Undergraduate students vs Postgraduate students

 這幾年都是教碩士班和part~time教育文憑，學員都比較成熟穩重。今學期有機會再教undergraduate, 兼且是二年班，昨天下午步入班房，第一秒已經感受到那青春氣息，他們有些外貌還像中學生呢!他們的活力，一颦一笑，同學之間的親和，所營造出來的classroom vibes,令我也覺得好像年青了一點呢。

Obtained Adobe Creative Educator Level 2 today

 

Livebinders vs Notion vs Google Sites

The three apps serve the purpose of presenting the materials that one has collected in a systematic manner. 

I have tried creating Google Sites and Notion notebooks. Google Sites are now easy to create. The app conveniently integrates with other Google apps. 

Notion looks more like a textbook, or an organised course. I think Notion has more tools available than Google Sites. But Google Sites, like any website, seems to be more versatile and flexible for viewers to find things they may be interested in. Notion, as pointed out above, looks like a textbook. If that is the intended purpose, then Notion trumps Google Sites. 

I haven't tried creating anything with Livebinders yet. It looks like a Google Site, and presents 2 levels (free plan) or 3 levels (paid) of content. The interface is straightforward. A content page can embed another webpage (though some web pages refuse to be embedded), which will show up automatically. This is not the case with Google Sites. 

So far, my impression is that if Livebinders is easy to use, then it may be used for conveniently creating a collection of resources to use with other people. 

http://www.livebinders.com/

Gorilla PD - a noteworthy platform for teacher professional development

 I came across the platform Gorilla PD (https://gorillapd.org/) by chance some time ago. It's a platform for teacher professional development, and there were some features which looked promising. This afternoon, I signed up, and took some time to explore the platform. Below are some quick observations. 

The platform is mainly for online PD. An interested teacher: 

1. signs up for a free account, 

2. browses the units available, 

3. enrolls, and choose a mentor from the provided list, 

4. starts learning working through the materials, self-paced, 

5. produces evidence of learning, 

6. submits it to their mentor for feedback, and

7. completes the course (presumably with endorsement of the mentor). 

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Each course is like a learning journey, which consists of: 

- reading materials

- videos (from Youtube, for example)

- tasks

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The design of each course reminds me of other apps like: 

- GoConqr

- Loops Education

- or even Google Forms (with Sections)

    However, one major difference is that with Gorilla PD, to get the course 'credits', one needs to work under a mentor. If the mentor approves the work submitted by the mentee teacher, then the teacher will get the official credit. 

    That is the case with the workshops run by the NET section of EDB on this platform. A teacher who completes a NET section course on Gorilla PD with the 'assignment' approved, will get the requisite CPD hours from EDB. 

    This is particularly a useful arrangement as currently, because of the pandemic, few PD workshops can be held face-to-face. 

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Currently, there are a few major course providers on Gorilla PD, and the NET section is a very active one. Even if you do not enroll on a course, you can still look through the course content to get some useful materials or ideas. For me, one benefit is of course getting inspirations for designing my own PD workshops for teachers. (But at the moment, the platform is still not 'open' enough as there is no arrangement for non-official course providers to create their own course.)