Dr. McVerry

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. 

• 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.

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

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. 

I will learn how to manage time better 

how I will plan everything via calander 

I will write and update my calender every Sunday

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. 

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. 

#Dosomething #Write #Week3

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) 

#Dosomething #Write #Reading #Week2

Blog 1: 

This past Sunday, I was able to attend my Vietnamese church and catch up on what activities they were planning. I found out that this year, we are combining our church with the Vietnamese church in New York - something we haven’t done in a while. I am also now participating in the children/youth Christmas choir and doing a teen skit. We are still in the process of deciding what the skit is and how we can best send the Christmas message to the audience 

Blog 2: 

I had a few ideas for the song we are singing, “Do You Hear What I hear?”. Since the age ranges from 5 to 18, I thought it would be a good idea to emphasize the different aspects our group brings. I suggested that the kids sing the first stanza, the teens sing the second, and we all sing the third together. Everyone agreed because it switches things up and adds texture to the song. 

Dave’s Educational Blog 

• Social constructivist and connectionist pedagogies, etc, are centered on the process of negotiation as a learning process
  • There is an assumption in both theories that the learning process should happen organically 
• In the rhizomatic view, knowledge can only be negotiated
• Horton and Freire (1990) argue, "If the act of knowing has historicity, then today’s knowledge about something is not necessarily the same tomorrow.
• Knowledge is changed to the extent that reality also moves and changes
• Information is the foundation of knowledge
• The rhizomatic viewpoint suggests that a distributed negotiation of knowledge can allow a community of people to legitimize the work they are doing among themselves and for each member of the group
• Knowledge can be judged by the old standards of “I can” and “I recognize” 
• If a bit of info is recognized as useful to the community or proves itself able to do something, it can be counted as knowledge 
  • The community then has the power to create knowledge within a given context and leave the knowledge as a new node connected to the rest of the network 
• Through involvement in multiple communities where new info is being assimilated and tested, educators can begin to apprehend the moving target that knowledge in the modern learning environment 

Unwelcome Innovation: 

• To better communicate the value and variety of people’s skills to employers so that its easier to connect with and improve job outcomes 
• The conception, theory, and adoption of badge-based alternative credentialing initiatives starts back from 2011 
• In 5 years, much has been written and even more time spent developing the theory and practice of alternative credentialing via badges 
• The premise behind all of the badge and alternative credential projects is the same: that if only there were a new, unified way to quantify, describe and give evidence of student learning inside the classroom and out, employers would be able to value those skills and illuminate a path to job outcomes 
• Badge adherents aim to address the “value” and portability of badges by attaching proof of skills to the badges themselves
  • Same idea behind the e-portfolios 
• Connecting students’ skills and ambitions to the pathways to a career is a big deal

(I double dipped by making 2 of my blogs of this week about the readings) 

#Dosomething #Write #Reading #Week1