I chose to revise this blog post because it was my very first post, and I was still trying to get the hang of blog posting and feel like I can go even more in-depth. My original post has been blockquoted, and my updated additions will be regular text.
How can teachers effectively build relationships by encouraging safe communication and interactions in K-12 online & open learning spaces? What did you already know, what do you know now based on the course readings and activities, what do you hope to learn?
In reading the LeadSV article, I received a better-rounded understanding of what “human-centred design” and “instructional design” mean. Human-centred design focuses on empathy while instructional design focuses on effectiveness of instruction. I believe both offer insight into how educators can effectively build relationships. By being human-centred, we recognize our students as individualized learners, and valid their different learning patterns. Students who feel recognized and validated will be able to focus their learning in a more meaningful way.
Foster relationships & Demonstrating respect
I believe, especially in this day and age, that fostering good relationships and mutual respect is both easier and harder than ever. With the option of communicating with anyone you want just by picking up a smart phone or hopping on a laptop, the instantaneous ability to communicate is as accessible as ever. There is a downside I believe though. With the new use and integration of technology in so many aspects of life, there has come a sort of “tech isolation” created by the loss of intimacy that face-to-face interactions possess. People’s emotions, feelings, inquiries, and intentions can be lost in translation from real-life to virtual communication. Courses are now offered where students could potentially do the entire course without interacting with their teacher or fellow classmates. I believe this is a great loss for those whose learning thrives off of building those meaningful connections, K-12 and beyond. It is so important that we adapt our ability to foster these relationships in order for our students to learn and even more importantly, retain what they learn. That kind of learning leads to the enrichment of their overall learning experience.
Regan & Jesse’s article brings up a lot of ethical issues regarding profiling that is leading to discrimination of students based off of collected data. This is something I was really surprised to learn about, as it was something I had never even understood to exist. With my increased knowledge on privacy and security, I now recognize how harmful this is, as it is categorizing students in a very impersonal way, using their data rather than their own personal traits as a human being. It reduces unique individuals to one-dimensional data collection that isn’t an accurate representation of their qualities as a human.
In regards to A. Garrett Dickers “Handbook of the research on K-12 online and blended learning,” he mentions Vygotsky, and his theory of the “Zone of Proximal Development” or “ZPD.” We learned about this in one of our classes last year, and it was described as being the zone in which students can best absorb and understand what they are learning, and a teacher acts as a scaffolded guide. This idea is highly dependant on fostering meaningful relationships between students and teachers in order for students to reach their ZPD, and excel in the best way they can.
Dicker’s also acknowledges the importance of learner-teacher interaction in building an effective teaching ecosystem built on safe communication. As outline by the teachers in Open High School of Utah, six important aspects of a teachers engagement are:
- designing and organizing learning activities;
- facilitating discourse with students, parents, and other teachers;
- providing students with one-on-one instruction;
- nurturing a safe and caring learning environment;
- motivating students to engage in learning activities; and
- closely monitoring student behavior and learning (p. 797). (Dickers, 2018, pg. 214)
I believe “safe communication” is a multi-faceted word, as I think it can also mean having open communication with parents, as they are a part of the learning ecosystem.
All these aspects promote a learning environment based around social presence, and the importance of it in facilitating an encouraging learning space for all involved.
I hope to continue to further study the resources I have been provided, especially the Handbook of Research of K-12 online and blended learning. There is obviously a lot to read, and I’m looking forward to having this as a resource now.
I wanted to talk to my mom about how she was, as a high-school teacher, striving to ensure safe communication and interaction with her open and distributed online learning class ecosystems (students, parents, guardians.) I have paraphrased her response.
My mom’s response:
She talked about how the sudden jump to online learning affected a lot of students in a negative way in terms of motivation. She can see on her learning platform (Moodle is used in her district) that some students were barely and sometimes never online. Students would try to enter zoom calls with cameras and mics off, and it made it difficult to evaluate engagement, or even presence in online classes. This posed a problem to her, as her emails, messages, and other attempts at contact were being ignored/going unseen. The way she resolved this issue was by creating an ongoing communication with parents, as they were now even more pivotal in their child’s education now that the learning was being done from home. This helped tremendously, and it was even found out that some students had told their parents that they had no work, and we now on an extended summer break! By having this open communication with parents, there was an ability for them to hold their child accountable for their school work.
Connections to Course Content:
Develop an awareness of the potential of human-centered learning in online and open learning contexts. – This topic revolves around the practice of human-centred learning, and it’s positive impacts on learners. Human-centred learning might be executed differently in online and open learning contexts, but the core values of it (social presence and relationship-building) remain the same.
Critically reflect on and articulate concepts around modality, pedagogy, and access, including distributed and open learning theory, online and open learning history, privacy laws, social learning communities, open research, and open data. – Particularly with Regan and Jesse’s article, this topic reflects on privacy issues that did not exist in a time before online open and distributed learning. With the newly increased accessibility of these kinds of platforms, we must also take into account how to navigate newly brought of problems that arise such as discrimination via data collection/exploitation.
Sources:
Garrett Dickers, A. (2018) Social Interaction in K-12 Online Learning. In R. Ferdig & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 509-522 ). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press.
Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
Added source:
How Human-Centered Instruction brings human-centered design to workplace training — Lead SV Custom L&D. (2014). Lead SV Custom L&D. Lead SV Custom L&D. https://www.leadsv.com/hcn