Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

Have you used a tool like Khan Academy that creates a learning path for you? Did you find it to be useful or a hindrance to your learning? Or both?

Yes, I have used Khan Academy before. I have never been that confident in my mathematic abilities, and I found it helpful to have a free resource available that could offer a different perspective on the topics I was struggling with. To this day in my math-based classes, I do tend to see if there is a video on Khan Academy that can help me to supplement my learning.

Unfortunately, I have struggled with Khan Academy in the past as well. I found that there were some topics or examples that did not align with the issue I was having. Despite all the time I spent trying to find the information I needed, I would feel more and more frustrated when I was unsuccessful. I think that Khan Academy and other AI/online learning platforms are very useful when used as the primary educational resource, however, it can be difficult to use them as secondary resources. In some cases, my teacher would give an example on the board, but the teacher on Khan Academy would use a different example, therefore I wouldn’t get the information I was looking for and would feel more defeated.

Overall, I think there are both pros and cons to the use of AI platforms. If you want to learn a new language for a trip and you download Duolingo, that is a great opportunity to engage with a personalized learning plan. On the other hand, if you want to learn how to do a very specific math problem, it’s probably better to skip Khan Academy and go visit your teacher.

*EDIT*

After doing some more research and getting some help from the professor, I managed to get my twine story into my GitHub page. Play it here!

How was your experience with Twine? Would you use it again? In what type of learning do you think Twine would be particularly effective?

I created a Twine story and I am very proud of it – I decided to apply the dilemmas I am going through in my life to this gamified storyline. I have explored two opposite answers and storylines in each of the two attached videos. I had a lot of fun using Twine for this project.

I appreciate that the introduction of twine helped us to personalize our learning. having an interactive story creates a “self-directed” element, where you can go at your own pace and experience your choices individually. I have always loved the storybook games where you make the choices and see how the storyline changes. I think that this platform is great in an educational sense because it takes a lot of pressure off of learning. It could help the student feel more in control of their abilities, and teach them to be confident in their decisions. I think using twine stories would be useful in any school subject, but I think it would be particularly useful in lifestyle courses such as career planning or lesson about time management or money management. It could help shed some light on how their life might change in the long run based on short-run decisions.

My storyline is relatively basic; I am not very confident in my coding abilities, so I did as much as I felt was needed without stretching myself too far. The most options I had at one time was three, and the most responses I needed to create at one time was four. The most fun part about this plot line was it gave me a lot of perspective into what my options are/decisions could be, and it made me feel so much better, knowing that there are always opportunities to change things. I would absolutely use this application again, I just didn’t love the fact that I needed to create yet another account on yet another platform to share it. I think that Twine would be very effective for an author who is brainstorming potential plotlines for a book. It would be useful to understand how far a particular storyline could go. Using Twine as a roadmap would be great because you can weigh a certain plotline against another and choose how the ending could be from each decision.

Reflection Question: What storytelling techniques have you used instinctively and which ones require more work for you? Which techniques will you focus on moving forward?

When it comes to personal storytelling, I’d say my strengths lie with creating suspense in the plot, and telling the stories chronologically. I find that I get very immersed in storytelling, I think it is a great way to portray personal experience, feelings, and decisions – and this creates an opportunity for new levels of connection. When catching up with friends or peers, I find it very easy to tell things in chronological order because everyone experiences time in the same way and it is difficult to lose track of. Additionally, it is a great way to provide context. On the other hand, I often feel like I am too detailed when it comes to storytelling because I find that I take way too long to get my point across, or to get to the pivotal moment of the story. I care a lot about creating the setting for the story and I think I tend to get too carried away with the background information. I suppose this can be both a strength and a weakness because while I care about how the people understand the situation, maybe I mention a lot of redundant things in the process. In the future, I think I should also try telling the key learning at the beginning and working backwards to create a different form of context.

Storyboard Exercise

The Storyboard project was challenging for me. I wasn’t sure if I was on the right track, and I struggled to find a fitting topic. I am looking forward to your feedback, reader! In the end, I chose to write my story about a girl named Jane learning to use her camera beyond the “auto” shooting mode. Using a waterfall as a subject made sense to me because it is moving, and moving objects can create great effects in pictures when captured in different ways. Enjoy!

Reflection Question: Where do you see constructive alignment and backward design used in this course or another course you are taking/have taken? Is there anywhere where it seems to be missing?

The biggest element of backward design I have seen in this class, and some others, is the use of Learning Objectives or Key Outcomes. Though many students do not prioritize reviewing these objectives before an assessment, they truly do pave the way forward through the chapter and especially for test preparation. Learning Objectives are a key element in lessons or chapters because they outline the things that the student needs to understand – and this is useful because it allows for appropriate compartmentalization. The student can focus on the key points at hand, and they can block out any other noise or non-applicable information. It is also safe to say that most of the questions on a proper exam or test will be based on these Learning Objectives.

I have encountered some classes/professors that do not set the Learning Objectives for the chapter or topic before diving into the content, but even worse, I have definitely seen some professors wait to build their exams until the last possible second. Recently I had one exam that had a very low average. The professor blamed this issue on covid, but I would argue it was because the professor did not adjust the test for the group of students that took the test, and expected all students to be on the same level of understanding as previous groups of students were in previous years.

For my peers – here is a video I have found that helps with creating effective Learning Objectives in the education space:

Lastly, here is my lesson plan for a Supply and Demand lecture in a beginner’s economic theory course. This template is a great way to make sure everything relevant is covered in the lesson.

Reflection Question: Which design principles did you use to create your infographic in Canva? Which elements of a ‘good infographic’ were you able to incorporate? What other principles did you consider?

This week, I made my infographic on the topic of studying for exams. I did this for a couple of reasons. Firstly; I made this infographic because it is midterms season and it is perfectly normal to feel behind and unprepared when the first midterm hits – it always happens sooner than everyone thinks. Secondly, I made this infographic on this topic because I feel like it took me a long time to figure out how I study best and although every student learns and studies differently, this can be another option for anyone still finding their footing on how to study best. I have the mentality of “if it works for me, it probably works for someone else too”.

I found that it was most important to limit the number of words included in my infographic. As mentioned in the resources about good and bad PowerPoints, too many words on the screen can cause a lot of busyness and can negatively impact learning. By sticking with the most important points within each section and attributing the right icons, I figured that prioritizing a simple design would be the most effective. I also prioritized the use of negative space in my infographic. It is important to leave room for the information itself to take centre stage – because that is evidently what the reader grabs an infographic for!

Reflection Question: What did you notice about your learning when you listened to the Soundcloud by Howat? How was it different from reading an article?

Listening to the Soundcloud episode felt unproductive for me. I have learned that I am a visual learner, and not having a visual cue to follow was difficult for me to stay focused. I listen to podcasts often, but I usually listen while I am doing something else such as walking, as this helps my brain compartmentalize better. In this scenario, I wanted to take notes on the information provided in the episode, but I really struggled to do so because of the way the information was presented. I found it hard to keep up with what the speaker was saying. Additionally, the episode covered a lot of content that we have already discussed in the course, so in that sense, I felt that there was an element of redundancy in the learning.

Sketchnoting

I created my sketch note on the main steps of service that a server follows in the restaurant industry. As I have just started a new serving job that has high expectations, I have had to create a “checklist” scenario in my head so that I remember how and when to interact with the guests at my tables. Additionally, habits and mannerisms are key when serving guests in a sophisticated setting, so the blue tabs indicate what I need to remember in each step (whether it is something I need to do or some way I need to behave). If there are any other servers in the class, they will understand how many more steps there are in between these ones, but these cover the main checkpoints.

Reflection Question: Of all the principles of Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning we looked at this week, which seem intuitive to you?

This week’s content covered 4 principles: the Redundancy Principle, the Coherence Principle, the Signalling Principle, and the Contiguity Principle. While all of these principles seemed understandable and self-explanatory in their own way, I felt that the first two principles, Redundancy and Coherence Principles, seemed the most intuitive.

The Redundancy Principle is designed to help an educator understand that reading text, seeing graphics, and hearing narration can be detrimental to information retention. I find this to be true because it is quite difficult to focus on doing multiple things at once, particularly if they involve using multiple senses.

The Coherence Principle is designed to help an educator understand that unrelated information should be excluded in order to avoid overwhelming the learner’s brain. By keeping everything in a presentation on-topic and in context, information retention will improve greatly.

While I was learning about these principles, I found that they collectively had a theme of “eliminating unnecessary information in order to focus on presenting key information”. This point stood out to me because I find it can be so easy to get lost in creating elaborate presentations, which results in the audience spending the entire time wondering what to focus on instead of listening to the presenter. I’ll keep these principles in mind when I make my next presentation!

I have decided to take this course because I wanted to learn more about the faculty. Being an Economics Major, my studies have been focused on learning new material, instead of learning how to learn new material. The advice I give to anyone starting university is always “use first year to learn how to study;” the reason behind that is that I never really did that myself. I realize I have almost finished my entire degree, but don’t worry reader, I definitely did figure out how to study. The year of online learning during COVID helped me and my educational experience immensely, and while it sucked not being able to go to campus and see friends and meet new people, it did wonders for my grades (in hindsight, it might have been a great idea to take this course during that year, but I guess we live and learn right?). So, at this point, I feel like I have learned enough about myself and my study habits that I have the capacity to learn a bit more about the range of platforms out there that I can use in post-grad studies or in my career. This is an excellent time for me to take this course because I am just on the verge of deciding what next steps to take in my life after graduation, and being more “technologically literate” is always a good thing in this day and age. I am looking forward to learning about some of the tools that are out there to help people learn, create, and collaborate better in an ever-changing world.