Hello everyone,
Sam and I are pleased to kick off the Movable Feast with our investigation into DIY learning. We’ve enjoyed the process of digging into the topic and putting everything together, and hope you enjoy it as well. Please follow the link below to the full experience.
Our perspective is to give you things to think about instead of an exhaustive scholarly breakdown of the topic. We hope everyone can find useful ideas, whether or not you consider DIY learning to be part of your professional practice. To this end, there are some Padlets inside the OER that we encourage everyone to engage with and share your ideas. Also, feel free to comment on this post with general ideas, questions or experiences on the topic.
Looking forward to a good week of discussion on the topic.
Regards,
Devon & Sam
https://sites.google.com/view/diy-learning-etec-523/home
Hey Sam and Devon,
A little late to the party, sorry about that! Thank you for going first in presenting your OER. I find the DIY community so interesting and such a critical part of where education is moving towards in which truly encourages lifelong learners to engage and learn what they need to know, when they need to know it. I found your Padlet sections thoughtfully segmented into the different prompts of Skill swapping or comparing two different DIY platforms and their efficacy.
I find myself often too overwhelmed with DIY choices online, and that my attention keeps jumping back and forth between sites, whereas the slow process of reading a book to make a cooking recipe so satisfying. Cooking honestly, to me, is how I engage the most with the DIY community. As a majorily self-taught chef, with some basic knowledge watching my grandmother cook, I think still to this day, recipe books are so critical to holding all that information for making good recipes. Following a video is just not as nicely condensed and too stimulating, that it almost makes it feel unnecessary to cook for myself since the joy in watching someone cook competes with my own urge to cook for myself!
Alan,
I think your experience is a common one, whether we realize it or not. I often tell myself or others that I have had success finding information or DIY tools online, but when I reflect on my experience I realize I may have spent more time bouncing around from idea to idea, than actually focusing on one helpful item. Likewise, I love to collect manuals and recipe books but often the sit on my shelf to be opened once every month or so to consult the same 1 or 2 recipes over and over.
I wonder if there is a way to combine these two phenomena, to find a solution to both problems. Perhaps a more stable, curated online DIY database would help learners like us follow consistent, stable pathways to DIY learning while preserving the easy access to a vast online source of information.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Sam P
I greatly enjoyed your website and presentation! The topic is one that I already have a bias to enjoy, as seeking DIY support has been a frequent pursuit for me. My cell phone is often the source of step-by-step instructions as I repair washers, build decks, change car filters and bulbs, and so much more! It is interesting, though, that I have not thought about education in light of DIY. I undertake Project-Based Learning assignments with my students without thinking about it in the context of DIY – ultimately that IS what PBL is doing, and it is a fantastic goal to set our students on the path of DIY pursuits in education and in their daily lives.
I would love to help my students see their pocket computers (phones) as DIY devices – But I’m pretty befuddled with the tension between removing access to phones in schools and utilizing them for such educational purposes. Time will tell where this goes!
Thanks for your feedback, and you raise an excellent point at the end of your paragraph. Unfettered access to mobile devices is key to successful exploration of the online DIY landscape, but it has it’s own pitfalls! There seems to be some good research on how we might manage this as teachers (and some interesting posts in Week 4 that speak about Ed Tech to help with this) but is certainly isn’t resolved at this point.
Cheers!
Hi Devon & Sam,
It was a pleasure reading through your OER. It serves as a nice digital archive on the how, what, when and where of DIY. Certainly some aspect of DIY should be incorporated into teaching as it empowers learners in ways that will continue to serve them as life long learners and in many ways as you pointed out aligns with adult education.
The DIY tutorial I shared on your Padlet was not one of planned learning, but rather I’d gotten into a situation mid-job where I didn’t understand something. YouTube saved me, and thank goodness for the mobile aspect to this technology.
Do you feel as a whole the mobile aspect will become more important to DIY learning platforms?
Great job guys.
Rich
Hi Rich,
I really enjoyed your contribution to the Padlet, and it raised an interesting point that our OER didn’t really delve into. The idea of DIY Learning as an emergency/stop-gap type of learning is very important, and I think that your comment here helps explain why; if DIY Learning is available on a mobile device, we aren’t limited to just learning in formal environments, during structured time. Learning can occur whenever we need it, on short notice and even in case of emergency! I think, and Devon spoke about this too during our planning sessions, that mobility is absolutely key to the success of DIY Learning platforms. Social media-based DIY in particular is dependent on being available quickly via search or browsing. If we are elbows-deep in…. you know… then we don’t always have time to clean up, bring our day to a halt, and go take out some books from the library or even sit down at a computer.
Some interesting questions, that I will certainly be looking into more in the future.
Sam P
Hello Devon & Sam,
Thank you for hosting this week’s OER on DIY Learning. I enjoyed how you touched on some of the coding do-it-yourself utilities and sites that are available. I am looking at implementing a few of the solutions for my teaching in the near future.
Thankfully, in New Brunswick, there is strong support for the personalized growth of students and their pursuit of do-it-yourself learning. I’ve had students who wanted to specialize or learn about a specific thing (using Gamemaker, for example) that wasn’t necessarily in the curriculum or had enough students available to offer a class in it. The students were able to research and take a route into it through a Personal Interest course. One of the things that I have found is that students sometimes rush into working on their tasks when selecting the right DIY tool, often finding something that would have better worked later on in their journey. Spending extra time in this area can benefit their learning.
Thanks again for all your effort!
Joel
Hi Devon and Sam,
What a great OER! Thank you for sharing. I appreciate the feedback and sharing resources page. I was able to get a lot of great ideas. I also appreciate you sharing valuable apps and resources for DIY learning of languages. As a language teacher, I am always looking for ways to help my students beyond the classroom, so thank you! I think DIY learning is such a great way to differentiate instruction, especially for students who need an added challenge.
Thanks for the feedback Olivia. Glad you found some useful material.
Language learning strikes me as a particularly good fit for DIY learning. Partially since there is a lot of work to be put in to learning a language, and classroom hours are probably not enough for most people to reach fluency in a short time, so independent effort is a great aid. But also because the need or desire for learning a language can come up later in life when school classes are no longer available.
When I was in high school, the only language courses we had available were the mandatory French class. At the time I had no need for French or plans to travel extensively so didn’t really pursue that. Years later I ended up moving to Asia and have an extensive list of places I want to travel (including France), so my attitude towards language learning has changed significantly. DIY resources (especially mobile apps) have been very useful at letting me make progress that I probably wouldn’t made otherwise, given work, kids and the other usual adult demands on free time.
Devon
Hi Devon and Sam – Thanks for putting togther a great resource. I have a fond place in my heart for DIY – in the 2010s I was part of both the Instructables https://www.instructables.com/ and Make https://makezine.com/ communities. My specialty back then (and still somewhat today) was elaborate Halloween costumes. These communities pre-dated Youtube video tutorial formats, and almost all DIY content was developed in step-by-step photo based articles and community submissions. I was even featured in the Make Magazine print magazine back in the day! I used to post DIY content on a personal blog, whereas now like-minded communities can easily share information across Tik-Tok, Youtube and Reddit. I love how this facet of learning has steadily increased over the past few decades in its availability to consume, produce, review and improve. Mobility and technology has not only strengthened the DIY community but fundamentally how we learn and share knowledge. Thank you!
Hi Nicole,
Some very interesting observations there, thanks for taking the time to share. Your involvement in the online DIY community predates mine, so I really appreciate your insights about the growth and transformation of this community over time. Devon spoke to this a bit in the History of DIY page on our OER, and I’ve learned throughout this week just how much personal experiences, values and knowledge contribute to DIY Learning. If I was to adjust or remake our website, I would probably focus even more on the ways in which DIY Learning is shaped by the people who make up a specific DIY community (or have contributed to a particular resource, or group of resources.)
We reflected on the same thing as you as well; the variety of platforms and technologies enabling more rapid consumption, production and review of DIY lessons and sharing have fundamentally changed and strengthened DIY communities.
Thanks again for your helpful feedback!
Sam and Devon
Those are some cool experiences Nicole!
DIY certainly has strong roots in niche topics, and I suspect there’s a virtuous cycle with the communities that focus on those topics: with little information available anyone who provides material gets a small but engaged following, prompting reciprocal posts and knowledge sharing.
The community aspect is definitely one side of the cycle that has truly benefited from the internet in general. In the days of print magazines or books being the main method of getting information, the information flow was one way unless you lived in an area large enough to have dedicated clubs of like minded individuals (and you could find them). Now on line communities make these connections so much easier and more frequent.
Devon
Hi Sam and Devon,
Amazing OER! This is a great tool for both educators and learners to get started on DIY projects; I really appreciate how thorough yet friendly the site is in getting people to understand what DIY learning is, why it is beneficial, and how they can get started ASAP. The Padlet section is exceptional, giving users a chance to learn from and contribute to a mobile learning community of invested individuals.
I would like to point out the flexibility and fluidity of the site as one of its strongest features; it is truly mobile. The pathways for users to choose their direction, straight from the homepage through the whole site means that users can navigate based on their needs at every given moment. Giving such easy access to possible needs is extremely helpful for those looking to learn and get started.
Well done!
Kevin
Thanks for the positive feedback Kevin!
Honestly, the aspects of this that we discussed the most (and were most uncertain of) was getting the scope and format of this right. Deciding the depth, breadth and interactivity of the OER could have the been done many different ways. Given the the objectives of this course and the audience of education professionals, we ended up with a design to survey the landscape and prompt individuals to explore and make their own decisions, rather than guiding them to a particular thesis that we may have on the topic.
While we were happy with what we came up with, it always remained to see if someone else would see it the same way. Very reassuring to hear the response of you and others.
The mobile first perspective was definitely one I personally had to work on; for reading or creating this kind of material I would personally tend towards a desktop computer. Taking a mobile perspective when designing and building the site was new but frankly something I needed to incorporate into my thought process anyways.
Devon
Hi Devon & Sam,
Thanks for sharing this OER!
I particularly like the Sharing, Feedback, and Reflection page with your 3 activities. I’m curious whether anyone else ran into issues adding a Padlet post on a mobile device though? It kept freezing for me, so I had to move to my laptop (still a mobile device, but not the device I was originally using).
Sam – can you elaborate further how you have incorporated DIY resources in your teaching? I have engaged in a lot of DIY learning in my personal life, but I would like to explore / incorporate it into my classrooms more.
Hi Shannon,
Thanks very much for your response. I’m glad to hear the positive feedback on the Sharing page; it is a modified version of a format I have used on several sites. It was also the first time I used Padlet’s AI feature, and I was quite happy with the results. I’d recommend trying it out sometime. I had to make some modifications to suit our purpose, but it was a great foundation and even sparked some new ideas for the project.
It’s unfortunate that Padlet wasn’t working well on your mobile device. There is a lesson in that; we must be prepared for the eventuality that something might work smoothly for us in the testing stages, but not always as seamlessly for all users. What device are you using, and what functionalities caused issues? Devon and I intentionally chose some slightly different templates, settings, and sharing options to test the platform and see if any issues would arise. I was thinking that the 3rd Padlet, which asks you to upload videos or pictures, might cause the most issues. I’d love to know what went wrong, so we can take that into account in future and tweak this OER if necessary.
In terms of DIY Learning in my classroom, here are a couple examples:
1. Genius Hour Project – We have done these projects in my class over the past few years. Students are usually building, hacking, or creating something and often need pointers on how to do so. Since these projects often fall outside of my areas of expertise, we discuss possible DIY learning tools they can access, and build their selection, use and reflection into the project’s Design Cycle. A bit more on Genius Hour here: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-genius-hour-projects-help-students-find-meaning/
2. Practicing Skills – This has come up a number of times, and some students really enjoy this approach. When there is something to be learned/remembered/practiced (a recent example was a school-wide challenge to remember as many digits of Pi as possible), I encourage students to use YouTube or other platforms to find how others have gone about this. It works best if they are facing a novel/unknown task (other examples include building paper airplanes, remembering multiplication facts, completing a coding challenge), because they are in a great position to take advantage of multiple strategies and use them to build their own approach.
Thanks for your feedback, hope these answers were helpful. I look forward to hearing more about your experiences with the Padlets!
Sam P
Hi Sam,
Thanks for sharing those two examples; your second one used for learning/remembering/practicing seems so simple yet it shifts the learning to the students and encourages DIY learning! I like it.
As for the issues I had with Padlet, it was just with the first one. On my phone (Apple iPhone, using Safari) the Padlet ‘window’ within the Sharing, Feedback and Reflection page is a set size and it’s pretty small on the page. This results in having to scroll through the posts (I can only read 7 rows of a single post due to its columnar shape) and while scrolling, it’s difficult / I can’t find the “+” to add a new post. I just found one workaround, which involves opening the padlet in a new tab, but this wasn’t intuitive when I first tried to add a post directly in the Padlet, while on your site.
Thanks Shannon that’s helpful information to have.
When building the Sharing/Feedback/Reflection page, it became clear that the easiest thing to do was open the Padlets in the Padlet App when using on a mobile device. As you allude to above, Google Sites are not always user-friendly when navigating embedded content.
Maybe it would be worthwhile to explore some research and see the current best practices (or common preferences) when accessing embedded/outside content on different platforms and devices. At the very minimum, I think I could have been more specific in my instructions and perhaps pointed out the challenges users might face when adding to or navigating the Padlets.
When it comes to younger learners, this could be an additional concern because they don’t always have access to 3rd party apps. This could be as a result of restrictions on a Student account that is managed by a school or district, or just the preferences of their family or capacity of the device they’re using.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback!
Sam
Hi Sam,
Thank you for your classroom examples. I would have loved to see those specific ideas embedded in the website as it would have strengthened the argument for how DIY learning can happen in the classroom.
One example of a DIY learning project (I believe this could be one, based on your examples) is a pechakucha where students complete research about a specific topic and present it to the class. I think this was a great option for students to do research and partake in their own DIY learning. This presentation then allows for a variety of learning opportunities to happen within the classroom. Even I learned so many new things about their chosen topics. The presentation also gives the students a time limit and doesn’t require anything extra from them.
What do you think about this form of DIY learning? Do you think it would qualify?
Jasmine
Devon , Sam – great OER!
DIY is applied when traditional educational institutions and the curriculum fail learners. It is, of course, the original factory production model. Nothing would exist in the world if it weren’t for the one persistent, curious tinkering hobbyist who invented everything for the first time. Post Industrial era consumption has orphaned us from our collective DIY ancestry. Thank you for bringing it back full circle!
Thanks for kind words Kirsten.
It is strange how things have lost their DIY roots. Apple is probably one of the more extreme examples: modern day iphones are and Macbooks are very resistant to DIY mods or repairs, but the company grew out of meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club…
Devon
Hi Devon and Sam,
Unfortunately the link does not open as there is an error.
Thanks!
Jazz
Hi Jazz,
Sorry about that. I think I found the setting that was at fault, please try again.
Devon
Thanks, Jazz!
It was our hope that getting the site up a bit early could help identify any potential problems. Devon fixed the issue, which was the result of an oversight on my part when setting the initial sharing settings.
Sam