Blog Journal #9

Experience as a Distance Learner

My experiences as a distance learner have been similar to that of an emotional rollercoaster. While I enjoy being able to be safe and do my schooling remotely, I deprived of face-to-face interactions. Those are special and necessary for a myriad of reasons.
In addition, I dislike not having the ability to get to know my classmates better. Many students oftentimes do not have their cameras on, so it is difficult to even see their faces. It is tremendously difficult to make meaningful connections in the virtual world we are currently living in.
When I am a teacher, one way I will improve the experience of distance learners is by encouraging my students to make (online) study groups. That way, they will not only be learning/reviewing course content, but they will also have an opportunity to acquaint themselves with each other. They can see where their peers' interests lie, as well as how they work in group settings. It is easy to tell what kind of person someone is by the way they collaborate (and carry themselves) in any group effort.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

The William + Flora Hewlett Foundation posted a very insightful article about OERs. It discusses the priorities of OERs, which include policymaking as it relates to education systems and the future of students and educators. Of course, the primary objective is to ensure that teachers are well-equipped to then meet the learning needs of their students. Each student is unique and has his/her needs, hence why giving educators the right tools will benefit students in the long run.
Above all, the article makes it a point that Open Educational Resources are meant to place issues like (academic) equity at the forefront. This, in turn, will increase the access students have to academic resources that will lead to their intellectual growth.
Link: https://hewlett.org/strategy/open-education/

New Skills Acquired From PowerPoint Projects

Both PowerPoint assignments taught me how to create multimodal presentations effectively. Not only did I have to be concerned about the information I was presenting but also the visuals, links, and overall "look" of the PowerPoint. Since I had a target age group, I needed to carefully select the images and animations that would most appeal to the group. These assignments further taught me to always calculate and ensure that no single slide is bombarded with too much text. It can be too visually stimulating or overwhelming.
Before completing Assignment #5, I had never created a game or choose-you-own-adventure-story. I was not too, too familiarized with it actually. However, as I designed my synonym jeopardy game, I learned how to work with transitions, sound effects, and hypermedia in general.
For next time, I can make the following improvements: experiment with more slide formats and transitions, insert more images, and use more hyperlinks that students can then take a closer look at.

Assignment #4:

Assignment #5:

✨ Nat's Blog ✨