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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Assignment # 2 Part 1: Post #1 – Two trends Explained

In this post I’ll explain the two trends that me and my Learning Partner discussed.

1) My trend I chose:

Game-based learning or Gamification in education

Game-based learning or Gamification in education refers to the application of game dynamics, mechanics, and frameworks into the classroom Many educators have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to effectively utilize game dynamics to increase student motivation and achievement in the classroom. Research shows that the underlying dynamics that make games engaging are largely already recognized and utilized in modern pedagogical practices.

Gamification has become an increasingly pervasive part of education over the last decade. Educators in K-12 schools and post-secondary education have found creative ways to engage students by gamifying coursework.

For educators, mastering gamification requires restructuring current teaching methods. It is only successful if it is holistically integrated into the curriculum. Affixing game mechanics to pre-existing lesson plans in a slapdash manner can confuse and frustrate students; it can unnecessarily complicate simple processes.

2) The trend my learning partner chose

Augmented Reality in Education

Augmented reality in education will soon affect the conventional learning process. AR has the potential to change the location and timing of studying, to introduce new and additional ways and methods. Capabilities of Augmented Reality technology may make classes more engaging and information more apprehendable.

Educators know that the learning process should be all about creativity and interaction. Nowadays 80% of young people own smartphones. Most of them are active smartphone users that use these gadgets to access social platforms, play games and to be in connection with friends and relatives. In the meantime, much lesser part of young adults uses phones for studying purposes, to do the homework, dig information about a subject, etc. The potential of combining smartphones and Augmented Reality for education is big, though it still has to be fully discovered. AR, in various ways, could grant students extra digital information about any subject, and make complex information easier to understand. Nowadays we may find some excellent examples of augmented reality in education worldwide. Ability to connect reality and digital content has been steadily improving, opening more options for teachers and students.

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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Resources

Infographic: The Gamfication of Education

Link to infographic:

http://www.scoop.it/t/gestion-documental-by-diego-avila-1/p/4021039876/2014/05/09/infographic-the-gamfication-of-education

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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Augmented Reality in Education

Here’s my learning partner Harry’s article.

Augmented Reality in Education

Educators know that the learning process should be all about creativity and interaction. While teachers do not necessarily need to recruit all students into science, their goal is to get them interested in a subject. That’s where AR could come in handy.

Augmented Reality in education

Nowadays 80% of young people own smartphones. Most of them are active smartphone users that use these gadgets to access social platforms, play games and to be in connection with friends and relatives. In the meantime, much lesser part of young adults uses phones for studying purposes, to do the homework, dig information about a subject, etc.

Let's Build Your AR app

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The potential of combining smartphones and Augmented Reality for education is big, though it still has to be fully discovered. AR, in various ways, could grant students extra digital information about any subject, and make complex information easier to understand.

Nowadays we may find some excellent examples of augmented reality in education worldwide. Ability to connect reality and digital content has been steadily improving, opening more options for teachers and students.

#1 Augmented Reality classroom

Augmented reality animated content in classroom lessons could catch students’ attention in our dynamic day and age, as well as motivate them to study. Adding extra data, e.g. a short bio of a person, fun facts, historical data about sites or events, visual 3D models, would give students a wider understanding of topics.

While doing homework, students may scan certain elements of a book and receive text, audio or video tips from teachers. Or they may find useful information about the course, a teacher or other students which could lead to better communication.

#2 Explain abstract and difficult concepts

AR technology has an ability to render objects that are hard to imagine and turn them into 3D models, thus making it easier to grasp the abstract and difficult content. This is especially good for visual learners and practically anyone to translate theoretical material into a real concept. For example, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria in Portugal integrates AR into math lessons and students report it as helpful, easy and interesting.

#3 Engagement and interaction

By incorporating Augmented Reality into lessons teachers are able to involve students into the process with 3-dimensional models. It may be just a part of the lesson, like a teaser, or the support of the main topic with extra info from a different perspective. Like this case, when a Canadian tech company CASE transformed the wall of the school gym into a ball game by adding Augmented Reality layer to it. Kids through balls onto a wall to hit floating shapes and so have fun physical exercises.

#4 Discover and learn

Visitors of museums could access AR via smartphones and discover historical content related to objects. Additional information about what they see, though due to space or budget limitations, not all museums and landmarks can afford this. Once AR becomes more available, there will be new great opportunities for museums. The upside is that Augmented reality is already accessible to visitors through mobile devices.

#5 Objects modeling

Manual training, hand exercises, quiz solving etc. help earn a better knowledge of any lesson. AR apps for medical students may be one of the ways to learn human anatomy, explore more deeply. Augmented Reality basically means interaction with 3D models. And you can set the rotation, transparency, color scheme, styles etc. Finally, there could be more advanced animations via special gadgets like holographic lenses, instead of smartphones.

#6 Training

In many cases, theoretical knowledge is not enough to obtain proper skills in professional areas. Students shouldn’t be mere listeners and passive observers. Students of technical faculties especially need practice and hands-on experience in their areas. Through interaction, unlike VR, AR features could help perform a virtual practice – with augmented tutorials, digital modeling, and simulations, and acquire some experience in the end. It is not a secret that motivated and engaged students will understand a subject better and learn faster.

Augmented Reality Education Apps

Within augmented reality, in education, we can divide it into 3 categories of apps: the ones specialized for students, the ones for kids, and apps for self-education. Let’s start off with a few examples of AR apps for students.

Augmented reality apps for students

Elements 4D (Android / iOS) by DAQRI studio, an app for studying chemistry. It allows combining different elements as the simulation, to see how they would react in reality. To start it special triggers on printed cards are used. On their website, you can find lessons plans suitable for high school, secondary and elementary school programs. Take a look:

Anatomy 4D (iOS / Android) is best suitable for medical students. By scanning printed targets the application shows 3D models of a human body and allows to interact with it. Users may change and adjust any part of the human body, learn more about parts, joints, functions etc.

Corinth Micro Anatomy, available for Windows Mobile, is another human anatomy application that may be interesting for medical staff. Or Human Heart 3D app with less content, but more specific – to explore human heart in details. 3D model of a heart completed with various animations and textual tips about it.

AugThat (Android / iOS), designed by a former teacher, is the application that brings AR in a classroom. AugThat mainly targets students who lack motivation with help of 360-degree virtual photos and multiple 3D experiences.

Augmented Reality apps for kids

Math alive, developed for kids in up to 3rd grades, connect a computer, a camera, and specially printed cards. Pupils under a teacher supervision place cards in front of a camera, practicing basic counting skills. Animal Alphabet AR Flashcards is a similar AR app but for learning letters, the application brings cards “into life” by showing live animals when the answer is correct.

ZooKazam or Bugs 3D. ZooKazam (Android / iOS) in order to teach about animal species offers animated 3D models and various info-graphics about mammals, insects, fish, birds, and reptiles. Bugs 3D (Android) helps kids to know more about insects, placing quests and questions about them and showing descriptions and images to play with.

For fun activities, art and drawing there are Quiver and Chromville. To learn about plants and flora there is Arloon Plants (Android / iOS.). For the smallest kids check out Pete the Cat: School Jam app – it serves “pre-education” goals, like to teach empathy for live beings, as well as creativity.

AR learning & self-education apps

Google Translate (Android / iOS) is just great for studying foreign languages without a dictionary. By using Google Translate special “AR mode” you may instantly check up unknown words. Works well both for students and tourists, to navigate in cities abroad.

Amazing Space Journey, SkyORB 3D, and Star Walk. All of them have one purpose which is to study the skies with all its secrets. Learn more about stars, constellations, planets of the Solar System, galaxies, etc.

Tools/Platforms to create AR content

There is a category of AR apps that isn’t for educational purposes primarily, but they may serve as a tool to create augmented reality content for various subjects. Check out some of the following (the list is not exhaustive).

· Augment (Android and iOS) with packages suitable for educational purposes in schools and universities. The platform provides options to create 3D models, as well as multiple other useful features.

· ZVR, a powerful tool by Zspace that comes with an extensive toolkit to create educational materials. Students equipped with special glasses could interact with AR objects, while there may also be used by engineers and designers.

· Daqri Studio, the application to make AR projects and experiences, with examples of education apps like Anatomy 4D, Elements 4D.

· Blippar (Android / iOS) an AR creation tool already used for many educational projects and partnered with different media outlets. It visualizes topics and objects from print material turning it into 3D interactive models.

· Aurasma and Layar, two powerful and popular tools to create AR content designed by Layar Creator. Both of them have potential in many areas, not just education. Coming with user-friendly constructors, guides and tutorials, YouTube videos, audio tracks, images, https links, 3D models etc.

Conclusion

Despite the rising use of Augmented Reality in many areas of the modern era, augmented reality in education is still new and unsettled. Though possibilities of AR in teaching/studying are great, providing new ways of learning. Teachers get to catch the attention of students and motivate them better, while students get new tools to visualize their subjects and complex concepts, as well as obtain practical skills. Moreover, even parents can benefit – by engaging their children to study with playful apps.

https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/augmented-reality-education/

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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Learning with my partner Harry - 1

I had the pleasure of talking to Harry, my learning partner, 2 weeks ago. We kicked-off our partner by introducing ourselves and sharing our stories specifically around teaching. We quickly realized that we share passion for pragmatic and progressive type of teaching where theoretical knowledge is integrated with experiential learning and hands on practice. Aligning the theoretical world with the “real” world. We also share background of knowledge about “Electricity”. We talked for quite some time about electric cars. The discussion was a reflection of our teaching values; while the concept of increasing the usage electric cars is excellent, however needs to be validated from a practical point of view. Will the electric grid be able to accommodate a sudden increase in the number of electric cars. The answer is not under the current setup. Something has to give.

Harry picked the usage of AI in instruction as his trend of choice and I picked Game-based learning/Gamification as I trend I’d like to explore. The good news is that there is a bit of overlap and proximity between the two topics, so looking forward to the second discussion this week.

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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Reflection # 2

In this short reflection I’ll discuss the following quote: “21st century competencies include deep understanding, flexibility and the capacity to make creative connections and a range of so called ‘soft skills’ including good team working.”

Objective: What is this quote or idea about? What caught your attention?

This quote is about the evolution of competencies in the 21st century and the most critical contemporary competencies that organizations, employees, teachers and students should focus on now. Competencies have long been used by organizations as a framework to help focus employees’ behavior on things that matter most to an organization and help drive success. Competencies provide a common way to harmonize, select, coach and develop talent. The benefits are clear for employees and managers, and ultimately, the organization.

What caught my attention is the reference to the 21st century and the evolution of competencies. Last year a gave a presentation at BCIT about competencies and used the figure below to illustrate how competencies evolved over the centuries, specifically in the 20th century industrial revolution where the focus was more on tech skills given the industrial/labour driven economy and evolved to the more “soft” skills competencies in the 21st century “knowledge” driven economy.

Reflective: Why did you choose this quote or idea? How do you identify with it?

I chose this quote because I realize that we are living in a “knowledge economy” and the new competencies, specifically “soft skills”, are essential for continuous learning throughout an individual’s lifetime. Knowledge is now a central driving force for economic activities and depends increasingly on human and intellectual capital. The quantity and quality of learning thus become central with the accompanying concern that traditional educational approaches are insufficient (Meriam & Bierema, 2014). Key players like the government, educational institutions and educators need to respond to this change to help and prepare students to develop the knowledge, skills, and new ways of functioning to meet new expectations and challenges of today’s rapidly changing work environment. Below is how I identify with this quote and fit in this equation:

· For organizations, they provide an action-oriented translation of what it looks like to demonstrate the competencies that are key to success and provide resources to help them select and develop employees and provide language to guide performance feedback.

· For instructors, they’ve to assist and nourish students in acquiring knowledge and capacity to make creative connections and soft skills.

· For employees and students, competencies offer a description of the standards of excellence for current roles and potential future roles – in other words, they describe what “great” performance looks like. Employees rank the opportunity to learn new skills among the top five drivers of attraction and retention (2016 Willis Towers Watson Global Workforce Study – U.S.). What does this really mean for organizations?

Interpretive: What does it mean to you? What insights did you get from the quote or idea? How has your thinking changed by reflecting on this quote or idea?

As a business instructor this quote means a lot to me, as I see business organizations increasingly realizing that focusing on technical skills only without looking at the broader competencies will not be enough to develop leaders and drive career development for employees and eventually secure the organizational success. At the same time, most educational institutions are programmed to produce graduates with enough technical and theoretical knowledge required to perform a job. As an instructor, I’ve an ethical obligation to ensure that students must be taught and informed before graduation to advance their knowledge, competencies and skills to keep up with the rapidly changing environment and apply their competencies to diverse situation, this where my role as an instructor becomes very critical and time sensitive.

Decisional: How can this new or enhanced interpretation be applied to your professional practice?

My interpretation of this quote will impact my role as an instructor in two different ways. The first, is regarding taking my instruction skills to the next level, to live up to the 21st century competencies and be a role model to students. I can do this by reflecting and asking myself the following questions, prior to the lesson planning and delivery:

· Does my lesson or message speak to students’ minds and hearts? Does it inspire? Could I tell a story, are there inspirational quotes I could use, am I encouraging the students and showing I care? Do I promote deep understanding? Am I a positive example of the competencies and benefits of developing and using soft skills for continuous learning?

The second impact of my interpretation is regarding the learning outcomes for students. Students graduating from my class must learn and have a deep understanding of what “Competencies” are and why they are important. My students must embrace current critical competencies and acknowledge the fact that they evolve very rapidly. Students need to realize that in a fast pace knowledge economy, organizations require adaptability and flexibility of their workers, these requirements have led business organizations to search for more efficient alternatives to traditional job descriptions that become outdated very quickly.

In a very competitive job-hunting marketing, students need to be informed by instructors that employer require not just a degree, a diploma or a professional license from the applicant. There’s a market shift from job-specific duties to competencies; with emphasis on employee capabilities and their ability to demonstrable characteristics that enable high job performance.

References

Learning Zone mindfully thinking about learning

https://bsherry.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/what-is-deep-understanding/

Soft skills (n.d.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014) Adult Learning Linking Theory and Practice, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand

https://www.facultyfocus.com

The Art & Science of Quality Course Announcements: How to Avoid the Trap of the Info Dump (2019)By: Karen Costa

Blooms Taxonomy of Learning Flipped http://circlesofinnovation.valenciacollege.edu/circles/flipped-learning/

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amrshokryblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Reflection # 1

Introduction:

“The flipped classroom is….essentially reversing traditional order…this approach fits

adult education’s values of active learner engagement and self-direction” (Merriam & Bierema,

2014, p. 207). This teaching strategy makes efficient use of the instructor’s time so that he/she can optimize the classroom time. Each student-instructor interaction is focused and individualized to the learner’s needs and there are increased opportunities for collaboration between students. Mindful flipping of the classroom by incorporating the principles of adult learning promotes higher levels of thinking and learning in the Blooms’ taxonomy.

Objective: What is this quote or idea about? What caught your attention?

The flipped classroom maximizes the students’ attention span. The students are supposed to prepare ahead of class by reviewing interactive course materials like short videos of instruction. The Bunce, Flens & Neiles study in 2010 demonstrated that when students were engaged with active learning methods, they had less attention lapses, and students had longer attention spans immediately following an active learning activity, when the instructor resumed lecturing (University of Washington, 2013). The flipped classroom integrates active learning with instructor lecturing to maximize students’ attention span and thus their learning in and out class. After watching short videos or engaging in an activity the student answers a series of questions based on the content with immediate feedback. This method promotes the mastery of information more than just a basic understanding of it (Educause, 2012). Instructors can then prioritize classroom time for active learning only and if lecturing occurs it is for very short bursts. Students can progress at their own pace to maximize their learning. If students are having difficulty grasping concepts they can stop, pause and rewind the videos or seek additional resources to understand foundational concepts before moving on (Educause, 2012). The instructor can prioritize their teaching for the face-to-face classroom time with students and that’s what caught my attention. The instructor will be equipped with information about areas of challenge for students and then can provide a short teaching session based on those areas for the whole class or for just a small focus group. The instructor can also encourage collaboration amongst students and pair a student who has mastered a concept with a student who is struggling in that area. Class time can incorporate more creative active learning activities for higher level thinking on Bloom’s taxonomy. For example, the instructor can use problem-based learning or have group work so that information can be applied, analyzed, evaluated and created.

Reflective: Why did you choose this quote or idea? How do you identify with it?

A lot of the literature demonstrates the flipped classroom being utilized in K-12 classrooms but its application in post-secondary classrooms is also very relevant and can be very effective if it addresses all six principles of andragogy. This is very relevant to me as an instructor of adults who many of them are working professionals, speaking English as a second language, international students or all the above.

For the flipped classroom to work the student must embrace self-directed learning. This is one of the key principles of Knowles’ theory of andragogy because as students mature, they become more self-directed in their learning (Merriam & Bierema, 2014).

The instructor can utilize the other five principles of andragogy to make the learning as rich as possible for the adult learner. I will reflect more on this in the ‘Decisional’ section. The flipped classroom can be a helpful strategy for students who have difficulties accessing universities or people with language barriers. Students who must work full time or geographically live far from university campuses can benefit from learning the material at home on their own schedule. For example, many aboriginal people in Canada are geographically distanced from big cities with universities, which is a significant barrier for those students attending class and enrolling in post-secondary institutions. The ability for students to view instruction materials and videos at their own pace can be a huge advantage for students who speak English as a second language (Educause, 2012). They can pause and rewind the video to ensure they have understood the whole lesson before continuing forward.

As with any teaching strategy there can be some challenges as well. One difficulty can be if students are not ‘buying into’ the flipped classroom philosophy. Some students might feel resentful and wonder what they are paying for specially for international students, because they do not value the time spent in the classroom (Educause, 2012). Students require discipline to stay on task and if they don’t complete the work prior to class they could fall behind. Though I believe this can work as a strategy to promote student accountability and responsibility. The inaccessibility for students due to not having the required technology for viewing instruction materials and videos prior to class can be a large barrier for students (Sams & Bergmann, 2013). This can marginalize students from the outset. And lastly, there can be a tremendous amount of work and effort for instructors to flip the classroom, at least initially, the first time the material is taught. In subsequent years of teaching the same course, the instructor can utilize the same instruction materials and videos or minimally edit them to better meet the needs of the students. As time progresses the work should lessen.

Interpretive: What does it mean to you? What insights did you get from the quote or idea? How has your thinking changed by reflecting on this quote or idea?

Sams & Bergmann (2013) observed that; “courses that are more Socratic or inquiry based, or those that don’t have reams of factual content for students to learn, aren’t particularly suited to flipping.” The higher end taxonomy learning skills are best implemented in the

classroom. Programs and courses with large quantities of information that require remembering and understanding, on the low end of the taxonomy, benefit most from the flipped classroom (Sams & Bergmann, 2013). Most of the business courses that I teach have a theoretical knowledge component but require learning at the high end of the taxonomy as well. I think the flipped classroom can work perfectly for courses like this, because the theoretical knowledge is taught before class, and then classroom time can address problem areas and implement active learning activities to promote the higher-level thinking on Bloom’s taxonomy.

Decisional: How can this new or enhanced interpretation be applied to your professional practice?

Most of the courses that I teach in the business program that would especially benefit from flipping the classroom to augment learning. Currently when I teach these courses use the first half of the class to provide content information about a health condition, for example the 4Ps of marketing, and then utilizes the rest of the class for a case study for students to collaborate and apply this information. Flipping the classroom using screencasts (power presentations with instructor’s voice) recorded and provided to students prior to class ensures the students are well prepared on each topic area (Sams & Bergmann, 2013). Classroom time can be utilized to re-explain areas of challenge and then most of the time is for problem-based collaborative learning. The instructor becomes a facilitator of learning in the classroom and provides appropriate and relevant resources for students to solve the problem.

The student preparation work prior to class becomes a combination of two of the learning principles of andragogy: self-directed learning and internal motivation. The student uses self-directed learning to learn the new material, which consequently internally motivates the student to attend class to apply their learning, which in turn then encourages the student to continue using self-directed learning. The in-class portion of learning should then become the application of all the other principles of adult learning.

To provide diversity and increase engagement in class the instructor must actively seek out methods to mobilize the adult learning principles and adapt the class format weekly. The instructor must ensure the material is relevant to the student, appropriate to the student’s developmental role, have an immediacy in application and draw from the students’ experiences.

For courses that have significant theoretical knowledge component, I plan to utilize a gradual or partial approach to flipping the classroom (Educause, 2012). I would seek feedback from the students along the way as well, keeping in mind though that students may at first resist the self-directed nature of this way of learning. Self-directed learning is on a continuum and as students become more proficient in directing their learning and more familiar with content, then the teaching method can be adapted for students accordingly (Baumgartner, 2003).

I see great potential for the flipped classroom either in entirety or partially in many of the business courses I teach. Teaching strategies need to fit the learners, so it is important that the instructor prioritize collaboration with the students. The flipped classroom is the efficient use of the instructor’s time to personalize student instruction and to utilize classroom time for active learner engagement. Once the instructor has successfully addressed the barriers, and applied the principles of adult learning, the flipped classroom can be a fun way to humanize the learning experience and promote higher levels of learning (TED Talk, 2013).

References

Baumgartner, L. (2003). Adult learning theory: A primer (Information Series No. 392).

Columbus, OH: Center on Education and Training for Employment. Retrieved from

http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/docs/theory.pdf

Educause. (2012). Things you should know about…Flipped classrooms. Retrieved from

http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-read-about-flippedclassrooms

Merriam, S.B., & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Sams, A., & Bergmann, J. (2013, March). Flip your students’ learning. Educational

Leadership, 16-20.

TED Talk. (2013). Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education. Available

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs

Washington University. (2013). Are you with me? Measuring student attention in the

classroom. Retrieved from

http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/Journal/Reviews/Pages/studentattention.

aspx#.VIXxZ4eRP8s

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