{"id":754,"date":"2018-05-17T22:25:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T04:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/?p=754"},"modified":"2018-05-17T22:25:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T04:25:44","slug":"critical-academic-reflection-for-may-7-13-yes-im-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/critical-academic-reflection-for-may-7-13-yes-im-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical academic reflection for May 7-13 (yes, I’m behind)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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).\u00a0 I am going to apply his feedback to my blog and do a bit of uncensored freewriting<\/strong> for this post.<\/p>\n

Where to start? I feel like I am behind in this course because I have been overwhelmed<\/strong> 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<\/strong>, which is what this course is about.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0but also is extremely convenient in a time crunch<\/strong>. (I had just five days to create the course from start to finish.)<\/p>\n

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<\/strong>. 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<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong> as part of my research into educational video has proven valuable, both professionally and academically.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong> that support learner engagement.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong>, I found myself digging into the connection between learner engagement and interaction<\/strong>, the interaction equivalency theorem, situated learning, transactional distance, self-directed learning, and learner control.<\/p>\n

One quote in particular stood out to me:\u00a0 “effective learning environments\u00a0are framed within the convergence of four overlapping lenses” (p.47, Anderson, 2006). Those lenses are\u00a0community-centred, knowledge-centred,\u00a0learner-centred, and assessment-centred (Anderson, 2006).\u00a0I 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In my readings, I also returned to the debate between Kozma (1994) and Clark (1994).<\/strong> They debated whether the medium itself influences learning or whether the choice of how to use media<\/strong> (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.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

References<\/h4>\n

Anderson, T. A. U. (2006). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), The Theory and Practice of Online Learning<\/em> (2nd ed., Vol. 2006, pp. 195\u2013215). Edmonton: Athabasca University.<\/p>\n

Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will Media Influence Learning? Reframing the Debate. Educational Technology Research and Development,<\/em> 42(2), 7\u201319.<\/p>\n

Clark, R. E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. Education Technology Research and Development,<\/em> 37, 57\u201366. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/BF02299046<\/p>\n

QuoteInvestigator (2012). If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/quoteinvestigator.com\/2012\/04\/28\/shorter-letter\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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).\u00a0 I am going to apply his feedback to my blog and do a bit of uncensored freewriting for this post. Where to start? I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt526","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}