Open online education is in its relative infancy and with that come many problems and growing pains that need to be addressed. It is important to be conscious of the way online technology bring us together socially both positively and negatively. We need to explore what work and what doesn’t and challenge ourselves to ideas that are different to our own to expand the conversation in search for truth and a better society. It is also important to consider the thing outside the social side of online education, such as data collection and the environmental and labour impacts of making technology.

 Cliques and Closed Academic Communities

Academia has been accused by some of being too politically correct to the point of stifling debate before it has begun, sometimes stopping debate on subjects of merit. In Funes and Mackness’ example of Richard Dawkins coming to speak at the University of Berkley in 2017, Dawkins was likely not going to speak about Muslims and more likely on science and evolution (his subject area). Given that, it could be said that letting him speak about his subject matter does not equal hate speech despite his opinions on other subjects (as unfortunate as they may be).

On the other hand, I believe it is important that there should be room to shut down certain topics for debate. I think most people would agree that white supremacy is wrong and would likely not wish to welcome a debate of its merits. The only thing this would do is make a bunch of white people feel some power and victimize people of colour for no good reason. Perhaps universities need weigh the benefits versus the drawbacks when disputed speakers come to their facilities and then make the judgment call.

I sympathize with the University’s as well who have to consider the school population at large. University’s have been working hard for some time to make minorities feel welcome. It does not serve that interest by alienating them with speakers who may espouse views that could be seen as offensive or even hate speech.

Non-physical Communication and Detachment

I have always felt that people are willing to say worse things on the phone than in person and that goes doubly so for texting and the internet. As technologies distance us from each other and separate us physically we lose a context sometimes that the person on the other end of the communication is a person and that we would likely never speak to them in a harsh, mean, or rude way in real life.

Also, what makes online communication arguably worse than oral communication is that we have time to concoct a rebuttal and be our most clever and (sometimes) informed than we can in the moment of an in-person conversation.

Reading:

Funes, M., & Mackness, J. (2018). When inclusion excludes: A counter narrative of open online education. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(2), 119–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1444638

Knox, J. (2019). What Does the ‘Postdigital’ Mean for Education? Three Critical Perspectives on the Digital, with Implications for Educational Research and Practice. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-019-00045-y

Caines, A., & Glass, E. (2019, Fall). Education before Regulation: Empowering Students to Question Their Data Privacy. EDUCAUSE Review, 54(4). Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/10/education-beforeregulation-empowering-students-to-question-their-dataprivacy

Social media and open access online education are powerful tools for those who decide to use them. They open us to others and new information in ways that could have only been dreamt of in the past. But both of these applications of the internet are relatively new and thus are still growing and changing as we begin to figure out what works for us and what does not.

Personal and Professional Social Media

An interesting struggle that can take place when using social media is deciding what you should and should not post. This problem is compounded when you are balancing both a personal and professional/academic presence. Sometimes, when the wall between the two breaks down (context collapse) it can lead to problems. Trying to keep personal and professional separate is difficult and sometimes impossible. What you say in your personal profile to friends and family you may not want to be affiliated with your professional brand. This has led to some people even being fired for their personal use of social media which reflected poorly on the company/institution they work for or belong to. The bigger question may be, should personal and professional be separated? you are only one person and no matter what you are posting on social media, whether personal or professional, it does represent you and your character.

It is possible that some scholars are realizing that it is difficult to keep your personal and professional life separate online unless employing strict posting discipline and control or posting anonymously. I think over time people are finding it easier to not separate the two and their may be some good reason to that. It could humanize you on an academic level. It would allow others to see you as a person and not some big brained intellect who has no time for the common people. It could also open up your friends and family to understanding what you do professionally and get to know you in that regard too. Of course, this can be a double-edged sword and invite criticism and online harassment when you were not seeking it.

The Shortcomings of Online Education (MOOCs, Etc.)

The standard person may not be interested in OED or MOOCs because the are generally big, long winded courses that require time and a commitment. I believe that there is a form of education, whether legitimate or not, that is taking place in the form of short 5 – 10 min YouTube videos. The average person doesn’t want to sit down and hash out an online course. They want to solve their problem now and move on. I don’t care about the history of the automobile and its design changes over the century, I want to stop that damn ticking noise that my car makes.

The internet and media and general have trained the average person to enjoy short clips that are entertaining and then to move on. If you are going to keep people’s attention for more than 5 – 10 minutes you had better be entertaining. I’m afraid to say it but most post secondary education is not very entertaining. Often it can be a little boring and dry. It may be worth the time to reassess how MOOCs are made and the format they take. Perhaps if they were more palatable to the average person they would be more widely used. YouTube channels like CrashCourse are a good example of an engaging and entertaining way to teach bigger concepts, or at least introduce them.

Readings:

Open Scholarship 

Veletsianos, G., & Shaw, A. (2018). Scholars in an increasingly open and digital world: Imagined audiences and their impact on scholars’ online participation. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(1), 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2017.1305966

Open Data 

Atenas, J., Havemann, L., & Priego, E. (2015). Open Data as Open Educational Resources: Towards Transversal Skills and Global Citizenship. Open Praxis, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.7.4.233

Massive Open Online Courses

Rohs, M., & Ganz, M. (2015). MOOCs and the Claim of Education for All: A Disillusion by Empirical Data. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(6). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2033

Open Access Research 

Couture, M. (2017, July 12). Academic Publishing at a Crossroads. University Affairs. Retrieved from http://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-myopinion/academic-publishing-crossroads/

The Basic Online and Offline Framework

When reading this week’s journals, I was struck by how much of online learning requires pretty much the same traditional educational methods at its core. Both require:

• student-teacher contact
• encouraging cooperation among students
• encouraging active learning
• giving prompt feedback
• emphasis on task time
• communicate (high) expectations
• respect diverse talents
• respect differing ways of learning

As a teacher, whether online or off, your goal is to design an effective program and material, have clear assessment and evaluation methods, and facilitate the course. The approaches to these concepts may differ when online compared to off but the core framework appears to remain relatively the same.

So, what does that mean for the online teacher? First it is important to use the appropriate pedagogical approach to the delivery method you have decided to use. Secondly, you need to facilitate participation dand provide validation of the student gained knowledge. Third, if appropriate, facilitate a virtual classroom or other online learning methods, promoting collaborative, active, reflective, authentic, and constructive forms of learning. Again, for the most part a seasoned educator would say this framework is very similar to that of a traditional classroom.

Struggles and Problems in Online Learning

I have taken a handful of online courses over the years and I have seen some be extremely successful and other, not so much. Ní Shé et. al. (2019) stresses the point that achieving a social presence right from the beginning of an online course is important and will ensure student presence throughout the course. This is something I have personally seen go wrong in an online course I participated in. I felt lost and less invested because I had little to no interaction with the instructor and superficial interaction with other students. There was no sense of community and limited my investment in the course. This could be said about any form of education, but I feel it goes doubly so for an online course.

I have taken online courses which required me to post a certain amount of times about a subject with a word count, etc. I am not sure how effective this was for students who had not bought in or were not engaged by the course. Most students appeared to parrot what others wrote and replies were often weak and were half-hearted agreements of what the original poster had said. I’m not sure this works very well (or maybe it’s just me).

Ní Shé et. al. (2019) further recommend that online educators post regularly (three times a week or more) and include feedback and support individual students posted offerings. This is a tall order for any instructor, and I am not sure how easy it would be to accomplish depending on the teachers work load. I agree that it is important, but I have never had a teacher/instructor do this.

When using exploratory learning in an online context, Dabbagh (2005) asserts that there is more student-generated learning via exploration and problem solving requiring limited guidance and instruction from the teacher. Through this method, students learn how to set, manage, and achieve their goals. A problem that can crop up with student generated learning is that less creative/less imaginative/more apathetic students not become engaged with the work and fall behind or even give up. Furthermore, some students can become overwhelmed with the freedom of choosing the direction of their learning and may become crippled with choice. It is important that the instructor communicate regularly and make themselves available with students to make sure this is avoided.

The Positive Online Experience

There are many online forums/websites/groups which encourage learning through sharing experiences and ideas and helping others through their projects and exploration of knowledge and ideas. Websites like www.instructables.com and www.thingiverse.com provide the average person with access to many ideas and projects (all user made) and allow others to comment and exchange ideas and critiques. This approach can be utilized in an online course setting or even as a resource to better facilitate learning by allowing students to ask questions, share their work, gain feedback, and make changes. I often use these kinds of websites with my shop classes when helping my students find project ideas and when trying to find answers to problems and questions they may run into. Students generally find them easy to explore and often can find the answers and ideas they were seeking.

The use of “educational worlds” can create an experience that could not otherwise be done in the real world or can be done for with less resources. Educational worlds can take the form of a virtual reality space where students can create avatars and interact with others and virtual objects. Being a shop teacher, I find myself more attracted to the real-life application of skills rather than virtual. There are subjects such as robotics and electronics that could lend themselves well to the virtual approach. Students could use virtual spaces to design and build robots and parts to see if they work like they think they should. I have even seen the use of games such as Minecraft used to teach electronic concepts such as binary and circuits, having students collaborate on large working electronics concepts such as a calculator or even a basic computing “machine”.

Another concept that I had never considered presented by Dabbagh (2005) is the use of role play in an online setting. The idea is that students would take on different situations and imagine themselves apart of them, making decisions as the situations change. This can take many forms and I like the idea of having the student imagine themselves as a contractor or an electrician and then going through what it takes to do those jobs. With guidance this could be a lot of fun and lead to a in depth understanding of the skills and knowledge of those positions and what it takes to be in that career and explore some of the lesser known things that those careers must take on. The roles could even be less realistic and more metaphorical in practice. This approach could be extremely entertaining and engaging for both students and teachers.

Readings:

• Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M., & Seale, J. (2004). Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design. Computers & Education, 43(1–2), 17–33. via.hypothes.is/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2003.12.01 8
• Dabbagh, N. (2005). Pedagogical Models for E-Learning: A Theory-Based Design Framework. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 1(1), 25–44. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.475 .4593&rep=rep1&type=pdf
• Conole, G. (2018). Learning Design and Open Education. International Journal of Open Educational Resources. Retrieved from https://www.ijoer.org/learning-design-andopen-education_doi-10-18278-ijoer-1-1-6/
• Shé Ní, C., Farrell, O., Brunton, J., Costello, E., Donlon, E., Trevaskis, S., & Eccles, S. (2019). Teaching online is different: Critical perspectives from the literature. Retrieved from Dublin City University website: http://doras.dcu.ie/23890/

I find the concept of massive open online courses, otherwise known as MOOC’s, to be an interesting concept. Allowing people to access college and university level courses in a flexible online manner open the door for many people and possibilities. In time, this approach to education could make a drastic change on the way some people learn and how we credit students for knowledge learned.

The first thing that came to mind when reading about MOOC’s is that they do have their limits. One of the biggest draw backs is that they require both a computer and internet connection which not everyone can afford. In time, as computers become more affordable and available, it is possible that this problem may be lessened but for now it can be a roadblock for some who want to learn but cannot afford to. Online learning can even be a struggle in the K-12 classroom as not all students have access to a computer or smart phone and schools rarely have computers for all students to use.

One thing that I had not considered about MOOC’s is that even if you do complete a course there is no means of recognizing the time and effort you put in. As far as I know there is no degree which can be obtained by taking a degree worth of MOOC courses. In theory, a person could learn an entire degree through MOOC courses but then receive no accreditation for their work, thus not opening the potential doors that it should. As MOOC courses become more acknowledged, perhaps some for of accreditation will become common. I would posit that by making that an option it would make MOOC based learning far more popular.

An interesting idea posed by Canole and Brown is the potential that in the future students could make their own degrees. Students being able to pick and choose what they learn and gaining accreditation for it instead of being forced into focused degrees sounds very appealing and could create more well-rounded individuals and unique combinations of knowledge. This could be especially useful in a future that appears less certain in its opportunities than the past did.

Readings:

• Friesen, N. (2009). Open Educational Resources: New Possibilities for Change and Sustainability. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v10i5.664
• Conole, G., & Brown, M. (2018). Reflecting on the Impact of the Open Education Movement. Journal of Learning for Development – JL4D, 5(3). Retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/314

I noticed when reading this week’s papers that there is a theme of education adapting slowly as time passes. I can see why this can be frustrating for some who wish to see change in the education system, but I believe that the slow pace of change happens for many reasons and many of them for the greater good. It is important that as new technologies and educational approaches develop (which they are doing rapidly) we, as educators, approach them critically and take the time to reflect on their effectiveness/appropriateness.

Social Media

I would agree with the observation, stated by Weller, that social media has a negative and positive effect on education. Social media services, such as Facebook and Twitter, have their pros and cons. They allow people to connect and communicate in ways they have not been able to in the past which we have discovered can be both good and bad. For example, I am apart of a group on Facebook that has over 400 members who are all shop teachers in BC. This group shares project ideas, teaching experiences, and is an open forum to problem solving in Technology Education. Overall, I would state the group as extremely helpful and positive. Meanwhile, Facebook itself has been gaining a reputation for spreading misinformation and being a forum for people to “yell” at everyone else about everything they disagree with in uncivil ways. It is not surprising to hear that younger people are not interested Facebook as much as they used to be with these kinds of user practices.

Oddly enough we hear often that we need to educate our students how to safely navigate the internet and to not be cyber bullies. Meanwhile, many internet comment sections break down in ad hominem attacks and other general silliness.

Wikis and Open Source

Meanwhile, open resources like Wikipedia are often scoffed at by academia but provide students and the general public an easy source to begin researching a subject of interest. The basics of a topic can be quickly found and learned and open the door for further research, if the user feels so inclined. Wikis and open source material are a disturbance to the well-established publisher system that does not want to lose its position of power or its monetary income. There are people/groups working towards changing this but only time will tell what will happen.

It is important to remember that it is inevitably society which decides what is important and what is not. We may get excited about a technology and it may even be a great resource and/or education tool but that does not mean it will be adopted and implemented. If a new technology does no get buy in it will likely fail or become a novelty or find niche specialty use. For example, many different companies have tried to create new

Blogs

Blogs can serve an educational purpose just like how in this program we are able to document our thoughts on papers and explore ideas with others. That being said, I would be curious how many people use them regularly after the class/program is completed. I can only speak from my own experiences and I have not found myself attracted to recording my thoughts, new concepts, and journals I’ve read online. I don’t find myself interested in the idea of opening myself to complete strangers about everything I learn. I honestly don’t know who would want to read that either.

Blogs can be used well for educational purposes, but I do not believe they are for everyone. I would be interested to see the statistics of how many people who use blogs in a course/program continue to use them after.

Conclusion:

In the last 20 years that has been a large boom of technologies being touted as the next new big thing to revolutionize the way we learn. Many of these technologies appear to be promising and in time may develop and evolve to find a home in education. There is one constant that can be seen through the analysis of education technology, adoption will take time and there will be growing pains as we implement new technologies into the classroom.

Readings:

• Weller, M. (2018, August). Twenty Years of Edtech. EDUCAUSE Review, 53(4). Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/7/twenty-years-of-edtech
• Zawacki-Richter, O., & Naidu, S. (2016). Mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in Distance Education. Distance Education, 37(3), 245–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1185079
• Peter, S., & Deimann, M. (2013). On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction. Open Praxis, 5(1), 7– 14. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.23

After watching my classmates’ videos on varying topics of technology education research, I found myself most interested in gamification and digital equity. Both topics interest me for different reasons but I think both are important topics to consider in both the current and future state of education.

Gamification

Video games have been a household reality for many decades now and, in recent years with the advent of smart phones, video games have made their way into the classroom, whether educators like it or not. This new reality should not be despaired though, as it creates an opportunity for greater engagement for many students who would otherwise have little interest in more traditional forms of teaching/learning. When I was in high school (the age range I teach) I was very into video games. I have a pretty good memory of being bored to death in classes while being able to go home and play video games for hours on end. I did not interrogate this until much later in my life and I have found that video games offered something that school was not, letting me take control and explore at my own pace and with minimal pressure to perform perfectly.

Games in the classroom can take many forms, from being as simple as a Kahoot quiz, to open building with Minecraft, to scientific modeling/simulators. All of these examples are relevant but what a teacher needs to ask themselves before implementing a game is, “is it worth it? Does the game meet the students needs and is it effective beyond more traditional methods of educating?” These are not easy questions to answer and require some serious time and criticism of the game.

Games in Action

In the past I had a student who was struggling in my electronics class to complete some hands-on work addressing the application of digital electronics. The class took place in a computer lab and the student had been avoiding class work by playing Minecraft.  Fortunately, I knew a little bit about the game and knew that there was an aspect in the game that could be used very similar to digital electronics using switches. I asked the student if they wanted to use the game instead of doing it by hand to demonstrate the concepts being learned.  They were extremely happy to do that and ended up not only completing what I asked them to but also built upon it, expanding the scope of what they learned. I was very surprised at the success. It is important to note that not all students would initially have the same success as this student did. They were well versed with the game and did not require tutorials. In the end, I was glad to offer an option, even an out of the box one, to help the student learn and show the digital electronics concepts.

This example only worked because I and the student had a foundation in games and that game. If that had not been the case it would have likely not have been such a success. Therefore, it is important for educators to receive support and training in the implementation of gaming in the classroom. It is also important to select educational games that meet all students needs equitably. Most games are made in a way to be as accessible as possible but sometimes some students differing abilities may leave some behind and this needs to be factored into any gamification usage.

Digital Equity

Digital equity is a real concern in the public-school system. Students come from a range of backgrounds and have a range of varying abilities. This can quickly lead to some students having and some having not. To further compound this, most schools’ budgets for new tech is not high and often spent strictly on maintaining the current equipment rather than addressing new technology options.

Internet access has become nearly common place but in communities, such as in the one where I work, not every student has reliable internet at home. This limits options such as inline learning or flexible classrooms. The internet is a great thing to have access to, but internet literacy is still a thing being learned by adults, let alone kids. When I was growing up, I recall being told that anyone can write a book so make sure you think about it critically and don’t just believe it. That concept is a hundred-fold more important now with the internet and it is giving everyone with an opinion a platform to say whatever they wish, whether they know what they are talking about or not. This creates a very dangerous reality and can lead students to finding incorrect knowledge and believing it to be true.

Teachers and Technology

Teachers have a tough job at the best of times but add on keeping up with their discipline, their teaching methods, and new technologies and there is little time for a life outside of the job. Therefore, it is important for teachers to be supported when implementing new tech in the classroom by their administration. Without training, tech being put in the classroom is almost surely doomed to fail. Only the teachers most interested in the tech will likely put in the time and effort to learn and implement it.