Month: February 2022

This week for our wow and wonder post we were asked to share our thoughts on the article, “It’s not misinformation, it’s amplified propaganda” by DiRestas. This article discussed how people used social media to target other people in negative ways. Specifically, this article mentioned about social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. What made me go “wow” in this article was how it stated that the public sometimes uses labels such as “misinformation” to make a specific topic more popular. And the fact that due to gain of publicity people are “okay” to disrespect others. Additionally, this makes me “wonder” how severely does this behaviour impact our society? And how severely will this behaviour impact our future generations to come? Will the future generations just consider this to be normal as this behaviour of internet hatred and manipulation becomes more widespread?

In this week’s update, we watched videos and read the paper presented by shelly Moore about inclusivity and diversity in classrooms. I thought this was very interesting.

In the paper, I found it very interesting how Shelly asked all her students to label diagrams and identify them as inclusion, exclusion, integration or segregation. This made me go wow, it was fascinating as I had never thought of these concepts as diagrams. Furthermore, I found it really interesting how the student argued with Shelly about the inclusion diagram and made Shelly realize that there is no “other”.

Furthermore, In the first video, it was thought-provoking when Shelly used the bowling example to make us understand the relationship between the student and the teacher. And how some students who go through more challenges need more support from teachers, but sometimes the teachers have to make a choice. Moreover, she explained that in order to get a better output sometimes we have to change our aim completely and instead, try to hit the issues that are most difficult to resolve.

In this week’s showcase post I would like to reflect on week two and week three’s wow and wonder posts. I was very excited to read Simens (2005) article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age” as well as, the article, “What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)”, which was very interesting. There were many connections between the articles. Additionally, I noticed multiple ideas that I agreed with given my professional and educational background.

In both the articles, the authors stated that an increase in the usage of technology for learning has changed how humans think, learn, communicate, and live (Simens, 2005). I completely agree with this, and I have also experienced this myself. I saw multiple changes in my own learning style when classes went online as I had to rely on technology for a lot of my learning. Technology has also shifted our learning methodologies in a way that, learning about other people’s experiences can help us grow further, as stated by Mia in the wow and wonder blog post.

The article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age”, also introduced the concept regarding the half-life of knowledge. Half-life is the period between the gain of knowledge till the knowledge becomes outdated (Simens, 2005).

Additionally, this article discussed how quickly the knowledge has been doubling. I think that this is connected with the idea of half-life. Because when knowledge about a specific topic becomes outdated, it has to be re-evaluated and advanced. It made me reflect on my own education and identify where I experienced a quick increase or change in information. I am studying health information science and computer science, and in both areas, information changes very rapidly. For example, in the tech world, new technologies come as past technologies have been advanced and everyone is expected to expand their knowledge and learn how the new technology functions. And in health care, as we all have experienced during this pandemic, new health-related issues keep arising, therefore, health workers are expected to expand their knowledge. 

Furthermore, Simens (2005) article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age” stated that formal learning is no more how humans gain most of their knowledge. Instead, informal learning has become more common as people learn from communities, personal networks and work-related tasks. This made me wonder how important hands-on experience is for people. It also made me wonder, is school or university knowledge enough for success in our careers? For example, this is exactly why some of the programs in universities and colleges have made it mandatory for students to complete co-op work terms. So that students get the chance to apply their knowledge learned in a formal learning setting in an informal learning setting. This helps the students learn how to network and draw information outside their primary knowledge. This concept is further explained in Mary’s wow and wonder post.

To conclude, I would like to share with you all this image below which reflects how people collaborate through technology.

References:

Post #2 (Week 3) – Mary’s Platform. (2022). Retrieved 13 February 2022, from https://edci338learnings.opened.ca/2022/01/27/post-2-week-3/

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1).

What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?. (2022). Retrieved 13 February 2022, from https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/learning-network-age/0/steps/24644

Week 3 Wow and Wonder – EDCI338. (2022). Retrieved 13 February 2022, from https://edci338mb.opened.ca/week-3-wow-and-wonder/?unapproved=1&moderation-hash=9f399ca71d6b6a02cc59c2b3a8c7bdd9#comment-1

(2022). Retrieved 13 February 2022, from https://mpng.subpng.com/20200217/fw/transparent-people-cartoon-sharing-technology-collaboration-integro-softwares5e7df6b5f20093.60956147158531

In the article “Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement” I found it really interesting that the author Presnky categorized people into types based on how much technical experience they had naturally and based on age factors. Prensky made statements to support the thinking that today’s generation should be known as native to the digital language whereas the older generation should be known as immigrants to the digital language. The meaning of immigrant was further explained as someone who manages to learn but will never be fully competent. This made me go “wow” as I have never thought this way about the digital platform. I do agree that students from this generation may be more tech-savvy compared to some of the older people in our community. But that does not mean that we can categorize their technical experience based on their age. We need to understand that this change has occurred because most of the jobs today require some sort of computer interaction.