Category: Reflective posts

The Floe Inclusive Learning Design Handbook (Attribution 2.5 Canada (CC BY 2.5 CA)) is an excellent learning tool for designing and improving educational resources.  It has been created for teachers, and content creators in general as a free resource for increasing their ability to teach by improving the resources they have.  It has a strong focus on inclusivity and adapting resources for people coming from a wide spectrum of situations.

Within the handbook, the three concepts that seemed the most important to me were the three dimensions of inclusive design.  These are the foundation for creating a design that is accessible and usable by the widest spectrum of people possible.

Here are the three dimensions:

1. Recognize, respect, and design for human uniqueness and variability.
2. Use inclusive, open & transparent processes, and co-design with people who have a diversity of perspectives, including people that can’t use or have difficulty using the current designs.
3. Realize that you are designing in a complex adaptive system.

The first identifies the fact that not all people are the same, but all deserve recognition and respect.  If you start off creating material without this concept in mind, then you’ve already failed.  The second one speaks to principles that will help with designing effective tools.  Again, it includes as many people as possible in the process, because many people learn in different ways, so it wants to allow for as many learning styles as possible.  The third simply speaks to the fact that once the tool is designed, the journey is not over.  The content may change, or the audience, or the means by which to communicate the information.  Things are always changing, and we need to be prepared for that, and accept that our design will probably have to change over time as well.

There were a couple ideas within the material that didn’t completely understand or agree with.

The first was the section within perspectives with the heading: “If you are unique (and aren’t we all), numbers are not our friends“.  Which spoke about how the size of numbers is a constant pursuit for humans, and in a world where the biggest number gives value, when you’re only a small number (minimal readers, likes or view count), it can be discouraging.  However, I think numbers can give us very valuable information, and if you can learn to remove your worth from the numbers, then joy can be derived from seeing numbers increase, or feedback about what to change when numbers decrease.  Numbers be a great source of information, and when properly applied, are indeed our friends.  They aren’t malevolent, we just need to view them properly, and not attach our value to them.

The second was “Sonification“.  I found the topic interesting, but hard to think of applications where it would be well used, or make a significant difference in the learning experience.  Using non-verbal audio is not overcoming a major accessibility barrier, and using sounds allows rudimentary communication, but can’t communicate any more without visual aids.  Ultimately I see it as having minimal usefulness.

The one question I found unanswered was simply where are examples pertaining to all these techniques and theories?  It would be nice to see more examples of the methodologies and techniques in action, as well as more evidence for why one method is better than others.

The majority of my more memorable online learning experiences have been when I’ve become interested in a hobby or topic, and take it upon myself to find as much information as I can.  This has included looking up information about how headphones work, digging into the world of numismatics, exploring the developments of a certain groundbreaking electronic vehicle company, or most recently, my quest to understand home-theatre setups, and how to build one from scratch.  I’m a bit of a techy, and have a certain appreciation for AV equipment and good cinema, so when the chance to go from a simple soundbar to a full surround sound system presented itself I jumped at the opportunity!  I’d found some high quality

speakers listed for free pickup because the surrounds had deteriorated, and I was sure I could fix them.  If you’re wondering what a surround is, it’s the foam circle around a speaker cone, and can be seen in the picture to the left.  But now I found myself with speakers, and no way to plug them in, and so I began to do research regarding how to complete a surround sound setup, and discovered a world I had known to be deep and complex, but was much more so than I had imagined.

 

First off, since I had picked up a set of passive speakers (un-powered), I apparently would need an amp or receiver to power

them.  Now an amp simply provides power, while a receiver is the intermediary of a home theatre setup, having IO for all audio and visuals.  I needed the latter.  But a receiver can be very confusing to look at, and there are many different types, prices, and features.  With speaker setups there are a variety of formats, each of which has their pros and cons: 2.0, 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos.  I researched the different forms and settled on 5.1 as the format that would work the best with my space, desires, and budget.  I then had to find a receiver that would work, and be powerful enough to drive my speakers, add additional speakers, since a 5.1 system requires 6 speakers, and figure out the best way to put it all together.

 

For my research I used a variety of tools.  I looked up tutorial videos and informational videos on Youtube, I looked up answers to specific questions on reddit, as well as a variety of opinion pieces, debates, and other fun stuff.  I found specifications and reviews for specific devices and products on retailer websites like Bestbuy and Amazon as well.  I find video to be an excellent medium for myself.  I’ll often watch them as breaks from tasks (like homework), or while working on menial chores (dishes, vacuuming).  They allow me to disconnect from my task, and enjoy hearing about how someone else is passionate about a certain topic.  Reddit is a medium that offers humanization of the learning experience for me.  It’s a discussion of a variety of people, some more informed than others, and some more opinionated.  It allows everyone to be on an equal standing, and give their opinion on a topic, and lends a transparency to what you’re learning.  You see past the facts and figures to the real life scenarios, the ways things can go wrong, and so on.  Youtube is able to offer this as well, but to a lesser extent, as it is often more edited and what you see is more controlled.

 

Below are a few different sets of surround speakers, as well as a diagram of a typical 5.1 setup.

This type of learning is fun for me, and I find picking up little hobbies can be quite rewarding.  Despite none of the resources I used costing any money, I still was able to come away quite informed.  However, due to many varying opinions, I did have to apply a level of discernment regarding contrary information or opinions.  I know this learning method is not ideal for many, however I believe it’s an excellent way to acquire new knowledge and apply it at the same time.

Historically, educational content has always come at a premium.  Education was a luxury that only the rich could afford, whether it was private schools, tutoring, or lessons.  More recently primary education was considered a human right, at least in most developed countries, and is offered to our children for free, even required.  However, higher degrees of education, in Canada, are still extremely expensive, causing many who still desire an education to take on large amounts of debt.  Some of these educational resources are available online, at a cost.   Openly licensed educational content has a different pursuit however.  The goal is to make educational content available to the public free of charge.  The main difference then is that online educational content either has a cost associated to it, or its access and use is limited.  However, openly licensed educational content is free to use, and often can even be replicated, and modified to create additional teaching resources.

An example of such an educational resource is Kimball’s Biology Pages, which can be found at the following url: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/kimball-s-biology-pages

It is a freely available resource created by John W. Kimball.  It’s a biology textbook, formatted in HTML to be viewed and easily navigated through a standard web browser.  It covers a variety of topics, and is kept up to date regarding changes in the world of biology as well.  It’s an excellent resource for anyone interested in the topic, but unable to afford a $200 textbook.

Relevance: The information would address class objectives relating to biology.

Accuracy: The information is accurate, with no obvious content errors or omissions.  No obvious spelling errors or typos.  It is unclear whether the material has been peer reviewed.

Production Quality: The information is clear and understandable, the interface is simple, but not completely user friendly.  Due to the simple html it is not as easy to understand the layout as it could be.  The design features do not strongly enhance learning.  It is not a multimedia resource.

Accessibility: The resource does not seem to be available in alternate formats.

Interactivity: The resource does not encourage active learning or class participation.  However, it could be adapted to do so, since the license allows modifications.  There appear to be no embedded questions.

Licensing: The license does allow for educational reuse of the materials, as well as modifications and adaptations.

I would use this OER as a reference regarding basic biology concepts so as to have a reliable source to go to instead of simply “googling” terms or querries.  It is searchable, has clearly defined sections, and was put together by a professional that is very familiar with the material, and strives to keep it all up to date.

I personally use OER’s in my own life for many of the DIY prjects that I take up.  This includes minor home repair, as well as simple programming, like setting up and using a Raspberry Pi.  The OER’s available I find very useful for my own educational purposes.  I also use OER’s when applicable for creating content for a variety of the course assignments I I’m given, for example creating PowerPoint presentations, or in class educational activities.

I found the difference between instructor-centered learning and student-centered learning very interesting.  It seems that with Instructor-centered learning there is a risk of students “zoning-out”, or losing focus, more so at least than if they were guiding their own learning.  However, when learning is student led, there is a higher risk of erroneous information being learned and never being corrected, resulting in a much less efficient learning outcome.  It seems that a mix of the two is best, with an instructor there to watch for wrong information being learned, but allowing a more active role by the student of teaching themselves the content, stepping in to clarify when a concept is too complex.  This also would vary significantly between subjects, like academic learning, cognitive processes, or athletic and physical activities.

The difference between synchronous learning and synchronous learning seems to be much more one of convenience.  In an ideal scenario, students would have all the time to dedicate to learning that was required, and different subjects would have ideal schedules for how to learn them (for example, learning a sport takes significant training, and you can’t do all of it in one day, but also can’t split it up into 5 minute increments over too long a period).  With working adults having drastically different schedules and availability, asynchronous learning helps each individual to accomplish the required learning activities within the time that they have available, without a need to excessively reschedule their lives.

With the advent of how accessible information is in our current day and age, along with the incredible amount of new information becoming available every year, connectivism seems to offer clear advantages over other more classical learning theories.  Other learning theories, like behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism have a clear focus on the ability to either internalize information, behave in a manner that expresses the learning of something, or an ability to externalize information already learned.  All three focus on the information permeating an individual, which is a process that can take a long time, time which renders information currently being produced as irrelevant more rapidly than allows it to be fully learned.  In connectivism, the focus is instead on how information can be gathered from different sources.  Classically, this would have made very little sense, in a world where information was largely stored on books and digital media didn’t yet exist.  However, nowadays, with the internet at our fingertips, the ability to quickly gather, interpret, and apply information is of incredible importance.  Connectivism focuses on information flowing, from sources to the right people needing it to carry out action in organizations.  Carrying vast amounts of information within one’s head is no longer an ability of value when compared to being able to call up necessary information, understanding it, and applying it.  I think connectivism is a valuable perspective to have going forward regarding how to interact with information.  However, our educational institutions are still behind when it comes to training connectivism, and many grading and teaching methods still rely on older perspectives of knowledge acquisition, which are not preparing people for the challenges they’ll face in the work environment upon graduation.