As part of feedback I received on my academic paper outline, Dr. Irwin DeVries encouraged me to give myself “some room to explore a little more freely” (personal communication, May 2018). I am going to apply his feedback to my blog and do a bit of uncensored freewriting for this post.
Where to start? I feel like I am behind in this course because I have been overwhelmed working on three instructional design projects for my clients simultaneously. But I am obviously learning something from LRNT526 because I just finished creating a full-day training course that applied the concept of critical inquiry, which is what this course is about.
While creating a training course, I realized having learners create their own learning materials (job aides, checklists, etc.) is not only aligned with constructivism, self-directed learning, and critical inquiry but also is extremely convenient in a time crunch. (I had just five days to create the course from start to finish.)
Preparing a learning plan and outline as part of a larger deliverable for LRNT526 has shown me the practical value of taking time to reflect before moving forward. I have been introduced to critical reflection in other courses, but this is the first time I have had the chance to practice it mindfully in real-life. I spent all day Monday reviewing content inputs and my previous MALAT readings to decide on the instructional design approach I would take, and I am so happy with the results. I hope my clients will be too when I present the course for their sign off tomorrow.
So, what does the training course I created have to do with curated video libraries and digital learning modalities? Absolutely nothing. The course I created will be delivered entirely face-to-face, and given the short turnaround, creating educational videos and getting sign-offs was not possible. That said, what I learned about learner engagement as part of my research into educational video has proven valuable, both professionally and academically.
I struggled initially to settle on a grounding learning theory for my academic paper, so I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole and spent a few (very enjoyable) hours reading a variety of articles about learning theories that support learner engagement.
The articles were not documented in my learning plan, and not all of them will make it into my final paper, but out of genuine curiosity, I found myself digging into the connection between learner engagement and interaction, the interaction equivalency theorem, situated learning, transactional distance, self-directed learning, and learner control.
One quote in particular stood out to me: “effective learning environments are framed within the convergence of four overlapping lenses” (p.47, Anderson, 2006). Those lenses are community-centred, knowledge-centred, learner-centred, and assessment-centred (Anderson, 2006). I realized in my exploration of educational videos as a learning modality, and my focus on learner engagement in particular, I was taking a very learner-centred approach.
In my readings, I also returned to the debate between Kozma (1994) and Clark (1994). They debated whether the medium itself influences learning or whether the choice of how to use media (aka instructional design decisions) influence learning. I do not think the debate was ever fully resolved, as both authors made valid points, but as I conclude this post, I cannot help but notice my discussion of educational video as a learning modality spent less time reflecting on the medium and more time on its supporting theories.
My freewriting has come to an end. My apologies for the long post, but as Blaise Pascal has been attributed as saying, “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter” (translation by Quote Investigator, 2o12).
References
Anderson, T. A. U. (2006). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), The Theory and Practice of Online Learning (2nd ed., Vol. 2006, pp. 195–215). Edmonton: Athabasca University.
Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will Media Influence Learning? Reframing the Debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7–19.
Clark, R. E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. Education Technology Research and Development, 37, 57–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299046
QuoteInvestigator (2012). If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter. Retrieved from https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
