This week we had a lady from Trinidad and Tobago give us a presentation on multi-access learning. No, she didn’t fly all the way from Trinidad to Victoria (I wouldn’t want to in this March weather either). She presented to us virtually! This made me really appreciate multi-access learning thanks to platforms such as Zoom. It almost made me think about my own teaching practice and how I can certainly bring in guest speakers from all over the world in to my class room. How cool is that!

I learned a lot about flipped classrooms and the idea really sparked my curiosity. I feel there is an enormous amount of pressure on people to “show up” physically in person, and if you can’t, well then society makes you seem lazy or unmotivated and therefor excluded. I see technology as a stream that includes people that have difficulties in a classroom setting. The flipped classroom allows people to work independently and come to the teacher with questions, if they need it, which also takes a lot less pressure off of the teacher.

There are also some things to consider. Some people might have difficulties concentrating on a computer. While doing work on a computer can definitely be productive, there is potential for students to get distracted. With just a few clicks, off they go to a social media site or gaming site that interests them more and requires less mental effort. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder, where are they doing all this independent work? If they are not in a classroom, are they able to work from home? What if both parents work away from home, then where do these children go?

These thoughts made me think in to the future. What if we had daycare centres where children could learn independently, sort of like co-space offices in the adult world? What if these daycare centres were maybe not attached to the school but nearby, providing before and after-school care for children whose parents work 9-5 jobs, whose schedules don’t align with the 8:30-2:30 school day? What if there was one building where all the teachers worked, and then another building that was where caregivers worked? All these what-ifs have me creating all sorts of scenarios in my mind.

Next we got to play around with TinkerCad. For me, 3D printing is still mind blowing! The fact that you can design something and then print it… WOW! If I could, I would design and print out all my groceries so that I wouldn’t have to buy food. Hehe! Here is my keychain that I designed with the guidance of Rich McCue:

Thanks for reading!