Author: morganmcdonald Page 1 of 2

Hello POD 4 ( Ben. S, Nataly.R, Eemaan.H, Jingzhe.C, Rohan.T, Adam.L)

When first opening this resource I liked the overall presentation, the bright images are engaging and the variety of drop-down menus create a clear and usable resource. I found the overview of resources extremely beneficial, as a user it provided a clear summary of the intended learning benefits. After exploring this resource fully I am still slightly confused about the intended audience of this resource. Initially, this resource seems to focus on the education of teachers so they can educate their students, and then at points, it seems to switch and focus on learners being the educator for themselves. I think you could develop this resource with both audiences in mind, however; if you were to implement this the information and writing would need to be altered in multiple areas of your resource. Your group would need to guide teachers on how to introduce the different learning techniques in the classroom and then provide some examples of how to practice them for students (the activities/modules could be differentiated based on the specific audience and that activity’s learning goals). I think altering your intended audience will make these resources fit into the class, it will specify it and help guide everyone to better learning strategies. One thing I was told and I think would help your group to improve your resource is to consider the person who is using your resource to have no prior knowledge on the topic or material. Meaning the audience/learner/user should be able to take what you give them and run with it on their meaning it should have all the necessary information and be extremely clear. Another idea I had is adding an about the author section. In this section, you could add what you did in developing this resource to demonstrate your overall participation, but you could also share which learning method you most prefer. Sharing a personal connection with users may help them find a learning strategy that best suits their needs (they may require similar things to you). 

Also as my group has just had a meeting with our prof I thought I would share some of her feedback she gave us as I think it is beneficial to all. She clarified that your resources need to match the number of people in your group as much as possible, which means making sure things like the number of learning outcomes match the number of group members and so on. Other than that I thought you all did a great job, and I enjoyed learning from you all and your resources. I think your final product will be fantastic and very beneficial in supporting learners development of new and improved ways to comprehend what they are being taught. Best of luck with your adaptions and I look forward to the result. If you have any questions about my feedback please comment or respond I would be happy to clarify. 

All the best,
Morgan

Hi Kathryn, thanks for the great response! I choose a different video, but I had already seen the one you choose in the past and liked it so I was excited to see your thoughts and ideas on it. I love your ideas to use this video to introduce and branch into a bunch of science experiences. While teaching in my past practicum I got to run a science unit and the days where experiments or hands-on activities were the focus were always the best days. Kids love experiences, especially at this young age, it is such a great way for them to contextualize their learning in a way they understand, and help them see it in a context that fits into their world. I hadn’t really considered the possibility of experiments to explain the water cycle, but I love it and when I am teaching about the water cycle again I will surely be using your ideas. Thanks so much for sharing Kathryn!

All the best,

Morgan

Check out Kathryn’s post here!

Blog Post #4

EDCI 335

My group’s interactive learning design subject is The Water Cycle, and we have chosen to specify the resources to fit the BC grade 2 science curriculum. I decided to use the following video for this post: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD3XSIE4ymo.

This video is about a 7-minute video, before any pausing. This video encourages a fair amount of interaction, it is not only developed with great kid-friendly graphics and the voice-over effect is excellent and very engaging. This video encourages a lot of interaction for the viewers, it instructs the learners to brainstorm and self-reflect on ways they can better support the water cycle in their own lives, homes and communities. It also prompts recall questions which are great as they help encourage review, engagement and check to understand. However; there are no required activities or questions that have to be answered for the video to proceed so the level of engagement with this video can be very learner/viewer directed.

I think the video is excellent, but I think adding some required interactive discussion questions, or activities to complete would help improve this video, by ensuring learner engagement and understanding of videos’ the material. A great way to do this could be to use EDpuzzel, a tool we are using to develop our interactive resources. Edpuzzle is an online video editing program that allows you to take already finished videos and edit them to add elements of engagement for the watcher/learner. 

Learner-generated responses to this video would be peer discussions, and students taking action. This video encourages making environmentally sound changes in our lives to support the water cycle, students will take the ideas from the video home educate their families and follow the video suggestions. 

Since this video covers the water cycle in depth, I think it could be used in two ways: to introduce the topic at the start of the unit or to recap and recall the subject. What I would have students do after this video is created their own model of the water cycle. This could be done through drawing on paper or even virtually. I would recommend using CANVA for students to create a virtual water cycle model, as this program has pre-made icons and the ability to create virtual designs and add text. What I like about the virtual models is that they could be used to make videos and be further developed throughout the unit.

A great way to get feedback from their models is by having students share their work with peers and see if they are able to understand and follow the model they created. And an educator could view the models draw or virtual and ensure the information is clear follows the correct patter of the water cycle and has all the key stages included (students could ensure they have the info correct by following the video as they work on the assignment). This activity can be completely supported by the information in the video so students should be able to complete this activity with little prior knowledge on the topic otherwise. This activity would be very student guided so it would require support from the teacher (being there to answer possible questions), but students would have the freedom for what they want their water cycle to look like and how they would want to develop this so it would be very manageable for both students and teachers. This activity could be done in groups or individual so it would fit for a bunch of situations.

Cheers!

Morgan

Response to Alecia’s Post #3

Hi Alecia!
Great response to prompt 3, I enjoyed hearing your takes on how we could make our resources more inclusive. A point I made in the post was how considering all of our different needs as the 5 creators could be beneficial as we may all need similar or different things while learning and by considering multiple perspectives the more inclusive we are most likely to be. I love your ideas of using subtitles and audio/read-aloud features. These will not only reduce barriers for students with audio or visual challenges but others as well, sometimes reading something and then having another voice read it to you can add a level of comprehension that is otherwise missed. So great ideas I think as a group we will be able to target these tools in our resources and maybe even find some more tools to support the audio and visual adaptions for our resource. The best part of these adaptions is that they are just some simple settings, the press of a button often, so no extra teacher work is required woohoo. Thanks for sharing Alecia.

All the best,
Morgan

Check out Alecia’s post here!

Post #3

EDCI 335 : Inclusive Learning Design & Universal Design for Learning
Inclusivity is essential to learning, it ensures that all learner’s needs are supported and that adaptions are provided so that everyone can have the tools to succeed. Everyone is different, so why should everyone be expected to learn the same way, point blank they shouldn’t. As an educator myself, I believe that we need to continue striving for inclusivity in all learning contexts.

My group and I have been working on an interactive learning resource to help grade 2 students learn the water cycle, which is part of the BC science curriculum.
For this post I will consider my group’s ressource and the following prompts:
How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met?
Consider the learning environment for your current design. What potential barriers can be reduced or eliminated to provide more pathways for learner success?

To ensure inclusion and meet the needs of learners, our group has discussed the need for clarity in our explanations as well as for allowing for different outcomes and results when it comes to our ressources learning goals. As a group we decided that as long as the learning occurs it is okay if learners take different ways to get there. I appreciate that our learning design allows for this flexibility and the variety of different learning activities that are provided in our resources.

Additionally, while developing our resource, we focused on creating adaptions to support and include leaners who have hard or hearing and those who are colour blind.
Adpations we have already disscused and plan to implment include: the speaker using microphone, students-controlled volume, visual aids, subtilties, different options coloured or black and white, and the use of lables.

Considering how we can further improve the incusivity of our ressources I want to focus on this quote from the readings, “take a moment to think of the various supports you may need to progress through your day” (EdTech Admin, Inclusive learning design, April 5th, 2022). This quote reminded me of my needs as a learner, which are often clear and detailed instructions or reassurance, and brain breaks. Therefore I think that adding a step-by-step checklist for the learning goals of the ressources could be an additional tool as well as adding in some time for brain breaks or short acitivies to help break the work time into mangagebel chunks.
Another couple barriers I have considered regaridng our interaticie ressource are the reading and writing level of grade 2 students. Since our ressources and lessons will all be virtual we are able to target many of these possible barriers by allowing settings and provideing insctions of how to use the technology to support the learners, such as changing the video speed, brightness, having the text be read aloud to them, using google docs talk to text feature and so on. speed control, brightness, audio/readaloud abilities.

I think this quote perfectly summarizes the focus of teaching and learning as a whole, and this is a great reminder of how all learning resources should be developed in mind “an inclusive design begins with the understanding that every person is a learner, and every learner has the right to pursue excellence and achievement. The learning designer must ensure that the environment, materials, tasks, and assessments are well matched to the learners who will be using them” (EdTech Admin, Inclusive learning design, April 5th, 2022).

I’ll end my post with this one argument I will always have as a teacher fairness is not making sure everyone has the same starting point, but that everyone has the right setup to ensure they are starting on an equal footing.
This is just a picture that helps iterate this point of mine:

I am so thankful this is the direction that learning and education are focusing on and further moving towards.

Cheers!

Morgan

References

EdTech Admin. (n.d.). Inclusive Learning Design. EDCI 335 learning design for technology-mediated environments. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/inclusive-learning-design/

EdTech Admin. (n.d.). Universal design. EDCI 335: Learning design for technology-mediated environments. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/universal-design/

Cornell University. (2022). Equity. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/post/equity

Hi Hanna!

First off I would just like to say your blog is set up very beautifully I love what you did to it. I could relate to your post because I had a similar experience, I never knew the topic of inquiry in my own primary learning experiences and when I was introduced to it, it was through a teacher/investor lens. I found it confusing at first, but I have grown to like it. However, one thing I have found is that in my experience it needs a bit of scaffolding, I know personally, it would not have worked well to jump off the deep end of inquiry when I was in elementary school. That’s why I liked this mention of play-based inquiry because I think it is a great way to introduce the topic and it will allow students to get comfortable with it and grow towards inquiry-based learning in many contexts. I also have a friend who has been doing play-based inquiry for therapy and it has been going amazing, so I think this is such a great idea to highlight thanks for helping me learn much more about the topic from your post.

Thanks, Hanna!

Morgan

Check out Hanna’s Post https://hannahrochford.opened.ca/2022/10/03/post-2-inquiry/

As a group, we have been working on developing a learning design activity that connects to the BC science curriculum, specifically the grade 2 science and the water cycle. In our group, we each decided to focus on a different topic for our blog post and I decided to dive into the topic of design thinking.

Design Instruction was the topic out of all the options, that I had minimal knowledge on. I wanted to challenge myself and explore something new. So what is design instruction? I found many sources and definitions to define this topic, but the one that clarified it best for me was the following: “Design Thinking is a mindset and approach to learning, collaboration, and problem-solving. In practice, the design process is a structured framework for identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential solutions, refining ideas, and testing solutions. Design Thinking can be flexibly implemented; serving equally well as a framework for a course design or a roadmap for an activity or group project.” (Havard University, Design thinking in Education 2022). My conclusion is that design thinking is a learning approach where one uses their situation and previous knowledge to help them craft solutions to a proposed challenge. What I enjoy about this learning process and approach is that it encourages more creative and critical thinking, to follow their curiosity. It is a style of incorporating inquiry-style learning and discovery into more learning situations making their learning more learner-directed. It is both an approach and a process (Havard, HGSE Infographic, 2022). When engaging in design learning, learners are to identify the challenge they are faced with, gather information, consider multiple solutions, and test and refine their ideas to find the best possible solutions to their challenge/problem.

The great thing about design thinking is that it can be incorporated into all different learning situations. It does require some freedom, and encouragement from teachers for it to work and be established effectively in a classroom, which is something we have the capacity for in our For our learning Design project on the water cycle. In regards to our proposed final assessment activity where students take on the role of a raindrop in the water cycle, they are simply given a small starting t, they are then allowed to use their design thinking to find how they want their final assignment to turn out as. They have to discover what they want to do, form ideas to do so and create a draft before creating their final product. Adapting this learning style would be a phenomenal way to encourage critical thinking and the development of their project so I am sure thinking design thinking should be used through this learning resource. I also think that design thinking could be a great way to introduce the topic of the water cycle. Students could be asked to brainstorm how they assume the water cycle might work and to develop a prototype or reasoning for how they think it functions and how it works. I think this would engage kids in the topic and since they would have minimal to no knowledge of the topic at this point it could help create a great class dissection on the water cycle and how it got to this point.

Any chance to learn or engage critically and problem-solve is fantastic. One thing I think I found interesting while researching my blog post was how it is a common practice I have used in my life without even directly trying to which I like. It is not something that has to be formally explained for it to be effective. To ensure all the steps are met sure explanations will help, but it is a great way to naturally approach challenges throughout life and see that you can try multiple solutions before finding the best one. I think it is a great way to learn and I will implement this directly into many of my future lessons.

Cheers!

Morgan

EDCI335

Hi Lotus Sol!

First off I love the colourfulness and playfulness of your blog it is set up in such an engaging way, that it inspires me to be more creative with my blog. For the first prompt, you answered I loved all you had to share. In my program, we really focus on learning about mindfulness and how to implement it in the class, because it is so important, as clearly demonstrated in your post. I am so happy that you were able to support your mental health with this new meditation you learned. I liked that you mentioned how it was a bit awkward at first because I think this is something so important to mention. The topic of mindfulness, meditation and mental health can be hard because it is awkward and some stigma still exists surrounding these topics, but it is necessary to talk about it even when it is awkward. I also appreciated how you mentioned how the actual practice of meditation can be awkward initially, but it can truly be amazing once you settle into it or find a mindful activity that fits your life and you personally. Your post did a great job at conveying why the topic of mindfulness, meditation and mental health needs to be introduced to people when they are younger as this can help reduce some of this awkwardness before it becomes too much and it deters people. I love how you were able to convey all of these points in your response and I am so glad you stuck with it, it truly shows your determination! I connected with this first response, which leads me to your next paragraph and strengthing learning through connection.
Connection is such an important part of learning. Something that was emphasized throughout my teaching education was how creating a personal connection to what one was learning in the classroom, will help the learner understand and remember the topic at a better level. I always aim to implement times for this in my lesson, as I believe it fully heartedly, but it was not something I remember doing often in the classroom, but rather something I did more by accident and on my own. I found it refreshing to learn about your experience and see how this learning style is effective for another person rather than just myself as it further encourages me to find new ways to implement the opportunity for connectivity in my lessons. Lastly, I want to mention how I loved your mention of implementing cognitivist learning designs to support inclusivity as that is something so important and needs to be more consistent in learning settings around the world. Great blog post and response!

Thanks so much for sharing your responses to this week’s prompts I am so happy I read your post and got to learn from you.
All the best,
Morgan

Check out Lotus Sol’s Post here 

Learning, Theory, and Motivation (#1)

Hi Zoe!

Great post I could relate to a lot of what you said. I did the Bed program, so I can understand your take on the constant reflection that occurs on practicum and teaching days and wishing days went better, and that you tried some things differently. This can be challenging and growing up in an education system that was much different than how we are now being taught to teach and instruct is an added level of difficulty. It is so hard to navigate and decipher how to do things best as a teacher; however, one thing I feel like I have learned about teaching and that you have demonstrated in your post is that every day is a new opportunity to learn and grow as a teacher and to improve for your students. I love this part of the job, as teachers, we are never done learning and the way you have looked at your practicum as a learning experience to build off of is fantastic I hope I can be just as positive when I have those challenging days. Great post Zoe! I wish you the best of luck in your upcoming practicum!

All the best,

Morgan

Check out Zoe’s post

https://happyandhealthyteachers.opened.ca/blog-post-1/