Author: gary

EDCI338 post#7

The image building of public figures can quickly help them reach a consensus in the eyes of the public, quickly be accepted and remembered by the public, and be recognized and supported by the public. The shaping of positive image can help public figures generate recognition and enhance popularity, but if they are careless, the positive image will become a negative image, and the negative impact on the public is even greater than the positive image shaped by their single-minded operation. Therefore, the shaping of public figures is very important.

Social media creates opportunities for public figures to show and shape their self-image more actively. First of all, in the era of social media, every public figure can release information and shape his image through his own media account, giving public figures more opportunities to display actively. Secondly, social media can help public figures display and spread their image anytime and anywhere, which is no longer limited by traditional media. For example, stars can publish multiple updates on microblog one day to shape their image and deepen their impression in the public mind. This diversified image display and more realistic image shaping have won the public’s favor and support.

Social media makes the public treat the image of public figures more rationally. In the era of traditional media, the public always worship public figures, and of course, demand them with high standards. In the era of social media, the image of public figures is no longer out of reach. Public figures are closer to the image of life, which can shorten the relationship between public figures and the public. At the same time, society will no longer demand them with heroic and high moral standards.

The social media era has not only created a lot of advantages for public figures, but also brought some negative effects. First of all, in the era of social media, the fight is about appearance, which leads to the deviation of the work focus of some public figures. For example, in order to gather popularity, some film and television stars participate in variety shows all year round, but bring few film and television works to the audience. Secondly, once the image of public figures collapses, it will bring immeasurable crisis. Compared with traditional media, social media has the advantages of storing a large amount of information and fast retrieval. In the era of traditional media, even if public figures have bad deeds, they will be weakened over time, and the public will slowly accept their new image. However, in the modern era with more and more developed social media, the impact of such bad behavior may be lifelong. Therefore, public figures should learn to pay attention to maintaining and shaping a good self-image.

EDCI335 learning design II

I am writing a post about inquiry-based learning.

This learning method is more targeted. Instructors do not need to teach everything to the learners. Learners read the learning materials and ask questions. The instructors teach them according to their questions and the part of knowledge that they don’t understand. Each learner’s comprehension ability and advantages are different, so the difficult contents each one finds are also different. If it is a direct instruction, some learners may think they are wasting time because they already understand what they are teaching. Other learners may think that the explanation is not detailed enough. This results in a waste of instructors’ resources and learners’ time.

Nonetheless, inquiry-based learning is only suitable for small classes. Imagine a class with hundreds of people, there is no way for the instructors to teach all students based on their questions. There is too much work load and is less efficient than direct instruction.

Overall, I think inquiry-based learning is more effective in small-class instruction but not suitable for big classes.

EDCI338 post#5

I think I can build an effective personal learning network through the following points.

  • Pursue elites with high quality and diversity
  • Looking for high-quality elites and establishing reliable relationships with them is very important for personal learning networks. In addition to high quality, diversity is also important so that I can ask for help when I face any problem.

  • Talk less and listen more

Talking too much about my strengths will make others in my PLN feel dangerous. Others may feel that I want to get a lot from them, so they don’t want to continue to associate with me. I need to give others more opportunities to talk, so that I can learn from them and get closer with them.

  • Maintaining relationships is more important than developing new ones

Socializing is nothing more than meeting new ones and maintaining old ones. Both are important, but maintaining relationships is more important. People are addicted to social activities and parties, but they don’t sincerely spend time talking deeply with others. Only by deeply understanding each other in the personal learning network can I make better use of it.

EDCI338 post#4

With the development of technology, social media has become more and more diverse. These large number of social networks are forming an online city. In this “city”, we are building many personal learning networks. At present, the major social networks include Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, which constitute our diverse social networks. In these different social networks, we share different things, because the people we want to share information are different.

We share more life dynamics on Facebook, and the audience is more our family and friends. What we can see and learn is also more close to our hobbies. Instagram is even more so. We will share some pictures and small videos in life, and we will also see sharing in line with our own interests and hobbies. For example, I like playing golf. I often watch some golf teaching videos to learn actions and playing methods. For another example, I like food. I often watch more videos of food bloggers to learn cooking skills. In addition to these two large social networks, some social networks are more differentiated. For example, Athlinks is a social network for people who love sports. For a man who loves running, Athlinks has become a circle of friends when he runs. This social network automatically imports his running results and sports preferences, and more simply shares some relevant information, such as a pair of running shoes he recently bought or a set of absurd running routes he designed. Other users can learn some professional knowledge from his sharing. These social networks form a part of our personal learning network that is closer to life and interests. In contrast, there are some social networks closer to our career.

LinkedIn is a social network with a very unique purpose. Walking into LinkedIn is like walking into a recruitment market or a formal social activity. I will be very reserved in it. I will only share some career related or employment related information. Moreover, I will only keep in touch with some other professionals I think are relevant. On this social network, my learning content is more professional. It forms the part of my personal learning network close to my career.

In addition to these social media mentioned above, I also use many other apps with social functions. For example, when I buy a book on Amazon, I can see the messages of other buyers and learn about the general content and style of the book, which is also a part of my personal learning network. Therefore, on the whole, my personal learning network is very diverse. I think with the development of society, this diversity will only become more and more obvious, which is beneficial to the construction of my personal learning network.

EDCI335 post Oct.3

In order to study in Canada, I guess every foreign student needs to learn English and pass the English proficiency test, at least before I go abroad. For me who lived in China for more than ten years, the process of learning English was very difficult. There were many challenges I met at that time. Here I choose one that impressed me the most.

Memorizing English words is the basis of learning English. Words to English are like gasoline to an airplane. An airplane can’t fly without gasoline. In the process of memorizing words, I have encountered great difficulties, and if this difficulty is not overcome, I can’t continue to learn English. The difficulty of memorizing words is that there are too many words. They often stare at one word for a few minutes, look at other words, and then forget when they come back. Although I didn’t write down many words, I still read most of the word books. After reading thousands of words, I found that many words have similarities. For example, many words begin with “in”, which means negative. Many other words begin with “im”, which means inward, and “ex”, which means outward. At that time, I wondered if the efficiency would be much faster if similar words were sorted together and memorized. If I recite words in alphabetical order as I did before, I can only recite them one by one, which will be much less efficient. Therefore, I tried the new method that I came up. Through the new method, I only need to memorize a “port” to memorize the meaning of “import” and “export”.

This method really makes me memorize words much more efficiently, and adds more fun to my learning of English. I overcame the difficulties in my study in this way. I think this method can be summarized as flexibly changing learning methods to achieve better learning results. This way can not only solve my learning difficulties at that time, but also expand to more learning fields.

Final review paper

Review of distributed and open learning technologies

The battle between the Alpha Go and the top chess player is destined to be a milestone for artificial Intelligence. Alpha Go is an artificial intelligence program, it has been learning to update, and it is getting more and more intelligent. In some specific fields, it has achieved or even surpassed human-level performance. So can it be a good helper to improve our productivity and quality of life? Or completely control us? It is hard to conclude now, but almost certainly, the impact brought by artificial Intelligence must be enormous in the near future. And i will discuss about what role does artificial Intelligence play in Teaching and how does it innovate our teaching methods.

Let’s look at an example. 10th primary school in Xixia district, Yinchuan city built WISROOM English wisdom classroom with artificial intelligence technology. In class, the intelligent foreign teacher Rebecca complete the class content, he make full use of music, games, group pk and other forms to help students learn words and sentence patterns with interests. After class, teacher Rebecca can make a comprehensive evaluation of each students’ English learning based on performance of each student in class and the expression of students collected and analyzed by phoenix system, so that the teacher can Customize individualized homework for students, achieving precise teaching.

Does this learning style sound perfect? Effectively, this is called Distributed and open learning. Distributed and open learning is not a substitute for distance learning, actually, it comes from the concept of distributed resources. It is closely related to the development of computers. Distributed learning models can be combined with traditional classroom-based curricula, and it can also be used in conjunction with traditional distance learning courses. The most prominent feature of distributed learning is the decentralization of learning resources, it reflects the true equality of teachers and students.

As you can see, with the help of artificial Intelligence, we can develop the merits of this learning style to the extreme. And i believe the merits can be divided into the following parts.

  • Students. No matter how powerful a particular medium or technology is in education, students can not learn from it if they can not get it in a convenient and affordable way. And itmay seem obvious that different students will have different demands in different disciplines. Now artificial Intelligence can cater for these differences. As noted above, intelligent teacher can provide individualized learning for everyone. And definitely, this is something that traditional classes can not offer. Besides, In the highly developed twenty-first century, students are accustomed to emerging technology, so this can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of students in class, achieving good teaching results.
  • Ease of use. In most cases, the use of technology in teaching is a means, not an end. So it is significantthat teachersand students do not have to spend a lot of time learning how to use educational technology or how to make it work. If students and teachers have to spend a lot of time learning how to use software to develop or deliver course materials, this distracts from the learning and teaching. But artificial Intelligence is convenient and practical. just take a look at our daily lives. The guidance systems, voice control are all production of artificial Intelligence, they all greatly facilitates our lives. When it comes to classes, we do not need much operation, we can use voice control, and the technologies will do the command automatically. And This will save a lot of time for teaching.
  • Cost. Until the last decade, cost has been a major discriminator for technology selection.But thanks to the rapid developments in consumer technologies such as smart phonesthat enable text, audio and video to be created and transmitted by end users at low cost at the same time, so in summary, cost should no longer be an obstacle in the choice of media. So the high cost of artificial Intelligence should not be an obstacle for you to choose. But if you disagree with this statement, then let’s figure out the cost categories. Actually, there are many different factors that can influence the actual cost of using media in education, which makes it very complex to conclude a detailed discussion. This mainly includes development, delivery, maintenance costs, overheads, and cost drivers. it is undeniable that artificial Intelligence device is costly, but what we should care about is not how expensive it is, but whether it is worth so much. For example,developing a high-quality online course using a mix of video and text materials can take much less time than delivering the course in class. it can benefit us a lot in the long term.
  • Interaction. There are many types of interaction, for example, Interaction with learning materials, Interaction between students and teacher, and student interaction. I believe that Interaction between students and teacher is the most important. However, in order to develop many advanced learning outcomes, interaction between students and teachers is often required, such as analysis, synthesis, and critical thinking. This is particularly important for the development of academic learning, where students are challenged to question ideas and gain a deep understanding.Unfortunately, it has been an universal phenomenon that students are reluctant to communicate with their teachers, maybe they feel shy, afraid or embarrassed. But in Intelligent classroom, there are no such problems. What students face are robots, and this can Encourage this kind of dialogue or discourse among students and intelligent teachers, thus students can acquire deep understandingby interaction.
  • Security and privacy. At present, the relationship between artificial intelligence system and human production is becoming more and more close, and the safety of artificial intelligence system has been paid more and more attention by the society. Unfortunately, most of the previous artificial intelligence theories were based on a “good man hypothesis”, this means less consideration is given to the security and privacy of machine learning in an open or even confrontational environment. But now we combine the current artificial intelligence system security related research work, systematically analyzing and summarizing the possible security and privacy risks and the existing countermeasures in artificial intelligence system. And i am convinced that in the near future, when artificial intelligence devices are used in classes, we don’t have to worry about the security and privacy.

However, media selection is just one part of the course design process, it has to fit within the broader framework of course design. It doesn’t mean that we have completed our learning tasks when we make the media selection, What really matters is whether we can take full advantage of them and how much we can benefit from them.

Throughout history, we can see that our teaching technology has been improving. From telephone technology to computer technology, from audio-graphic technology to video technology. From one-way video to two-way video and then multi-way video. And in recent years, we created virtual classroom system and curriculum-on-demand system. It is predictable that the trend of teaching technology in the new century is networking, interaction, and diversification. As a result, artificial intelligence can perfectly adapt to the trends, and it won’t take long time before the age of artificial intelligence comes.

In conclusion, with the development and transformation of deep learning technology and computing hardware architecture, Artificial intelligence technology has made a major breakthrough in machine vision, speech recognition, machine vision and other key tasks. Image one day, artificial intelligence teachers were widely used in classrooms around the world, what will our class become by then? Maybe it will be more colorful and more interesting to students, or perhaps it can not be widely used  because of some technical problems? But anyway, The age of artificial intelligence is coming, now we need to develop our scientific and technological thoughts, keep learning at all times.

Reference List:

Zhang Yin., & Zeng Rui. (2002). The Distributed Learning Mode Based on Network. [J]. Opening Education Research. 2, 38-41.

Ji Senling., & Li Ling. (1999). Modern High-tech Teaching Means and Adult Higher Distance Education. [J]. Journal of Shanxi Radio and Television University. 2, 13-14.

Zhou Caihong., & Liu Yan. (2020). Practice and Exploration of Artificial Intelligence Assisted Classroom Teaching Reform. [J]. Ningxia Education. 2, 34-36.

Chen yufei., & Shen chao. (2019). Security and Privacy Risk of Artificial Intelligence Systems. [J]. Journal of Computer Research and Development. 56(10), 2135-2150.

Showcase Post

The internet today has made the world today to be a global village through various trends in communication and technological advances. In the teaching and learning world advances have been made which are making the process easy and more convenient to relevant stakeholders such as students, teachers and many more. One of the advances is the Flexible Learning for Open Education (FLOE) which is a modern platform that links educational resources to students from all parts of the world. This platform tries to reduce barriers in learning among students and knowledge seekers in the globe. The platform offers solution to many problems experienced by learners as it accommodates almost all individual differences exhibited by learners.

FLOE provides alternative sources and means of delivery of knowledge other than the traditional way of learning. In this method the learner is the chief determinant how and when the learning will take place as he or she is the one who has control of the learning process Priestley , (2019).The flexible learning gives the learner a variety of resources to study and do his or her own research. Furthermore the resource are easily accessible and at no any extra cost since it is free of charge. The learner or researcher has the freedom to choose what is most appropriate to use, at what time, duration among many options that exist. Therefore learning can take place even in odd hours like at night as per the wish of the learner.

The flexible learning for open education has a number of preferences that make it one of the best methods of gaining knowledge. First it offers editing preferences to the user through the presence of editing tools that help learners to personalize their learning experiences. This is facilitated by existence of strong user interface options that help to personalize content according to their need. As learners use this platform they tend to understand themselves better every time they use the platform. With time and exposure learners will be able to know which is the best method to use and most convenient so that they can maximize the platform. For instance one may prefer written resources over audio ones, hence the learner will identify self which is the best personalization he or she fits from the FLOE.

The flexible learning for open education method of learning enables learners to assess themselves in an easy way McGreal, (2016). This is possible because the learner is able to track his or her progress due to the personalized preference option available. Hence one can monitor his or her own progress and come up with better ways to learn in case there is no progress. In addition to that there is a preference management tool that manages the preferences of users hence personal preferences cannot be shared to other users who may access learners’ devices. Personal devices such as phones, PCs may fall into foreign hands and take advantage to use the platform for ill use. As a measure to prevent the said problems there is a global public inclusive structure that gives the user total control of who has access to personal preferences.

The FLOE has a number of instructional methods that the learner chooses and prefers i.e. ranging from audio, visual and audiovisual methods Simpson, (2018). The sonification framework enables developers to create audio presentations to be used by learners and researchers. Therefore one can listen or download audio files to get the content he or she needs. On the other hand it equipped with HTML5 video player which enables users to access content in video form. The videos help in demonstration, explanation and give clarification in case one hasn’t understood something. It also gives feedback to personal questions about personal preferences asked by users. Besides that it gives room to learners to give their own opinions or missing preferences in the platform.

The text to speech component is another important component to the flexible learning program in the teaching and learning process. This component enables users to transform content from text to audio if there is need or preference by the student. The component is part of the inclusive plan since it caters for visually impaired individuals who can here.

In conclusion FLOE program is one of the 21st century measures to enable accessibility of resources especially learning resources many individuals in the world today. Inclusivity is very important today as we are all equal and we need to get services and materials equally without any form of discrimination.

 

References

Priestley, R., Dohaney, J., Atkins, C., Salmon, R., & Robinson, K. (2019). Engaging new Antarctic learners and ambassadors through flexible learning, open education and immersive video lectures. Polar Record, 55(4), 274-288.

Simpson, O. (2018). Supporting students in online, open and distance learning. Routledge.

McGreal, R., Anderson, T., & Conrad, D. (2016). Open educational resources in Canada. Open Educational Resources: Policy, Costs and, 63.

Reflection 4

Inclusive learning design is essential in allowing the student to understand better the concepts that he or she is being taught. It has been described as a situation whereby all the students placed in classes that are age-appropriate for them all to relay high-quality instructions, interventions, and supportive curriculum. At the end of the day, the process allows students to be informed on different skills such as time management, decision-making skills as well as ways to improve oneself (Centre, 2017). One of the main concepts of inclusive learning design is the use of a variety of instructional formats that will be flexible with diverse students. Some students are quick to learn using a certain teaching design such as experiments while others are quick to learn by the use of theories. It must incorporate different instructional methods to have optimal results.

The other main idea of inclusive learning design has to be accessible to academic curricular content. Students have the liberty to engage in group discussions which is an integral part of enabling the students to understand the content better. This way the students can learn of the instructions and implement them by starting the activities (McManis, 2020). This will not only keep the latter in track for the lessons but will also allow a better learning experience. The other main idea for inclusive learning has to be the emotional aspects of the learning process. Students must be emotionally stable for them to be able to learn. This entails engaging in activities that will not negatively affect students. Also, the social activities that can be done in discussion groups play an important aspect of inclusive learning design.

During my study and review of the inclusive learning design and my experience through it, I have realized that there are some aspects that I found hard to comprehend. They are the main issues that border the entire process of inclusive learning design (Centre, 2017). One is how to deal with the instance of death. This may either one of the students, tutors, friends or other people in close proximity. It is not outlined well how any of the instances should be handled. However, it is important to recognize the effect of death on the learning process.

One of the other aspects that I found hard to comprehend is how rigid the curriculum will help in improving the students becoming better. Some of the curricula in the design are extremely rigid by the fact that it does allow for any form of experimentation (Centre, 2017). It is extremely hard for students to decipher some of the concepts if it does not include other aspects such as experimentation.

One of the issues that were not discussed in the module is the issue of gender. It is essential to understand in the current world, gender orientation has been diversified which means it is not any longer the basic male and female genders. In the universal learning design, it is essential to be sensitive to such matters since its bound to affect some of the students who have diverse gender orientation (McManis, 2020). This is one of the issues that need to be included in the universal learning design.

References

Centre, I. D. (2017). FLOE Inclusive Learning Design Handbook. Retrieved from LINS: https://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-1004

McManis, L. D. (2020, January 15). Inclusive Education: What It Means, Proven Strategies, and a Case Study. Retrieved from Share.com: https://blog.sharetolearn.com/classroom-resources/inclusive-education/

Reflection 3

My most memorable online learning experience is within an online course and joining a social learning community called Reddit for Crochet knitters. My online course was in my first year called Effective Learning Strategies for Academic Success. The course provides information and guidance on the developing study habits and strategies that lead to success in college. I was able to identify my academic and personal goals, develop time management, reading, and note-taking strategies. Throughout the course, I was able to complete college-level research, write reflective and academic papers.

One concept that I found useful that the course was able to incorporate was humanizing online learning. Initially, before beginning the course, I was a little apprehensive about how I would be able to connect with the material as well as the other learners in my classroom that I would collaborate with. First time experiences are always nerve wracking and being in college for the first time is as scary stepping into an entirely new world. I knew that the Academic Success introductory course would provide me with the future skills and knowledge needed to succeed in my academic career. The mode of this online course made it flexible enough for me to complete assignments whenever I was readily available at my convenience.

One of the readings discusses humanizing online learning so that the learner does not feel the isolation and/or distance that may be felt from learning through an online course. Humanizing an online course is the process of “creating ways to connect learners with each other and the instructors across the distance of online learning” (Crosslin, n.d.). The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework focuses on increasing teaching, social, and cognitive presence to help learners. The Academic Success class was able to keep me engaged and participative with the weekly required discussions and assignments. The Instructor always sent weekly announcements as well as progress reports that were timely and informative including what improvements could be made in future assignments to succeed within the course.

Through participating in weekly required discussion boards, the social presence and cognitive presence were apparent. Social presence focuses on the learners in the course and the ability to actively and safely participate in the course as an individual. The cognitive presence was visible through the responses written on the week’s discussion board. Chapter Five’s reading includes blogging as an example to “encourage learners to take ownership of their learning, building in reflection activities, and creating avenues for learners to share and interact with those reflections” (Crosslin, n.d.).

Joining a social learning platform like Reddit allows users to join and discuss within groups and its members allowing users to post discussion threads on topics of their interest. Chapter seven of the reading includes understanding technology and the foundations of educational media. The chapter recognizes the use of media in education, the six building blocks of media are face to face teaching, text, (still) graphics, audio, video, and computing. Reddit allows its users to connect and interact via text, graphics, audio, and video. I joined a group of fellow Crochet knitters, a group with a total of 142,000 members. Posts are uploaded every day encouraging crochet ideas, tips, and tools. The group is informational because it includes members from varying skill levels of Beginner to Professional Expert. Photos, as well as videos, are uploaded and recommended. I remember when I first began crocheting, I was confused on how to start and end my crochet loop for a simple scarf. Through Reddit, I was able to connect with multiple members who were helpful enough to send tutorial videos and images providing step by step illustrations.

References

Crosslin, M. Chapter 5: Effective Practices. Retrieved 1 March 2020, from https://uta.pressbooks.pub/onlinelearning/chapter/chapter-5-effective-practices/

Crosslin, M. Chapter 8: Understanding Technology. Retrieved 1 March 2020, from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/part/chapter-8-understanding-technology/