6 Reciprocity
Guiding Questions
- How has the instructor grown as an educator or community member as a result of this course and their interactions with the learners?
- What reciprocal actions have been taken to ensure that each person’s voice, culture, and beliefs have been heard to ensure each individual learns something by the end of this course that they didn’t know or understand before?
- How are two-way interactions (teacher as facilitator, teacher as learner, student as learner, student as teacher) utilized to maximize engagement and learning?
What Reciprocity Means
Reciprocity means honouring student voice and choice by creating equitable relationships.
In the video below, Joanna speaks on how she builds reciprocity in her classroom. The video is available with closed captioning. [Video] Integrating Reciprocity into Online Learning video transcript [website]
Tools to Support Reciprocity in Web-Based Teaching
An “Unconference” or EdCamp [website] is a self-building, bottom-up approach where participants in the conference gather, decide what topics are going to be discussed, then set out to explore, discuss, or teach these topics in a communal approach of sessions throughout the day. EdCamp as an unconference is an effective system for flipping traditional instruction. Traditionally, teaching and conferences are where a few people come and deliver content to a large group of people, EdCamps bring back reciprocity in learning where both the student and teacher can contribute and share their knowledge.
EdCamps [website] are meant to encourage conversation and participation between participants, who determine the topics for the day and take an active role in setting the direction of the conference.
The classroom instructor will set up an open Zoom [website] or the preferred synchronous video conferencing system conference space for all of the participants to join. The first hour or so of an EdCamp [website] allows for the attendees to meet and interact through conversation and leaving space for participants to get to know each other.
The video conference host shares a link to an empty session board such as Padlet [website] which allows for everyone to post session titles. A session title is a topic of conversation or content from the course that the participant is interested in.
After sessions have accumulated on the session board, participants should vote by signing their initials, putting a check-mark on, or another form of indication as discussed as a group, to determine the sessions for the day. Session times, and lengths should be accommodate to suit the time you have for the conference. Sessions should be between 30-60 minutes in length, as a guiding reference, to allow for focussed engagement without a tendency to stray or lose focus.
The conference organizer will create breakout rooms based on the sessions determined from the morning brainstorm, and allow participants to flow between each session during its duration. A determined note-taker should be present at each session to keep track of the ideas and information that unfold. There is no lead presenter in the sessions, and each participant is free to share their ideas about the topic in each room. Depending on the grade level of your classroom, scaffolding on behaviour before the conference may be beneficial.
After the sessions are completed, students should summarize and reflect on their learning from the sessions they attended in the format they desire. Programs like Padlet [website], Google Slides [website], Survey Monkey [website] and StoryBird [website] are great programs for multimedia reflections and demonstration of learning.
The EdCamp Community [website] is a great resource for supporting educators who want to participate in EdCamps with their classes, or attend an EdCamp themselves.
Shelly Moore [website] is an education consultant based in Vancouver, BC, who provides interactive presentations on the theory and practices of inclusion, special education, and curriculum. We have included two videos created by Shelly Moore highlighting the importance of inclusion and practices to empower and celebrate the diverse learners in your classroom. Shelly Moore’s website, BlogSomeMoore – Teaching and Empowering ALL Students [website] is a great hub for resources, media, and contact information for embracing and practicing inclusion in your classroom.
Shelly Moore: Transforming Inclusive Education
Shelly Moore: Inclusion 2.0
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA)
Please visit the FIPPA chapter in our appendix section of our book [website] for information regarding the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act [website] when using cloud-based software, such as the programs listed below.
Socrative [website] is an interactive web-based student response tool appropriate for K12 learners, and post-secondary educators. This online assessment platform can be used for formative and summative assessment in the form of polls and quizzes allowing multi-modal responses from students. Formative assessment describes the assessment of learning during the course, such as pop-quizzes, in class reflections, and classroom discussions. Summative assessment is the evaluation of a student’s learning at the end of a course or unit, such as a unit quiz or final exam. Educators can create a series of poll questions to support a discussion in real time, or assign quizzes, classroom polls or mini-competitions to assess student learning in real time. A unique, engaging feature of Socrative is their SpaceRace game, the classroom quiz game to engage students either independently or part of a team with the lesson content.