Month: April 2018

LRNT526 U1 a3 – Academic Reflection on Khan Academy and a Specific Issue Exploration

Our team, Khan Artists, selected the Khan Academy as the Open Education Resource (OER) to experience and work with on this course.  Individually, I will explore the possible effects and consequences of adding a local complement to what a specific Khan Academy resource offers to the students from the standpoint of their regular curriculum.

Kami Thordarson thought Khan Academy’s to be a helpful resource to supplement her fifth grade instruction at an elementary school in California, US (Thompson, 2011, p. 2).  Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that actually offers short lectures in the form of YouTube videos available to the public through the Internet (Kaplan, 2010).

The outcomes that Thordarson reports after a few months of introducing Khan Academy to her classroom are impressive.  The results refer to students’ self-motivation on the one hand, and with increased individual performance on the other.  These aspects are perfectly aligned with the self-determination theory (SDT) which, as stated by Deci and Ryan (as cited by Chen & Jang, 2010, p. 742) explains from the standpoint of a general theory of motivation the dynamics of the human needs, motivation, and well-being with regard to the social context surrounding the individual.  SDT, as coined by Deci and Ryan (as cited by Chen & Jang, 2010, p. 742), implies the experience of choice as a core piece of human functioning.

Furthermore, SDT as a theoretical framework puts together elements of online learning such as autonomy, relatedness, and competency as determinants of motivation (Chen & Jang, 2010).  And last but not least, three elements correspond to fundamental aspects of online learning: flexibility for learning; computer-mediated communication and social interaction; and the challenge of developing or acquiring technical skills along with the content being taught (Chen & Jang, 2010).

As part of our team warm-up activity, each member signed-up in Khan Academy and took the first two introductory courses on how to program a web page.  The experience allowed us to confirm the simplicity and friendliness of how the content is presented, as well as the elements that keep the student hooked on using the resource.

The specific aspect that I chose to explore refers to the localization of a resource that would be complementary to the Khan Academy.  Without pretending to compete with Khan, the addition of the local resource aims to increase the student’s sense of ownership due to familiar elements that would be incorporated with the local resource.

It will be interesting to learn the effects local elements would create on the students, and if those elements actually favor the learning in the audience.  The setting would be as follows.  After completing a Khan video the student would see the corresponding local video that will cover the same content, and this time several features of the local environment in which the student lives shall be included in the lesson as well as one of the local teachers conducting the session.

Thank you for taking the time to read my work.  I will appreciate the feedback I receive from instructor and peers, since it will contribute to my further researching the topic and learning deeper with this assignment.

References

Chen, K. C., & Jang, S. J. (2010). Motivation in online learning: Testing a model of self-determination theory.  Computers in Human Behavior 26. 741–752. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/32717732/Chen_Jang_CHB_%282010%29.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1524290148&Signature=5bvLt2pL2XXwe%2Fl6d8%2F2txOxTko%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DChen_K._C._and_Jang_S._-J._2010_._Motiva.pdf

Kaplan, D. A., (2010, August). Innovation in education: Bill Gates’ favorite teacher. Fortune. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20101223035558/
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/

Thompson, C., (2011, July). How Khan Academy is changing the rules of education. Wired Digital. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents
/40764790/Khan_Academy_technology.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYY
GZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1524258037&Signature=6nHI8vA7MOFFH49qhUZMPjrdbpw%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DKhan_Academy
_technology.pdf

Final Reflection

As the end of the course gets closer I become aware of its richness.  What has been covered with the readings, collaborative sessions, activities, assignments and, most of all, teamworking have made LRNT525 one of the most comprehensive pieces of the MALAT program so far, and maybe the best part of my assertion is that I have heard it from my peers… and I agree.

Reading my first post I noticed that a few weeks ago I thought differently about change in general.  With regard to education, and specifically involving digital learning, there are times when it is necessary to cause change regardless of the interruption of continuity that comes with it.  As I stated in the last assignment, the awareness of the disruptive nature of change often makes me refrain from causing it, although through the fourth assignment it became clear that at times it is the right path to follow.

Several aspects are of relevance so that we know we are planning a project that involves some changing, and it has to be in the right direction.  Involving the adequate people is of utmost importance because simply stated if there is no people, there is no project.  Somebody would have to provide the resources to carry the project forward.  Somebody would have to be interested in the project to take place.  Somebody would have to be involved in performing the activities and tasks that conform the project. And, finally, somebody would be using the outcomes of the project once it is implemented.  That is why without stakeholders there cannot be a project.

It is interesting to note that in my final assignment the project for a change related with learning technology would bring in an additional piece of technology, and the complex system it would have to become in good terms with in order to succeed is the bureaucracy of the public school system, not another technology platform or environment.  Which stresses the importance of identifying the stakeholders and involve them on time in the project.

I am planning on following a research path closely related to the topic I developed for the last assignment of LRNT525, and it was so motivating to think forward on what the project might bring me in contact with, very exciting!

On a last note I would like to thank my instructors and peers for their patience and collaboration.  Studying remotely is proving to be both challenging and fulfilling.

Thank you all, we will keep on working along our journey!

Alfonso