In the Winter of 2020, my introductory Canadian politics class started to develop its own online, collaboratively-built, open-access, introductory "textbook" on Canadian politics. Drawing on the principles of critical pedagogy, the assignment engages students in group work to generate plain-language primers that can connect with an…

Students in Canada have unequal access to safe environments and learning in schools, which impacts their participation in education and their achievement of educational goals. Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) courses for future educators are one way to help them see that the benefits of schooling are not equally available to all students.…

As we enter a new age of technological innovation and subsequent educational instrumentation change, there is increasing demand for innovative methods that encourage student learning experiences in virtual, online spaces. ePortfolios and e-book projects are designed and owned by students and are centered within the student's learning. They provide…

Educators within Higher Education (HE) and K-12 share in the need for high quality educational resources to assist in the pursuit of teaching and learning. Although there are numerous differences between the two levels of education, there are commonalties in the perceptions of the purpose, practical uses, and challenges that abide in the use of…

Podcast assignments in higher education foster students' deep engagement in course content, knowledge construction, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities. We designed a podcast assignment in a First Year Seminar course based on student-led interviews comparing theoretical concepts to lived experiences of the interviewees. Students were…

This paper explores the potential for students to engage in social constructivist (Vygotsky, 1978) learning through the development of a course wiki. As a requirement of the Principles of Learning (PoL) course, at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, students are tasked with building a collection of online, student-authored learning…

Describes the development of curricular materials for a Portuguese heritage language program in Ontario, Canada, involving the active participation of the students themselves, with the added benefit of increased motivation and the acquisition of computer skills. (Author/CB)

Most humanities courses rarely require students to create the kinds of work they are studying. Sean Gouglas, Stefan Sinclair, Olaf Ellefson, and Scott Sharplin outline the value of this rare experience by describing an assignment in their graduate humanities computing course in which students examined hypermedia narratives by authoring a…

The establishment of a minicourse of four three-hour sessions devoted to the examination and debate of selected ethical issues at Queen's University is described. Students chose topics for discussion and organized debates between faculty and community members. (Author/MLW)

Written in conjunction with the "Student Expressions" anthology but useful as a resource on its own, this handbook discusses the writing process and the way one teacher used it in a junior high school classroom. The narrative presented in the handbook is a distillation of the different approaches the teacher tried with different groups.…

For decades, Lester B. Pearson College (British Columbia) has been involved with Race Rocks--islands in San Juan de Fuca Strait. The college is steward for the Provincial Ecological Reserve and has partnered with public agencies, businesses, and First Nations to create educational television programs and an interactive Web site on island ecology,…

Illustrates how each of the five phases of book production (identifying ideas and audience, pre-writing, first draft, editing and rewriting, and assembly and dissemination) were applied to an English-as-a-second-language student-developed book of interviews with citizens. (Author/CB)

Briefly examines a number of social studies related Internet sites and applications. Notes some of the many sites incorporating information and artwork collected and produced by young students. Includes a brief interview discussing some of the logistics involved in posting information on the Internet. (MJP)

Maintains that photographs can be used to enhance instruction at all grade levels. Discusses the hardware, software, and process necessary to create both teacher-developed and student-developed photo compact disks. Also maintains that many commercial photo CDs are available royalty-free for the classroom. (CFR)

Describes student projects and simulations designed to enrich social studies instruction. Students collected primary and secondary sources for a media kit on Russian economic development. Another group constructed a time line for a Canadian historical figure. Includes tips for designing and facilitating successful projects. (MJP)