Peer Review for Pod 4

Resource link:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/10L81hAnl_WCTHtaat4XaUo5K8QfPkIhcecfpgEm-C9c/edit

  1. Since the resource is created as an introduction to programming, the program will cater to students who have a little background in programming. I suggest that that learning resource should utilize direct-instruction. Students with a little background in programming can learn better with explicit learning techniques.
  2. The learning outcomes shall include more tasks or outputs that will require the students to collaborate.
  3. The materials to be used for the learning resource should be more interactive. After the video, the student should be given an opportunity to reflect on what they have watched before asking the students to do some calculations about binary numbers.
  4. Short drills, like online quizzes, should be included in the resource to help the students recall what they have learned.
  5. There shall be an additional application that students and teachers can use to communicate with each other.

[prompt4]Using Videos in Interactive Learning Design

For our Interactive Learning Design, I found a video on Youtube that can be used as a material in teaching Chinese Mandarin. The video is titled “Learn Chinese for Beginners | Beginner Chinese Lesson 1: Self-Introduction in Chinese Mandarin 1.1” and it provides tips and tricks on how one can introduce himself/herself in Chinese Mandarin. I find this video an effective material in teaching Chinese Mandarin because it is informative and it contains a quiz that will help the learners know the level of their knowledge on Chinese Mandarin. In addition to this video, I also find the howtosayinchinese.com an ideal source to learn Chinese Mandarin. Just like the video, this website also contains all the necessary information on Chinese Mandarin. To make these online materials interactive, additional activities will be given to students and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) will be observed.

The video and website cannot be considered as interactive material. For this reason, it would be important for teachers to provide additional activities in order to make these materials interactive. Before beginning the lesson, I will first ask the students to take the quiz in the description box of the video in order to assess their skills. After taking the quiz, I will explain to the students that if their quiz categorized them as beginners, then the lesson would be perfect for them. On the other hand, if they are categorized as intermediate learners, then they could refer to the lesson as a refresher. Subsequently, I will make the students choose between watching the video or reading the materials on the website. If a certain student learns best through reading, then it would be better for him/her to choose the website. When the students have chosen between the video and the website, I will instruct them to take-down important notes while doing their respective tasks. With this instruction, the students are expected to have a user-generated interaction with the material.

Once the students are done watching the video, I will instruct them to record a short video of their self-introduction in Chinese Mandarin and upload it in Google Drive. The students should refer to their notes while working on this task. Regarding the materials that the students could use, the students have various options on how they could record a video of their self-introduction. For instance, students can use a video camera, the camera of their smartphone, or the web camera of their laptop or computer. Moreover, in order to accommodate the learners with special needs and meet the different learning styles of learners, I will utilize the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Fidaldo and Thormaan, 2017). To observe UDL, I will give my students various options to make their self-introduction. For example, to those who are not capable of using a video, they have an option to write an essay instead. Once the students are done with their self-introduction outputs, I will ask them to upload their outputs in Google Drive.

After the students have uploaded their videos in Google Drive, I will start a discussion on Twitter or Reddit. In this forum, I will instruct the students to post the links of their outputs, check the work of their two classmates, and provide their feedback. In order to give the students my feedback, I will also comment on their posts just like their classmates. This way, there will be interactions among the learners and as a teacher, I also have the opportunity to connect with my student.

In my opinion, planning the lesson is a little bit challenging. This is because I must think of various strategies that I could use to make the student’s online learning experience as interactive as possible. In addition to this, I also have to consider the different needs of my students. As a teacher, I believe that a single teaching strategy cannot work in a group of learners with different needs. For this reason, the teachers should give their students various options to access information. In this regard, I would say that teachers should have access to various resources and tools available online. With enough tools and resources, the teachers will be able to plan their classes according to the course description and needs of the students.

 

 

References

ChineseFor.Us. (2017, April 17). Learn Chinese for beginners | Beginner Chinese lesson 1: Self-introduction in Chinese Mandarin 1.1 [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/McZW0iDsZns

Fidaldo, P., & Thormann, J. (2017). Reaching students in online courses using alternative formats. International Review of Research in Open Distributed Learning, 18(2), 1-23.

Miss Rui. (2020, April 2). Introduce yourself in Chinese with self-introduction essay [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.howtosayinchinese.com/introduce-yourself-in-chinese/

 

[prompt3]Learner-Centered Interactive Learning Resource

The British Columbia Ministry of Education (2015) explained that educational reforms are happening on a global scale (cited in Moore, 2016). Currently, Ministries of Education are focusing on restructuring the educational curriculum. In this regard, I would like my interactive learning resource to different from traditional education through recognizing the unique needs and interests of the learners. This is to assure that my interactive learning resource can benefit the learners.

To ensure the needs of all the learners are met, my interactive learning resource will incorporate inclusive education. According to Moore (2016), inclusive education is no longer confined to special education. Inclusive education means ensuring that there is no “other” through making every learner “another.” In other words, my interactive learning resource will recognize diversity in teaching. In recognizing diversity, I will start with the strengths of the educators, learners, parents, and other people involved. As Leyton Schnellert stated, inclusive education relies on a learning community that promotes coexistence, tolerance, and interaction among learners (cited in Moore, 2016). In addition to inclusive education, the interactive learning resource will also utilize the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Instead of focusing on the possible limitations of the learners, UDL focuses on the possible limitations of designs (Meyer, 2014). In order to apply UDL, I will think about the possible barriers that learners will encounter in the interactive learning resource I designed. For instance, one of the barriers that I could think of is that the user interface of the interactive learning resource would not be easy to navigate.

Focusing on the needs of the learners will assure that my interactive learning resource can be beneficial for the learners. In order to meet the needs of the learners, I will create a learning community that promotes coexistence, tolerance, and interactive learning through inclusive education. Lastly, I will also utilize Universal Design for Learning (UDL) so that I could anticipate the limitations of my learning interactive learning resource that might hinder the learning of the learners.

 

References

Meyer, Anne, et al. Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. CAST Professional Publishing, an Imprint of CAST, Inc., 2014, UDL Theory Practice, retrieved from: udltheorypractice.cast.org/

Moore, S. (2016, June 22). One Without the Other. Retrieved from https://blogsomemoore.com/2016/06/21/one-without-the-other/

[prompt2]Teaching Mandarin through Inquiry-based Learning

Inquiry-based learning is a teaching approach that focuses on the student’s role in the learning process (Wolpert-Gawron, 2016). Instead of teaching the students what they need to learn, the teachers encourage the students to explore the lesson and ask questions. Additionally, Kampa & Vilina (2016) explained that curiosity and motivation are integral in inquiry-based education. For the past years, language teachers use inquiry-based learning in teaching language and they have found it effective (Kampa & Vilina, 2016). In line with this, inquiry-based learning could also be an effective approach to teaching Mandarin.

Inquiry-based learning is a natural way for students to learn the language (Kampa & Vilina, 2016). In other words, inquiry-based learning enables the students to take control of their learning while their teacher guides them. In teaching Mandarin, language teachers can use the Know-What-Learn chart (Kampa & Vilina, 2016). Before starting the lesson, teachers can ask their students to fill in the first two parts of the chart: (1) what the students already know and (2) what the students would like to know. The first part of the chart allows the teachers to gauge the students’ current knowledge while the second part of the chart allows the students to specify the topics they found challenging or interesting. Once the teacher knows what the student would like to know, the teacher can now device a way to help the students. Since the learners are interested in what they are about to learn, learning becomes natural and easy. The teachers can know whether the students learn something new through asking them to fill-in the “learn” part of the chart. The “learn” part of the chart also allows the students to recapitulate what they just learned.

Inquiry-based learning can be used in teaching Mandarin because language teachers consider this as an effective approach in teaching language. Language teachers may use teaching strategies like the K-W-L chart to encourage the students’ curiosity. On the last note, teachers should be cautious of the limitations of inquiry-based learning like students’ lack of readiness and teacher’s unpreparedness.

[prompt1]Learning experience

Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

One of the best learning experiences I had was when I attended a leadership seminar. I attended the said seminar not because I was required to do it but because I wanted to hone my leadership skills. Personally, I believe that the seminar will teach me important things that I can apply in real life. Unlike other seminars that I have attended, this seminar focused on the attendees. In other words, this is not the typical seminar where a speaker talks and then everybody is expected to listen. The speaker only acts as a facilitator. During the seminar, we were given different scenarios and problems then we were tasked to explain what we would do with the given scenarios and problems as a leader. The given scenarios were engaging and I appreciate the fact that we were not given a “template” or “formula” of good leadership. More so, the attendees were given an opportunity to draw on their existing knowledge of leadership and explore their capabilities. After the seminar, I felt accomplished and motivated to learn new things even if it is not related to leadership.

Looking into the strategies used by the speaker in this seminar, I would say that she utilized the cognitivist approach. By not giving or not dictating what we should do as leaders, the speaker gave as an opportunity to discover and utilize strategies that we consider helpful or effective. In addition to this, thinking about the situations and scenarios also made us refer to our previous knowledge on leadership. In my case, I would often think of the good leaders I know and ask myself how they could possibly deal with the given scenario. Upon learning leadership from a cognitivist approach, I would say that this strategy is effective. This is because it makes the information to be learned meaningful and it also enables learners to organize their newly acquired knowledge with their existing knowledge.

Self-introduction

Hi, I’m roy mao, a fourth-year student major in economics. This term is my last term at the university. I just moved to Vancouver last week since all classes are change to online courses by the influence of COVID-19. I am interested in the learning design, I heard that the course will use some social media.  Looking forward to connecting with you all!

Welcome and Introduction

Before proceeding with this first blog post, we expect you to consider your privacy preferences carefully and that you have considered the following options:

  1. Do you want to be online vs. offline?
  2. Do you want to use your name (or part thereof) vs. a pseudonym (e.g., West Coast Teacher)?
  3. Do you want to have your blog public vs. private? (Note, you can set individual blog posts private or password protected or have an entire blog set to private)
  4. Have you considered whether you are posting within or outside of Canada? This blog on opened.ca is hosted within Canada. That said, any public blog posts can have its content aggregated/curated onto social networks outside of Canada.

First tasks you might explore with your new blog:

  • Go into its admin panel found by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL
  • Add new category or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “edci335” category).
  • See if your blog posts are appearing on the course website (you must have the the edci335 category assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL)
  • Add pages, if you like.
  • Include hyperlinks in your posts (select text and click on the link icon in the post toolbar)
  • Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works). To embed a YouTube video, simply paste the URL on its own line.
  • Under Dashboard/Appearance,
    • Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, new header image, etc.)
    • Customize menus & navigation
    • Use widgets to customize blog content and features
  • Delete this starter post (or switch it to draft status if you want to keep it for reference)

Do consider creating categories for each course that you take should you wish to document your learning (or from professional learning activities outside of formal courses). Keep note, however, that you may wish to rename the label of the course category in menus (e.g., as we did where it shows “Learning Design” as the label for the “edci335” category menu.  This will enable readers not familiar with university course numbers to understand what to expect in the contents.

Lastly, as always, be aware of the FIPPA as it relates to privacy and share only those names/images that you have consent to use or are otherwise public figures. When in doubt, ask us.

Please also review the resources from our course website for getting started with blogging:

Test Learning Design Post

This post  will appear in a few places:

  1. in the blog feed on the front of your website
  2. in the Learning Design menu on your website. This is because we have applied the “edci335” category to this post and the menu item “Learning Design” has been created from the category “edci335.” For every post you make for this course, please assign the “edci335” category to it. You are welcome to use this blog for your personal hobbies or for other courses, in which case, you could create additional menu items and categories for them.
  3. if you give permission, your posts categorized “edci335” will be aggregated onto the Blog Feed on the EDCI 335 Course Website.

Feel free to delete this post once you understand this. If you have any questions, please reach out to your instructor.

© 2024 Learning Design

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑