Author: jiaxinchen1 (Page 1 of 2)

Module 5 Learning Activity: Metaphorically Speaking

This learning activity attracts my interests a lot, because I have not noticed educational metaphors when I read any articles in the course for the first time. Meanwhile, it nicely aligned with one of my learning goals: to learn and understand how digital identity could affect students learning and social life. Overall, I think this learning activity helps me better understand the digital pedagegy.

The metaphor I chose is from the article “Open education: Walking a critical path”, which is the concept of “visitor” and “resident” for online learning. I selected this metaphor because it has significant meaning in open digital pedagogy, and people need to know which identity they want to show when they are using any social media and online learning platforms. In terms of the word “visitor”, literally, it means a person who shortly spend time in a place; the word “resident” means a person who live in a place for a long time.

Being a visitor
Being a resident

However, these two words have a different meaning for online users. The metaphor here is that people who only use the internet to look up and view information without leaving any social trace are the visitors in the digital environment – for those people who build relationships and online communities through the internet, such as share thoughts and learn from each other, and leave their social traces and personal profile, they are the residents in the digital world.

In the digital environment

In this case, I think the metaphors of “visitor” and “resident” are very appropriate, because they are really vivid in explaining the deeper meaning of the two identities in the digital environment. Besides, these two identities are very crucial for us to adapt the digital education. Regarding to the privacy issue in online learning, everyone has a different comfort and sensitivity with our online profiles. For those people who want to keep their personal information private when browsing and looking up learning materials on the internet, they are able to be a digital visitor. Meanwhile, in terms of those people who want to share partial or all personal information, such as real name, hobbies, and personal and professional challenges to build same-interested relationships and live in the online community, they can decide to be a digital resident. Furthermore, digital identity allows people to selectively reveal their real information, in order to preserve our privacy. After I understand the deeper meaning of the metaphor, I decide to be a resident when I study online and display my partial private information in my profile.

Reference:

http://eprints.teachingandlearning.ie/4345/

https://sc.orsoon.com//search/%E5%B1%85%E6%B0%91.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=visitor+cartoon&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwi4o9z2x-L7AhWXwnMBHYJ9DZoQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=visitor+cartoon&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBggAEAUQHjIGCAAQBRAeMgYIABAFEB4yBggAEAUQHjIGCAAQCBAeOggIABCABBCxA1CXBlioI2CAKWgAcAB4AIAB3wGIAb0WkgEGMC4xNC4ymAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=Le-NY_jYOpeFz7sPgvu10Ak&bih=778&biw=1017#imgrc=NcQQgcY7mk54MM

https://www.google.com/search?q=digital+environment&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjlrL_pyOL7AhU6jNgFHc0oAfQQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=digital+environment&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgAEEM6BwgAELEDEENQAFjYEmDfE2gAcAB4AIABpAGIAaYNkgEEMC4xMZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=HvCNY-WlKLqY4t4PzdGEoA8&bih=778&biw=1017#imgrc=sR7dLUcMsNCa7M&imgdii=gTMMWZ936EH7XM

Module 4 Learning Activity: MOOCs

I have joined a MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) in Coursera, and I really like how it worked. I searched the keyword, music, as my topic, and there were many courses related to my preferences. Then, I chose a beginner level course, which called Fundamentals of Music Theory. The course was offered by the University of Edinburgh. I felt surprised that the course was totally free, and I was able to access all the course materials and lectures. There were six instructors in this course, and the instructor rating and the course rating were shown under the name of the course, which was really high. Meanwhile, six-week courses were available, and each week had different main concept related to music theories. There were approximate 12 hours to complete in the six weeks. Specifically, the lectures were all recorded, so it was a kind of individual learning. It was nice that I could study at my own pace, and I usually spent my leisure time to acquire the knowledge. In order to make sure whether or not I fully understand the lecture content, I was able to take the knowledge check each week; the quiz each week would show my grade, which also helped me to better absorb what I learned.

Moreover, compared to this learning experience to the traditional courses taking at school, it removes the barriers of time and distance. Since the courses in Coursera are mostly offered by universities and colleges, this kind of online learning increase the number of people who are able to take classes at the university level. In terms of the learning process, it is an individual and self-directed learning. There are rarely interactions between teachers and students, this MOOC would be considered an xMOOC(Extended Massive Open Online Course). Furthermore, based on my experiences, I would consider xMOOC to be “Open”, because there are abundant university- level OER(open educational resources) and learning quiz, and they are available to everyone who want to learn.

In terms of why I chose this learning activity, it allows me to know one more useful MOOC provider, which is really helpful for me to acquire more high-quality knowledge outside of school schedule. Another reason is that this activity aligned with one of my learning goals; the goal is to learn how digital identity could affect students learning, and how it could help my future study. In this case, since I logged in to the online learning platform, Coursera, in order to join in the courses, my digital identity is a resident. I am sure this digital identity in this platform would help me to search and learn what I wish to learn, and the courses are at university level, which is beneficial for me to learn more academic knowledge now and in the future. Overall, this xMOOC platform, Coursera, helps me a lot, and if I were to rate it, I would give it a nice score.

References:

http://eprints.teachingandlearning.ie/4345/

https://blog.extensionengine.com/xmooc-vs-cmooc

Module 2 Learning Activity: Mapping learning network

I chose this learning activity because it helps me to better comprehend what is a digital identity, and how it really affects and becomes a part of our life.

During the week, all of my classes were online courses, so I spent most of my time at home to have a digital learning as well as achieve my weekly tasks for each course. I often used Email, Slack, BrightSpace, and WeChat to join in class communities, and communicate with my professors, group members, classmates, and friends after the class. Zoom and BrightSpace allowed me to meet online with professors, class members, and group members; meanwhile, I acquired knowledge and studying resources from them. WordPress and Google Docs were the tools I utilized to share thoughts and do assignments(for both group work and personal work). Besides, I also chose to draw both in the park and at home; this helped me find more interesting and meaningful objects to draw so that I could better achieve my weekly drawings.

From my network map, most of my learnings are digital learnings, and most of my connections were from technologies, which surprised me a lot. Specifically, I perceived that when I adopted digital learning, my relationships with professors, friends, classmates, and group members were all two-way connections. We in time communicated with each other and gave instant responses and feedbacks. However, when I studied alone and did individual tasks, my relationship with my class communities was one-way connection. In addition, in terms of the relationships among classmates, it tended to be less connected for online drawing class, since those tasks were all individual tasks; whereas for the class EDCI337 and EDCI339, there were many group assignments, which leads the class members to be more connected. Overall, each class with different methods and different kinds of relationships could lead to a good outcome.

Here is my network map(screenshot and in PDF. format):

Module 3 Learning Activity: Privacy in Education

Digital learning has become a crucial part in the life of contemporary students, and it is vital for us to pay attention to privacy issues when we use digital identity for communicating and learning. From my personal perspective, students’ personal information, such as full names, home address, phone numbers, should not be leaked to other people, organizations, and companies. However, it is acceptable for institutions or instructors to use tools that may challenge students’ privacy only if there is a permission from the students.

In terms of the idea and policies of privacy in education, it is easy to look for relevant and uncovered information on the school website. What students need to do is to search some key words, such as students’ privacy. There are a variety of ways that helps students access and understand the areas of students’ privacy. Some pages and documents are instructing the idea of privacy from the perspective of teachers, others may from the students’ point of views. They are even showing the exact policies in details. Before I search them, I surely cared about my personal privacy, and I noticed some of the policies. For example, whether or not my email address, home address, and my photos are shown on class communities. It is nice that schools and professors respect our choices, so we are optional to reveal our information when there is a class meeting for learning.

Moreover, I learned that BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), as privacy legislation, really supports students to protect their personal privacies. According to FIPPA, since foreign governments may access to students’ personal information from some educational technologies, whether or not student information is accessed and stored on servers outside of Canada is inevitable for us to notice and know. That explains why our instructors always spend some time to detailedly discuss the class technologies in course syllabus and at the beginning of the first class. I was thinking that information about class technologies is not necessary for us to know before we study and start to use, which was completely wrong. Besides, I also discovered that students are able to decide which educational technologies they would use if they are aware of some privacy restrictions; meanwhile, professors always provide alternatives for students to choose and complete school tasks.

Furthermore, this learning about students’ digital privacy is meaningful for me, and it helps me to be closer to my learning goals. Specifically, it allows me to understand more about the field of digital identity and technology tools we use for studying as well as how they are playing a role in our life.

References:

https://www.uvic.ca/til/onlinelearning/home/privacyresources/index.php

https://www.uvic.ca/til/assets/docs/Student%20Privacy.pdf

https://www.uvic.ca/library/research-teaching/copyright/faculty/studentprivacy/index.php

https://www.uvic.ca/til/assets/docs/Top%20Educational%20Technology%20Tools%20for%20Learning.pdf

Module 1 Learning Activity: 25 Years of Ed Tech

According to Martin Weller’s “25 Years of Ed Tech”, he discusses the development of e-learning, and how this new mode of education gradually became acceptable and made an impact on people’s learning.

In fact, people were opposed to the the implication of e-learning for education area when it was first proposed in 1998. They over-romanticized the use of fact-to-face learning. They only wanted to pay for the face-to-face education, and they even rejected to hear and accept the new word, e-learning, which represented the exploration of digital education. At first, e-learning was defined as any use of electronic media for learning, and it gradually represented more about the online delivery.  Since e-learning had been broadly argued, the blended learning was come up. It allowed people to blend face-to-face learning with the online delivery, which made online delivery more feasible and created more opportunities for the online education. In other words, the blended learning laid the foundation for the acceptance and the success of first fully online undergraduate course in 1999, which ended the controversy of the e-learning. Besides, people perceived that the cost of the e-learning per student is relatively low in a long term, and the reuse of digital resources also economized many physical resources. 

In a nutshell, the development of e-learning positively affects people’s study, and the success of the e-learning sets the framework for the future educational mode, which means it has really a long term impact on online learning.

I chose this activity because I was really interested in the development of the digital education, and this area of knowledge perfectly aligned with my learning goals. Specifically, one of my learning goals is to understand how social media could affect people’s learning and social life. This activity helped me learn the development of e-learning since it was first proposed, and understand how people gradually adapted to this new mode of learning, which benefited me a lot. I also learned that the term of blended learning was from the development of e-learning, which made online delivery more feasible and acceptable; meanwhile, it created more opportunities for the online education. Thanks to the development of e-learning, it benefits people’s learning and  eventually becomes a mainstream in educational field now. 

References:

Chapter 6 of “25 Years of Ed”

Audio

Learner Profile

I am an economic student, and I am also interested in investigating the area of social media and digital learning. Specifically, from this course, one of my goals is to learn and understand how social media and digital identity could affect students learning and social life. Besides, adapting to use and develop a digital professional identity is my second goal. My last goal to consider how my digital identity could help my future study and life throughout this course.

In terms of my preference of group working, I would like to use Zoom, Email, Slack, and WeChat to communicate with my group members, so that we can discuss and share new ideas synchronously and asynchronously in time . It is also vital for all group members to have a higher level of participation and social interaction in the discussion; this active learning allows us to better acquire and understand new concepts in online learning. Moreover, in the discussion, every members should show their politeness and respects when someone is talking, which help us to enhance our social interaction and improve our learning outcomes.

Reference:

  1. Who Am I Online? Cultivating Students’ Digital Identity Practices
  2. Community of Inquiry: Social Presence Revisited

Celebration of Learning

In my celebration of learning post, I will discuss each of my learning outcome in this course by connecting my works with my classmates’ works to reveal my thoughts.

  • Examine the application of social media to support learning

There are a variety of social media platforms, and the application of social media have positively affects people’s learning. In terms of the major project of our group, we discussed how Weibo, as a useful social media, support our learning. Specifically, we perceived that Weibo allows people to share their works and opinions on the main page, so that they are able to get some valuable feedbacks from others. People can also join specific groups on Weibo, such as reading groups and writing groups, which lead them to make more like-minded friends and learn the knowledge from each other. Besides, there are abundant sources of learning techniques and articles people shared on Weibo main page and Weibo groups related to learning, which help people to more easily and efficiently find useful learning sources and improve their learning. Moreover, in terms of other social media platforms to support people’s learning, YouTube is a vital one. According to our peers’ major project, people are able to watch academic tutorial videos from educators on YouTube, which allows people to enjoy the high quality teaching and acquire the useful knowledge, just like the same as in the face-to-face classrooms.

  • Explain personalized learning and its relation to learning theory

The article “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age” introduced a learning theory of personalized learning, which is connectivism. When I first looked at the word, connectivism, I was really curious about how it related to the learning types, and that was why I chose it to investigate on my second Wow and Wonder post. After reading the article, I perceived that connectivism is an individual activity, and technology allows individuals to connect with each other and connect with the online information sources, so that they are able to acquire abundant knowledge, even though they have limited personal experiences. My major project argued that Weibo is a useful social media for personalized learning. Learning on Weibo connects with the learning theory, connectivism, very well, and it demonstrated how the information and sources spread and become helpful for people’s learning. On Weibo, people can update their individual knowledge online, and the online feedbacks help them to obtain more knowledge. Wenzhuo also mentioned that the learning theory, connectivism, breaks down the existing structure of traditional classroom, since people come together to help each other to build new knowledge. Overall, the stronger the connection among others, the more chances people can acquire knowledge.

  • Recognize that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone

It is undoubtedly to say that the internet is not an equal space for everyone. According to the article “Visitors and Residents: A typology for online engagement”, being a visitor and being a resident of an online community offer different online privileges to the online users, and I also discussed it on my third Wow and Wonder post. Specifically, the internet residents are allowed to build social relationships with each other, and they are able to treat the internet as a place to communicate, work, and study. However, their personal information must be shown to others, since they have the digital identity. In terms of the internet visitors, they can hide their personal information, but their online rights are limited. For example, they cannot contact others and ask for help on the web when meeting questions. Overall, neither the internet residents nor the internet visitors enjoy all the rights of the internet. Moreover, Nick noticed that there is a difference between the elders and the youngers about using the internet on his Wow and Wonder(Week 4), He mentioned that since the younger generation grows up with the internet, they tend to use the internet easier than the older generation, which also reveals that the internet is not an equal space for everyone.

  • Apply social media to develop a personal learning network in support of your personal and/or professional development

My visitor and resident map on Wow and Wonder post 3 depicted how do I develop my personal learning network to support my personal and professional development. Throughout this course, I mainly use Google Docs to collaborate with my group members, so that we can express our ideas at the same time. In this course, I also learn to use the WordPress to post blogs, and think about my peers’ thoughts, according to their blogs, which allows me to see the different point of views of the same topic and have a deeper understanding of the learning content. For example, in terms of my showcase post 1, I commented on Jiahui’s Wow and Wonder post to connect and build my thoughts; meanwhile, Jiahui also discussed my ideas in her show case post 1. Moreover, Github is a useful tool for me to contact with my professor and my peers; it also allow me to upload pictures and write the contents related to Weibo to finish my major project, which is mainly about how Weibo supports and exists in people’s life, and the benefits and limitations of this type of social media. In a nutshell, I applied these social medias to develop me personal network, in order to support my professional development.

  • Identify privacy issues and practice online behaviours that are legal, safe, consensual, and ethical

On my Wow and Wonder post 3, the Visitor and Resident typology concerned with people’s privacy issues, which aroused my interested a lot. The article “Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement” revealed that motivations and goals that are related to online behaviours resulted in identity privacy issues. For those people who want to build social relationship with others on social media, their personal information are shown to others, such as interests, locations, and telephone numbers, which lead to a privacy issue. Besides, on Mia’s Wow and Wonder post 2, she argued that social network makes the privacy issues to be more alarming. I really agree with her, and I also discussed this privacy issue in my Wow and Wonder post 6. Specifically, based on the short films from  Screening Surveillance, such as tresdancing, I noticed that the surveillance had recorded too much personal information, which might cause detrimental impacts on people’s life. For example, if people’s personal data is illegally used by the organizations, their exposed locations may lead them in danger.

  • Recognize data ownership and licensing (Creative Commons, Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Public Domain) as a core practice when creating, sharing, or using resources online

According to our group’s major project, people have to cite the reference of the vital content on Weibo, and the posted content should comply with the set rules, lows, and regulations. Many users perceive the importance of data ownership and licensing, and if the information sharer does not cite the original reference of the data, Weibo system and even other Weibo users would report the fact to the Weibo examiners, so that it will be prevented from appearing and be deleted on the Weibo page. People’s reaction demonstrates that the data ownership and licensing have play a vital role in people’s life, and more and more people start to recognize the importance of data ownership and licensing. Besides, Mia mentions there are many copyright concerns on Tik Tok, since Tik Tok has the license agreements with many artists. In order to avoid the copyright issues, people have to make sure the music in their videos comes from Tik Tok.

  • Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about social media and personalized learning

The article “Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social Learning” in Emerging Technologies in Distance Education discusses that teachers are sharing free and open knowledge, by using the free learning tools and softwares, to teach students the course contents, so that students are able to build their personal learning networks for the collaboration of their learning. In other words, since the online and open learning supports and uses the digital, networked, and open literacies, people can acquire the knowledge for their personalized learning and learn more about how beneficial social media is in people’s personalized learning. Moreover, connecting with my Wow and Wonder post 7, I perceive that the personalized learning of the digital, networked, and open literacies are influenced by different learning motivations and vital life experiences for adults, which means that the specific learning content about social medial and personalized learning, sometimes, depends on people’s jobs and personal life. In Miah’s Wow and Wonder post, she discussed that we, as university students, chose to take the courses that are related to us and helpful in our lives; this concept is very similar to the adult online learning about the networked and open literacies.

In a nutshell, I have completed all the learning outcomes of this course; meanwhile, I learned a lot of useful social medias, techniques, and learning theories in this course, which will benefit me in my future university learning. Besides, I really like the warm learning atmosphere of this course. Thank you for my professor and my group members, they always nicely and patiently listened to my thoughts, which encouraged and motivated me a lot when I was hesitated or nervous to express my ideas.

Wow and Wonder 6

After I watched the two short films tresdancing and Frames, I perceived:

Wow: 

  • The Surveillance is beneficial because it allows people to avoid potential harms.
  • The Surveillance can cause destructive issues since it has recorded too much personal information of our life.
  • These two movies raise my awareness about the possibilities organizations illegally use the data from surveillance to cause problems in people’s life. For example, their locations can be exposed through the data, so that they are in danger. 
  • Even though the surveillance is strong enough to collect enough personal and private information, sometimes, it is still difficult to explain people’s actions.

Wonder:

  • I wonder how can people avoid feeling anxious when the surveillance is everywhere. Some people think they do not have privacy any more.
  • In the future, if the surveillance becomes a persuasive system and it will bring much benefits and conveniences in people’s life, how can they avoid being persuaded to do wrong actions, such as cheating.

Reference link:

https://www.screeningsurveillance.com/

Wow and Wonder 5

The differences between propaganda and ampliganda are worthwhile to be noticed.

Wow:

  • Propaganda basically indicates a persuasive communication with an agenda, which means that the governments, authority figures, institutions ,and mass media are forcing ideas on the public; it is a top down process of spreading information. Sometimes, propaganda adopts deceiving the citizens and amplifying the facts for achieving a goal.
  • Ampliganda refers trust the charismatic individuals more, rather than the governments and authority figures. It is a bottom up process of spreading information.  

Overall, both of propaganda and ampliganda can cause destructive effects in people’s life by spreading fake information for achieving some purposes.

Wonder:

  • I wonder how can the public avoid the misinformation and disinformation, and I would like to investigate this topic further. 

Related link:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/disinformation-propaganda-amplification-ampliganda/620334/

Wow and Wonder 7

The article “ Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social Learning” introduced an adult learning theory, which aroused my interest a lot.

Wow:

  • Adult learning theory is also called andragogy
  • The theory indicates the difference between adults’ learning and children’s learning, and it emphasizes that the different learning motivations and vital life experiences has a great impact on adults’ learning process
  • Principles that support adult learning:
  1. Adult should engage in the planning and evaluation of the instruction
  2. Experiences, includes mistakes, help their learning
  3. Their learning purposes are related to their job and personal life
  4. Adult learning is problem-centered; it focuses on solving problems

Wonder:

  • I wonder that if the teenagers can adopt the adult learning theory in their life.

Reference link:

https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120177_99Z_Veletsianos_2010-Emerging_Technologies_in_Distance_Education.pdf

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