Well, I am missing reading whatever I want, but the assigned articles were interesting as they do have some background for my project. My attitude towards the articles is coloured by what I want to be doing, which is continuing on moving towards my project, so I had a hard time reading them with care. I did get back into checking my Tweetdeck and Feedly and found some interesting bits! This site on questioning skills is applicable to the upskilling course I am doing right now for my International Baccalaureate work. From Tweetdeck, I found BCCampus has just released a new Math 11 open text! Didn’t even know about them and this should be helpful for my project!
I found the Weller article rather depressing as it listed a number of tech trends that, for the most part, have not been utilized greatly in elementary and secondary education. They have possibility, but the protection of privacy of our young students has limited implementation in some areas. Other reasons that I can see for limited implementation is lack of resources such as time on computers for students as well as lack of comfort in technology use in educators. I really connected with the statement “those who have been in the edtech field for a while should be wary of dismissing an idea by saying: “We tried that; it didn’t work.” Similarly, those proposing a new idea need to understand why previous attempts failed.” Story of so many of my years in education. And some people really cannot see further than “We tried that; it didn’t work” yet the current situation may be very different. sigh. . .
I think I was most interested in the historical article by Peter & Deimann. This article elaborated on how types of open education because closed because someone wanted to take advantage or it to make money. Even many types of open education started with a minor exchange of somehow, such as apprentices or the travelling teacher who was given room and board. I do not think open education will become successful unless the resources are funded by philanthropists because most creators need to get paid in order to afford to live!
What I enjoyed the most was the podcast that was just a tweet from our professor. I have always thought that self-motivation was a huge part of successful self-education. Students without a strong background in academics have a more difficult time being successful completing a self-directed course:
“While self-education seems to offer many advantages—especially equal access across class and racial lines—it doesn’t appear to be the all-in-one solution it promised. “That’s not how learning works,” said Servant-Miklos. “You’ll have people that come from a background where academic thinking is the norm. They will thrive… And the people who are not from those backgrounds, they will struggle and they will be told it’s their own fault. And that’s the really pernicious thing about self directed learning. At the heart of the theory is that anyone who is given the freedom to learn will be able to self-actualize. And that is just not true.”
The Zawacki-Richter & Naidu article on mapping research trends did not connect with me. It was just another article discussing what has been discussed. I am tired of academic readings and just want to read articles that have direct impact on improving teaching and learning and which may have impact on my final project for my Masters.
Resources
Blog: https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/building-questioning-skills
Podcast: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/when-information-is-freely-available-online-learning-institutions-are-forced-to-change-1.5361276
Website: https://open.bccampus.ca/browse-our-collection/find-open-textbooks/
Articles:
Peter, S., & Deimann, M. (2013). On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction. Open Praxis, 5(1), 7– 14. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.23
Weller, M. (2018, August). Twenty Years of Edtech. EDUCAUSE Review, 53(4). Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/7/twenty-years-of-edtech
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Naidu, S. (2016). Mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in Distance Education. Distance Education, 37(3), 245–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1185079
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