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Week 4 Blogpost

Have you used Text to Speech tools before? Did you find it useful? Did you try out some of the different voices? What impact did the different voices have on your ability to absorb information?

I tested out a few of the Text to Speech web extension tools listed including, Read Aloud and Natural Reader. I found them both to be useful, however, I preferred Natural Reader much more because I found it easier to navigate and personalize to my audio preferences, such as the voice and speed. I noticed major differences between the voice on Read Aloud and the voice I selected on Natural Reader. The voice I selected was “Sara”, which was a woman’s voice that seemed to be the most natural human voice and it did not sound very robotic compared to the other options. I also really liked that I could set my own speed for the reading, as it could flow at the same pace that I would normally read. I had actually found that this tool was quite helpful when I was testing it on the EDCI 337 website. I really liked how it would highlight the section it was reading off in small chunks as it made me pay more attention and kept me engaged. One thing that I did notice that may not be very helpful to someone who is visually impaired, is that it did not state aloud if there was a photo, but would just read the text below it. If the text below the image did not have any mention of there being a photo, such as, “This is an image of”, it would likely cause some confusion to someone with visual impairment. I thought this was interesting because in Katie Sehl’s article, Inclusive Design for Social Media: Tips for Creating Accessible Channels, it was mentioned to skip saying “image of”, as those who are visually impaired prefer to not have that. This made me more curious about the multimedia preferences of visually impaired people and I am keen to learn more about it.

This image demonstrates the difference between equality and equity. On the left side, there are three people trying to pick apples off a tree but they are all different heights and only 1 person can reach the apples, which illustrates equality. On the right side, showing equity, there are the same three people, but those who were not able to reach the tree now have something to step on to make them able to grab the apples.

I thought this week’s content was really interesting and gave me further insight into how to properly accommodate the learning needs of many people. Having a multimedia framework that can serve the same functionality to everyone is so important and can greatly help those who may have disabilities or need extra support for their learning and other uses for media. 

Week 3 Blog Post

What did you notice about your learning when you listened to the SoundCloud by Howat? How was it different from reading an article?

When I was going through this weeks learning resources I was immediately confused when I came upon Howat’s Multimedia Design for Learning Soundcloud audio file. Considering the content that we are learning regarding visual cues for learning, coming across this audio file took me by surprise. When I was listening to the soundcloud file, I noticed that my attention span was starting to diminish as my visual senses were not being used and there was nothing for me to visually recall what I had been taught. To be able to effectively retain what I was being told in the soundcloud audio, I had to constantly pause and skip backwards to write out the important notes Howat was saying. For me, this style of learning was not very helpful and did not effectively teach me the lesson at hand.

In comparison to an article, I personally find audio learning files to be less effective. I think that articles are much easier to follow because you are able to look back at the information you have already read and be able to recall that information much faster. With an audio file, you may have to search for the certain time stamp that the information you are trying to find was being said, which may be harder to find.

My favourite type of multimedia resource for learning is through videos. I like to have my visual and auditory senses being used at the same time as it helps me to retain the information that is being taught and keep me engaged. It is also helpful if I want to solely focus on the visual aspects of a video because I would be able to pause the narraration.

Week 2 Blog Post

Which principles did you have in mind when you were creating your screencast this week?

I created a screencast for this week’s lesson and found that the principles of multimedia learning had really improved the structure of learning the content. The screencast I made was of me showing how to read a specific graph for one of my economics classes. I used an app on my Ipad called Goodnotes that allowed me to write and highlight any important information that I wanted to discuss or point at. Reading and understanding certain graphs can be very challenging, so I wanted to use the signaling principle to make the lesson more comprehensible to a viewer. I would highlight any point on the graph that I was referring to and highlight the correlating header on the screen to address the visual and verbal information. I found that this principle was very helpful in distinguishing what is being discussed as it attracts the reader to only focus on one point at a time and not be confused with the other elements on the screen.

Here is an image from my screencast video!

To avoid extraneous load I wanted to also apply the redundancy principle to simplify what is being learned and not distract the viewer from being overwhelmed by the information being presented. In doing so, I avoided adding any extra written information, aside from the headers, as I would be narrating the screencast as well. I believe that the redundancy principle was very beneficial in simplifying the lesson being taught and making the presentation more visually appealing to a learner. As for the signalling principle, I think that this helps to break down the information into smaller sections that allow the learner to focus on one point at a time and follow a more structured path of understanding the given content. Overall I think that incorporating these principles truly improved how a viewer would gather and retain the information being shown.

Week 1 blog post

What made you decide to take this course? What are your learning goals this term?

I decided to take this course because I have previously taken other EDCI courses and have really enjoyed the content. I enjoyed these courses because I found the subject matter to be very relevant to how the world is advancing with technology. While I may not be in an educational program, as I am an economics major, the EDCI courses have taught me much about digital media and online learning. For this course specifically, I am interested in the design aspects of creating an effective learning platform that can incorporate interactive multimedia technologies for learning. I think that it is essential to learn the skills to be able to effectively teach and learn as we continue to move more towards online structures for learning not only in educational environments but in everyday life. I believe that being able to engage in whatever it is that is taught can enhance learning and improve the way instruction is designed, which is why I am interested in discovering more about interactive and multimedia as a tool for learning. 

Some of the personal learning goals I have set for myself in this course include, being open to new technologies. I have previously used WordPress in my EDCI 338 class, but I still feel that there is room for improvement in my technical skills and I need to practice using it as I have found myself getting confused and frustrated with some of the elements of the site. I however have not used Mattermost, which is something that I would like to get more comfortable with. Another one of my learning goals this term would be to strengthen my collaborative skills with my other classmates and learning pod. I want to improve how I work with others and focus on building projects more collaboratively, as in previous terms when there was group work, we would normally just assign a certain part of a project to everyone and that be it, rather than working more collaboratively and having everyone pitch in their thoughts and contribute more to the overall success of the team.

Celebration of Learning

Examine the application of social media to support learning

In this day and age, social media has a huge presence in our lives and it is safe to say that a large amount of the information that we learn can be supported through digital technologies. Various platforms allow and encourage learning online through communication and have given people a place to come and share ideas and information. For my group’s major project, we had chosen Discord as the platform that we were going to investigate and analyze. Discord is a communication-based platform where people create groups and servers where people can discuss and share information on certain topics. Discord would be a helpful social media platform that supports learning. The platform even encourages teachers to join to be able to communicate with their classes online and share coursework on a teacher server.  Various other social media technologies also promote positive learning in many different ways. I find myself learning new things every day through social media platforms such as Tiktok, YouTube, Reddit, and so much more. Learning using online platforms can be helpful as you can reach out and connect with a large number of individuals who are from various demographics and have different life experiences. Social media broadens our learning range entirely from what it once was in the last couple of decades. 

Explain personalized learning and its relation to learning theory

The framework in which we learn has been an everchanging construct that we as a society have had to adapt to. From reading George Siemens’ article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, I was able to thoroughly examine the concept of connectivism, which I had found to be quite interesting.  In my showcase post, I had expand on connectivism and the theory of learning. I made note of how important our connections are with gaining knowledge and that we depend on other people to pass down the knowledge from their personal experiences. As individuals, we all have different needs when we are learning and may require alternative approaches to understanding information. My classmate, Ruth Ma, made a point in her week 3 wow & wonder blog post that I imagine many people can relate to, “I find learning from experiences like co-op placements, group projects, social media, personal learning, and collaborating with peers more beneficial and effective than just sitting in a lecture”. The traditional structure of teaching, such as through lectures and showing slides can sometimes be challenging for people to reach their full potential when learning. What I plan to take away from this when moving forward with my university career is to analyze the way I am being taught and see if there are ways that I can adapt and add to make the learning process more fitted to my personal needs.

Apply social media to develop a personal learning network in support of your personal and/or professional development

Social media can have a variety of different purposes depending on the individual and what they want to portray given a certain platform. George Veletsianos’, Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, gave me a strong understanding of how essential all the different social media platforms that I use are in regard to developing my own PLN. Some of the main social media platforms that I would consider to have a major impact in my personal learning network would be Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Twitter, and Tiktok. I generally use these for personal reasons, such as to stay connected with friends, family, and to reach people from all over the world. I also have LinkedIn, which would definitely fall into the professional sector of my PLN. After viewing group 8’s major project on Instagram, I feel encouraged and would really like to expand my own instagram as a way to connect with brands and other creators, as I only use mine for personal use.

Identify privacy issues and practice online behaviours that are legal, safe, consensual, and ethical

Online privacy is a major issue and can be a serious concern for the users of any social media platform. While digital platforms aim to keep us safe by tracking the content we consume and share, we allow for our data to be available to these platforms, which we do not have much control over. My classmate, Kayla Krug, made note in her wow & wonder #6 post about the concerns over ads and how you may ‘like’ a post on one platform or even search something on the internet, and there will be ads for it on multiple platforms. This has happened to me countless times and every single time it makes me feel uncomfortable and as if I am being watched. While surveillance is a huge concern for social media users, I sometimes feel as though not many people seem to have much response towards the corporations that authorize  the data collection. In my 6th wow & wonder post I posed the question, do the benefits of social media outweigh the cons? This is something that I still wonder, however in some sense I feel that my personal response would be to say yes. I try my best to use social media in the safest way by not posting anything that is harmful to me or anyone else, but there remains the concernment on how social media tracking and data breaching will impact our society in years to come. 

Recognize data ownership and licensing (Creative Commons, Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Public Domain) as a core practice when creating, sharing, or using resources online

Copyright, data ownership, and licensing has been a rising issue among users of digital media. Providing credit where credit is due is highly important for users of social media in order to be safe for yourself when sharing content, as well as for the audience to whom it reaches to be able to backtrack where certain information or content came from. Mia’s showcase post helped me further understand the how copyrights work and can have an impact on social media, such as Tiktok. She explains that when people make a tiktok that infringes on someones copyrights of a certain audio, the video that you made can be deleted and even go as for as to take legal action. It is crucial to check whether the content that you share not only falls in the boundaries of the community guidelines of a certain platform, but also that the ownership of the content you create is not infringing on anyone’s copyrights.

Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about social media and personalized learning

There are so many important aspects to building a PLN and navigating digital media. I believe that one of the key elements to viewing anything that you find online is to be able to confirm if the information is accurate. When I was researching information for my major project, I had to take the time to learn about media literacy and all of the concerns about the spread of misinformation and disinformation. One of the sources that helped me grasp the concept was through a Youtube video by Crash Course. This was very fascinating to me and I feel that I have learned a lot about creating and consuming content. I feel that this translates well into this course as we have used hyperlinks to connect the information we refer to in order to minimize any misinformation. Another point I would like to add is how for our week 6 topic we read, Its not Misinformation. Its amplified Propoganda, by Renée DiResta. My main take away from this article is how social media can sway our perception of news, events, and any other information we come across. You do not have to be a lisenced doctor or a professional in a certain field to be able to share content, which can be quite harmful towards the public if the content being shared is inaccurate. Most digital media platforms have some sort of content tracker that can remove misinformation, but there is still a concerning amount of inaccurate information out there. I think that the saying, “don’t believe everything you see on the internet”, is a good notion to keep in mind while navigating life on social media. 

To conclude, I would like to thank you for reading my blog post. This class has really opened my eyes and broadened my lens on technology and social media.

Wow & Wonder # 6

Wow:

I really enjoyed the content that we analyzed this week. Surveillance capitalism is a very serious issue regarding our society and it is important to recognize how we are being monitored through technology. I thought that the short films that we watched had done a really good job of portraying how concerning and invasive technology will likely be in the near future. I enjoyed watching all of the short films however, my personal favourite is Blaxites. I found it very shocking that the woman’s doctor had access to her social media and was able to deny her any medical prescriptions due to what she posts online. It is certainly scary to consider how social media may have a hold over our rights and can potentially dictate how we live. Obviously, we are not fully there yet, but who’s to say that we are not on that path? With technology advancing at an exponential rate, we should definitely be concerned with our privacy and the information that is collected by corporations.

Wonder:

A few things that I wonder about from overviewing and unpacking this week’s content is, knowing that social media and big corporations are able to access our data and that privacy is somewhat limited, why are we so compliant with giving out information on ourselves? And do the benefits of social media outweigh the cons? (I feel like the second question is more dependent on the individual)

Wow & Wonder # 5

Wow:

I have found this week’s article, It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda, by Renée DiResta, to be quite fascinating. She had introduced me to the word, ‘ampliganda’ (though it is not necessarily a real word yet). I thought that this concept was interesting and very relevant to how social media sways our perception of news and events. I particularly found it interesting when she had noted that anyone can have an influence. This to me is very true, as it does not matter how many followers one may have, they still hold an influence and are able to alter the opinions of their audiences. While I do believe this to be very intriguing, there is also plenty of room for concern, anyone is capable of spreading misinformation.

Wonder:

One question that arose while reading the article was: How different would the two world wars have been if there was access to the same technology as there is today? With the unfortunate news of Russia posing war on Ukraine, we get to see firsthand how the advancement of technology and social media will have on such events.

Showcase Post #1

For my first showcase post, I will be expanding on my week 3 wow and wonder, where I will further investigate the theory of connectivism.

In the past, information development was very slow and the life of knowledge could be measured in decades. However today, knowledge is growing at extremely high rates and is doubling every eighteen months, where the amount of knowledge is measured by months and years. Compared to the past, learning today can now be personalized to an individual’s wants and needs. We have gained access to various learning outlets that allow us to be able to learn from wherever we are. Recognizing and choosing relevant information is key to our learning development within a digital era. Connectivism points to how important our connections are, and how having these connections is the root of how we gain our knowledge. In Siemens article, he had a quote from Karen Stephenson, which I thought had highlighted a strong understanding of connectivism: “Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge.” I believe that this makes a great point of how our learning is highly dependable on others and the connections we make. 

Where we learn is also of high value when considering connectivism. By having so many resources available to us with the advancements of technology, learning becomes easily accessible through various platforms, such as Youtube, Reddit, TikTok, and so much more. It is important for individuals to connect and gain perspectives from people all over the world to expand their learning networks. Connectivism allows communities to be built where individuals can come together, collaborate, and learn from each other’s opinions and viewpoints (Connectivism Learning Theory, 2021). My classmate, Cassie Ma, made a point in her wow and wonder post that learning and work may not be separated. The first thing to come to mind for me was the platform LinkedIn, which would be an example of how connectivism applies to the workplace. LinkedIn allows people to connect and network with each other, as well as gain guidance from individuals all over the world who have specific work experience. 

Social media, in general, is of high importance when considering connectivism and how we learn because we are able to connect with an innumerable amount of people, which exposes us to great amounts of knowledge. Social media has impacted the lives of so many around the world ranging from various demographics. This leads me to a question risen by my classmate, Mary Pesado, on how much of a challenge it is for older generations to grasp and apply the concept of networking and what kind of barriers do older adults face when it comes to leveraging the internet for their own learning and benefits. I think it is fair to wonder this, as social media generally caters to people of younger generations, however, I immediately thought of my grandma. My grandma has embraced the internet and loves to interact with people through social media. I have seen her use her Ipad to watch youtube videos and check up on her Facebook to stay connected with loved ones, as well as to stay up to date with current news. I’m sure there are a lot of older people who choose not to involve themselves with this type of media, but I do think it is really great of those who have adapted to technological advancements to learn and be connected with society.

When reflecting on how my knowledge has developed,  with regard to connectivism, I believe that social media has been a key factor in my learning. Having access to so much information and learning from others’ experiences has definitely shaped the way I behave and perceive certain things. Also, as someone who is a visual learner, platforms like TikTok and Youtube have been really helpful in how I receive and process information. I made note of how in today’s time, learning is very personalized to our wants and needs, which directly connects to social media platforms as they allow us to make choices on what type of content we want to see to suit our personal learning networks. Overall, the connectivism theory highlights how our learning development has become so dependent on social platforms and that today we require the knowledge and experiences of others to learn from in order to flourish in this digital era.

References

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1).

Connectivism Learning Theory. (2021). Retrieved 17 February 2022, from https://www.wgu.edu/blog/connectivism-learning-theory2105.html#close

Wow & Wonder # 4

Wow:

I found reading Shelly Moore’s, One without the other: Stories of unity through diversity and inclusion, to be very insightful and fascinating. I really liked when she said that, “We are diverse. All of us”, as it highlights that no specific groups are different or outcasts, but that we all as individuals are unique and have different strengths. I also thought that the use of the bubbles for showing, segregation, integration, exclusion, and inclusion, was a really good way to visualize their meanings.

Wonder:

This week my wonder comes from the Shelly Moore’s video, The Evolution of Inclusion: The past and future of education. Shelly had concluded her youtube video with the question, how can we do better? And, do you think there will be another inclusion evolution? After reading her ebook article and watching the video, I was led to wonder the same. I do believe that society has come very far regarding inclusivity, however there is always room for improvement and there are still many issues concerning diversity. From this I wonder what potential changes are in store for the future and how we can build a more inclusive society.

Wow & Wonder # 3

Wow: Making my visitor & resident map was really fun and quite interesting to see how I place certain platforms compare to others. One thing I noticed after creating the map is how I would prefer certain platforms to move around and be in different spots on the map. LinkedIn has been the platform that I have most recently made an account for and I would like to have that shift more upwards towards the personal sector, as I want to have more connections with friends and family to gain guidance from. I also would like Instagram to shift more towards the institutional side because I have only ever used it for personal reasons, and I feel that I should be more considerate of how future employers would view my feed and potentially start using it to appeal more towards a future career.

Wonder: One of my wonders from the visitor and resident map excerise is how maps between individuals and groups differ. I think it would be very interesting to see how visitor & resident maps are altered among different generations , occupations, or even economic status.

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