339 Blog!

1. Out of the six learning outcomes for the course EDCI 339, I observed great personal growth as a learner in regard to developing an awareness of human-centred learning in online and open learning contexts. As a chemistry major, learning to me was all about strict memorization which resulted in me being very one-dimensional regarding my learning. However, upon conversing with my groups about different learning theories, primarily debating how behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism interconnect, concepts explained in 25 years of Ed tech, and completing assignment 3 which was associated with UDL, I realized that learning is centered around me rather than it being provided to like an object. The greatest aspect that aided in my growth was reflecting on my experiences and connecting them with my learning. By doing so, I was able to understand what I am learning and retain the information with ease. An example of this would be from my most recent blog:  

2. I strongly prefer distributed learning. It allows me to be flexible with my schedule, as being enrolled in online courses gives me the freedom to do the work on my own pace. Furthermore, not having to be physically present in a classroom means I can do other activities such as work during the times I would be in school/class. Furhtemrore, since COVID, most professors are recording their lectures to make it easy for students to they can watch the recording multiple times to succeed in the learning. THis has been extremely helpful because it provides you the opportunity to improve your notes and studying quality. Lastly, I strongly believe that the pandemic has highlighted the importance, need, and advantages of distributed learning. Thus, I am confident that post covid, distributed learning would be practiced a lot more than it did in pre-covid times. 

3. My groupmates have said repeated that I am too big of a fan of Online Learning Theories, and honestly speaking, I really am! Learning about these theories allowed me to reflect on what type of learner I am. I realized that I prefer learning by using cognitivism theory (Bates, 2014). While writing my reflection blogs, I realized that I strongly prefer learning by reflecting on my experiences because it makes learning more fun, and aids in retaining the information. Furthermore, by connecting my learning with my experiences, I feel enthusiastic and motivated regarding what I am learning. An evidence of this comes to mind from my last week’s polymer chemistry lecture. My professor was explaining the impact of sheer force on polymers (long chain molecules) and how paint is a polymer. As soon as he stated that, my mind immediately thought of me painting my house’s side wall 2 years ago with my dad. I remember him telling me to put the paint in the tray and roll the paint roller in the tray repeatedly and then paint. This memory instantly connected with my professor’s statement regarding sheer force and polymers, which allowed me to make the connection that rolling the paint roller in the paint makes sheer force that allows the paint to become less viscous so that it can then be used effectively. This was direct application of cognitivism theory and retained the information regarding sheer force and polymers very well as that when I had to answer about this question on midterm #2, I got the answer correct. If I had never known about cognitivism theory, I wouldn’t have been able to make the reflections that I have with my learning. 

References: 

So far everything I have read in EDCI 339 has made me very curious about online learning. What’s odd to me is that I have taken many online courses and I still am, yet not once I asked myself “how did online courses become the way they are?”. Even though learning is supposed to be involved around the learner, I believe that over the years, education in schools has made me dogmatic towards learning; you do the assignment, and you write a quiz. But, I never ask how learning is the way it is? Why am I doing this assignment collectively when I can do it by myself? Upon reflecting on this week’s reading, Learning Theories, and Online Learning, I feel traditional in-classroom learning impacts the students negatively by making them “dogmatic and blinkered by unchallenged assumptions” (Bates, 2014).

Look at today, who would have known that a pandemic will happen and all the schools will shut down. However, during these times, online learning prevailed allowing me to continue my education and obtain my degree. However, there are so many intricate things that happened in the world of online learning that made it what it is today. What put things into perspective for me was looking at 25 years of ed tech by Weller (2020); when I just think about Wikis (1998) and Open textbooks (2013), my mind makes the connection that ‘wikis were available online and textbooks contain a lot of knowledge like wikis, so if one is available online, only a matter of time till other will be as well’, and the evolution from wikis to open textbooks seems linear and gradual.

But, I had difficulty imagining the evolution of online learning to what it is now and how it managed to be so widespread, while satisfies and accomodating every student’s learning needs. “As online learning, technology-based teaching, and informal digital networks of learners have evolved, new theories of learning are emerging” (Bates, 2014). Reading this quote made things come together, “THEORIES” have evolved and changed, we are learning things through various theories! After reading week 5’s reading, I realized that I have been learning through cognitivism. Upon reading Shelby’s blog and connecting with her in my social pod’s group chat, I realized that cognitivism, behaviorism, and constructivism are interconnected. 

But what intrigued me more is that when writing blogs for EDCI 339, I am the use cognitivism theory of learning. But it is associated more with constructivist epistemological understanding. Bates (2014) describes cognitivism associated with constructivism epistemological understanding as placing “a strong emphasis on learners [to develop] personal meaning […] through reflection, […] and construction of knowledge through conscious mental processing”. I go over weekly readings, sit back, analyze what I read, and reflect on my personal experiences to construct knowledge. Then, I write what I have learned into blogs and share with my peers and they do the same. This is a part of the Online Collaborative Learning theory. In conclusion, writing a blog is associated with four online learning theories: cognitivism, constructivism, online collaborative learning, and behaviorism. Understanding this put learning and education into a new light for me; I realized that a course is not just a course, many small intricate things are going on that allows the learner to achieve their goal.

By interacting with others in social pods, I expand out knowledge by conversing about my ideas and listening to my peers; as described by constructivism learning theory. Following conversations about our learnings, I reflect on what I learned from my peers and readings and connect with them via my personal experiences, which is in line with cognitive learning theory. And lastly, after reflecting on my learning and making connections with my understanding, I communicate my knowledge via blog posts to make sense of why online learning is the way it is, as described by the behaviorism learning theory. Earlier in the week, upon conversing with Shelby and reading her blog, I realized that I frequently use utilize constructivism, cognitivism, and behaviorism theories of learning. I reflected upon my understanding of these theories and tried to connect them with my experiences and used that reflection to make sense of my learning. The reflection I made was associated with my field of study, Chemistry. As a week, I did an experiment during which I created Quantum Dots. I got the data that showed that over time, the size of quantum dots increased. I reflected on my learning of quantum dots to understand why their radii increases due to the production of selenium by-product (cognitivism). Upon making this connection, I used this information to engage with my data for further analysis and processing (constructivism) and lastly, hypothesize why selenium byproduct increases and the future of the research (behaviorism).

Also, I strongly prefer learning through cognitivism theory. I believe that when I can relate to what I am learning with my experiences, I understand the concept better. To me, your experiences are like a string, and what you learn is also a string. When you overlap your learning with experience, you get a stronger string. This stronger string to me represents an understanding of the material; the stronger the string, the stronger the understanding. We are studying during a time that none of the thought would ever come, a pandemic! Yet, cognitivism has allowed me to continue my education and build connections between my learning and personal experience. The benefits of the cognitivism theory of learning for me directly support Bates’s statement that “a good theory helps us make informed decisions in areas of uncertainty” (2014).

Connecting this week’s reading with “25 years of ed-tech,” I think instructors should be vocal about learning theories as they humanize learning. I think pandemic is the time to thrive and find new creative measures, rather than sticking to the old ways during these modern times. Also, something I was very fascinated by was behaviorism. I have been taught that the human brain is very complex and at times, it has a mind of its own. Yet, reading about behaviorism contradicted my understanding of the human brain that the brain is a complex system that does numerous things, yet it can be primed. The idea of finding an organ as something that can be primed is very fascinating to a premed student like me. Upon doing research on this topic, I found this video, describing the difference between classical and operant conditioning. Research on this topic is conducted on animals but, I am sure that subconsciously, many of us have been conditioned to certain stimuli. 

References:

Bates, T.(2014).Learning Theories and Online
Learning. [Blog post]. Retrieved from
https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories-and-online-learning/

Weller, M. (2020). 25 Years of ed tech. AU Press. Retrieved from https://read.aupress.ca/read/25-years-of-ed-tech/section/e69021f2-91b6-4ca4-9d0b-81d3e9748707

Kelly, James. (2012). “Learning Theories Behaviorism, Cognitive And Constructivist”. Thepeakperformancecenter.Com, https://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/learning/theories/. Accessed 18 Oct 2020.

Ahmad, Amish. “3 Major Learning Theories :Behaviorism, Cognitivism And Constructivism”. Someone’s White Star, 2020, https://hamizahmohdisa.blogspot.com/2019/10/3-major-learning-theories-behaviorism.html?m=0. Accessed 24 Oct 2020.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this week’s reading. I was not aware of the extensive history of ED Tech. We are currently studying and learning online yet not once do we wonder “what is the history of online learning” or “what aspects of online learning are interconnected and how online learning has evolved to the form it is now”. This week’s reading answered these two questions of mine! Upon reading “25 years of Ed-Tech” by Martin Weller (2020), I sensed that theme of the reading as well as Ed Tech in general is making it easier and convenient for people to connect with others.

Upon reading this week’s assignment, it is evident that online learning is not appreciated as much as it should be and in many ways, often disregarded due to people not knowing the history, complexity, and importance of Ed Tech. Taking blogs as an example, we write one every week but upon talking to my classmates, it was evident that most of my classmates do not understand why we are writing blogs specifically. After reading the “25 years of Ed Tech,” (2020) I realized that as Ed Tech allows us to stay connected, blogs are one of the primary ways to communicate with others as well as relay your opinions, thoughts, and knowledge, similar to how we converse face to face. Thus, writing blogs are a method of communication and very similar to conversing face to face. After understanding this week’s reading by Weller, I realized that since writing blogs allows you to communicate with your peers and is associated with Ed Tech, thus, the creation of blogs humanizes online learning and Ed Tech plays a role in humanizing learning. Therefore, “25 years of Ed Tech” directly supports and builds upon our last week’s topic of Humanizing Online Learning (2020) .

Soltan (2015) stated that educations and aspects of teaching should change to benefit the student, and Ed Tech has been evolving for 25 years. I would love to know what’s next in the evolution of Ed Tech, and what the future of online learning will hold. Will the majority of the learning be online? As learning online brings new challenges, what the major challenge currently is for Ed Tech, and what measures can instructors, and students take to overcome this challenge? I understand that no one will know the exact solution/answer as to what the future of Ed Tech and online learning will be, but it is evident that online learning has the potential of being the primary media of learning in the future, and knowing what the future will look like is a great way for people to feel involved and excited about online learning.

Summary of the topics:

Wikis (1998): allowed a page to be edited by anyone. Wiki played a role of creating something via collaborative measures. You could also track the history of edits.

E-learning (1998): started becoming part of learning, and mimic in classroom learning. It was suppose to reduce costs and allowed institutions to not reduce the costs in production.

Learning objects (2000): logical step to add to online learning. It was a digital media that could be reused. Failure cause the sharing of these objects was challenging and seemed alien to most people.

E-learning standards (2001): it was supposed to be a body that would describe the content, assessment in classes, and courses.

Open educational resources (2002): make online learning materials available to the internet via acquiring licenses and manage the educational material.

Blogs (2003): allowed people to publish more stuff on the internet, and they could choose what they wanted to publish such as journals. Furthermore, blogs allowed people to get their thoughts out into the world and to their audience very fast.

LMS (2004): management system for content. Provided individuals for tools that they needed to further their education. It was a method of delivering e-learning in institutions.

Video (2005): teaching using html and videos uploaded on the internet. Youtube was an example of where the videos were uplaoded. Khan academy is a great example of videos used for teaching something. Videos could be played, paused, watched whenever and shared whenever.

Web 2.0 (2006): it gathered the user generated materials and services like blogs, youtube videos.

Second life and virtual worlds (2007): colleges used second life to deliver their courses. However, it lost its touch due people lacking interest in this.

E-portfolios (2008): store material you needed as a way to learn, show what you learned and build your career. It allowed you to showcase your learning and highlight yourself in terms of attaining jobs and looking qualified.

Twitter and Social media (2009): allowed poeple to get in touch with others who were virutally across the world. However, trolls and bots ruined the experience by posting wild things. Allowed increase in student engagement and retainment of information.

Connectivism (2010): served as the first internet-native learning theory. It allowed people to think about how learning is seen given the use of media and online resources.

PLE (2011): it was like a bunch of tools that one can use for learning. You could use the tools that you prefered for your own leanring, giving you control over your learning.

MOOCs (2012): Massive open online courses. It was like a combination of all the preceding technologies.

Open textbooks (2013): they were practical and easy to accomodate in your learning. Sharing and storing of them was easy and helpful.

Learning analytics (2014): bascially revolved around data. Learner’s data was analyzed to see what worked and what didnt which lead to changes in education/learning.

Digital badges (2015): they were basically online achievements. Served as a small reward, boosting motivation to become involved.

Return of AI (2016): AI interest returned due to computational processing, as we have powerful devices that can handle running complex AI. There is huge potential but can dehumanize alot of learning and the experience.

Blockchain (2017): aimed to record achievements earned online and bring together other entities of Ed Tech like e-portfolios.

Based on the all topics, I am most interested about blockchain, digital badges, and lastly, twitter and social media. The reason being that these are some of the most recent advancements/entities in the history of Ed Tech and we all associate with these entities in our daily lives. Doing a project on one of these topics would be very informative and a great learning experience.

The 2 questions I would ask Dr. Weller would be:

1. Which makes you so passionate about Ed Tech?
2. Many classes have labs such as science lectures, do you think Ed Tech will be able to incorporate virtual labs in the future without jeopardizing any learning opportunities that are associated with labs?

References:

Weller, M. (2020). 25 Years of ed tech. AU Press. Retrieved from https://read.aupress.ca/read/25-years-of-ed-tech/section/e69021f2-91b6-4ca4-9d0b-81d3e9748707

Howell Major, C. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. (Chapter 1). Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874

We all can agree that learning primarily revolves around the student however, due to the current state of events, learning has acquired a whole new persona and definition. Most university students, like myself, are adjusting to online learning. Some enjoy it and some hate it. I love online learning and the convenience that comes along with it. Upon learning virtually for over a month, I can wholeheartedly agree with Barnes (201) that “online learning is flourishing […] because of the myriad of options and flexibility it offers to both traditional and adult learners, faculty, and the institutions”. Furthermore, from the last week’s reading, teaching online, Margaret Solton’s input that learning whether online or in-person “should be for the benefit of the students” (2015).

Something I have been hearing for my peers is that due to online learning, professors have made material harder. At the beginning of the semester, I was very excited and enjoyed my lectures but as time went on, I started becoming very bored during my lectures. I had a quiz about 2.5 weeks ago for my Latin 101 introductory class, and it was open book, 10 questions, and 10 mins. I took the quiz and I got 60%, and I was quite upset. I emailed my professor and in the next lecture, he mentioned that many people felt anxiety during the quiz and wished there was more time. Our professor then decided to drop our lowest quiz grade and give us 15 mins on future quizzes. Since then, I have been more attentive in my Latin lecture and enjoying my learning. The reason I am bringing this story up is that when I was reflecting on my past month and trying to make connections with the readings from this course so far, it dawned on me that what my professor did and my actions following his decision, directly support the benefits of thorough instructional design stated in Human-Centered instruction article (n.d.); my professor altering the grade book made me appreciate the lectures, my instructor, and I felt excited about my learning. Also, I began to pay more attention to the class and the material. Furthermore, the actions of my professors are inline with Solton’s statement that learning should be beneficial for the students, and in this case, giving us additional time and allowing us to drop our lowest grade is beneficial to us (students) as it doesn’t negatively impact our grade or increase anxiety while taking a quiz.

At times, online learning does make it difficult to create connections and relationships with classmates. Barnes (201) states that “a strong community is imperative in higher education learning and helps reduce feelings of isolation in online learning”. As an extrovert, it becomes challenging for me to continue paying attention to a screen listening to my professor explain the fundamentals of polymer chemistry, while all I wish to do is converse with someone, share my opinions on the topic, and feel involved in my learning. However, there is no one around me to converse with and it began creating a sense of isolation in me. Using my Latin class to convey my point again, currently, we are learning the declension of nouns. As most of you know, Latin is a dead language, and studying a dead language can be quite boring. So to make sure the students are not being bored and enjoying their learning, our professor does this:

Chanting the declension together as a class creates a new energy in the call and makes everyone active. Personally, chanting the declension makes me feel like I am in a classroom and am answering questions asked by my professor. Furthermore, going over declensions as a class has created a form of camaraderie. However, even then, I felt lonely during my lecture. So to tackle that, I made a discord group and shared it with my peers. There are about 15 students in my discord group and we all talk about our day and help each other with homework. Off-topic, but to further promote students to build connections virtually, I have also created a social club that is ratified by UVSS, “F & S Club” which is short for “Friendships and Support Club”. The most interesting thing is that going over declension by chanting them was the idea of a student to make others feel involved.

In summary, I use these two stories to reflect on my readings and connect them with my learning, to convey my point that virtual learning is just as effective as in-class learning. And due to how it is set up, it’s okay and normal to feel out of touch or isolated during your online classes. But that can happen with any lecture whether online or in person. The way to tackle isolation during learning is to participate. Doing the chants with my peers makes me motivated to join every lecture for my Latin class as it has made the material fun and entertaining. Furthermore, students should realize that instructors are there to help and during these odd times, they are also struggling in some ways to make sure everyone feels involved and oftentimes, suggestions like chanting the declension together, are not only beneficial for the students but also for the instructors, as my professor taking the suggestion of going over declension together has made me feel more involved in this teaching as well. Dr. Roberts told me that learning is all about taking risks and that’s what online learning is all about, taking risks. Virtual learning can be fun, entertaining, and enjoyable, we just have to take that step and put in the effort.

Moving Forward:

Going over my readings from this course has allowed me to appreciate my learning and have a new perspective on my school life. I can reflect on the two aforementioned incidents from my Latin class and realize how they are evident in what I am reading regarding humanizing online learning and creating relationships in an online classroom. In Dr. DeWaard’s webinar, she mentioned that engagement, representation, and action & expression, are essential for becoming expert learners. Upon reflection, I can state that online learning allowed me to engage in the classroom and allowed me to express myself and convey actions associated with my learning, through chanting declensions, doing presentations for my chemistry labs, and allowing me to pursue my passion of creating a UVSS club. Although, something I wish to discover more and soon is how online learning will allow me to represent myself.

References:

Howell Major, C. (2015). Teaching Online “ A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. (Chapter 1). Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874

What is Human-Centered Instruction? https://www.leadsv.com/hcn

Barnes, C.L. (201). Where’s the Teacher ? Defining the Role of Instructor Presence in Social Presence and Cognition in Online Education. Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from https://humanmooc.pressbooks.com/chapter/wheres-the-teacher-defining-the-role-of-instructor-presence-in-social-presence-and-cognition-in-online-education/

All Images were obtained from www.usplash.com

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