Month: July 2022

1. During the course, I did……

• For topic 1 https://v3390200952570.opened.ca/totic-1-discussion/, I read two articles and quoted them:

Morris, S. M., & Stommel, J. (2018). An urgency of teachers: The work of critical digital pedagogy. Hybrid Pedagogy. (Chapter 1: Praxis)

Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press. (Chapter 1: Conceptual Framework)

• For topic 2 https://v3390200952570.opened.ca/topic-2-discussion/, I read an article and made an in-depth discussion of it:

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)

• For topic 3 https://v3390200952570.opened.ca/topic-3-discussion/, I read an article and quoted it:

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community. (Chapter 1: Open Pedagogy)

• For topic 4 https://v3390200952570.opened.ca/topic-4-discussion/, I read an article and quoted it:

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

• Members’ comments on my posts:

• My comments on the members’ posts

2. By reading and quoting the resources in detail, I learned to dissect the context of the text instead of just taking the content at face value. When I quoted to my own article, I understood more about the author’s intentions. As I made vivid descriptions, it was showing that I already understood the point very well. At the same time it was also the course that made me know I was better at studying investigative cases.
3. By commenting on members’ posts and reading the comments given by members, I felt it was a good way to exchange ideas with each other, and I would like to suggest this approach to future studies if I have the ability to do so. Although I didn’t comment on valuable questions in this course as Ryan did, I expect I will be able to do so in future courses. I’ve been concerned about Ryan’s comments to the whole class and I’ve learned a lot from the experiences you’ve shared combining knowledge from outside and inside the course. And I think they are all interesting knowledge.

 

1. Link to the original version of the post: https://v3390200952570.opened.ca/topic-3-discussion/
2. Link to updated version of the post: There is no updated version of this post, but when I finished my studies on Topic 4, I also had new ideas about Topic 3. See below for more details on why.
3. Description of the changes made along with reasons why the changes were made:

• In topic 4, I mentioned talent cultivation, and combined with examples of open education practice, I think it is necessary to discuss the relationship between talent cultivation and open education & economic and social development. (The next two paragraphs are what I want to add.)

 

In essence, it is the relationship that education development and economic construction are interdependent and complementary. On the one hand, the development of education must be based on the economic condition, which restricts the human, material and financial resources of education, and the level of economic development also affects people’s concept of education and the degree of openness, which in turn affects educational decisions; at the same time, economic development also forms quantitative and qualitative constraints on open education. On the other hand, open education has the function of promoting economic growth because it is a medium means to improve productivity factors, an important way to reproduce labor force, and a bridge to reproduce scientific knowledge and transform science and technology into real productivity.

In summary, without education, economic and social development is like crops without fertilizer, it is difficult to grow; and without the economy, the development of education will also lose the bad soil. Therefore, education and economy must be developed in a coordinated way, and the relationship between the theme of talent training and open education & economic and social development is no exception.

 

•  Comments from pod members:

• I would like to respond to Ryan’s comment here:
  I didn’t work on the art course in the end, not because of the teacher, the reason is because my major is not art, it’s economics. So I just thought about it silently in my mind and didn’t make any noise. But through these four topics, I became more sure that I wanted to provide my opinion, because different learning modes can lead to different learning outcomes, which is a theme that this course always talks about.

 

• Wanted to clarify the argument:
  My definition of open learning is constantly being updated through discussion of the four topics and study of the resources. So I got a clearer answer to the definition in Discussion three: the essence of open learning is the right to lifelong education for all. It is a kind of education that emphasizes the openness of educational philosophy, educational objects, educational resources, and educational processes, and emphasizes student- and learning-centered education.

 

When I saw the title of the resource, I was reminded that on the first day of class the professor asked us to talk about our views on open learning and distributed learning. The title again reminded me of the question that was on my mind at the time: How can I define open learning?

As Elliot (1973) describes a tension between “closed” and “open” pedagogies with the former tending to be more focused on didactic discussion and the latter being connected with leading less formal discussions and students co- creating the context of the class. Through discussion of the four topics and study of the resources, my definition of open learning is constantly being updated.

The essence of open learning is that everyone enjoys the right to lifelong education. It is an education that emphasizes the openness of educational concepts, educational objects, educational resources, and educational processes, and emphasizes student- and learning-centered education. Talent development focuses on theoretical research, while open education focuses on practical exploration. In terms of the relationship between the two, the former is the end and the latter is the means. The basic motivation is to use the theory of talent cultivation to guide the practice of open education. In turn, the practice of open education is also used to improve the theory of talent cultivation.

The process of talent cultivation in open education needs to be explored through the practice of open education. From this perspective, the relationship between talent cultivation and open education is the relationship of guiding and being guided, and the relationship of serving and being served.

 

Wiley, D. & Hilton, J. (2018). Defining OER-enabled Pedagogy.

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19(4).

Open Educational Resources (OERs) was a new term that I had never touched before. I think it is fresh and I really want to figure out how it is open? Who is it available to? Is it free? Is it legal?

After reading the articles on topics 2 and 3, I clearly resolved the question I had on the first day of class: “open” is not the same as “free”. All OERs are free, but not all free content is OER. For example, many “large open online courses” (such as MOOCs) are free, but not open. MOOC content may be available for free, but it is only OER if its content is allowed to be open or in the public space. This perception is extremely important to me.

As I learned that OER can be freely saved, reused, modified, remixed, and redistributed (shared with third parties) without violating copyright laws (Jhangiani. R & DeRosa. R, 2017). I realized that openness and communication are the most important essential features of OER, providing great convenience for teachers and learners. And I think it will be of great help in my study and future work.

Following the OER is the OEP, which means Open Educational Practices. Of all the examples, the point of “Facilitate student-created and student-controlled learning environments” was particularly attractive to me. As the article states: Learning management systems (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, etc.) assume that all student assignments are disposable, as all assignments will be deleted when a new course shell is imported the next semester (Jhangiani. R & DeRosa. R, 2017). As a UVIC student, we use Brightspace, where we can communicate with each other on the “Discussion” page, but only until the end of the course, and then there are no records to be found. Last semester I took an art class and I felt it was essential for students to be able to operate their own pages and manage access to their work. Great work could be set to “public” for the whole class or even the whole school to view, thus leading to discussions about the work, the course, and even the major. While we can collect the professor’s notes before the end of the course, it would be nice if our study system could collect the notes we want directly, so that we can access them from anywhere, using any electronic device.

 

Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.

–   Read Chapter 1: Open Pedagogy

I noticed a lot of new terms in the material, and I was most impressed by the MOOC, which came about because only a small percentage of kids really had access to good courses at prestigious schools due to space limitations. So some educators proposed to spread the word through the power of the Internet: to put these courses online.

I’ll try to make an interesting classification below. If we compare knowledge to meat (nutritious and good for people), online education is insect meat (more nutritious, but less accepted); offline education is poultry meat (nutritious and accepted, but bad for people if they eat too much).

In my opinion, the goal of MOOC is to enable those who cannot eat poultry meat to eat insect meat and ensure their health. The difficulties faced by the hope of ensuring the quality of the meat through various improvements to the MOOC (assessment, certification, etc.) are that there are too many places without internet and equipment, requiring a lot of human and material resources, and little possibility of profit.

And the purpose of online education is to hope that people who can eat poultry meat can also eat insect meat. The difficulty is that the acceptance is so low that a small percentage of people can be attracted to try it, but most people can’t eat it. But at one point I heard the phrase: The hope for meat is in insects. (Less consumption, high nutrition).

Finally, I have a very concerned question: Is there any other value of the MOOC certificate besides the commemorative value? For example, can it be used to apply to universities? When I browsed the webpage, Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions noted that the act of taking a MOOC course is “something very interesting that we want to know about you.”

Although this comment from Harvard could be interpreted differently, the tone at least sounds like taking a MOOC doesn’t help the application as well, and can’t be compared to an applicant’s official degree or transcripts. So I consider the MOOC to be more of an extra-curricular activity.

 

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)

The sudden epidemic triggered an unprecedented mass online teaching practice. Education seems to have more possibilities to integrate online and offline, blurring the boundaries of school, home and society, meaning that education can be wherever the students are. I strongly agree with this point in the reading: The strength of integrating face-to-face synchronous communication and text-based online asynchronous communication is powerfully complementary for higher educational purposes (Vaughan et al., 2013). The blended learning as I understand it is to combine the advantages of traditional learning methods with the advantages of networked learning, meaning that the leading role of teachers in guiding, inspiring and monitoring the teaching process should be exercised, meanwhile, the initiative, enthusiasm and creativity of students as the main part of the learning process should be fully reflected.

After these years of experience, many students should no longer be unfamiliar with the term “blended learning”. It is not a new word, but a way of learning derived from the integration of digital into the real world. I think blended learning is a system upgrade compared to face-to-face learning. But training managers can’t design a good training program or course if they don’t know how to operate blended learning. For example, in the early days of the epidemic, teachers and students worked together to learn how to operate online. While I know this example was forced, it really didn’t give the students a good learning effect.

In the article written by Morris and Stommel (2018): There are many who look at the Internet as the downfall of modern education. They decry online learning as necessarily sub-par, stating that the digital can never replace the face-to-face. Obviously, I don’t agree with this view. If Internet learning is the downfall, then what am I doing now? Why are so many people doing the same thing as me? The news says every year that technology is advancing, and isn’t Internet learning advancing? Internet learning is no substitute for face-to-face learning, just as online payments are no substitute for cash payments. No one can stop students who have a need for face-to-face learning, and certainly, Internet education did not emerge to replace face-to-face learning.