My Cultural Journey
Instructions: Click anywhere on the map to access the story. Start with the yellow marker to read the navigation instructions.
Reflection
As I prepared to work on the story assignment, I was cognizant of Kanuka’s (2008) warnings. Speaking of educators and their technology choices, she states, “Often swept up by unbridled – but uninformed – enthusiasm by technological advocates, many decisions by educators are based on following the latest trend” (p. 111). It is very easy as an educator to get excited by a site such as Cogdogroo. There are 50+ tools that are demonstrated to work for storytelling. However, it is important not to get caught up in the coolness of the tool, but rather to choose one that is educationally sound. As I perused through the list of tools on the website, I was instantly drawn to the mapping tools as I thought about what story I could tell about myself. Initially I was thinking about just telling a story aside from my online course, but as I thought about the purpose of the course and the tool, I began to see how it could be a perfect fit with my educational objectives.
In the end I chose Wayfaring to tell my story. My Moodle course is a social studies unit on China. This story will fit into the first lesson, which focuses on defining different aspects of culture. The students will read about some characteristics of culture then view my story, which includes some descriptions of various cultures that I have encountered. They will then choose one place in the story, determine what aspects of culture I referred to such as food, language, or climate, and post their answers in a forum. Afterwards, they can interact with each other on the discussion posts.
From a pedagogical standpoint, this story activity will encourage higher-level thinking as recommended by Bloom’s Taxonomy (Clark, 2010). Rather than just recall or understanding, students will need to analyze what I have told them in my story and apply it to what they learned about the characteristics of culture, encouraging critical thinking. In addition, the activity offers them the opportunity to choose a place that is of interest to them rather than forcing them to respond to something that I have chosen.
Wayfaring is a map-based tool, and as such it was ideal to tell my story, which is a worldwide one. I have lived in 10 countries and experienced their cultures. I was able to write from personal experience as well as add media from others into the story. I could open it up for the public to add links and comments as well, however since this is a grade three activity, it is a better choice to leave this option out. Instead, I have prescreened any media that I chose to make sure that the content was suitable for this age.
Wayfaring has many possibilities as an educational tool for any grade but is suited for my target age. In my grade 3 social studies curriculum we focus on mapping skills, community, immigration, migration and world cultures. This tool combines mapping with text, video and audio allowing a fuller and more authentic look into different parts of the world. The inclusion of images and audio will appeal to visual learners, helping them to engage in the activity. Students can choose any of three views (map, satellite, or combined) and zoom into the areas that are of most interest to them. Additionally, with a little instruction, this tool is simple enough for students this age to tell their own story, whether it be on a macro, worldwide level, or the micro-level of their own community.
Finally, I believe that this activity, although only one small part of a larger unit, meets the criteria for online learning given by Anderson (2009) in that it offers my students something that is “learner-centred, content-centred, community-centred, and assessment-centered” (p. 67).
Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Accessed online 18 November 2012. http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf
Clark, D. (July 5, 2010). Blooms taxonomy of learning domains. Retrieved November 18, 2012 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
Kanuka, H. (2008). Understanding e-learning technologies-in-practice through philosophies-in-practice. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Chapter 4 (pp. 91-118). Available online at: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/04_Anderson_2008_Kanuka-Online_Learning.pdf
Levine. A. (2007). “50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story.” Accessed 10 November 2012 from http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools