Lesson Plan - Resources

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Resource: Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel http://www.in2edu.com/resources/thinking_resources/blooms_taxonomy_chart.pdf

WHY: This wheel (and chart) ultimately sums up my knowledge of using Bloom’s Taxonomy when creating the content of my course.

HOW: Ultimately, my introductory computer classes will teach application and analysis for the majority of the sessions, but I can update my learning objectives with this resource. This can help me match job descriptions with my course syllabus learning outcomes and prerequisites.

Create a Positive Learning Environment

Resource: Creating a Positive Learning Environment (Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqNCiNMuDOs

WHY: This video can help me address any potential issues in communication. That’s first and foremost, to set the stage in terms of comfort and help people feel good about themselves, and let them be eager to learn.

HOW: This can be a short refresher for me to watch, when planning activities and lesson plans for the future, in a computing classroom. This can help me create activities to achieve learning, while motivating students and keeping them happy towards their learning objectives.

Motivational Techniques

Resource: 6 Motivation Techniques

http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/8019-6-motivation-techniques

WHY: These 6 techniques will help me address all of the others that we have learned about in this class.  I do love what I do. This will keep me passionate, structured, and I will help them see that learning can be fun – while also practical.

HOW: There are many ways to learn the computer basics, but it can be personalized, enjoyable, and very useful as both a novice skill-set, and a foundation for more skills. I believe these 6 skills will help me in motivating my students.

Assessment

Resource: Giving Assessment Feedback

https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/printpdf/537

WHY: This handbook can help me in any teaching situation in the future. Whether I am giving feedback to a student, or I am inquiring on how to receive feedback that will be beneficial and useful for further discussion, this handbook has it all.

HOW: This will be useful for many adult learning classrooms, as I can select which assessment and feedback strategies I will use in the future. It can also help me create marking rubrics for assignment assessment.

Planning

Resource: Competency-Based Education via the DACUM and SCID Process: An Overview

http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/e-forum/CBE_DACUM_SCID%20article(2).pdf

WHY: I have a feeling that most of my students will want to know how their skills will change throughout the course, and what they will be practically used for. This resource will help me in the future, in that process.

HOW: This resource will help me construct my DACUM chart for the course. With this, I can branch off of the chart, and design course outlines and introductory material for the students. This can help them see the direct link from before they start the course, to the skills they will have when they complete the course. 

Journal

Topic: Interaction in Learning

a)      New Insights

Adult educators in today’s world play the most significant role when it comes to interaction in learning. Educators play the role of engaging with the learner, maintaining the engagement, transferring knowledge, and helping ensure its retention. Not only that, but through the right kinds of interaction, it may spark curiosity and reflection in the learner. This may lead to further learning.

Engaging with the learner means establishing a connection in 2-way interaction. Sending a message and having the learner not just listen, but interpret and reciprocate the message back. Then, the educator would validate the learner’s reciprocation through an evaluation method. So long as the student feels engaged during this knowledge transaction, the adult educator has played their significant role, as the student will be more likely to retain and pursue that information.

b)      Trends

There are some new trends in the field of interaction. Since more learning is being done online by people with less time on their hands, eLearning is a great example of a trend that is newer, and still developing. Another trend is “Gamefication”. This involves the use of video game design elements, in a non-gaming situation.

To address the need for eLearning, I have not only purchased a few related textbooks on eLearning, but I have a degree in Interactive Technology. This has prepared me to understand and design new systems of interaction, for my passion of the purpose of learning. I try my best to continually perform research activities to better understand users and learners, and then re-iterate design strategies to help ensure the best optimal experience – in this case, learning.

For the challenge of Gamefication in today’s world, many people are learning skills through video games. I’m not too sure about the psychology of why games are so engaging (mainly because I just like being engaged in games), but maybe it’s to do with attaining a learner’s attention span in a short amount of time, and maintaining that attention span. In a world with such little time available for learning, this could be a useful medium for learning. To prepare myself for this, I used to play video games of all sorts, and used to be in the world of “hardcore gaming”. I can relate my past experience and transfer the skills into my developing academic career in teaching.

c)       Web-Conference

Working with Emma during the web conference allowed the both of us to bounce ideas off of each other, craft a learning strategy, and learn how to work around each others’ time-consuming obstacles of work and life, to get this project done. I’ve learned that she has been out of school for many years, and I have been in school recently. We were able to relate on different points, and we helped each other out in terms of applying our best skills to this project.

Resources

Learning from Peer-to-Peer Interaction

http://leap.tki.org.nz/What-do-students-learn-from-interaction

What Does Interaction Accomplish?
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/Interaction.htm#Accomplish

Social Interactionist Theory -- Learning Language through Social Interaction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_interactionist_theory

Gamefication of Education
https://www.knewton.com/infographics/gamification-education/

Autobiography

Hey there, I'm Adam Dewji, and I'm a new student in the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP) at Vancouver Community College (VCC).

Well, first off, I'm not too new to the concept of blogging. I run the Brewji craft beer blog, so I feel in my comfort zone here.

I've graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Interactive Arts and Technology. I concentrated my interests and senior courses in Interaction Design, specifically in User Experience (UX) Design. Having years of experience in customer service roles, and a blend of Information Technology (IT) experience as well.

To a tee: I'm here to bring basic knowledge of technology to the masses, and help them adapt as well as they can, while feeling good about it.