Month: August 2021

Unpack particulars regarding past, present and future technology used by educators.

Throughout this course we’ve gotten the chance to  dive into distributed and open learning, and many aspects within and around them, resulting in me getting the chance to really research and get into the technology used by educators. Ive previously spoken about my thoughts regarding the history of distributed and open learning in my topic post #2(Link below).

Topic 2 Post

In this post i dive into my thoughts regarding just how far open learning dates back to, and whilst doing so i had the opportunity to research the type of technology that was used to assist in the development of open learning.

https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/section-8-1-a-short-history-of-educational-technology/,  this site did a great job of breaking down the past technologies used to relay information such as oral communication, written communication and video broadcast, and further includes the evolution to the use of the internet and social media.  Despite most of my research regarding the technologies used in the classroom began throughout the topic 2 readings, I got a lot of information from the topic #1 readings that dive into some of the restrictions and precautions taken before publicly posting educational content and the terms behind privacy protection which really affect the way in which current educators relay information and the way in which it is appropriated by the students. More of my opinion on it is expanded on in my topic #1 post.(Link below)

Topic 1 Discussion

Regarding the potential future of the technologies used in the classroom, this could be a whole case study in itself. Technologies that will shape future classrooms, this article by forbes does a great job in showcasing the potential of technology taking education to the next level, and after learning and researching on the development of distributive and open learning, I’ve learnt that change is inevitable and as an educator it’s my job to ensure that i’m adapting alongside the technology. Current OER are effective and are being used/implemented by educators more and more even without some students recognising. I get more into my thoughts and experiences with OER-enabled pedagogy in my topic #4 post after its readings which showed me just how much I’ve unknowingly been exposed to OER. (Link below)

Topic 4 Post

All in all, this course has really opened my eyes to just how much i’ve been exposed to in the past and allowed me to not only make educated predictions of what’s to come but to prepare for these changes as an educator.

References:

Bates, A.W. (Tony). “6.2 a Short History of Educational Technology.” Teaching in a Digital Age, Tony Bates Associates Ltd, 5 Apr. 2015, opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/section-8-1-a-short-history-of-educational-technology/.

Bates, A.W. (Tony). “10.1 Open Learning.” Teaching in a Digital Age, Tony Bates Associates Ltd, 5 Apr. 2015, opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/10-4-open-education/.

Explore the importance of distributed learning in providing structure.

This course is packed with activities and reading that strengthened my understanding of distributed learning, especially in comparison to open learning. In the digital equity and perspective pod project  we got to really indulge into this comparison, allowing us to really understand attributes from both sides. (Link to the pod project is below)

Pod Project

The Pod project really allowed me to breakdown the fundamentals of  distributed learning and understand its principle advantages and benefits it provides in the educational system. The case study in our pod project resulted in us choosing distributed learning as a better fit for “Christopher”, mainly because it provided more structure despite him still having freedom. Also with Christopher’s characteristics that made him less informed about privacy protection, distributed learning seemed to be a better fit. This specific information was reinforced by the first few reading from topic #1 which are visible on my topic post#1.(Link below)

Topic 1 Discussion

The chart diagram below is a resource that helped me conceptualise how broad distributed learning in.

After completing all these activities and readings I’ve not only been greatly enlightened on the importance of distributed learning but been made aware of how much I’ve personally been exposed to distributed learning myself. Learning all this about both open and distributed learning is aligned to my interests because as a Computer science major, I’m keen on further exploring the use of AI technology to improve distributed learning.

References:

Gunjal, Atul. “Home.” IWORKTECH, www.iworktech.com/distributed-learning-a-new-framework-for-organizational-learning/.

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

Describe the prospective evolution of distributed and open learning for students.

After completing the course content, I’ve come to learn and understand a lot about distributed and open learning which have been present for a long time. A deeper insight of my reasoning and understanding regarding the history and context of distributed and open learning is in my topic post #2. (Link below)

Topic 2 Post

The history and context of distributed and open learning is important in my understanding of the prospective evolution of distributed and open learning for students because it showcases the previous trends and timelines allowing for an educated prediction. The Topic 2 readings along with further online content (Links below) let me know that distributed and open learning is a system that’ll continue to grow and isn’t predicted to slow down anytime soon because of the development of Internet-based information technologies allowing for its mass adoption and ease of access. Below is a screenshot from one of the readings that further dives into the timelines and also partly expresses the evolution of education themes showcasing that Distance education and open learning are predicted to be present long after the 2010s.

This shows me that online distributed and open learning are very important in the society we live in today and will only become more and more dominant. This is very useful to know because as an educator this would guide the way in which i would prepare for the future of education and ensure I’m up to date with the most effective ways. of relaying information/teaching.

This comment from my pod member showcases our initial thoughts on how far open learning dates back, with us both initially under the assumption that it is a system that came as a result of the internet, which was further cleared up by the topic 2 readings.

References:

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)

Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.

“(PDF) Open and Distance LEARNING (ODL) Education System: Past, Present and Future – a Systematic Study of an Alternative Education System.” ResearchGate, www.researchgate.net/publication/276031945_OPEN_AND_DISTANCE_LEARNING_ODL_EDUCATION_SYSTEM_PAST_PRESENT_AND_FUTURE_-_A_SYSTEMATIC_STUDY_OF_AN_ALTERNATIVE_EDUCATION_SYSTEM.

This week’s reading on OER-enabled pedagogy was actually pretty enlightening. I found it that way because it broadened my initial interpretation and understanding of open educational resources. I subconsciously associated open resources with online  open resources, assuming that they are one in the same thing, however, this is not the case and open educational resources aren’t restricted to an online platform. My main takes from this reading were the differentiation of the different kind of assignments and how to determine the extent to which a specific teaching and learning practice qualifies as OER-enabled pedagogy using the four part test.

The four part test being just 4 questions to ask regarding a resources seems very simple and broadline trivial, however, after further analysis you realise that it’s actually effective in the determination and covers what needs to be covered. This reading also got me thinking whether i’ve been previously exposed to OER-enabled pedagogy whilst enrolled at UVic and as a Computer science student, I feel as though I have. I’m most of the upper level(3rd and 4th year) programming courses (such as CSC360 or CSC330), where the project are large enough and of significant difficulty, we are encouraged to post our assignment solutions on our public Github repository where anyone can see and possibly use our published code. I realised this acts as an example of OER-enabled pedagogy after passing it through the four part test i.e. 1. Are students asked to create new artifacts (essays, poems, videos, songs, etc.) or revise / remix existing OER? Yes, new artifacts are made, artifacts being the code generated as a project solution. 2. Does the new artifact have value beyond supporting the learning of its author? Yes,  because the code can be used to help future takers of the courses or any programmer attempting similar work, and it can also be used to showcase understanding in that specific field to an employer. 3. Are students invited to publicly share their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER? Yes, because  we were invited to publicly share our code on Github which is an online platform available to any and everyone on command. 4. Are students invited to openly license their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?  Yes, Doing so would allow for the solutions to be used by future students and anyone programming a similar project.

This week’s readings on Equity and Access were great and had a lot to unpack on, mainly touching on open pedagogy, digital redlining, access , privacy and design principles for indigenous learning spaces.

I really enjoyed the first reading, essentially giving a walkthrough on making open textbooks with students by introducing open educational resources. The author began by explaining that their intentions are to provide tools and techniques to those who want to build a more empowering, collaborative, and just architecture for learning, and defines open pedagogy as an approach to teaching with 3 sets of foundational values: autonomy and independence; freedom and responsibility; democracy and participation; which was all news to me.

The author mentions the “5 R’s” that should generally characterise open educational resources (OERs),  reusable, retainable, redistributable, revisable, and remix-able. Which i feel as though very well summarises the main fundamentals behind successful OERs, such as TED or Skillshare. All in all, there is a lot that goes behind making an  making open textbooks or open educational material in general, many questions you should ask yourself before publishing such content that i never considered whilst using these resources myself.

That being said, if the reader has some spare time i think this video would be fairly helpful in further breaking down the steps involved in making an OER and its importance.

Link to final project is below…

Final

I personally found this weeks reading very engaging and fairly easy to read and follow as dabbled into the history and context of distributed and open learning.

Something that i found pretty interesting is how far back open learning dates back to; no official year but traces back to as early as the 1970s (with open education in schools) which was a shocker to me because I was under the assumption that open learning was fairly recent however, that was far from the truth.  Also seeing the progression (evolution)  by integrating different forms such as E-learning & online eduction, Open access publishing, OER, Open practices, Social Media and MOOCs is very interesting, especially since the all seem to have a predicted point at which they will be ‘outgrown’, however Distance education & online education seems to be fairly constant since the 1980s.

I also found the explanation supporting the use of Social media for teaching very interesting. Howard Rheingold mentioned that social media is flooded with useful information and data that can be used for learning purposes and I 100% second it! Despite modern social media being plagued with a lot of meaningless entertainment, there still exists an abundance of educational pages, channels and hashtags that can be used by a variety of students.

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)

Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.

My understanding of privacy protection, freedom of information, and general human-centred learning post completing the readings was broadly enhanced.

On the basis of information sharing, there’s a lot that I agree with. Posting personal information exposes yourself to a certain level of vulnerability online, however, for educational purposes, it poses multiple benefits one of which being the ability for ‘edtechs’ and other online platforms to distinguish and deliver more personalised information to the individual with the help of AI, data analysis and more; which all require the user’s personal data to be effective. I would also like to broaden my knowledge on the different AI tech used by these online services to make this possible. (Ethics and Information Technology)

That being said there are a few things i feel like should be done/reinforced, one being better broadcasting of the rights an individual possesses regarding their own personal data once on a public domain and the efforts taken to ensure their personal data is kept secure because without taking this course i probably would never have gone out of my way to read an FIPPA document.

I didnt really have an ‘Aha!’ moment, however, i did come to a realization of the importance and effectiveness of using a secure password manager to generate and remember strong passwords. Finding a password the fulfils all the recommendations inorder to be considered ‘strong’ can be tiresome process and become pretty difficult to keep track of once you factor in having to change it frequently; finding out all these efforts can be greatly minimised by having a good password manager, makes life alot easier.

References:

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

Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press.

“Acceptable Use of Electronic Information Resources” (2018) University of Victoria. https://www.uvic.ca/universitysecretary/assets/docs/policies/IM7200_6030_.pdf

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Regulation. (2012). Gov.bc.ca. https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/155_2012