Category: Reflective posts

Designing for Diverse learning.

I really appreciate the topic of diverse learning design for a number of reasons. Particularly because of a number of issues that friends of mine have encountered, as color-blindness isn’t dealt with well in some academic settings in the US. This problem extends through many fields, including art and science, with lessons involving color theory, and practical exams involving titration and color change.

However, it is important to note that this is only a real improvement if they manage to impliment one of their more unlikely features. USB’s that change accessability settings on virtually any machine that they’re plugged into.

I admire the planned implimentation of braile in technology for those users who are blind and deaf, as this would allow them a larger amount of freedom. Overall, I think I like the hardware useage far more than the software side of things. The webcam tracking head or eye movement for people unable to use computers in a traditional manner is wonderful. Really, anything that expands range of communication for those people most unable to do so is wonderful, as it has the potential to increase their quality of life the most. As described by their project, the largest issue with older folks is educating them on the options that are avalible, however I think this issue expands to the population at large.

I am concerned about their example inclusive project not working very well on my computer, as the point of it is to be able to work on any device with minor effort on the part of the learner, and I hope that the final project will be much more effective. I’m also concerned about the project managers leaving something out, just because they weren’t aware of it. I don’t believe it’s a very high liklihood, as the example they gave were fairly comprehensive, but I could see options that would make things better for people with overstimulation being left out by accident, or a person with a different set of requirement attempting to use a divice configured to a different person’s needs who forgot to log out. Regardless, I think it’s a project with a lot of merit behind it, and I look forward to them ironing out the kinks.

As I mentioned, the developers might not have thought of everything. Is there any condition, or set of conditions that might make technology difficult to use that they might have overlooked?

 

Reflection One

The history of western education contains many innovations and shortcomings, this much is clear to almost every observer. Certainly, the issue of accesability is front and center in this conversation, whether in terms of affordability of knowledge, the disruption or outright distruction of indigenous ways of knowing and learning, or special needs in education.

The documentary Most Likely To Succeed, is provided for free through the Uvic webportal. I had the opportunity to watch this movie for a different course this term, and it outlines a blend of different teaching techniques, but fails to address most aspects of accessability. However, it does relate to some of the other questions posed for this week’s readings.

The documentary demonstrated student-centered learning, and highlights some of the benefits and drawbacks of it. While it does help students get more invested in the material, it is also a big adjustment to make, and can often cause a little uncertainty in students. I know that going to a self directed highschool led to me floundering in certain courses, as I was often uncertain what I was supposed to be learning.

However, I feel like High Tech High also requires a great deal more sychronisity, as much of the teaching and learning occurs in the moment, and that isn’t possible to capture or reproduce for later students, or students who aren’t able to attend class on a regular basis due to chronic illness or other issues.

Bringing the conversation back to the readings, Twenty Years of EDTech shows a little of the progress that has been made on the side of asynchronos teaching, but in my opinion, it still has a long ways to go. VR is perhaps the most promising technology for teaching, as it allows some practice of hands on learning in a safe environment, but the cost of the technology is still prohibatively expensive, and has many accesability issues that have yet to be addressed.

Furthermore, the Open Praxis article shows how the scale of education has changed over time, while the methods have largely remained the same.

Finally, in regards to connectivism, while the accumulation of knowledge from random sources around you resonates with my personal experiance, I have also ran into circumstances where I have been unable or unwilling to engage with this kind of learning. It might work better in different topics, or be beneficial for certain domains of knowledge, or just not be effective for certain people.

It’s difficult to have a universal standard, as humans are wildly diverse in physical, social, mental, and spiritual fields. Where one person might be content to wander from topic to topic, another might have a laser focus, and move from area of interests in a straight line, or stay in one area for their entire life. To have one standard for both of these people is also to fail each of them in some fundimental way, to say nothing of any of the thousands of other people who engage in learning for one reason or another.