ETEC 565a – Assignment #3

Course Introductory Module Reflection

Rationale:

The course I have designed is: “Makerspace Lab: An introduction to Makerspaces for K-8 Educators”.

From my experience, there is a need and a desire to educate educators about Makerspace and the Makerspace culture, how it relates to the BC curriculum and especially as it relates to ADST. There is great interest, but often educators do not know where to start, gather the materials, or make “time” for it in their classrooms . This course should assist in filling that void – and through a British Columbia lens.

Makerspace Lab is a blended learning course; the LMS I have chosen is Google Classroom and the “hands-on” portions of the course will carried out in the educator’s teaching practice. Google Classroom is a common platform that many teachers are already familiar with and I used Bates’s SECTIONS model criteria (2014) to assess the effectiveness of this platform framework for this type of course and found that it met the eight criteria.

The First People Principles of Learning (2015) was also considered in the design of this course. While all principles are addressed, “Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place)” was one principle I thought reflected the community of learners I would like to create with this course.

Makerspace Lab utilized Anderson’s (2008) attributes of learning. Particularly, the format of this course allows the instructor to gather the necessary background knowledge of the students to effectively scaffold new concepts. The choice of activities allows students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways through a variety of activities, offering opportunities for individualization. Students will be sharing their weekly experiences with their classmates to collaboratively create knowledge. It is my hope that students will be inspired by what their classmates are doing in their schools and learning communities and will be willing to challenge themselves in areas that may be normally out of their comfort zone. The opportunity to ask each other questions, bounce ideas off one another, and provide support and modeling are powerful aspect of community – whether online or not.

Finally, I utilized my knowledge of the ISTE (2008) Standards for teachers. My intent is for the course to be inspiring and dynamic, and get educators involved in authentic learning experiences – ones that they can readily apply in their teaching practice. Opportunities for reflection and growth, and building and learning from a community of learners are at the forefront of this course.

 

Introduction to the Course

The introduction to the course gives students all the pertinent details about the course; course outline, information about the instructor, contact information, expectations, etc.

Snapshot:

Activity	Rationale
Makerspace Lab Outline	To give students the basic information and expectations of the course as well as the instructor’s contact information.
Introduction Activity	As students come to this course, they will all have different understandings of “who” a maker is and “what” a makerspace is. This activity is designed to get students “talking”, share some safe personal information and incorporate visuals to make it more engaging.

Assessment

The assessment section within the Makerspace Lab course outline clearly indicates expectations around assessment in this course. I have included a multiple choice/matching quiz as per Option 1 requirements, but I have not assigned any numerical value to it. The goal of this quiz is to discover background knowledge, and to gain a sense of what knowledge (if any) students have around Makerspaces.

Planning with an end in mind is extremely important. While content knowledge is important, the primary goal of this course is to get educators to explore a variety of hands-on activities to engage their students in both content and process from a constructivist perspective. The final product that students in this course will complete will be an E-portfolio, which will showcase digital artifacts of their learning journey.

 

The Seven Principles Framework (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996) details the need for high expectations, ways of learning, and prompt feedback. Gibbs & Simpson (2005) also echo the need for prompt feedback. Through my varied assessment pieces these principles can be met. The assessment components allow for students to demonstrate their understanding and learning through a variety of ways. My descriptive feedback will be the focus of the assessment. The nature of most Makerspaces and makerspace activities does not typically fit “quiz” or “test” type assessment pieces. The inclusion of a safety quiz when utilizing different types of materials or equipment may be an exception.

 

I was not fond of setting up a quiz in Google Classroom (Google Forms), particularly troublesome was setting a timer (had to use an outside add on) which limited the time you had to complete the “quiz”. Matching questions I found also awkward to set up. This would not be something I would use in the future as I do not think this style of assessment is pertinent to my course.

Snapshot:

Activity	Rationale
Quiz	This was designed to assess students’ background knowledge about makerspaces and design thinking in general.
Online discussions	Allow for asynchronous communication where students are given the opportunity to take the time to reflect on their learning before they respond. Helps to create a community of learners by allowing others to learn from each others experiences and engage in dialogue, pose questions or queries, successes and challenges. The main online discussions will be focused to meet course objectives and display critical thinking.
Hands-on activities and reflections	Students will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and reflect on their learning through artifacts and reflections.
e-Portfolio	An e-Portfolio is a digital tool which is designed to showcase student achievements and learning throughout the course. The artifacts selected for inclusion in the e-portfolio should demonstrate evidence of learning and growth, thinking (through reflections), and should be selected and structured in a meaningful way (Challis, 2005).

 

References

Anderson, T. (2008). 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). Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model. Teaching in a Digital Age. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/

 

Challis, D. (2005). Towards the mature ePortfolio: Some implications for higher education. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 31(3).

 

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), pp 3-6. Retrieved from https://case.edu/ucite/media/caseedu/ucite/documents/seven_principles.pdf

 

First Nations Education Steering Committee -FNESC (2015). The First Peoples Principles of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP-POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11×17.pdf

 

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from          https://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

 

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2008). ISTE Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf