Welcome to Day 2 of our class! The first day or two are always a learning curve as we set up our various tools and get oriented to BOTH the pedagogy (teaching method) of this class as well as the technology. I will support you through this process.

The class outline covers what we will work on in face-to-face class (either on campus or via Zoom). The homework section is a list of things that I’d recommend you complete at the end of class each day.

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the key points of BC Privacy laws as they relate to education
  • Discuss the pros and cons of the pedagogy used by the school in the Most Likely to Succeed documentary
  • Identify the differences between a Lesson Plan and a Learning Plan
  • Find freely licensed images and correctly use and attribute them
  • Create blog posts for this course using the provided rubrics, including a critical lens when reviewing educational technologies & pedagogies, that include hyperlinks, images, videos, and attribution

Class Time

Loose ends from Topic 2

  • Class Checkin and Q&A

Most Likely to Success & Lesson Plans vs Learning Plans

  • Let’s watch Most Likely to Succeed Film (96 min).
    • Please take notes on what you find interesting
    • Note what questions and/or critiques come to mind
  • Discuss Most Likely to Succeed Film:  
    • Pair & share questions (5 min)
      • Do you agree with the film’s assertion that we need to re-imagine education, or is the status quo more or less satisfactory?
      • What do you think stops educators from shifting to these approaches?
      • What might this look like in your context?
      • What concerns or excites you about this approach?
  • Lesson Plan vs Learning Plan (2 min):

FIPPA & Consent

Review the Privacy and Safety page on our website and specifically the BC FIPPA Cloud Guidelines. Based on what you read in these documents please answer the following questions:

  • What is Personal Information according to these documents? 
  • Custody & Control?
    • My vacation pictures? 
    • Pictures I take of people reading in the library?
  • When can we as teachers store data of our learners that contains personal information outside of Canada?
  • Which major web services store their data outside of Canada?

Open Educational Resources, Creative Commons & Copyright

Open Educational Resources logo

What is an Open Educational Resource or OER?  “Open educational resources should be freely shared through open licences which facilitate use, revision, translation, improvement and sharing by anyone. Resources should be published in formats that facilitate both use and editing and that accommodate a diversity of technical platforms.” – Cape Town Open Education Declaration

Where can I find OER lesson plans or activities that I could use in my classroom?

  • An example of a general K-12 OER portal website is the OER Commons. Please browse around the OER Commons website, and search for lesson plans and activities for the grade levels you’d like to teach and subjects you’re interested in. You might want to bookmark this website!
  • PLN via BlueSky is another great way to find resources from like-minded teachers.
  • An example of a subject-specific OER website is the Hour of Code. It has hundreds of lesson plans, not only for math and coding skills, but most lesson plans are co-curricular, so include a coding component, and additionally language arts, social studies, art, or science-based elements.

Images for blog posts: Finding royalty-free images you can use free of charge in your blog posts and elsewhere – Unsplash, Pexels, The Noun Project, Public Domain Vectors (5 min video):

Creative Commons & Copyright

Creative Commons License Logo - Some rights reserved

In Canada, the Copyright Act automatically protects original works the moment they are created, meaning teachers cannot simply use any resource found online without permission, except if they can take advantage of the fair dealing exception. Fair dealing allows educators to use short excerpts of copyrighted material for educational purposes without payment or permission, provided the use is “fair”. What is fair you ask? These are the criteria that have been established by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education in Canada:

  • Up to 10% of a copyright-protected work (e.g., a literary work, musical score, sound recording, or audiovisual work).
  • One chapter from a book.
  • A single article from a periodical or journal issue.
  • An entire artistic work (e.g., a painting, photograph, diagram, or map) if it is taken from a work containing other artistic works.
  • An entire newspaper article or page.
  • An entire single poem or musical score from a work containing other poems or musical scores.
  • An entire entry from an encyclopedia, dictionary, or similar reference work.

As always you need to correctly cite or link to the work you are using.

The Creative Commons license serves as a proactive bridge here; it is a licensing framework built on top of copyright that allows creators to grant permission in advance, removing the legal guesswork and “fairness” analysis required by traditional copyright law. On a day-to-day level, using CC-licensed materials fosters a collaborative and cost-effective classroom environment. Teachers can direct students to repositories like Wikimedia Commons or Unsplash (for images) and OER Commons (for full lessons) to find assets for projects, effectively teaching students about digital citizenship and intellectual property through modeling (The Edublogger). Furthermore, when teachers apply a CC license to their own original materials, they contribute to a global community of practice, ensuring their professional expertise benefits other educators while maintaining their right to be attributed as the author (UBC Copyright). This shift from a “closed” to an “open” mindset not only makes resource-gathering more efficient but also ensures that teaching materials remain adaptable to the diverse and evolving needs of Canadian students.

Generative AI disclosure: The CC & Copyright section above was partially generated by Gemini 3.0 on 2026-01-13 and then heavily edited by Rich McCue. The prompts used were:

  1. I am teaching University level preservice teachers about Creative Commons licensing and copyright in Canada. Please provide a 3 paragraph overview of why this is important for teachers and how they can make their teaching lives easier day to day.
  2. What are typical amounts of works that would be considered fair for teachers to use without asking for permission?
  3. Provide linked citations.

Personal Learning Networks

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) consists of a trusted group of individuals who collaborate and exchange knowledge regularly. Unlike traditional professional development, which often takes the form of one off workshops, a PLN functions as a long-term community that can last for years. Members use various platforms, ranging from in-person meetings to social media tools like BlueSky, LinkedIn or Zoom, to share resources and offer objective feedback. Modern technology has revolutionized these networks by removing geographical barriers, allowing professionals to connect globally. Ultimately, a PLN serves as a continuous space for gaining diverse perspectives outside of one’s immediate workplace.

As an example, there are ongoing conversations Language Revitalization on the following BlueSky hashtags:

Some questions you might want to ask yourself:

  • What interesting topics are being discussed in the feeds you might want to subscribed to?
  • If you’d like to, set up a BlueSky account if you don’t have one (optional)
  • Log on to BlueSky and explore!

Lab Time

Open Educational Resources

What is an Open Educational Resource or OER?  “Open educational resources should be freely shared through open licences which facilitate use, revision, translation, improvement and sharing by anyone. Resources should be published in formats that facilitate both use and editing, and that accommodate a diversity of technical platforms.” – Cape Town Open Education Declaration

Where can I find OER lesson plans or activities that I could use in my classroom?

  • An example of a general K-12 OER portal website is the OER Commons. Please browse around the OER Commons website, and search for lesson plans and activities for the grade levels you’d like to teach and subjects you’re interested in. You might want to bookmark this website!
  • PLN via Twitter is another great way to find resources from like-minded teachers.
  • An example of a subject-specific OER website is the Hour of Code. It has hundreds of lesson plans, not only for math and coding skills, but most lesson plans are co-curricular, so include a coding component, and additionally language arts, social studies, art, or science-based elements.

Images for blog posts: Finding royalty-free images you can use free of charge in your blog posts and elsewhere – Unsplash, Pexels, The Noun Project, Public Domain Vectors (5 min video):

BlueSky PLN Option

If you choose to create a free BlueSky account, the following is how to find high-quality Canadian educator lists:

  • Use the Internal Search:
    • Open Bluesky and go to the Search (magnifying glass) tab
    • Search for terms like "BCed Starter Pack", or "Canadian Teachers"
    • Filter your results by clicking the Starter Packs tab (usually located between “Feeds” and “Lists”)
  • Check Key Organization Profiles:
    • Visit the profiles of major Canadian education bodies. For example, the BC Teachers’ Federation (@bctf.bsky.social) is active and often curates lists of affiliated educators
  • Leverage Global Education Hubs:
    • Search for Alice Keeler or Matt Miller (@ditchthattextbook.com). These “super-connectors” maintain massive directories of educators, which often include specific “sub-packs” for different regions, including Canada
  • Try the “K-12 School Library Professionals in Canada” Pack:
    • A highly active pack specifically for Canadian school library staff exists at go.bsky.app/NzyNjwn

In Class Homework

Weekly blog posts to document your learning in class and to document progress on your inquiries.  (30 min)

  1. Weekly Reflection Blog Post (if you didn’t have time to do it in class):
    • Review the 336 Blog Post Rubrics to make sure you’re including all the minimally required elements for your weekly blog posts.
    • Please incorporate a personal or properly-attributed CC image into your blog post.
    • Blog prompts (use two or more, or talk about things that stood out to you from today):
      • Do we need to reimagine education?
      • What obstacles to educators face when they try to change pedagogy?
      • What concerns you and/or excites you about this approach?
      • Pros & cons of Lesson Plans vs Learning Plans?
      • Why is Privacy important in our classrooms?
      • What are the potential benefits of using Creative Commons-licensed images in my blog posts?

Credits