Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

I can clearly remember the hustle and bustle of games like Kahoot, Duolingo, and Quizlet being essential parts of my high school experience.  Incorporating these elements create a collaborative and interpretative way to engage students outside of a traditional lecture style classroom. While online tools like Kahoot and Duolingo are beneficial with memorization, it is more effective to find other methods to incorporate game-based learning into the classroom setting.

An example of gamification in the classroom environment that still resonates with me today is our Café conservation during my French lessons in high school. This game entails students rotating pods and discussion topics in French, each pod was given 5 minutes to discuss the topic before they rotated. This was one of the most effective tools for me in becoming comfortable with my verbal speech in French and created a social atmosphere.

Another example that resonated with me were mock trails during my Law class in high school. This was a collaborative way in which students were able to research cases, construct an argument using the theories learned in class, and put the work into practice themselves while also observing the structure of a court room.

The experiences of Gamifying/ or adding game-based learning into classrooms helps translates in classroom learning with out of classroom learning, these experiences are what most stick with students.

During our COVID-19 online learning period, most of my instructors chose to record online lectures for students to follow along with lectures at their own pace. For my POLI 400 level, a professor of mine took a contrary approach to this which made me reconsider the approach my other professors took to online learning, he chose to opt out of recorded lectures to prompt students to speak more freely.

In the “Sections Model” video covered this week for our session, the video discussed the security and privacy of students and called for considerations on the risks that students are taking on in online learner, a consideration that as a student myself I did not know was an option.

In an offline environment, students are encouraged to speak freely but there are professional limitations with this in fear of retaliation at times. With online learning students are afforded a higher level of anonymity. In my personal experience, I feel that in comparison to other offline lectures or recorded online lectures, students spoke more freely on problematic topics.

There is still a risk. On platforms like Tik Tok and other social media tools we noticed a rise in online lectures being recorded without the consent of all individuals in these videos. Students can still record lectures without explicit consent, again putting students at risk. There is a clear call to action to revise online learning to make these platforms more accessible and protect the privacy and security of all students.

References

Youtube. The SECTIONS Model – Team 5. 2015. Web. 16 June 2021.

The Covid-19 pandemic rapidly transformed online learning and the potential to further explore online learning. Augmented reality allows for students to tangibly online or virtually, it can take students to space to learn about the solar system or view plate tectonics in their hands.  

Digital pedagogy would highly benefit from the implementation of augmented reality in real life. From my year-long co-op term working at the LTIS division at UVIC, I came across numerous courses at UVIC that would highly benefit from augmented reality. In particular Anthropology which requires immense analysis of bones, in offline classes they would often analyze these in real time and professors teaching these courses would have difficulty integrating this to the online environment. Augmented reality has become more affordable in recent years after the 1980s once the general public was exposed more to augmented reality  this became a possibility (Elmqaddem, 2019, 236).  Software like ARVRinEDU, offer these effects from tablet devices, offering the opportunity to the public and in the classroom environment for augmented reality (Torchia, 2021). Software like these give opportunities to students for more hands-on learning as they would in a typical offline environment. 

While AR software has benefits for the online learning environment and in addition to the classroom environment offers additional support to the learning experience, they often require some degree of support in the classroom and should not replace in-person classrooms overall. Many students face barriers such as digital immigrant parents who are unable to provide technical support with the augmented reality experience. It is integral that with the implementation of augmented reality into classrooms we take into account educating digital immigrants with this experience. 

References

Elmqaddem, N. (2019). Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Education. Myth or Reality?. International Journal Of Emerging Technologies In Learning (Ijet), 14(03), 234. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v14i03.9289

Torchia, R. (2021). Q&A: Virtual Reality Considerations in the Post-Pandemic World. Technology Solutions That Drive Education. Retrieved 30 May 2021, from https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2021/05/qa-virtual-reality-considerations-post-pandemic-world.

Growing up in a household consumed by pragmatic, logical thinkers, I was an anomaly, an “odd man out” for my love of theatre, writing, and all things arts. My evitable decision to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree was justified by my family as being a “right brain thinker”. This was a fate I was always destined to approach because of my high achieving grades in English and Social Sciences in comparison to the Sciences and Maths like the rest of my family.

In classroom environments, we can recall the notorious designation of being a “gifted” child, a “left brained” thinker that other children admired awed at. I was always in rival and encouraged to aspire to be “gifted” but this was unattainable as a “right brain” persona.

These notions that daunted by childhood are grounded in the work of psychologists like Robert Ornstein who hypothesized claims that Western cultures were dominated by left hemisphere individuals while Eastern cultures were right, a concept that in itself is underlying in a colonial fashion (OCED, 2021, para. 6). This would lead to the popular neuro-myth that left brained individuals have cognitive styles and personality types that are more analytical and logical while right brained creative and emotional (Center for Educational Neuroscience 2021, para 1). Later studies would show that hemisphere is does not excludeone side. While this neuromyth has major drawbacks and miscalculations, it created the fundamentals for holistic teaching we have today that has allowed for me to thrive, regardless of any neuromyth.

In the classroom environment by integrating more creative learning strategies that take a more holistic approach, Principles of Multimedia Learning highlights the impact of cognitive theory of multimedia learning that effective help effectively translate information to all students, either left-brained nor right-brained.

References

Left brain versus right brain thinkers. Centre for Educational Neuroscience. (2021). Retrieved 23 May 2021, from http://www.educationalneuroscience.org.uk/resources/neuromyth-or-neurofact/left-brain-versus-right-brain-thinkers/.

Neuromyth 6 – OECD. Oecd.org. (2021). Retrieved 23 May 2021, from https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/neuromyth6.htm.

Principles of Multimedia Learning – Center for Teaching and Learning | Wiley Education Services. Center for Teaching and Learning | Wiley Education Services. (2021). Retrieved 24 May 2021, from https://ctl.wiley.com/principles-of-multimedia-learning/.

Very Well Mind. (2017). Left Brain vs. Right Brain Dominance Is the analytical-creative separation true or false? [Image]. Retrieved 24 May 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/left-brain-vs-right-brain-2795005.