Category: Uncategorised

Hi Kyra,

Great post! I quite liked the way that you structured your blog post as well as your choice of media to help strengthen you points. I stringly agree that the video you have chosen will be easy and engaging for children to follow along and understand. What I appreciated from reading this post was the way you accounted for the potential short-coming of the video you chose and provided a solution to deal with it. I feel that you have put a lot of consideration in this log post that is clearly represented in the thorough answers you have provided. Fantastic post!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eWes26O4eE3ry1Lb6WWorPSpOrKBmgw_W7xsxQLalY4/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_00

I want to start this review off by saying that I am a big fan of the approach that you all as a group have taken for your resource. I think that the layout of the resource and the presentation is very well done and will be easy enough for your target demographic to be able to follow along without issue. One suggestion I would make considering the demographic you’re targeting, would be to adjust some of the wording used to be more simple language (ie, change cognitive to mental), so that students don’t get confused.

When looking at your outcomes I liked how they were all clearly outlined at the beginning of each module highlighting which ones will be addressed/answered. I think that the material you provide in each module will provide the students with what they need to properly achieve these outcomes. However, I might have missed this or misinterpreted some of the activities from the modules but for the modules with multiple outcomes associated with them I’m not sure if the activities address all of the outlined outcomes (example Module 3). I also noticed that there was no activity for module 2, so a suggestion from me would be to perhaps consider adding an activity to address these outcomes or tie them into the following activity.

The use of different activities at the end of each module I find helps to increase the overall interactivity of your resource. I think that all the activities you’ve chosen are very well laid out however I would suggest adjusting the activity within module 4. I feel that the activity from module 4 may need some rewording as I believe that this could cause students to feel uncomfortable or even stressed to have to present out loud to their peers what has made them stressed as this is a personal topic. My recommendation for this would be to instead of saying something that made them personally stressed, to create a “stressful” scenario and then have others identify why this situation is stressful.

When going through this resource I felt that it was strong inclusivity that would allow for students within your target demographic to be able to complete this resource without barriers to learning. Adding to this I found that the use of technology for this resource was strong and the rationale for using it considering your demographic makes perfect sense. Something that I have to note which I may have missed but when I was going through this resource, I noticed that there was a lack of citations in this resource. I’m not sure if this was intended and if it was I would recommend adding a small section addressing this. Overall, I feel that this is a very solid resource which covers all the necessary bases for this assignment!

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). 

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.

References:

Selwyn, N., Hillman, T., Eynon, R., Ferreira, G., Knox, J., Macgilchrist, F., & Sancho-Gil, J. M. (2019). What’s next for Ed-Tech? Critical hopes and concerns for the 2020s. Learning, Media and Technology, 1–6. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci339/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/03/What-s-next-for-Ed-Tech-Critical-hopes-and-concerns-for-the-2020s.pdf

singh, sava. (2015). THE FALLACY OF “OPEN.” In Open at the margins: Critical perspectives on open education. essay. 

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.