The Scarfe Sandbox began in 2013 as a virtual and face-to-face space for teacher candidates and faculty to explore technology integration. Initiated in a collaboration between Yvonne Dawydiak, Teacher Education Program and Joanne Naslund, Education Librarian, the goals of the Scarfe Sandbox are to help build an awareness of and competencies in effective, pedagogically connected digital technology integration in both instructors and teacher candidates in the BEd program.
Joanne Naslund & Yvonne Dawydiak (2013)
Since 2013, sessions have been held on a once or twice weekly basis while BEd students are in session and on campus. This virtual space is designed as a resource blog to support those who attended sessions and those unable to do so! It is comprised of a curated set of resource links, descriptions and tutorial videos as well as blog posts helping to connect the technology and the pedagogy.
Thanks in large part to a TLEF grant, the Scarfe Digital Sandbox underwent a complete redesign from its original humble origins as my own personal blog of rather disorganized posts hosted in UBC Blogs to a more developed site with filters and various features meant to support visitors in finding just what they are looking for. Further, the addition of creative commons licensing and the option for users to submit content have helped bring the Scarfe Digital Sandbox into the world of open education as a repository of resources for all!
Hour of Code Session – unplugged coding
Sandbox sessions have historically been held in Scarfe 155, the Library Collaborative Computing Commons in the Education Library. In 2018, with the redesign of the old Scarfe computer labs (Scarfe 1006 & 1007), many sessions will now be hosted in the flexible learning spaces known as the “Scarfe Studios” – Scarfe 1006 or 1007. These workshops are intended as informal learning events that faculty and students can ‘drop in and drop out of’. We often begin with a brief presentation to orient participants to a topic followed by hands on time whe
Engage & Assess session
re participants explore the presented technology/concept or follow your own path.
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the work and support of the following champions who have helped make the Scarfe Sandbox a visible and valued aspect of the Teacher Education Program and the Faculty of Education:
- Dr. Wendy Carr, Assistant Dean Teacher Education (to Sept. 2018)
- Dr. Mark Edwards, Assistant Dean PDCE
- Dr. Mary Bryson, Associate Dean and Dr. Blye Frank, Dean
- Joanne Naslund, Education Library (retired Dec. 2017) for ongoing collaboration and for always reminding me to know my objectives!
- Chris Ball, Education Library (retired Dec. 2017) for being open to hosting me as a visitor to the library team!
- Wendy Traas, Emily Fornwald and Peggy Lund, Education Library for continued collaboration.
- Dr. Natasha Boskic & her team in Educational Technology Support for ongoing support.
- The many faculty who have welcomed me and project team members into their classrooms and to the teacher candidates for engaging, participating in sessions and sharing resources!
- The staff, coop and grad students who have participated in project work related to the Scarfe Sandbox.
- Notably, Bill Pickard, Bruno Bachmann, Melissa Liang and Eric Lee without whose design and coding skills this virtual space just wouldn’t be the same!
