Our second Lost & Found Fridays — held on 03 July — was a special Ignatian episode in celebration of the Ateneo 2020 IGNATIAN FESTIVAL: Like the first one, this one was also virtual, and it was also designed to gather our community on our brand new AteneoBlueCloud campus–not for us to talk shop or to discuss business matters, but “to take a deep breath, to take a step back, and to take in the wider view.”
Continue reading “LOST+FOUND FRIDAY: AN EVENING OF POETRY AND PRAYER”OVER 2000 EDUCATORS UNDERGO TRAINING FOR ADAPTIVE DESIGN FOR LEARNING
We’ve been busy.
Last 25 May 2020, the Ateneo SALT Institute launched a professional certificate course on Adaptive Design for Learning for the faculty and formation professionals of the Loyola Schools of the Ateneo de Manila University.
Continue reading “OVER 2000 EDUCATORS UNDERGO TRAINING FOR ADAPTIVE DESIGN FOR LEARNING”LOST+FOUND FRIDAY with Mike Shimamoto
The very first–and virtual—LOST + FOUND FRIDAY was held last 05 June 2020 live on AteneoBlueCloud. Originally conceived as an in-person gathering for prayer and reflection, this first L+FF event–first scheduled last 13 March 2020–was canceled due to the Extended Community Quarantine.
Continue reading “LOST+FOUND FRIDAY with Mike Shimamoto”Avoid #TMDD (Too Much! Didn’t Do!) – for Online Learners
For students, a sudden shift to online learning can be quite confusing. In a physical school environment, structures and routines like class schedules, designated venues, etc. are in place to allow learners to organize their days and weeks, leading to a certain rhythm of life throughout a semester.
With the recent onslaught of online learning, all these familiar structures suddenly disappear, morphing into a list of links, platforms and tasks. Faced with many of these moving parts, students might fall for the temptation of #TMDD (Too much! Didn’t do)!
Here’s a simple tool to help you organize your new online learning life:
The Online Learning Life Planner
Here’s how to claim your online planner:
- Go to bit.ly/online-learners-ateneo-salt-copy
- Rename it and press OK.
- You may now start editing your personal copy of the online learning life planner.
Found this helpful? Also check out these other articles on online learning:
A Quick Guide for First Time Online Learners
Set-up Your Virtual Classroom in 3 Easy Steps (for teachers)
A Quick Guide for First-time Online Learners
So, you suddenly get the announcement that classes are suspended, BUT classes will continue ONLINE! 😕Here are a few things that might help your transition to becoming an online student:
Set your time.
Being given the flexibility of time doesn’t mean you have all the time in the world to do the online tasks assigned to you. Time will continue to move even if you don’t. What often helps is to create a schedule for yourself and to allot specific time periods to do specific tasks. You can even schedule your break times as well! Creating space for brain breaks between learning tasks is as important as engaging in the tasks themselves. If you’re shifting to online studying for a long period of time, you may even want to come up with a weekly schedule.
Extra tip: Check out the pomodoro technique
Find your space.
If it’s your first time to study online, then you might be excited to finally get a chance to take classes in your bed, or while your tv is on and your smartphone within reach for any notification—or worse, while binging on Netflix!
Can you really pay full attention to your learning while doing all of the above? Recent studies show that multitasking is a myth! If you really want to study, you have to set up your space for it. Where in your house are you able to focus the most? What is a place that you find comfortable enough, but not distracting? Once you find that space, feel free to customize it. How can you make your space more conducive for learning? What can you add or remove from the space so that you can really focus on your task more?
We have different answers to these questions, so go figure this out on your own: What is the right space for you? When you do find it, use it! In as much as classrooms are built a certain way to make them conducive for learning, there’s probably something in your space that makes it conducive for you.
Extra tip: Read more about creating an ideal study space
Pave your Path.
For students accustomed to a face-to-face classroom environment, you are probably used to having your teachers control the pace and path of your learning. Now that you’re more on your own, it’s important to know that learning doesn’t happen by chance, but by design! There’s actually a science and art to learning.
Since self-paced learning is “teaching yourself,” here are some things we know about learning that you can consider:
- Retrieving beats reviewing. If you want to master something, the best way to do so is to remember it, to explain it, and to use what you have learned. So, let’s say there is a text that you’ve been asked to read. Instead of reading it over and over again, come up with questions to test yourself and try to answer them without the text (ex. coming up with flash cards might help). Or imagine explaining it to someone or using it in a situation.
- Concrete examples clarify. If you’re studying something quite abstract like a mathematical operation or a theoretical framework, you might want to connect that to examples that you’ve encountered or that you’re familiar with. Examples help us remember and understand concepts more deeply. Share these examples with your online classmates! Listening to one another’s examples can help further clarify concepts.
- Draw and discuss. One way to help you understand things better is not just to rehearse explaining something, but also to visualize what you are studying. It doesn’t need to look like a work of art. Doodles and diagrams will do. Mixing doodles with words and using them to discuss concepts tap into our ability to “dual code”: to learn through words and visuals.
Extra tip: For more tips on effective studying, you can check out https://www.learningscientists.org
One more tip: “Hang out” Virtually 👀💻
We all know that school is not just about studies. It’s very much about being around friends too! One idea is to set-up virtual dates with friends or just keep each other updated in class or block messenger groups. It can also be a venue to exchange notes about your experience.
Set your time. Find your space. Pave your path.
These are some things you may want to consider as you begin your journey as an online learner. Happy learning!
Here’s a nifty infographic you can pass on 🏃🏽🏃♀️🏃🏾♂️🧂
References:
How to Make Your Environment the Best Study Space. (2016, September 6). Retrieved from https://www.ameritech.edu/blog/tips-make-environment-best-study-space/
The Myth of Multitasking. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creativity-without-borders/201405/the-myth-multitasking
The Pomodoro Technique: Study More Efficiently, Take More Breaks. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://learningcommons.ubc.ca/the-pomodoro-technique-study-more-efficiently-take-more-breaks/
Weinstein, Y., Sumeracki, M., & Caviglioli, O. (2018). Understanding How We Learn. doi: 10.4324/9780203710463
Set up Your VIRTUAL CLASSROOM in 3 Easy Steps!
If you’re a teacher who’s new to online learning and want to–or have to!–try it out , we have the perfect guide for you!
No need to be high-tech or trained professionally. As long as you’re willing to learn–especially in these times!–you can transform yourself to some kind of online learning designer. Nothing like necessity to mother your self-reinvention!
We will suggest several tools and strategies here, but no pressure to use all of them! Think of this as a menu or a go-to guide when you are planning your online lessons.
The key idea is NOT just to upload all your slides and required readings online (even if that’s the easiest thing to do). Rather, make an effort to DESIGN an engaging online learning experience for your learners. You can do it!
The Loyola Schools of Ateneo de Manila uses Moodle, so if you know how to use that, that’s great! Moodle has many useful features that will surely come in handy in these times.
But there are other learning management systems that are available online for free–like Schoology, Edmodo, Google Classroom, Canvas, Brightspace, Neo, etc. Some teachers also prefer to use social media or messaging applications like Facebook Groups, Slack, Viber, FB Messenger, etc.
We will focus on two of these alternative LMS: Schoology and Facebook Groups. We think that they’re the easiest to learn and are also accessible to most teachers and students.
To begin, just make sure that both the teacher and students have:
- their device (preferably, with speakers!), and
- a reliable Internet connection.
All set? Let’s begin!
Where would you like to set up your Virtual Classroom?
or
LEARNING BY REFRACTION GOES TO AUSTRALIA
INTRODUCING “LEARNING BY REFRACTION” TO JESUIT SCHOOLS IN EUROPE
On February 3rd to 6th, 2020, over 30 educators from nine European countries attended a four-day Conference on “Learning by Refraction,” a 21st-century approach to Ignatian Pedagogy proposed in a book of the same title by Fr. Johnny Go SJ and Ms. Rita Atienza of the Ateneo SALT Institute.
Continue reading “INTRODUCING “LEARNING BY REFRACTION” TO JESUIT SCHOOLS IN EUROPE”
ATENEO SALT DESIGNS GLOBAL JESUIT EDUCATION VIRTUAL COLLOQUIUM
Just recently launched was the Virtual Colloquium for Jesuit schools around the world. The Virtual Colloquium is the prelude to the international gathering of school heads and leaders that will take place in Jogjakarta, Indonesia from June 29 to July 4, 2020.
Continue reading “ATENEO SALT DESIGNS GLOBAL JESUIT EDUCATION VIRTUAL COLLOQUIUM”
4th TURO GURO WORKSHOP COMING UP
Turo Guro brings together education experts from different disciplines to train teachers in the science and art of effective teaching and the science and art of 21st-century learning. Continue reading “4th TURO GURO WORKSHOP COMING UP”