OLTD 510 - Capstone Learnings
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May/June 2018
Evidence of Learning: Major Project Proposal
Learning Outcomes Demonstrated:
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning.
- Examine current research around best practices and emerging practices
- Develop practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc
- Develop skills to optimize learning experiences through personalization based on characteristics, needs, stages of development, current 21st Century personalized learning mandates, etc..
- Understand, design and commit to student success in online learning environments
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning.
- Examine current research around best practices and emerging practices
- Develop practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc
- Develop skills to optimize learning experiences through personalization based on characteristics, needs, stages of development, current 21st Century personalized learning mandates, etc..
- Understand, design and commit to student success in online learning environments
Reflection to Support Evidence:
For my first piece of evidence, I have chosen to include my Major Project Proposal, in which I outline the project I will complete to fulfill the requirements for the Masters of Educational Leadership through VIU. This piece represents a huge amount of thinking, reflecting, and refining. I had to strive to be concise, specific, academic, and make connections between the learning that occurred throughout the two years of my OLTD diploma experience.
The major outcomes demonstrated in this proposal synthesize so much learning that it is difficult to keep my reflection to three or four paragraphs, let along sentences. For my project, I intend to create a gamified framework that I, and other online teachers, can apply over top of our existing online courses or learning experiences. This framework will be presented for others to use (or adapt) on a website, which will persuade teachers of the benefits of this emerging pedagogy. I may also find it useful to persuade parents that this is a valuable learning pathway for their children, since this innovative pedagogy truly disrupts many of our ideas about what education should look like.
In order to create my proposal, I had to critically analyze best practice, emerging technologies and pedagogies, synthesize my learning from most of the courses I had taken previously in OLTD, and explain its relevance for the online learning context and environment. This was immensely useful for me, as I have been teaching online for several years, and have yet to find a satisfying solution to how I will engage my asynchronous learners in more meaningful ways. This framework provides an exciting opportunity to fulfill this long term goal of mine, while also personalizing learning pathways for my students and allowing them to develop 21st century learning literacies simultaneously. Through the creation of my Pedagogy: Level Up! Website, I will stretch my own competencies in digital media, creating a number of tutorials, videos, resources, and structures that can be used by online teachers to revitalize their classes without needing to start over from day 1.
Part of why I have been hesitant to apply many of the great strategies that I have learned about in OLTD comes from the fact that I do not get any course development time as part of my teaching assignment. Any design and implementation of new materials that I undertake occurs on my own time. This framework represents a massive amount of work for me, but could go a long way to help others use game design elements and engaging pedagogy in their courses, without needing to spend a year reorganizing, rebuilding, and redesigning. Best of all, the framework should be applicable to a wide variety of courses, for example, all of the English and Social Studies courses from grades 8-12 that I am currently assigned to teach. This means I can use my gamified construct to improve learning for virtually all of my students. I am truly excited to create this product and use it in my online classroom.
The major outcomes demonstrated in this proposal synthesize so much learning that it is difficult to keep my reflection to three or four paragraphs, let along sentences. For my project, I intend to create a gamified framework that I, and other online teachers, can apply over top of our existing online courses or learning experiences. This framework will be presented for others to use (or adapt) on a website, which will persuade teachers of the benefits of this emerging pedagogy. I may also find it useful to persuade parents that this is a valuable learning pathway for their children, since this innovative pedagogy truly disrupts many of our ideas about what education should look like.
In order to create my proposal, I had to critically analyze best practice, emerging technologies and pedagogies, synthesize my learning from most of the courses I had taken previously in OLTD, and explain its relevance for the online learning context and environment. This was immensely useful for me, as I have been teaching online for several years, and have yet to find a satisfying solution to how I will engage my asynchronous learners in more meaningful ways. This framework provides an exciting opportunity to fulfill this long term goal of mine, while also personalizing learning pathways for my students and allowing them to develop 21st century learning literacies simultaneously. Through the creation of my Pedagogy: Level Up! Website, I will stretch my own competencies in digital media, creating a number of tutorials, videos, resources, and structures that can be used by online teachers to revitalize their classes without needing to start over from day 1.
Part of why I have been hesitant to apply many of the great strategies that I have learned about in OLTD comes from the fact that I do not get any course development time as part of my teaching assignment. Any design and implementation of new materials that I undertake occurs on my own time. This framework represents a massive amount of work for me, but could go a long way to help others use game design elements and engaging pedagogy in their courses, without needing to spend a year reorganizing, rebuilding, and redesigning. Best of all, the framework should be applicable to a wide variety of courses, for example, all of the English and Social Studies courses from grades 8-12 that I am currently assigned to teach. This means I can use my gamified construct to improve learning for virtually all of my students. I am truly excited to create this product and use it in my online classroom.
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