ETEC524 Final Synthesis

Reflections

Anneke Nussbaum

ETEC 524

synthesis

Learning
Technologies
Selection
Design
Application

journey

2022
Goals
Learning
Future

INSIDE

flight path ● course experience reflection ● next steps

Welcome

TO MY JOURNEY

This digital book is a synthesis of my learning journey throughout ETEC 524 “Learning Technologies: Selection, Design, & Application” in UBC's Master of Educational Technology Program. Reflection is important to the learning process because, as Devers, Devers, and Oke (2018) emphasize, self-explanation and elaborative interrogation enhance active thinking as we focus on making connections, evaluating, and synthesizing our learning through retrospection. By connecting my learning throughout the course with my initial educational goals from my Flight Path I am enhancing my generative processing to make sense of the course material by “organizing the incoming material into coherent structures and integrating these structures with each other and prior knowledge" (Devers et al., 2018, p. 13). Each page of this book provides a summary of my original "Flight Path Goals" set out at the onset of the course followed by "Parting Thoughts" in which I reflect on my course experience and learning in relation to this goal and the next steps I see for my future. The final pages house my references and a "meet the educator" section.

ANNEKE NUSSBAUM

Discussions

COLLABORATION

3 QUALITIES OF THE E-TEACHER (Anderson, 2008a, p. 360)
1.   Like dealing with learners,… have sufficient knowledge of the subject domain,… convey enthusiasm,… learning motivator,… pedagogical understanding
2.    Have technical skills… to navigate and contribute effectively within the online learning context
3.    Have a type of resilience, innovative views, and perseverance typical of all pioneers in unfamiliar terrain

desktopnexus.com

TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING

Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) emphasize the importance of “joint problem solving and shared learning” as well as how “computer-based tools encourage spontaneous student collaboration.”

FLIGHT PATH GOALS
Explore ways in which we can adapt face-to-face practices to a technology enhanced context, with purposeful engagement, participation, and teacher presence while avoiding "increased teacher monitoring and control over the learning process" (Gulati, 2008, p. 188).

Build a repertoire of strategies and applications to keeping discussions student-driven, reflection-oriented, meaningful and open format to give learners the autonomous space to think, reflect, organize, and connect.

PARTING THOUGHTS
Teachers, as leaders “set and communicate the intellectual climate of the course, and mode qualities of a scholar, including sensitivity, integrity, and commitment to the unrelenting pursuit of truth” (Anderson, 2008a, p. 357). Designing online synchronous and asynchronous discussions with a constructivist mindset is challenging. However, with tools such as Miro and Playpausit, I feel that I can evade the common teacher and content-centric pitfall of online learning that Bullen (2014) warns about by guiding my discussion prompts in the same way I do in my brick and mortar classroom – with visible thinking in mind. Rather than me asking questions, students are prompted to question what they see and read, pull what they think is significant and use those pieces as fuel for discussion. Anderson (2008) emphasizes that “effective learning activities lead to opportunities for students themselves to uncover these misconceptions” (p. 359) and this drives my practice. Moving forward I’d love to explore tools such as Perusall (which I couldn’t use without a school account) and CLAS (which seems similar but more robust than Playpausit) to enhance discussions. I’m excited to use my unit of learning with students next semester so that I can assess the effectiveness of the discussion forums I created on Miro and reflect on student interaction and learning. ◾

LITERACIES

multi

NEW MEDIA

"The readers of interactive narratives must be in an investigative mood, for they are required to process information and make decisions in order to progress through the text" (McErlean, 2018, p. 137).

FLIGHT PATH GOALS
I have been experimenting with literature, especially poetry, and exploring the creative potentials of digital media and platforms as we expand our understanding of what it means to read and write in today’s digital culture.

Third generation electronic literature takes creative writing and coding to social media platforms (Flores, 2021), spaces in which youth are invested I’m interested in examining ways in which educators can integrate affinity spaces into their learning environments to extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom, build literacy, and enhance student efficacy.

PARTING THOUGHTS
Marshal Mcluhan (2003), Bolter (2001), and McErlean (2018) focus on the “remediation” of text in relation to the development of emerging multiliteracies. I have spent this semester in a deep dive into the literary landscape of new media, not just as a high school ELA teacher, but also as a creative writer, content creator, and consumer of text. Many high schools prioritize literary studies over new media with the misunderstand that media is a “soft option.” Hobbs and Jensen (2009) contend that teachers need to "guard against our prejudice of thinking of print as the only real medium" (p. 2) and should examine literacy through “sustained exploration of the deeper relationship between symbol systems, culture, and cognition" (p. 3). My focus, in designing a unit on Electronic Literature, is to explore with students the mediated world of new multiliteracies, moving beyond a traditional notion of critical media literacy to engage in a participatory culture with peers to increase cultural expression, shift attitudes, and empower one another.

In the design of my unit of learning, I synthesized the research of Devers et al. (2018), Anderson (2008), and Tobin (2014) among others. While Bolter (2001) and McLuhan (1960) emphasize that new mediums come from older mediums and The New London Group (1996) focus on the notion of the redesign when it comes to new media texts, it’s significant to note, that they create a kind of active reading lived within the physical space of the text that engages gestural literacies in the meaning-making process. Alexander’s (2014) future “renaissance” scenario of education with “digital storytelling” at the center nails the ubiquitous nature of media and the impact it has come to have on our lives, allowing “everyday people to seize the creative moment and reach a massive audience.” Even in the last ten years we’ve seen a birth of what Flores (2019) calls the third generation of electronic literature since “the increasing demand for digital skills in the workplace has resulted in growing numbers of programmers, designers, digital producers, coders, and web developers.”

My continued exploration of the role electronic literature needs to play in high school education will lead me in the development of a full New Media 11 course centered on the study and creation of digital texts. This will extend to integrate computational thinking with the humanities, something I see lacking in many secondary schools, since the idea of technology and coding is often aligned with science, engineering, and math (STEM), rather than creative writing and reading. Studying new media culture and affinity spaces alongside content analysis and creation will support learners in more than just “digital citizenship” but will develop much needed multiliteracy skills. ◾

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