When I was young, I played computer games very often. One day, I surfed the internet and found that some players were editing the games. I thought it was awesome because when you have the ability to edit or design a game, you will be the one who creates the rule rather than the one who obey the rule. Editing the game is not easy for me as I was young and had little knowledge about the computer. Still, I tried my best to read the method they used to change the data of the game. Then, I downloaded a software and used it to open the data of the game. Suddenly, many “0” and “1” appeared, that was how the computer stored the data of the game. For the next few days, I spent a great amount of time trying to figure out the meaning of the specific number in the specific position. It was dull and time-consuming, but I really enjoyed it and didn’t feel tired at all. I got very strong motivation–to be the designer of the games. Finally, I successfully changed some basic parameters of the game. Later, I found something even more attractive that someone could change the model and effects of the game! It was amazing. However, to achieve that, I need to learn more. Therefore, when I was in middle school, I started to learn something about programming and I joined the programming competition class. The process of learning is boring because you have to face with the code all the time. But to me, the code seems to have magic. When you  master all kinds of computer languages such as java, python, C++ and so on, you can use  them to direct the computer to finish all kinds of tasks. Also, you can design a game on your own.

In the first week of learning, I learned about learning theories. There are three learning theories: Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. According to Ertmer, Behaviorism regards learning as reacting to the environmental stimulus. For example, when you encounter a specific issue, you will respond to it, and  “learning is accomplished when a proper respond is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus.”(Ertmer & Newby 2013) Cognititivism stresses the acquisition of knowledge. Cognitivists believe that learning involves some complex cognititive processes such as thinking, problem solving, language, concept formation and information processing that behaviorism can not explain well. (Ertmer & Newby 2013) As for constructivism, it emphasizes that learning is a subjective issue, which is different from the other two theories which both regard learning as objective. The constructivists believe that the knowledge bases on one’s interpretation of the world. As a result, we need to let the person try something in the real world to acquire knowledge. (Ertmer & Newby 2013)

Based on what I have learned, I believe the learning theory of my learning process is cognitivism. Computer programming is a complicated subject. In programming, we need to learn a new kind of language-machine language so that we can tell the computer what we want it to do. Also, computer science is exactly about problem solving. When you write codes, you aim to use the codes to solve a problem.  Programming is essentially solving problems with computers. Therefore, the process of learning programming is based on cognitivism.

Reference:

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.

These are links to my peers’ stories:

yiwei

xinxinwu

yiyan

https://french256.opened.ca/

Edci 335 Pod 3–Yiwei Wu, Yi Yan, Xinxin Wu, Junhao Lin

Description:

Our group topic is teaching intermediate oral French to K-12 students. As the official language of Canada, French shares linguistic features with English since they both belong to the Germanic family. Students who learned English are feasible to learn French because of the similar vocabulary and the usage of grammar. The project is developed based on communication and social interactions, and we aim to arouse students’ interests in learning French and augment students’ French oral competences.

Concept Analysis:

Sociocultural theory (SCT) stresses on an individual’s entity as human beings who have feelings, and it argues that learning is developed through interactions and social activities requiring cognitive and communicative functions within social environments (Lantolf, Thorne & Poehner, 2015). It is worth mentioning that SCT does not refer to Vygotsky’s theory, but a broad theoretical framework, focusing on social and cultural factors in second language learning (Lantolf, 2006), and this theory is not a theory for second language learning (SLL), but a theory that can be applied to SLL.

Debates and group discussions are representative examples of SCT that require individuals to participate and communicate in a social environment. In contrast, Ferris Bueller’s Economics teacher’s class is a counterexample which represents a common misconception of sociocultural theory, namely, the idea that learning is a passive copying process from the experts. This misconception is mainly due to a misinterpretation that social interaction leads to mental 97 functioning development even in a passive way. Therefore, the recognition that this development is an active process is crucial (Lantolf, Thorne & Poehner, 2015).

Sociocultural theory in language learning contains essential features, including Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), activity theory and three stages of the learning process: imitation, assessment and independence. Language learning in the context of SCT requires collaborative learning operating based on activity theory which uses ZPD for learner’s development (Vygotsky, 1997). ZPD includes three zones: learner’s individual performance, potential development with the help from more knowledgeable others, and unreachable performance with or without the help from others (Vygotsky, 1978). The ultimate objective is that, through learning from more knowledgeable others, learners can eventually acquire the knowledge to work independently. In reaching this objective, instructors need to move the zone in and out to yield better results of both individual’s independence development (e.g. private speech, individual task) and feedback from peers and instructors (e.g. roleplay, debate). Imitation, assessment and independence are three stages of the learning process in activity theory. Although imitation seems to occur in the forms of private speech and inner speech and thus considered as an individual learning process, it is essential to note that the act of imitation cannot take place without the object of imitation; SCT in language learning is from social to the individual, and from inter-mental to intra-mental. At the initial stage, learners tend to imitate their instructors or peers when encountering new linguistic affordances (Lantolf, 2006). After receiving feedback from others, learners can improve their performances and work independently.

SCT shares accidental features with cooperative learning which also focuses on social interactions in a learner-centred setting (Johnson, 2009). Both SCT and cooperative learning suggest offering learners more ownership of the activities in a learner-centred learning environment rather than a teacher-centred one. (Behroozizad, Nambiar & Amir, 2014). Autonomous learning allows learners to learn in a more active, creative and engaging way.

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Expand necessary vocabulary to construct and respond to a francophone conversation.
2. Improve and develop a more authentic French pronunciation (French standard).
3. Be motivated to develop French oral competence with elevated learning interests.
4. Evaluate feedback received in the learning process, and improve accordingly.

Sub-topics:

Learning progressions are formed based on four activities:

1. Basic instruction (15-20 min)
2. Group discussion (20-25 min)
3. Dubbing a section of a film (30-35min)
4. Detective play (40-45 min)

Assessment:

Student Evaluation

Learning Resources:

Texts/Materials

1. Amon, E., Muyskens, J. A., & Hadley, A. O. (2019). Vis-a-vis: beginning French. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
2. Chahi, F., & Biras, P. (2018). Défi Méthode de Français 2. Paris: Editions Maison de Langues.
3. Intouchables (Olivier Nakace, Éric Toledano, 2011)
4. Les choristes (Christophe Barratier, 2004)
5. Scripts of the films
6. Detective play role cards

Work Distribution:

Reference:

1. Behroozizad, S., Nambiar, R., & Amir, Z. (2014). The Emergence and Development of Language Learning Strategies through Mediation in an EFL Learning Context. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 118, 68–75. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.010

1. Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (2009). An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning. Educational Researcher, 38(5), 365-379. Retrieved June 13, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20532563

1. Lantolf, J. P. (2006). SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY AND L2: State of the Art: Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263106060037

1. Lantolf, J. P., Thorne, S. L. & Poehner, M. E. (2015). Sociocultural theory and second language development. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.). Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction (pp. 207-226). New York: Routledge.

1. Maftoon, P., & Sabah, S. (2012). A Critical Look at the Status of Affect in Second Language Acquisition Research: Lessons from Vygotsky’s Legacy. BRAIN. Broad Research In Artificial Intelligence And Neuroscience, 3(2), pp. 36-42. Retrieved from https://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/brain/article/view/361

1. Vygotsky, L. S., Rieber, R. W., & Veer René van der. (1997). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. New York: Plenum Press.

1. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society (A. R. Luria, Trans.). Harvard University Press.

https://crystal.opened.ca/revised-post-4/

I think my peer did a good job because she had a correct understanding of the course materials. Also, to support her opinion, she searched for additional articles and cited them in her post. I have the same experience when she talked about the high cost of the textbook. It is true that the textbook is too expensive, many of which are higher than 200 dollars! As a result, many of us choose to buy second-handed books or use e-books. We really should take the economic situation into account when we design a form of learning.

Firstly, I changed the long direct quotation into short paraphrase. Next, I included the in-text citation as well as the reference list. Then, I included the discussion about how an “open” platform such as Twitter can help with the learning of students. Finally, I searched for another peer-reviewed article  related to the OER-enabled pedagogy in higher education to demonstrate the benefits of this kind of pedagogy in education and discuss its potential as a new kind of pedagogy.

Here is the revised one:

In the final week, I learned about OER-enabled Pedagogy. According to Wiley, OER-enabled pedagogy is the set of teaching and learning practices only possible or practical when you have permission to engage in the 5R activities. 5R refer to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute. In order to be engaged in the 5R activities, the students have to engaged in either building upon previous works done by students or construct a new entity that offers other students permission to transform and adapt it. (Wiley & Hilton 2018) This idea is the opposite of the one I mentioned in post 3- “disposable assignments”. In order to combine constructionism and openness into OER-enabled pedagogy, Wiley put forward a new notion of “renewable assignments”. In this notion, the works and the assignments of students will become the open environment resources which not only can be used by the students who create them, but also benefit the students coming after.

The authors of the article show us several examples of OER-enabled Pedagogy.  In one of the examples,  the students are given extra credit to create tutorials resources such as tutorials videos, chapter summaries and review games for a particular topic. These tutorials then will be evaluated by the teacher, and some of them will be selected to be integrated into the course. Besides, the students who perform well in the course have the chance to be a teaching assistant in the course. The students also create other materials such as guided notes which are proved to be very useful for learning the course. The practice was very successful, the average grades on students assignments rose significantly as more student-created OER were introduced to the course. (Wiley & Hilton  2018) To me, the success of the practice is quite meaningful. It means that a new form of pedagogy was proved to be feasible. This kind of pedagogy greatly improves the engagement of students in designing the course. When I read the previous materials, I remembered a saying that the students should not just learn the knowledge, but they should create the knowledge at the same time. The idea of renewable assignments has made it come true. The students in the course also participated in the creation of the knowledge. Also, research has found that OER-learning benefits both academic staff and students. For academic staff, they regarded OER as useful for improving teaching quality in areas such as providing illustrations, teaching difficult subjects, and supporting student progression. As for students, they thought that OER improved the engagement, provided them with a diversity of materials, and helped them prepare better for the examination. What is more, OER makes it possible for mobile learning. (Nikoi et al 2012) The potential of OER-enabled Pedagogy in the future is great because of the rapid development of the internet. Some online platform such as Twitter gives strong support for this kind of pedagogy.

The “open” platform Twitter is a good example of OER-enabled Pedagogy. The term “open” means that all the people, whether they are in the course or not, can be engaged into the interactions. Last Thursday evening, we participated in a conversation related to open pedagogy in Twitter. The professors put forward several thoughtful questions related to open learning, and many people responded. During the process, people from all over the world can join the conversation and share their ideas, which is impossible for a distributed environment or classroom teaching. The ideas and conversations of the people will be recorded in the platform and are accessible openly for everyone. Those resources can be reused and adapted by other people coming after. Therefore, everyone is not only a learner, but also a producer of the knowledge. This kind of “open” platform can promote the communication and exchange of knowledge and thus help learners and educators.

Reference:

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open                     and Distance Learning, 19(4).

Nikoi, Samuel, and Alejandro Armellini. “The OER Mix in Higher Education: Purpose, Process, Product, and                Policy.” Distance Education, vol. 33, no. 2, Aug. 2012, pp. 165–184. EBSCOhost,                                                              doi:10.1080/01587919.2012.697439.

In the first week of learning, I was firstly introduced to the concept of open learning. At that time, I thought open learning is the same as digital learning. I was confused about some phrases such as “blended environments”.  https://junhaolin.opened.ca/individual-post-1/

In the second week, I finished the readings and worked together with my pod members on our pod project. It was when I had a deeper understanding of distributed and open environments. That was also the first time I applied what I had learned in the course to design a set of teaching method for a specific individual. Although we made a lot of mistakes at the beginning as it was the first time we worked for a project like this, we made a lot of changes according to professor’s advice and turned it into a much better version.

https://junhaolin.opened.ca/individual-post-2/

In the third week, the readings gave me a clearer concept about open pedagogy. I started to realize that open pedagogy is not just about a flexible schedule; it is a learner-centered kind of pedagogy where students can even be engaged in designing the rules of the courses.

https://junhaolin.opened.ca/individual-post-3/

In the final week of the course, I learned about OER-enabled learning and reviewed what I had learned throughout the course. I had some new perspective about open pedagogy and I was impressed by the serval examples of OER-based learning. Rather than using the materials that are all developed by the teachers, OER-based learning makes full use of the works of students and turns the works into new course materials. In this circumstances, students are not only absorbing the knowledge, but also producing the knowledge. I found that idea very cool and maybe I can apply it to my career in the future. Recently, one of my friends who is majored in education invite me to cooperate with her to start a small business. She intended to open some tutorials classes which will apply a whole new way of education. I think I can borrow the ideas from the course to design a new kind of education style.

https://junhaolin.opened.ca/individual-post4-revised/

The authors of the article show us several examples of OER-enabled Pedagogy.  In one of the examples,  the students are given extra credit to create tutorials resources such as tutorials videos, chapter summaries and review games for a particular topic. These tutorials then will be evaluated by the teacher, and some of them will be selected to be integrated into the course. Besides, the students who perform well in the course have the chance to be a teaching assistant in the course. The students also create other materials such as guided notes which are proved to be very useful for learning the course. The practice was very successful, the average grades on students assignments rose significantly as more student-created OER were introduced to the course. To me, the success of the practice is quite meaningful. It means that a new form of pedagogy was proved to be feasible. This kind of pedagogy greatly improves the engagement of students in designing the course. When I read the previous materials, I remembered a saying that the students should not just learn the knowledge, but they should create the knowledge at the same time. The idea of renewable assignments has made it come true. The students in the course also participated in the creation of the knowledge. I will remember OER-enabled Pedagogy and apply it to my teaching if possible.

Furthermore, the students can engage in the development of the courses such as the policies, assignments, outcomes and so on. This idea reflects the essence of Open Pedagogy, which is a learner-centered kind of pedagogy. Under this circumstance, the students can collaborate with teachers to design the course together to meet their needs to the best. This idea shocked me when I was reading the book. It is a totally new kind of course that the authors describe. In the fifteen years of my study, I always followed the syllabus of the course and the instruction of the teachers. I did not know why I had to learn these courses and what I would learn from them. What I needed to do was following the requirements and getting a good grade. In fact, the courses should be adjusted to meet the needs of different students to that they can be more suitable in the process of learning and achieve what they expect.

The idea of “Open” is what I can apply to my work in the course. Each student is an unique individual. We have to consider the situations of a specific student when we design a course for him(or her).  For example, if the person has a job in weekdays, we should deliver the course in weekends; or if the person is an English language learner, we should provide him(or her) with language support.

The topic of the course created by pod 8 is “Making Decisions Like an Economist”, which is a course about economy. There are three interactive activities in their course. In the first activity, the students are asked to watch a video and complete the practice on Macmillan Learning. The goal of this activity is to help the students understand and apply the concept they learned to different situations. In this activity, I find that their group members has considered the difficulty of ELL and take some measures. According to them, the platform they use for watching the video has closed caption to help the students understand the content. Also, the students can use the speed modifier to slow down the video so that they can keep up with the instructors. I am an English language learner myself, so I can really understand the difficulties they meet when they try to understand some new concept taught in English. There is no doubt that the caption will help a lot when they try to understand the technical terms for economics.  In the second activity, the students are asked to read an article and compose a post responding to the article. They also provide a translated version of the article for ELL. The last activity is to do a presentation, which I think is the most important activity of the course. This activity is practical and helpful because the students will analyze the problems themselves and apply what they have learned to solve the problems like  economists. During the activity, there will be a TA to help ELL students organize the script before they start their presentation. For those who loses their hearing, they will be mainly evaluated by their paper work. The members of pod 8 claim that they are using Inquiry-based Learning, which I suppose is reasonable. Economy is a practical subject, which means that we should apply the knowledge we learned to daily life. Also, when we find the economic problems in the society and then learn the knowledge to solve it, we will be more purposeful and motivated. 

I also have some suggestions. In the first place, I think it better if you can be more specific about the goal of your course. When the students are choosing their courses, they must want to know what they can learn in the course and what they can get after the course. So you need to set up some goals of the course and then design the learning activities according to them. Next, for the learning activities, the first and second activities are great. You fully consider the difficulties of ELL and those who lose their hearing. The ELL can get assist from the caption of the video and the translated version of the article. Also, for those who lose their hearing, they can focus on the caption of the video to understand what it is talking about, and they will not be affected by hearing when they are reading articles. However, as the most important part of the course, I think they need to engage in the third activity. Maybe you can consider making some adaptations of the activity. What is more, you can be more specific about assessment, which is essential of the course. For example, you can explain how you will grade the students, that is, the standard of your assessment. The criteria for grading should be consistent with the purpose of learning.

This project is completed by Junhao Lin, Xinxin WU and Crystal Jiang.

Read Claire Howell Major. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 88-105)
Read Jordan, K., & Weller, M. (2017). Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017) Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.

However, in “LEARNING IS NOT A MECHANISM”, Stommel raises his concern about digital pedagogy. He worries that this kind of learning pattern will make the process of learning too mechanic.(Stommel 2018) For example, under the control of the system, all the students will do the same things arranged by the system, and they will finish the assignments one by one as scheduled. The outcomes of their learning will be presented in the grade book. In this learning pattern, the students seem to be machines which are finishing the tasks one by one. I was impressive when Stommel argues that learning should be subjective, but the grading process seeks to be more and more objective.(Stommel 2018) I totally agree with Stommel, learning should be a subjective process because everyone has different perspectives about a certain thing, and everyone has their unique experience during their learning. As Stommel mentions in the article, “My response was simple and encouraging, ‘sounds good, stay lost.'” It is quite normal that students feel confused in the journey of learning, and they need time to figure things out and then move on.  There is no need for them to follow the same schedule of learning. Moreover, in “Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry”, Vaughan also examines the role of online learning. He argues that the key of blended learning is to integrate face-to-face and online learning activities. (Vaughan 2013) In other words, online learning should support the students rather than control the students.

But I do not quite understand when Stommel mentions “interchangeable” in the article. Does he mean that every student is unique and can not be replaced?

Reference:

Stommel, J. (2018). An urgency of teachers: The work of critical digital pedagogy. Hybrid Pedagogy.
Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press. [Chapter 1]
Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2

These are links to my peers’ stories:

yiwei

xinxinwu

yiyan

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:

• WordPress resources
• Using RSS feeds to read blog posts from your networks (e.g., Feedly)
• Privacy resources
• Copyright resources
• Finding images you can use

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.