Author: olliefromcanada

Hey Folks

Part 1 Evidence and Reflection of my Learning:

Option A: structured by Outcome

I really enjoyed EDCI 339. Even though it was an elective, I found some correlation to my undergraduate studies of computer science. The connection with the course to my studies was very insightful and helpful.

For example, In topic 2 I discussed Major’s Teaching Online. As mentioned previously in my blog I talked about how Major introduced the 5 organizational elements: enrollment, amount, timing, platform, and pathway (Major, 2015). I have a friend right now who I’m helping that is teaching younger students (late elementary to junior high) to understand beginner computer concepts. Concepts that I have personally studied in csc 110 and 115 here at uvic. Through the way he setup the course online, I mentioned to him how his strategy in terms of online distribution and platform was going to benefit his students with studying computer science. Through his easily documented and basic step by step instructions he offers students both the freedom yet resources to attempt on their own yet is also to seek help if unable to progress. Especially by playing videos in a specific format where he has created examples that are short and to the point. Thus offering a quality service that’ll be better than in person as the student can play at any time and at any rate due to their learning style. I also told him based on my memory of my blog post about how timing is the most important point of any course. I believe that a course should be able to deliver all its material in an organized and timely manner such that each topic is given enough attention. Specifically based on my poor experiences with online courses as written in my blog post for topic 2. My friend agreed and instead designed the course to be as simplistic as can be and try to offer more layman descriptions. By assisting my friend I’ve managed to use the learning critique I’ve acquired from reading EDCI material. Therefore I believe I have a better perspective and guidance as my understanding on better course service will allow students to get the most benefit out of my friend’s online teaching course. Specifically now they have a much longer window and time to understand as the course is year long as opposed to me being taught a semester of new material. Therefore I’m confident that through my reflection and study of Moore’s reading I’m capable of offering help to my friend’s first time teaching a computer science course.

Also this confidence was reflected within my group work in Assignment 2 with pod 6. We specifically managed to work as a team and I believe I managed to pull off my work through the learning I mentioned earlier. By reading the persona of Jackson I better attempted to learn about someone’s condition before assessing what I can do to help. In terms of assignment 2 this meant closed education would provide him the best means of success. Especially when I had to provide commonly agreed upon evidence found in the sources of our course. I found it really sharpened my argument skills as I had to provide evidence to my suggestion in the proposal that directly reflected what we were taught in EDCI 339. Specifically for example the part where I wrote about my observations in the Jordan and Weller’s guide and what study style suited him based on that  (Jordan and Weller, 2017). In general I also liked commenting on my group’s members as well as receiving comments as I believe it helped reshape my views on topic 2. To which later I’ll be updating. My team kept up to date and we communicated mildly well in discord which helped me strengthen my team building skills as I look forward to using what I learnt here on further group projects in my career as a computer scientist.  Especially on what I could’ve done to handle certain situations and provide a better outcome where everyone is more satisfied next time.

Another interesting reflection about topic 1 is my blog post about my aha moment.  Specifically the part when I was reading the acceptable use policies done by uvic. I still have that sense of worry when I participate in using Zoom and brightspace to further my education as I’m now more critical from my readings of FIPPA in EDCI 339 about how well Uvic was handling my information  based on my original ignorance of the situation. Most directly on the fact Uvic aka making accounts that use my information on other web databases and thus harvesting my info to other companies. I’ve actually developed the interest in studying computer networks and have gone to the lengths of using VPN’s in order to better hide my identity through my ip address. Also, the same service offers a password manager to which changed my mind on blog post 1 about unnecessary passwords as I have faith in this password manager to give me credible passwords that it’ll remember for me with secure ease. Again this was all due to my critical thinking on readings done in EDCI 339.

In terms of future research I believe my studies and knowledge in Artificial intelligence will be my next stepping stone in terms of where I want to further my learning from this course. I believe from topic 3 about Kral and Schwab’s article and the inspitations of ideas from the example uploading content to youtube in the Indigenous learning spaces article  (Kral and Schwab, 2012). I also believe open education can provide different means of educational understanding. It crucial I find ways to implement certain artifacts in my field and find ways to better provide a service to those who felt originally left out of Canadian culture and history.  However, with power comes responsibility as I believe I must educate myself further on certain minority and diverse groups backgrounds if I’m gonna make services that benefit society for the greater good. From my reflections on Wiley & Hilton Open Educational Resource  (2018) it  gave me some really good ideas on how to use technology to teach clients or employers about certain ideas. Specifically the point about does the new artifact have value beyond supporting the learning of its author? Since I must communicate why certain ideas are important to consider overall. If I’m gonna sway public opinion and consumerism within my field of business of computer science for the better and progress into a better society.

Part 2: showcase blog of topic 2 discussion

Showcase blog: https://olliefromcanada.opened.ca/showcase-blogpost-2/

Original blog: https://olliefromcanada.opened.ca/topic-2-discussion-2-by-os/

What I changed:

I talked about my development with the topic readings and how it correlated to helping my friend with his online course. I also reflected on how it impacted me the most as I was able to recall alot of information and use my personal experience to add a more in depth conversation that will move into action when my friend implements my suggestions. I also commented on Zhao and Ryan’s post as I believe those guys provided some good insight into my post that I wanted to discuss. Specifically Ryan’s answers as it helped me reflect more on topic 2’s discussion on top of the readings.

Photo evidence

References

Acceptable Use Policies (University of Victoria)

FIPPA legislation in British Columbia

Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

Hey folks,

For my blogpost  showcase I really wanted to show my topic 2 discussion on Major’s reading because that’s the first thing that came into my mind when reviewing my experience with EDCI. Therefore I believe this topic readings for this week had more of a lasting impact on my critical thought process when handling EDCI near the end of it’s course (since this is the second blog so half way) as I managed to shape my horizons in terms of educational knowledge.

Ryan actually commented on this topic 2 discussion and I’m really grateful as I think this might be the only comment I gotten from him I really appreciate and like Ryan’s comment about how he liked my connections that online education had to my personal experiences at Uvic. It really did help me understand the concepts when I provided examples from my past experience.  I have never enrolled in a Open for Massively Open online courses (MOOCs) but it does seem something I might be nervous too. Mostly because of the scale as I liked uvic for it’s small student size as opposed to UBC. Thank you for asking because I do agree that they are pretty common in programming and could serve as a way to learn a new language or to access additional learning resources to supplement courses you are already taking. Since you said that however I’m happy I mentioned in my education and reflection about how I’m helping my friend further expand his service with online educational by providing what I learnt in first year comp science to a more younger audience! As mentioned in the reflection I commented about Moore’s  5 organizational elements: enrolment, amount, timing, platform, and pathway (Major, 2015). Enrolment mentions open and closed enrolment. These helped dive into bigger discussions on how to convey information to people just starting out as I felt similar of confusion and a sense of being lost in my first year of comp sci when reflecting with my teaching friend. It’s not exactly MOOC but it can be if enough interest is held!

Also Ryan, I also liked what you said about the element of timing, Especially how you suggest that it’s more about whether or not all students need to attend at the same time, rather than about the time management of the instructor. I agree on it being a problem that can occur in any course structure. Synchronous means all at the same time. One pro that comes from having the meeting all at one time allows a time discipline set by a school educator for students to be rigid with their time and use of it. It does work if you believe that discipline brought by outside force is necessary and that live meeting benefit the students the most as it allows teacher’s to in the moment evaluate misconceptions of student. I find it however synchronous classes affects students freedom and creativity to find ways to make the use out of their own understanding of education as I believe the con is it assume everyone learns a certain way. I believe certain classes were boring and not straight to the point as I think personally I could watch a video and skim the parts that would make the most concrete sense of what I need to know about the topics. Thus giving more dependence on the student for their own success. Where this could be a con of lacking responsibility, I believe we as university students should be trusted with the responsibility of handling our own education in terms of course delivery and if so choose I think would benefit more with Asynchronous  learning in general. Especially since i managed to do better with the Asynchronous type of learning brought to you by Ryan in EDCI 339 as I was able to understand better at my own pace and thus not be as much stressed. Thanks again Ryan for your comments I really appreciate them.

In general I don’t think I would change my original post as I still agree with it alot. Especially on how Zhaotan describes his comment about how I describe pathway as a convenient tool. Also Zhao had similar ideas with you that open learning is effective for students to which I really appreciate and thus couldn’t find much wrong with my post. I just wanted to mention how this study expanded conversations I had outside the class and wanted to answer Ryan’s post as I thought his comment was really insightful and took alot of time to create so I wanted to spend some time responding to his questions.  For further inquires I might read more online news articles and other journals about open education and teaching online strategies as it will help further guide my friend in his teaching of comp sci.

Overall I enjoyed this topic discussion reading the most as it’ll have the most impact on me from my understandings here in EDCI 339. I like to thank Ryan again for his awesome delivery of online class and I hope him more success in the future!

References

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.

Hey folks,

Congrats to myself and everyone else reading this for making it this far into the course! I’m really happy to have learn everything so far and appreciate my groups assistance (as shown in my pod evaluation form). I specifically remember how we simply  began the course with a very typical closed model of distributed learning using Brightspace, some articles to read, a discussion post, and a quiz. Then the big movement  of the course content and interactions out of Brightspace and into WordPress, an open platform where your work is a contribution to the wider open community. This at the risk of exposing ourselves to a wider range of audience to look at our typing format and writing style. I was happy of the payout though as I felt like I’ve experienced alot in just a short matter of time. Therefore through my own experience I believe that online education is beneficial if done correctly (Thanks Ryan)!

I didn’t feel isolated. I feel more connect and orchestrated through online technology (email, zoom and discord).

We began the course with a very typical closed model of distributed learning using Brightspace, some articles to read, a discussion post, and a quiz. Within a few days, though, we moved the course content and interactions out of Brightspace and into WordPress, an open platform where your work is a contribution to the wider open community, rather than a post with a primary audience of one person.

Wiley & Hilton (2018) explore as explained in the topic 4 lecture article is the idea of a concept called OER-Enabled Pedagogy. OER stands for “Open Educational Resource”. (Wiley and Hilton, 2018). I agree with the tests described by Wiley and Hilton as the article contains a four part test to determine if a teaching and learning practice qualifies as OER-enabled pedagogy. It goes at the following:

• Are students asked to create new artifacts (essays, poems, videos, songs, etc.) or revise / remix existing OER?
• Does the new artifact have value beyond supporting the learning of its author?
• Are students invited to publicly share their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?
• Are students invited to openly license their new artifacts or revised / remixed OER?

I believe all these qualify as a computer scientist and my small elective in gender studies. I believe authenticity and creating ones own understanding through projects and goals that resemble knowledge in the outer world to be important. Also the fact it needs to be shared is equally important. Therefore I think this article does a great job laying out it’s tests to cover it’s definition or ORE-enabled pedagogy.  I don’t believe I’m much of a teacher, but if I were to I would follow these guidelines and principal.

I also liked your added note about hash tags being an important movement to spread the word about EDCI education. I encourage and support that system as I believe spreading information on social media to be a viable source to get people’s attention and spark conversation. Even though it might get messy at some parts. The ironing of flaws I think can be overcomed as I believe it’s important to listen to the voice of the people and spreading the conversation on education in and of itself.

I enjoyed this weeks reading.  Thanks for reading my final topic discussion as I hope you had a good time learning a little about me and my EDCI education journey. Take care and goodluck with your final presentation!

Ollie

References

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

Hey Folks,

I found topic 3’s readings to be very interesting. Firstly, because I enjoyed learning about the FIPPA legislation in British Columbia topic 1. I specifically was intrigued by how much we’re willing to give up ourselves onto a digital platform without knowing the full consequences. The topic of revenge porn in Gilliard and Culik’s Digital redlining article to be a disturbing example of how things can go really bad on popular social platforms (Gilliard and Culik 2016). When computer devices are supposed to be intended to empower  people, it can often leave people vulnerable when they dare put anything digital out there without full knowledge of what can happen. Although the article talks about a community college. At Uvic we’re pretty privilege to have access to a speedy and reliable internet network. However, with such an exposed network we depend on Uvic’s responsibility to make good use with their internet security in attempts of hackers or any other threats.  So that’s something I thought when reading the article as we somewhat expose ourselves digitally when giving ourselves to such networks like the one at Uvic. With great power comes great responsibility it seems in this case as one must be conscious of what they’re posting and allowed to be collected by online services.

Also, the second reason I liked the article is because it talks about inclusion of minorities and vulnerable people. It’s important as we have the privilege we do with Uvic to learn about our history and the Lekwungen peoples’ land that we’re on. This in the hopes of making a better decision for the future that include better opportunists for those less unfortunate and those with different backgrounds who have felt excluded before. I believe technology and websites are tools that will help preserve and educate inquisitive people about Aboriginal culture by the pictures in Kral and Schwab’s article about uploading content to youtube in the Indigenous learning spaces article  (Kral and Schwab, 2012). I believe open education can provide different means of educational understanding such as interactive maps that attempt to educate and help inform the public about land acknowledge and how the land is important in terms of Aboriginal relationships. This can do loads of positives and provide a safe space for other aboriginals to communicate and share history, culture and art in a way that might’ve not been possible with physical materials. I also do acknowledge the obstacles however in terms of internet and equipment access. I have hope in the future that we’ll provide better resources for community centres that will provide better chances to learn about certain topics that will help them succeed in life as it provides a way to equally be involved with the world and Canada.

“Paquette outlines three sets of foundational values of Open Pedagogy, namely: autonomy and interdependence; freedom and responsibility; democracy and participation.” (Mays, 2017). I think this quote ties nicely with the two earlier subjects as I believe these new sets of theories mentioned in this chapter opens further discussion and demand for further online school change. I believe that people should have a say about what their being educated as mentioned in the Open Pedagogy chapter and allow more range of how course material should be delivered and expected to be completed. I think by allowing individual deadlines and course input from students will allow more overall success as we expect the student to learn at their own pace but still expect results at a certain date. Instead of being rigid we allow leniency in the hopes that by the student finding their own ways through online education they can acquire a better understanding of the school material and find better success in their assignment quality. This freedom comes with personal responsibility as one disadvantage is we have to accept some students might have poor time management. However I believe the positive out weight the negative as I believe we can allow different groups who didn’t learn one way to find other ways to be successful. Especially when we’re talking about the Aboriginals in the case in our second paragraph.

Overall I enjoyed the readings for this topic section.

References

Hey folks,

This week’s reading from Major (2015) concisely summarized all of the possible ways to structure an online course platform (in theory). Author major quotes “A learning platform is the foundation on which a course is built.” (Major, 2015). I concur with Major as later on in the textbook it describes how the learning platform requires precise planning of course material and outline. I have personal experiences where the curriculum and information being taught in a course wasn’t exactly planned out well and that suffered major consequences on student’s performances in class. Especially during Covid and my participation in online Uvic CSC courses.

Major introduced the 5 organizational elements: enrolment, amount, timing, platform, and pathway (Major, 2015). Enrolment mentions open and closed enrolment. The difference is open allows anyone technically capable of joining to enter a opposed to a set listed number of people can sign up. I have hopes for Open for Massively Open online courses (MOOCs) as I believe that the more people interested in a topic should allow entry as information is freely distributed. Just like art, knowledge should be shared by everyone. I’m not too confident when in amount it mentions hybrid classes.  In my opinion there’s some flaws and miscommunication when handling a mix of in person and online within courses I’ve taken that I find it’s not worth the experience as opposed to just having one or the other. Timing is the most important point of any course. I believe that a course should be able to deliver all it’s material in a organize and timely matter such that each topic is given enough attention. In the past some material in my csc classes were skimmed over due to time poor management. Finally platform and pathway is something to take notice of as it has been very useful. With zoom and brightspace I had the opportunity  to connect with students and learn more than I could’ve in person. Technologically is pretty fast and convenient when reaching people for a problem in math for example.

The other reading was by Martin Weller on Open Education. Even though I did praise MOOCs earlier, this reading mentions one of it’s biggest obstacles. In that it must consider it’s audience and their background when it comes to learning in a open enrolment. I enjoyed reading the guide and surprised by the amount of data collected. I also agree with further research into open learning as It has a lot of potential if done correctly (Jordan and Weller, 2017).

References

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)

Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.