Category: edci335
What experiences have you had with interactivity in learning environments? How did the interaction (or lack of interaction) affect your learning? Your enjoyment? What impact has technology had on your learning?
When I was in elementary school, the average education environment at that time was not developed and open in my country. We were asked to respect our teachers by keeping quite and listening. We can only raise our hands for questions when we were allowed to. It is interesting that we always had questions when teachers are speaking, and we did not want to raise hands when we were allowed to. It seems that we all did not want others to know we were still confused after our teachers’ lectures. We knew it is not a shame to ask for questions as a student, a learner, but you would not choose to do it when none of your peers did, which can be identified as the limitation of collectivism. I have to say there was little interactivity during my elementary school time.
Things went better when I was in secondary school. I can clearly feel the change of learning environment when I saw multi-media technology was applied in daily lectures. We can see different fonts of words and pictures on the projector instead of blackborad and chalk. And I found the class atmosphere had also changed as those technology were applied. We were free to raise our hands whenever we have questions and confusions, and teachers would answer them as soon as possible. Sometimes we were allowed to go in front of the whole class to make presentations although we were scared to do it at that time.
When I was taking university courses, EDCI courses are one of the most interactive courses I have taken in university. It looks I am using social media. I create blog and make posts then others will view my posts and make comments. The interactivity is more immediate than normal courses. It encourages me to make more comments and create better posts.
Although interactive learning environment has become common in current society. There are still some people who persevere in old-fashioned education. I remember one of my math teacher in high school . He did not like to use the multi-media technology. He always complained about the multi-media technology and he keep using chalk and blackboard to give lectures. He believed that the quality of students matter more than teaching tools. In my opinion, teaching tools can help students understand better and faster especially those who have low talent on studying. He was right but it does not work well on all students.
Distributive Property of Multiplication Digital Interactive Slides – YouTube
What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?
The video asked students to fill the blank. Yes, they are forced to answer the questions.
In what way are they likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g., make notes, do an activity, or think about the topic (learner-generated)?
Students will think about the concept and the equation they have learned in order to answer correctly. And the grid next to the question can help students figure out the concept more clearly.
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?
I suggest students to practice what they have learned to remember the concept. It can train students how to change concept into practical skills in real world. Students can use objects in real world, or they can use calculators and computers to see how it works.
How will you address any potential barriers for your learners in the use of this video to ensure an inclusive design?
I will change the grid into something which has no relationship with math. Students will feel tired when they see grid as examples, which will not be a good motivation for students to continue learning the concept.
When have you felt excluded from a learning environment?
I think I felt excluded from a learning environment when I first came into a new learning environment. It happened several times during my whole learning experience and I think I will keep having new similar experience in the future. I think excluded from a learning environment can not be avoided because people are changing their learning enviroment all the time when they arr growing up.
One of the most common example is when people graduate from schools and go to higher level schools. People will feel sad and negative when they are separated with their classmates which have studied and cooperated together for several years. But it is fine because everyone is new in the new learning environment. Everyone needs to create his new circle and relationship with others again as they did in previous schools.
What I have experienced is that I have been a transfer students twice due to domestice factors. I have to say it is really a terrible feeling to be a transfer student. Compared to what I said in the previous paragraph, I went to a learning environment which I was the only new student. My arrival has broke the original balance and the whole class will be shuffled again. What I need to do is to try my best to establish relationship and connection with my classmates as soon as possible, or I will be excluded and isolated by the whole class.
What do you think could have been done to make it more inclusive?
According to the weekly reading, I found that interaction is indispensable for people to join or adapt the learning environment. The universal design framework is also a good way to make it more inclusive.
- learner-teacher
- learner-content
- teacher-content
There are many ways that interaction could be modelled in learning environments, but the main point of them all is that some sort of interaction is necessary for learning to occur. Sometimes that interaction is entirely within the mind of the learner when new ideas are incorporated into older ideas to form new knowledge or understanding.
- Multiple means of representation
- Multiple means of action or expression
- Multiple means of engagement
Planning for multiple means of representation means providing more choice in how a learner accesses materials and information. This would require providing materials with visual, auditory, and and kinesthetic options, as well as supporting prior knowledge and providing timely supports with necessary skills. Planning for multiple means of action or expression could look like learners demonstrating their new knowledge or skills in different ways.
I agree with this article a lot. It really revealed some problems which exist in education for a long time but can not be solved immediately. These problems can be interpreted into one problem which is how education can work well. In current time, education seems to be related with grades and credentials. Whenever people talk about education, they tend to focus on how well people write tests or how many certificates people have already get. Education has become a way for people to compare with others and a property to show their superiority. People have forgot what the original education looked like. Education should have increased the quality of people and made people highly educated. But the current education only teaches people plenty of knowledge instead of how to behave well. I really believe that people should learn how to behave before they learn knowledge.
Back to the topic, according to the article, in order to make instructions effective, efficient and engaging, it listed several points which are really crucial for the education, such as activation, demonstraion, application, integration and problem-centered.
Activation: Learning is promoted when learners activate a mental model of their prior knowledge as a foundation for new skills. Learners need to look for interests and goals in what they are learning. After that they can be activated and motivated to learn.
Demonstration: Learning is promoted when learners observe a demonstration of the skills to be learned. Sometimes word are bad demontration for learners because different people will have different interpretation when they are imagine. So it is necessary to give examples or presentations.
Application: Learning is promoted when learners engage in application of their newly acquired knowledge or skill that is consistent with the type of content being taught. What people have learned are all theories and concepts in most of time but they are too abstract to understand. The best way to handle it is to applicate in the reality.
Integration: Learning is promoted when learners share, reflect on, and defend their work by peer-collaboration and peer-critique. It is a complicated process to integrate or cooperate with others and what you have learned so far, but it is close to the success.
Problem-centered: Learning is promoted when learners are engaged in a problem-centered strategy involving a progression of whole real-world tasks.
According to the article, “Motivation comes from learning; the greatest motivation comes when people learn. We are wired to learn; all of us love to learn; every student loves to learn. And, generally, we are motivated by those things that we find we are good at.” It makes sense but I have different opinions. I used to draw pictures a lot whe I was young. I like to draw many people who were fighting with each other and took an adventure. Then my parents sent me to the painting classes and I had also taken part in some competitions but I found myself away from drawing. I was losing my interests and motivations of drawing because I drew when I do not want to. Now I do not draw any more and I do not have motivation to draw. I always imagine if there would be a difference when my parents did not send me to the painting class. If hobbies and interests become compulsion, they are not interests and they will not be motivation any more.
According to what I have learned in this course, I found that both formative assessment strategy and summative assessment strategy are both applied in this course. Formative assessment strategy focuses on feedback and incorporation. Learners can reveive feedbacks from every tasks they have done, and learners will improve from those feedbacks. In this course, students are told to write blog posts weekly and they will receive feedbacks from their instructor.
Summative assessment strategy is also used in this course, and I think it is more common than formative assessment strategy. It happens in most of the courses from elemental schools to universities. Summative assessment strategy does not give too many feedbacks during the leanring period. It often comes at the end of leanring experiences, which shows leaners’ final performace with grades. Summative assessment strategy is easier and it can save lots of time in assessments, but it has high risks for learners. Learners can easily go to the wrong directions and make mistakes when they do not receive feedbacks during the process. Learners are subjective when they are learning new things and they really need guidance and suggestions in order to make sure they are on the right track all the time.
In addition, self assessment also plays a significant part in the whole learning experience. Learners should periodically discuss with their peers and reflect themselves about what they have learner and what they need to improve. These strategies can be generalized into behaviorists work and constructivists work because they include feedbacks and openness. Compared to the other courses I have taken, there are not too many courses which apply formative assessment strategy. Students receive less feedbacks so they need to discuss frequently with their classmates.
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