Month: October 2022 (Page 1 of 2)

Comments for KATHRYNEBERT ’s Post #4

Thank you for analyzing how the video will prompt interactivity. On top of the reasons you have mentioned, I also find the video suitable for your students because it is just like a cartoon. The vivid motions and simple explanations all inspire students to practice the experiment with the instructor. The video can be really helpful for your teaching content of water recycle.

Comments for JINGZHECHEN ’s Post #2

Hi Jingzhe,

Thank you for sharing the knowledge about open pedagogies. I believe the most revolutionized part of open pedagogies is that it allows student to engage in the setting of teaching content. In traditional teaching, the teacher has to learn a lot about children psychology and human’s learning habit so that he/she can speculate what is the best way for students. However, open pedagogies relieve teachers of the process of guesswork. Teachers can directly receive the feedback from students about the formulation and arrangement of learning content. Open pedagogies let students engage in the decision-making about what should they learn and how they should learn it.

Comments for Hannah Rochford ’s Post #4

Hi Hannah,

Thank you for sharing your views about interactivity. You have emphasized the importance of student interactivity. Mere teacher-student interaction is not enough for students to master all the knowledge. Students can not make sure whether they have acquired everything taught by the teacher. By contrast, through interaction with peers, we can find out our weaknesses in learning, learn many different perspectives, and also absorb new learning approaches. Such a process is also meaningful and can compensate for the original teacher-student interaction.

Comments for Hannah Rochford ’s Post #2

Hi, Hannah,

Thank you for sharing your understanding of inquiry with us. Inquiry is student-oriented while direct instruction is teacher-centered. With the reform of teaching methods, it is recommended that students should be further empowered to engage in learning, whether it is play-based or project-based. However, I also agree with you that although inquiry is more innovative, it should be adopted when the situation calls for it, and sometimes students needs more direct instruction.

Comments for ZOEJACOBSON ’s Post #3

Hi Zoe,

Thank you for sharing your efforts in inclusion. I notice that you have mentioned the teaching tools that you plan to use in your course and the specific usage instruction. I appreciate you take into account the students’s diversity by presenting knowledge in different media: video, text, and sound. You have also give a lot of choices for students to submit their assignment in the forms they like. Such an inclusive method of teaching will absolutely create a free and creative learning atmosphere for your students.

Comments for KATHRYNEBERT ’s Post #1

Hi, Kathry,

Thank you for sharing such an interesting and inspiring experience with us. I find this post really thought-provoking. I agree with you that sometimes we have taken it for granted the way we are so accustomed to finishing assignments. In this way, we may easily misunderstand the original intention designed by the instructor. So we can say that learning is never limited to the process of learning specific knowledge. It is also a process of upgrading our own learning approaches.

Comments for KATHRYNEBERT ’s Post #3

Hi, Kathry,

Thank you for sharing with us your group’s plan for inclusion. I can see you have listed many specific suggestions about how to help the students suffering from hearing loss and color blindness. You have taken the classroom environment into consideration, including adjusting the classroom light and even the position of students. I think such suggestions are really considerate and I also agree with your mention of the importance of inclusion. I believe such behavior can also deliver a message to the other students that they should also take care of those who are in difficulty and show them enough respect and consideration.

Comments for ALECIA DUNCAN’s Post #1

Hi Alecia,

Thank you for sharing with us your learning experience with driving. China’s driving test is different from that of Canada. I had failed four times in the road test until I finally got the driving license. During the learning process, I have the exact same feelings with you. How could I be able to handle so many things at the same time when I am driving? I have to pay attention to the road situations while operating inside the car. However, the most difficult part is not the learning process. It was psychology. I have self doubts about whether I am capable of doing this, of passing the exam. I have received denial from some of my coaches who kept telling me that boys are more talent in driving than girls.

So what I want to point out is that the difficulty of learning sometimes actually lies in the learner’s psychology: whether he/she believes herself/himself could overcome the difficulty and finally earn a good result. To overcome the mental fear, the recognition, encouragement, and confidence from people around us can be critical.

Edci335 – Post 4 Interaction

  1. What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?

    This video would require students to proceed with two kinds of interactions, including the interaction with learning materials and student interaction. Students need to watch the video and post their feelings, observations, comments, and other related materials they have found on the student forum to discuss with others. Students wouldn’t be forced to respond to the video, which means they don’t need to finish the forum to go on to the next stage (Bates, 2019). However, the forum participation would be counted in the final grade.
  2. In what way are they likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?

    Learner-generated interaction can be defined as “some media may not have explicit interaction built in, but end users may still voluntarily interact with the medium, either cognitively and/or through some physical response” (Bates, 2019). After watching the video, I myself was impulsed to find out more about the video, for example, the complete court video about the American missionary. I believe students would be motivated to dig out more about what the witnesses of the Nanjing Massacre have to say about Japanese violence and crimes.
  3. What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

    The assigned activity after watching the video is to post a comment on the campus discussion website. More specifically, the students are supposed to express their feelings or opinions about the video itself, and then they need to share what they have found about the topic with their classmates (diverse forms in the video, academic article, and so on, but must be fact-based), and finally they will have to remark on the other students’ posts. Through the activity the students would learn how to search for related information concerning the learning content and with the sharing of information, they will have a deeper understanding of the Nanjing Massacre. The students would have to use some online websites such as Youtube to find related videos, or library to find academic articles, and most importantly, the campus website to post their comments.
  4. How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?

    Students can get feedback from other students’ comments. The feedback from students can be one important approach to assessment, as we have learned, “Common learner-to-learner assessments include peer reviews, group reflective processes or group products with a self-evaluation component”. There would be no more technologies involved. The campus website is enough because the students keep complaining about a “confusing plethora of communication and instructional channels (Google Classroom, Zoom, YouTube, email, and various apps)” (Our Need to Interact – EDCI 335, n.d.).

References

Our Need to Interact – EDCI 335. (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/our-need-to-interact/

Bates, A. W. (2019, October 10). 9.6 Interaction – Teaching in a Digital Age – Second Edition. Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/pedagogical-roles-for-text-audio-and-video/

Edci335 – Post 3 Learning Design

How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met? How can you adjust your planned learning activities to meet the needs of your learners if an unexpected event occurs?

Taking all students’ needs into consideration is of great significance since it keeps in line with inclusive learning design and universal design. Inclusive learning design implies that “every person is a learner, and every learner has the right to pursue excellence and achievement” (Inclusive Learning Design – EDCI 335, n.d.). The universal design indicates that “when a design includes improvements for some members of the population, there can be a benefit for other users as well”(Universal Design – EDCI 335, n.d.). Inspired by the two theories, I plan to factor in several potential obstacles to be faced by our students when designing the details of our course about the Nanjing Massacre.

To start with, the lecturing video, audio, and captions are all available, facilitating the understanding of course content for students with hearing or sight difficulties. With regard to international students, captions available for translations can improve their learning efficiency greatly. Besides, such an online teaching approach can be effectively immune to the effect of the frequent reoccurring of the pandemic.

Secondly, a variety of support will be in place to address students’ technical and academic issues. More specifically, we as teachers will provide office hours when students can approach us with any difficulty in understanding the learning content. VPN will be free to download for international students struggling to access the campus website. More importantly, there would be an online operation guiding video where students can learn step-by-step operations concerning how to access lecturing, assignment, and quizzes, and also how to make use of the library. If students are still confused they can turn to a technical team.

Thirdly, a syllabus (including a timetable) and assignment instructions would be posted beforehand. One downside of online teaching is the lack of supervision and constant interaction. Students can easily miss the deadlines with the assignments and requirements from different courses piling up. A syllabus enables them to schedule their tasks in advance. And without assignment instruction, students may be easily confused about where to start when facing a large number of learning materials. Such support can help students to be on the right track as soon as they can.

Fourthly, the final large project will be divided into small tasks to keep students focused and less pressured. According to the selective attention theory, students may be overwhelmed in face of a complicated and time-consuming assignment. Given this, our final project requiring students to give a community lecture about Nanjing Massacre will be divided into a course description, a course plan about content and form, an introduction video, a submission of teaching materials, and final a full video. I believe the division of tasks will be more manageable for students.

The four solutions aim to empower every student whether they have been stuck at home due to COVID or they have physical limitations. They can be relieved of both technical and academic pressure with such a learning design.

References

Inclusive Learning Design – EDCI 335. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/inclusive-learning-design/

Universal Design – EDCI 335. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/universal-design/

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