Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

In the reading, Students Need to DO Something, The author’s experience with passive learning in a K12 classroom reminded me that the same thing happened to me when I was in high school. There were some teachers who just opened their PowerPoint each class and then finished their lesson by reading it and explaining it as it was on the PowerPoint. This resulted in many students not fully understanding. The boring lessons lead to passive learning for many students. Because they are bored with the content, they are not willing to actively learn. This is one of the reasons why I think active learning is not common at the K-12 level. If you want students to be active learners, then you have to make it fun for them to take your course. Active learning is certainly something that interests you and you take the initiative to learn, whereas passive learning is forced and may not be very willing in your mind. It is good to be in active learning for a long time, to enhance the initiative of learning, and the efficiency of learning will be very high. And long-term passive learning may trigger resistance, more and more do not want to learn the rebellious mentality.

Reference

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch v=wWGulLAa0O0&t=58s

Mathers, B. (2017). Wikipedia – Active vs Passive learning. https://bryanmmathers.com/wikipedia-active-vs-passive-learning/ CC-BY-ND (images for Active/Passive Learning interactivity)

After this week, I knew how to use video storytelling to drive connections through narrative. Video storytelling is a powerful tool that can break down language barriers. The video combines sight, sound, and motion to evoke emotion. Video allows you to show and tell in ways that still images cannot, and can convey a story in seconds – arguably making a greater impact than any other form of communication.

Here this a video to help your vlog and be a better storyteller:

After I watch the video  7 Storytelling Techniques Used by the Most Inspiring TED Presenters, I love Zak Ebrahim’s speech. Because his speech pulled me into his story, I could deeply relate to his experience and it resonated with me a lot. When I observed him during his presentation, it was easy to pull the audience into his story. This is inextricably linked to his presentation skills.

-Use a Conversational Tone

In Mayer’s Personalization Principle, When you narrate your video, use a friendly, enthusiastic, conversational tone. Complex words and disconnected sentences are difficult to read. Zak Ebrahim did a great job at this point, as his presentation was very easy for the audience to understand and did not contain complicated phrases.

-Build in Accessibility

In Zak Ebrahim’s speech video, he uses Closed Captions. We can be displayed it with the video player and can be turned on or off. Captioning provides an assistive feature for people with hearing impairments who may not be able to hear the audio content in your video. But captions are also valuable for viewers who are not hearing impaired. They can be useful when viewers are unable to hear your video properly, such as when they are in a noisy environment (e.g., on public transportation.)

Reference

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsWzPMCv7w

Effective educational videos | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University (15 min) – Applying Merrill’s and Mayer’s principles to creating effective videos for learning.

Mayer, R.E. (2001). Multimedia learning. London: Cambridge University Press.

Ebrahim, Z. (2014). I am the son of a terrorist. here’s how I chose peace. Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist. Here’s how I chose peace. | TED Talk. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/zak_ebrahim_i_am_the_son_of_a_terrorist_here_s_how_i_chose_peace

This week, I learned that backward design is very important for Educators. Because they used to design learning experiences and instructional techniques to achieve specific learning objectives. The backward design begins with the goals of the course in terms of what students should learn and be able to do and then works ‘backward’ to create a course that achieves these desired goals. Taking into account the needs of their students, teachers can choose the most appropriate methods to help their classes achieve the learning outcomes.

That is my Chinese culture Course Plan Template:

In-game learning

I love the game-based learning experience. Although there are many benefits to using it in the classroom, I prefer it to more old-fashioned teaching methods for one simple reason: it’s more fun. In my high school, my English teacher always use Kahoot to help us learn English. That is very helpful for me to learn English. In my opinion, games with winners are perfect for use in the classroom. If teachers use competitive games in the classroom, students are likely to be more engaged and cooperative. Merrill concluded that motivation comes from learning, not the other way around. Students get motivated when their new knowledge is applied to real-world problems they haven’t encountered before.

Merrill’s First Principles in-game learning

-New knowledge is applied by the learner

-New knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world

-New knowledge is demonstrated to the learner

In my way, those three principles are often missed in my experience. Merrill’s teaching principles are a popular and successful model for instructional design because they can be universally applied to any online course, regardless of the subject matter. It helps course builders focus on teaching how to solve real-world problems, test existing knowledge, demonstrate potential solutions, check comprehension, and challenge students to solve tangible problems themselves.

Reference

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First Principles of Instruction. ETR&D, 50, 3. pp. 43-59.

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. Understanding by Design. 2nd ed. 2005. Web.

Merrill’s First Principle of Instruction – (20 min) – A synthesis of Merrill’s principles from an instructional design perspective

After watching the video and reading, I have also gained some basic understanding of Canva and have used the App. Canva is easy to sign up for, using email, a Google account, or a Facebook login. After creating an account for free, you can choose to use it as a teacher, student, or anyone else. This will tailor the experience to your needs and make searching easier. It offers many virtual templates so we can use the designs and add our own changes. This allows us to focus on our own themes without wasting time. I think I would use it to create both my presentations and posters ideally. Because it is very easy to search for the images and backgrounds I need. In my opinion, I will use hierarchy to help focus my design, Leverage contrast to accentuate important design elements, Make sure that my designs have balance, and Optimize color to support my design in the future. Most people think of Canva as being used only for creating images. But you can create invitations, planners, business cards, blog banners, newsletters, menus, certificates, workbooks, websites, flyers, and much more. There are also many resources for online education.

What I did on the Canva:

Reference

What is Canva and why should you use it? – A quick primer for people who have never used Canva before.

Design and Layout with Canva (9 min)

After reading those articles and videos, I think Sketchnoting is very useful for our study. It can help us remember what we learn easier. The whole idea behind adding sketches to your notes is that it taps into parts of your brain that would be dormant if you only used words to explore ideas. The combination of the two is the most powerful – using text and visuals while taking notes. By the way, I like using the iPad to Sketchnotes in every class, the app calls notability. I love taking notes with sketches and, to be honest, sketching has completely changed the way I learn, think, and organize my thoughts. I used to remember everything: classes or meetings etc. It helps me to remember most of it, including some key concepts. 

About Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia

Regarding Mayer’s 12 principles, I believe that the Signaling Principle, the Temporal Contiguity Principle, the Segmenting Principle, the Pre-Training Principle, and the Multimedia Principle are all principles that I use in my studies. You can make use of the signaling principle here by thoughtfully using features such as highlighting important words and using animated arrows to point out important information. Another way of using the signaling principle is to use slides or scenes to separate learning sections. Mayer found that learners performed better on recall tests when they were able to control their own pace of learning. And the principle of pre-training states that humans learn more efficiently if they already know some of the basics. Also, the multimedia principle states that humans learn best from words and pictures, not just words. This principle underlies all of Mayer’s principles, which state that images and text are more effective than text alone.

Reference

DeBell, Andrew (2020) , How to Use Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning, Waterbear Learning

Sketchnoting for College Students – Practical strategies for incorporating sketchnoting into your learning in university.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ItcHag3agE&t=2s