We recently attended the Riding the Wave conference in Gimli, MB. It’s one of our favourite educational events of the year and we were so glad to have it back after a pause during the pandemic!
In this episode, we share our top takeaways from the conference. From the dynamic keynote to informative sessions, you’ll hear about the big ideas and useful tools that made this conference so worthwhile.
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Keynote: David Usher
David Usher is a musician, author and the founder of Reimagine AI. His keynote was unique and beautiful. It was a blend of inspiring oration on creativity and musical performance, enhanced by video clips.
The 3 big tips he shared on creativity were:
Turn towards fear.
Develop a half hour habit — invest 30 minutes a day in creative pursuits
Get physical. Take your body on a new adventure and your brain will follow with creativity.
Tune in to the episode for own ideas and experiences with turning towards fear, adding movement to our day and pursuing creativity!
To learn more from David Usher, visit www.davidusher.com or check out his book Let The Elephants Run.
Big Ideas from Riding the Wave
Artificial intelligence is making an impact on our lives, and its impact will continue to grow.
As educators, we need to learn a bit about AI and understand how it’s involved in our field and how our learners are using it.
We should find ways to leverage AI for good and to make a positive difference.
Part of our role as educators may be to help teach ethical and responsible use.
If you are curious about AI, try out this AI space developed for use in education https://www.codebreakeredu.com/chat/
E-sports is emerging as a way to promote community and belonging for students
E-sports are electronic sports, a form of competition using video games.
There is more than one way to be part of a team. So often, we think of traditional sports as the only way to give students that experience of working with a team. However, the presenters we heard made it clear that their students are reaping the benefits of being part of an e-sports team.
We saw examples of students learning about their Indigenous culture and heritage through gaming. We also heard about e-sports fostering high student engagement, which in turn is leading to improved attendance.
Technology is being used as a tool to Support Creativity
We noticed a shift from sharing about tools to sharing about projects and pedagogy with tools as supports for making those things happen.
We enjoyed seeing how other educators are leveraging tools in new ways to promote creativity and engage learners in meaningful projects.
Resources
Riding the Wave Conference Website https://ridingthewave.ca/
Tale-Bot robots https://shop.matatalab.com/products/matatalab-tale-bot-pro
Rushton Hurley’s AI course https://www.warmdemanders.com/offers/aNYQoaEv/checkout
BYTE AI space developed for use in education https://www.codebreakeredu.com/chat/
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