Category: Topic Blog Posts

How can you ensure equitable access to authentic, meaningful & relevant learning environments for all learners in K-12 open and distributed learning contexts? What did you already know, what do you know now based on the course readings and activities, what do you hope to learn?

 

This week’s topic is one that I was incredibly excited to explore, as equity is a passion of mine, and ensuring that my students have authentic, meaningful, and relevant learning environments is extremely important to me. I have had a decent amount of experience adapting programs, activities, lessons, and projects with diverse learners, and learned about the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) last semester and have utilized UDL within lesson plans; but, ensuring that there is equity in open and distributed learning contexts is something I have little experience with. This week’s topic is full of resources, readings, tools, and content that I know I will look back on in the near and far future to ensure that I am always creating the best space and learning experience I can for my students. In reading #1, Basham, Blackorby, Stahl, & Zhang, L. (2018), so beautifully explain one of the main reasons I love UDL: “Originally formulated as an approach for ensuring the effective inclusion of students with disabilities and diverse learning needs in general education classrooms, UDL has steadily gained traction as a framework for addressing the variability inherent in all learners.” (Bashem et al. 2018). Although online learning provides a multitude of benefits, online learning can be far more difficult for students who are living in poverty, have disabilities, and ELL’s. Today’s learners are diverse and variable, and many of the forms of assessment and methods of teaching aren’t practical for everyone. Although these gaps in equity throughout online learning can be down putting, its essential to look at how technology can be a gateway towards employing UDL principles of multiple means of engagement, action and expression, and representation. Technology assists in creating personalized learning experiences for students. When online learning designs are competency-based, they are more likely to align with UDL Principles (Basham, Hall, Carter & Stahl, 2016; Basham & Stahl, 2015; Bray & McClaskey, 2013; Din, 2015). Online and open learning allows students to develop their sense of mastery, independence, belonging, and inquiry, and when paired with UDL principles, it can be adaptable, accessible, and personalized for a variety of learners.

In last week’s reading, I become concerned and interested in the inequality that Indigenous learning spaces endure, and I was excited that this week supplied so many resources and tools to help break down these gaps and barriers. Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012) depicted 8 design principles that assist inequity and development of learning spaces:

• Design Principle 1: A space young people control 
• Design Principle 2: A space for hanging out and ‘mucking around’
• Design Principle 3: A space where learners learn 
• Design Principle 4: A space to grow into new roles and responsibilities
• Design Principle 5: A space to practice oral and written language 
• Design Principle 6: A space to express self and cultural identity through multimodal forms 
• Design Principle 7: A space to develop and engage in enterprise
• Design Principle 8: A space to engage with the world

Just as UDL principles assist a variety of learners, the design principles don’t only apply to indigenous groups. When you make an environment more accessible, it typically allows everyone to feel included and motivated to learn. I will be focusing on Design Principle 1, 2, 6 and 8. There was a multitude of themes that carried throughout the chapter: the deficit mindset assumed by educators and institutions; The Circle of Courage guiding motivation and learning experience; mutual respect; and relevance of existing knowledge and meaningful activity. A deficit mindset is something I become familiar with when taking a webinar in June, “Student Voices Challenging Adult Racism to Create Anti-Racist Schools,” held by The National Association of Black Male Educators. In that webinar, students and teachers discussed how approaching BIPOC students with a deficit perspective lead to a lack of motivation because students begin to believe what teachers assume, that they can achieve what other students can. Design Principle 1 outlines that a space that young people control assists in counteracting such perspectives, as well as motivates students through a sense of autonomy, agency, and independence. Technology has assisted Indigenous communities immensely, as personal hand-held devices allow students the ability to utilize technology that is not locked in a classroom. Open-learning could be an active pathway for BIPOC as it will enable them to have a choice in their learning experience. Technology can also assist students in control over the smallest decisions, which increases confidence and decision-making skills. Marginalized and rural communities must have spaces where they can have access to information and produce knowledge.

Design Principle 2 depicts the importance of individuals having time and space to “muck around” with technology without fear of failure. “Mucking around” reminded me of the gamification of education, where students can choose the journey that suits their needs, where trial and error are utilized, and there is little fear of failure. Students build a sense of belonging in these environments, and bond over learning and experimentation.

Design Principle 6 and 8 connect well to one another as they highlight the use of technology as a form of expression and understanding of oneself and the world around you. Inquiry-based projects allow students opportunities to work in groups to provide insight into their shared experiences. Multimodal/multimedia work “illuminates the cultural practices and symbol structures in image and language that young people are using for identity formation” (Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. 2012, p. 86). Open Learning Practices come along with risk as students are opening themselves and their knowledge up to “the world”, but this risk gives students a space to tell their stories, and have control over their own self-representation.

I hope to engage further with the resources provided this week, as well as explore further resources to ensure that I am forever in praxis, and ensuring that I am creating a learning environment where equity, belonging, independence, and adaptation is at the forefront.

References

Basham, J.D., Blackorby, J., Stahl, S. & Zhang, L. (2018) Universal Design for Learning Because Students are (the) Variable. In R. Ferdig & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 477-507). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press.

Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012). Chapter 4: Design Principles for Indigenous Learning Spaces. Safe Learning Spaces. Youth, Literacy and New Media in Remote Indigenous Australia. ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012 Retrieved from:   http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p197731/pdf/ch041.pdf

UDL: The UDL Guidelines. (2017, November 28). Cast.Org. http://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Last semester in EDCI 336, I was given an introduction to online learning in a form that was more focused on video conferencing; this was my first experience with diving deeper into the opportunities that technology can give for students who struggle to make it to school, whether that be due to disability, health, mental illness, geography, etc. When taking my prerequisites for the Elementary Education Program I took an Introduction to Canadian Politics class and we dove into how the unique vast geography of Canada affects voting and political policies, but I had never thought about how Canada’s rural setting and small population would affect education. The third reading this week highlighted why Canada ranks highly and has a long history of distance and online learning (Barbour, M & Labonte, R., 2018). There is no national funding, policy or governing body in Canada, and each province is responsible for funding, curriculum, and management of their educational programs. I have always known that each province has its own Ministry of Education and that education across the country has many differences, and when I began thinking of these differences, I began to grow concerned about inequalities that may arise with the difference of funding and management. This concern was highlighted when I reached the section in the article describing e-learning programs designed as First Nations, Métis and/or Inuit programs. There are only 3 programs across the country, and due to difficulty in funding, lack of community buy-in and expertise, and troublesome bandwidth there is a great deal of struggle attempting to establish more programs (Barbour, M & Labonte, R., 2018, pg. 606). I believe that this gap and inequality is something that should be researched and I would love to look into how differences can be made in this area of e-learning.

 

When I initially imaged what e-learning would look like, I thought of fairly individualized programs, where students were distanced from the classroom. I was better able to understand that e-learning can take many forms, and be an integration of within students learning journey in many facets; a few examples of these are Slack conversations and Padlet Q&As. I can see great value in utilizing these chat and question sessions in order to build a sense of community and belonging, as well as allow space exploratory talk. In EDCI 302, we discussed the definitions and implications of presentational vs. exploratory talk:

• Presentational talk: students language is focused on adjusting language and content to the needs of an audience, where a ‘final draft’ is presented for display or evaluation

Vs.

• Exploratory talk: the early stages of approaching a new idea, where the speaker is concerned with sorting out ideas and making meaning (Barnes, D. 2008)

Without discussion forums such as Stroke, I can see that students may lack opportunities to participate in exploratory talk, as so many of their assignments and work will require performative forms of communication. Our blog posts are wonderful examples of overlap of exploratory and performative talk; we are able to work through our thought process, show our learning path, and display this information in a performative setting, but is not as performative as a research essay. Creating a classroom (whether it is online, blended, or face-to-face) that allows for student input and expression of learning pathway lends itself well to an Open Educational Practice, where students “identify and locate learning opportunities for themselves as well as create learning opportunities for others” (Roberts et al., 2018, p. 530).

 

References

Barbour, M & Labonte, R. (2018). An Overview of eLearning Organizations and Practices in Canada. In R. Ferdig & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 600-616). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press.

Barnes, D. (2008). Exploratory talk for learning. In N. Mercer & S. Hodgkinson (Eds.), 

Exploratory talk in school (pp. 1-15). London, UK: SAGE Publications, Ltd.

Bates, T. (2014). Learning Theories and Online Learning. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories-and-online-learning/.

Roberts, V., Blomgren, C., Ishmael, K., & Graham, L. (2018). Open Educational Practices on K-12 Online and Blended Learning Environments. In R. Ferdig & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 600-616). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press.

 

In my experience, no matter the learning environment, students are motivated when personal connection and belonging are at the core of the “classroom”. When I imagine myself in an environment of learning online, I fear feeling like “just another face on the screen”, and that I will begin to fade into the background and lose passion and care for the material and my educational experience. I believe that in open and online learning spaces educators need to ensure that they are actively and purposely setting up opportunities for students to connect in both teacher-student interactions as well as student-student interactions and activities. In the article Social Interaction in K-12 Online Learning (2018), Garrett Dickers, A depicts how essential it is that teachers have an immensely involved and purposeful social presence while they continue and adapt throughout the course. A positive learning environment is fostered when educators share information about privacy and safety as it displays respect and care for others, fabricating an understanding of others and ways in which they can show respect for their peers and themselves.  When educators are actively involved and open with their students throughout the course, they are models to their students what a positive, safe, and respectful social presence looks like. When you mix rapport with modelling, students are motivated and able to safely navigate their own online presence.

When reflecting on the K-12 Social Presence Model (Whiteside 2015), I began to see an abundance of connections between their proposed five aspects and other course content that I have explored in our previous year of school. The five aspects are:

• Affective Association – how students and teachers show emotion online;
• Community Cohesion – seeing the class as a community;
• Instructor Involvement – how the teacher shows involvement in student learning;
• Interaction Intensity – what ways and how often students interact; and
• Knowledge and Experience – ways students share their prior knowledge and experiences with course content (Garrett Dikkers, Whiteside, & Lewis, 2017, p. 160).

The Circle of Courage is a model of positive youth development first described in the book Reclaiming Youth at Risk, depicting four universal basic needs for growth:

• Belonging — a sense of community, loving others, an being
• Mastery — competence in many areas, responsibility, and the ability to accomplish personal goals
• Independence — understanding of one’s power to make their own decisions and ability to set personal goals
• Generosity — the ability to share knowledge and empathy with others

These universal basic needs for growth lend themselves well Vygotsys emphasis on meaningful activity where there is a dialogue between personal experience outside of school and what a student learns formally in a course. This constant dialogue creates an environment where students are not only interested in what they learn, but they feel important in the environment in which they are learning. Dr. Rogers’ comment in Topic one blog post intersects many of my thoughts when she depicted the importance and ability of online and open learning to provide a holistic approach to learning, as well as allows for space in terms of accessibility, adaptability, and inquiry. Given my past experience working with diverse learners, a learning environment where inquiry and accessibility are at the forefront is incredibly interesting and exciting to me.

I apologize for the scattered nature of this blog post! As I began interacting with more material, I developed heaps of connections, questions, and thoughts about current and past course material. I’m realizing that technology is not one of my strong suits and that ideas may be jumbled before I can have a full grasp of the content. I hope to learn even more about how to utilize different modes of online learning to benefit different learning preferences as well as how to actively design purposeful social online experiences for my learners. As I learn online, I hope to save the tools that help me through my journey and share the knowledge I’ve acquired with my students in the future.

 

References:

Garrett Dickers, A. (2018) Social Interaction in K-12 Online Learning. In R. Ferdig & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 509-522 ). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press

Moll, L. C. (2013). L. S. Vygotsky and education. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca

Reclaiming Youth Network. “The Circle of Courage Philosophy.” 2007.

Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first-century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2