#UWinDig 2020

For my media reflection, I chose the Technologist Module. As future educators, we must create digital tools that fit the student’s skills and enhance their learning experience. The technologist module provides models that transform teaching into a creative and innovative manner. Since technology is an ever-growing invention with many drawbacks accompanying its system, as educators we must take into consideration how the selected tools will benefit or deter student learning. The “design thinking approach” is a beneficial tool because it aims to solve the students learning difficulties and redefine problems in a collaborative way. The core understanding of the tool is understanding your students. The tool reframes these problems in a human-centred way as the user is directly affected by the design. The approach follows a five-stage process that include empathize, define, ideate prototype, and connect.

I decided to make a slidedeck because I thought it would be fun to make. The only experience I had with a narrated slidedeck was when I took an online class in university, that was how my professor taught.As I was making my artifact, there were a lot of technological problems for me. I created my slideshow and did my voiceovers on MS PowerPoint. When recording the presentation, I was looking for a tool to help online, but I discovered that PowerPoint can record the slides. I though that this plarform was going to be a holy grail.

However, when it came to recording the whole presentation, the slides and audio would not match. The audio would either lag, play on a different slide, or won’t play at all. This took a lot of finessing to make it work. And just when I thought my video was complete, my laptop crashed and it did not save the video.

I could not get access to the video at all but I found my PowerPoint online using the office365 website. However, the audio went missing. At this point I want to throw my computer away and create a infographic instead. But I did not want to give up, so I rerecorded my audio. I used my phone for the audio, and I exported the PowerPoint into a movie and I used my sister’s mac to use iMovie and I created my narrated slidedeck.  Overall, I though MS PowerPoint was going to be easy to navigate, it was a nightmare. 

My video link: https://youtu.be/J1JmNj7PN5U

I listened to Chris Friend’s interview with Amy Collier, “Questioning Learning”. The podcast talks about critical pedagogy and gets in depth with the importance with taking risks in the classroom. Amy Collier emphasizes when you standardize learning, it creates the idea of ‘best ideas’ which are based on assumptions from the class content, delivery, and the people in the classroom. It causes a lack of personal interest and individuality in the students and it creates one-size-fits-all model for students. To avoid this, Collier explains that students and teachers should be constantly asking questions about what kind of information is being given and how the information is delivered.

In addition, to avoid the notion of ‘best ideas’ teachers and students should focus on embracing the idea of taking risks in the classroom and coming to terms with the idea of discomfort of not having clear answers to move forward. That it’s the experiences of learning that build your understandings and prepare you for the incredibly unpredictable world that we live in.

When I listened to this podcast, it made me reflect on my time in school. I remember my early grade school days that consisted of the same routine of the teacher speaking, writing on the board, and giving out handouts. This kind of learning technique discouraged me from wanting to learn because it did not fit my style of learning. It was not until grade 7 that I had a teacher that constantly made us question the curriculum and made us realize that, as students, we have a lot of valid things to say. For me, she was the gateway of pushing the limits in terms of the curriculum, and that it’s okay to not be right or have answers all the time. I find that my experience is an example of when students and teachers embrace risk and uncertainty, it allows the students to be confident in what they learn and how they choose to communicate in the classroom.

For my artifact I chose to do a mind map because I believe it reflects the idea of how education shouldn’t be formulaic and linear. How the ideas and points should be free flowing, unexpected, and unpredictable, however, when done effectively it all comes together and makes sense. As I was making my mind map, I found myself over thinking the placements of certain points, however, once I let that anxiety go I embraced the idea of being unpredictable and it allowed me to experiment with the formatting of my mind map.