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/