Jacy Wang's Fragmentary Posts

This is my submission of EDCI339 Assignment #2, which is the individual portfolio. I combined the two parts in one google doc, hope you can view it successfully! Thanks for this interesting and meaningful semester, hope I can learn more about open&online learning from my own life in the future!

Google Doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g6EAZZcg68gMWpcTYhvsCIAHioagfBEjbFG52SOA4xU/edit?usp=sharing

With the development of technology and the unexpected emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, open and distributed learning has become one of the most prevailing teaching methods, the number of learners and instructors participating in using it has gradually increased. Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade this learning system with the times, the purpose is to try to create an effective learning environment for all instructors and learners. In this time’s discussion, I would like to share some of my views on improving the open and distributed learning environment.

First, since most schools in the world have switched to online teaching in the past two years, it is important for learners to feel the same experience as on-campus learning, otherwise it will negatively affect their learning efficiency. It is worth mentioning that many students who are looking forward to reopening on-campus learning just want to have the immersive feeling of on-campus classes. In this case, I actually agree with the solution given by The Inclusive Learning Design Handbook, which is open learning should make learners still get involved on the Internet to make them learn better or at least keep them at the original level of study. Expect the contribution such as edit the original content and create new content together, as an international student, now I prefer that the professors arrange some group discussions in synchronous classes that allow students to keep their communication, this can allow international students who returned to their home countries to try their best to maintain their English proficiency, in case to avoid the difficulties on communication after they returning to school in the future.

Then, discuss how to make open learning meaningful and relevant for learners. In the paragraph written by Chris (2016), he explained an example of an imbalance in education due to information and resource restrictions. At the same time, due to the special settings of network access in some countries and regions, the students there may not be able to participate in open learning as usual. Although it is undeniable that digital redlining prevents a lot of information that is harmful to learners, but it also restricts learners’ access to useful knowledge and violates their privacy to a certain extent. Therefore, the upgrading and improvement of this technology is the key to helping learners obtain relevant and meaningful information during the open learning process. In my opinion, improving the function to identify information is the core point of future research on this technology.

Finally, if there is a chance to learn about open learning in the future, what I want to know most is after the COVID-19 pandemic, how will people summary the best practices for delivering open learning and online learning under this special situation? This epidemic is a “protracted war”, so it has a quite big reference value for the continuous upgrade of open learning in the future, and for students, whether having online or on-campus classes, open learning will take up an increasing proportion of their learning

References

Inclusive Learning Design Handbook from OCAD University. 

https://handbook.floeproject.org/

Gilliard, C. (2016). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. [Weblog]. Retrieved from

https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/digital-redlining-access-and-privacy

After reading the article “Twenty Years of Edtech” which wrote by Weller (2018), in my opinion, the “Edtech Trend” which interested me the most is the trend in 2016, which was The Return of AI (Artificial intelligence). At the same time, I also found some connections between it and (). Now I want to discuss them separately.

First, discuss the similarities and differences between constructivism and connectivism. According to the reading materials, constructivism is an educational theory instead of a technology (1997), but connectivism is a set of principles instead of a pedagogy (2005). This makes them fundamentally different. In my opinion, connectivism can be regarded as an advanced version of constructivism. From the perspective of how learners acquire knowledge, connectivism and constructivism also express different views. Constructivism believes that learners construct their own knowledge based on their experience and relationship with concepts that often form social interaction. However, Connectivism thinks that the way learners learn new knowledge is uncertain, however, knowledge spreads in the network irregularly, and learning is a chaotic process, the process of the learners’ contact with knowledge is defined as learning. The former is more like a talk of experience, the latter is more like the self-exploration after finding a way to move. But these two also have something in common, for example, both of them not only encourage learners to combine the available resources around them to create their own creation and collaboration, but also help learners avoid the constraints of distance and time differences.

Next, talk about the Edtech that I am most interested in—The Return of AI (2016). I first came into contact with the concept of Artificial intelligence because of some songs and their music videos, such as “365” by Katy Perry, which showed the scene of Artificial Intelligence getting along with people in the near future. In my opinion, by comparison, it should have a closer relationship with Connectivism, because as Weller (2018) said, the main function of Artificial intelligence is “prediction”, it would predict the types of errors people would make to provide advice on how to rectify those errors. So it is more like a guide for learners, which is more in line with the definition of connectivism.

Finally, I want to know more about the ethical problems brought by Artificial Intelligence technology and their possible solutions in the future. In the music video of Katy Perry’s song “365”, humans have managed to put Artificial Intelligence as emotional sustenance, and destroy the machine after failing the sustenance, but the machine also had feelings for humans. Although it may seem kind of ridiculous, such ethical issues may indeed happen. Frankly speaking, this reminds me of cloning technology, which is also a technological method that is not supported due to ethical issues. It is no doubt that the development of science and technology is an indispensable helper in learning, from the constructivism angle, it can help learners learn new things from the past and gain knowledge from experience; from the connectivism angle, it can help learners exercise divergent thinking. But the ultimate goal of technology is to help people improve their lives, not to be superior to humans. This will be a controversial topic now and in the future.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, at present, most schools in the world use online teaching mode, and students have also started the days of online learning. According to the definition given by ContinuingStudies@UVic, online learning is when you take courses online instead of in a physical classroom, thus, students can get the wanted education from anywhere in the world on a schedule that suits their life. As an international student who left Canada in July last year, I have experienced online learning for more than a year, and in the EDCI337 course last semester, I have connected and thought about online learning by understanding multimedia learning. And after reading this week’s reading materials, I think I may have a deeper understanding of online learning. Now, I will summarize my perception from several aspects.

First, according to the situation predicted by Noam (1995), the ultimate providers of an electronic curriculum will be professional business companies instead of universities, textbooks and other study materials that are most suitable for online learning will be provided by the publishers. This is indeed a fairly accurate prediction. During my nearly year and a half of online learning, I have used electronic curriculum by no less than 3 publishers, such as Pearson, Macmillan, TopHat, etc. The e-textbooks and other online functions (such as exercises, notebooks, etc.) customized by these publishers for the courses have actually improved my online learning efficiency, and can also play a role in assisting of managing time.

Second, in 2002, Driscoll identified 4 main forms of online learning, one of them is a blend of different forms of media or technology, also can be regarded as multimedia learning, what I studied in EDCI337. Multimedia learning theories are widely used in online learning. Based on multimedia learning, professors and students can create many kinds of learning objects such as infographics, these can help students recognize the key information in the course materials more quickly, and the interaction between teachers and students on the platform can also supplement the course learning process in a timely manner. But I think this may have some privacy risks. For example, if the teacher asks students to post their blog addresses and aggregate them on a publicly visible platform, or let students annotate on the website non-anonymously, students’ personal information such as student’s email address and IP address may be at risk of leakage.

Finally, discuss about the cost of online learning. There are also people who oppose online learning. Their basis mainly comes from the infringement of intellectual property rights by open educational resources and the high expenditure of online education. The high cost brought by Internet teaching is in many ways, for example, the fixed internet fees and fees for uploading video meetings recordings of some courses, but with the development of science and technology, its reuse potential and appreciation potential cannot be ignored. Because online learning has no time difference and environmental restrictions, so it’s very convenient for international students. Furthermore, both students and teachers can arrange their own study time more freely, and use the remaining time to rest or do part-time jobs. By the way, people can also interact with more people in the learning process from the Internet, in summary, the future development potential of online learning is very large. But in the future, how to weigh online learning and the ability to communicate with people in reality is a topic I want to pay attention to and get answers, because if human communication is really completely dominated by the Internet, how much will real life be affected?