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I play with code to understand comprehension as I have no way to comprehend code.

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How reflection drives learning in a connected space

2 min read

Reflection helps learning in a connected space in many ways. A connected space brings people and their ideas together. It builds relationships between people through shared interests. Reflection helps people  look back and find solutions to their questions, so if you are in a connected space that will help others who share the same questions. While working with others you obtain new information and opportunites. If you were to reflect on this you could build on what you already know. A connected space requires everyone to contribute. If they aren't reflecting on their own questions and or knowledge it is hard to fuel discussion. Reflection can influence people to evalutate their choices. It makes you think about why you did what you did, what was happening in a learning environment, and helps you develop questions about activites and practices. Reflection also helps learning in a connected space because it helps you evaluate people's behaviors. The way people say and do things can be a result of many things like their friends/family, living situation, background, and jobs. It's important to know why people do what they do so you can better understand them. It helps you make stronger connections with people when you find out more about them and their interests. Take a class for example, teachers have students reflect on their previous work so they can improve on their next assignments. Some teachers even have students reflect on their lives so they can write about topics they actually relate to. 

Graphic Organizer (D&D Case Study)

2 min read

 

Connected Learning

Description of Learning Space

Any additional research that supports your claims

Interest powered

The person conducting the study thoroughly enjoys D&D which encourages her to make progress.

 

Production centered

By playing the game and creating her character (DIFFERENT CLASSES MATTER IN THIS. EX: A wizard might have more things to write down on their sheet than a Fighter or a Barbarian.

 

Peer supported

Her results and methods could not be tested if she can’t play the game. So the DM would run a session where she can gather data.

 

Shared purpose

The researcher not only conducted a case study on what would be a more effective way to make her character sheet less cluttered but designed an app for anyone to use.

 

Academically oriented

A more organized character sheet may not aid the player in learning the game any better. It could yield advancements in the individual's organization skills and with a more clean sheet, they can easily look over all their powers, feats, abilities, etc

 

Openly networked

The app is available to anyone who wishes to use it and the researcher has even let it be known on her site where the case study was posted, that if anyone would like to contact her in regards to the app, D&D, or about the case study itself are more than welcome to.

 

Learn Something Module Checklist

1 min read

  • Did you read the Maisha Winn article?
  • Did you make a concept map, drawing the shape of Winn's piece? How would you visually represent the ideas, organizations, and connections?
  • Did you publish a post describing what you will learn?
  • Did you publish a blog post, meeting our new high standards, reflecting on the readings?
  • Did you bookmark three sources you will use to learn something?
  • Did you take and share notes on the bookmarks you shared?
  • Did you share three written reflections on what your are learning?
  • Did you share thee audio reflection on what you are learning?
  • Did you analyze a mentor text using our graphic organizer?
  • Did you submit a graphic organizer analyzing an online community
  • Did you write a 250 case study of your online community evaluating the space using a connected learning lens?

Italics are currently in progress and due by 2020-04-03.

Hey #edu106 here are photos of our lecture lastdiscussion at @scsu.

Hey #edu106 here are photos  of our lecture lastdiscussion at @scsu.
Hey #edu106 here are photos  of our lecture lastdiscussion at @scsu.

Remember our goal it to "operationalize" the "theory" of connected learning using "matirix analysis" to evaluate an online community

We have discussed shapes a lot this semester. We started by tracing the shape of Kobe Bryant's award winning farwell to basketball. You then traced a shape of a story. Finally you shared the shape of your own story as we built an About Me website, created an unselfie, and did a photo challenge.

Meanwhile we learned how to recognize the shapes of qualitative and quantitative research articles you will encounter in college. We explored how values get baked into numbers or codes.

Now you begin to shape your own research.

We have been learning about a theory of learning called "connected learning." Theory gets operationalized in research, so the way we are doing that is by breaking connected learning into categories and placing this in a table. There is a column for you describe how you define the principle, a column for you to describe your learning community, and then a column for any additional notes. This is a simplified version of something we call matrix analysis.

This process is our method of research. You have to first complete an example of your matrix by looking at an exemplar texts. These are the case study examples from the DML Research hub we looked at. This provides you a chance to practice completing the matrix.

Giving you practice means you get trained as a researcher and this helps increase the rigor of results.

After you did the model you were then to choose a community to analyze. Remember you are not going to prove if it is or is not "connected learning."

You collect evidence, put it in the write box on your matrix, look for patterns and draw conclusions. It may or may not be a connected learning space. It may not matter. Go where the data takes you.

This graphic organizer is due next Monday. While this was a group project I will allow people to work alone giving the craziness going on.

Case study: D&D

2 min read

In the case study I am reading about. The author makes a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) player sheet but finds it too messy and wants to find a way to make it more clean while keeping the traditional feel to it. The problem with this study is that what he is trying to do is essentially a paradox. As someone who has played D&D for a about 2 years, your sheet will always get messy if you're playing it with pen and paper. Roll20 is an online system for the game and can make things more clean but nothing beats the "at the table" feel of the game. You will encounter many things in your games, become afflicted with unknown diseases, gain new feats and powers, and a plethora of other things that I cannot list otherwise this post would become a 500 page essay on what could happen. That's the magic of the game. Literally, anything could happen. The DM (Dungeon Master) is the one who makes the rules and determines what'll happen next. He could have a fleet of Mind Flayer ships jump out of a portal above the the city you started the game in as the Githyanki come out of similar portals upon red dragons and battle over the city as the civilians run to cover and you and your party members decide what course of action you'll take. Or that cultists have opened up a portal that leads to the Abyss and now a never-ending horde of demons begin invading the realm and your group needs to figure out how to solve it. 

Point being: Anything can happen, things will change, your charchter will change throughout the game. Not enough space? Buy a notebook. or write on the back or go signup on Roll20.

Case study link:

https://www.catieleary.com/ux-case-study-dnd

Learning Update

1 min read

I've learned a few techniques on how to cope with pressing thoughts. I've had to use them because I've been so worried about the sudden switch to going completely online. 

1. Make a list of future events that you're worried about. Write what you think will happen/why you're worried and then write what actually ended up happening. (This one has especially helped me)

2. Mentally take a step back from yourself and think about the big picture and if all this worrying will change anything in the long run.

3. Go outside and enjoy the weather. Whether it's taking a walk, going for a bike ride, or whatever, go outside. It's amazing how much your atitude can change in just a half hour of good weather. 

entrance slip

1 min read

I will learn how to manage time better 

how I will plan everything via calander 

I will write and update my calender every Sunday

How do you define yourself as a learner?

1 min read

I define myself as someone who needs to express creativity throughout my learning. I love to write stories or draw out ideas to help me remember a concept. I personally can not learn effectivly if I can not make an assignment my own or express my own ideas. I believe defining what type of learner you are comes from different experiences everyone encounters throughout their lives and people are so different from one another so there is no way that everyone learns the same exact way. 

Do Something - Blog Post Week 3

2 min read

Week #3 

 

Blog 1: The youth Christmas skit has come a long way. We quickly claimed our parts and acted to the song. I am a homeless person looking for food. The other members are playing a crazy person, a drunk person, a robber, etc. In the end, the person playing Jesus will come hug and accept us all, helping us through our trials. 

 

Blog 2: The teenagers and the children are still singing the song “Do You Hear What I Hear?”. We have certainly gotten better at singing it. Our timing is right and we are now more aware of our parts. However, now the main problem is that some people aren’t singing loud enough. This is a problem due to the lack of motivation and participation of the members. 

 

Blog 3: Next week is finals and I am currently trying to figure out a plan so I do not procrastinate. I have decided that I will work on my Philosophy take-home essays over the weekend so that next week, I will only need to study for my first 2 tests and work on my portfolio. I have also finished my final essay for INQ, getting one thing out of the way. This week has been stressful trying to get everything together. However, the week is almost over and I was able to manage! 

 

 

Blog 4: I was able to attend a seminar that focused on women immigrants who worked in farms. We watched a documentary called “Rape in the Fields”. It went in depth with the hardships these women endure everyday being sexually abused. These women are in a position that feels hopeless, where going to authorities can potentially put them in danger of being deported yet keeping quiet also puts them in a position of losing themselves. It was gruesome to hear and heartbreaking to learn that this has been going on for decades with no justice served. 

 

Do Something - Blog Post Week 2

3 min read

Blog 1: I attended my Vietnamese church service this past Sunday. Last week, I was informed that we would be combining our church service with the New York church. However, that plan fell through because not enough members can make the drive up to New York. Therefore, we will just have our annual program back in CT as usual. I am still participating in a skit. However, the interesting part of this skit is that we are playing parts to a song. Each line is a different character who is broken, later “fixed” by Jesus. 

 

Blog 2: The teenagers and children are still singing “Do You Hear What I Hear?”. We are going with my idea of the kids sing the first stanza, the teens sing the second, and we all sing the third together. We had trouble singing on time and the children kept forgetting which parts they sang on their own and which parts they don’t. 

 

Blog 3: In my Philosophy class, we’ve been doing panel of discussions and presenting informative slides on different topics. One of my friends presented the “social trends” of 2019. It was very fun and interesting to look back at the year. These trends included the “Number Neighbor” where you text someone with the same number as you except for the last digit, the instagram egg which is the most liked photo on instagram, and the bird box challenge where you blindfold yourself and do daily things. I found the presentation to be very entertaining but also informative. 

 

When Learning and Assessment Diverge:

  • Too often we do not know who we are assessing when we assess students today 
  • A student is not just a data point - rather a student is a complex body of experience gain over long periods of time
  • We need to see that we should be assessing bodies of experience and judging how students can be used now and in the future for better learning and development in order to render assessments fairly, usefully, and meaningfully
  • Target Assessments tell us how many people out of a designated population have a hit a certain target
  • Some target assessments just tell us how many people not only can hit the target, but understand what the target means and why it works the way it does 
  • People learn well only when they are motivated or care about what they are learning 
  • People over time use concrete experience to find patters and sub-patterns 
  • Too often, schools take reading texts as the main focus of experience necessary for learning 

(I double dipped by making my last blog about the third reading)