Author: zitongzhao

Part 1: Evidence and reflection on my learning in EDCI 339 （Option: by outcomes）

 

In this part, I will be mainly using some illustrations, such as direct quotes and my reflection in my own post, to demonstrate my accomplishments in all learning outcomes that listed in this course.

 

Learning outcome #1—Describe the potential of human-centered learning in distributed and open learning contexts

 

I met this learning outcome, as I got some meaningful quotes from Jesse and Regan’s paper from Topic #1, after carefully reading:

“One of the most problematic aspects of edtech, and least addressed from a policy perspective however, involves the capability of edtech to deliver more personalized learning based on the needs and skill levels of individual students.” (Regan, 2018, p. 168)

In my own understanding and reflection, since people are born to be different, it is quite necessary to give distinct personalized-study-plans to students of different levels, such that these students enjoy higher improvement in both learning and efficiency.

Another important quotes that are highly relevant to learning outcome #1 are:

“The last 10 years have witnessed an explosion of new educational technologies (edtech), some touting amazing potential to reach the next generation with new learning methods that will teach not only content, be it history, mathematics or engineering, but also intra- and inter-personal competencies, such as resilience and teamwork.” (Regan, 2018, p. 167)

and “Edtech companies recognize the huge market offered by K-12 education—an arena that has a vast and renewable population base.” (Regan, 2018, p. 167)

Using my own critical thinking skills, these two quotes combined describe an emerging trend in which the human centered learning is gradually replacing the traditional teaching method that focuses on didactic. This potential does develop. However, like I mentioned in the first paragraph of Topic #1 discussion, this potential is always accompanied with the risks or trade-offs, particularly the issue of privacy.

I also learnt from Morris and Stommel’s book that “educators and students alike have found themselves more and more flummoxed by a system that values assessment over engagement, learning management over discovery, content over community, outcomes over epiphanies” (Morris & Stommel, 2018). This point seems to be irrelevant to learning outcome #1, but it is indeed relevant. K-12 period is the period at which children are “faster than” college students in developing the curiosity and discovery towards knowledge. In addition, unlike college professors who carry out the task of producing knowledge, K-12 instructors have more time and space to utilize new educational technologies. These two reasons together explain why the above fact that Edtech has vast customer base in K-12 schoolings. Like what I may be repeating multiple times in the rest parts of this portfolio, open learning does not fit very well in the natural science and engineering courses. One main reason is that the knowledge in natural science and engineering courses are relatively profound. Without strong foundation in math and physics, students can fall behind very easily even if the students may have access to open learning resources.

Through the friendly exchange of ideas at Brightspace, I deepen my own understanding for learning outcome #1. For instance, one of my pod partner Mengqi exchanged some ideas on the discrimination problem which may be occurred by personalized learning. He claimed that because personalized learning can classify students by race, gender, standing, and so on, personalized learning generates discrimination problem. I admit that personalized learning does generates discrimination, but discrimination in the context of education area may stand more for differentiation. For instance, suppose I am an average student in calculus course. I expect to have access to more “entry-level” materials, rather than “advance version” materials, from personalized learning. I admit that under this case I may be somewhat discrimination as being classified as average. But who cares, so long as he or she experiences substantial improvement in learning. I understand that anything may be double-edge sword, and open learning is not an exception.

By completing these activities, I learned a lot. Please see the evidence above. In both in-text analysis above and Brightspace screenshots. I critically reflected on some important terms, such as open learning, pedagogy, personalized learning, privacy, discrimination, tradeoffs in Edtech, and so on.

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The things I learned matter to me because 1) as a current student, I usually encounter dilemmas in choosing between in-person tutorials and online resource. For instance, suppose that I am stuck in some physics problems. Do I go to in-person tutorial tomorrow, or watch online tutorial? Like I claim many times, the knowledge in natural science is usually profound, such that most of time neither TA at in-person tutorial nor the authors in online tutorial, such as Youtuber who upload video-clips, can correctly answer my inquires right away. If the potential of open learning keeps developing and the OER-enabled sources are proved reliable, I may switch my focus to this developing because I learn more and save time more.

 

Learning outcome #2 Explore and engage with current literature on the distributed and open education movement

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Learning outcome #3 Critically reflect on and articulate concepts around modality, pedagogy, and access, including distributed and open learning theory, online and open learning history, privacy laws, online learning communities, open research, and open data.

 

I combined these two learning outcomes together, as a lot of readings in Topic #1 and Topic # have some evidence that belong to both learning outcomes. Again, I will be mainly using direct quotes from the assigned readings, reflection, WordPress screenshots to display that I met both learning outcomes above.

 

I learnt a lot in the paper by Major’s book, because it is written for the point of view of students and introduces some concepts, which belong to learning outcome #3 and connect closely to real life of college students. For instance, 5 essential structural elements of online courses are: enrollment, amount, timing, platform, and pathway. 1) Two extremes of Enrollment are open and close. Regardless of online or not, almost all courses that offered by UVic are closed. For instance, in this EDCI 339 course, no students are from other universities. On the other hand, MOCC is a typical example whose enrollment is open. According to Major, “the core feature of these courses is that they are available to anyone who has adequate technological tools, who wishes to learn something about the topic, and who has the time to participate (Major, 2015, p. 78). 2) Amount refers to, in my own words describing the idea from Major’s book, the percentage of activities that are held via internet. According to Major’s book, when 80% or more of the course happens on the Internet, this course may be considered “online”; When 30%–79% of the course happens on the Internet, this course may be considered “hybrid” or “blended”. When 1%–29% of the course happens on the Internet, this course may be considered “web-assisted”. This information not only relates to modality of online learning in learning outcome #2, but also attracts my interests, which I will be discussing in the upcoming “why it matters to me” portion.

 

3) Timing: this element may have two options: asynchronous and synchronous. EDC 339 is apparently asynchronous. Because of the pandemic, most courses in Canadian universities are also offered in asynchronous basis. 4) Platform: According to Major’s book, “a platform provider offers a prebuilt product that can handle many online learning functions, including course administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery (Major, 2015, p. 78). The Brightspace, which UVic is using, and the Canvas, which UBC is using, are apparently the application of “Platform”. 5) Pathway: this concept has two extremes: centralized or distributed. In the standard of distributed learning, “students can interact with it or each other and the course content in different ways”. (Major, 2015, p.86).

I learnt the history of opening and online learning via Edtech Timeline and the index of Martin Weller’s book 25 Years of Ed Tech. I also learnt a lot from the interactions with pod peers via reading post and reply. For instance, Yilin Wang briefly discussed the real world connection between pandemic teaching and 5 structural elements in Topic #2 blog. In my reply to her post, I wrote the following:

In the topic #2 post of Lei Han, another pod peer, he reflected mainly on “Platform” by linking platform to real-world study. I cannot agree more on the claim that a good platform does improve efficiency and save time. In the reply to his post, I wrote:

In my own post for Topic #2, I put forward an important point that online courses are neither for all student nor for all subjects.

By completing these activities, I learned a lot of the concepts and applications in the field of online and open learning. I also reflected these concepts in both discussions above and the blog posts that I did. Moreover, I critically evaluated the applicability of online courses under normal time and “pandemic time”.

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The things I learned matter to me because 1) I noticed some meaningful truths after I combined the contents from all 4 topics. Online courses are not for all students and all subjects. Some subjects, especially social science course, make nearly no difference between online teaching and in-person teaching. Natural science courses, however, frequently require students participate in ether on-site experiments or hands-on activities. So, these natural science course cannot go fully online. So, when deciding their courses, college instructors must carefully think about the extent to which the 5 structural elements are emphasized.

The things I learned matter to me also because 2) Sometimes my email account received some ads in which some top universities were selling short-term MOCC courses. I used to ignore them. After reading Major’s book, I found out some pros that I have not known before. If time permits, I may consider enrolling in one or two MOCC courses.

 

Learning outcome #4— Examine and reflect upon the potential for equitable access for all learners in online and open learning contexts.

I met this learning outcome by carefully reading the assigned articles. For instance, from Mays’ article, I learnt that the cores of open pedagogy and that access is essential to education enterprise. Also, OER-enable pedagogy help fulfills the cores of open pedagogy: “When we talk about OERs, we bring two things into focus: that access is critically important to conversations about academic success, and that faculty and other instructional staff can play a critical role in the process of making learning accessible” (Mays, 2017). “OERs invite faculty to play a direct role in making higher education more accessible” (Mays, 2017).

From Chris Gilliard’s blog post, I learn that digital technologies in the modern period have substantial impacts on the issue of access. “It may have to do with the growing sense that digital justice isn’t only about who has access but also about what kind of access they have, how it’s regulated, and how good it is”(Gillard, 2016).

From Kral’s article, I learnt that the access to learning resources is an important issue. Good learning resources have better to encourage learners to learn, engage in group/community, and practice interpersonal skills.

I also participated in myself and pod peers’ posts and reply to consolidate my understanding in this learning outcome. In my own blog, I wrote:

Lei Han in his post points out personal reading’s impacts on the issue of access, in my reply to his post, I wrote:

Moky in his topic 3 post noticed impacts of financial burdens on access. In my reply to his post. I exchanged some ideas with him:

 

By completing these activities, I learned that issue of access is involved with various sections and details. Since OER is still developing, it serves as an option for both students and educators to reduce costs and enhance the extent to which access to education is available. I also learnt that Internet has pros and cons, as far as the topic of access is concerned.

The things I learned matter to me because I, as a current student, always expect to have access some education resources that are accurate, low-cost, and convenient. After accomplishing this learning outcome, I realize that not all open learning resources are good, and that not all close learning resources are of low- quality. In other words, when I am about to choose learning resources, I have better to apply case-by-case basis.

 

 Learning outcome #5— Conduct research into and critically reflect upon emerging and future educational technologies.

I met this learning outcome by doing Digital Equity and Perspective Pod Project with my pod peers. Lisa, the persona whom our group created, has some strengths and weakness. We choose open learning as the solution to help her grow more efficiently. The pitch result is as follows:

 

By completing these activities, I learnt that personalized setting and case-by-case analysis are needed when applying open learning to different individuals. During the process of this pod project, I also learned that there are so many considerations in open/distributed learning, such as issue of equity and student’s cultural background, , as well as student’ strength and weakness.

The things I learned matter to me because I enhance my interpersonal skills, discovery, and hands-on skills, which are all attributed to the objectives of pedagogy claimed by Major. The things I learned matter to me also because this project reminds me of a useful truth: like I claim and reflect repeatedly in topic #4 discussion, the applicability of open learning depends on the subject and institution. But this pod project indicates that applicability of open learning also depends on students’ characteristics. In the real world, I am facing some opportunities from open learning, such as on-site IELTS course outside UVic and online Python course also outside UVic. When I am selecting between them, they are indeed selecting me at the same time, because applicability of open learning varies across students.

 

Learning outcome #6— Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about distributed and open learning.

Professor Banow gave the following meaningful differentiation among concepts in his post.

At the very beginning of this course, I partipated in some activities in Brightspace where belongs to distribtuted learning:

Then, we students swiched to WordPress where belongs to open learning domain. I actively posted my blogs and replies.

I also used Mattermost software:

By completing these activities, I acquired some hands-on experience and, more importantly, deepened my understanding on the concept of Platform that mentioned in Major’s book.

 The things I learned matter to me. In the modern period, it is quite necessary for both parties of educators and students to equip with latest apps and platforms, such that educational practice functions better in the areas of engagement and community.

 

Part 2 Showcase Blog Portion

Original blog (topic# 3 discussion)

Showcase blog (revisions for topic #3 discussion)

Reasons for editing: the original topic #3 post was not well-written. Because I received friendly feedbacks from Professor Banow and read further the assigned materials, I decided to revise topic #3 in my showcase blog by recalling and reflecting key ideas in a clear and logical way. In addition, some material from latter topic #4 help me to understand further for topic #3.

Contents changed: I explicit recall and reflect the meanings of open pedagogy and OER-enabled pedagogy. I also examine the potential connections between these two concepts by using both assigned readings and real-world reflections. 

 

 

Reference Lists

Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2

Morris, S. M., & Stommel, J. (2018). An urgency of teachers: The work of critical digital pedagogy. Hybrid Pedagogy.

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016, May 24). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. Common Sense Education.

Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012). Chapter 4: Design Principles for Indigenous Learning Spaces. Safe Learning Spaces. Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia. ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

 

According to Mays’ article, open pedagogy can be interpreted as “a site of praxis” where “theories about learning, teaching, technology, and social justice enter into a conversation with each other and inform the development of educational practices and structures” (Mays, 2017).

In my own understanding and reflection, open pedagogy in the context of college education requests active and meaningful learning which is accomplished by both parties of students and educators. For instance, if an instructor sets up group discussion and all students actively participate in group discussion, students’ interpersonal skills and speaking skills would enhance, thus this scenario fulfills open pedagogy. Additionally, open pedagogy ought to focus on students’ long-term growth rather than short-term exam performance. For instance, if a history professor let his students memorize tremendous historical facts from textbook over only one night only, this assignment has no benefits to students as this professor ignores the importance in comprehension skills and problem-solving skills which are valued highly in students’ long-term growth.

 

OER-enabled pedagogy helps improve the quality of open pedagogy. According to Wiley and Hilton’ paper from topic #4, OER-enabled pedagogy could be defined as the set of teaching and learning practice with compulsory participation of 5R, which are retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute (Wiley & Hilton, 2018). One representative instance in which OER-enabled pedagogy improves of open pedagogy is free open textbook. Traditional textbooks add heavily financial burdens on students, thus lowering students’ learning freedom, which belongs to one of the three cores of open pedagogy. Free open textbooks are helpful in making students’ learning efficient and active. Another example of OER-enabled pedagogy is renewable-assignments. In the traditional learning mode, students are usually required to do disposable assignments, which become some pieces of trash after one semester ends. Because of this very short duration of being valuable, disposable assignments give no benefits to three parties of current students, future students, and educators. The birth of renewable assignment helps alleviate the shortcomings of disposable assignments. It matters to open pedagogy, as development of renewable assignments signifies implicitly a learning philosophy in which collective efforts may be more active and efficient than one individual’s effort.

 

 

 

 

Reference

 

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

 

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

The four-part test is used to determine whether a particular teaching method or teaching activity belongs to OER-enabled pedagogy. From my study life, I have several instances which meet the criteria of OER-enabled pedagogy. The first instance is Wikipedia. Like the article explicitly acknowledges, Wikipedia meets the standard of OER-enabled pedagogy. Personally speaking, using Wikipedia is a natural and positive move, especially when I found it necessary to look up some background knowledge that needed in my courses. The second instance is what we students of EDCI 339 course are doing at WordPress. One of the course designs for EDCI 339 is to allow students to experience and practice the concepts of the articles we read, mainly the concept of open learning, in blogs as the shared platforms for open learning. Also, We students have access to the sample portfolio made by previous cohorts.
If I am about to become a teacher, I may or may not design some contents or activities that pass this four-part test. This response was triggered prudently rather than randomly, due to the facts that OER-enabled pedagogy must handle various expected and unexpected details. The first detail is that not all subjects get well along with OER-enabled pedagogy. Most of the social science subjects, such as education, sociology, education, English, fit relatively well with OER-enabled pedagogy, largely because most of these subjects are highly open-ended and subjective. This reason explains why students in English course are granted “sample essay” and why we EDCI 339 students can read the sample portfolio from previous semester. In other words, in social science context, the performance of previous students could positively influence that of latter students. Additionally, social science courses have relatively low “knowledge thresholds”. Nearly everybody in the world can participate in some subjective discussions, like “Is current Canadian government good or bad” or “online courses vs in-person courses”. Under this scenario, open learning functions well because every participant in open learning can view some arguments that mentioned by others. Similar examples are the replies to other EDCI 339 students, as well as the meeting of MBA students.
Natural science courses, however, are usually profound and require relatively high “knowledge thresholds”, thus not fitting nicely with OER-enabled pedagogy. The article did mention an instance where elementary school students, who were stuck in figuring out the sum of degrees of a triangle, benefit from “worked examples”. Admittedly, the effect of “worked examples” is positive in elementary school level. But, how about the calculus problems in college level? Now suppose that one college student does not have strong prerequisite knowledge in math. In real world, nobody else can help him out, even if this student has access to abundant resources from OER-enabled pedagogy, such as numerous “worked examples”. Because of the very weak association between previous students and latter students, it is even not necessary at all for natural science or engineering professors to publish courses in open-learning setting.
The second detail that needed to be handle is that, like the article mentions, the actual costs of open learning may be much higher than expected. Together with the points above, it is simply not worth it! The third detail is that college students are taking several courses, so do they really have time and energy to explore some OER-enabled materials?
Moreover, the article itself gives some hints: “Six years later, there have been more than a dozen studies, most of which have found OER to have a small positive impact on learning (Hilton, 2016).” Only small positive impacts are indeed reasonable, because OER is just one factor that influences students’ learning. Other important factors include, but not limited to, students’ self-efforts, strictness of instructors, school level, year of standing, and course difficulty. Overall, the development of OER-enabled pedagogy is superb positive to education enterprise, but OER-enabled pedagogy, a complementary method in my own reflection after reading this article, can hardly be the most dominant factor that determines students’ learning performance.

 

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

 

The open teaching method is a discussion about many aspects. The beginning of each new teaching method is a challenge to all aspects. Only by constant change, continuous exploration and extension, can a new mode be used perfectly. Even though a large number of students are receiving higher education, due to their own inactive attitude, lack of solid economic foundation, and high tuition fees, students also suffer from difficult economic pressure in the process of learning.
Although today, the traditional mode of teaching is still going to school, online teaching can be a very efficient way if it can reduce the pressure of students themselves. Can also let students the flexibility of the time more, outside the ease the pressure on students themselves, can also let them learn more extracurricular knowledge, enrich their own thoughts, and at the same time also can let the teacher have more time to think in addition to the content of the textbook has, what is can help students more development thinking, create new ideas.
If I am one of the students with financial burden, I would prefer to use my spare time to relieve the pressure caused by external factors in the learning process. But this way can not let me have the energy to devote myself to study. This will also make me unable to seriously learn knowledge in school. I believe that this is not the result that schools and teachers want.

 

References

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016, May 24). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. Common Sense Education.

The teaching system can be understood by characteristics and elements, and the same courses in the same institution can understand similarities and differences with other courses in the same program. Understanding the curriculum structure can help us better understand and grasp the systematic teaching. I noticed that different teaching modes have different ways of learning, but as for the cost of teaching forms, I think this mode is not perfect. Although there are two different teaching methods for the knowledge that different students want to learn, it may not be suitable for all online students without payment or credits. Not all students want to learn knowledge through online classes. At the same time, for professors, online classes are not an appropriate way for students to master knowledge because they cannot see students’ feedbacks on knowledge points in time. I will apply what I have learned to my future work, such as team cooperation or meeting minutes. I can use such a model to write a structural framework and complement each other for specific content

 

 

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

I learned some surprising facts and important concepts from these papers. The paper written by Priscilla Regan and Jolene mentioned some events that cause my interests. It is undoubtedly true that the problem of privacy arises when big data techniques are increasingly used in education area. It is noteworthy that, however, education area is not the only one place where privacy is affected by data science. Likewise, a wide range of industries, such as retailing and social media, experience the issue of privacy as well. Since data science seems to be one of the future mainstreams, it could be foreseen that the issue of privacy keeps arising only. The suggestions are reasonable in principle, but I kind of disagree in that saying is always harder than implementing. For instance, the paper mentioned that the state of New York once transferred more than 2 million student records to InBloom, an E-learning company which had cooperation relationship with some states (Regan 2018, p. 168). I am kind of curious to think whether these 2 million students are current or past students, as well as whether these students gave permissions ahead of the transfer.
I also learned a lot from the works by Morris and Stommel. I agree that pedagogy is different from teaching and that some faculties in higher education seldom participate in pedagogical works (Morris & Stommel, 2018). Again, like privacy issue that mentioned above, saying is easier than changing. First, to most of faculty who work in universities, community colleges excluded, their primary duty is research. Teaching may not even be their secondary duty. As a result, they do not have high motivations and interests in developing pedagogical works. If a faculty of a course designs good contents, delivers good lectures, implements good exams, his or her skills are more than appreciated as far as pedagogy is concerned. In addition, because pedagogy focuses on discovery and active learning, it is necessary for teachers to set up relevant activities that let students grow up as well-rounded persons. So, in standard courses, apart from lectures and exams, we student usually have presentations, group project, individual report, experiments, and so on. Because, like mentioned above, teaching is of low motivation to most faculty, it remains doubtful how many faculty have willingness to develop a well-designed course.
Passphrases tips are helpful because these tips serve as good reminders and potentially avoid a lot of costs and troubles.

References

Regan, P.M., Jesse, J. Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics Inf Technol 21, 167–179 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2

Morris, S. M., & Stommel, J. (2018). An urgency of teachers: The work of critical digital pedagogy. Hybrid Pedagogy.

Critical Digital Pedagogy: a Definition