Category: Decentralization

My journey with this course has been phenomenon so far. I have gained knowledge through each topic about people-centred learning which I believe is the future of education. In the first module I learned about the fundamental ideas in learning which were Behaviorism (Intended learning behavior can be shaped through positive reinforcement), Cognitivism (view learning as internal mental processes, Focuses on how information is received, organized and retrieved), Constructivism (Propose that learners are constantly “strive for meaning”, create order of the knowledge and the outside world) and Connectivism (Build upon behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism, emphasizes on the autonomy, connectivity, diversity and openness perspectives in learning). The last one “Connectivism” integrates different entities as whole, the entities include computer networks, social networks, individuals and groups. (Siemens, 2015) points that in connectivism, learning is no longer an individual activity but rather a process of linking specialized nodes and information sources. Connectivism emphasizes on the learning autonomy by altering learning in different approaches.In my opinion, connectivism is definitely the most ideal way for people to adopt, especially in the digital age.

In module 2 I learned about the networked pedagogy, which is similar with the idea “Connectivism”. The networked pedagogy emphasized on providing learners with autonomy and accessibility to information, thus giving affordance to individuals’ learning process and shapes how people engage information and materials. I also explored the importance of instructor’s presence in the learning environment. Even though remote learning is amazing, personally, having instructor’s presence in my learning environment does make me more productive and more engaging to the material.

In module 3, I learned distributed learning, which summarizes the previous module. The distributed learning focused on multi-media methods of instructional delivery. I also learned about UDL which focused on people-centred learning. This idea explains that learning should be focused on individuals rather than information being provided to individual like an object. The UDL allows learners to be the best version of themselves without the feeling of being excluded, it helps learner to learn deeper with more affordances and flexibility. I also learned about the inclusive design. I believe the inclusive design is crucially important for individuals with disabilities or those who are from minority group with less accessibility to the learning material. It recognizes people’s diversity and uniqueness. The inclusive design differs from universal design with more flexible context. I believe having inclusive design in our education system is extremely beneficial and allows individual at the margins have the same accessibility to the learning material.

In conclusion, my journey with this course has been absolutely eye-opening and inspirational. I get to explore different ways of learning as well as designs that helps facilitate students’ learning engagement, accessibility and motivation. And I look forward to the future endeavours in this course.

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Learning Theories and Online Learning. [Blog post].

Siemens, G. “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.” (2005).

Barnes, C.L. (2016). “Where’s the Teacher? Defining the Role of Instructor Presence in Social Presence and Cognition in Online Education.” Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning.

In this learning activity I managed to incorporate annotation in text reading and I found it very helpful. As I read along the paragraphs, the annotated paragraphs was able to provide me key points of the text and making my reading process more focused without my mind drifting away. I was also able to read what my classmates think about certain topics and gain insights through it. I believe this is a form of decentralization that we learners can access the learning material in the environment that fits our own affordance. We are also able to discuss our thoughts, answering others’ questions and everyone who participated in this annotation are able to contribute their own critical thinking about the material, making each other more productive in reading the article.

I chose this topic because I have done annotation in my previous psychology class and I think it is a great way of decentralized learning. I found this very helpful in reading long academic articles. The annotation process allows everyone to extract their ideas and takeaways in the article thus students can build concrete ideas on certain topics/definations and have our own understanding of the material, not limited to the text.