Month: June 2022

A Final Word

On June 23, 2022

As EDCI 338 wraps up, I would like to share the key points of what I have learned.

Before this course, I did not know what a personal learning network was (PLN). Further, I only thought of social media as a way to communicate and stay in touch with close friends and family. However, as this course ends, I know that a PLN is an online community of people who can have meaningful, like-minded conversations and interactions. Further, I recognize that social media has many uses, such as interacting with people you would not have engaged with, various educational opportunities, and exposure to multiple viewpoints on issues in the world. Therefore, from this point on, I will hold myself to view social media as a networking tool that exposes my interests, history, curiosity, and place in the world.

I would like to include my highlight reel of the favourite things I have learned over the last seven weeks, along with some of my best quotes. Here they are:

“No references are needed to say that ever since the creation of social media, these online platforms provide a private and non-confrontational space for people to spread hatred and negative attitudes.”

I wrote this while discussing our digital identities and PLNs. We must remain digitally aware critical thinkers. What a person says on the internet represents that person. Inappropriate and passive statements can give others negative thoughts about the speaker.

Visitor and Resident Maps

I enjoyed this activity that Jesse had us do. A visitor and resident map is an exercise we can all do to help us better understand how we use the internet. I thought it was exciting to see laid out on paper how I use online platforms and social media. It showed how I engage with others and what sort of PLN I have created for myself.

Personal Learning Networks

Before this course, I never knew what a PLN was. A PLN is an online community of people who can have meaningful conversations and interactions. They are continually growing and everlasting. Your PLN, like what you post on social media and how you treat people online, will be there forever.

Social Media Inclusivity

Depending on the’ area’ of the Internet you are on, it could be inclusive, or it could not be inclusive (Arfini et al., 2019). I think of the Internet and social media as I think of different places in the world. You will see other things and have different experiences depending on where you want to go. To get to some niches (like the sketchy or illegal ones), you might have to cross some borders (do something to access these different places). There is a wide variety of what you can find online, and some areas are not inclusive. However, some amazingly constructed inclusive and diverse social media platforms are safe spaces for those to voice their opinions and share their stories.

Here is more information on inclusion in the workplace.

In sum, post-course, I will continue to use my PLN to help with professional development. I plan on going into an education-related field. A solid PLN will provide me with unique ideas, support from other people in my area of work, and a platform to share my ideas, thoughts, and experiences with others who are in the same place as me.

Further, I believe my PLN can be relied on for open professional opportunities. With the way social media and various online platforms function nowadays, finding information on almost anything, including professional opportunities, is effortless.

I’m very excited to put the information and strategies I have learned throughout this course to work in my future endeavours!

Bye, everyone! It was a pleasure learning alongside you all.

Amelia 🙂

References

Arfini, S., Bertolotti, T., & Magnani, L. (2017;2019;). Online communities as virtual cognitive niches. Synthese (Dordrecht), 196(1), 377-397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1482-0

Peer Review – Misconceptions about Learners with Disabilities

by ariehl

On June 15, 2022

In edci335, Learning Design

Hi there!

This is a peer review of an interactive learning resource (ILR) about the misconceptions of learners with disabilities that a remarkable group worked hard to make.

My overall impressions are that your document is clean, easy to follow, and intriguing. Your learning outcomes are very appropriate; they are aligned with one another. Further, your assessments and activities allow for your resource to be interactive, and this is a phenomenal subject to teach to students.

Your group wrote, “The current classroom design operates within a linear fashion that only benefits students who can effectively follow it.” I wanted to say that this is a very impactful statement. There are too many teachers that confine students with this linear structure of instruction that your group described. According to Beauchamp and Parsons (2000), education should include children with disabilities in regular classrooms. This is known as inclusive education (Beachamp and Parsons, 2000). Inclusive education helps students and staff understand and appreciate all groups present in communities (Beachamp and Parsons, 2000). We all know that people are different, and instructors should understand that students are inherently different, and some students require accommodations to succeed. To be inclusive, different approaches need to be used for different students (Beachamp and Parsons, 2000). Everyone learns differently, and many learning theories and designs should be used to maximize the potential for student learning!

I also really enjoyed the learning topics your group has chosen. Your group’s learning topics had a lovely flow and built off of one another wonderfully. In my constructive suggestions, you will see that I suggested your group might want to consider switching around topics one and two to further improve the flow and impact of your topics. This will enhance the understanding that your students have a learning disability and the misconceptions about learners with disabilities.

I made a live feedback video for your group to watch. I must apologize; it is long. I didn’t realize I talked so slowly! I suggest adjusting the playback speed to 1.25 or 1.5.

Again, I strongly suggest adjusting the playback speed to 1.25 or 1.5.

Your resource is well-designed, thoughtful, attractive, professional, and user-friendly!

Here is a little summary of my constructive suggestions for the improvement of your resource

Your group might want to consider expanding each lesson topic. What exactly will your group say to the students? How do you expect students to gain an understanding of your topic?
Include a vocabulary list. This textbook-like resource would be straightforward to use and will serve to be very beneficial for your students.
Double-check that your group’s statements are supported with references and citations. Under “Concept Analysis,” many statements were made that were not supported with evidence. To avoid plagiarism and ensure your resource is as valid and reliable as possible, it might be beneficial to include some more citations.
Include descriptions and rationales for the objective of your resource, what learning theory your group is utilizing, what is your learning design, what is the learning context, and what are your technology choices? Further, how is your group designing this resource to be inclusive, especially if you have learners with disabilities learning about learning disabilities!
Your group might want to consider switching around topics one and two. It might be easier to start by explaining to students what a learning disability is and then diving into the background of misconceptions about learners with disabilities.

I also wanted to say your group did a phenomenal job going the extra mile and providing so many additional resources in your ILR. All these resources are places anyone can go to learn more about your topic.

If you want to learn more about education and inclusive education, I highly recommend “Teach from the Inside Out” by Larry Beauchamp and Jim Parsons.

Thank you, and I hope this feedback was helpful! Great job!

Amelia 🙂

References

Beauchamp, L, & Parsons, J. (2000). Teaching From The Outside In. (3rd ed.) Edmonton AB: Duval House.

Social Media Use, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), and Media Literacy

by ariehl

On June 14, 2022

In edci338, Social Media

Welcome to my fourth blog post for week five of EDCI 338. I will answer questions about social media use, personal learning networks, and media literacy.

How do notable individuals use social media?

First, a notable individual is viewed as an important figure, and their name might even be a household name. Examples of notable individuals may be prime ministers or presidents, popular content creators, and celebrities. Most of these notable individuals have some social media account, and if they have a social media account, we all most likely follow them. Notable individuals use social media and their mass amounts of followers for self-promotion. For example, successful celebrities use social media to help publicize their brands and keep their names relevant in pop culture. Frequent use of social media helps to keep notable individuals in the eye of the public, ensuring their names are never forgotten.

As many notable individuals do, engaging with a public audience in the media space carries many risks and benefits. The benefits of engaging with the public audience in your media space can be exposure and publicity. Sharing more frequently increases your exposure, giving you more publicity. In turn, more people will come to learn your name and perhaps love your brand. However, risks of engaging with a public audience in a media space can include a difference of opinions among yourself and your viewers and experiencing negative replies and critiques. Having different views among yourself and your viewers can cause negative comments, and experiencing negative responses and reviews about yourself can damage your mental health. Further, experiencing negative replies and critiques can cause you to feel you must reply to these negative critiques. However, addressing comments may not be the best idea when we are in emotionally volatile states.

Here is a collage of some well-known people from around the world!

What are the benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN?

Being a notable individual, you are most likely in the public eye, which comes with the benefits. Some of the benefits include receiving special treatment, being recognized wherever you might go, being a role model to many individuals worldwide, and having an abundance of new opportunities. Essentially, notable individuals with social media have so many followers that someone will recognize them no matter where they go. Because of this recognition, these people may receive preferential treatment and attention. However, these individuals can use their PLNs and massive platforms for good. Again, a PLN is the network of people we connect with over online media to share opinions, thoughts, and concerns. Having a PLN in the public eye Can help you broadcast important information and spread awareness about topics and issues that are important to you. The more people are aware of these issues you care about, the more people can do something about it! This mass publicity can be life-changing for certain people, organizations, and topics.

Building a community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting. What are the perceived restrictions and benefits?

Often, employers utilize in-house means of communication, which can have its benefits, but also be limiting and restricting. For example, Establishing an in-house communication platform allows all information to be readily available and accessible to its employees. However, these employer-implemented community platforms serve the people inside the company, and all the information shared over this platform is limited to said company. In turn, there is not much room for diversity.

Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources. So how do you build a PLN to rely on?

Building a PLN requires searching for those who deliver information you agree with and using verifiable resources. People who use verifiable resources are typically viewed as reliable. Following their content and information, you can rest assured you will be informed. Your digital identity and reputation reflect who you are as an individual. Constructing your PLN and the people you associate with in a way that reflects your beliefs and values is crucial.

ABC News suggested 5 more ways to spot disinformation on social media.

How do those, who are veteran storytellers, minimize the risk of sharing misinformation?

Veteran storytellers typically have a lot of followers and subscribers and thus a lot of media coverage. Because so many people are tuning in to what veteran storytellers have to say, these storytellers must share factually accurate information. In the wake of COVID-19 misinformation, UNHCR shared this document of ten tips to minimize the sharing of misinformation via social media. Some suggestions made to reduce the sharing of misinformation follow:

It is important to press pause! Social media moves quickly, and it is essential to take breaks.
Check the source!
Is the message criminal or dehumanizing?
Do you truly understand the material and the issue you are reading about?

Click on this video to watch an awesome crash course on media literacy!

What is media literacy? Why is it important? Why is it dismissed?

Media literacy, simply, is the ability to analyze and understand media messages (Hirst, 2018). Media literacy is crucial because it helps us become wiser consumers of media and responsible producers of our media (Fresno Pacific Staff, 2018). Further, media literacy helps us develop critical thinking skills (Fresno Pacific Staff, 2018). Despite being so crucial, media literacy is often dismissed, but why? As stated by Julie Smith, we tend to be more interested in what we believe than what is actually true (Miller and Smith, 2021). Instead of looking up factually accurate information, we look for information confirming our beliefs. This is known as a confirmation bias.

Further, open dialogue about media literacy and factual information can easily create conflict because of our confirmation biases. Once people confirm their beliefs, it is nearly impossible to change what they believe and show them that the information they have found to verify their beliefs is false. Thus, media literacy is wholly disregarded and dismissed.

Why should you aim for varied views but the factual consensus in your PLN?

Sharing our thoughts and opinions through our PLN will attract people with varied opinions. It is essential to aim for mixed views to consider other arguments and beliefs. We must be cautious and create a factual consensus within our PLN. We want people to trust us and our opinions, and we must use trusted resources and verifiable information.

Further, there are benefits of having a PLN that values media literacy. For example, Creating a PLM that values media literacy will help spread awareness to others that media literacy is an essential skill to understand and assess the messages they are reading on social media.

I hope you all learned something and enjoyed the read 🙂

Amelia

References

Fresno Pacific Staff, (December 17, 2018). Why do today’s students need media literacy more than ever? Fresno Pacific University. https://ce.fresno.edu/news/why-today-s-students-need-media-literacy-more-than-ever/

Hirst, M. (2018). Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9781315401263

Miller, J., and Smith, J., (June 6, 2021). Media Literacy. EDCI 338. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0

Designing for Interaction

by ariehl

On June 9, 2022

In edci335, Learning Design

Hi there!

Welcome to my fourth blog post for week five in EDCI 335. We are going to discuss designing for interaction. Our learning pod is creating an interactive learning resource on stress, and I will discuss eustress and distress. I have selected a video that I can see using with my learners, and I want to discuss how I might make it an interactive experience.

From 7:24 to 15:02

How are learners likely to respond to the video on their own?

While watching this video on eustress and distress, there are some ways in which learners will likely respond. Stress is a topic within mental health, and perhaps students might feel the need to write down experiences in which they have felt eustress or distress. In the video, a lot of information is shared with the students, and students may decide to make notes on their own about what is being presented in the video or how they feel about the video. Taking notes about how the students feel while watching the video could serve as an activity that is learner-generated (Bates, 2015). Further, this learner-generated activity reflects the learner-content mode of interaction proposed by Anderson (2003).

What activity could you suggest that they do after they have watched the video? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

The video I have chosen has not been designed to be inherently interactive, meaning this video does not push learners to respond (Bates, 2015). However, a teacher would be able to design this video to encourage interaction with learners very quickly (designed interactivity). For example, in the video, there are no pauses or breaks for students to stop and write notes or think about their answers to the questions being asked. Instead, I would design this video to encourage interaction with learners by pausing the video at times when the speaker asks a question. Pausing the video will allow students to think of an answer and share it with the class.

Further, the activity I have chosen to assess students is a compare and contrast chart between the types of stress. Pausing the video during moments where critical information is shown would allow students to take notes about what eustress and distress are. At the end of the video, students will have a compare and contrast chart of eustress vs. distress.

This activity can help develop skills such as listening and notetaking. Students will be asked to listen and take notes of what is being presented for them to create their compare and contrast chart. To do this activity, students would only need paper and a pencil.

How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?

As I mentioned earlier, designing this video to encourage interaction with learners would be quite easy for teachers. Teachers must watch a video a couple of times before presenting it to students to ensure that the material will be understood easily. While watching this video to vet it for students, teachers could write down at what times the video should be paused for learners to reflect on their answers to the questions and write down notes.

Preparing for this activity would be quite manageable, as the teachers would need to watch the video before presenting it to their students. Further, not only is this activity manageable but watching the video and writing down times at which the video should be paused would be very worthwhile for the student’s understanding and reflection.

The activity of pausing the video to create a compare and contrast chart with the information presented could be easily scaled for a smaller or a larger number of students. Some students are slower at writing than others, but there is no harm in waiting a few extra seconds to resume the video for students to finish what they are writing.

Designing for inclusion is vital! Image: Moore, 2016

How will you address any potential barriers for your learners in the use of this video to ensure an inclusive design?

As we learned last week, designing for inclusion is vital, and there are many potential barriers for learners (Moore, 2016). Some potential barriers for learners that could present themselves during this video are:

Difficulty understanding the speaker’s accent.
Difficulties for learners with English as a second language.

I, like many, have difficulties understanding some accents, which could be a barrier for learners. To ensure inclusive design with the use of this video, I chose a video on Youtube that included:

Subtitles: to be read while listening to the video.
A feature to slow down the video: slowing down the video for learners will allow more time for them to understand what the speaker is saying and write down notes.

Turning on subtitles and slowing down the video will help learners with English as a second language and with difficulties understanding accents, making it slower and more accessible for them to read and understand.

I hope you enjoyed the read!

Amelia

References

Anderson, T. (2003). Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 4(2), 1–14.

Bates, A., (2015). Teaching in a Digital Age. BC Campus. (2nd e.d.).

Moore, S. (2016, June 22). One Without the Other. Retrieved from https://blogsomemoore.com/2016/06/21/one-without-the-other/

Inclusion and Social Media

by ariehl

On June 1, 2022

In edci338, Social Media

Imagine you owned a small designing business or were a content creator making posts to spread happiness and laughter. To spread the word about your business and start developing your learning network (PLN), you would probably want to get on social media platforms with a public account to create content for the world to see. Depending on your taste and the overall image you want your business to exemplify, social media can play a role in helping you establish messaging and themes. With all of the negativity and hatred being spread online, many businesses and creators online have been using their platforms to create safe spaces that are inclusive and diverse for all to enjoy and spread light. Further, having a PLN that is public and engaging requires risk assessment and policy understanding, all of which we will dive into later.

A fun word map on words people relate to inclusion.

Social media was made for users to engage in communication to build their PLNs. This communication may not always be personal and direct, but it can be through comments on a public post or even just viewing a post and liking it. Social media is widespread, and if you need to find something on social media, you can simply search it, and you will most likely find what you were looking for. However, this accessibility is both a blessing and a curse; social media can engage in communication or can pose challenges for communication. The accessibility of social media is a blessing because it can allow for some unique, inclusive, and diverse spaces for people to share their own experiences and raise awareness of injustices. On the other hand, it can also be a curse. Instead of working against injustices or creating inclusive and diverse spaces on the Internet, we can create places that are not diverse or inclusive and that make injustices instead of helping to solve them.

Click here for an article by Netflix on how they are working to become more inclusive.

Here is the million-dollar question: is social media inclusive? I believe there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Depending on the’ area’ of the Internet you are on, it could be inclusive, or it could not be inclusive (Arfini et al., 2019). I think of the Internet and social media as I think of different places in the world. You will see other things and have different experiences depending on where you want to go. To get to some niches (like the sketchy or illegal ones), you might have to cross some borders (do something to access these different places). There is a wide variety of what you can find online, and some areas are not inclusive. However, some amazingly constructed inclusive and diverse social media platforms are safe spaces for those to voice their opinions and share their stories. My final note here will be this: if you are looking for inclusivity, you will find it, and if you are looking for places with hatred, you will find those places too. Further, I believe who you associate with online, such as your PLN, reflects you and your values as a human being. Make it count.

In my last blog post, which you can find here, I discussed employers with employees who questionably use their social platforms. For example, many employees lost their jobs or have taken hits to their reputations because they post and share discriminatory language. Further, some companies with employees who share derogatory words have suffered economic losses. For reasons like these, companies often have employee social media communication expectations policies.

Talking about inclusivity and PLNs, I feel it is essential to bring it home and talk about how I work to make my PLN and social media platforms inclusive. I have about 900 followers on Instagram, and I do not have 900 friends. My account is private, but I typically let whoever follow me if they have requested to do so. I am from a tiny community, so everyone knows everyone, even if you have only ever heard another person’s name. This is where most of my followers come from; the rest come from my travels and my last two years of university. Also, I am outspoken and political, so I often use my social media to share factual information with those within my PLN. Thus far, I have shared information on my Instagram stories and in my Facebook feed regarding COVID-19, United States politics, gun violence, BIPOC discrimination, mental health, elections and how to vote, and legislative bills, such as Bill 61 in Manitoba. I have tried to create a group of like-minded people who care about their communities, societies, and the world. Unfortunately, raising awareness around these issues comes with hate. Whenever I receive or see hate, I simply hit “remove follower,” and the hate is gone! Inclusion is something we ll must continually work towards (Shelley, 2017).

The benefit of having a diverse and inclusive PLN on social media is that I get the chance to engage in many interesting conversations. Sometimes when I post something, I receive a message telling me I made a good point, but I should also consider something else. Sometimes I receive a simple message from someone I know who has opposing views, and we will have an honest and constructive conversation about why we believe what we believe.

I hope you enjoyed the read!

Amelia 🙂

References

Arfini, S., Bertolotti, T., & Magnani, L. (2017;2019;). Online communities as virtual cognitive niches. Synthese (Dordrecht), 196(1), 377-397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1482-0

Shelley, M. & Schnellert, L., (2017). One Without the Other : Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=4832579