On Participatory Learning

Participatory learning engages students as active participants in the preparation, assessment and anything in between of academic requirements. Basically, it is learning through own and others’ input. Learning opportunities are present in the designing and executing each material that the participants themselves have created. Participatory learning instills looking through the perspective of others. It is possible that in participatory learning, the answers will never look the same and will command a redesign of the resource. It is like a community of inquiry only in transformative form, more hands-on than just thinking.

However, what if a student is not yet open to the idea of academic sharing? The freedom that this kind of learning prides on entails a level of gradually being desensitized to the freedom itself. Since all of the materials undergo a series of participant screening and evaluation, everything is under scrutiny.

On Blended Learning

Blended learning is the marriage of face-to-face instruction and online delivery.It is customized to showoff the strengths of both learning modes. Blended learning can increase student outcomes and reinvent teacher roles. Also, since blended learning reduces traditional F2F learning, it is deemed more satisfactory for both students and educators. Effective implementation of the program can maximize educational resources and opportunities creating an avenue for student growth.

It is still on its way of establishing the benefits of reduced F2F time but the positive implications include more in-depth maximization of instructional resources thus increasing the efficacy of teaching. Students also get to be more flexible with their time as the lessons are conveniently accessible allowing them to think more creatively rather than enclose them in a rigid structure of the traditional setting. Also, both sides, the student and the educator, are both trained into developing more skills for jobs not yet created. Both can experience what it is like to be proponents in the theory of connectivism.

The good thing here is it works for both the educator and the learner. The only thing to watch out for is the proper implementation of the lesson as going astray may prove to be detrimental.

On Open Resources

My roommate once told me,”If you want success, hide your resources.” I kind of took that to heart for a time but I realized, it is hard to keep up with so many to track. The idea of leakage itself is not appealing to me although I love everything free. Then, I came upon the viral post on facebook about MIT and all its course materials readily available for digital consumption.

I still remember being pissed when I found a highly relevant scientific journal that could be the answer to all my questions about my thesis only to find out that it is worth $14.99. I hated paying a hefty price for materials that are supposed to help a number of people in the scientific community. I was adamant. I really hated the idea, although I do get that they are to be given enough credit because of the pure genius they have done for the research. I just couldn’t get around the idea of selling information that could have helped a lot in academic discourse. I wished right then and there that journals be not so much of proprietary.

Open educational resources revamp and bridge the high price of academics and the public demand of education. Free learning content has given the masses the opportunity for a radical shift on learning such that the barrier of fees for paid higher learning is now a unicorn. Open access materials offer academic output that are not included in pricey but established journals. Although they are free to the public, both zero charge and has little limitations of use, it still has impact based on the reliability of information mainly because it is considered free as in libre (gratis versus libre). There is little tracking as to which information are used, cited, and referenced as opposed to those in subscription journals.

 

 

The Manifesto

The Mawikins School of Technology | Create Infographics

What the best education systems are doing right

The Individualized Learning

The Khan of Flipping

The Flipped Classroom (c) Knewton

I remember ‘resorting’ to a Khan Academy video when I just could not understand a biochemistry concept. The video was simple, easy to understand, and very engaging. True enough I got one of the highest scores in my Chem 40 exam during that summer term. During that time, I thought Khan Academy videos were just made to tutor lost souls in the different difficult topics that books or the teacher cannot explain. I didn’t know that it was another dimension of education by itself. I didn’t know that I had flipped my own concept of the classroom.

Getting to know Khan Academy (c) PORVIR

Since the advent of the online video, the people in the internet are very much high strung to it delivering most of the news and entertainment. The use of the online video (or just video) was transformed when the fathers of the flipped classroom used the medium to create lessons and interact with the students in the classroom.
I think that this closely partners with the creation of the new breed of learners, the 21st century learners who are screen dependent and visually needy. However, it serves its purpose well enough because a concept of one-to-one teaching is induced. The student can self-pace the video. Mastery is ensured as the lessons are taught in building blocks.

The MOOC Trend

The Current MOOC Trends Worth Knowing (c) Enterasys.com

I have enlisted myself into a MOOC more than once. I remembered being in Intro to Forensic Science, Intro to Astrobiology, and many other classes in different MOOC sites like coursera and edX. At first, I found it really cool that there is a facility like this that can provide knowledge on different topics for free, at my own time (for some classes), and certified by a professor from the Ivy. However I could not attend some if not most of the classes as I had a rather hectic schedule with my own university academic requirements. What I did was to acquire all the available academic resources and study them at my own time.
MOOC is the promise of increased access to education. MOOC is designed to teach those who know what they want to learn. MOOC is made to cater to the needs of the many to be educated despite absence of the ‘classic’ school infrastructure.
The question still remains, “Will MOOC become a mainstream mode of education or will it stay as an alternative?”

The UX (is not UI)

UX is not UI (c) uxisnotui.com

When asked what was my worst user experience, I would have to say browsing through this certain academic website because I do not like the font, the graphics not appealing, flow not clear enough. Then a classmate said, “UP registration.” In my head, “Wow. I thought User Experience (UX) is virtual, online.”
I had this misconception of the User Experience to be the same as User Interface (UI). UI is the part of the product to be seen, a simple yet integral part. UX is the entire product along with the user satisfaction. Knowing the UX need not be online, I was taken aback. I always thought that the best user experience is offered by those who show up looking all pretty to the eyes.
Good thing, I learned that UX is not just what you see but how you experience the entirety of the product. It involves a little bit of everything, from demographic study, persona building, and a whole lot of other factors. It is amazing that a whole lot of critical thinking is applied when it comes to interaction design just to provide the best experience possible.

The Expectation versus Reality of Philippine EdTech

Educational Technology is expected to be a great help or even a shift in the educational paradigm in Philippine education. However, is it truly the case?

Below is the excerpt of the e-Classroom requirements mandated by DepEd.

Counterpart Requirements (Elementary & Secondary School)
1. Multi-media classroom ready to house;
a. Elementary e-classroom Package: (1) host PC and six (6) Computer Terminals, (2)
Projector and (1) Laptop.
b. Secondary e-classroom Package: (8) Host PC and (42) Computer Terminals
2. Computer Tables
3. Mono Chairs
4. Air condition OR at least two (2) Electric Fans
5. Sufficient Lighting
6. Windows and Doors with iron grills
7. Proper Electrical Wirings with circuit breaker and proper electrical grounding
8. Standard electrical outlets with appropriate load capacity
9. Engaging the assistance of Barangay Officials for security mechanism

It is interesting to know that even in the advent of the computerization of the Philippine classroom, the pacing is still slow. The expected return of investment is low. The sustainability rate of the project is unsure. Why is this so? Despite the efforts to provide the ‘needed’ materials, other factors include the school administration and the faculty themselves. Some instructors are either not paid well to stay in the program or other veteran teachers are still afraid to use technology in redefining their syllabus. Either way, the e-Classroom becomes more or less a stagnant project.