Category Archives: EC&I 831

Open Education – Is it the way of the future?

This week in class, we discussed the concept of ‘open education’. For most of us, this term was new and unknown. Although simplistic in nature, and is occurring in various ways online already, the idea of education being fully open and accessible to all is likely a distant future away. However, I truly feel that the idea of open education is the correct way forward and is the shift that education needs to move towards.

Let me start by describing what ‘open education’ means to me. What I took away from class and by watching the “Why Open Education Matters” video is that open education is the idea that knowledge and information is something that should be available to all people, regardless of geographical location, because it is intended to be there for the common good. Lack of funding or resources, and outdated knowledge or training, is often what inhibits education from being optimized and open in the first place. Open education is the idea that qualitative knowledge should be available to both teachers and students everywhere, for free!

YouTube (or Google), arguably, can be viewed as the first online platform to make education open and accessible to everyone. Access to technology and an internet connection, of course, still needs to be accounted for. However, if these obstacles could be overcome, then the idea of global, open education could a realistic option. What if educators used YouTube or a similar platform to upload videos that they have made for any grade level, subject, and outcome in the SK curriculum? This could become an incredible open sharing network that all educators (and perhaps students) could access to share and find resources so that they don’t have to start from scratch with every outcome or topic that they are expected to cover.

How great would it be if teachers and students could access textbooks or resources that they use on a daily basis from the comfort of their home? Or anywhere in the world, as long as they have access to a computer/smartphone and an internet connection. This is the inhibitor, really, since the availability of technology and access to internet isn’t accessible to everyone. We tend to think of other countries being limited in terms of their resources, but the lack of things such as computers and laptops is widespread in the communities we work and teach in every day.

One of the limiting factors of open education is that people are greedy, and sometimes rightfully so. Good knowledge should be of value and those that work hard to create reliable and accurate information should be compensated for their efforts. However, where does the money-making end and the access to information begin so that everyone can benefit from this open sharing? Is the ability to share and receive knowledge enough of a reward for those that have valuable knowledge worth sharing in the first place? Where does the financial gain end, and where does the complete openness begin, so that everyone (and not just some) can reap the reward of lifelong learning? Having a government that invested in and valued public education, rather than decreasing and cutting funding year after year, would be a great place to start.

Computer and tablet

co working team meeting concept,businessman using smart phone and laptop and digital tablet computer in modern office with virtual interface icons network diagram Stock photos by Vecteezy

The Cost of Open (and Closed) Education

I thoroughly enjoyed our last class and chance to hear Alan Levine share a little bit about the topic of open education (full disclosure – I typed “Adam Levine” at first and thought… wait a minute…).

Prior to hearing him talk about it, I didn’t really know how to define it. I knew very little about it. I suppose I could have taken a good guess at what it was, but it was definitely a weak definition prior to our discussion.

Alan offered the definition of open education as basically the belief that education is a common good, and everyone should have access to it. Open education resources, then are those materials that are created and made available for anyone to use, without barriers of cost or access.

I immediately thought of a resource base that I use frequently – TPT. While many resources are freely available for download with an account on this site, much of the higher-quality materials must be purchased. Some plans, units and resources can be upwards of $30. One thing Alan said, with a bit of a wondering tone, was that sellers on TPT who create and put their resources up for sale don’t really make all that much money. This made me curious; I felt like I’d seen the same creators over and over again when searching for resources. Teaching with a Mountain View is a seller that came to mind. Upon browsing her page, I found that she has 870 products available. I found it hard to believe that someone like this wouldn’t make a notable amount of money with this many quality products for sale. I also read this article that notes that over 300 sellers on TPT have reached the $1 million dollar mark in sales. Of course, as with any sums large as this, the “take home” is far less, based on a variety of factors. However, based on this and a couple of other resources and blogs I stumbled upon, the profits that some sellers on TPT take home are worth mentioning.

The article I linked above talked about how money was tight for some people and they turned to TPT as a way to ease some of the financial stress during unpaid summer months. I posed this question in class, but I still have been wondering: if all resources were “open”, would people be less motivated to create quality products?. To my understanding, the belief of open education is that creators of content are driven largely by the love of knowledge and the desire to share it with everyone and anyone. The cynic in me just finds it hard to believe that some of the self-made millionaires, who have created incredible resources for purchase on TPT, would have poured countless hours into creating high-quality products just for the goals of open education. If people could not create and sell resources, how would this change the landscape of a place like TPT or other businesses that sell educational materials? This is absolutely not to say I don’t believe in open education. This is just a conundrum I’ve been reflecting on over the past week and it kind of breaks my brain.

As Alan continued his presentation, the conversation shifted to some of the obvious positive things about open education, such as “open data” and its role in world betterment. Alan also talked about “open access”, explaining that more knowledge fuels more knowledge. He discussed the irony in having publicly-funded academic research journals requiring a payment for members of the public to eventually read and have access to, which is just kind of messed up.

Listening to Alan speak was lovely. One of the last things he said in his presentation was that “it shouldn’t be hard to become educated”. He explained that he learned a lot of what he knows through open education so he’s just passing it on. His casual, easy-going tone helped communicate his message and passion for open education and certainly inspired me to think more about it myself.

Reflecting on this has me thinking about my own learning. I can use my learning project (sewing) as an example. As a result of “open” education, I was able to learn how to set up my machine and practice the basics. Without platforms like YouTube and TikTok providing me with free videos and instructional materials, I’m not sure where I would have been in my progress. A little more broke, I suppose, with all of the other resources I access freely online without thinking about that help me learn and accomplish things (recipes for baking and substitution ideas, gardening tips and tricks, guitar chords and tabs for thousands of songs, etc.)

At risk of contradicting my considerations about open ed. resources demotivating people to create quality products, all of this open education wondering leads me to this: open education is a concept, a collection of beliefs, a worldview, and a set of values about knowledge and how it should be shared. Saying this begs the question: what is the purpose of creating something in the first place? Yes, people create to express themselves or to complete a task, but if these creations have the potential to spread awareness and knowledge about something, should that be limited or restricted? Open education promotes the common good, and maybe that’s enough to keep people motivated to keep doing what they’re doing, regardless of a paycheck.

Shining Schitts Creek GIF by CPC on Giphy

Remixed or Registered: Open Education

During last week’s class I kept making the connection with open education and pharmaceutical companies. What drives the development of new drugs? Corporations fund research, this results in life saving/life changing medications to be created. Companies then charge for this medication to cover costs and make a profit (a lot of profit). This money is then used to fund more research and create more lifesaving/life changing drugs. To ensure that those with less financial means can access those drugs, governments limit the amount of time companies can maintain patents on those drugs. It then becomes public and any other company can make cheap replicas. The initial run of medication encouraged by capitalism promotes innovation. That is the idea, but obviously it is not that simple. What about those that died because they were sick during the initial patent? What about those that still cannot afford the pills after it is in the public domain? What about those that could survive with the latest version, but their insurance won’t cover this new pills cost?

Now let’s look at textbooks. Companies are paid by governments to develop academic documents. Those companies then charge schools to pay for said textbooks. Updates do not make financial sense and schools will not pay for those updates because the initial costs of those books was so much. Jump ahead 12 years and we are using science textbooks that reference someone training for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics or the very current use of space shuttles. Budgets are cut, publishers do not receive the funding, and new books are never made. Teachers then take resources they can find, try to update and provide students with current information and are sued for violating copyrights. We have been given the medicine and it is better than nothing, but it’s years past the expiry date. Our patients, our students are now suffering.

We are in a world where we can take information and “remix it” to suit our classrooms needs. We no longer have to rely on that pharmaceutical medicine, that Pearson textbook. Lawrence Lessig’s analogy of an airplanes flight path not violating trespassing laws is an interesting take on this remixing that we are doing. While educators may not be manipulating a piece of pop culture, we are manipulating research, texts, and a variety of other resources that are stamped with a circled C or R. But how many of us have left the textbooks all together and now create our own resources from bits and pieces we have found online? How many of us share those resources? How far do we share them? In this way we are making our own open education, however it is within the confines of our institutional walls. I have not uploaded my ELA lessons, but maybe I should.

With access to the internet I have millions of lesson ideas to go through. I did not need to pay a fee to use them, or request them as part of a yearly order. I did pay to be educated on how to best use them, but some could argue that a few YouTube videos and some volunteer time in a class could have done the same thing.

I am currently using the next version of a textbook for math. MathUp is an online resource. It can be updated easily and I can decide what to use in the same way I could choose questions or chapters to assign from a textbook. To suit my needs I have begun to “remix” it. I take sections and images and compile them into my own lesson. Sometimes I follow the proposed outline, sometimes I abandon it entirely. Despite this, it is not open education. My division pays a fee to access this program, just as it paid for textbooks in the past. If I upload my version of these lessons I would be violating copyright laws; even though large sections are not recognizable from the program itself. I am soaring far above the ground, but I am trespassing.

A “remixed” Mona Lisa. Photo by Yaroslav Danylchenko on Pexels.com

So when do we abandon this? Open Education requires (as discussed in last class) an economy of sharing. Have we reached the point where we no longer need companies like Pearson to develop programs? Do we need them in the same way we rely on Phizer? Is the answer funding through taxes? In some ways what teachers are doing is exactly that. We are paid through taxes, we develop lessons and programs, we pass on those lessons to others. They in turn develop them and pass them on to someone else. But I feel like there is something missing. What is driving innovation? Is it an intrinsic need to share and do better? Do we need that first patented pill? Do we need that copyrighted textbook? Do we need that original song to mash up?

I’ve rambled on, but this is where my brain goes with Open Education. It seems like a dream at times and others it feels like we are already there.

BREAD WEEK #5: Whatever the focaccia want it to be…

I am on a savoury kick, and I thought I would end this learning project with a bread I absolutely love but literally have zero idea how to make: FOCACCIA.

Literally no idea.

do not know schitts creek GIF by CBC

After all of the Great British Bake Off seasons I’ve crushed, I’m not sure I’ve seen a lot of focaccia made. I know Mamma Val has never made it (at least that I remember). But, I was determined to kill it.

Time to channel my inner Paul Hollywood because he’s the GOAT of bread.

Paul Hollywood's white bread recipe - BBC Food

The GOAT of bread (credit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_bloomer_84636)

I spent this week reading articles like this one and this one, and watching videos like this one about how to make this glorious bread. I learned that there are many different types of focaccia with many different toppings, and depending on the region you visit in Italy, focaccia will likely not look or taste the same. For example, there’s “Foccacia ligure or genovese is about 2 cm thick and is soft inside, sprinkled with salt and brushed with olive oil. Recco focaccia (also from Liguria) consists of two thin layers and soft fresh cheese in between. Sardenaira originates in Sanremo, and it is focaccia with anchovies or sardines” (“What is Italian Focaccia and their regional differences?“).

My favourite video was this one with Jamie Oliver and his pal, Genarro. They’re both so cool. Honestly, I was really hoping Larry would have made a video about focaccia, but he did not. If you’re not sure who Larry is, head back to my week one bread post. Larry is the bomb. While reading and listening to all the tips and tricks about focaccia, there were a couple of repeat suggestions like keeping the dough hydrated with olive oil and to get artistic by following your heart’s desires for toppings. Ohhhhhh, that’s right up my alley (Mamma Val’s, too). I made notes on that and dialed in.

I felt ready and made the decision to follow Jaime Oliver’s YouTube video recipe. He had great comments about how easy it was to follow and how tasty the bread was. So off I went. Here’s some pics of the process:

Flava Flav.

The rising action.

Welcome to flavortown.

SHE DONE.

Here’s my review of Jaime Oliver’s recipe. It was so easy to follow. Nothing was overcomplicated. I had to pause and rewind it a couple times just to make sure I heard properly and saw it correctly. This didn’t add any extra *thyme* (see what I did there?) at all.

I loved Jaime’s suggestions for letting the dough rise: simply flip the bowl upside down over the dough to create some humidity for a proper rise. Simple. No need to put anywhere warm. Just leave it alone. I’m curious if this little trick will work for all types of dough?

I love that he offered different options for toppings, but, ultimately, it was whatever I felt would go together. Thanks to Mamma Val’s teachings on cooking growing up, I am fairly confident in my ability to pair flavors. Rosemary, thyme, and garlic? PERFECTION. Jaime’s tip to put some oil on the herbs before adding it to the top was a solid tip. He says that if you put herbs on dry, they will taste of nothing. This was such a great tip and will carry this on in the future whenever I use herbs. I can only imagine the flavors I could add for toppings when I make this in the near future. I’m really feeling a basil, tomato, and kalamata vibe.

I also really liked the reminder to “feed the focaccia” with a good oil after it comes out of the oven. Beautiful. Glorious. *Chef’s Kiss*.

The bread was light, fluffy, flavorful, and overall INCREDIBLE. I would go so far as to think this would get a handshake from the GOAT: Paul Hollywood. I’m that confident.

Not me getting a handshake from Paul Hollywood.

Also, please note, even my kids, who seem to have an aversion to green toppings, gobbled it up. I was shocked.

This bread was THAT GOOD.

Honestly, I feel like I saved the best for last. Of all the recipes I’ve followed, Jaime was the best in not only showing how to do things, but the why behind it. I found it helpful and really appreciated that. I found the both of them fun and engaging mainly because they didn’t take their baking too seriously. I wasn’t even annoyed that I have to let it rise for 40 minutes. That’s how much fun I had baking this bread.

In the end, I would give this an astounding 6 doughballs/5. Ya ya ya. I can do that. It’s my rating scale. It was so good that it deserves an extra one. I said what I said.

fresh raw dough

Here’s the video. Go make it. Now.

We come full circle…well 2/3 circle…

As the school year winds down and report card cut off looms I had to put a firm date for our last blog. That did result in more students submitting on time, but I was still missing about a third of the class. Thankfully these blogs do not take long to assess, so I can give them one more chance. I do that too often.

Our final topic was, “If you were in control of the school, what would you change?” The ideas varied however a large portion mentioned uniforms. I was not surprised by this as the number one question we have before an event or a trip is “Do we have to wear our uniform?” Bringing cellphones and personal technology was also a common talking point as was getting a cafeteria and new playground equipment. Surprisingly though the second most common suggestion was allowing gum. This is a school rule, but it is one I have to enforce. The past few weeks I have had to ask one particular student to get rid of their gum two to three times a day. For that student it has become a power move, for everyone else it has become a daily chore. At the very least it does show me that I have become the villain in this battle.

A Few Surprises

A number of students mentioned ways high school could be different. This shows me they are actually thinking of their future at our school and how it could be made better. They are also picking up on a few odd things we had to deal with this year and decided what we saw as a problem was an improvement. For example we had some students trying to sell items at school as a small business. One student saw this as a way to teach how to avoid scams.

There also seems to be a disconnect between our school and what some of them think happens at local public schools. Some think that every elementary school has a cafeteria with hot lunches and every school has a better playground than us.

Improvements

Students are becoming much more adapt at picking images that connect to their blog. In previous weeks a majority just used pictures from the school website. At least half of the entries used clip art that blended very well with their text.

Comments

Once again comments have been low. Only half of the students commented by the due date. Oddly enough a few of the students who did not submit their own blogs found time to comment. The comments that have been posted continue to improve. While most are quite short, they reference what they read and provide useful feedback. I’m taking this as one of the major successes of this project. Aside from reminding them to make their comments, I no longer need to remind them the expectations. They are more enthusiastic and more positive. I will be curious what they tell me about this when we review this whole process as a class.

Next Steps

As we wrap up these blogs I will be doing a survey to see what they think went well and where I could improve next year. Overwhelmingly they voted to do the survey in our google classroom. Only one student voted to do a paper survey. They have gotten comfortable in this digital space. I can see how this would be a beneficial resource to start earlier in the year. We could return to it for various projects, possibly even creating a safe virtual hangout. It would require a lot of monitoring on my part, but what if I had student moderators? There is a lot of potential that can be explored. Now the fear of waiting to see what the survey says.

Steve Harvey gif provided by Giphy

Stitching Stories: From Pinterest Pins to Personal Creations

It’s been an eventful week in my embroidery corner, and I’m excited to share the latest developments in my ongoing project.

This week, I decided to challenge myself by exploring a new technique I’ve been eager to try – Highlighted embroidery on printed fabric. With a fresh set of vibrant threads and a vision in mind, I dove into the world of dimensional stitching. The added depth and texture it brings to the design are simply mesmerizing. For my embroidery project, I rely on Pinterest to get new ideas. I got this idea from this online platform and I also saw it on an Indian television show.

I became fascinated after seeing it on the television program and looked it up online. I originally looked for it on Instagram but was unable to locate the precise pattern I was seeking for. I then looked for it on Pinterest, and after doing extensive research, I discovered and selected this picture as my source of inspiration. Here is the link and the image I discovered on the platform.

https://pin.it/4wQyfGn

I began working on my own project after discovering the specific pattern – Highlighted Embroidery. I started by choosing the threads that would best complement the pattern on the fabric, which should be visible on the printed fabric. adding images to show my own development –

I made this one with the help of French knots and Chain stitches.

Proceeding towards the next one, I was discussing with one of my friends about the project work I need to finish for one of my classes. He was interested in finding out more about it, so when I showed him my embroidery patterns, he became quite interested in what I had created. Then he asked me to make something for him, I had no idea at that time what to make for a guy. I started searching something for him on social media platforms and, then I saw a truck embroidery on Pinterest, as my friend is in trucking, I felt very happy that finally, I can create something for him. Now I have started working on it. The idea which I saw on Pinterest was – https://pin.it/6IUVC3m

I am working on it, I haven’t completed it yet. I have made the pattern and till now I have only done this much –

Behind the scenes..lol — This is how it looks like from the backside. For which we refer to using the phrase “BEHIND THE SCENCES”

I am making this on one of his hoodies. I’m hoping to finish it over the weekend and I am going to post the final look in the upcoming blog. Stay tuned!

Building Bridges: Open Education and the Global Community of Sharing

Changing the way knowledge is shared and accessed in the digital era is the goal of the transformative movement known as open education. It is based on the values of transparency, teamwork, and the conviction that everyone, regardless of financial class, location, or institutional affiliation, should have free access to education. Open education’s fundamental goal is to encourage the unrestricted sharing of educational resources, enabling an inclusive and equitable learning environment for students of all ages and backgrounds. Digital platforms and technologies like Open Education Consortium, OpenStax, Khan Academy, Coursera, MIT OpenCourseWare, Wikimedia Commons, and many more are frequently used in open education, exposing students to technology and fostering their development of digital literacy abilities.

Open educational resources (OER)are one of the main aspects of open education. During my search, I also came across Open educational resources in Canada, where various initiatives related to open education, open educational resources (OER), open pedagogies (OEP), open educational practices (OEP), and open scholarship that are established nationally, and provincially across Canadian K-12 and higher education sectors, and where Canadian based initiatives extend to international collaborations. Textbooks, lecture notes, videos, interactive modules, and other content are all examples of publicly accessible and openly licensed products. OER lessen the need for pricey textbooks and exclusive materials by enabling students and teachers to access top-notch educational content without financial restrictions. Utilizing OER allows students to study a variety of topics, interact with a variety of viewpoints, and personalize their learning to suit their needs.

In addition to the availability of materials, open practices also include open education. It encourages teachers to use cutting-edge pedagogies like open pedagogy and group learning. Students are involved in the co-creation and sharing of information through open pedagogy, which encourages active involvement and participation. In order for students to actively participate in their own learning process, it emphasizes the significance of student agency. Learners can participate in peer-to-peer interactions, group projects, and online communities through collaborative learning, which promotes a sense of community and aids in knowledge sharing.

The Culture of Sharing: Teamwork Promotes Collective Growth –

Open education and the sharing culture go hand in hand. It emphasizes the idea that when knowledge is shared jointly, it expands exponentially. This culture fosters a setting where professionals, students, and educators actively share their knowledge, experiences, and resources to help others. Individuals may ignite innovation, stimulate creativity, and collectively enhance the quality of education by openly exchanging ideas, lesson plans, and research findings. Generosity, reciprocity, and collective growth are the cornerstones of the sharing culture, which encourages everyone to grow as both contributors and learners.

Embracing Open Education: In My Personal/Professional Context –

After watching the video Blink Tower (vimeo.com) assigned in our weekly schedule by Katia, I realized that how easily we can explain open education to anyone. I really like the the way video was made and the graphics and how Blink Tower explained everything in the video. In my previous class, which is EC&I834, I learned about many online platforms from Katia, which are beneficial in the classroom. Through professional networking opportunities and participation in communities of practice, open education can be advantageous to me. Open educational platforms provide lessons, webinars, and materials that aid us as educators in enhancing our instructional strategies, incorporating new tools, and keeping abreast of the most recent developments in science and education. I can improve my teaching strategies and give my pupils a more fulfilling educational experience as a teacher by actively learning new things all the time. I may acquire crucial skills like cooperation, effective communication, and negotiation by participating in group projects, online conversations, and peer feedback. In both academic and professional settings, these abilities are quite valuable.

Adding an additional You-Tube video, It’s a must watch to know how a person can access Open Educational Resources (OER) –

To conclude, We have a tremendous opportunity to revolutionize how we study and cooperate by embracing open education and a sharing culture. We can open doors for lifelong learning, close educational gaps, and create a more inclusive society by embracing open educational practices and fostering a culture of sharing. Together, we can make education a truly international and collaborative endeavor that will enrich lives and give people all around the world access to new opportunities. Let’s embrace open education and try to foster a culture of sharing where knowledge is unbounded.

escuchando español (listening to spanish)

This week was the first time that I felt I faltered a little bit with my Learning Project. I still continued doing daily lessons on Duolingo and Drops (I’m at a 38 and 22 day streak, respectively), but often it was just the bare minimum needed to keep my streak going. I also engaged with users on Tandem a few times.

I believe my Duolingo stats for this week are the lowest they’ve been since I started

As for my goal of doing more listening and speaking this week, I did check out some Spanish TikTok videos and one podcast, but my Spanish learning took a bit of a back burner this week. Here are some brief details about both of these platforms:

TikTok

Scroll through the images above to see some recommendations of helpful accounts I came across.

Trying out some different search terms in TikTok helped me to see an array of content. With minimal effort, I came across several interesting accounts. A few of them offered everyday tips for how to sound more conversational or avoid making common mistakes when speaking. A couple were bite-sized lessons that had text on the screen to teach conjugations, vocabulary, etc. Overall, I found TikTok to be an additional platform that has lots of learning content, but you would have to diligently write down the terms you want to practice and keep reviewing them in order to retain any information (or re-watch videos multiple times over a longer span of time than a usual TikTok scroll entails).

Podcasts

Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to listening to as many podcasts as I had planned. I have several that I’d like to try out, but only managed to squeeze in the time to listen to one this week. It actually happened to be by News In Slow Spanish, a website I tried out earlier (and talked about in a previous post). Turns out the ‘podcast style’ lessons that I referred to are actually podcasts! I listened to the next episode from where I had left off (now that my free trial with that website has ended). It was good to know that they offer their content as a podcast for free, so I can continue with these later on if I want to. These lessons are great – and offer a mixture of English and Spanish, so you are able to follow along fairly easily.

I think the reason I had difficulty finding time to engage with podcasts is because it still requires a lot of my focus and attention when I listen to them, so it is not a podcast you can put on in the background while you’re doing something else. At this juncture, I still need to think hard to translate in my head, so I had to focus solely on listening to the podcast and couldn’t multitask. That being said, I do think it’s a good way to learn if you want to develop your listening skills, so it is something I am interested in exploring more in the future as I continue my Spanish learning journey!

Unexpected Learning

Before I began formally learning Spanish for this class, I enjoyed Spanish music and have a playlist of Spanish music on my phone. As I was driving home yesterday, some of these songs came on and I found myself recognizing some words being sung in the songs. I also realized that I could get a general idea of what the songs titles meant because some of the words were familiar.

For example, with the song in the images below, I recognized “Olvídate” as “forget” and knew “El” meant “he or him,” so was able to guess that the song meant something like “Forget About Him” (see reveal of the translation by moving the divider line between the pictures to either side).

This happened again in another song that came up. I knew that pueder/puedes/puedo were conjugations for the verb meaning “can.” Verbs ended in ‘o’ (puedo) are in first person (so = I can). In “Enamorarte,” I saw the stem ‘amor’ and guessed that it meant something about love. See the full translation and song title in the images below.

Also, I recommend you check out these two songs – they are great!

Final Evidence of Learning

In a week that felt like a bit of a fail, my biggest win was demonstrating/documenting where my Spanish skills are currently at for my final evidence of learning. More details to come next week in my last post, but I will tease it by saying I’m super proud of what I did and where I’m at!

Until next time,

-KKF

Week 5 – Save the Worst for Last

This week I decided to work with textures on clay. In wheel throwing it is more challenging to use textures because the clay is so wet and delicate coming off the wheel. There are some techniques that can be used once the clay is leather dry, such as using hand tools to texturize, however, I have never tried these either.

After doing some research on youtube, I decided to try two techniques.

Flower pressing
Texture rollers

Check out the youtube videos that I used for texture inspiration and learning here:

And how to create a slab-built bowl:

Here is how my experience went:

From the videos, flower pressing seemed like such a simple and elegant way to add a natural texture to clay. You can then glaze the pottery to really make the floral imprints stand out! I mean what could go wrong? Apparently a lot! I tried doing a few different types of flowers and greenery, and they all failed. Other than the stems, the flowers and leaves did not imprint how I was imagining and ended up not looking like much in the clay. As we don’t have many flowers in our yard, I decided to not have any more floral fatalities and leave nature be on this one.

The texture rollers work really well. It took me some time to get a good pace and consistent pressure and I was rolling. I found that the slower you go with the roller, the better! The rollers that I purchased from Amazon were tiny. Therefore, for my bowl, I had to do multiple rolls on the slab. With the texture pattern not covering the entire roller, I found that as I rolled a second or third time, it would start to erase or press out some of the texture from the previous roll. Therefore, if you want to make something bigger or wider, a larger texture roller would be valuable! Once I put together my bowl with the rimmed bottom I was pretty disappointed with the results. The clay did not fold over the bowl nicely and ended up being a wonky, abstract rim. Will I keep this bowl? Probably not. Following making the bowl, I tried to make a textured mug however it ended up cracking as it was drying, so again cannot be used. I think I am going to try making some simple round coasters to fire so that I can see what the textures look like glazed. However, I am definitely learning that texturizing is not my favourite technique!

Photo of clay mug with star texture. Image of clay mug with star imprint and crack down the side

Next week…

For the last week of my slab-building journey, I am going to do a kiln opening so you can see what everything looks like glazed and fired!

Open Education – The Future?

Open Education was a completely foreign topic to me only a few days ago. However, it is already a direction that I think the education system can benefit from leaning into. My interpretation of open education is that it is the idea that educators can share, collaborate, and access tools, ideas, and resources openly and freely through digital means. Ultimately this will lead to inclusivity through equal access to education.

Visual of tree that outlines the different aspects of open education and what it ultimately stands for and has to offer being equity, opportunity and access.

Retrieved from https://www.yearofopen.org/open-education/

Use in the Classroom

Professionally

The thought of having unlimited access to digital educational resources as a teacher sounds like a dream! In my classroom, I spend hundreds of dollars each year on teaching resources online to help support my students. As an intensive support teacher, with students with diverse and individualized needs, I find that even when paying for resources I am often adapting or making modifications to them in order to meet my student’s needs. Therefore, to have access to free, continually updated, or rejuvenated resources seems ideal and something that I can see myself contributing to.

Student Use

Open education and open educational resources would provide more opportunities for students. In the FIAP program that I work in, students are continually working on life and vocational skills. Having the opportunity to access courses or resources that would help build their resume would provide more opportunities in the post-secondary world.

That being said, after searching several different variations of wording, there appear to be very few open education courses that are designed for students with intellectual disabilities. This is not to say that my students could not access and succeed in courses that are available, however, in many cases, they may need extra support in completing them. In the future, I would love to be able to see and contribute to more inclusive open education opportunities that meet the needs of diverse students.

However, because open education resources are shared, developed, and adapted online, it creates barriers for those who do not have easy access to technology. It is because of this that I cannot help but continue to wonder – is open education really equitable? And how can we bridge this gap in ensuring that equal opportunities can be provided?

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