Trinh Nguyen's Blog

EDCI 335

Peer Review for Pod 10

July 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Pod 10’s Interactive Learning Resource

PW: EDCI

Course Information:

The assessment plan is well constructed, I like the two categories of assessments (formative and summative). It is helpful in understanding how students will be assessed.  Though looking at the criteria for the assignment, I noticed that there wasn’t a clear overview of the resource in this section, a description on the learning design you chose, overview for inclusion of diverse learners, nor the learning context. Hopefully these will be added soon after!

Syllabus: (spelt with two L’s not sylabus)

Learning outcomes are thorough. The syllabus is concise, & easy to understand with the description and resources used for each section and its activity. There are 6 sections but from the criteria, it does say 2-4 learning outcomes for the project.

Topics

Each topic had a corresponding interactive learning activity. There could be a clear rationale for the technology choices.

Assessments

Clear overview of the assessment plan for the students.

 

Overall a good draft. I enjoyed the presentation of the website!

Interaction

July 1, 2020 / / 0 Comments

This is a video teaching basic English grammar since my group is focusing on teaching beginner English to a group of K-12 students. In this video, the instructor goes over the different parts of speech, the use of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. He also teaches the viewers which order to place adjectives in one sentence if there are multiple. This instructors content does not necessarily incorporate inherent interaction, as for the whole lecture there is not much interaction with the learners. For learners to respond to the video, they are able to take notes. After watching the video, the best activity for the student to fully grasp the material is to create their own examples using everyday situations from what they already know, chat with peers, and test each other. This will develop their cognitive learning and understanding of the material. Students may chat with peers via Zoom call and test themselves through provided online quizzes that the teacher may provide. Feedback can be given through an online discussion forum with the teacher and their peers, or online quizzes marked by the computer with instantaneous feedback, with additional quality feedback provided by the instructor. An online discussion would be beneficial as learners will receive a variety of responses. This video could have been designed to generate better activity for the students by including inherent interaction activities throughout the video, such as fill in the blank examples or questions at the end of the video in order for the student to reflect and test themselves on the information that was taught (adaptive learning). This blog post is also similarly discussed in Olivia’s blog post, as we are in the same group for the interactive learning resource assignment.

Thanks for reading!

Trinh Nguyen

Inclusive Design

June 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability (National Disability Authority, 2020). This allows for any building or environment to be designed to meet all of the needs for people who wishes to use it, which is inclusive and beneficial for everyone.  Universal Design should incorporate a two-level approach:

  1. User-Aware Design: pushing the boundaries of ‘mainstream’ products, services and evironments to include as many people as possible
  2. Customisable Design: design to minimize the difficulties of adaptation to particular users.

Besides curb cuts, there are many examples of universal design in engineering. Ruiming mentioned ramp entrances, which was the first thing that came to my mind when thinking about universal design structures. Another example is the automatic door, in which many buildings and buses contain. Automated doors accommodate high flows of pedestrian traffic and providing accessibility for people with disabilities.

This can be used as an inspiration as a learning design as learning must be inclusive, too. Universal Design Learning (UDL) is a way of thinking and learning that helps give all students an equal opportunity to succeed, just like how Universal Design engineering gives all people an equal opportunity to do the same thing. This learning design is able to target students who learn and think differently, as well as students with learning disabilities. This approach offers flexibility in the ways students access material and are able to stay engaged while showing what they know. Examples of universal learning design are closed captions, which allow hearing impaired students to see what is being said on-screen, but also people who don’t have disabilities may also want to use them. I know personally for me, I prefer watching movies with English subtitles on. UDL allows this same flexibility in the classroom.

Sources

National Disability Authority, 2020. What is Universal Design. Retrieved from: http://universaldesign.ie/What-is-Universal-Design/

 

 

 

Experiential Learning

May 29, 2020 / / 1 Comment

Experiential learning, also known as EXL is the learning process through experience, or “learning through reflection on doing.” It is a form of active learning, where it gives a hands-on approach to learning that moves away from the direct instruction of a teacher at the front of the room and transferring their knowledge to the student in a more involved way. Jennifer A. Moon has explained that experiential learning is most effected when it involves a “reflective learning phase”, a phase of learning resulting from the action inherent to experiential learning, and “a further phase of learning from feedback.” In order to gain knowledge from an experience, the learner must have 4 abilities:

  1. The learner must be willing to be actively involved in the experience,
  2. The learner must reflect on the experience
  3. The learner must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience; and
  4. The learner must possess decision making and problem-solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience. (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007).

My group has decided on teaching English to a group of people in grades K-12. Experiential learning somewhat aligns with our chosen topic because in order to fluently learn the language, one needs experience with speaking the language to other fluent speakers. Experiential learning helps with language learning as it allows the students to be more involved, in contrast to direct instruction teaching, as you may be able to learn the grammar and vocabulary of English, but if you do not physically use the language itself daily then it will be difficult to learn. With experience, learning English will become easier.

References

Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. (2007). Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Learning, Motivation & Theory

May 15, 2020 / / 1 Comment

Share a story about how you overcame a learning challenge. Why was it a challenge? What strategies did you use?  Use the language you learned in this unit.

One of the most difficult courses I have taken in my four years of my undergraduate degree was Chem 231: Organic Chemistry I. As a biology major, I was weak in chemistry and math/calculus equations, since biology is known for its memorization of pathways, scientific names and processes. Sure, memorizing and drawing molecular structures was fun, but I quickly learned that trying to memorize each and every reaction would not be of great help for this course after horribly bombing my second midterm. To be honest, I had been neglecting the lectures (not focusing in class, not attending, etc.) just because I was frankly not interested in learning the material, although I needed the credit for the class as it was a prerequisite for my degree. After receiving that wake-up call, I used my failure to psychologically motivate myself to actually LEARN the material instead of attempting to memorize each and every reaction. I had to adjust the way I processed and thought in order to get a better grasp of the information, since this was a chemistry course. This was when I realized learning truly can be difficult, because after practicing a certain way of learning, I had to shift gears in order to succeed in a different environment. In order to develop a deeper and higher order learning skill, I began to identify what I wanted to focus on learning, including how I learned it. For me, learning in the classroom was not enough. I took advantage of resources outside of the lecture room that were easily accessible, such as online YouTube demonstrations and examples (thanks to The Organic Chemistry Tutor), reading the textbook, and learning within study groups. The most effective way was the YouTube tutoring because I was being thoroughly taught the information in another light, which helped immensely. After practicing new lengths of learning, I am happy to say that I was able to succeed in the course. 

After reading Caroline’s post, I do agree that having a professor utilize different teaching methods to keep students engaged is an effective way for students to learn, as I often have a hard time focusing on one speaker for a long duration of time as well. Also, I will give props to Caroline for being able to speak a second language so well, as I am trying to learn a new language  and can’t even think about writing paragraphs at the moment!

Thanks for reading, 

Trinh Nguyen

Photo by Alex Kondratiev on Unsplash

About Me

May 13, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Hi there,

My name is Trinh Nguyen, and I am a fourth-year biology major at the University of Victoria. After graduating, I plan to extend my knowledge into a graduate program focusing on cosmetic sciences. My goal is to be involved in the cosmetic industry while studying the science behind it.

I was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, my hobbies include cheerleading and cosmetics. I have been on the Vikes Cheerleading team for the past three years. I competed in the University World Cup Cheerleading Championships (UWCCC) in Orlando, Florida with my team twice, and have won Collegiate Grand Champions at Sea to Sky Nationals three years in a row against other universities in BC. Last season, Vikes won a provincial champions title and another paid bid to attend UWCCC for the following season.

While social distancing, I’ve been able to enjoy many hobbies and activities that I normally would not have the time to do, such as video editing, playing and learning new pieces on the piano, watching TV shows and movies, as well as attempting to learn a new language (Korean)!

Thank you for visiting my blog, I am looking forward to this course.

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