Learning from Digital Pedagogy & Adult Education Courses

There is a thought in education that learning happens in a social environment. This is called social learning.  For brick-and-mortar classes and courses, students and instructors get to know each other and connect quite naturally. Chatting happens before and after class. Conversations naturally flow. Humans are social beings and a sense of belonging and community is needed for learning.  How do we do this in an online learning environment? For teachers and those designing learning online, thought needs to be given on how to help students develop a sense of community with each other during their online class. One strategy is giving students group work. The intent is that students can get to know one another and feel connected when they are given as assignment to work on together. This, in turn, helps them not to feel so alone and also exposes the learner to different perspectives and experiences from their classmates, enriching their learning. This is the intention of group wor...

The misconceptions Pain is sometimes left under-controlled just because a team is not gathering all the information they need to find the right interventions. There is a huge misunderstanding that symptom screening is the same as symptom assessment. In best practice, these are two different processes that are meant to fit together in a specific way: a patient that screens positive for a symptom then has that symptom assessed. The screening and assessment might be done by different people but information from both are needed to find ways to control the pain, sometimes with medications. Choosing the right medication including at what dose and how many times a day, depends a lot on extra information an assessment gives you. This is where the breakdown happens: when screening, which provides less information, is mistaken for assessment, the team lacks the important information that is needed to figure out how to relieve the pain.  Analogy- it is like going to a mammogram. It can tell u...

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See how the Principles of Multimedia Use and Visual Design transformed my course survey report   Using Multimedia  Mayer laid out principles for using multimedia in education and training. This helps you make sure you are using multimedia in a way that benefits instead of burdens. These principles should be used not only with static images but also with time-based media like video and audio recordings.  How could adding visual or audio pieces to my content actually burden the learner? This has to do with the theory of cognitive load. When incorporated in certain ways, multimedia can overload the learners ability to process the information you actually want them to learn. Thus, the visuals, audios or videos can get in the way of achieving learning outcomes. When not used with these principles in mind, visuals (or audio, video, games, simulation, VR, AR etc) can be barriers and not aids to learning. These principles don't only guide how to use multimedia but al...

37% of American school-aged children report having been  cyberbullied  (Google Survey, 2017) Safe guards often fail, like age restrictions for accounts on social media platforms. This is amongst the many often cited reasons for keeping social media out of the classroom (see the link above as an example). In fact, most have a visceral response to the very idea.  Exposing learners to cyberbullying is certainly a risk any instructor should consider. But is blocking the use of social media in our classrooms really the best way of keeping our learners out of danger? Life is occurring more and more in digital spaces. As the generations shift, it will only become more important that learners of all ages are equipped to navigate digital spaces with safety in mind, for themselves and for everyone else.  Opportunity for Digital Literacy  Using social media in the classroom is a risk but also an opportunity, a vital one.  Instructors and classroom experiences can...

Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework that is used to guide instructors to design lessons and training that moves the learners from lower level to higher level thinking. The use of higher level thinking improves learning and better prepares learners to be able to transfer the information for use in real life situations.  3 domains of learning are covered:  1) Cognitive Domain refers to the development of intellectual knowledge 2) Affective Domain refers to handling emotions such as values, motivation and attitude 3) Psychomotor Domain refers to physical movement and behaviours Each of these 3 domains also has subcategories ranging from simple to more complex. The Cognitive domain has 6 subcategories: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create. This is the most widely known and widely used component of Bloom's Taxonomy. Each subcategory is associated with processes that are described as verbs. An instructor can use the subcategories and verbs to write clear and effectiv...