Unit 5 - Blogging

Is blogging remediating academic and business communications? When I looked up the definition of remediation I found this definition (I think I laughed out loud), Remediating is defined as giving a treatment or remedy. An example of remediating is handing someone ibuprofen for their headache. And this is how I think of blogging – a band aid solution to communication. In this article, the author goes on to research how using a blog as a customer service tool to address customer issues. An interesting concept, but I have a hard time to see how a blog would satisfy this need, so I read on.

Fascinating – blogs for business, a content management system. The article states that there is a trend for businesses to use blogs for research and development. I really don’t see how a blog would ever work at my place of employment, anyone out there with me?

References:
Aselin, K. (2011). Blogging: The remediation of academic and business communications. Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI No. 1452706).

Unit 5 - Using animation/simulations in the classroom

I really appreciate this research as the time it takes to deliver material or as the article calls it ‘transience’, refer to the total amount of mental effort being used, and the platform used is so important. I may just use some of this information for a proposal at work, as it was one of the best experimental research executions I’ve read. In the experiment they used animation-based instructions and spoken information under audio-visual effects. It continues to argue that animations should be used instead of static graphics to relay short modules, and the opposite when relaying longer modules. The results rang true to the hypothesis; I want to perform this experiment at my work place as I see simulations fitting nicely into our curriculum.

Reference:

Wong, A., Leahy, W., Marcus, N., & Sweller, J. (2012). Cognitive load theory, the transient information effect and e-learning. Learning and Instruction, 22(6), 449–457.

Unit 4 - What is your opinion on distance learning?

This article resonates with me as distance learning has always been a challenge for me; I have learned that I don’t usually thrive in large online groups like MOOCS. However, with having the schedule that I have with work and kids it really was my only option. I had no choice but to adapt. This article explains that online learning is the new norm for study, and I will venture to compare it to remote workers as well. This study was conducted uses a mixed method which I agree with that chosen research method as it would capture the broad spectrum of participants and their experiences with distance learning.

Brown, M., Hughes, H., Keppell, M., Hard, N., & Smith, L. (2015, November 2). Stories from Students in Their First Semester of Distance Learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning.

Unit 3 - Explicit Focus on Technology:

The journal Technology in Society has been brilliantly split into several interdisciplinary areas that go as follows:

Technology assessment - is the study and evaluation of new technologies
Management of technology - management disciplines that allows organizations to manage their technological fundamentals to create competitive advantage. 
Technology and policy - nurturing those capabilities and optimizing their applications in the service of national goals and interests
The economics of technology - overall process of invention, innovation and diffusion of technology or processes
Technology transfer - the transfer of technology from the originator to a secondary user
Appropriate technology - that people can manage it directly and on a local level
Economic development - the various technological changes contribute significantly in the development of the economy
Ethical and value implications of science and technology - too definitions, but pretty much new ethical and regulatory challenges
Technology forecasting - attempts to predict the future characteristics of useful technological machines, procedures or techniques

All the above definitions were referenced from https://en.wikipedia.org/

Unit 3 - Explicit Focus on Learning

At my work right now the idea of using artificial intelligence, simulations in learning, and then evaluating the relationships between the learning platform and the participant, analyzing patterns within their learning has been a heated topic as we are dealing with two different camps – people who are behaviourist learning theory people, believing that repetition is the key to learning, and very much resistant to change; and the second group is the constructionists learning theory people, very much wanting to:

1. Create real world environments to make learning as relevant as possible
2. Solving real world problem
3. Trainer is a coach or facilitator
4. Learning objectives and negotiated not imposed
5. Provide tools and environments that help participants to interpret the perspectives or tasks

I found this journal, Learning analytics in massively multi-user virtual environments and courses interesting as it states that there is an emergence of a new field known as Learning analytics, that seeks, “learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs”, the journal continues to state, “This knowledge can be employed for a range of purposes, among which are to allow learners to reflect on their activity and progress in relation to that of others as well as to assist teachers and support staff in predicting, identifying and supporting learners who may require additional attention and intervention”.
I would like to implement at my place of work in the near future, so I may just use some of this for my proposal.

What is the importance of research and research ethics?

What is the importance of research and research ethics? Why is academic freedom important? This freedom comes with responsibility as it includes that the research meets high scientific and ethical standards. “Academic freedom includes freedom of inquiry, the right to disseminate the results of the inquiry, freedom to challenge conventional thought, freedom to express one’s opinion about the institution, its administration or the system I with one works, freedom from institutional censorship.”

Before reading this article I had a bias that ethical behaviour is pretty self-explanatory and common seneschal. However, this article covers ethics at such a granular level, I had no idea it was such a detailed subject. Some of the core principles are; respect for persons, concern for welfare, justice.

References:

Ethics – for Students

Panel on Research Ethics - The TCPS 2 Tutorial Course on Research Ethics (CORE)

Unit 2 - Introduction to Education Research continued…

Introduction to Education Research continued…

Research within research… wow there are so many different types of research methodologies out there – I admit it’s a little overwhelming. The one research method that I resonate with in this phase of the project at work is the Action Research method. This is where the researcher is focused on solving specific problems.

Some of my specific problems at work are as follows:

1. Hardware not meeting the capability of some of the platforms that we are using I.e. no audio to listen to the videos we are producing.

2. Firewalls and access to training material: We have external Ministries that are receiving training however they do not have access to the Network, therefore, we have to send them the videos which are very large (email attachment limitations), and zips are stripped.

I am currently using the Action research method where I have diagnosed several problems, and conduct a review to see if a answer already exists. Usually that results in an answer of ‘no’ an answer doesn’t already exist then I plan and carry out my own research study to create a proposal prior to implementing the changes or solutions. As the article states – this seems to be a never ending process, “because most problems are never fully solved.” (p.10)

References:

Johnson, R.B., Christensen, L. (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction to Educational Research. In Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches.(pp. 1-28) Sage Publishing.