Enze’s Blog

Hi Liding, thanks for sharing your post. I think the type of interaction for your activity is learner-to-content interaction. Because you mentioned that this is a pre-class activity for students to warm up, so I think this interactivity is crucial because it will allow students to receive successful learning outcomes and class completion. A connection between your post and mine is our interactivities are both video watching. Personally speaking, video watching is an excellent choice to use in eLearning because it helps keep students engaged with the topic, and they are very demonstration-friendly. Besides learner-to-content interaction, learner-to-instructor interaction is also involved in your activity when you write your analysis in a word document or email and share it with your students. In terms of learner-to-instructor interaction, the instructor can clarify issues, reinforce the theme of this topic and stimulate learners’ motivation into the class later. I think your explanation for your interactive learning resource is comprehensive. You talk about the skill that you will be collected within this interactivity, then I am just wondering if you can tell me more about what kind of skill this interactivity help students to develop? Also, it would be much clear if you can link the YouTube video you mentioed to your post. Overall, I like the topic of K-pop culture. Looking forward to viewing your interactive learning resource. 

Hello Glenn, I agree with your post that watching videos require learner-content interaction with students because watching this YouTube video allows learners to interact with the course instructional materials to learn. However, I noticed that our thinking is different in the way of the designed activity. I believe that it may take a lot of time for the teacher to provide useful feedback for each student’s summary writing in the class. At the same time, students might just wait to get their feedback. In my opinion, before the students summarize the video and post the summary online, students could communicate in forums with each other in order to participate in discussions, ask questions, and explore the topic. The forum type of interaction is really helpful for groups to brainstorm ideas, plan for any activities and even give and receive feedback. After that, the students are more confident to start writing the summary. Then, they could gather together as groups (not necessarily to be in the same group as before) again, share the file and discuss their ideas. Lastly, the teacher can provide feedback and clarify any uncertainties as groups that are more efficient, especially for a large scale of students. Moreover, I agree that the assessment activity, which includes multiple choices, would be the optimal type in a web browser-based learning environment. Please let me know if you have any questions about my comment. Thank you!

By reading chapter 9.6 Interaction, I have learned the different types of learner interactions that are critical to learners’ success with their learning experience online, which include learner-to-content interactions, learner-to-learner interactions, and learner-to-teacher interactions (Bates, 2019). Also, in one of Colin’s posts, he mentioned another interaction, learner-self interaction, which means the learners’ self-reflections on the content and their new understandings (Madland, 2021). The YouTube video I picked is about one of our essential questions – mean, median, and mode. This video requires students to have learner-content interaction because they are able to interact with information directly from the video after it starts to play. As a learner, I enjoyed video watching through my learning process because multimedia provides entertainment for learning with visualization makes it more interesting. Once you click on the play button, the video-related information would intake into your brain, which is time-efficient and convenient. The students can also pause, repeat, forward and backward parts of the course in order to fully understand the knowledge. Other than learner-content interaction, learn-self interaction is also required for my students. While watching this video, they may obtain a more effective way of memorizing mean, median, and mode than what they learned from their instructor. Then, they could connect the two memorizing methods and even come up with their own way of remembering them. After that, learner-to-learner interaction is involved as sharing their new ideas and the learning material by discussing them in the break-out rooms. If any disagreement or confusion comes up, then their teacher needs to be included to interact with students to clarify any concerns. The video itself does not force the students to respond, but as a learner, the students can reflect themselves from the video material and the class resources.

The designed activity is doing mean, median, and mode questions as practices to recall the information, discover relationships among definitions and formulas, and solve life-like problems that require identification of the issue and selection and use of definitions and even formula. The practice questions are combined with multiple choices and short answers. My students are able to finish them on their own first, and later form the group to talk to each other. This assessment is not for marking purposes. From this activity, the skills they can develop include mathematical and statistical thinking, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Once they formed into groups to discuss the questions, communication and collaboration skills will be developed. Lastly, they may ask the instructor for help via zoom meeting if they could not solve the problem by themselves. Besides, they have another option to post the question related to the class into a ‘workshop Q&A forum’ on the workshop home page, then the instructor or other students can answer the question once he/she has seen the question. By doing this activity, my students need a tablet, computer, or laptop with internet access. Then they can access the workshop to download the practice questions as a PDF file and log in to telecommunication or chat applications to interact with peers or their teacher. For students who stay in a blocked Internet country, make sure they can connect to a VPN server to access Google and other social media. 

Once the students start to share ideas and ask their peers or instructor questions, this is the time for them to receive feedback. Knowing the answer to the question, which is always a number or a list of data set, is way less important than knowing the effective problem-solving process for resolving the question. Once the student fully understands this question, it would be easy for him to solve similar questions afterward. The technology that our students and the instructor need are a digital device accessing different types of networks. The students can explore the question and get feedback either from peers or the instructor. 

During the whole activity process, the instructor aims to plan for activities ahead, such as managing break-out rooms. Additionally, the instructor supports the students if they have any questions about forming the group or any actual math questions. In the e-learning environment, this activity is manageable and worthwhile because the students get a chance to explore both self-learning and interaction with others. Because staying motivated is one of the common challenges for students in online learning, help them to get motivated is one of the most important things for the instructor to do (Klawitter, 2020). Making connections with classmates, such as sharing questions or perspectives is allowed students to stay motivated (Klawitter, 2020). Also, checking in the workshop home page to see course updates or questions in the forum is involved in distance learning. Even the number of students increased in the workshop, it is still a doable activity because student-to-student interaction with a larger scale of student-focused provides more opportunities for students to discuss ideas and share their thoughts.

From what I mentioned above, if my students cannot access video due to their internet connection, I am willing to record the video and upload it to the workshop for them. For my students who have a hearing impairment, the video’s auto-transcript is needed to be turned on for them. For t my students who are color blind, the multimedia is picky. I check with my student first to make sure they can see the colors in the video. If they cannot see the color, I will need to find a different video for them that represents the same learning material. 

References

Bates, A. W. T. (2019). 9.6 Interaction. Teaching in a Digital Age Second Edition. Retrieved from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/pedagogical-roles-for-text-audio-and-video/

Klawitter, A. (2020). 5 Challenges Students Face with Online Learning and How to Overcome Them. Meratas. Retrieved from https://www.meratas.com/blog/5-challenges-students-face-with-remote-learning.

Madland, C. (2021). Assessing Interaction. University of Victoria. Educational Technology. Retrieved from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/assessing-interaction/

The following are my comments to my peers’ posts.

Hello Omar, thank you for sharing your post. I like the idea of that one-on-one meeting, because I think it is a good strategy for both physical and online learning environments for students to support and grow with each other, especially those who are shy to ask the instructor questions privately or in front of the class. A one-on-one meeting is beneficial for students to bring up tough questions comfortably, motivated peers to clear out any uncertainties and confusion. It allows students to have a happy and safe learning environment. By reading your post, I am very interested in your pod’s blueprint and interactive learning resources deliverables. You mentioned that there would be no skill level required for people to take the learning resources; that is why I am looking forward to seeing the work of your pod. 

This is my second-time comment on Emily’s blog because I like the resources that she shared in her post and the flow of her writing. So, hi Emily, I have a better understanding of inclusive education after I read your post. Inclusive education is an exciting topic for me because this is my first time hearing about it. After reading the essential questions you listed in the post, I am more curious about what kind of assessments your pod decided to develop. Also, the helpful reading resources that referenced your post that attract me a lot. For example, on the website of “4 Proven Inclusive Education Strategies for Educators (Plus 6 Helpful Resources)”, Lathan (2021) mentioned one of the inclusive education strategies is to use a different variety of teaching methods to remove barriers and support students learning. Then, students with disabilities can have equal learning opportunities with others. Some of the learning technology tools could be difficult for disabilities. For example, students with loss of hearing may not be able to hear the audio play while watching videos. Students with a visual impairment such as color-blind may have difficulty recognizing specific colors. However, we can display auto-transcript, avoid multiple color combinations to help reduce barriers for students with disabilities, and allows them equal access to learning. Additionally, it allows students to interact with each other and learn the knowledge in multiple ways. Thank you for sharing it!

References

Lathan, J. (2021). University of San Diego. 4 Proven Inclusive Education Strategies for Educators (Plus 6 Helpful Resources). Retrieved from https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/inclusive-education-strategies/

The following are my comments to my peers’ posts.

Hi Yiran, thanks for sharing your post. I agree with your perspective of the different education models between China and Canada in K-12. In terms of the traditional Chinese educational structure, behaviorism and cognitivism are used the most. I studied grades 1-9 in China, and I think the most common type of learning is behaviorism, in which the instructor provides the basic concepts and the explanation to the students. Students take notes while they are listening in the class, then they have both in-class and after-class assessments such as handbook, textbook-based questions to practice. However, I noticed that our thinking differs a bit in the way of our undergrad learning period. From my personal experience, I think these three types of learning theories are all applied in my university journey. I was more involved in learning definitions for each learning material in my freshman year, especially for my Math classes. Then, proactive learning has become the main competency for me for my last three years of learning. Also, in my program, Health Information Science, collaborative learning was essential for every HINFer because we had a different group work for working on during both lectures and labs since our first year. Overall, I think your post is excellent in applying the concepts of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism into your personal experience. One thing I could recommend is to add an image to the post to make it more eye-catching to your audience. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Hi Emily, I like the examples that you apply in behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism in your post. I like that you use your own experience to apply to each terminology, which made me interested in reading and following along. I am also able to recall from my own experiences while reading yours. For instance, for behaviorism, by reading Emily’s example about Math, I recall learning English when I was little. My mom brought me flashcards to teach and revise vocabulary. The flashcard with the apple image is the stimulus, and the English word ‘Apple’ would be the response. Once my answer was wrong, my mom repeated the correct answer a couple of times until I became more familiar with it. Therefore, the consequence for my incorrect response to a stimulus was repeating it, then I remembered it. Finally, knowing different learning theories gives me a better understanding of how learning occurs, and of course, your example helps me memorize and differentiate these theories. Thank you for sharing your post!

To prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19, people must maintain a safe physical distance between themselves and others. Therefore, there has been a profound increase in online learning and working remotely except going to schools or offices in this situation. Then, the adjustment is from our learning activities is to create a workspace for each student because the teacher can follow up with students to provide feedback and track the progress in real-time. For example, in this course- EDCI 335, we use Notion with our instructor, then it would be easier for him to track our processes of completing each task.

Because of this pandemic, students may study in different time zone. Then, the web browser-based activity must be accessible in the country that my students are currently in. For example, one of the learning activities that our pod decided is to let them watch short YouTube videos. However, some countries block YouTube channels, which would be an obstacle for some of my students. Then, we will have to make sure the online resources must be accessible to everyone. The solution that we come up is recording the YouTube videos and then upload it to the learning activity page for students if YouTube channel does not work.

Moreover, there would be many uncertainties or unexpected challenges for us during the online learning environment. Therefore, contacting the instructor in the first place is essential. Then, I will provide multiple contact information such as personal phone number, email, Facebook to my students in order to provide support for them as soon as possible.

Also, from my personal online learning experience, most of the students who attended the live lecture with inactive attitudes such as muted microphones, and cameras off. It may create a sense of isolation or even freedom for students. Therefore, cooperative learning activities are essential to our interactive learning resources because they allowed students to work together as a team to commit to the task. Even though they cannot talk to each other face-to-face, there are different web-based software such as Zoom or Skype to provide video chat for participants to join in a closed meeting. They can also form the group in Messenger or Discord applications to chat with each other than a video call. After that, one of the group members can write down the progress of each meeting in their group’s workspace; it helps the instructor check in real-time.

Regardless of ability, age, gender, disability, or different cultural background, all my students who register in my workshop have an equal opportunity to learn and grow. In my workshop, I assumed that there are people with color blindness and loss of hearing, then the videos in the learning activities must be contained subtitles. For students with color blindness, I will use both colors and symbols, keep it minimal, and avoid lousy color combos. It will help those who are color blind, low vision, and possibly students with other print disabilities, making everyone have equal access to my design learning without making the specialized design.

The best learning experience I can recall right now is my first work term as a Business Analyst at Maximus, Victoria, BC. I enjoyed working in that company with all my kind and friendly co-workers. During that time, I was a second-year university student who was passionate about learning and working in a real-world working environment. Once I had tasks on my hand, I was able to complete them individually. Also, I was able to ask for clarification from my co-workers if I needed it. Once I finished the tasks and handed them to my manager, she provided feedback which was always helpful for my future task completion.

By spending my eight months working in Maximus, I had experienced various hands-on experiences within different projects. I discovered other social media platforms during my work time, which improved my technical skills. Not only technical skills but other competencies had developed, such as communication skill and multi-tasking. The most important competency, I think, was professional behavior. During that time, I learned to follow workplace policies, recognize my right and responsibility as a full-time employee, and show respect for all my co-workers. I really enjoy this work experience; I learned different skills with professional people, but I also had a different experience by obtaining knowledge outside of the school and textbooks.

According to the article “Motivation and Learning,” I agree with what the article mentioned about our learning motivation. During my learning experience above, It was hard for me during the first week as a beginner. However, I knew that I would definitely learn new skills and knowledge that could be helpful for me in my future career, so I set up a personal goal for myself once a week to push myself forward. For example, I always felt nervous when I spoke in front of a group of people. Then, I believed it is one of my weaknesses because I lose the opportunity to join in conversations. Therefore, one of my personal goals was convincing myself to talk and express my ideas during the meetings. Right now, I can do much better for public speaking.   

The above is about my first blog. Hope everyone enjoy reading it!

EDCI 335 – Enze Zhao

Hello everyone, my name is Enze Zhao. I am currently a 4th-year student studying at the University of Victoria, major in Health Information Science. I am also a co-op student work in the Interior Health Authority in the position of Clinical Informatics Analyst. I am in the division of Information Management Information Technology (IMIT). The competencies that I developed are time management, counties learning, social responsibility, communication, and teamwork. I will be finishing up my degree with this co-op work term.

At this current time, I spend most of my time at home. However, I trained with my trainer twice a week in my front yard to avoid myself sitting in front of my desk 24/7. Before Covid-19, I love traveling, meeting new people, and adopting myself into the local culture. I hope the pandemic will go away one day, and we can all be sitting together with friends and families and enjoy our regular life.

Nice to meet everyone. I am looking forward to work with you all online!