About the Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre
The global pandemic put the world online, offering challenges and opportunities for education at all levels. At no other point in our collective histories, whether in school or out of school, young or old, have we had such a shared consciousness around how technologies can be used to bridge physical access to learning and work, not to mention our social lives.
The primary goal of the Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre is to meet learners where they are — online and just-in-time, with innovative learning tools, resources, strategies and support. Our aim is to help remediate the profound educational inequalities COVID has laid bare. Our specific mandate is to design and make freely available leading edge learning tools to communities most overlooked and underserved by online education, including rural and remote, Indigenous, early childhood, immigrant and refugees, and learners with special needs.
What the Edith Lando Centre hopes to bring to this space are participatory, free, and just access to online tools and learning.
Learn more about the Edith Lando VLC by reading the below:
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
A commitment to work in decolonizing and intersectional ways. Recognize the historical, structural, and systemic inequities that persist in and outside educational settings and actively work to reduce harms, working ethically to change those conditions.
Accessibility, Flexibility and Reciprocity.
Strive to ensure direct access to all services and materials, including data and tools. Allow the flexibility to recognize and adapt to the changing needs and interests of the Faculty of Education, rural, remote, Indigenous, early childhood, immigrant and refugee communities more specifically.
Commitment to Act/Action.
Recognize that responsibilities extend beyond those to human beings and encompass no less importantly, the environment, other species, and the future.
Planning and Implementation.
Through evidence-based planning, ensure that the design, organization, and implementation of services (related to virtual learning) of Faculty of Education researchers, educators, learners and communities.
Personalized and Professional Learning Support.
Acknowledge that individuals have unique experiences, circumstances, capabilities and needs. Strive to support their distinct goals and purposes, including those of faculty, students and support staff, and the communities in which the Edith Lando VLC will work.
Collaboration and Cooperation.
Support and encourage cooperative approaches, working together to advance the capabilities and effectiveness of the centre in supporting learners through technological means. Collaborate across the university, government institutions, and/or community organizations, where appropriate.
Human and Non-human Relations.
Recognize, respect and cultivate relationships that bind and support learning, as these involve socio-technical, material and non-human entities, and the recognition of the situatedness of learning and our dependence their material, technological, environmental and more than human agencies in co-constructing ethical and sustainable learning relations.
Innovation, Research and Professional Practices.
Be open to cultivating new and different ways of knowing, doing, and being. Seek out, study, and support both research and professional development of new ideas, strategies, research approaches, and practices that break new ground in the development and distribution of innovative socio-technical means to advance learners’ purposes.
Re-Configuring Learning Relations.
Digital technologies reconfigure spatio-temporal relations of communication and interaction. Whereas traditionally teacher- and school centred learning practices occur in a defined time and in specific places, online learning happens at any time of day (or night) and in any location, providing unprecedented accessibility for individual and community engagements in learning.
Accountability and Transparency.
Ensure accountability and transparency, through regular, rigorous, and evidence-based evaluation of the Edith Lando VLC's progress and impacts. This includes documentation of activities, network analysis and reach, and communicative impact measurements.
For almost 20 years, the generous support and leadership of the Edith Lando Charitable Foundation has helped UBC promote and advance social-emotional learning in children and young people. Innovations have included research and graduate training, summer camps and inner-city programs, teacher training, and free, inclusive online learning tools and resources, such as those offered by the Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre.
Edith Lando Centre for Virtual Learning: Advisory Committee
The Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre is a virtual, UBC supported community that was established to address the need for further research and knowledge mobilization of best practices for effective online/remote teaching and learning. The centre aims to provide personalized and professional learning support by way of a Digital Pedagogy Lab, mentorship, and professional consultations with UBC faculty, staff, graduate students, teacher candidates, and “ask the expert” sessions for parents and students.
Objectives
- Respond to the accessibility of excellent online teaching and learning with the most current tools and programming to create immediate solutions for faculty, students, and staff at the Faculty of Education;
- Support learners with special needs, increase the skills and capacity to teach and learn online, increase access to research partners across regions, and connect with international peers;
- Create innovative online spaces whereby learning technologies are driving social good by augmenting existing online and offline connected learning communities, including Indigenous, rural, early childhood, and refugee and immigrant groups.
Methods and Frequency of Meetings
At least once a quarter, online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
Roles and Responsibilities
Attend quarterly meetings; consult with the director of the ELVLC and staff members on major decision making; contribute subject matter expert knowledge to help steer the centre; make connections to relevant communities and organizations; advice on programming and centre directions; renew advisory group membership annually.
Advisory Group Membership
The advisory group is made up of the Chair (Director of the Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre), as well as Unit and Student Representatives. One representative (if possible, based on interest and/or needs of the centre) from each: ECPS, EDCP, EDST, KIN, and LLED. A graduate student representative from any unit, and a community member where subject matter expertise, interests, and needs of that community member align with the explicit goals of the Centre, will also at times make up the advisory group.
Administrator
TBD
Centre Impacts
Assessing centre impacts will take into account ongoing evidence-based research with qualitative and quantitative approaches including:
- Annual impacts review
- Donor feedback
- Impact interviews, surveys, ongoing feedback with parents/guardian/students and teachers on the value of the services of the virtual centre
- Faculty, staff, students (UBC) feedback
- Website traffic metrics and participation data
- Initiatives/new initiatives
- Donations
Mission Statement
To increase community focused, virtual, online, capacity building expertise of faculty, teacher candidates, and graduate students to serve, and support instructors and community groups in the areas of early childhood education, Indigenous education, rural education, and refugee and immigrant education.
Goals
- Re-configuring virtual and online education to meet the professional development needs of educators;
- Responsible, just-in-time and place-centred, remote professional development for educators in rural communities;
- Supporting ECE educators to focus on the socio-emotional wellness of children and families;
- Responding to needs of remote and Indigenous communities, by providing applicable and accessible resources, know-how and learning;
- Providing resources and understanding to learners, teachers and community members anywhere in British Columbia;
- Respecting intergenerational knowledge and supporting Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being;
- Creating online networks of support, including second language learning for immigrant and refugee students and parents.
Priorities for the Edith Lando VLC
