ETEC 530
Constructivist Strategies for E-Learning
"Not the beginning, but the beginning of my heightened reflection."
I have decided to begin my reflective journey here because this course was so highly grounded in metacognition, one of the themes for my ePortfolio. Clearly, by the title of the course, a key tenet underpinning both content and structure, was constructivism. While I was not new to either of these concepts when I began this course, my understanding and application of each was certainly extended. In addition, my own philosophies and strategies of using learning technologies was heightened in two ways; through participating in this course while teaching asynchronous online courses (Grade 12 English).
More on Metacognition
|
More on Constructivism
|
More on Media Literacy
|
Additionally, it was in this course that I was challenged to rework my educational philosophy; something I had not done since becoming a teacher 5 years prior. With experience under my belt and an evolving toolkit of education I was able to develop a more current statement on education.
More on my Philosophy of Education
Taking this course following 510 scaffolded me to being successful here. I had really embraced the feedback I had received and applied that here. For example, here there is far less reliance on text for communication, the transitions are smoother, the length is shorter, and background music blurs out much interference than was seen in the stop-motion artifact.
My attitude towards the value and role of assessment perceptibly shifted. This new perspective, where assessment is not a judgment of a person, but rather of competencies (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004), allowed me to learn and grow from assessment and to not take it as a judgement of my worth.
My attitude towards the value and role of assessment perceptibly shifted. This new perspective, where assessment is not a judgment of a person, but rather of competencies (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004), allowed me to learn and grow from assessment and to not take it as a judgement of my worth.
The recognition of this shift in my own thinking evidences cognitive regulation in the form of monitoring and evaluating. I was now able to objectively apply previous feedback to current projects, rather than just tossing aside an experience that didn’t go as well as I had wanted.
Movie Review
This assignment was simply to review a movie in the frame of Pritchard's (2014) descriptions of various types of knowledge. While most of my colleagues chose to go with a traditional, written format, I was ready to push my technology use and the feedback I'd had up to this point into action.
Film Synopsis:
The film I looked at was It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012), directed by Don Hertzfeldt . Wikipedia offers the following synopsis, “It's Such a Beautiful Day is an experimental black comedy-drama animated film directed, written, animated, and produced by award-winning animator Don Hertzfeldt as his first feature film. The film is divided into three chapters and follows the story of a stick-figure man named Bill, who struggles with his failing memory and absurdist visions, among other symptoms of an unknown illness. The film employs both offbeat humor and serious philosophical musings. It received critical acclaim and won numerous awards.” (2017)
Framework for Review:
The review is framed through concepts from Pritchard’s What is this thing called knowledge (2014). Concepts include testimony, indirect realism, idealism, the problem of other mind, and the problem of memorial knowledge.
The film I looked at was It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012), directed by Don Hertzfeldt . Wikipedia offers the following synopsis, “It's Such a Beautiful Day is an experimental black comedy-drama animated film directed, written, animated, and produced by award-winning animator Don Hertzfeldt as his first feature film. The film is divided into three chapters and follows the story of a stick-figure man named Bill, who struggles with his failing memory and absurdist visions, among other symptoms of an unknown illness. The film employs both offbeat humor and serious philosophical musings. It received critical acclaim and won numerous awards.” (2017)
Framework for Review:
The review is framed through concepts from Pritchard’s What is this thing called knowledge (2014). Concepts include testimony, indirect realism, idealism, the problem of other mind, and the problem of memorial knowledge.
More on Multiple Technologies
Here, you can see I was taking more artistic risks. I combined Video Scribe, Camtasia, YouTube, and the Creative Commons to create this. The difference at this point is that I had had some experience with each of these platforms and was stretching my application and synthesis, rather than beginning from the beginning.
What was resonated for me again here, was the sheer time and breadth of exposure to media-making resources needed. This experience and understanding overhauled the way I implement technology projects in the classroom. Rising out of this, I embarked on an 8-week long media-creation project in which my students were required to utilize community resources (technology and human) at the local makerspace. This was a risk for me, and for the students, but given the time and space to do this, every group was able to produce a multimedia public-service announcement!
What was resonated for me again here, was the sheer time and breadth of exposure to media-making resources needed. This experience and understanding overhauled the way I implement technology projects in the classroom. Rising out of this, I embarked on an 8-week long media-creation project in which my students were required to utilize community resources (technology and human) at the local makerspace. This was a risk for me, and for the students, but given the time and space to do this, every group was able to produce a multimedia public-service announcement!
Movie Review Reflection
For each module of the course, we also had to submit a reflection on a post of our choice from that module. I chose to include my reflection on the movie review as my meritorious post. In this reflection, I have noted that I have failed to make broader connections to content outside the course. While I did intentionally engage with the Pritchard (2014) content in relation to the film, I stayed within the context of the film, and did not include a reflection of my own experience. “That being said, making this piece was actually a transformative experience for me.” (Therien, 2016). In this statement, I am able to combine the metacognition functions of monitoring and verbalizing declarative knowledge. Not only am I aware of where my growth has occurred (technology), I can also identify areas I have not made connections to (making connections).
|
More on Criticism
|
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
Where to Next?
References:
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
Hertzfeldt, D. (Director). (2012). It's Such a Beautiful Day [Motion picture on Netflix]. USA: Bitter Films.
It's Such a Beautiful Day (film). (2017, January 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:35, March 25, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=It%27s_Such_a_Beautiful_Day_(film)&oldid=759512552
Pritchard, D. (2014). What is this thing called knowledge? London: Routledge.
Therien, J. (2016). It's such a beautiful day movie review . Video. University of British Columbia.
Therien, J. (2016). Movie review reflection. Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Audio Clip References:
Fosnot, C. T. (2005). Teachers construct constructivism: The center for constructivist teaching/ teacher preparation project. In Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Jenkins, H. (2007). Confronting the challenges of Participatory Culture - media education for the 21st century (part two). Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2(2), 97-113.
Kafai, Y. B., Peppler, K. A., Lemke, J., & Warschauer, M. (2011). Youth, technology, and DIY: Developing participatory competencies in creative media production.Review of Research in Education, 35(1), 89-119.
Swoyer, C. (2014). Relativism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/relativism/
Therien, J. (2015). Keyword 4: Participatory competency. ETEC 512 Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Therien, J. (2015). Statement on Education. ETEC 530 Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Therien, J. (2015). Week 12 post. ETEC 530 Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80-91.
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
Hertzfeldt, D. (Director). (2012). It's Such a Beautiful Day [Motion picture on Netflix]. USA: Bitter Films.
It's Such a Beautiful Day (film). (2017, January 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:35, March 25, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=It%27s_Such_a_Beautiful_Day_(film)&oldid=759512552
Pritchard, D. (2014). What is this thing called knowledge? London: Routledge.
Therien, J. (2016). It's such a beautiful day movie review . Video. University of British Columbia.
Therien, J. (2016). Movie review reflection. Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Audio Clip References:
Fosnot, C. T. (2005). Teachers construct constructivism: The center for constructivist teaching/ teacher preparation project. In Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Jenkins, H. (2007). Confronting the challenges of Participatory Culture - media education for the 21st century (part two). Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2(2), 97-113.
Kafai, Y. B., Peppler, K. A., Lemke, J., & Warschauer, M. (2011). Youth, technology, and DIY: Developing participatory competencies in creative media production.Review of Research in Education, 35(1), 89-119.
Swoyer, C. (2014). Relativism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/relativism/
Therien, J. (2015). Keyword 4: Participatory competency. ETEC 512 Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Therien, J. (2015). Statement on Education. ETEC 530 Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Therien, J. (2015). Week 12 post. ETEC 530 Unpublished manuscript. University of British Columbia.
Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80-91.