My goals for this week of the #ocTEL course were to watch the weekly webinar and complete one of the activities.
Webinar notes
Presenters: Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou, University of Bath & James Little, University of Leeds
Learning design
- systematic way of developing and describing experiences
- includes a description of the learners, the environment, and the tools they use to interact with each other
Learning design frameworks
- break tasks down to see which tool would be most appropriate
- provide vocabulary and structure when working in a team-based approach in developing learning modules
- consider the developers’ view of technology: is important to have those well-versed in learning theories and technical skills
I particularly liked the analogy of learning technologists acting as a bridge. The points on the summary slide were helpful take-aways to wrap up the webinar.
Activity 1.4 What’s the theory?
I chose to watch Helen Keegan’s talk that described an augmented reality game she created for an Advanced Multimedia class. I picked this one as I don’t have much experience with ARG use in an educational setting, and was curious to see what it was about. Wow…what a surprise. She described how she created a game with a fictional character at its center and the set up of the game in the months before class began. Students were given clues via mail, and some of them reacted quite negatively. Over time, their perceptions changed, particularly as they became more heavily vested in the activities and clues. Throughout the presentation, I kept thinking about the ethical implications of such a game, plus the many opportunities for it to take a bad turn. The students’ comments at the end of the course about their experience and their amazement at how much they had learned were overwhelmingly positive.
Week 2 kicks off today – we will be talking about understanding learners and learning.