others

 

I’ve just finished watching our last Adobe Connect Session tonight for EDFD459. I’m always pleasantly surprised and in awe of our COP.

I am looking at the Assignments from AT2 that Adam has posted tonight as examples of good practice.  They are not good – they are excellent!

I’ve just watched a video on organsing or to use the correct term – ‘curating’ our web content via Symbaloo! I love how we are on a journey of learning – a continuous cycle of learning.

I could possibly use this idea of Symbaloo – as an opportunity in my eSpace for students in Refugee camps – where a Teacher can set  a lesson online and students can complete it at their own pace….online.

Also from another AT2 assignment on the eSpace:

Teachers setting up classrooms on the internet/in the cloud for their students can set up Google Classrooms allow Teachers to set up collaborative learning with their students.

Espace for Regugee camp…Set up opportunities to learn teachers and students could use Google Classrooms – Wiki Spaces to collaborate together

If they need to ask a question after the adult/teacher has left their home/lesson they can log on and post a question…T could explore question with S and send comments etc at different times

Google Docs/Googel Drive/Showbie allow Ts and Ss to set post lessons in and expand learning

For Ss in early years could do Studyladder that is set generically

Challenge – need to get curriculum specific to where children live…

 

Adobe Spark

Okay – I know I’ve got under 2 weeks to go but my interest has been sparked with Adobe Spark..
This is my first effort for Adobe Spark to see what is possible….

https://spark.adobe.com/page/XbekHZSouSbmi/

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Future Learning Space 2016

This is a test to see what my post looks like in the Category FLS for my Future Learning Space