On Social Learning

For learning to be successful it has to have a social ingredient in it.

Months ago, I couldn’t care less about learning theories. After lessons in my Developmental Psychology class, I got a brush off the major pillars of learning.  Every theory seemed encompassing. However, they were formulated in a time when no one thought that a thing called the Internet can exist. So, in a fateful day that consists of me and a never-ending scroll of Facebook News Feed entries, I found a rather interesting piece of infographic that showcased another kind of learning theory, Connectivism, which is basically a learning theory for the digital age. Of which, this famously coined digital age has pride itself on the integration of social media in its arsenal of tools that can help in the learning of the 21st century learners. The need for people to connect with each other drives this new breed of learners to aim for a digitized version of support group, may they be peers, colleagues, or arch-nemeses who will be taking on the learning with them.

This social ingredient requires observation, attention and interaction.

The session on Social revolved on a series of Tasks in the form of Facebook Group Events. In this day,I use Facebook only because of the Groups. All my academic and organizational groups have a digital version of themselves and have trusted the bluebird blue social media company for their communication and other needs. The use of Facebook worked well for this team because of the functionality and the lightweight footprint that Facebook has. to offer. They got us working on tasks. first of those included identifying real self and creating a virtual persona. Simultaneously, they posted another task that would involve us getting started on our Brilliant.org math-solving profiles. The funny thing is, they encouraged us to multitask and to be distracted. This is to further mimic what it is like to use a social media platform to aid in the learning process or a learning platform in the guise of one for social media.

I noticed that not everyone can be monitored as to how they use the lab time, so different types of distraction are available. A shining example to this is their use of the porn tag preferences as part of Task#1. It was a great attention-seeker such that everyone is commenting things on everyone’s posts all the while leaving the task on Brilliant.org to dust with little dust keepers on the loose.

Students tend to learn better when they use their observational skills attentively.

 

Learners pride in the mimicry of learning from others. Observing how others learn, how others react, how others synthesize, help them to shape their thoughts and achieve a better understanding of how they learn things.

 

 

The One with the e-Waste Impact of 1:1

No Tablet Left Behind: The E-Waste Impact of 1:1 Devices (c) FundingFactory

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.

The EdCamp

Armed with a white board and pieces of colored paper, we ventured to The Raya School to try out the professional development activity called, EdCamp. By far, it is the most spontaneous activity I have ever attended. At first, I thought it will be entropic because everything, from schedules, to topics, will be in the hands of the participants. But, as the activity progressed, the activity showed promise.

EdCamp is basically a user-generated conference for the professional development of the participants who, in this case, are practicing and future educators.

An interest-driven, purely organic, professional development opportunity that encourages true professional dialogue;

It is a spontaneous event wherein planning can only be done during the event to make it cater on the current needs of the participants present. We were given pieces of paper of two different colors, one is for “What I want to learn” and another is for “What I can teach.” These are then posted to the 5×3 board for scheduling. A participant is free to attend whatever interests him.

A gathering of motivated and intelligent educators from a range of content areas and grade levels;

The EdCamp is designed for educators in the K-12 module. The participants assumed both the roles of the learner and the educator. The participants, both from Raya and from Diliman, were more than eager to share their knowledge in not only pedagogy and educational technology but also in different fields like self-defense, sign language, physical therapy, and many others.

A series of sessions that may explore a technology tool, a discussion of best practices, or a collaborative presentation focused on current issues;

The topics ranged from “How to create powerful presentations,” to “How not to be annoying.” The interests were varied. And, interestingly, most of them are addressed. The activity became an entire package with little bite-sized lessons for each person. Personally, I learned a wee bit of Tae Kwon Do, refreshed my sign language alphabet, and had pointers for creative writing.

An opportunity to engage in peer-to-peer sharing, and to make professional connection.

What is cool about the EdCamp is that, learners and educators are roles dynamically filled in by anyone. Everyone gets a chance to each or to learn, whatever suits him best. The learners are able to actively and consciously engage in being creative and curious. The level of initiative is also notable since sometimes, a room might be left empty because most if not all participants are attending a cool ‘class’, thus some students start an entirely new topic and discuss it right then and there.

This is one activity that I would very much like to see extend in a larger scale. It motivates a participant to choose his own track in professional development with the aid of non-structured kind of learning. It is very experiential as such can be very refreshing.

Educ 190

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The Pedagogy Wheel Infographic (SAMR Model)

iPad applications (most of which have web-based versions) according to the SAMR Model – The Pedagogy Wheel Infographic (c) Allan Carrington

The SAMR Model

Substitution

Augmentation

———-The Very Thin Line———–

Modification

Redefinition

Educ 190 08252014
Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

The Gamification of Education

Gamification [n]: the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. (c) Knewton