Learning Outcome #1 – Describe the potential of human-centred learning in distributed and open learning contexts
Learning Outcome #5 – Conduct research into and critically reflect upon emerging and future educational technologies
I feel as though all of my blog posts have touched on both of these learning outcomes extensively. With all of the readings we have done, and resources I have discovered, I have learned so much potential with distributed and open learning and educational technologies!
In my topic #2 discussion –
I mentioned a bit about how distributed and open learning has been a pivotal point this past year and a half. With the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the globe were confined to their homes, and thus their computers, for their learning. We have all had to make these extreme changes, and it wasn’t easy! I remember being so overwhelmed with the amount of resources I was able to use, but also so grateful. There is so much potential to open and distributed learning, and I have experienced first hand just how much there is. Below are some notes that I took for topic two:
In our pod project, we talked a lot about open and distributed learning (it’s what the project was about, after all!).
We were able to discuss extensively the benefits of both open and distributed learning, and went back and forth about which to choose. Below is a screenshot from the pitch proposal from our pod project. It outlines why our characters’ persona is best suited for distributed learning, as she lives abroad and prefers the multimodal elements of an online learning environment:
This past week, my group has been discussing the types of OER’s that we can be using in an elementary school classroom. We are all elementary education students, so the topic of the potential for open resources and distributed and open learning definitely sparked our interest. Below are some screenshots from our chat.
I learned a lot about the potential for open and distributed learning, through all of the readings and also what my colleagues had to say about it. I was also able to learn through the connections that I was making, and how similar the definitions of open and distributed learning were to this course and my previous ones. I also learned the importance of educational technologies and open resources in this day and age. Especially during the pandemic! If it weren’t for all of the resources we have available to us, I don’t think students would have made it through the last year and a half.
Overall, this topic was very interesting to me. I am still doing research about the ways in which I can incorporate not only distributed and open learning, but also OER’s into my future classroom. As seen above, I am curious about Google Classroom and if that constitutes as and OER. Depending how openly visible the page would be, this would be a great way for students to post and share their thoughts, which elementary aged kids can do!
I have some experience using Scratch and Pixton as well, which are both really great resources. I am excited to bring these ones into the classroom, as they are super fun to work with! I am so grateful that I took this class, because I have discovered so much about open and distributed learning, and how we can use OER’s in the classroom.