Which Activities I Found To Be The Most Beneficial
When considering the activities we did for topic 3, the ones that helped me to understand online and open learning the most were editing Wikipedia articles and the Visitor and Resident Maps. I found that the most effective activity of these two for me was the editing Wikipedia activity. This is because of a couple of reasons, the first being that it helps to establish connectivism between all users who have contributed to develop the Wikipedia page to what it has become. Another reason why is because Wikipedia is a perfect example of an open and easily accessible source of information for being, if not the most or one of the most well known online education resources. The last main reason why I feel that the Wikipedia activity was the strongest was that it encourages the user to do further research into the topic that they are wanting to contribute to, thus increasing their knowledge not only about the topic but also about the process in finding said information. As for the Visitor and Resident Maps activity, I found this to be effective mainly because it helps the user gain an easy understanding on how their interactions with online resources reflect their online engagement.
Which Activity I Found To Be Disruptive Rather Than Beneficial
Another activity that I found helpful but also disruptive to understanding online and open learning was the Twitter activity. While I found Twitter chat to be helpful and if used in a meaningful manner can produce greater information spread and gain than the other activities can. However, with this said Twitter like all sources of social media are also home to vast amounts of misinformation in addition to the people who strive to spread it. Which, I unfortunately feel makes this activity more of a disruption than a positive gain due to the amount of information that needs to be taken with a grain of salt on the internet.
Lack of truly open and equitable access in Open Education
The ideas of open education that we have been learning about this semester has partially revolved around the concepts of this information being open and where everyone has equitable access to it. However, while these are key components that make up open education, the reality is that open education is not as open or equitable as it implies
Inequities of Open Education
One of the premises of open education that makes it so desirable for many demographics is that it’s supposedly equitable for all users regardless of any barriers that may exist. Some examples of barriers are: financial, levels of education, systemic and even physical. Nonetheless the actuality of equity in open education is limited in its capacity. The reason for this is mainly due to Open education following the trend of technology as outlined by Selwyn and colleagues in 2019. In these trends there are two main areas that inhibit how equitable these services can be (Selwyn et al., 2019). The first is that its design ignores the larger social structures for providing service by only focusing on individualistic needs (Selwyn et al., 2019). The second is that the socio-cultural aspects of technology which has been found to drive modern education are neglected (Selwyn et al., 2019).Â
Lack of Openness in Open Education
Open is a concept that is generally accepted as a given in open education because it is in its name. But like all things that are delivered online is not true. We live in an age where we desire the things we read and learn to be open for us to access. However, online delivery of information can never truly be open because of barriers that have been put in place such as censorship, bias, and hate are all examples which prevent open education from truly being open (Singh., 2015).
Overview
I strongly believe that open education can never reach true openness and equity but this is solely due to the design for how the internet and technology are designed. With this said I do believe that open education can and will make vast improvements to improve these areas just by looking at the direction that it is going right now.
How the Learning Theory of Connectivism Stimulates Learning
Of the four main learning theories we discussed in class by Bates in 2014, I was unable to decide on which theory best fit my learning style, until we were introduced to connectivism in week 6. Connectivism, as a whole I feel to not only be the best fit for myself but also as the best fit generally when compared to the other theories we have learned about. From having been in a variety of online classes this past year and a bit, I have had the opportunity to experience all five of the learning theories we’ve learned from the different teaching approaches that my professors have taken to deliver online education. While I can see how different people can benefit from the four main learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and social-constructivism; I have been able to note that the general class engagement and information retention has been greater in the courses that have used a connectivism approach to how online learning is delivered.
What makes connectivism so effective is when the general understanding about how learning is a chaotic process which is not defined by how an educator transfers knowledge to the learner but rather how the process in which the learner is able to engage with the information is not only understood by the educator but also from the student (Weller, M, 2020, CH.17). Additionally, when the four components of aggregation, relation, creation and sharing is used appropriately by the educator the learners are able to get a stronger and intrinsic understanding of the material they are being presented with.
Though I feel connectivism to be the most effective learning theory in terms of being able to stimulate learning in a broader range of people, it has three main flaws which can seriously hamper a learners ability to retain information. The first flaw is self-directed learning, which refers to the learners being able to be autonomous in their learning (Weller, M, 2020, CH.17). The second one is presence, involving the learner to maintain a connection with the other learners in the class which involves large time consumption and availability (Weller, M, 2020, CH.17). The final flaw involves the learners having a large range of literal competencies to be able to critically assess the information that they find through the large amount of resources which is known as critical literacy (Weller, M, 2020, CH.17).
To conclude, through my experiences with online learning, connectivism, while it has its flaws, has proven to be the strongest learning theory for myself as well as many of my peers in my cohort.
Do you think that we should be protecting student data ? Why or why not?
In this week’s topic we discussed what eLearning is as well as the implication that it has in regards to it as a potentially unethical source of learning for students in relation to their privacy Regan & Jesse’s (2018). This is a topic that is often brought up in my major as an area of concern for what exactly is considered as private information since so much information is gathered online nowadays. This is especially relevant today since almost all schools have incorporated some form of online learning into how they deliver learning to students since the beginning of COVID. With this said I strongly believe that there should be measures taken to ensure that all students’ data is protected.
Reasons to Protect Students’ Data
In my opinion, student data should be protected for a number of reasons. These reasons are primarily based to ensure that students are protected but there are also strong reasons for an institution to protect this data. A big reason why I believe that student data needs to be protected is because institutions such as universities and schools all collect various degrees of student information which can range from full name, date of birth, and all the way to current residence. In addition, this affects a students feeling of safety in the learning environment because of the unknown nature of how their information is being used. This ties into anonymity and how it is almost impossible for someone with an online footprint to remain anonymous on the internet due to many websites and social media services (Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) that collect your data and sell to affiliate services in order for them to “better know you” and provide you with tailored recommendation based on your online activity. This has led in recent years to large amounts of distrust to emerge between “Users” and institutions that “Collect” data because of the vagueness of how the data is used. This distrust causes a whole myriad of issues and unless handled in advance will take years to rectify.
Benefits to the Institution
In regards to why institutions should strive to protect students data is for a large part to prevent legal backlash from the release of personal information. The unwarranted release or collection of students’ data not only causes distrust but also creates mass amounts of ethical implications and often leads to institutions suffering from millions of dollars of lawsuits. With this in mind, all institutions, especially education which collect a wide variety of data for each students’ needs to outline what data they collect, why they need it, and how it is used if at all. There should also be terms set for students to opt out of some fields of information collection if they are not comfortable sharing certain pieces of information. This in effect would not only help to protect the institution but also help to strengthen the trust that students have in the institution and understanding how their information is stored.
References:
Regan, P. M., & Jesse, J. (2018). Ethical challenges of edtech, Big Data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
This weeks topic went over how using games in the classroom can be beneficial to the learning outcomes for students. I find that from personal experience to be true, from playing games of Kahoot, Jeopardy, Bingo, or Drawing I was able to better understand the topic as well as make the learning more enjoyable. From these experiences I can firmly say that gamifying learning material is something that should be incorporated in the classroom to a certain degree.
While I do think that gamifying learning materials are beneficial to a students learning, if its done incorrectly or is to frequently done the learning is instead harmed. I feel that there needs to be a balance between letting students interact with the gamified learning material and how often its used. This is because without balance, what was once an experience different from normal becomes common where the same skills are being used over and over. This can also lead to there being a deficit in new skills being learned as to much time is dedicated to letting students interact with the gamified material.
The main differences between the two models SAMR and Sections is that, SAMR focuses on categorizing and evaluating four different levels of technology integration in the classroom. Whereas, SECTIONS revolves around determining the appropriateness of technology in the teaching capacity. Another big difference is how much is covered by each model. I feel that while both models are strong in what they do, that the SECTIONS model is better for its intended purpose as it has a lot more steps involved to properly evaluate technologies appropriateness for the teaching capacity. For example SAMR has four degrees of evaluation: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition which is further split into Enhancement and Transformation. Which I feel could be broken up into more terms to further specify each point. But as it is now it seems to be more umbrella terms which leave room for error and confusion. I feel that the SECTIONS model is stronger for what its purpose is because its divided into 8 parts which are each individually evaluated which can better prove its integrity for how it grades the appropriateness of tech in the teaching capacity.
Understand and describe the 3 main reasons for why there are limited plant-based alternatives at bakeries.
Understand and communicate the health benefits of plant-based alternatives in baking.
Identify and describe a variety of plant-based alternatives in baking, including eggs, milk, cream, and butter.
Plan and integrate plant-based baking knowledge into home baking by converting recipes with appropriate alternatives.
Introduction
We have often found ourselves discussing our shared passion of baking, which inspired us to create a podcast for this assignment. This lesson will demystify plant-based baking and provide practical tools for the audience to incorporate in their own baking at home. Additionally, it will explain what health-benefits plant-based diets provide and why most food retailers do not carry plant-based goods.
Design Processes
The project was initiated with a research phase, however we soon realized we wanted to apply the dual-coding theory into our lesson. Therefore, we decided to make an additional infographic guide, presentation, and interactive quiz to help support the effectiveness of information transfer from the podcast. The applications we used to create the original multimedia elements included Canva, Google Slides, Kahoot, and a Google Chrome extension called Screenio.
Discussion:
As for theories we followed for this project, we focused on the Dual-Code theory mainly as we provide multiple channels of information transfer through audible and visual representation. We also focused on following the Cognitive Load Theory, where we ensured that in the presentation we kept each slide to one topic and had a maximum of 6 objects to chunk the information on each slide.
Infographic
The infographic was designed to be used as a guide for learners to reference throughout the duration of the lesson and to have afterwards. It directly follows the coherence principle by reducing the information to images and symbols. The infographic is a guide that allows learners to make connections through the placement of text and images, it therefore follows the Multimedia and Spatial Contiguity Principles. The Signalling Principle has been applied as each topic is highlighted by images, titles, and dividers.
Presentation
For the presentation we closely followed the principles of modality and multimedia by trying to keep as minimal information on each slide as we could while providing extra narration to further our points. Additionally, our presentation aims to adhere to the segmenting principle through “chunking” the information we are presenting on each slide so it is easier to digest. The animation principle was also applied here as we relied on static images and screens rather than using animations to keep the focus on the information we are presenting.
Kahoot
We incorporated a game of kahoot into our blog post to test the users understanding of the concept we presented in a fun manner. While not enforcing the game-based learning approach we learned about in previous weeks, we still wanted to incorporate a way where the viewer is able to play around and test their understanding of what they just learned through a fun quiz.
Podcast
Part of the intrigue for learning through podcasts is from the casual delivery in the form of a conversation between peers. This aligns with the Personalization Principle as the concepts are casually discussed instead of a formal presentation delivery. An example of this is how the podcast flows with comments and questions from each party, which demonstrates the realistic conversation aspect and expertise in the subject.
Pitfalls
One of the pitfalls that we encountered was not following our initial plan of a podcast since it would not meet a variety of the multimedia principles. This was because only providing the information through an auditory format would hinder the effectiveness of the lesson. Unfortunately, this design choice caused a repetition of a majority of the content. Since the content to meet the learning objectives was displayed through multiple facets, we had to sacrifice meeting the Redundancy Principle.
Conclusion
To develop a lesson optimized to teach learners about the benefits and practical skills for plant-based baking, we applied numerous multimedia theories and principles in all elements. Through these elements we aimed to provide the listeners with an experience which was not only engaging but effective for information retention. A successful participant should be able to use the tools provided to understand what hinders plant-based options from being available and how they can make their own. This can be measured by the the amount of participants who were inspired after to use the replacements or to explore more plant-based foods.
Britt. (2020, May 28). Vegan Baking 101. The Banana Diaries. https://thebananadiaries.com/vegan-baking-made-easy/.
Plant-based Protein: Baking Ingredients. BAKERpedia. (2021, January 13). https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/plant-based-protein/.
MD Anderson Cancer Center, & Alexander, H. (2020, November 4). 5 benefits of a plant-based diet. MD Anderson Cancer Center. https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/5-benefits-of-a-plant-based-diet.h20-1592991.html.
Mayer, R. (Ed.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (2nd ed., Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139547369
Mayer, Richard E., and Logan Fiorella. “Principles for Reducing Extraneous Processing in Multimedia Learning: Coherence, Signaling, Redundancy, Spatial Contiguity, and Temporal Contiguity Principles.” The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning.Ed. Richard E. Mayer. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2014. 279-315. Print. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology.
Yuen, J. (2020). Person Holding Stainless Steel Fork. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/pHCazCPGvPw.
Once again you have created another astounding blog post. You’re creative use of media content in combination with you’re writing help to make this post enjoyable and easy to follow. I also quite liked how you were able to reference personal experience with dealing with online school due to COVID-19 and have made me wish some of my professors from other semesters had done similar to your POLI400 professor did.
Your use of real life experiences made reading about this topic easier to read and promotes the relevancy of the topic you’re writing on. I was just wondering, if in addition to what you have already written, you could strengthen the post by adding some media content or images. Other than this, I think this is an absolutely STELLAR post!
I’m a big fan of how you laid out all of your information here and “chunked” the information into easy to digest sizes. it made it really easy to follow and understand what you had to say. I also quite liked the image you used to convey your point of where teachers should aim to keep their lessons above of.
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