Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

In this blog I want to compare formative assessment and summative assessment and show some of my thoughts.

The purpose of formative assessment is to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback to students. If designed appropriately, it helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses. Formative assessments have low stakes and usually carry no grade, which in some instances may discourage the students from doing the task or fully engaging with it. Some of the strategies of formative assessment are exit card, in class discussions, open-ended questions, and peer assessments.

On the other hand, the goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Summative assessments often have high stakes and are treated by students as the priority over formative assessments. Examples of summative assessment are midterm exams, chapter tests, etc. I think most students, especially students in higher level education, will take summative assessment more seriously because of the grade that come with it. Mostly, formative assessment is used to support summative assessment for all level of education. Most of the final exams are summative assessment too. I. think it’s crucial to motivate students to interact in formative assessment because it is also a part of learning.

Reference:

Guo, W. Y., & Yan, Z. (2019). Formative and summative assessment in Hong Kong primary schools: students’ attitudes matter. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 26(6), 675–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594x.2019.1571993

In this blog I want to talk about AR and share some of my personal thoughts on it.

AR in the classroom introduces a new education approach through an updated methodology and curricula. With this technology, children can acquire new knowledge through experiencing and screen touching. Incorporating AR in content for teachers in just about any subject like math and chemistry, not only learning but also teaching can be faster, more fun and more efficient for learners.

AR technologies offer benefits in education. It can improve user interaction because it just makes things more interesting. It promotes a learner’s increased involvement because he/she is able. To access content using a mobile device. AR in education can attract learners to view and access their coursework because of the enriched experience.

However, from a personal perspective, I think AR is way too advanced in teaching. If AR is advanced enough, the teachers’ role might be taken by AR and therefore ruin the learning experience. If we can go on a field trip, why do we use AR instead? I think AR can serve as an option in case anything uncontrollable happens, such as the pandemic.

In this week’s post, I want to talk about some benefits of gamified quizzes.

According to this article from the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, gamification means to incorporate design elements of games—specifically from video games—to boost student engagement. Because of the popularity of video games, many children are likely to respond to such academic activities with more enthusiasm than they might with any other activity.

• Enhance the “testing effect”

The “testing effect” refers to the effect that frequent quizzing has on the learning process. Each time a child takes a quiz, they must perform a complex cognitive process of recalling facts and concepts they have learned. Because kids are consistently and repeatedly recalling learned information, they are able to better remember those skills. Gamified quizzes can assist in improving learning because it requires children to recall information more often, leading to better learning outcomes.

• Interactive video quizzes improve engagement and lead to more quizzes

Besides motivating students to participate in class, interactive e-quizzes can also stimulate a more competitive environment in the classroom. When kids compete against one another to earn the most points or to “win”, this can further increase motivation to do well and learn more. Furthermore, the fact that students love competition and playing games could lead to more activities that utilize these types of quizzes.

Reference:

Al-Azawi, R., Al-Faliti, F., & Al-Blushi, M. (2016). Educational Gamification Vs. Game Based Learning: Comparative Study. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 131–136. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijimt.2016.7.4.659

In this week’s post, I want to explore the benefits of videos to learning. I also want to point out some disadvantages of videos to learning as well.

The influence of digital videos on our everyday culture is undeniable. Online video sharing sites such as YouTube is very popular and people are willing to use them as a source of learning. Students today are using educational videos as at tool for learning everything: from basic skills like fixing a broken electronic to pleasing your mates. Studies have shown that the use of short video clips allows for more efficient processing and memory recall. The visual and auditory nature of videos appeals to a wide audience and allows each learner to process information in their own pace. Therefore, some people consider videos as good teachers.

However, there are some disadvantage of videos to learning as well. One of the cons of video in education is that it requires a technology. For this simple reason, video learning is out of reach of many people around the world, especially the poor. Another big drawback to learning through video is that is promotes individualism, which can make learning hard. When you are watching a video, you can do it by yourself and you can watch it on your own pace. You don’t need to make interactions with other people when your learning is watching videos.

Reference:

Noetel, M., Griffith, S., Delaney, O., Sanders, T., Parker, P., del Pozo Cruz, B., & Lonsdale, C. (2021). Video Improves Learning in Higher Education: A Systematic Review. Review of Educational Research, 91(2), 204–236. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654321990713

In this week’s post, I want to expand more on the power of sketchnoting on the learning of children.

What is a sketchnote? Sketchnotes are rich visual notes created from a mix of handwriting, drawings, hand-drawn typography, shapes, and visual elements like arrow, boxes, and lines. In a sketchnote, handwriting, drawings, arrows, color, all working together to enhance the learning experience of a learner. A student might use it to process information visually, use bold lettering for key points, and making boxes for special points. Basically, they can use it for anything that makes the information pop off the page and stick to the brain.

From my personal experience, I remember I was doing random sketching on classes. No matter what I sketch, I feel like I’m making process on something. It is like brainstorming that really light my ideas. Sketchnoting allows me to see the bigger picture in the concepts, and make connections in my learning. I think sketchnote can help maintain focus and retain information as well. Skerchnoting can be a great way to synthesize and study written nots, using visuals to recreate pages of note, such as highlighting.

Here’s a video that demonstrate the benefits of sketchnoting

The principles I learned this week is very practical when I comes to creating high quality PowerPoint slides and how to deliver them.

As noted in a study, the key principles are brevity, cogency and clarity and slide shows should supplement a presentation instead of substitute for it (Grech, 2018). There are some principles I think can apply to PowerPoint slides. The Coherence principle: Audiences learn better when extraneous words, picture and sounds are excluded. This ties in with the Redundancy principle: People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text. IN slide shows, this is related to the Modality principle; graphics and narrations are better than animation and on-screen text, and to the Multimedia principle; text and pictures are superior to text alone. So in summary, in order of preference, use graphics and add text if necessary and animations only if absolutely necessary.

Here is a video of how to construct a good PowerPoint presentation.

Reference:

Grech, V. (2018). The application of the Mayer multimedia learning theory to medical PowerPoint slide show presentations. Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, 41(1), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/17453054.2017.1408400

In this post I want to show some of my understandings of the teaching technology Canva, and how does it help teachers in their classrooms. At the second part of this post, I used my poster as an example to illustrate how some learning principles can be used in creating a visual learning resource.

Canva is a graphic design platform, users can create social media graphics, posters, infographics and other visual content. It’s clear that Canva has made its way into classrooms as a technology for teachers who wish to create visually stimulating posters on classroom walls. There are many ways to use Canva in classrooms. Some teachers decorate their classrooms with posters and use posters as a way to build an engaging learning environment. Canva provides opportunities for teacher to design their new posters with content they want to show in classrooms. Moreover, it is indicated in a study that using visual content as a teaching method stimulates thinking and improves learning environment in a classroom (Shabiralyani, 2015).

With the application of some learning principles, posters can be more effective for teaching and learning.

The most important thing to look at when creating a poster is the Coherence Principle. I used this principle for my poster and I confirmed the image and information I used are necessary to help with comprehension. There is no extraneous, distracting information on my poster. I also used the Signalling Principle for my poster. I bolded words that viewers should pay most attention about for each content. I make sure that leaners will have a clear idea about the significant information on the poster.

Reference:

Shabiralyani, G., Shahzad Hasan, K., Hamad, N., & Iqbal, N. (2015). Impact of Visual Aids in Enhancing the Learning Process Case Research. Journal of Education and Practice, 6, 226-234.

From the readings I learned this week, a popular tool that is used by most of the teachers as a teaching technology, PowerPoint, is being reviewed. The PowerPoint slides are commonly used by people who are doing a presentation. However, as mentioned in the readings, some people sabotage their PowerPoint presentation by falling into a simple and obvious trap that negates the whole concept of dual-coding. This is where everything goes wrong, which make the PowerPoint presentation useless. One obvious mistake of a PowerPoint presentation is that people read off their slides. Read the PowerPoint slides is just something that put audience in very uncomfortable situation. Audience have the ability to understand and get the information they need out of your presentation. Our job is not to codify that for them — we are not their note-taker. Instead, our job is to present that information in a way that lets them anchor it in their mind and process the parts they need. We can do this by “dual-coding”.

1. Use an image to get their attention. Image is a powerful way to get audience attention. Even something that’s not related to the material you are presenting, such as a picture of a cute kitten, your slide will leave a good impression for the audience.
2. Tell an effective story. Instead of telling a big story, tell the story of that slide. The story can be true or it can be metaphorical. We can stand up there with confidence and tell a story to the audience about themselves.

Reference:

Alexander, K. (2017). Dual Coding Theory [Mp3]. https://soundcloud.com/user-433569679/dual-coding-theory

I hope to learn some useful tools and methods that will help with educating, mentoring people. I think education can be in many formats, and the trend now is slowly moving toward multimedia learning because of the development of technology and the pandemic. At this special period, multimedia learning will be more widespread worldwide. I’m currently major in psychology, however, I think psychology and education are closely related. I also have lots of experience working in different classes as a teacher or a teacher assistant. This course can definitely help with my future by expanding my knowledge of multimedia and digital interactive learning. I’m looking forward to learn how technologies can facilitate the diverse learning strategies and how technologies will make teaching more efficient.

The previous learning technologies which I think have made positive impact on me is the Youtube. One of my courses that I took last year is called Phil 301. I found the lecture and the textbook a little hard for me to comprehend and I was struggling with my assignments. However, I went on Youtube and searched for the content I was looking for (I didn’t know why but I’m glad I did that). There were so many videos I can use for learning the course content. The publishers of the videos illustrate the concept in such an easy, relaxing way. This is probably why this course, EDCI 337 will be amazing because multimedia learning is indeed powerful and efficient in some cases.