Author Archives: tracey stevens

Course Content Module – Financial Literacy for Youth

Designing my first course (ever) and in Google Classroom proved to be a reasonably difficult challenge. But one that I thoroughly enjoyed!! I designed a course for Grade 8 students to learn about financial literacy (actually the first unit of a 6-unit course). There is research that online learning is an effective tool to teach financial literacy to youth so I wanted to build on such principles (Wolla, 2017).

Although I had located the appropriate content for the course through a Canadian financial literacy book combined with additional articles and web pages, it was not an easy transition to an online course. I was first concerned with modifying the content within the limitations of Google Classroom. Given the target audience of grade eight, I used the flexibility of Google Classroom as much as possible.

I considered Anderson’s article about interactions (learner, teacher, community) as much as possible as I devised the interactivities and the assignments. I wanted to be sure there was sufficient interaction with the professor and other students. Given the thought that students fare better when communities are involved in financial literacy education (Bates, 2014), I wanted to make sure this interaction was included. Although not appropriate for this initial unit, I will ensure there is community interaction in the subsequent units when I finish the course.

In addition to the main course material, I wanted to ensure each chapter had links to areas for further exploration for the students so that they would have opportunity to continue learning about each topic; this will also assist the students to continue the learnings post-class.

As for the digital story, I used Adobe Spark as I wanted a clean and concise medium to explain the concept of “Keeping Up with the Joneses.” I divided the piece in two parts: one depicting the life of the Joneses versus how teens need to reflect on this effect before making a decision. Although a simple concept for adults, I felt it needed great detail for youth looking at it for the first time and Adobe Spark afforded this detail.

As for Google Classroom as a tool, although quite useful in some areas, I found it limited in terms of aligning the Stream in the order I would have liked. Perhaps this would have been different while dealing with a course in real-time. Also, when creating “groups” for the discussion, I simply deselected certain students. If I had a full roster, I would be able to select the students that would comprise the specific group.

One area that I would have liked to expand is the area of assessment. I provided feedback in the Quiz section but would have liked to have the option to have some initial feedback to be sent to the students after discussions or assignments.\

Overall, I was very engaged in this assignment and will continue to work on my course in the coming weeks!

References:

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

Bates. T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/

Totenhagen, C. J., Casper, D. M., Faber, K. M., Bosch, L. A., Wiggs, C. B., & Borden, L. M. (2014). Youth Financial Literacy: A Review of Key Considerations and Promising Delivery Methods. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 36(2), 167-191.doi:10.1007/s10834-014-9397-0

Wolla, Scott. (2017) “Evaluating the effectiveness of an online module for increasing financial literacy”, Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. 12 Issue: 2, pp.154-167, https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1108/SSRP-04-2017-0014

Keeping Up with the Joneses

My digital story is a quick introduction to the concept of “keeping up with the Joneses” and how this can affect one’s purchasing behaviour. It’s part of the first module of my course on Financial Literacy for youth. (I actually had to compress the video as the blog site has a limit of 19 MB – I used Handbrake to compress it if anyone else runs into the same issue).

Designing my first course ever!

I developed a fully online course of the first Unit for a teaching financial literacy to youth program based on the Money and Youth curriculum devised by the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education geared towards Grade 8 students.

Using Google Classroom as the main vehicle for interaction with the students. Students will be encouraged to interact with the professor via posts and emails, with other students via general and directed posts, and with the larger local community through activities and assignments.

An introductory activity will be used to better understand the cultural and specific backgrounds of each learner (Anderson, 2008). There are areas of the course that will permit a glossary to be developed so multiple students can add words and terms that may be unfamiliar and links of others areas that students can use to get more information.

Assignments will build on how students most effectively learn financial concepts including realistic investment programs and interactions with the larger community (Totenhagen, Casper, Faber, Bosch, Wiggs, Borden, 2015).

An online quiz will be used at the end of the Unit as a summative assessment of the key learning items. Multiple choice questions will be used for the more objective type knowledge questions and short answer questions will be used for more intellectually intricate questions (Bates, 2014).

In general, I would say the most difficult portion of creating a course (I am new to this creation bit) is understanding when to stop editing. I found Google Classroom limited in some ways but I learned to work around it. I still didn’t find the appropriate balance between what I would have liked to communicate (and how) and what the platform let me do. I am encouraged to learn more about all the other platforms!!

References:

Bates. T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/

doi:10.1007/s10834-014-9397-0

Tracey’s Personal Reflection

Working as a group, we first aligned on focusing on the given scenario (YESTNet Pilot Program and Aboriginal learning) and providing as much detail and depth as possible so that creating the rubric could be very specific. We found the rubric the most effective when the criteria were very detailed and pointed. This required doing a lot of research to investigate ever dimension of the context of the scenario. The first step was to understand the dimensions of the YESNet Pilot Program as it relates to Aboriginal learning (Greenall et al. 2001). When we couldn’t find actual data, we made reasonable assumptions (i.e. the allotted budget). We then defined large sweeping categories (always relating back to the original context) like accessibility (O’Donnell 2016), readiness (Sharp et al. 2011) and cultural responsiveness (Greenall 2005). We then delved into each category. For accessibility, we evaluated items like technical access, special learner needs, and usability (Medina-Flores et al. 2015) keeping the overall cultural context in mind. For readiness and support, one point we looked at was the need for face-to-face technical support as an outcome of the cultural background (Yukon 2007). We looked at how the platform could effectively support the blended learning requirements (Rueckl 2017) all while fitting within the budget constraints and potential future deployment plans.

There really are so many different factors that impact the decision to be made on choosing an LMS. It’s important to start with the breadth of the situation before choosing the areas to evaluate. And there are so many aspects of the categories to evaluate, that priorities need to be assigned to ensure critical decisions can be made. There is clearly not one LMS that will suit every scenario but evaluation with the help of a rubric can help focus the decision.

References:

Greenall, D., and L. Stelios. (2001). Aboriginal Digital Opportunities: Addressing Aboriginal Learning Needs through the Use of Learning Technologies. The Conference Board of Canada

Greenall, D. (2005). Final report October 2005: Formative evaluation of the Sunchild, E-Learning Community. Ottawa: The Conference Board of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.sccyber.net/images/pdf/Conference_Board_of_Canada_Study_2005.pdf [accesed 20 January 2018]

Medina-Flores, R., & Morales-Gamboa, R. (2015). Usability evaluation by experts of a learning management system. IEEE Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias del Aprendizaje, 10(4), pp. 197-203.

O’Donnell, S., B. Beaton, R. McMahon, H. E. Hudson, D. Williams, T. Whiteduck, and First Nations Education Council. (2016). “Digital Technology Adoption in Remote and Northern Indigenous Communities in Canada.” Canadian Sociological Association 2016 Annual Conference. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary,

Rueckl, R. (2017) Don’t Ditch the Classroom: How an LMS Can Support Blended Learning. Software Advice. Retrieved from https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/lms-blended-learning/Retrieved from https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/lms-blended-learning/ [accessed on 20 January 2018]

Sharpe, D., D. Philpott, and M. Bourgeois. (2011). “A Pan-Canadian Survey of E-Learning for Aboriginal High School Students.” Killick Centre for E-Learning Research Report. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/citations?doi=10.1.1.230.8146 [accessed 21 January 2018]

Yukon Education Reform Project (2007) Final Report. Department of Education, Yukon. Retrieved from http://www.education.gov.yk.ca/pdf/publications/ed_reform_report.pdf [accessed 25 January 2017]

Tardy flight path

(Finally accessed the blog and forgot to publish!)

I am not an educator (though always wish I were…) but come from the technology side. I have both computer engineering and business degrees and have spent most of my career years in technology. I have designed systems that are part of a mobile network technology (notably lawful intercept – commonly known as “wiretapping”), worked with MMS (picture and video messaging) when it first started, and helped launch an application to access one’s email or IM on their mobile phone before phone manufacturers started doing it themselves.

Obviously, my early experience is heavily based in what is known in the industry as “value added services” destined for the “end-user.” Over the years of the various applications, it became increasingly important to understand how and thus design for how the user actually uses the product or service. I have attended user studies and it was a learning experience! What may be very obvious to the designer is not necessarily intuitive to the user.

Most recently, I have been working in the “internet of things” space which is where sensors and monitors come together to relay some kind of information to the users of the system; this has included smart cities, ag tech, fleetmatics, etc.

All to say that I am very comfortable in designing, using, and assessing different types of technologies from a work and user perspective.

I joined the MET program to align my two passions of technology and education. I have a particular focus on how technology in education can help girls access education and how more girls can enter STEM subjects.

My goal for this course is to really understand and get my hands on those LMS’ that are available in the education sphere. I have only used this LMS (Blackboard) and note that there are many things that I don’t find very intuitive; I suspect the end-user evaluation may have not been completed in this case. I have heard of Moodle and but have yet to actually try it out.

I am also curious as to what constitutes social software and multimedia in an educational context. I have used many communication tools in the work atmosphere but am eager to see how these are applied in the education world. These are large buckets that may contain many different softwares and I am anxious to see which ones I know and which are new.

As for assessing the softwares, I am confident that my technical background will afford me with the experience to evaluate them as I would for any other job (function, features, roadmap, scalability, robustness, usability, price, support, etc.) however I don’t have the educational criteria to determine which LMS would be a best fit for the learning environment in question. And that is my main goal with this course!

I need to understand the various criteria from a learning perspective and how best to apply them to the technological discussion.

Resources:

https://elearningindustry.com/11-tips-choosing-best-learning-management-system

http://ccweek.com/article-5408-schoology:-choosing-an-lms-that-just-works.html

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/best-tech-tools