One thing I really have enjoyed about Canvas versus our previous LMS experiences is that they have an active sub culture in the Canvas Communities. I am able to connect with thousands of other users and ask questions, join live discussion groups and so much more. If you have not explored the Canvas Communities, I highly encourage you to hit the question mark icon next time you are on Canvas and click on the Ask the Community link.
Another awesome feature within Canvas is that every 3 weeks they release new features that they have been developing. Often these notes apply to Admins, Instructors and Students! And usually these ideas were generated by Canvas users in the "Studio" area of the community as what they call "Feature Ideas". So if there is something about Canvas you would like to change you can let them know. And if enough users vote for your idea then it will be placed on the developers "radar" and worked into future release notes. Be sure to search an idea first to make sure it hasn't already been recommended so that we don't dilute the voting pool!
Currently there have been some recent release notes that you might like to know about. For example, we now have access to a New Grade book under Features within our course Settings . It has a bit more functionality than the current one. The best thing about this new grade book is that you have the ability to sort Newest to Oldest so that you no longer need to scroll all the way to the right to see the most recent addition. You can also apply late penalties to assignments by a % and by a number of days.
Another great release is within the Analytics features. There is not a program called Analytics BETA in your Navigation menu. If you drag it to the top you can now use it to help compare students to the class baseline on any given assignment, assignment type or just overall grade. You can compare up to 2 students at a time against the class averages. It can really help you understand what assignments were a struggle for certain students by giving you tangible data in a plot graph.
For students there is now a great new feature within discussions. They can now upload photos directly into discussions from their Chromebooks or phones. When they hit insert image and then select Canvas and My Files, they will be presented with an upload file button to help them select from their files, making it a lot easier than previously when they had to pre-load a photo into their files so that it would be there to insert. Now students can insert photos on the fly.
Here is a link to all the release notes so you can feel free to go back and check out all that has been released even since we started our Canvas journey last Spring!
In today's digital era of ubiquitous technology we teachers need to walk the tightrope of what is educationally appropriate. I recently saw on Twitter a photo from a local IU training session that was spot on in terms of how we should handle technology in the classroom:
"Learning is King. Growth is Queen. Cool is the court jester. The jester is technology and he has value, but don't put him in charge of the kingdom!"
We need to use the "cool" to engage our students. We need to re-spark their curiosity. Technology can certainly help us take our curriculum and deliver it in a way that allows our students to explore the world around them from within our classrooms and even beyond. However, we need to find balance. Tech for the sake of Tech is NOT what we want from this initiative. We want to stick within our district's mantra of "Doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason"
Canvas, for example, is a Learning Management System that allows us to have a central hub (aka digital classroom) for our classes just like the actual room where we meet every day for 45 minutes. This virtual space helps us stay connected beyond that small sliver of time we are allotted (roughly 141 hours a year). Other tools like Google Apps for Education and Nearpod allow us to work together in real time regardless of location. Making sure that we are all on the same digital and literal page. This sense of collaboration can really augment our time together and teaches important interpersonal skills, which can really help us maximize our face to face time, which will always be so important. Now all of those programs and apps would be meaningless without the Chromebooks, which allow us to have equity. This allows all our students and staff to have the ability to participate in the same activities that help engage and shape our learning environments. Now that we have these devices its time to see their full potential. Going into next year we will need to start thinking beyond the digitizing of worksheets and step outside our comfort zones to learn how to really engage our students. The incorporation of project based learning would be a nice addition to our classes so that we can best model the type of problem solving our students will be doing after their leave our doors.
The most important take away is that all of this technology does not replace you. It merely helps you manage the learning of you students. John Dewey in his 1897 essay entitled "My Pedagogic Creed" beautifully describes the role of a teacher that is truly timeless. He states:
"The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences."
The technology we now all have access to allows us, if we choose, to really help 'select the influences'. It helps us bring balance to all the media students are inundated with in today's digital world. We can never undo their involvement with social media or with gaming and that is not our role as teachers, but we can select the appropriate ways social media can augment learning. We can gamify our classes to bring that same spark of enthusiasm to our lessons. We can take notes from those who actively engage our students and find ways to incorporate that magic into our classes. We can help manage their exposure and not just for 45 minutes, but by curating an online presence we can truly take back the digital streets and deliver positive and engaging alternatives.
Too many times our students (and us too!) choose to go to a place that is described by blogger Tim Urban as the 'Dark Playground'. A place where we engage in unearned free time. It is so easy to get lost in binge watching Netflix or joining another campaign on Fortnite, but if we engage our students in multimedia projects that truly pique their curiosity then perhaps we can help them utilize their precious free time so that they can effectively earn their leisure time to just veg out. It is on that tightrope that we all must walk. Technology will ultimately help them prepare for how the world works and will continue to work. We (as students, teachers...humans) need balance, not just with technology, but in life!
“Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance."
Another awesome feature within Canvas is that every 3 weeks they release new features that they have been developing. Often these notes apply to Admins, Instructors and Students! And usually these ideas were generated by Canvas users in the "Studio" area of the community as what they call "Feature Ideas". So if there is something about Canvas you would like to change you can let them know. And if enough users vote for your idea then it will be placed on the developers "radar" and worked into future release notes. Be sure to search an idea first to make sure it hasn't already been recommended so that we don't dilute the voting pool!
