OLTD COURSES
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OLTD 509 - Emergent Environments & Pedagogies
Instructor - Avi Luxenburg
Winter 2022
Course Description:
Students will explore educationally significant emerging technologies and pedagogies and will examine aspects of change in education. Students will be provided opportunities to develop frameworks for handling technology/pedagogy selection and implementation, absorption of new pedagogies, sustainable change, and emerging challenges in education. Using a Gamified Learning Environment, students will select topics to investigate applications, benefits and challenges inherent in specific emerging technology and pedagogy deployment.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of OLTD 511
Course Learning Outcomes:
Through course activities, collaboration, readings and research it is expected that students will:
Students will explore educationally significant emerging technologies and pedagogies and will examine aspects of change in education. Students will be provided opportunities to develop frameworks for handling technology/pedagogy selection and implementation, absorption of new pedagogies, sustainable change, and emerging challenges in education. Using a Gamified Learning Environment, students will select topics to investigate applications, benefits and challenges inherent in specific emerging technology and pedagogy deployment.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of OLTD 511
Course Learning Outcomes:
Through course activities, collaboration, readings and research it is expected that students will:
- Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to emerging technologies.
- Research and identify emerging technologies & pedagogies with educational applications not yet adopted by mainstream education or in early adoption phases.
- Examine technology/pedagogy adoption and change management.
- Adapt or develop understanding for assessing emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Consider potential design/implementation opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies/pedagogies.
OLTD 509 Reflection & Evidence 2 – ePortfolio
How can I inspire, initiate and implement sustainable integration of emerging technologies in my own practice, and in the practice of others?
I primarily work with non-profit organizations, often times they do not have access to emerging technologies. My approach is to introduce tools that are useful and not costly. Using new technologies is overwhelming. My role is to help people navigate through the various programs and support them with how to apply the technology in their work. Kahane (2021) calls this horizontal facilitation, to work with groups to help them to understand what their needs are, without telling them what their needs are, which he describes as vertical facilitation.
A recent project to implement a new program, was developed through listening to to the volunteer committee to understand what their needs are, and conducting worldwide research on what others are doing globally. I designed a lesson plan, using technology tools that are appropriate for them to use. The lesson plan was designed using the ADDIE model One of those was a video that I edited, using Camtasia, I then saved it to Vimeo, so that it is easily accessible to the organization without having to save it themselves. I provided the link to the video and all that they had to do was to upload it to the website that I developed for them.
Throughout OLTD, I have developed a toolbox of technologies that work for me to get my message across in a professional manner. This way, I master the technology, and stick to what I know, this is especially important for working with outside organizations. It fits nicely with my philosophy of education as well.
The barriers that I face are time to master the technology, and the cost of subscribing to the various platforms that I like to use. Subscriptions to various programs can be expensive. The way that I deal with those barriers are to set time aside to master them, and try them out before publishing anything. I often will share it to another email address to see how they present before launching them. Technology can be great, if it is used wisely.
The ePortfolio website is a good example of a piece of technology that can be used to showcase work. In this case, it showcases my skills using the various pieces of technology that I have mastered in OLTD. As an adult educator, I find it extremely useful to work with websites to communicate various programs that I work on. Throughout OLTD I have become much more comfortable with designing websites. The ePortfolio, designed on Weebly, is the second website that I designed, the first was through Google sites. It was a challenge for me to master Weebly and design a website that following the various the seven principles of design. Weebly is far more complex and complicated to use than Google sites. It was not simple for me to work through it as it is not intrinsic. However, I overcame my own barriers to learning by methodically working through the criteria for the design principles, watching the videos, asking for help and feedback, and modifying as I went along. It took me over 30 hours to develop this website using these design principles:
Principle one - Intuitive Structure:
I achieved that was through designing buttons using CANVA that guide people to the pages that I want to showcase:
1. Home
2. Credo
3. ePortfolio - within the ePortfolio are the ten course buttons for each of the OLTD courses
4. Blogs
5. Useful Resources.
I made the navigation as seamless without relying solely on the navigation bar at the top of the page, and eliminated dropdown menus.
Principle two - Visual Hierarchy:
I designed the pages so that they are consistent on each page, with a header, information, buttons, and attribution to the images that I used. The design is clean, not cluttered, with a colour scheme that suits my personality. The buttons are large and helpful for people to navigate their way around on the pages.
Principle three – Accessibility and Design:
The typeface and colour scheme are pleasing to the eye, using a design th I used for my business. The fonts are readable, and large.
Principle four – Fewer choices (Hick’s Law & a fine balance):
Each page has a minimal amount of clicks for people to navigate their way around. One can easily move from one page to the next.
Principle five – Proximity & size of linked features:
The linked features are easy to open (one a new page), with minimal movement between pages. By opening the link in a new page, it allows people to easy go back to the original website.
Principle six – Communication and Content :
The site clearly communicates what I am trying to convey through my learning. It is a showcase of the work that I have done over the past two years. It has just the right amount of text, buttons, images, and quotes. It is professionally designed, one that I am very proud of.
Principle seven – White Space & Simple Design:
The ePortfolio is clean and crisp with lots of white space. This makes it easy on the eyes, without cognitive overload.
Sources:
Instructional Design Models and Methods | Instructional Design Central. (n.d.).Instructional Design Models and Methods | Instructional Design Central. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm#addie
Kahane, A. (2021). Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together Ed. 1. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
How can I inspire, initiate and implement sustainable integration of emerging technologies in my own practice, and in the practice of others?
I primarily work with non-profit organizations, often times they do not have access to emerging technologies. My approach is to introduce tools that are useful and not costly. Using new technologies is overwhelming. My role is to help people navigate through the various programs and support them with how to apply the technology in their work. Kahane (2021) calls this horizontal facilitation, to work with groups to help them to understand what their needs are, without telling them what their needs are, which he describes as vertical facilitation.
A recent project to implement a new program, was developed through listening to to the volunteer committee to understand what their needs are, and conducting worldwide research on what others are doing globally. I designed a lesson plan, using technology tools that are appropriate for them to use. The lesson plan was designed using the ADDIE model One of those was a video that I edited, using Camtasia, I then saved it to Vimeo, so that it is easily accessible to the organization without having to save it themselves. I provided the link to the video and all that they had to do was to upload it to the website that I developed for them.
Throughout OLTD, I have developed a toolbox of technologies that work for me to get my message across in a professional manner. This way, I master the technology, and stick to what I know, this is especially important for working with outside organizations. It fits nicely with my philosophy of education as well.
The barriers that I face are time to master the technology, and the cost of subscribing to the various platforms that I like to use. Subscriptions to various programs can be expensive. The way that I deal with those barriers are to set time aside to master them, and try them out before publishing anything. I often will share it to another email address to see how they present before launching them. Technology can be great, if it is used wisely.
The ePortfolio website is a good example of a piece of technology that can be used to showcase work. In this case, it showcases my skills using the various pieces of technology that I have mastered in OLTD. As an adult educator, I find it extremely useful to work with websites to communicate various programs that I work on. Throughout OLTD I have become much more comfortable with designing websites. The ePortfolio, designed on Weebly, is the second website that I designed, the first was through Google sites. It was a challenge for me to master Weebly and design a website that following the various the seven principles of design. Weebly is far more complex and complicated to use than Google sites. It was not simple for me to work through it as it is not intrinsic. However, I overcame my own barriers to learning by methodically working through the criteria for the design principles, watching the videos, asking for help and feedback, and modifying as I went along. It took me over 30 hours to develop this website using these design principles:
Principle one - Intuitive Structure:
I achieved that was through designing buttons using CANVA that guide people to the pages that I want to showcase:
1. Home
2. Credo
3. ePortfolio - within the ePortfolio are the ten course buttons for each of the OLTD courses
4. Blogs
5. Useful Resources.
I made the navigation as seamless without relying solely on the navigation bar at the top of the page, and eliminated dropdown menus.
Principle two - Visual Hierarchy:
I designed the pages so that they are consistent on each page, with a header, information, buttons, and attribution to the images that I used. The design is clean, not cluttered, with a colour scheme that suits my personality. The buttons are large and helpful for people to navigate their way around on the pages.
Principle three – Accessibility and Design:
The typeface and colour scheme are pleasing to the eye, using a design th I used for my business. The fonts are readable, and large.
Principle four – Fewer choices (Hick’s Law & a fine balance):
Each page has a minimal amount of clicks for people to navigate their way around. One can easily move from one page to the next.
Principle five – Proximity & size of linked features:
The linked features are easy to open (one a new page), with minimal movement between pages. By opening the link in a new page, it allows people to easy go back to the original website.
Principle six – Communication and Content :
The site clearly communicates what I am trying to convey through my learning. It is a showcase of the work that I have done over the past two years. It has just the right amount of text, buttons, images, and quotes. It is professionally designed, one that I am very proud of.
Principle seven – White Space & Simple Design:
The ePortfolio is clean and crisp with lots of white space. This makes it easy on the eyes, without cognitive overload.
Sources:
Instructional Design Models and Methods | Instructional Design Central. (n.d.).Instructional Design Models and Methods | Instructional Design Central. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm#addie
Kahane, A. (2021). Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together Ed. 1. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
OLTD 509 Reflection & Evidence 2 – Credo
How can I select emerging technologies and pedagogies which fit my developing philosophy of education?
Developing my credo started with one of our earlier courses, OLTD 504. However, I really did not embrace it until this OLTD 509. Through reviewing videos and readings, combined with deep self-reflection, I learned how to structure what guides me. The next step was to draft the credo statements.
Through examination of my credo. and applying it to my practice, I select technologies that are appropriate for the organizations that I support. As an adult educator, working with non-profit organizations, I try to select technologies that are sharable and appropriate for the target audience(s). For example, I am working on contact with one organization that prefers to use PowerPoint, rather than CANVA presentations as most of the people are not familiar with CANVA. For this group, PowerPoint is appropriate, whereas with another group it would be quite appropriate to introduce them to another emerging technology. By doing so, I am applying my credo by respecting the diversity of the organization and being emotionally empathetic for their ability to function with the tools before them and their comfort level(s).
My developing philosophy of education guides me in these ways to select emerging technologies and pedagogies are:
Benedictine University. (2017). What is Appreciative Inquiry? A Short Guide to the Appreciative Inquiry Model & Process
https://cvdl.ben.edu/blog/what-is-appreciative-inquiry/#:~:text=Appreciative%20Inquiry%20(AI)%20is%20a,engaging%20others%20in%20strategic%20innovation.
LaBonte, R. (n.d.). CANeLearn CoI Pedagogical Model. Google Slides. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oWjqekSidngIMJWtPa8f3TiwYEKr4DCmzV_HDz0XMpI/edit?usp=sharing.
Senge, P. M. (1999). The dance of change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. New York: Currency/Doubleday.
Senge, P.M. (2006). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency/Doubleday.
How can I select emerging technologies and pedagogies which fit my developing philosophy of education?
Developing my credo started with one of our earlier courses, OLTD 504. However, I really did not embrace it until this OLTD 509. Through reviewing videos and readings, combined with deep self-reflection, I learned how to structure what guides me. The next step was to draft the credo statements.
Through examination of my credo. and applying it to my practice, I select technologies that are appropriate for the organizations that I support. As an adult educator, working with non-profit organizations, I try to select technologies that are sharable and appropriate for the target audience(s). For example, I am working on contact with one organization that prefers to use PowerPoint, rather than CANVA presentations as most of the people are not familiar with CANVA. For this group, PowerPoint is appropriate, whereas with another group it would be quite appropriate to introduce them to another emerging technology. By doing so, I am applying my credo by respecting the diversity of the organization and being emotionally empathetic for their ability to function with the tools before them and their comfort level(s).
My developing philosophy of education guides me in these ways to select emerging technologies and pedagogies are:
- Share skills and talents - I help organizations to develop tools that they may not necessarily been exposed to. Through the OLTD I have mastered several different types of programs, apps, and methodologies that I apply in designing programs that are applicable to the organizations. Through my gifts; organization, communication, ability to teach and deliver complex information in a concise way, I am able to teach others how to use the new technology, without intimidating them.
- Exemplify transformational leadership - In OLTD 509 I was introduced to Peter Senge. I spent considerable time and energy reading his books; The Fifth Discipline and The Dance of Change. Through those readings, I applied the concepts of sustainable change and incorporation of systems strategies with another organization through the development of a communication plan for a new initial. Senge's books taught me about mental models that we all bring with us, and ladders of inference that we can use to select data, paraphrase data, name what is happening, explain what is happening, and make sound decisions about what to do.
- Challenge myself - interesting enough, using ByteDeck as the learning management system for OLTD 509 challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. At times, I was lost with the quests (or assignments). However, as the course progressed I realized that it was just the tool, or the vehicle. How do I apply this to my practice? Currently, I am working with a group, we are holding reflective listening practice sessions with people. The participants that attend are quite often not comfortable, and need to feel safe and secure in the sessions. I challenge them, gently, to speak their voice and share their thoughts. To date, I have participated in four of these intensive sessions. I apply the concepts of student, teacher, and cognitive presence, from the Community of Inquiry, in a very active way.
- Respect diversity - Through understanding that we all come with our own mental models, and by embracing critical reflection from others, I am learning that divergent points of view bring a more fulsome discussion to the table. I my practice, with Indigenous people, marginalized people who use or have used substances, and many different cultural and age groups, I practice respecting diversity on a daily basis. These concepts were an area in 509 that I was able to delve deeper into.
- Be emotionally intelligent - this is critical when selecting emerging technologies and pedagogies, especially for my own well-being. It is very time-consuming to learn a new tool or piece of technology. My philosophy is to keep it simple, appropriate to the target audience that I work with, and engaging. My goal is to help others grow and learn, not overwhelm them. As an example, I recently led the implementation of a new program through the development of a website (CANVA), facilitator's guide, participant handouts, presentation (PowerPoint), videos and other communication tools. All of those pieces were designed using sound educational pedagogy through consideration of competencies, cognitivism, behaviourism and constructivism.
Benedictine University. (2017). What is Appreciative Inquiry? A Short Guide to the Appreciative Inquiry Model & Process
https://cvdl.ben.edu/blog/what-is-appreciative-inquiry/#:~:text=Appreciative%20Inquiry%20(AI)%20is%20a,engaging%20others%20in%20strategic%20innovation.
LaBonte, R. (n.d.). CANeLearn CoI Pedagogical Model. Google Slides. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oWjqekSidngIMJWtPa8f3TiwYEKr4DCmzV_HDz0XMpI/edit?usp=sharing.
Senge, P. M. (1999). The dance of change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. New York: Currency/Doubleday.
Senge, P.M. (2006). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency/Doubleday.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Images used are either my own, or used with permission: Images are licensed CC0 Public Domain / FAQ Free for commercial use / No attribution required, the other images used were retrieved from, and/or are used with permission from https://www.canva.com/
Images used are either my own, or used with permission: Images are licensed CC0 Public Domain / FAQ Free for commercial use / No attribution required, the other images used were retrieved from, and/or are used with permission from https://www.canva.com/