Reflections on Learning Environment and Technology

Reflections

The Learning Environment and Technology has been an amazing experience to me. When the course began, I knew that it was about technology and supporting teaching and learning with technology. I followed carefully the lesson plan but I couldn't to put the bits and pieces together until the Learning Management Systems under the Special themes section. Then I saw the enormous opportunities and how the LET degree courses fit into my future career prospects. I am a fun of online learning education and I have personally taken some online lessons hence this course has given an in-depth understanding of how it works.

In the Learning Environment and Technology course, there were 3 main themes with subthemes and a workshop section. The 3 themes were ICT literacy, Special themes and Project-oriented and emergrent themes. In this blog post on my reflections, I will sharing my opinions on what I have learnt and its usefulness in education and the entrepreneural opportunities that exist out there.

ICT Literacy

The journey began with creating a blog and curating content. I have always wanted to blog but I never did. I am happy because I finally created one. I had heard about content curation but I didn't know what exactly it is and how to go about it. After a short introduction, I began researching about it and I realised it wasn't a very difficult task. I was amazed that there were countless technologies that supported content curation and how easy it was to use them even for free. I was particulary surprised by the enormous quantity of educational content on Pintrest and other social networks that can be used for free. All that a teacher needs is a computer and internet. But he or she needs to sift through to find suitable content. Also, it was so easy to curate video content from youtube just by creating a channel. There are a lot of short and simple tutorials on YouTube on how to do almost everything especially with the "DIY" search word.

The Personal Learning Environment was a buzzword to me but I found out it was very simple. PLE is about tools and technologies for learning. It can be online or offline environments. In the PLE blog post, I have diagram that shows my personal learning environment created with coggle. I have to update it now since I have used some new environments in this course. PLE's may be open (can be extended easily) or closed, may allow or disallow personalisation. It can also be controlled by institutions such as schools if they own it (Van Harmelen, 2006).  I would prefer the open PLE that can be personalised. As at now my PLE is not connected because they are from different vendors but it will be great if they can be connected though it may look very complicated. Maybe its better this way. It is good that some learning environments allow you to sign in with your already existing email or social network account otherwise, the learner will be bombarded with multiple accounts and burdened to remember password (some environments have specification for password). Though they are learning environments, they can also be used as a teaching platform. Personal Learning Environment encourage lifelong learning by providing tools to support that learning. It brings different worlds (academic and everyday life learning) together and supports different learning needs and styles (Attwell, 2007).  PLE's can serve as platforms for both integrating formal and informal learning and fostering the ability to regulate one's learning (Dabbagh, & Kitsantas, 2012).

The two technology giants Microsoft and Google also have many tools, technology, tutorials, online courses on their educational products. I have used Office 365 (by Microsoft), GSuite (by Google). Particularly interesting is the resources available for teachers and educators which includes training with certication. Also there, are short courses for students as well. They provide both software and hardware for education. I have taken a certification course with google and I plan to take the Google Teacher's certification.

Creating learning materials was very useful because I learned that content can be curated when creating learning materials. Officemix, H5P, ThingLink, etc can all be used to create educational content. Some of these technologies allow you to monitor and track how students engage with the material been it video or text. Learning materials can salos be simulated to enhance stduent's understanding. Lastly, the learning materials can be as interactive hence students can interact with
 the learning materials now. Creating learning materials can be done easily by editing curated content to suit the your lesson.

Classroom Hardware and Software theme was interesting. All the physical tools as well as software tools examples of classroom hardware snd software tools. I was privileged to use Via Krammer, Apple TV, Document Camera, 360 camera, etc during this course. These technologies makes it possible for content to projected or mirrored on bigger screens that the whole class can see. I believe its a good technology that can support both teaching and learning. I am glad I have been exposed to how hardware and software can support teaching and learning. Now I know that I can find almost any technology just by searching for it from the internet.

Information Literacy theme enabled me to update my searching skills. Though massive resources abound on the internet, finding information requires one to search using keywords. The search results produced is dependent on the keyword searched for. There are tips that makes searching easy. Google has lessons for advanced functionalities that makes brings out better search results. It was also good to know where to find academic literature. They are many free and paid databases where one can find literature to support findings. In these, databases, good searching skills is important to find relevant materials.


Special Themes

Learning Managment System was my favorite topic in this course. I was able to put the bits and pieces together in this workshop hence I have a big reflection on this. With LMS, I can create online course and mange it. LMS's are not only for teaching and learning but its a platform for providing services in exchange for money.  LMS are also used to manage document and track students progress. The many existing LMS applications have some common features or functionalities (eg. progress tracking, collaboration) for managing and tracking educational content.
Standards, Certificates and Badges: The elearning industry have standards that guide the creation, hosting and distribution of elearning content consistent. These standards include user interface standards, platform compatibility standards, production quality standards, instructional design standards. In addition, the IMS Global Learning Consortium founded in 1995 develops  standards to enhance collaboration between the stakeholders. Certifications (electron certifcates) are often issued by a number of elearning educators (Coursera, Edx, Udemy, Google Academy, etc) when learners successfully complete the course. A badge can be issued instead of a certificate. Open badges are digital badges that has been embedded with the skills and achievements of learners and are shareable on social platforms.

Personal Experience in creating Online: Creating an online course wasn't difficult. There are many free tools and resources that can be used. Moreover, free LMS's made life easier. I created a course on design thinking using Eliademy, an LMS created in Finland. It is free to use with many features similar to the commercial LMSs on the market. In my blog post on "Creating Learning Materials", H5P, ThingLink, OfficeMix, and PhET simulations were used to create lesson material. There are many more tools to create engaging and interactive lessons.
Personal Experiences in studying Online
I have taken quite a number of courses online with Coursera, Edx, PluralSight, Alison, Big Data University and Google. Each of these platforms have their own way of working. The instuctors or leactures also have their own style of working. Like the traditional schools, online courses are producing graduates who are unable to work on real-life projects. I believe that after taking an online course the learner must be able to solve problems but that's not the situation. A lot of students quit and are not able to finish their courses. Reasons for quitting are mostly related to loss of interest or motivation, unsuitable and less engaging content. I do not know how these problems can solved but the success of online requires a close collaboration between all stakeholders. Innovative elearning needs to be created.

Augmented Reality technology is one way of creating immersive education content. Content that augments the physical world of learners makes learning more of an experience rather thatn abstract. In addition to this workshop was Osmo, an interactive game that aids learn by doing and learning through play. These technologies can be used both at home and in schools.

Virtual Reality is similar to augemented reality that also supports experential teaching and learning. This may be a way to encourage students to think creatively and innovate their physical phase. I have a lot of fun exploring some of the possibilities that both technology has to offer for teaching and learning process

Project-oriented and emergent themes

This theme not only exposed us to computational thinking and fabrication but also how to apply them in the classroom. After the workshop we had the opportunity to practice and use these technologies in the Rajakyla school project.

Basics of Programming and Computational Thinking was an interesting theme as well. I liked the unplugged computational because it gives the opporunity to teach the concepts of programming and computer science without coding. This can be can be used to introduce students to programming in a sublte form. In this lesson, computer science courses like Human Computer Interaction design was used to explain how to design interfaces and products that are usable and does not require users to require users to think so much before they use something. This concept can applied in any industry to create usable products and hence will benefit students in whatever career they decide to pursue in future.

Micro:bit programming also allows students to either code with block editiors or write the code themselves. Its suitable for kids of all ages because they can code just by picking and using precoded blocks. I tried a couple of examples and it was fun. I believe introducing students to programming through microbit will stimulate an interest to pursue programming to a higher level. During the Rajakyla school project, students were introduced to micro:bit programming it was amazing to see how their ideas came to life. It was many self-taught with self-instruction that guided students to code at their own pace and take challenges they could handle. I saw how creative students can be when given the opportunity.  

3D design, printing and laser cutting was interesting. I struggled with it in the begining but I was able to do it later. I must confess that I was impressed with Tinkercad. I was able to design and create things I never thought I could. If I was successful and creative, then younger students will be even more successful. Students of Rajakyla school were amazed when we introduced the course to them in the begining. With a few instructions, they started exploring and began to create and innovate new things. Its quite multidisciplinary because the students also learnt how to measure and consider 3D dimension in their creative work. It was a life-changing experience for the students and teachers.

Gamification is one of the many ways teachers can motivate their students. They can create interactive content and encourage students to learn through play. I did not have the opportunity of playing Minecraft, but with the little research I did, I found it has a lot of potential for learning. Osmo is an example of games in education. I also saw some students using games to learn English which a good way of learning because students tend to learn more while interacting with content and must be encouraged in schools. It's not a substitue for teaching though.

Conclusion

The Learning Environment and Technology course has enlightened me and has made me smart because I know where and how to find the resources and information I need for my academic work and future career. I am glad that the different part of the course can be connected to each other in creating educational content.

References
Attwell, G. (2007). Personal Learning Environments-the future of eLearning?. Elearning papers, 2(1), 1-8.
Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and higher education, 15(1), 3-8.

Van Harmelen, M. (2006, July). Personal learning environments. In Advanced Learning Technologies, 2006. Sixth International Conference on (pp. 815-816). IEEE.