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Are you feeling anxious about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom? Do you worry you might become obsolete in the face of this technological advancement? How often have you had to “prove you are not a robot”?

With the massive growth of AI tools, educators are questioning what it means to be an organic and creative human. Fear not, because in this three-hour workshop, we will explore how you can prove you’re human, even in the age of AI.

Through creating and sharing simple comics, we’ll delve into our honest wonderings and worries about AI. This workshop will be a playful way to address concerns and questions about the impact of AI tools on our work and the future of our careers. The event will be equal parts philosopher’s café, academic inquiry, support group, and play session.

Learning outcomes for this workshop include:

• Exploring and processing educators’ practical, psychological, and philosophical anxieties about AI in a meaningful, creative, fun way
• Learning how to express complex ideas and emotions through visual storytelling
• Sharing and connecting with other educators who share similar worries and concerns
• Gaining a better understanding of the impact of AI tools on educators and our work and how to maintain our humanity in the face of technological advancement

This session will not be recorded, so please plan on being in attendance for the duration of the workshop. The approximate participation time is 2.5 hours, with an additional 30 minutes for sharing and discussion.

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Presenter Biographies:

Dr. Jessica Motherwell McFarlane (she/they/not “guys”) has been teaching in the disciplines of gender, diversity, inclusion, anti-oppression, and social justice for nearly three decades. She received the 2016 Teaching Excellence Award for her work at the Justice Institute of British Columbia. Jessica recently began teaching at Capilano and Kwantlen Polytechnic universities and has been acknowledged for offering creative, innovative methods that are especially useful for working with difficult or emotional content. She regularly offers workshops for learners from elementary to university ages and presents at provincial, national, and international conferences. Jessica is director of the Life Outside the Box Institute, which offers customized programming — often using simple stick-figure comics — to help learners embrace anti-oppression practices, work toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, overcome implicit biases, and listen deeply to others’ stories. Jessica is also a counsellor in private practice for children, youth, and adults.

Jason Toal (he/him) has been an educator and educational technologist for 25 years. From the sketchbook page to the webpage, he facilitates learning experiences on the topics of visual practice, educational/social media, open education, and more. With a background in art, design, and interaction design, he specializes in the human aspects of learning technology and the innovative use of media.

About The Series

Discover the BCcampus FLO EdTech Sandbox Series, an initiative that empowers educators in B.C.’s post-secondary institutions to explore innovative teaching tools through a safe online environment. In these two-hour livestream webinars, expert leaders will introduce and demonstrate cutting-edge, open, and free or low-cost educational technology tools, allowing you to experiment and gather exciting ideas for teaching activities. Our mission is to foster digital teaching innovation, encouraging faculty and staff to embrace emerging technologies with curiosity and openness, ultimately enhancing the learning experience for all.

By actively participating in these sandbox sessions, you will delve into hands-on experimentation with tools, collaborate with fellow educators to review their features, gain valuable insights into teaching activities, and discover ways to integrate these tools into your courses. If you’re unable to attend, recorded webinars of the presentations and written reviews of the tools will be available on our site after the event.

About This Session

Many of us have learned to screencast and video lecture in the past few years, but relatively few have harnessed the power of audio for teaching and learning. Audio has many benefits over video: files are small and portable, making them easy to share with rural and remote learners; audio can “fit into” the lives of many learners while they drive, walk, or attend to household tasks; and audio is an intimate medium for building connections. In this session you will:

• Discuss podcasting as a medium.
• Practice recording and editing audio.
• Learn about distribution of podcasts using WordPress.
• Explore assessment and feedback strategies that use audio.

Anyone looking for a new way to engage their hybrid and online learners is welcome to attend and explore the possibilities of podcasting.

About The Facilitator

Brenna Clarke Gray (she/her) is coordinator, Educational Technologies at Thompson Rivers University, where her research interests include the pedagogical implications of generative artificial intelligence, the history and future of open tenure processes, the role of care and care work in the practice of educational technology, and scholarly podcasting. Before her work in faculty support, she spent nine years as a community college English professor and comics scholar. She holds a PhD in Canadian literature from the University of New Brunswick. Outside academia, Brenna co-hosts Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr, a podcast about young adult literature and film adaptation, and pretends to be a public intellectual on social media, where you can find her in many places — but not Elon’s X — as @brennacgray.

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Other sessions in this series:

• Session 1: September 13, 2023, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.—Mattermost, Ian Linkletter (BCIT)
• Session 3: November 15, 2023, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.— Padlet, Lisa Gedak (KPU)
• Session 4: January 10, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.—Sticky Notes, John Churchley (TRU)
• Session 5: February 14, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.— H5P, John Cheng (UBC)

In this FLO Friday session, you will explore ungrading as a critical pedagogical tool that places the emphasis on feedback of student work instead of instructor-determined grades. FLO facilitator, Claire Hay, employed process letters as an ungrading practice in a fourth-year university course that used an active learning, co-constructed approach to the curriculum. At the end of the course, she anonymously surveyed students on their perceptions of the ungrading practice. In this FLO Friday session, Claire will tell the story of this ungrading experience, including a review of the ungrading philosophy, discussion of her approach, and instructor and student insights. The session will also consider ways to ensure student, instructor, and system needs are met. This will be an interactive session; you can expect to engage through polls, chats, and a short breakout activity.

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This notice is to inform you that this session will be recorded, archived, and made available publicly on BCcampus.ca. By participating in this session, you acknowledge that your participation in this session will be recorded and the recording will be made available openly. 

Presenter Biography: Claire Hay, MSc (she/her), is a teaching and learning specialist for curriculum and assessment in the Teaching and Learning Centre at University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). She is a geographer by training and has taught at UFV since 2002. In April 2020 she joined the Teaching and Learning Centre, where she works with faculty who are growing their teaching and learning practice in the areas of assessment and curriculum development. Claire also teaches courses as a sessional instructor in the School of Land Use and Environmental Change at UFV. You can reach her at claire.hay@ufv.ca.

About the Series

Discover the BCcampus FLO EdTech Sandbox Series, an initiative that empowers educators in B.C.’s post-secondary institutions to explore innovative teaching tools through a safe online environment. In these two-hour livestream webinars, expert leaders will introduce and demonstrate cutting-edge, open, and free or low-cost educational technology tools, allowing you to experiment and gather exciting ideas for teaching activities. Our mission is to foster digital teaching innovation, encouraging faculty and staff to embrace emerging technologies with curiosity and openness, ultimately enhancing the learning experience for all.

By actively participating in these sandbox sessions, you will delve into hands-on experimentation with tools, collaborate with fellow educators to review their features, gain valuable insights into teaching activities, and discover ways to integrate these tools into your courses. If you’re unable to attend, recorded webinars of the presentations and written reviews of the tools will be available on our site after the event.

About This Session

In this session you will be introduced to Padlet and case uses for this innovative tool for teaching and learning. After situating the tool’s features, you will have time to connect and ideate use cases for your context in small groups. Additionally, time will be allocated for experimentation with various Padlet formats. You will be supported in creating a free account and designing your own Padlet if you choose.

About the Facilitator

Lisa Gedak (she/her) is a teaching and learning strategist, educator, and online learning designer passionate about supporting more meaningful and personalized learning experiences in post-secondary and learning design consultancy contexts. As an appreciative inquiry facilitator who values building on strengths and channelling energy to be positively focused, she underpins her work with this philosophy to inform her design approaches. Lisa is passionate about nature, and in her free time, she can often be found in the forest or by the ocean soaking in the splendour.

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Other sessions in this series:

• Session 1: September 13, 2023, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.— Mattermost, Ian Linkletter (BCIT)
• Session 2: October 11, 2023, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.— WordPress/Podcasting, Brenna Clarke Gray (TRU)
• Session 4: January 10, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.— Sticky Notes, John Churchley (TRU)
• Session 5: February 14, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.— H5P, John Cheng (UBC)

Session Description:

Today’s classrooms reflect diversity in language, ethnicity, values, and worldviews. Although we tend to think technology has made the world a smaller place, our ability to engage with diversity is still limited. Post-secondary institutions expect students to adapt to their environment, denying them the opportunity to validate and share their lived experiences and learn from them. By valuing student contributions, you can be an agent of social change and create learning spaces where everyone benefits. This one-hour session will introduce you to useful resources and activities to learn from and hopefully use in your classroom. With examples of culturally responsive teaching practices, the workshop will invite you to reflect on your role as a change agent and to develop strategies for your teaching and learning context. We’ll examine the work of Drs. Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo on social justice; Dr. Betina Love on diversity in education; and Indigenous scholars such as Mi’kmaq educator Dr. Marie Battiste, Potowatomi educator Dr. Susan Dion, and Elder Willie Ermine, among others.

Register now!

This notice is to inform you that this session will be recorded, archived, and made available publicly on BCcampus.ca. By participating in this session, you acknowledge that your participation in this session will be recorded and the recording will be made available openly. 

Facilitator Biography:

Dr. Carmen Rodríguez de France acknowledges the privilege and responsibilities she holds in living on the land of the W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Nations in B.C. Born and raised in Monterrey, México, Carmen is a member of the Department of Indigenous Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, where she facilitates courses on Indigenous education, knowledge, and ways of knowing and collaborates with other programs across campus such as the social justice and Latin American studies programs. Her career in education spans 37 years. She previously worked as a schoolteacher and most recently worked with pre-service and in-service teachers in diverse educational contexts.

About the Session:

Post-secondary institutions are thought of as progressive, democratic places for innovative thinking, but this doesn’t mean they’re immune to racism, marginalization, and exclusion (Bhopal, 2022; Henry et al., 2017). In this three-hour Facilitation Learning Online (FLO) experiential session, you will explore the roots of systemic racism in post-secondary spaces and engage in discussions about how to create anti-racist spaces for teaching and learning. This session will also allow time for reflection and co-creation of strategies that focus on anti-racism. It is suitable for participants who are already exploring their teaching and/or course design practices and those beginning their journey in reflection and anti-racism.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the session, you will be able to:

• Explain historical and current-day realities of various forms of anti-racism.
• Discuss systemic barriers to fostering anti-racist teaching and learning environments.
• Share strategies, resources, and practices to identify and implement anti-racism in teaching and learning environments.

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Facilitator Biography:

Randeep Nota (she/her) is a learning experience designer at the University of Victoria, where she supports educators with developing and delivering courses in various modes — face-to-face, online, hybrid, etc. Randeep’s work experience also includes providing senior-level academic leadership to undergraduate, diploma, and graduate programs in Ontario with respect to program reviews. She has taught in business administration and policy-focused undergraduate and continuing education programs. Randeep is completing her PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, where she is examining equity and educational policy within and for post-secondary education in Canada.

References:

1. Bhopal. K. (2022, February 2). Black and minority ethnic experiences in higher education: Social justice, inclusion and white privilege [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0rCMbl8aOA
2. Henry, F., Dua, E., James, C. E., Kobayashi, A., Li, P., Ramos, H., & Smith, M. S. (2017). Introduction: Setting the context. In F. Henry, E. Dua, C. E. James, A. Kobayashi, P. Li, H. Ramos, H., and M. S. Smith (Eds.), The equity myth: Racialization and indigeneity at Canadian universities (pp. 3–23). UBC Press.

Session Description:

The climate crisis, lasting impacts of the global pandemic, and related social inequities point to the need for education that teaches compassion and care for the planet. Climate change and its social impacts have necessitated a re-think of traditional pedagogies. University educators are faced with the challenge of not only engaging learners in these conversations but also supporting and addressing the range of emotions and pedagogical complexities that involve socio-scientific realities. Climate-kind pedagogy (CKP) cultivates climate- and justice-informed approaches and promotes the practice of kindness in educational settings. The framework for CKP addresses values reflected in syllabus and course planning, teacher attitudes, activities, tools, evaluation strategies, and expected outcomes. It is grounded in a commitment to confronting oppressive practices and supporting students from all cultural backgrounds while honouring lived experiences and cultural knowledge.

In this three-hour Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) session, you will be introduced to the novel CKP framework and its practical features. You will also explore key approaches to giving learners the competences for collaborative problem solving and decision making while encouraging action for ecology and cultural diversity. You will engage with tangible examples of CKP and explore ways to incorporate it in your own practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore existing frameworks in sustainability and climate change education.
• Learn about the innovative CKP and gain an understanding of values-centred methodologies and pedagogical approaches.
• Engage with and practice approaches to teaching and assignments that support CKP.

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About the Facilitator:

Kshamta Hunter (she/her) brings over a decade of experience in sustainability learning and teaching, curriculum design, and program management. She holds a PhD in sustainability curriculum and pedagogy and teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Kshamta’s research explores the intersections of sustainability learning and leadership using transformative learning and social innovation frameworks. She is interested in responsive, relevant integrative curricula and pedagogical approaches for the twenty-first century through innovation toward sustainability. She is also the manager of Transformative Learning and Student Engagement at the UBC Sustainability Hub, where she shapes a lot of her research ideas into practice. She is the co-chair of publications for the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies and a member of the editorial advisory board for the Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies.