Building a Brighter Future with Canvas
The
world is getting smaller and smaller every day. In the age of social media and
rapid advancements in digital communications, a new generation of students is
growing up conscious of their connection with everybody else in the world.
Reaching across geographical borders through the internet is now the way of
life for most of the world, and we are already seeing advantages and
disadvantages of living in a digital age.
The
people behind Instructure saw an opportunity to build a learning platform that
would make teaching and learning easier in today’s global village. They made
Canvas, an open-source software and the only true native cloud learning
management system (LMS). To further demonstrate the ways Canvas could empower
students all over the globe to “change the world,” Instructure launched the
very first “K12 Buddy System.”
The
K12 Buddy System is a cross border project that demonstrates what can be
achieved in a truly global classroom and a collaborative learning environment.
Forty-five students, aged 15-16 years old, from De La Salle Lipa in the
Philippines and Callaghan College in NSW, Australia were given a problem to
work on together for eight weeks, from August 20 to October 24, using Canvas
under the supervision of selected teachers. The problem they needed to solve is
“The Culture of Throwaway Plastics.”
Despite
living in two different continents and time zones, plastic pollution is a
shared concern. The students, working in groups of four — two students
representing each school — came up with three solutions to persuade people,
businesses or the council in their local area to reduce their reliance on
single use plastic. These solutions must be actionable, practical, and solve a
specific problem concerning single use plastics. All actions must be backed up
by research and strong rationale.
The
top 10 submissions proceeded to the final round on October 24 where the teams
presented their strongest solution to the judges from both the Philippines and
Australia using a Canvas classroom in real time through video conference. The
judges include Troy Martin, General Manager, APAC; the principals and project
lead teachers from both De La Salle Lipa and Callaghan College; and Raf
Dionisio a social and environmental entrepreneur and co-founder of The Plastics
Solution volunteer movement.
The
third place winner is Team Wallsend DLSL 6 composed of Olivia Staub, Jose
Miguel S. Villegas, Edward Augustine O Tullao, Danya Best, and Isha Prasad. The
team proposed a stricter implementation of zero-plastic policies by creating a
watch group called “Guardians of the Plastic Bag.” The group will encourage
people to use alternatives to the single-use plastic bag such as “bayong” which
is a durable reusable shopping bag, beeswax wraps, newspapers, and banana
leaves. Incentives will be offered to encourage more people to join the
program.
Team
Wallsend DLSL 8 with Keely Harris, Kim D. Ditan, Josh Aldrich P. De Villa,
Olivia Beck, and Chloe Speering won second place with their proposal for an
alternate material to plastic: Seaweed Bioplastic. It is a bioplastic that is a
completely and easily biodegradable plastic with an environmentally friendly
production process. Seaweed bioplastic is versatile and is already being
produced in Indonesia has been proven to be both sustainable and profitable.
The
first place winner is Team Waratah DLSL 2 made up of Danielle Lei R. Araez and
Jesse A. Candelario. Their presentation to create eco bricks with single-use
plastic waste won over the judges and the competition. Eco-bricks are plastic
bottles stuffed solid with non-biodegradable waste to create building blocks
that utilizes the longevity and durability of plastic. They seek to inspire
local communities and institutions to see their trash as something that could
be literally constructive. Eco bricks have been proven to be cheaper and safer
than hollow blocks. Team Waratah has even included in their presentation solid
and actionable plans to get schools and communities mobilized to realize their
goals.
“The
K12 Buddy System opens up a whole new horizon for learning for both students
and teachers,” said Troy Martin. “And this is just the beginning! We hope to do
more projects like this that pushes the boundaries of conventional education
and encourages learning beyond the four walls of the classroom..
Cross-cultural,
transnational collaboration takes getting used to, but the students, through
the competition, learned that with a shared goal, they can come up with ways
that they could change the world. Canvas easily bridges the divide between the
students living in different sides of the world through technology. Students
are learning, as one teacher had put it, to be “locally competent and globally
competitive,” and the world is all the more better for it.
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