Category: edci335

Thank you, Breanne, for sharing your thought on direct instruction in your blog post. I have a lot of experience studying in a large-scale class, and because of those experiences, I agree that direct instruction is a behaviorist model of teaching. Every teaching method has their strength, in my opinion, direct instruction is a very efficient method when it comes to teaching a large-scale class. However, I think that having students discuss in-class time can also provide efficiency as it helps students to cooperate and learn better. It also helps the teachers to have more accessibility to students’ studying processes. Therefore, I like the idea that you are planning to have students cooperatively learning while the main method is still direct instruction in your Interactive Learning Resource.

Thank you, Jiayu for your blog post on inclusive design. I agree that using video conference conference is one of the best way for teachers to teach online. Due to the pandemic, teaching online has become the most common method for teachers to teach. The video software are very helpful for teachers when they need to set up inclass activities. And also thank you for pointing out the usefulness of ZOOM and DISCORD for teaching. I personally find them convenience and accessible in most of the time.

Thank you, Huatian for sharing such a great video in your blog. The tips in the video are very useful for me to learn how to improve my leadership skills. I also really like your idea of taking notes and writing forums. To me, writing down notes has always been the most efficient method to remember things. And communicating through the forum also a great way for students to learn from each other. I am really thankful for your blog as it helped me to learn a lot.

Our topic of interactive learning resource is Cantonese. I searched “Cantonese basic” on youtube, finding that the third video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfID__s9xtg is a very helpful video for students who are interested in learning Cantonese. It is a very short video and, in the video, the instructor is doing some demonstrations on the pronunciation of Cantonese. The instructor wanted the students to listen and speak every time she demonstrates the pronunciations. In language learning, this type of practice and activities are the easiest way for students to learn. Although students are not required to take notes of the video contents, it is easier for them to learn because the notes on the video are very clear. I would suggest students record themselves doing the practices because they can listen to themselves afterward and compare to the instructor on the video to identify the difference. In that way, students can improve and be more accurate in pronunciation. Being accurate in pronunciation in Cantonese is extremely important as it could cause many misunderstandings due to the similarity in pronunciation of Cantonese words. We are planning to use zoom and discord as our main platform for students to learn. During the zoom session, after each lecture, we will break students into different groups and let them do the given practice. During the practice, we will go into each group and listen to their practice. In this way, we can be more effective to identify their mistakes and correct them. In that way, students will learn the correct pronunciation and have the ability to correct the others who do not have the accurate pronunciation. Discord is for students to do their weekly assignments; they need to record their practice for the instructor to review. The feedback will be provided after every Monday. The assignments should cost students 10-15 minutes to complete; the assignments are designed for 4 student groups. In my opinion, the video could provide more chances and examples for students to practice.

What is inclusive design?

Inclusive design is a design process that helps all groups of people to have accessibility to any products or services.

The rise of electronic products and the internet helped us to solve many difficulties we encounter in our life. So many resources are on the internet waiting for us to explore, unlike the days before the internet and the electronic products were popular, one single piece of electronic product with internet can provide most of the resource you need with accessibilities for many groups of people. These electronic products are a great help for those who has difficulty accessing the information they needed as these electronic products provide not only videos and images, they also provide audios and flexibilities. I remember when I was in high school, I got sick and had to lie in the bed for two days(it was a shame that it happened during a holiday). I could not even get out of the bed because I would get dizzy and throw up if I walk. I did not have many choices but to browse the internet on my laptop. And at that time, I really appreciated the subtitle showed in the videos because I was not able to hear well thanks to my head sickness. This is a very clear memory for me because I still remember that dizziness. Now that I read the Inclusive design post, I understand how important inclusive design is to the products and services nowadays. Many people are not able to receive the products and the services they wanted because of their disabilities. The Inclusive design really can help them to have access to those products and services they needed, it can also help the companies who provide the products and services to build their reputations.

In our interactive learning resource, we will be designing a suitable teaching plan for single mothers with two kids and have to work.

Thank you, UTAKRSH PATADIA, KAREN MCDOUGALL, SHREY PATEL and TRUSHA SAVALIYA for sharing your interactive learning resource.

I am sorry for the late review, it is really difficult for me to locate any errors from your peer review. I really hope that I could give you some helpful suggestions but your work is already a well-done work. Therefore, I think the best I could do is to review the strengths of your interactive resource.

Your interactive learning resource is very well-designed because it is very easy for readers to follow the contents. The table of contents certainly helps readers to see what you are going to present. The little split you put before every paragraph is also very helpful for readers to read through your work. This level of design almost had me confused your work with the professional teachers’ work. the way you provide the module links is also fantastic as they do not take any extra place on your interactive learning resource. I am really thankful you did that because that makes your interactive learning resource less wordy and more interesting for me to read. I also appreciate the way that you planned to teach the 2nd Grade student. The way you plan to encourage students to learn is so much different than what I experienced in my 2nd Grade. It is very hard for me to remember the exact scene (not because I slept through most of the classes, it is because I do not have a strong memory of my childhood), all I could remember is that almost in every math class, my math teacher was exhausted after restlessly teaching 5 classes, walked into our class and just stand in front of the blackboard teaching and writing down what we need to do in that class. Students like me never had a chance to experience such activities. Therefore, I agree with your plan on teaching the 2nd Grade as it not only helped to develop young students’ strength and encourage them to learn, it also prevents students like myself to fall asleep during classes.

In conclusion, your interactive learning resource is a very well-complete teaching plan, it is very well organized, very well written. All of you put huge amounts of effort to finish such a great interactive learning resource. It is very difficult for me to locate anything you need to improve in your interactive learning resource; however, I believe that your interactive learning resource also follows some other learning theories such as cooperative learning. It is not a matter that is enough to be a weakness as your interactive learning resource is mostly on a cognitivist approach. I am sorry that I could not identify any weaknesses from your interactive learning resource, I really believe that your work is very well-done and I do not think I would be able to identify any weaknesses even if I read your interactive learning resource for one more week. Thank you so much for providing such a great learning resource.

Hello Karen,

Thank you so much for sharing. I read your post on open pedagogies. I find it interesting that you use your own experience to be an example of the integration of open pedagogy. And I really enjoyed your explanation as it helped me to have a better understanding of your topic. Your experience of using OER really get my attention, I wish I had a chance to use such accessible resources for the courses I had, that could have saved me a lot of money on education. With that amount of money, I couldn’t even imagine how many snacks I could get at my young age. I really feel sorry for the fat belly I couldn’t get after reading your blog. I also learn how creating an environment of easily accessible education could help to teach pedagogy. I learn a lot from your blog. Great post! Thank you!

Hello Carla,

Thank you so much for sharing. Your post on experiential learning gives me a recall of a nightmare of an endless loop of doing math solving problems before the exam (alright, it was just a 3hour loop). It was at a night before an exam, one of my friends decided to sacrifice a night of sleep and introduce a learning method that is really similar to the method you introduced. Regardless of how much pain this learning method gave me, I have to admit that it actually helps me to understand better on those problem sets, after each time I finished a problem my friend asked me to think, reflect on the problem, I mean, he even asked me to solve that question with a different solution. Due to the fact that he sacrifices a night of sleep to try to help me, I could not reject him. Anyway, as a result, I fully understand the problems of those problem sets (at least that is what I thought). Thanks to my friend and his learning method, I gained so much confidence for the other day’s exam. However, in the middle of that exam, I encountered a stomach problem that made me swear to not eat certain food again in my life. Well, that is another story to tell. Anyway, your blog on experiential learning is really interesting to read, and the video and the podcast really help me to have a better understanding of experiential learning. Thank you for such a clear explanation. Great post! Thank you!

What is Cooperative learning?

Cooperative learning is a learning method that has the following characteristics:
1. Students are separated into a small group, each group contains three to four members.
2. Students are positively interdependent.
3. Students need to cooperative to accomplish their common tasks or learning activities.
4. Students are individually responsible for their work and learning.

Why choosing Cooperative learning?

If you are wondering how cooperative learning works, the video below should help you to understand.

Cooperative learning separate classes into a different group, each group should contain high achievers and low achievers. Cooperative learning is all about Student Center Learning, which gives students an opportunity to actively think, discuss, and practice, making the lecture less dependent on teachers’ direct teaching. In the process of cooperative learning, every student is not only responsible for their own learning, but also for their groupmates’. Therefore, Cooperative learning has the below Advantages:
1. Correctly treat the differences between students in class.
In the traditional classes, each student has different performances on different subjects. Cooperative learning uses the strategy of dividing students by their differences, letting them discover their own strengths and helping them to optimize their strengths.
2. Motivate students.
traditional classes are often focused on teachers’ lectures, students are passively receiving knowledge from the teachers, which makes students bored and less willing to ask questions. Cooperative learning changes the format of learning, students are now more actively contribute to learning.

How does Cooperative Learning Align with my pod’s learning blueprint?

My pod designed a learning blueprint for those who want to learn Cantonese. During the process of designing our blueprints, we find out that the easiest way to language a second language is to practice more often, not only by writing and reading but also speaking and listening. And we think that separating students into different groups can make the course more effective. In that way, teachers have more times to observe students’ learning process and thus have more time to take extra care of the students needed.