Here is my digital story:
Content module link + reflection to come in a couple of weeks!
UPDATE: Addition of Content Module & Reflection
Link to Simple Machines for Science 5 Content Module
Assignment Reflection
This assignment was a natural progression from the development of our Introductory Modules, helping us to build upon the knowledge we’ve already gained throughout ETEC 565A. Throughout this reflection, I’ll refer to each part of the assignment criteria and write an overview of the creation process and subsequent learning associated with it.
Purpose, Rationale, & Audience (Introduction – not part of assignment criteria)
This content module was developed with a Grade 5 student audience in mind, with me acting as the instructor for the course. The content in Module 1 of Simple Machines for Science 5 aims to contain a balance between text, images, and multimedia components (Bates, 2014; Siemens, 2003) that provide a weekly amount of science work that could be comparable to a typical in-classroom or blended classroom experience. I also tried to decrease reading assignments to large and difficult-to-read websites as Grade 5 students can present with widely varying reading levels; anything from a Grade 2 to a Grade 8 reading level can be present in a regular Grade 5 classroom, and online environments can be less forgiving in terms of literary support. These considerations led to the selection of appropriately consumable multimedia resources and assigned discussion topics for Grade 5 students across the 2 weeks embedded in Module 1.
I developed the “Parent Portal” during our Introductory Module assignment. However, it is worth mentioning here, as parent support is pivotal in supporting the learning of younger students, particularly in environments like online courses which can feel initially less structured. Within the course Moodle environment, the Parent Portal acts as a space for parents to turn to as they support their child with their online studies, from weekly discussions to more formal assessments.
Splash Page with Customized GUI
Interestingly, I felt that this was a component that I wanted to integrate when I develop my Introductory Module. When first experiencing an online course, these design components are extremely important and set an overall perceived expectation for the user (Bates, 2014; Norman, 1999). This was a challenge because I developed it as I first was learning how to use Moodle. I developed each of my icons in my GUI through the use of Canva.com which is a webtool I’m extremely familiar with. However, once I inserted the image designs into Moodle, I had issues with everything from spacing to image resizing which I had to solve by some backend HTML editing. There were many portions of the assignment where I found myself glad that I knew enough HTML to make these changes – this was one of them. I developed the GUI to navigate to all the different modules that would be included in my complete course shell as well as important pages, such as the one that points to assignment overviews, the Parent Portal, and weekly instructor announcements.
Complete Learning Module with Subject-Specific Pages
Because of the groundwork laid in my prior work on that assignment, I found the development of the content module much easier. I already had such a strong framework for how I wanted to play out the course content and I was more familiar with developing content within the Moodle environment as well. The overall course schedule of activities for Simple Machines in Science 5 was an immense help in beginning to set up the structures of my first content module. This was my springboard for the development of the content and activities that would follow. In fact, many of my resources and “interactivities” (interactive online games, challenges, or activities) were already chosen as I created this schedule. However, some of the online interactivities that I had originally planned had broken links – the content had disappeared! – and I had to change what I was originally going to do. This is something to take heed of in the development online courses or learning experiences: some of the resources you’re depending on may not be there for you in the future. As Hobbs & Jensen (2009) state, online multimedia such as this can be “notoriously unstable, here one day and gone the next” (p.6).
The content that I developed was intended to provide scaffolding for future assignments, complete with integrated media and graphics to grab the attention of young Grade 5 students (Bates, 2014). This module was a general introduction to the subject of simple machines, providing a broad overview of the different categories of simple machines as well as corresponding terminology that we would run into throughout the course. This approach intended to give students an understanding of the overall course content while also giving them a space to refer back to whenever they might misunderstand a term or course concept in the future.
Online courses can easily become text-heavy, especially when presenting content that will be scaffolded throughout the course such as vocabulary. The inclusion of embedded media and interactivities in my course was purposeful as to prevent the “overused and abused” nature of text in media (Siemens, 2003, para. 6), especially for the betterment of experience for young students. Videos supplemented text materials, sending a congruent message about course content. Interactive games, challenges, and activities allowed students to become more involved with the content, or test and/or apply their current knowledge. As I stated earlier, these components were browsed and selected as I created my course outline in the Introductory Module assignment, but I made small tweaks as necessary to improve the flow of the modular topic.
Digital Story
The development of my digital story came before I actually started to work seriously on my content module although I had no idea how it was going to fit it in yet. After some thought about what kind of digital story I would be creating, I made the decision of which module I was going to develop! My idea was to show how simple machines were so prevalent in our lives that I could use all 6 major categories of simple machines before I even left my house in the morning.
When I was choosing a technology, I was drawn to VideoScribe because of its engaging graphics and visuals, feeling that they would be especially appealing to a young audience. Secondly, having used VideoScribe once before, I knew that I could include both graphics and text elements, with complete control over how and where they appeared on the canvas. This allowed me to adhere to Boyes, Dowie, & Rumzan’s (2005) assertion that: “Novices in a subject area might have difficulty attending to relevant cues within animations, so text labels and supporting contextual information is critical in designing educational resources” (p.3).
I hadn’t used VideoScribe for over 2.5 years and I had previously used the iOS app, not the OSX app; I used the latter for the development of my digital story. I found that there are still many images that were unavailable in their free image library and I had to find Creative Commons media that matched my theme and content. I decided to pair VideoScribe with Camtasia 2 so that I had a more robust video editing experience and more control over the final content, including the addition of Creative Commons audio tracks.
From a pedagogical perspective, VideoScribe is engaging for young students because of the visuals, graphics, and fonts that would be appealing to their age category. The gradual build-in canvas feature makes the story seem more like a progression of events than if all of the elements existed in the frame from the beginning of the media production. I was giving a lot of general information about simple machines in a short period of time. By using different slides in Videoscribe, the content appeared more gradually making the information easier to manage. This directly helps students to scaffold and organize knowledge as they prepare to apply their understandings to interactivities featured later in the learning module.
This story actually fits seamlessly into the blended Simple Machines 5 course that I will be teaching next year. I can probably use it for some time to come, as the knowledge content within it is highly unlikely to change. This is a great story to share both at the beginning and at the end of a simple machines unit. In the beginning, it could be used as a hook – getting students to look around and try to identify everyday objects that could be classified as simple machines, even though we haven’t studied them in depth individually yet. Then, at the end of the unit, once we have taken a closer look at each machine type, they can review the “machines in your environment” activity, looking at their old data, identifying new simple machines in their environments, and ultimately drawing new conclusions from the reflection and review (Moon, 2001).
Discussion Forums – Individual and Group
Before I read that small group discussions were going to be a piece of criteria for the content module assignment, I already had planned to include them because of Garrison, Anderson, & Archer’s (1999) writings on the topic. Other than stumbling through the Moodle set-up of the small group discussion forum itself, the rest of this section was very simple and flowed easily with the modular requirements and outcomes. I decided to use a case study adapted from Breau, Dykeman-Gaudet, Jones, & Johnston’s (n.d.) Simple Machines Unit Plan that I found online. Case study analysis helps students to see alternative perspectives that they may not have otherwise considered (Kolodner, 1992). The small group setting would promote more intimate and focused conversations as students worked through the problem at hand (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999).
Assessment (not included in criteria, but I want to address this)
I chose to develop content for the topic introduction module, which meant that it was primarily overview materials and scaffolded knowledge for the entirety of the course. As such, no major assessments were included in this module, although students would be getting started on their first assignment by the end of the third week of the course (the end of the content module I developed). Instead, as an instructor, I would use these weeks to closely monitor and moderate discussions, provoking students to engage in further thought and questioning on the topic of simple machines. According to the course schedule, the students would participate in a half-point quiz a few weeks following the module I developed, which was the quiz I created for our Introductory Module assignment in ETEC 565A.
On a different assessment thread – the assessment of my own work – my ETEC 565A colleague, Randy, and I exchanged feedback on our content module development. We did the same on our introductory module and it was a huge help to have another set of eyes and some formative feedback as development of the assignment continued. Even when considering little things like links or buttons that were not working, or grammatical errors, peer feedback goes a long way to supporting a polished assignment product and provides further peer-to-peer social presence in my ETEC 565A experience (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999).
Conclusion
Overall, this assignment was less frustrating to complete than the Introductory Module because I had already established my overall design components for the course and I was familiar with the Moodle environment. The content was the only thing that had to be developed and there was less finicky, technical work to be done. Because the content was outlined through the creation of my course schedule and unit plan that I created for Assignment 2, I had a rough outline of Assignment 3 ready-made for myself. I worked to appropriately sequence and develop online modular content that would be balanced in text, imagery, and multimedia, and would promote student interactivity and engagement with the topic. I worked to include pedagogically-sound and engaging activities for students to interact with on a weekly basis. Overall, this assignment was fun to develop and has provided some groundwork for my actual teaching of the content in the upcoming school year.
Reflection References
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age, Chapter 8. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Boyes, J., Dowie, S., & Rumzan, I. (2005). Using the SECTIONS Framework to Evaluate Flash Media. Using the SECTIONS framework to evaluate flash media, 2(1). Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.186.6505&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Breau, L., Dykeman-Gaudet, D., Jones, C., & Johnston, J. (n.d.). Science Unit Plan – Grade 5, Simple Machines. Retrieved from https://elementarysciencestu.wikispaces.com/file/view/Science+unit+plan.pdf
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. Retrieved from http://www.anitacrawley.net/Articles/GarrisonAndersonArcher2000.pdf
Hobbs, R. & Jensen, A. (2009). The past, present, and future of media literacy education. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 1, 1-11. http://jmle.org/index.php/JMLE/issue/view/1
Kolodner, J. (1992). An Introduction to Case-Based Reasoning. Artificial Intelligence Review, 6(1), 3-34. Retrieved from http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~jorkin/generals/papers/Kolodner_case_based_reasoning.pdf
Moon, J. (2001). Reflection in higher education learning. Working Paper 4. York, UK.: The Higher Education Academy.
Norman, D.A. 1999. Affordance, conventions, and design. Interactions, 6(3), 38-43. Retrieved from http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html
Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating media characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm