Tag Archives: curriculum

W8: Research Paper

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This paper is an examination of the increasing demand for post-secondary pedagogy for ‘acquiring marketing skills’ rather than simply demonstrating knowledge, due to the rapidly changing landscape of the marketing and communications industry, through advances in digital media and in particular, social media.

The only way to remain relevant in this emerging discipline is to constantly learn about the new environment as quickly as possible, and create a flexible pedagogical plan that utilizes the new digital media tools as part of the learning process.

Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing as it uses digital technologies that are inherently measurable, permit conversations to be targeted, and facilitate the creation of relationships between customers and firms, whereas the latter is much more mass communication oriented (Wymbs, 2011).

Download entire paper at EDDL5151 Jo Brookes Analytical Research Report.

W6 – Activity 2

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Lisa Nielson on 21st Century Educators Don’t Say, “Hand It In.” They say, “Publish It!…

 

How does this fit with my pedagogical beliefs?

As a new teacher, who wants to teach marketing/online communications, this fits entirely within my beliefs. I have personally gone back to school in my late ’30s to upgrade my skills in Marketing and every project I did, I kept for my resume and onhand for interviews. I believe that student work needs to be more than just ‘student work’ as Neilson seems to.

Do I buy into what she is saying?

I do buy into what she is saying and believe that today’s student would too.

Do the examples give you some ideas that you might want to try in my own teaching practice?

  • Screencast tutorials
  • Vokis
  • Google Voice Assignment
These are all new to me and I would love to try them out.

Does the “Publish It” philosophy impacts student learning in a positive way?

Yes. It let’s them feel that their efforts and time are ‘valued’ and they are less likely to think it is ‘just a dumb assignment’. It shows them learning about technology, which will give them confidence as well as keep them interested. It shows that their time in school not only helps for the future but can also show impact in their lives now.

W2 Activity Three: UDL Reflections

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 Elements of King-Sears & Edyburn UDL readings as they speak to online learning materials I have used, the environment in which I find myself using them and how they address my desired online teaching environment (blended or distance).

The online materials I have used in my work environment.

The online materials I have experience with for my own learning are Blackboard, Moodle, Dropboxes and WordPress. For my role as a communicator/marketer, I am manage the re-design, content generation for selkirk.ca, Selkirk social media  and my.selkirk.ca using WordPress, Drupal, T4 content management systems, along with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

My experiences in web design projects and ongoing communications have me a support of Edyburn’s Prop #1: That UD in education is fundamentally different from UD in the built environment. I see more consistency with Web Content Accessiblity Guidelines (WCAG) that are developed with organizations around the world with the goal of a ingle shared standard of web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations and governments internationally.

In designing the college websites, with the goal of engagement and effective communication in mind, the following principles from Sears-King impacted our design and content generation approach and pedagogy.

  • Flexibility to accommodate a wide range of student preferences and abilities and Proposition 6 (Provide an array of supports in a digital environment that students come to expect.) The design of Selkirk.ca was ‘responsive’ to ensure the content could be displayed on iphone, ipad and typical computer screens as today’s student’s are using their phones more and more. This is part of the WCAG2.0 Design Standards, in particular the Adaptability Standard (Create content that can be presented in simpler layout without losing information or structure.)  Further, to reach the target markets, the research shows that they are all checking social media (facebook, twitter) to learn more about colleges etc, so we have added this medium to our print, email, web, display communications etc to ensure we can reach them.
  • Equitable use of technology to help those with LD & perceptible information by combining visual with written content.    We designed our site to meet accessibility standards as best as possible. These can be found at http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/ and are quite similar (1.1 Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so it can be changed into other forms like large print, braille, symbols; but could easily be improved. 2.2 Provide enough time for users to read & use content etc)
  • Simple & intuitive use to present content in a straightforward manner considerate of students’ background, knowledge etc. In designing our primary navigation and site map, we worked to ensure it was navigable by providing a primary menu based on our organization across the top and a secondary audience-based menu (future students, aboriginal students, international students, parents etc) across the left of our home page. Our footer also had many quick links. All three systems help our users to navigate, find content and determine where they are.

Key factor for my desired online teaching environment…

Proposition 10, that UDL is much more complicated that people think, is a principle I believe important.

Unfortunately, in designing our websites in the past, we only gave ‘lip-service’ to designing for user personas, where you lump groups of users into similar needs/wants/styles etc and create content specifically for these groups needs. We started off with this but have let this drop as we continue forward in the busy day to day.

Wherever possible, I would like to be involved in creating curriculum and learning experiences towards each learner’s learning style preferences (aural/verbal, visual/physical, logical, social/solitary). An example of the Learning Style Test, for streamlining a learner experience, can be found at North Carolina University Index of Learning Style Test.

I believe we should tailor our content/curriculum to provide the preferred options to each type of learner.