Course Reflection
Brita L. Williams
Concordia University – Portland
Course Reflection
As I look back on the last seven weeks of our assigned readings and additional research on trends in technology in higher education, I am surprised how much I was unaware of in what was available and how it can be and is being used today. Our society and educational system have come a long way in how we apply technology and use it to advance learning.
Significant Concepts to Apply
MOOCs
The concept of using MOOCs in higher education was a notion that I knew about but had not really investigated. I was surprised at how it has developed with so many variations of subjects and goals (Selingo, 2014). This course has caused me to think about how I can integrate them into a program or course but I do not believe they will replace courses. The reliability and validity of assessing outcomes are untenable for a degree path or course outcomes. The use of MOOCs seems like an organized collection of knowledge one can still find on the World Wide Web without signing up for a course.
Digital Native vs. Immigrant
The concept of native vs. immigrant in relation to the digital culture is one of the most significant concepts that has altered my perspective on how students learn in the digital world today (Prensky, 2012). While teaching history, I have always emphasized the importance of recognizing how one’s different culture and cultural experiences create different perspectives among us. Expectations of how to live, priorities, and planning for the future are predicated on the historical experiences of people. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are developed from the problems that needed solving in the past. With the advent of digital technology, much like the industrial revolution, the result is a paradigm shift of life’s expectations and plans. However, the revelation that digital natives think differently because of the impact of such technology on the brain synapses, changes my own thinking on how to teach them (Prensky, 2012). They do not need to learn how to use such technology in the same way a digital immigrant does like me.
Gaming in Education
The application of digital games into the classroom as an instructional strategy took me by surprise (McGonigal, 2010; Prensky, 2012). Investigating the gaming world and the skills needed to play and win are no different than many of the skills needed to learn in a non-gaming classroom environment (Barr, 2017; O’Malley, 2017). This concept has opened new doors for integrating content and instructional strategies into learning. I still need to process how best this can apply in higher education, but in my teacher training classes, it is another strategy I will promote for use in the K-12 classroom. My goal is for new teachers to recognize the importance of engaging students in learning by knowing their learner (Joyce, Weil & Calhoun, 2015). The next generation of K-12 students will be 100% digital natives with the knowledge that technology is always changing and expecting new ideas formerly only in their imagination (Prensky, 2012).
Conclusion
I began this course with trepidation, not because I am afraid of technology, but because I have seen too many people add technology to their lessons just because it exists. It is critical that technology be integrated into learning environments to enhance the lessons and applicability of the content. Delbanco (as cited in Bowen, 2013) talked about the need to maintain provocation in education and not just instruction. Higher education must be prepared to adjust to the changing technological landscape by adapting their pedagogical practices and addressing the programmatic needs of their students (Christensen & Eyring, 2011). A concept I did not mention above but found to be worthy of use in the future is flipping the classroom. I was pleased to discover that this is not just recording a lecture for the student to watch before coming to class (MacMeekin, 2013). Outcomes and gathering evidence of learning are still critical to the teaching and learning process (Chappuis & Stiggins, 2016). However, this process is best used with constructivism (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2015) and include feedback to motivate the learner (Williams, 2018).
Reference
Barr, M. (2017, July 20). Video games in higher education: Using video games to develop graduate attributes [Blog]. Association for Learning Technology. Retrieved from https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2017/07/video-games-in-higher-education-using-video-games-to-develop-graduate-attributes/#gref
Chappuis, J. & Stiggins, R. J. (2017). An Introduction to Student-Involved Assessment FOR Learning (7th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J. (2011). The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Delbanco, A. (2013). Discussion by Andrew Delbanco. In Bowen, W. G. (2013). Higher education in the digital age (pp. 129-143). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Joyce, B., Weil, M., and Calhoun, E. (2015). Models of teaching (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
MacMeekin, M. (2013). Flipping the classroom [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://anethicalisland.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/flipping-the-classroom/
McGonigal, J. (2010). Gaming can make a better world [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world
O’Malley, S. (2017, July 19). More than fun? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/07/19/educational-games-expand-classroom-learning
Prensky, M (2012). From digital natives to digital wisdom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Selingo, J. J. (2014, October 29). Demystifying the MOOC. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/education/edlife/demystifying-the-mooc.html
Williams, B. L. (2018, February 8). How to make student assessments useful and productive. Retrieved from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/useful-student-assessments/