Month: October 2024

What is Open Pedagogy:

Open pedagogy is a different type of learning focused on active collaborative learning. This is in contrast to traditional pedagogy which encourages passive learning from its students. The major distinction between the two styles of pedagogy is the different approaches each of them have to teaching and its associated activities. Traditional pedagogy usually consists of an instructor lecturing at the front of a classroom, explaining the contents of the course before students are expected to fill out worksheets, while an open pedagogy would try to encourage students to work together discuss and teach one another while assignments are more focused towards group activities. This kind of teaching method is much more inclusive for everyone involved as it makes everyone an active participant, while also allowing the students to be more creative as they are able to more consistently bounce ideas off of one another and learn from one another. One of the major tools used to help facilitate open pedagogy include open education resources which are educational resources that can be used and shared by anyone as well in addition to the use of creative commons licenses which allows many OERs to be used by the public in a more ethical manner for certain works.

Why is Open Pedagogy so Important:

The main reason why open pedagogy has been growing in importance is the fact that it is bringing down the barriers to education, the largest of which is affordability. Education has been rapidly increasing in cost since the 1900s and as such has become a major barrier for education, with the introduction of Open Pedagogy, people are able to better educate themselves without burdening themselves nearly as much. In addition, Open Pedagogy allows for a more customized learning environment that can be better adjusted for people depending on how they learn. Lastly, by working together in groups and focusing on a task together does not only encourage collaboration and group-work which is an almost necessary skill in the modern world, but also allows individuals to build upon their creative skills and critical thinking skills, both skills which are also incredibly important to be successful in the modern world. By keeping these key attributes of Open Pedagogy in mind a teacher can create a space where everyone is an active participant and everyone is working together to not only help themselves, but also help each other.

Expanding on the tools used to Facilitate Open Pedagogy:

Expanding on Open Education Resource:

OER or Open Education Resources are free learning materials that can be freely used and shared without the need to purchase any of the items. This is a great way to reduce the barriers of entry for education as one of the major barriers for education in the modern day is cost. Universities have drastically risen in cost, in addition to textbooks and generally most of the educational material have also risen in cost, so OERs have a major opportunity to mitigate these barriers to education. This not only enhances learning for students, but also teachers as it gives teachers the opportunity have a template to work off of, not only cutting down work time, but also enhances their teaching as it allows them to change and edit the OERs to better personalize it for their class. In general OERs not only enhance the educational experience for all individuals involved, but also balance out the playing field by giving less fortunate individuals the opportunity to educate themselves without the need to spend an exorbitant amount of money. Some examples of good examples of OERs include open textbooks, opencouseware, and open access journals. Of these I will give some great places to find these resources would be MIT Opencourseware, the opentextbook library, and the Directory of Open Access Journals.

A lecture concerning a great example of a OER and an explanation as to why they are so important.

Global Trends of OERs:

There are some emerging trends of OERs happening in the modern day. The most important trends right now include micro-credentials, essentially something to indicate that the person successfully completed the course. This gives people something to show for completing the course which may not on it’s own give much credit to the individual, but may boost the individual’s achievements when they may be looking for a job. Another emerging trend is that of national OER strategies which are OERs that are put together by a diverse group of organizers, scholars, and advocates. This is great because one of the major issues with OERs in the past was their consistency and quality as OERs could vary wildly in quality, but with a professional team working together, the quality of a certain set of OERs can but all be guaranteed getting rid of one of the major flaws with OERs. The last major trend is the introduction of A.I into OERs. The introduction of A.I into OERs can have multiple different effects including rapidly increasing the rate at which OERs can be made through the use of items like chat G.P.T, in addition to the ability to help teachers personalize OERs better to their classroom. However, there are some concerns regarding the use of A.I including ethical concerns regarding copyright, as well as a concern that A.I may not use factual information and instead cause misinformation to spread. (Lalonde, 2023)

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Good examples of OER, or where to find OER:

• https://ocw.mit.edu/
• https://doaj.org/
• https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks
• https://www.khanacademy.org/

What are Creative Commons Licenses:

The main idea of a creative commons license is to give the public the ability to use the content while under the copyright law. Within the context of OERs it allows the creators of the OERs control over what the public should be allowed to do with their creation and with the standardization of creative commons licenses immediately indicates to the individual who wants to use the material what they can do with it. By having a better understanding of creative commons licenses instructors can start using the creative commons work in their intended ways which usually includes the crediting of the creator. This information is also important as it means that other instructors that may not have been fully comfortable with completely exposing their creations to remix can still allow the use of certain parts of their materials. If I were an instructor I would personally use creative commons licenses to allow free use of most of my material, but for certain pieces of material that may be easily misused, instead use a creative license to restrict the remix of my content but still allow the use of my content in general.

Additional Creative Commons explanation and examples:

• List of the different kinds of creative commons: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

References:

Lalonde, C. (2023, June 13). Chatgpt and open education. BCcampus. https://bccampus.ca/2023/03/06/chatgpt-and-open-education/

About CC licenses. Creative Commons. (2023, September 28). https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

Kkaras, Ebeattie, Jcaldwell, & Uprety, S. (2024, March 18). Trends and the future of Open Education . BCcampus. https://bccampus.ca/2024/03/05/trends-and-the-future-of-open-education/

The Current Status of Education:

Education as it currently stands is extremely one note, usually requiring the educator/instructor to stand at the front of the class with a PowerPoint and lecture the students on the material. This is how people have been taught for many years now, but it is a flawed system. Different people do not learn the same way, and by creating an environment where all education is taught through lectures and through physical written tests, then it is not a fair system for the other individuals that may have a harder time learning this way or may in some cases even find it impossible to engage with the material. In addition to this, if the only way the content is being given to the students is via these lectures then the students will start to feel less and less engaged with the content that can even drag down students that like this learning model.

The Solution:

Universal Design Learning, AKA UDL, is an educational framework designed to make education more accessible. To elaborate on this, UDL’s methods are focused in on three major principles: representation, action/expression, and engagement. The UDL focuses in on these three principles in order to bring down barriers to education and improve accessibility to all students, not only because it would make it more fair, but also because everyone benefits from a more accessible learning environment.

How to apply Universal Design Learning:

There are a couple major ideas when it comes to applying UDL the major ideas include: straight forwardness, flexibility, explicit presentation, fairness, accommodations, minimizing barriers, and being supportive. While it may seem that some of these may only apply to face-face education, all of these ideas can be applied to both online and in-person education just in different ways.  Straight forwardness means cutting back on complexity, in-person this is mostly in regards to language as some individuals may not have the same vocabulary as others and simplifying things down can really allow people with a less extensive vocabulary to shine, and the same applies to an online space, except that instead of just applying to language it can also apply to digital services because people have different levels of digital literacy so using less complex services and ensuring that the links can bring the students directly to the material instead of making them search for it, can really go a long way. Flexibility can take shape in multiple forms, some of the times it has to do with time as people can get very busy especially in university so allowing for extensions or changing times that someone can take a test reduces the student’s stress. Explicit presentation works in a similar vein to straight forwardness, by reducing the complexities and improving clarity, the students have more time to meaningfully engage with the material, this can be done in both online and in-person classes by really highlighting both visually and audibly the important aspects that the students need to take note of. Fairness, accommodations, and minimizing barriers go hand-in-hand, and take drastically different forms when being compared to online and in-person classes. In-person fairness and accommodations usually means ensuring that people do their own work, and ensuring individuals with disabilities are given additional help to support them, this can come as either extra time or other items such as ramps or the ability for people to opt out of a specific activity, but the last one should not be required as long as the lessons are sufficiently planned to be as accessible as possible. An online environment on the other hand, is much more difficult as digital literacy and equitable access to digital resources are not problems that are usually had within a face-face environment. For digital literacy there is little that can be done other than creating material that walks the individuals step by step through the expected process, doing so can slowly close the potential gap between the different student’s digital literacy. Inequitable access to digital resources is another problem and can be approached in two main ways, the first is to try and limit the individuals that have a large amount of access to digital resources, but this is not a strategy that I would recommend. The second is to try and increase the amount of access people may have to digital resources, this can take the shape of renting out devices or having a safe space in the physical world for people to have good access to connect to the internet, but there are still some flaws with this as commuting to said physical space takes time and acts as a barrier, while renting the devices may also act as a barrier to entry as some people do not have the finances available to do so. Lastly, being supportive is very similar between both online and in-person learning environments as it requires the instructor to consistently engage with the students and to also encourage students to keep learning.

EdTech:

EdTech short or education technology is any form of technology focused on improving education. This is quite useful as it allows for teachers to improve the learning experience for their students through friendlier and more specialized technologies, but it also has many ethical concerns. These ethical concerns can be split into five different topics: Privacy and Data security, Big Data and Tracking, Equal Access, Commercialization of Education, and the Digital Divide. Privacy and data security is a major concern as it is difficult to ethically collect this information and it is even more difficult to know where the data may potentially be going because if there is a privacy or data breach then it is usually already too late. Big Data and tracking follow that line of thinking as while tracking the user may help form a better educational plan, the potential of a privacy breach would have major consequences on those who are being tracked. Equal access is something that I went over in the previous section as well as it is difficult to guarantee that everyone is playing on an even playing field when there are so many considerations when it comes to technology as people with more stable connections would technically have an advantage. The commercialization of education can mean that the people creating the technology may not have the student’s best interests at heart, and the digital divide follows the same line of thinking as equal access. While these may seem like an insurmountable number of issues, it is manageable. The main thing to keep in mind while working with EdTech will always be to try and minimize the potential of a privacy breach which means making sure that they must know how the information is being obtained, where it is going, and how possible is it for a breach to occur. This in addition to accommodating individuals that may not have great access to technology or the internet can make it possible for an educator to balance the concerns of privacy, data security, and equity.

Digital Interactions:

Digital interactions include any interaction someone has with another individual online. While people may think that digital interactions and face-face interactions are the same, they are not. Digital interactions have some form of anonymity and can at times lack the tone or body expressions that are used to convey more information. This can make digital interactions feel somewhat fake and can sometimes make people forget that they are talking to another living, breathing human being. There are also some concerns people have especially about their privacy online. This means that in order to be a positive influence in online learning communities, the individual should be inclusive and respective of their peers, but to also remain a distance away and to not ask too many personal questions so that the other individual can keep their privacy and anonymity as they wish. This also means that if someone does suddenly ask a personal question to not act defensively about it, but instead to simply comment that you do not wish to speak about it or to give a vague answer, unless they are consistently doing so.

UDL In my experience:

While I have not been a part of a learning community as an instructor, I have been a part of many as a student. I have done many classes both in person and online. In both cases I believe that the adherence to UDL was generally pretty good especially during my high school and university classes. Most classes have now adopted the learning framework that is UDL, but some do so more than others, and some only did so in specific areas. Take my Greek and Roman History class as an example, while they did not have many activities and the main way we learned was through lectures in front of a PowerPoint, the professor did make a very specific point that the two major assignments we had which were the major other way for us to learn were both creative projects and allowed for us to do whatever we wished to do as long as the finished product could be linked back to Greek and Roman History and the connection could be explained through a paper. So, while it did do a great job at one aspect which was to increase the fairness of the two major projects, it did not fully adopt UDL as many people that do not learn that way will still struggle on the assignment because the teaching was still done in a way that unfairly hinders them. Another example would be the community mapping class I am taking right now, while it is in person the technologies they are using are unfamiliar to me and while the instructors have been helpful in teaching me how it works, having some kind of basic tutorial on how to get started as a video would be another great way accessibility could be improved. Overall nearly all of my experiences are like this, while it feels like nearly every single class is slowly moving towards having a more UDL based framework, there are still many minor issues that have simple solutions.

References:

CAST, Inc. (n.d.). The UDL guidelines. The UDL Guidelines. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

YouTube. (n.d.-a). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q3jwLWWV1s&t=1289s

YouTube. (n.d.-b). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmGgplQkrVw

What is Pedagogy to Me:

Pedagogy is how, people are being taught. This could range from the different techniques and strategies being used to the learning environment itself, these are all a part of pedagogy as they are all important factors to consider how people should be taught. To me this is for me to understand both as a student as well as a potential teacher/manager. As a potential teacher it would allow me to have a better understanding of what I should be doing to achieve the desired learning outcomes in the best ways I can within the restrictions placed upon me, and as a student it is important for me to understand pedagogy itself as well as the different types of pedagogy in order to really thrive in the learning environments I am in. It would also allow me to choose the courses that better align with my strengths. This is very important to me as I have always found myself to be a more hands-on social learner and have found myself struggling at times to put theory into practice until something manages to click. This has caused me some trouble over the last few years especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where I found it extremely difficult to focus on the work at hand in addition the inability for me to connect certain points together, it made for an extremely frustrating academic year where I felt I was always playing catch up to my peers.

Networked Pedagogy:

Networked pedagogy is a teaching method that leverages the use of digital networks and online communities to enhance learning. I think that networked pedagogy has a lot of potential to enhance the learning of the modern day, due to today’s culture, people’s digital literacy is generally much higher than it was a couple years ago, and the ability of the internet to connect people from completely different continents can greatly enhance the learning experience as people can express their different worldviews with one another. For example, while I had my own personal viewpoints on the happenings of Europe and specifically the issue of Brexit at the time, while talking with other people within an international community, a British individual actually decided to have a conversation about the topic in which I gained a clearer understanding of not just the situation itself, but how a member of the populace felt undergoing this historical event. We talked about the reasons why we each believed in our stances and theorized some reasons behind the citizen’s discontent in staying within the EU, and if I had not joined that specific server, I would not have gained this new perspective, nor would I have the understanding that I have now. Networked pedagogy is a way to enhance learning through introducing new perspectives and foster connection and understanding, that is enhanced even further through the use of technology so that we can reduce the barriers to education and ensure people are able to learn even while they are thousands of kilo-meters apart.

Learning Theories in Practices:

Constructivism can be applied to online learning in a  large number of ways. If the online learning environment is asynchronous then after a handout or assignment the system / instructor, can flag the areas in which the student struggled and give the student three levels of activities to help them build up their knowledge base on the specific module they struggled on. There should also be an opportunity for students to actively engage not only with each other, but also with the instructor, so there should be a scheduled time in which students can voluntarily attend a meeting in which the instructor can answer questions and directly engage the students. In my opinion for a constructivism learning environment there should be a very difficult question at the end of every module where students can work together or separately for an additional bonus mark as it encourages active learning and especially reflection on the modules material to answer.

The Role of the Instructor:

The role of the instructor within a learning environment of an online course is to: provide the learning tools and material so that the students can succeed, provide accurate feedback on major assignments to ensure that the student is on the right track, be available to answer questions and inquiries from students, and to ensure the material is somewhat engaging and that those who are engaging with the content are rewarded. In order to do all of this I think that an instructor for online courses must have a good amount of digital literacy, they must be somewhat passionate in the material they are teaching, and they must be good at understanding the student’s thought processes as it is much harder to communicate online rather than in-person so reading between the lines to understand exactly how a student might be feeling or how students may be making a specific mistake is in my opinion the greatest asset a online instructor may have. The best example I have for a good online instructor would be my math teacher in grade twelve specifically nearing the end of COVID. When the course started she made all of the material available to us so that we could go as fast as we wanted and gave us several links to different examples of her teaching as well as other YouTube tutorials to help us understand how we could apply the different equations, she also ensured that an hour before class starts we could always head in to potentially have a one on one with her so that she could answer questions and asked people to come in with their cameras on (not a requirement) in order to ensure that some additional body language came through.

Exploring digital spaces:

The major advantages to learning within digital spaces is the lack of barriers, as long as an individual has access to the internet and a electronic device, technically there is nothing stopping the individual from participating and learning. The challenges come from creating a digital community, like I stated in the previous blog post, I at least find it to be significantly easier to create a community in-person rather than online. There is also the issue that if people do not decide to open up within an online community it is much easier for resentment and generally negative feelings to fester (at least in my experience) due to the people essentially being a faceless entity. In order to ensure you are contributing positively to an online community you HAVE TO be active in it and to try and report toxic behaviour and encourage good behaviour by either leading by example or through giving props to people that contribute positively to the community (can be both).

References:

Constructivism. Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation – University at Buffalo. (2024, March 5). https://www.buffalo.edu/catt/teach/develop/theory/constructivism.html

Page, C. (n.d.). Understand the role of your instructor. Online Learning Support. https://wordpress.kpu.ca/onlinelearning/get-started/understand-the-role-of-your-instructor/