Category: Uncategorised (Page 1 of 2)

Following is my Celebration of Learning post, explaining what I have learned from this course for all the different sections:

1) Examine the application of social media to support learning:

In week 2, Wow and Wonder post 1, I discussed how I thought the application of online learning/social media has altered learning processes. In the article “What is a Personal Learning Network” the author addressed that we were living and learning in a network society. Furthermore, the author explained that online learning/social media has changed how humans think, learn, store information, share ideas, study, work, etc. I believe that I have noticed this in my surroundings as well. In this generation, social media platforms have become very easy to access and many times I personally rely on social media platforms to access information regarding specific topics. But during this course, I got the opportunity to complete a project with my learning pod on Instagram. During this project, I got the opportunity to research the social media platform’s privacy policy as well as misinformation policies. This helped me understand how important it is to double-check information found on social media platforms from other resources so that your learning outcomes are met properly. Furthermore, this project gave me a chance to think about how social media could affect someone’s mental health or growth, which I believe is also interlinked with learning through social media. In my opinion, if an individual has been using social media platforms for learning from a younger age, without knowing about the privacy/misinformation policies, then that could have a negative impact on their growth. Therefore, I think that overall this course taught me the importance of being aware of the policies that your social media platform uses, before fully trusting it and using it for your learning.

2) Explain personalized learning and its relation to learning theory

Before joining this course, I did not know about learning theory or personalized learning theory, as my background is in health and Tech fields. I gained knowledge about these topics during week three when we had to read the article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age”. In week three’s wow and wonder post I discussed my learnings from the article. The article stated how 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. Overall, this article made me understand the concept of personalized learning. It also helped me understand that connectivism is a model of learning, where, learning is not only internal but it can also be done by connecting with a group of individuals in order to gain new knowledge and discuss opinions. However, after reading Jeet’s showcase post I gained a deeper understanding of personal learning networks. In the showcase post, Jeet discussed the networking three-layered approach by Grabher and Ibert in the article “Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them” by Rajagopal, et al. 2012. Jeet explained the findings from the article about the three different layers being the: communality layer, sociality layer and the cconnectivity layer (Rajagopal. et al, n.d). Furthermore, Jeet explained that all of the three layers play an important role in the creation of this relationship as well as in maintaining the relationship (Rajagopal. et al, n.d). After learning about these topics, I reflected back on my personal life and the networks that I depend on for my learning. I realized that I rely on my connections within LinkedIn as I am connected to mostly all the people from my professional field. And as individuals from my connections share or comment on interesting content, I get the chance to learn about projects and opportunities in my profession. Therefore, overall, I believe that this course has taught me the importance of personalized learning and how it affects my career.

3) Recognize that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone

My background is in health information science and computer sciences. And throughout the three years of my education, I have learned that everyone has a different level of comfort with using technology and the internet. Some people are more tech-savvy, whereas some people do not prefer using technology at all. In my week four wow and wonder post, I read the article “Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement”. I found it really interesting that the author Prensky categorized people into types based on how much technical experience they have naturally and based on age factors. I had never thought this way about digital platforms or the internet. But after reading the article I did agree that students from this generation may be more tech-savvy compared to some of the older population in our community. Overall, this section of the course helped me understand that this is an issue in our general community and not just in health tech fields.

4) Apply social media to develop a personal learning network in support of your personal and/or professional development

Before starting this course, I had never used GitHub in an educational setting. And in the beginning, I was hesitant and nervous about learning how to use it. But as we started adding our research material for the group project on our shared GitHub repository, I realized how helpful this platform is for sharing materials with team members. Additionally, using WordPress made it very easy for all the classmates to share our wow and wonder posts as well as commenting on content. Overall, this course taught me the importance of social media platforms such as GitHub and WordPress in professional development.

5)Identify privacy issues and practice online behaviours that are legal, safe, consensual, and ethical

As technology becomes more easily accessible, privacy issues tend to increase. More people having access to phones, cameras and social media platforms allows more access to the world through the internet. In week eight, we had to watch a short film made by Queen’s University students about surveillance called “#tresdancing”. This short film showed the way surveillance is used in a student’s life. This short film made me realize how surveillance can augment the issue of privacy. It amazed me how closely the students’ actions were being detected, such as the eye movement, voice interactions, etc. Jeet mentioned in her post how she doesn’t believe an education tool should be dictating a student’s personal life choices in relation to surveillance. Overall, after learning more about surveillance and its relation to privacy I have understood that there is a need to be more careful while using public networks.  

6) Recognize data ownership and licensing (Creative Commons, Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Public Domain) as a core practice when creating, sharing, or using resources online

During our group project me and my learning pod decided to research about Instagram. While researching about Instagram I found out that the platform has some guidelines so that it can continue to be a safe platform, such as users only sharing content that they have the right to share, users only posting comments that are appropriate for a diverse audience and users must follow the law and not spread misinformation in relation to sensitive topics such as bullying, alcohol, hate, drugs, etc. I agree with all of these guidelines and believe that if data/information is not shared keeping the law in mind then it could cause issues relating to privacy, legal rights, misinformation, etc.

7) Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about social media and personalized learning

Throughout this course, I have practiced using digital, networked, and open literacies to support my learning. The use of platforms such as WordPress and GitHub helped me network with my classmates and share my thoughts/ideas. Moreover, during this course I have ensured that all my blog posts are open literacies and are accessible to all audiences. Overall, this course has taught me the importance of social media platforms, networking and open literacies for my professional development.

In this week’s update, we had to read the “Emerging Technologies in Distance Education” paper by George Veletsianos. This paper discussed the concept of distance learning as well as the tools that could better support distance learning. What made me go “wow” was when the writer expressed the disappointment regarding how general technology is being updated so fast but the technology for learning has had a really slow updating rate. The writer further explained this by stating how so many students feel disengaged in their courses. As well as the tools and technology that we use for distant learning seem to be a replica of the traditional face-to-face learning.

I can completely understand and relate to this issue. As soon as covid started schools went starting to tools such as Zoom/Blackboard/MS Teams. But no one realized that this is the replication of in-person learning and students still require some additional tools to keep them motivated and further to keep them engaged. I “wonder” what sorts of tools can be used to keep students better motivated and engaged during distanced learning.

In this week’s update, we had to watch the short film made by Queen’s University students about screening surveillance “#tresdancing”. This short film showed the way surveillance is used in a student’s life to help with studying and also showed different studying tools that could help increase students’ interest in their courses. It was shocking to see some of the tools that the students were asked to use in the video. At the very beginning, we saw how the student got disqualified from an exam just because of the normal house surroundings. It made me go “wow” when I saw how closely the student’s actions were being detected, such as the eye movement, voice, interactions, etc. Does this mean that students are supposed to live in complete isolation? Because in normal conditions such background noises cannot be avoided. This made me worried about mental health issues if this ever becomes the new normal for educational purposes.

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.

There were so many things in this week’s article that stood out to me and that I agreed with. There were also many connections between the “Connectivism: A learning Theory for Digital Age” article and the “What is a Personal Learning Network” article. Both the authors stated that an increase in the usage of technology for learning has changed how humans think, learn, communicate and live. As I stated in last week’s post, I completely agree, and in fact, I have seen multiple changes in my own learning style since school went online, as I had to rely on technology for my learning. The article “Connectivism: A learning Theory for Digital Age” also introduced the concept regarding the half-life of knowledge. I did not know about this concept before, and when I found out about its meaning it made me go “wow”. Half-life is the period between the gain of knowledge till the knowledge becomes outdated. The article also stated how quickly the knowledge has been doubling. This made me realize how I have also experienced a quick increase or change in information. I am studying health information and computer science, and in both of these 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. This article also 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. 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.

What stood out to me in the article “What is a Personal Learning Network” was the way the author addressed that we were living and learning in a network society. The author addressed exactly the way in which learning through online spaces has changed how humans think, learn, store information, share ideas, study, work, etc. I agree with the author as I have also noticed these changes in my life overall. It also made me realize that a lot of these changes were triggered due to covid. Covid has increased online learning, which has made more people rely on google and other online platforms, rather than learning from people around them. This makes me wonder if people will ever be able to go back to normal learning as if was before covid, by learning from friends, mentors, and professionals.