Transforming Teaching and Learning in a Knowledge Society

Term 1 (Summer 2012)

Inquiry and ICT (EDER 679.14)
Theme: Inquiry in Curriculum
Course: Instructional design, a well-defined feature of program development in various industrial sectors and educational settings, has roots in curriculum studies.  Approaches to instructional design in K-12 settings roughly parallel significant paradigms in learning theory from behaviorism to constructivism, and in technology evolution in schools from distribution to pervasive technologies.
CRC Professional Learning Seminar:  4 seminars (12 hours):
“Inquiry-based learning involves connecting children's learning to the world in an authentic way. It is a way for teachers to address individual needs of students including academic and emotional and it involves a different focus on project work through the integration of all subjects.” ~ Calgary teacher
 
Using inquiry to teach for deep understanding requires teachers to develop teaching strategies that, “… offers multiple pathways to learning so that all students are engaged and successful learners each and every school day” (Making a Difference, 2010).  

EDER 679.14 will provide a context for students to explore how inquiry enables teachers to effectively differentiate instruction for diverse learners in mathematics, science and social studies and will investigate how emerging technologies, when used in meaningful ways, can augment learning and provide multiple learning entry points for all learners within discipline-based inquiry.

Term 2 (Fall 2012)

Integrating Educational Technology (EDER 679.11)
Theme:  Participatory Culture

Course:  This course is designed to provide students the opportunity to experience learning through inquiry. The course will have students exploring both pedagogical and technological issues and critical factors that confront educators with the integration of information and communication technology (ICT). With an emphasis on inquiry disposition that nurtures technology integration, students will develop a deeper understanding of what comprises "good teaching and learning" within a knowledge era. As part of this learning experience, students will develop knowledge, skills and strategies to be more confident in teaching and learning through technology integration.

CRC Professional Learning Seminar: 4 to 5 seminars (12 hours):
In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Jenkins (2006) identifies a list of emerging media literacy skills and points out that many adult proponents of this new digital culture believe that “youth can simply acquire these skills on their own without adult intervention or supervision” (Jenkins, 2006, p.12). In response to this stance, Jenkins disagrees and advocates for the presence of guiding adults who have developed a deep understanding of the participatory culture- including the key skills and competencies needed to live and learn in a participatory culture and the policy and pedagogical practices these changes require.

EDER 679.11 will provide a context for students to explore components of the participatory culture, its impact of teaching and learning and the pedagogical shifts that education will need to undergo in order to survive and thrive. During this course, participants will explore:
•    How elements of a participatory culture can serve to support and change how curriculum outcomes are approached
•    The skills needed for young people to examine and evaluate new medias
•    How to navigate a complex culture where the line between consumers and producers is blurring and the ethical implication involved.
•    The fundamentally different roles and functions of teachers within a participatory culture
•    The new ideas that will disturb traditional beliefs and assumptions about learning.

Term 3 (Winter 2013)

Citizenry in a Digital Age (EDER 679.xx)
Theme: Emerging Citizenry in a Digital Age

Course: This course is designed to have students explore and examine the notion of emerging citizenry in a digital society. What is citizenry?  Why is it important in a digital age and in a digital society?  Through the course, students will examine the following topics:  identity in a digital world, privacy, social justice of citizenry, Canadian copyright, and impact and role of social media.

CRC Professional Learning Seminar :  4 to 5 seminars (12 hours):
Mishra and Koehler (2006) suggest that teaching with technology is a wicked problem, one riddled with complexity, ambiguity and a need for highly creative solutions. This has never been more evident than when educators seek to establish norms that support the safe, ethical and civil use of technology by students. At this time, there is a pressing need to move beyond a neat and tidy definition of digital citizenship and an accompanying standardized list of norms that fail to introduce the creative solutions and possibility thinking that is crucial for learners in a digital environment. What does Digital Citizenship look like in the classroom- how can teachers turn theoretical conversations into practical actions that bring digital citizenry to life within an educational and personal context?

EDER 679.xx will provide a context for students to:
•    Investigate the evolutionary nature of Digital Citizenship       
•    Examine citizenry in a digital world
•    Explore the inherent rights and responsibilities of a Digital Citizen             
•    Study how social participation as a democratic process presents within a digital world  
•    Formulate a more purposeful model of Digital Citizenship for 21st century learners.

Term 4 (Spring 2013)

Literacies in the Information Age (EDER 679.xx)
Theme:  Role of Narrative

Course:  To engage in inquiry into the multiple and complex dimensions of children's language and literacy learning in our time (what does it mean to say '21st Century' in relation to schools and literacy?), to the various ways 'literacy' has been and might be defined, and into the ways the discourses of multiple literacies might support us in opening spaces for an ever broader and more creative complexity and diversity of language and literacy practices and experiences in our classrooms.

CRC Professional Learning Seminar: 4 seminars (12 hours):

“We organize information on maps in order to see our knowledge in a new way… To ask for a map is to say “Tell me a story…and to ask or a story is to say, “Take me somewhere. Transport me. Show me the world, or part of it, in a new way.” In writing as in mapping, at some point we turn from the role of Explorer to take on that of Guide”  ~ Peter Tuchi, Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer (2004).

In Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence, Schank (1995) describes the close connection between memory and story and suggests that stories are fundamental to how people learn and organize what they know. Emerging technologies have opened up new and engaging ways for students to explore storytelling as a tool to organize knowledge and to uncover the connection between place and memory.  

EDER 679.xx will provide a context for students to:
•    Explore place-based storytelling as a tool to access the significant stories that have contributed to their identity
•    Construct digital maps that reveal the development of memory over time
•    Examine the in-depth relationship between students and their environment.