Teaching about Teaching Science

Our moon - photo by ME!

Way back, my first degree was in science - I then taught science in grades 8-12 for many years. Over time, my main interest turned to educational technology and I moved on in my career. As my role changed to administration and then into teacher education, my interest (passion?) for science faded, but was always in the background. A few events in the past few years and some reminiscing brought my interest in science back to the forefront. This past term I taught a Science Methods course. While I admit I was a bit rusty on some details, it was enjoyable. I concentrated on teaching process - inquiry, design - I have witnessed too many science courses taught as 'read the chapter and answer questions' - that is not science. When I return from sabbatical I will be moving into teaching science methods (as well as my main area of ed tech) - while I have some work to do to get back up to speed and planning my program, I am looking forward to the challenge with excitement. During my sabbatical I will do some gathering of resources and planning for this new adventure.

Conference Season

Over the past few months I have been busy on the conference scene. Starting back at the end of March was the National Congress on Rural Education held yearly in Saskatoon. I was involved in two presentations related to research in a rural Manitoba School Division. In April was AERA in Chicago - the biggest education conference in the world. This year was my first attending. In June it was CSSE at the University of Ottawa. Presentations at the last two conferences also centred on the aforementioned research - part of BU's SSHRC funded VOICE project. Finally, last week I attended the Social Media and Society Conference at Ryerson University in Toronto. The last conference I presented a poster (on my dissertation work) and another poster with a colleague about our self-study work concerning using SoMe in teacher education. While I enjoy doing posters, the main reason for that was that I did not hear of the conference until paper deadlines were past. By the way, most of my presentations can be found on my slideshare page.

So, a whirlwind of travel and presenting - why do I bring these up? Well, I find it interesting to compare the conferences and which ones I go the most out of and found most enjoyable and useful.

Actually, each has something different to offer:
National Congress - focus on rural education, attendees include a range of people: senior division admin, school admin, teachers, trustees, parents, and a student journalism group reporting on the events.

AERA - huge! very international, yet sessions are for the most part a U.S. focus (obviously). I found most paper sessions rather boring and generally slide presentations were not good. I enjoyed the city of Chicago, the round table and poster sessions I attended - perhaps because they are more like discussions. This was the least useful conference I attended.

CSSE - this was also big. Participants are generally from across Canada, and it is held in conjunction with all social sciences (SSHRC). The focus was Canadian, so thus it was more useful than AERA. For the most part, presentations were very interesting, and there were other events - big keynote speakers and a wonderful contest of 3 minute presentations by SSHRC funded graduate students - "SSHRC Storytellers" - one presentation was delivered as 'slam poetry' - awesome! Of course, being in Ottawa, I had the opportunity to spend time at the Space and Aviation Museum and take a flight in a 1939 vintage open cockpit biplane (personal passion!).

Social Media & Society - this conference was my overall favourite. I met several people - people I knew through twitter and more that I added. The conference was very international and interdisciplinary - this might be why it was so interesting. I have a passion for studying social media in education and this conference reinforced that passion - perhaps rekindling it! It was an interesting location right in the heart of downtown Toronto. Ryerson has an amazing student learning centre we toured as well. See the tweets at #SMsociety15. I plan to attend next year's conference to be held in London, UK. Looking forward to it (of course that means I can visit my daughter who lives there, as well!).

So, conferences are varied and one can get something of value out of just about any - I have ideas, met people, and learned at all of them. I also found that I like poster and round tables - seen as the poor cousins of papers - but they are also rapid and more like conversations. I know one shot deals are not always optimal for learning, but these conferences do have their role to play, especially for academic work - a place to share, meet, and plant some seeds.

Posters presented at Social Media & Society

Using Social Media to Engage Educators in Learning 

Social Media Pedagogy 

Slides from CSSE:

Reimagine Lakeshore: A Reflective Analysis of a School Division Change Initiative 

PS - me and the 1939 WACO biplane!

Not Teaching for Over a Year (i.e. on sabbatical)

My sabbatical is fast approaching, and I am looking forward to it. It is not that I don't love teaching, if I didn't I would not have stayed in the career for 37 years. That said, this will be the first year I am not in a classroom of some sort since my first teaching job all those years ago. In this new career though, I have also been involved with field focused research, so this year will be devoted to those pursuits - not to mention being away from 'service' work on campus - that means very few meetings! (hurray!)

So what will I be up to? I have several projects on the go, and have been fortunate to be awarded several small grants to help the work, as well I will continue working with our large SSHRC-CURA grant called VOICE. I work, along with a colleague and a grad student, with a rural school division a little north of Winnipeg. Our main tasks are working with teachers doing community based action research and studying system change in the division. I am excited to get working on my other projects, and to get some writing done on several projects, including my dissertation.

Some of the projects include:
Action Research and Teacher Change - I will be working with several teachers in one rural MB school division assisting them in doing action research and I will examine the effects on practice.

A case study of a school that has gone to a 1:1 device:student - I am doing this with a colleague who is also on sabbatical - also at another rural MB school.

Numeracy evening for families - I am working with a local school division numeracy consultant, along with a team of teachers and B.Ed. students. We are trying to set up resources and run an event to help parents learn the importance of numeracy and strategies to help their kids. The goal is to share the results of this endeavour widely.

Some of the details can be found on my BU profile.

Lessons Learned - the hard way (or, don't drop your phone!)

This post will contain a sad story and some free advice. One evening as my wife and I started our walk, I had my iPhone in hand to turn on Run Keeper. Then it happened, I fumbled it and it fell, face down on the cement driveway. I picked it up with trepidation and ... it was working, but the
screen was a cracked up mess! (see photo). I was very angry at myself, I knew it was an accident, but I felt like an idiot! After some checking online and phoning the Apple Store in Winnipeg. I made an appointment and they agreed (not their policy) to hold a replacement for me since I was driving in - a 3 hour trip each way. Well, the helpful and understanding 'genius' replaced my 3 month old iPhone 5S with another of the exact model and got it set up from my iCloud backup. The glass on an iPhone 5S can't be replaced due to the fingerprint technology, they simply replace the phone with the same model ... for $270, unless you had purchased Apple Care, then it is only $79! Well, I guess $270 is much less than the almost $1000 I paid for it, I then added an Otterbox case for better protection. So, I have a few lessons I learned that might help others:

#1 Don't drop your iPhone!
#2 If you are buying an iPhone, GET Apple care - at $99 it would have saved my about $100 on this incident alone.
#3 Have an understanding wife :-)
#3 Get a good case, and whether you do or don't get one - once again - DON'T drop your iPhone!!

Arghh! Oh well, lesson learned, I hope!

A Journey Completed ... Another Continues

about to begin the defense

I am very pleased to announce that on June 27, 2014, I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Manitoba. I have many people to thank for their support and assistance along the way, most of all my advisor, Dr. O. Cap, my committee, Dr. M. Atleo, Dr. D. Hlynka, Dr. D. Mann and external, Dr. K. King. Having Dr. King as external was exciting since she has written so much about transformative learning and technology so her input was meaningful and impacted the final product. Others were also important (my wife & family to be sure!), but also several colleagues at BU and my cohort friends throughout the program. I will leave a reflection of the entire process for another post, however, I will include the slides I used in the defense, and the abstract. A link to the final dissertation will be added once it clears the submission system at the UM. For now ... I am done! Mike Nantais, Ph.D. - who would have guessed?

Ph.D. Oral Defense presentation from Mike Nantais

Social Media Pedagogy: A Multiple Case Study Approach (abstract) by mnantais

COSMOS - then and now

Cover of my original COSMOS book

Neil De Grasse Tyson's remake/update of Cosmos is now over, and it was certainly well done. I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Tyson in person at the University of Manitoba a few months back. This was his first public lecture in Canada and the hall was packed. (see & hear the talk here). He is an entertaining speaker and obviously an intelligent, thoughtful person. The series was wonderfully done, making science interesting, understandable, and providing a great message. The Cosmos series brought back memories of the original with the great Carl Sagan. I remember watching it intently in my early years as a teacher. This renewal of Cosmos, along with some other events, have acted to rekindle an interest in science, and especially astrophysics. My first degree (long ago) was in Chemistry and Physics and much of my teaching career was teaching sciences. My attention has shifted, but an interest in science was always in the background, these events have really made me miss that deeper interest.

Of course, nothing can supplant the original, Carl Sagan was an amazing, intelligent, and eloquent person - a great ambassador for science. There are many videos on the net about/of Sagan: mashups with Sagan (think Symphony of Science), of Sagan speaking, and so on. I think I own and have read a good number of his books as well. I have a few favourite segments to share. In the original Cosmos, this opening segment is poetic and captures the viewer - at least this one - and the soundtrack was simply breathtaking.



My most favourite video/segment though is the Pale Blue Dot. This has become well known, especially since the renewal of Cosmos. Watch and be moved.

Light at the end of the Tunnel?

Well, the end is in sight ... hopefully. My dissertation, titled "Teaching With Social Media: A Multiple Case Study Approach", has made it through both the internal examining committee and now the external. I have a few revisions to make, then it is on to the oral defense at the end of the month!

A few weeks ago, I came across a tweet by GradSchoolElitist (@GradEletisim) with an attached image. I can't locate the original so I can't give proper credit, however, the cartoon is on the right. Anyway, the process sometimes does feel like running a gauntlet. The thing to keep in mind is that your advisor, committee, and the external are (usually - at least this is true in my case) on your side. I have learned much from these academics, they have prompted and pushed me to think and grow as a scholar, and I thank them for it. Of course, I will thank them even more if (when) I pass the defense!

For fun I have also included a video about defending the thesis, hope I don't have to do this!  ;-)