Hello again from Team Blue! (Leona, Ano, and Andrea)
Based on the feedback we recieved we have made some updates below. Here is what you will be able to expect during our facilitation week. In the interest of open and reflective learning we have highlighted or struck-out the changes we have made since our draft version:
During our facilitation week September 16th – 22nd, we will be guiding the class as we explore the following question:
How can digital learning facilitators leverage emerging iterative AI technologies technologies such as iterative AI, chatbots, machine learning, and virtual facilitation to act as their facilitation personal assistants to simplify, automate, and even enhance the practice of digital facilitation?
We believe that evaluating digital learning tools (as we did in LRNT 527) is a critical skill for educators to develop in our rapidly expanding digital world. We seek to challenge our classmates to identify ways in which they can leverage digital learning tools as their own personal facilitation assistants in their teaching contexts.
By the end of this week’s readings and activities you will be able to evaluate digital learning technologies such as iterative AI, chatbots, machine learning, and virtual facilitation to the extent that you can identify in your own teaching practice where you could leverage these tools to assist learning facilitation.
Learning Activities:
| Timing | Activity Name | Delivery | Description | Social, Cognitive, and/or Teaching Presence? |
| 1 week before facilitation – complete | Schedule synchronous session | Asynchronous Moodle discussion forum | By means of an Opinion Stage poll posted in the Moodle discussion forum, learners will vote on a preferred time for the asynchronous session. We chose to use Moodle to host our opinion poll as we knew it was a platform our learners were already familiar with and were in the habit of checking frequently, so we felt that would give us the highest participation rates in our poll. We chose the platform Opinion Stage as it was a free ditigal tool and claimed to provide code which could be embedded into a Moodle discussion post, although we found that not to be the case. Still, this platform allowed us to share a poll link with our learners to gain feedback on the best time for our synchronous session. | Teaching Presence (organization) |
| Day 1 – 3 | Ice-Breaker Question | Asynchronous Moodle discussion forum | Learners will be asked to identify if they already use any of They will also be asked to post a meme, image, or gif describing how they feel about using emerging technologies in their teaching/ facilitation practice. We are again choosing to use a Moodle discussion forum to host our ice-breaker question since this is a platform our learners are already familiar with, and in the habit of checking at the beginning of each week. | Social Presence (Exploration Phase) Teaching Presence (interaction by the facilitators with the learners’ responses) |
| Day 2 – 4 | Weekly Reading(s) | Asynchronous open learning resources | Learners will be asked to read and take notes on at least one (potentially two) exploratory readings on the topic of emerging technologies which support digital learning facilitators. Learners will be asked when exploring the reading(s) to identify at least one (potentially more) technologies they might find helpful in their own facilitation/ teaching practice. We have chosen open learning resources for our learners to read throughout the week. We will be positing them on our Moodle platform to again provide a predictable flow for our facilitation week. | Cognitive Presence(Exploratory and Integrative) |
| Day 4 Thursday, Sept. 19th @ 7pm PST | Synchronous Session | Zoom (including recording) using the LRNT528 Zoom Room | Learners will be able to participate (or watch the recording of) an interactive Zoom session to explore the topics identified in the readings and digital learning technologies identified upon reflection by the learner. The facilitators will present a short lesson (20 minutes) followed by an interactive activity using a white board to brainstorm. With the assistance of the facilitators and their classmates, learners will identify which potential objectives may exist for these digital solutions and develop risk/objection mitigation criteria where possible. Incorporate the following question: From what we’ve presented about AI digital tools supporting the role of a facilitator, what is one way in your own practice you might want to try using AI tools? What hesitations or concerns do you have? What excites you? For our synchronous activity we will use the Zoom platform as it allows for interactivity in a way that works for the individual learners, including whether or not to use their camera, whether to speak aloud or use the chat, and whether to attend live or watch the recorded session afterwards. We believe this will lead to greater participation due to learners having sufficient choice in how they engage with the lesson. We also plan to make use of interactive tools during our lesson, including the zoom white boards, chat, emojis, and a kahoot quiz to check for understanding. These tools are all accessible to us and the learners without additional cost, include accessible features such as automatic closed captions and transcripts, and should work well on both mobile and PC/laptop configurations without additional plug-ins needed by the learner to participate. | Social Presence(Class discussion) Cognitive Presence(Application of readings and identification of mitigation strategies) Teaching Presence(Moderating discussion and brainstorming, solutioning with potential mitigation strategies) |
| Day 6 or 7 | Fuzzy & Clear Poll | Asynchronous Moodle discussion forum | By means of an anonymous survey posted in the moodle discussion forum, the facilitators will solicit feedback on which topics are fuzzy (where the learners would like to learn more) and which are clear (where the learners feel confident) to provide self-assessment data for the facilitators, as well as feedback on what could be facilitated better next time. Facilitators can also use this forum to share additional resources for future reading which address the learners’ identified areas for future learning. For this summative activity we will return again to Opinion Poll in order to obtain anonymous feedback so learners feel confident sharing freely. Our hope is that using a tool which we already leveraged in our opening activity will mean it is familiar to the learners, allowing for high participation rates. | Teaching presence (assessment of learning, evaluation of learning effectiveness) |
We look forward to gathering your feedback on our topic, learning objective, and activities so that we can make amendments and deliver an engaging, useful facilitation week. Thank you in advance for your feedback,
Leona, Ano, and Andrea