meaghan's edci335 blog

Hi Xitong! I really enjoyed the video you provided! I also love how interactive your activities are, I agree that the video you chose allow a lot of interactiveness for the students! One question I have is by making short videos, how can you ensure all students have accessibility to the resources to complete this assignment? Overall great work at choosing the video! Thank you for sharing!

Hi Braden! I really enjoyed reading your blog post on universal design, especially how you included a specific, such as velcro! You thoroughly explained velcro, giving its functions, and the importance it can have in classrooms! I really like how you tied this in with inclusion and how it allows accessibility for all students, hence why it should be implemented in the classrooms! Overall I really enjoyed your post! Thank you for sharing!

Hi Zileb! Thank you for sharing your input on direct instruction! I really appreciate the video, along with the image you provided. I feel these medias and visuals allow for ALL learners to have different ways of following and understanding the material, which also ties into our inclusion topic! I also really liked how you explained that your interactive learning resource will NOT include direct instruction and then you explained why it wouldn’t. Then you went above and beyond and explained which type of instruction it will include! Overall really good work! Thank you for sharing 🙂

PROMPT:

1. What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?
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)?
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?
4. How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?

I really liked this video because of the straight to the point, easy to follow design. The video essentially laid out the importance of nutrients and then dived right into the different food groups/essential nutrients. I feel this video because it was explained in a way for children, that all learners would have to do to interact with the video is listen and pay attention! The video provides all of narrative, simple text, and visuals which makes it inclusive for all learners. The student may respond by taking simple notes of the texts written down (i.e. the 6 essential nutrients). If I were to play this video in my future elementary classroom, I feel that a good activity I could do afterward is bring in photos of different foods to the class and ask the children to create a poster by gluing each food photo under the nutrient category it belongs to. For example, a photo of butter would be placed under the “fat” category. This type of activity could help the students to develop their visual cues while associating it with their verbal cues. I feel this activity would not be too much work for either the educator or the learner, and it is a great way to get the kids physically learning. Another idea could be to allow the kids to work in groups and complete the assignment together. This idea is extremely valuable to allow interaction, inclusion, and diversity between all students. Not only could this help to improve a students social skill in a learning environment, but also they will learn to bounce ideas off of one another, ideas that they may have not thought of to begin with; this will help to build their imagination and creativity in learning. This activity would probably work best either solo, in pairs, or a group of 4. However, once there are more than 4 people in the group, I feel this activity could get extremely overwhelming, especially for younger students/learners.

References

Food Groups and Nutrition. YouTube. (2020, October 20). Retrieved June 19, 2022, from https://youtu.be/Z51bWG17m-Q

https://edci335a02pod6.opened.ca/

Hello pod 6!

First of all, thank you for sharing your Interactive Learning Resource! As I am a Canadian-born Chinese, I enjoyed learning more about the Chinese Culture and their traditions!

I just was curious as to how you knew some of the information you provided in the in your sources? Would you maybe consider using in-text citations for the information provided so the learner has a source they could also refer to? However, you did an excellent job at referencing all your sources at the bottom of each page! Correct me if I’m wrong but I just think it might be easier for a learner to know where they can find information on the specifics that they are reading at that same moment!

In EDCI 335 we learned about Inclusive Design and Accessible Learning. Another thing to possibly consider for your assessments is will all students be able to have the necessities to access all the different assignments you are including? For example, one of your assignments include writing a blog in response to a prompt from a live-session. What would happen if students cannot attend that live session? For example, if the student is a full-time working parent during the day that just did not have the time to attend the class synchronously. Would you consider recording the live session and posting it to the classroom website? Or maybe posting the questions asked to the classroom website so those who could not attend still have access?

I may have missed something but another question I have involving accessible learning is: what if students do not have access to a working microphone on their device, would you consider having alternative methods for students to work together online?

I really appreciated the layout of your resource and how easy everything was to find! Please correct me if I’m wrong as I could be mistaken, but I was just curious if on the main “Learning Resource” page, you realized that the order of how the posts are posted is different than how it is listed using the “Learning Resource” navigation menu at the top? It could possibly be easier for a learner user to ensure they are going through topics and completing assignments on time/in the right order if both the navigation menu and main “learning resource page” have the topics listed in the same order.

Overall, really great job on your resource and I loved the design/layout! I also especially enjoyed reading through your material and learning more about my culture and tradition and their background! I hope you take my questions into consideration when creating your final design!

PROMPT: How can you adjust your planned learning activities to meet the needs of your learners if an unexpected event occurs? (for example, a pandemic arises and many of your employees must now work from home – how will you ensure that they can still do their jobs? What training will they need, and how will you deliver it, knowing they must remain at home?) This is a common discussion thread right now as many schools and universities have made the switch to teaching online.

In the case of unexpected events occurring, such as a pandemic, education and work needs to be accessible for all. This is one of the reasons why my group has made our entire planned interactive learning resources and activities to be online with direct instruction. This would mean that we would each have to have access to good internet, a device of some sort, and ability to work online, answer emails, etc. This means that we provide videos, readings, lectures and assignments for the learner to complete with written instructions. However, we also understand that not everyone thrives with online learning, especially when it is self-paced. One possible suggestion for this could be for us to run class similar to how EDCI 335 is run, where we have one-two days a week of optional class which basically act as office hours, in case students have questions. Another solution for online learning could be to offer 3 different options of each assignment. For example, option 1 could be to watch a video and do a quiz on the video, option 2 could be to read an article and write a 500-800 word essay summarizing and simplifying its contents to demonstrate understanding, or option 3 could be to read the instructors’ posts and respond to a given blog prompt using the information retained from that section/topic.

I believe this method of giving options to learners is ideal because everyone learns differently. By giving options, such as hands-on learning, thinking on one’s own life and answering blog prompts, test-taking, or academic writing, we can help ensure the success of ALL of our learners. Learning is very difficult and I believe that as instructors we must think of ways to ensure learning is both accessible and helpful to all our students who have different needs and require different things when it comes to learning.

PROMPT: what is direct instruction? how does this relate to my topic on basic nutrition and daily diets?

There are 5 approaches used in the learning environments: direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, experiential learning, and open pedagogies.

I will be discussing Direct Instruction.

Direct Instruction is a method of teaching in which the teacher stands at the front of the classroom to present a lesson and the students sit, listen, take notes, and ask questions. Direct Instruction follows a 6-step method in which the teacher presents material to their class. First, the teacher will ask students basic question about the topic to gain an understanding on the student’s previous knowledge, and then introduce the topic based on their previous knowledge. Second, the teacher will present new material through lecture or demonstration. Third, the teacher will use guided practice where they and their students will practice the new learned information together. The fourth step of this approach is feedback and corrections. This is where a teacher will ask questions and encourage their class to answer them, allowing for positive feedback/corrections. Fifth is independent practice. Independent practice is when students independently practice to understand new information/topics; usually this is practiced through repetition. By independently practicing, students use unitization and automaticity. Finally, teachers will provide evaluation and review for their students. When choosing an assessment style, the teacher must choose one suited to demonstrate the student’s gained knowledge and understanding of the topic; formative assessments are highly encouraged for this type of learning style.

See video below for a quick understanding of Direct Instruction.

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Does this approach of Direct Instruction align well with my topic of Understanding Basic Nutrition Concepts in our Daily Diets?

I think for our topic, direct instruction will be extremely important to teach our learners about nutrition, but some of the other teaching methods will also be extremely valuable. Direct Instruction along with hands-on assignments, we believe our learnings will gain a good basic understanding of nutrition and a balanced diet.

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References

Direct instruction – A practical guide to effective teaching. BookWidgets. (2019, March 28). Retrieved June 7, 2022, from https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2019/03/direct-instruction-a-practical-guide-to-effective-teaching

YouTube. (2017, October 19). Direct teaching. YouTube. Retrieved June 7, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_HzrRBOU7I

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

In the future, I want to be an elementary school teacher and am currently working towards my Bachelor of Education. The best learning experience I have ever had was last summer as a summer camp leader. Previously, I had done many training camps and interning for becoming a camp leader myself, but last summer was the first time I was fully responsible for my own camp. I worked alongside my supervisors and other leaders. I worked with children of all ages, backgrounds, and behaviours, and their parents/guardians as well. I believe what made my learning experience so impactful was how hands-on my position was. As a trainee and intern, I was always able to rely on those in the higher positions above of me. But as a leader, I was pushed out of my comfort zone to tackle problems and solutions myself. As a leader, I ensured the safety of my campers, while providing a fun, creative, educational, and inclusive camp. I learned important communication skills, teamwork skills, and problem-solving skills that I would have never learnt if I did not have this hands-on experience. I truly believe that the best way to learn, is through experience. I saw how other leaders and my supervisors handled certain situations and from that I was able to learn what methods worked for me as a leader, and because of this, I can take what I learnt and continue to develop my own methods that work for me and my campers. Another important thing I learned from this experience is the ability to grow. In my case, I continuously take opportunities to learn and develop my knowledge and experiences in working in child-care settings, for in the future I will be able to share and teach them.

I want to relate this learning experience to Why is Learning Hard because this post states that thinking from someone else’s view is often difficult, especially when we have hardwired our own beliefs into our minds. Similarly to the backward bike learning video, as an Intern, I would not always understand why my leaders did things the way that they did, or why they handled a situation with a child one way then handled the same situation with a child a completely different way. I learned that this was because through experience and previous history that my leaders have had with these kids, they knew what was best suited for these kids, whether that meant the kid required “quiet time” or to be distracted by a game. What I found so interesting was that my leaders took the time to think in the campers shoes. Often, thinking in a child’s point of view is extremely difficult because we are not kids anymore, but rather adults. Therefore, my leaders, and now I, must learn to think in not just our own perspectives, but also think in our campers perspective. This will allow us to truly understand them and be able to make decisions that are best for them rather than what we are comfortable with/used to doing. By doing this, I believe that I will continue to grow and learn, allowing me to be the best version of teacher for my future students.

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References

Why is learning hard? EDCI 335. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/why-is-learning-hard/

SmarterEveryDay. (2015). The Backwards Brain Bicycle – Smarter Every Day 133. Youtube. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0.

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