Category: EDCI 339

Blog Post #4

March 9, 2025 / edcistudent335

Overview

Open Pedagogy is the creation of free resources that allow students to collaborate to create and add to the learning resource. It is a good way to remove financial barriers while allowing others to share their knowledge.

It differs traditionally from teaching as teaching usually has geographical and financial barriers that Open Pedagogy does not. Open Pedagogy removes geographical obstacles because it is accessible through the internet. Therefore, someone can learn the same amount just by accessing a website.

Open Education Resources (OER), are a direct result of Open Pedagogy. In the way that it shares the same pedagogy.

Open Education

If Open Educational Resources (OER) are used in the educational landscape, many educational barriers will be removed. Textbooks are an essential part of many students’ lives. However, financial barriers can make students unable to purchase these textbooks. Textbooks on average cost 285 USD per academic year (Hanson, 2024). Therefore, students will have cheaper alternatives to textbooks if OER is integrated.

Global Trends

Some global trends indicate the increasing rate of Open Education adoption. Adoption is fairly new in many countries. OER has many benefits, however because of the novelty of OER, implementing OER in education can be challenging.

As shown, some countries lack development in OER. It is important to produce well-thought-out policies and regulations before full implementation (Ndibalema, 2024).

Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licensing is important for OER because Open Education is licensed under open license. This is an important distinction as an open license means the resource is open to the public for free use and adaptation. Therefore, if a person wants to create an open education, they would need to add the open license to indicate the level of access the public can have.

Open Pedagogy Attributes

Using the key attributes of Open Pedagogy, the chart table below will summarize how I can implement it in my educational practices, and how it contributes to an inclusive and participatory learning environment.

Key Attributes	Educational Practices	Contribution to Inclusivity
Collaboration	Contribute to educational resources such as online textbooks, articles, etc.	Students have a chance to actively show their learning through content creation
Transparency	Provide OER as teaching resources (ex. Khan Academy)	Students have access to learning resources without cost
Student-centered learning	Provide students open-ended assignments where students are given more freedom to choose a topic	Students are encouraged to learn through a topic they find interesting

Conclusion

Open Pedagogy is integral in making education inclusive to students who experience financial barriers. Textbooks are expensive and should not stop a student from learning. Therefore, implementing OER can be helpful in providing an inclusive learning environment.

Source

Ndibalema, Placidius. (2024). Global Trends on Adoption of Open Education Resources in Higher Education Institutions: A Bibliometric Analysis. HURIA JOURNAL OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF TANZANIA. 30. 10.61538/huria.v30i1.1474.

Blog Post #3

February 24, 2025 / edcistudent335

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that accommodates students with diverse learning needs. The three main principles are the means of (1) representation, (2) action and expression, and (3) engagement (“Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (UDL)”, 2024). The means of representation means using different types of media formats such as text, audio, or video. The means of action and expressions imply the ability to show knowledge differently. The means of engagement means teaching content such that it allows learners to engage with the content differently. The goal for UDL is to accommodate a diverse student population. Accommodations provide accessibility for the visual, hearing, and mobility impaired. Hence, a digital classroom benefits from different representations of learning. For example, a student with a hearing impairment will benefit from a media format like text. In regards to in-person, mobility impairments can be a learning barrier. UDL applies ramps or automatic doors to be a more inclusive learning space.

Digital Equity

Applying strategies and tools to gain digital equity is essential in a digital learning space. Some strategies to consider when creating digital equity are the following:

Critical thinking: To engage with content effectively, students should know how to reflect and analyze the digital media they are consuming (“Digital Equity in the Classroom”, n.d).
The means of representation (UDL): Apply different media formatting to accommodate student impairments.
Instructor support: A way for an instructor to effectively support students who are having trouble understanding teaching content (Tate & Warshauer, 2022).

EdTech Challenges

Education technology can also bring challenges to a learning environment. For one, students do not have equal access to technology at home. In an in-person environment, if you assign homework that requires a computer, they may only have access to a shared computer. Hence, computer time is an issue. The student may not have the same time to work on their homework compared to other students. Digital privacy is also a big concern for parents and students. One way to improve digital privacy is by safeguarding digital information using tools like Multifactor authentication and passwords (Alphonso, 2023).

Moreover, there should be clear communication between parents and teachers about these digital tools. The school should inform parents about the digital tools they use. Not only how it applies to their student’s education, but to their personal information.

This Forbes article goes more in-depth about how instructors can ensure digital privacy.

Digital Responsibilities in Social Settings

A digital space in a social setting can be unpredictable when left unmoderated. Therefore, the following actions should be taken to ensure a welcoming learning environment:

Establish expectations: Make it clear that violations such as plagiarism, and discrimination are not accepted.
Moderate the environment: There should be an outlined plan for when these violations occur.
Avoid misinformation: Information should be analyzed critically. Therefore, if there are claims students should be encouraged to source it.

Past Experiences

In my past experiences, one learning environment that I experienced used video transcripts with a lecture recording. It addressed the principle of representation. I was satisfied with the accommodations that were provided in that class.

Blog Post #2

February 3, 2025 / edcistudent335

Pedagogy is the methodology of teaching. It is the way a subject is taught. A teacher’s pedagogy does not always fit a student. Looking at the learning theory of Behaviourism, it focuses on objectivity; therefore it excludes topics like human feelings (Bates, 2014). This may fit some students, but others require the acknowledgment of emotions to feel engaged in their studies. Personally, the mix of Behaviourism and Cognitivism has helped me as a learner. Behaviourism trains students by a response and external stimuli; Cognitivism allows students to construct a mental map of subjects to gain knowledge (Bates, 2014). I find combining both aspects allows for better engagement; resulting in effective learning.

Networked Pedagogy

Networked pedagogy is a learning approach that uses technology in order to connect to people who would not have those resources otherwise.

Networked pedagogy removes the barriers of communication in (1) time and (2) distance.

One example of the contributions that online connection has made to my education is through art class. A discussion board is an effective way for students to critique student art. I found it allows students to think deeply about their responses while having easy access to the artist’s work.

Learning Theories

Cognitivism resonates with me because I find that the way you structure your study habits is important when retaining information. Cognitivism can be applied in online learning by creating a visualization with the goal of comprehending the topic (Bates, 2014).

Cognitivism shows that learning must be done with purpose. Some things to apply in your learning environment are:

Planning out your study sessions – what subjects should you focus on?
Simplifying and organizing the subject – what subjects can be broken down in subtopics?

These following actions and questions can maximize your learning results.

Instructor Roles

The instructor is the guide of the students. They are the ones who set the learning environment for the class. An instructor must have the following qualities:

Interactivity – Must be available for feedback
Facilitator – Guides the class actively

In the past, the successful instructors were (1) easy to reach out to, (2) provided helpful feedback, and (3) created a welcoming community (Barnes, 2016).

Digital Spaces

My experiences in digital spaces are in online learning and social media. The benefits of learning in a digital environment are:

Accessibility – the learning environment is portable, and usually used by a personal computer
Affordable – the majority of the time it costs less than the in-person learning

With the following challenges of learning in a digital environment being…

Accountability – the student will have fewer interactions with the teacher
Guidance – having discipline is essential when learning digitally because the teacher will not be able to guide you in real-time

Contributing positively to digital communities is in large part connected to digital literacy. Good digital literacy allows a person to communicate effectively online (Blue, 2022). If a student does not know how to navigate the internet, then they may also share resources that can be detrimental to the community.

Resources

Blue, J. (2022, April 07). Development of skills in Digital Literacy is crucial in helping students become lifelong learners. To help you understand what this involves, we have carried out extensive research to produce a Digital Literacy introductory guide for teachers and educational managers. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022/04/07/understanding-developing-digital-literacy/

Bates, T. (2014, July 29). Learning theories and online learning. Tony Bates. https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/29/learning-theories-and-online-learning/

Barnes, C.L. (2016). Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning. Whitney Kilgore. https://pressbooks.pub/humanmooc/chapter/wheres-the-teacher-defining-the-role-of-instructor-presence-in-social-presence-and-cognition-in-online-education/

Bayne, S., Evans, P., Ewins, R., Knox, J., & Lamb, J. (2020). The manifesto for teaching online. MIT Press. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=6317960&ppg=91

Blog Post #1

January 20, 2025 / edcistudent335

Hi,

My name is Gaia. I am a third-year computer science major. Throughout my studies, I have enjoyed learning about how math and design principles are related to computer science. In this class, I have learned new digital education concepts.

Firstly, Distributed Education is learning that takes place outside of one classroom. Unlike traditional learning models, each student has resources that enable them to learn asynchronously and in different locations. Technology is often required in this form of education. Due to the asynchronous nature of the education, it allows people to work at their own pace. Therefore, a person who is busy with a job can set a schedule that is convenient for them.

Next, I learned about Open Education. Open Education involves learning with resources that are free to the public. The lack of costs allows for an equitable learning environment, and it allows people of lower income to access information they otherwise would not have had.

Afterward, I learned about the different modes of learning, as listed below:

Face-to-Face Learning: Classes that entirely take place in-person
Online Learning: Classes that entirely take place online
Blended Learning: Classes that take place both in-person and online
Hybrid Learning: Classes that give you an option of in-person or online learning

I prefer face-to-face learning because I find that my attention is better when I am physically in school. Also, asking questions will provide a faster answer from the teacher. If it were online, I might have forgotten to ask the question through digital methods.

Digital literacy is the next concept I learned. It is the ability to explore computer technology while being critical and knowledgeable about your environment. It is important for open and distributed learning settings because not every online resource is accurate. The ability to know if the education is being taught by a reliable person is important in order to become a knowledgeable student. For example, a student is looking for an online nutrition course. In order to check the reliability of the course, the student checks who the teacher is. Being digitally literate means researching who is teaching that course. If they spot that the teacher has provided non-scientific claims, then they can look for another course.

Lastly, I learned about digital identity, which is the identity a person has on social media. My digital identity is relatively small. I do not usually post on social media. Although I have LinkedIn for career purposes. It plays a small role, as I am not actively posting comments or images.

Photo by Abid Shah on Unsplash

Overall, I am excited to write future blog posts about Distributed and Open Learning topics. Especially around the topic of digital identity and literacy.