Author: Georgina Asare (Page 1 of 3)

Throughout EC&I 831 class, we used blogs to document our learning project and for discussions on topics. In the essence of open and participatory culture, I engaged my colleagues’ blogs through comments as a form of knowledge co construction. I must say that regular comments with my colleague’s blog posts was central to my participation in our course learning community. I tried my possible best to read and responded to posts with thoughtful constructive feedback, emotional encouragement, collaborative engagement and asked clarifying questions. I know that my words, through comments empowered, motivated and shaped my colleagues work one way or the other. I may not have provided the loudest comment but I am glad I was part of others learning.

With discord I did not engage much as I did with the comments on blog post, nevertheless the few times I interacted there, I participated in knowledge exchange on some of our task, discussions on AI, and was open in seeking for assistance and I must acknowledge my colleagues were very helpful. Thanks to all colleagues who shared something there.  I used ChatGPT for the comments compilation.

Below is a link to some of the comments I made to support the learning of others via blog post and on discord.

peer learning comments compilation.

discord screenshots -peer learning contributions

Salut tout le monde,

As we wrap up with this course and share our reflections, I would like to thank all of you for your support. it was a pleasure to meet  you all because I had the opportunity to learn from each one of you in a different way. here is a video of my learning summary of the course and I must say it was more than a course to me because I have learned a lot from this class. I used elevenlabsai for the voice over after I used chatGPT to draft the speaker note plan which I edited. I used canva to design some info graphs while I used cupcut for the video creation.

let me know your feedback and thoughts on how I presented my learning reflection.

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How do you perceive activism? does it mean a call for transformation, change or emancipation to you? Personally, my view on activism is any purposeful call that calls for a positive change for the betterment of the people. Digital activism is a form of activism that uses the internet and digital media as key platforms for mass mobilization and political action.

In a technological world fueled with social media presence like Instagram, twitter, TikTok etc. online activism can be meaningful and worthwhile. This is because social media has turned out to be the modern public sphere where individuals have discussions on cultural, public, economic, social or religious issues in the society which I think makes social media go beyond a space for sharing pictures and getting in touch with families. In twenty first century, online activisms like #BlackLivesMatter and #EndSARS have sparked a lot of global conversations by amplifying marginalized voices and challenging institutions against justice, discrimination and inequality. These activisms have led to policy changes ensuring that the demands of the people are met.

Concerning how we can have productive conversations on social justice online, I believe it is possible however, it requires some great effort.  The reason why I am saying this is the polarized nature of social media which makes users to view or watch contents they are more engaged with. This often surround users with like-minded voices as users get less exposure to diverse perspectives while different views are seen as threats rather than opportunity for a good conversation. Nevertheless, we if we listen to different perspectives before responding, use respectful and inclusive language and be open about bitter truths while we embrace corrections we can have a productive digital engagement on social justice. I belief conversations about social justice online should be seen as opportunity to learn, relearn and unlearn what it entails about social justice rather than having debates with the aim of winning.

The Role of Educators in Modeling Active Digital Citizenship

In a digital age where social media has transformed our communication; especially in a Gen Z era where students easily find their way online and share anything with the fancy thoughts of trends, I do not think we have to keep mute as educators in this digital world because we have students watching us beyond the classroom through our posts and comments on social media platform. Therefore we have a responsibility in modeling active digital citizenship so that our students can be informed, be ethical and engage critically online. As educators we need to share or post credible information’s, speak truth to power, participate in digital activism with integrity by respecting diverse perspectives. These modeling will broaden students understanding on online engagement as a space for social transformation and a medium for emancipation.

Also, I believe in the philosophy of acting what you preach, therefore teaching students about civic responsibility without practicing it offer some limited effects on students if they do not see it from the people who preach to them about civic responsibilities. If educators’ model online activism like campaigning for quality education, mental health or inequality, it will give students some sense on calling awareness of social justice and social issues at large.

Furthermore, when educators participate in online activism, they engage in open minded conversations and critical inquiry which demonstrates that digital citizenship is not just about voicing opinions but listening, learning and adapting to new perspectives. This will consequently shape how students engage themselves online.

In conclusion, while social media can serve as a place for activism, it can also distort conversations. However, it holds a great potential for social justice conversations as individuals can be enlightened, empowered and be transformed. Productive online conversations require more than saying what you think is right but demands respect, empathy, critical thinking, and ethical considerations. As educators, we are responsible in participating in meaningful dialogue in digital spaces. In doing so, we contribute not just to online discourse but to the broader pursuit of justice, equity, and collective understanding in society which sets pace for our students.

During this week, I explored perplexity which is a generative Artificial Intelligent (AI) tool. TechTarget defines perplexity as “an artificial intelligence-powered web search tool that can generate answers to user queries and complete other content-generation tasks “. After signing up I noticed it has similar interface like chat GPT and what came in mind was remix, all that I said to myself was nothing new truly exists because I was expecting different interface all together. One feature on perplexity that got me wowed was how you can choose your source for search, which is the web, academic or social. As curious that I am, I tried it, and I loved the feedback I got since it used scholarly based articles to generate the results, and it provided the articles used in the results. it can be used by students and educators, and I like the fact that it allows you to ask a follow up question on a topic or subject you are learning. It has the premium offers which uses variety of models in providing feedback.

As educators I think perplexity can be a great tool to enhance teaching. This is because educators can use Perplexity AI to improve lesson plans. With this, educators can have a deep research on topics with real world examples that students will be able to resonate with. This will enable educators to have effective and current lesson plans which will aid teaching in the classroom. Considering subjects with that require an extensive reading and information, educators can use perplexity AI to summarize the key themes and provide examples if needed to be able to understand the subject. This will save some time for educators when planning their lessons.  With this, educators will be able to design an engaging lesson plans which will improve learning experiences of students.

While navigating through perplexity and how easy is it to use, I thought of the challenges it may pose due to overreliance use of it. This is because students and educators may depend on it for fast answers which they may not be thoroughly analyze and this posses a challenge of critical thinking abilities and problem-solving skills by students. A student may feel that why should I sit for hours to read and figure out something difficult I do not even understand while I can get an AI too to work around thing for me very quickly meanwhile perplexity is a tool which can provide incorrect information or even an outdated information which may not be relevant in the work the student is doing. Personally, I feel the use of AI tools can gradually lead to addiction where it can get to a stage that a student will not be able to do any work on their own unless they are helped with AI too.

Regarding my personal perspectives on integrating AI in education and its role in the future, I think Perplexity and other AI tools like Chat GPT has some potential transformative power in the education sector. Activities like personalized learning, automated gradings which may be useful to educators, and debates on AI generated feedback can enhance students’ engagement in the classroom. I also believe AI tools should complement and not to replace the essence of learning and that educators should guide students on how to use AI tools by critiquing AI feedback, identify biases, and analyzing them. I my own speculation, in 5–10 years, AI can become a learning tool in the classroom by offering real-time teaching. How ever, its role will only be a complementary to human educators as educators would ensure the emotional support of students, guide students to be creative and ethical guidance. I think the biggest challenge will be culture, how we are going to accept and balance AI tools and the value of human abilities.

The CK-12 Foundation, popular open educational resource (OER) platform that provides free educational materials from Kindergarten to grade 12 has made learning process very smoothly for both educators and students. I got interested in it during the class activity since that was what my group discussed about hence, I used this opportunity to explore more about it. CK-12 foundation has provided learning aid to several people, and it has gained a significant attraction due to the flexibility of academic resources and its educational standards. However, there are limitations to it.

Regarding the user friendliness of CK-12, I see it to be a user friendly with modern interface and design. The homepage is clean as it is easy to navigate through the subjects and the type of resources that you need depending on what the user wants to learn. It is also easy and free to sign up as a new user and have an account so that you can monitor your activity. I Loved how resources are organized in accordance with their subjects, grade levels and even with learning type. This shows that the platform is designed with educators and students in mind to ensure an easy and efficient user experience even if you are first timer using the platform.

Quality of resources

From my personal exploration on CK-12, I consider the resources there to be quality resources particularly with the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. This is because, it offers numerous contents which are reviewed by experts, materials created by teachers as well as the algorithms generated contents. According to NASA 2018, CK-12 had a collaboration with institutions like NASA and Microsoft in quest to provide quality contents especially with physics and computer science subjects and courses. The resource for learning includes videos, stimulations and practice sessions which are geared towards providing quality learning process for educators and students and everyone at large. Notwithstanding how the resources align with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which is very significant for individuals in the United States however, educators in Canada (Saskatchewan) can critically remix resources to suit the required curriculum which is being used here. This will give educators several ideas to plan lessons and employ diverse teaching resources.

Considering the navigation, CK-12’s search functionality is something that made me love the platform because as a first timer, I did not struggle with searching as the search bars allows refine or advanced search by subject of choice, grade level and the type of resources the user needs. The predictive search function and the auto sorting functionality enable users to find contents easily and quickly without wasting much time and I believe the suggested resources helps users’ discovery and exploration of resources. The Flexi AI feature also helps users to seek assistance on how to use the platform and this is something I found amazing. it is also interesting to know that one can switch to educator mode or student mode.

Visual Appealing:

CK-12 offers an appealing designs which makes it easy to grasp the content of resources. The Play Learn Interact Explore (PLIX) session under the explore category provides series of videos which are visually appealing to users and enable you to relate to what you are learning. The colors are not too loud which to me blends well. Again CK-12 platform adjusts well to different sizes on screens either on a laptop, tablet or a mobile phone. But I love it best on my laptop as it gives me a wider screen which makes visibility easy for me.

Value to Educators:

CK-12 is really valuable to educators because of the Flexbooks. This Flexbooks enable educators to have variety of textbooks coupled with study guide to make lessons which would suit curriculum requirements and students needs. Also, it enables educators to create classrooms and assign resources to students while they keep track of students’ progress. I also noticed that it allows educators to give different instructions through adaptive learning.

Criticisms:

In as much CK-12 offers resources to both students and educators, it is limited to STEM subjects with little attention to humanity subject. Although it has some of the humanity subjects but cannot be compared to the STEM subjects. From my exploration, I noticed that humanities subjects have little contextual analysis and interpretive components unlike the STEM subjects which has a lot of contents which are quality too. Also, since CK-12 is more focused on kindergarten to grade 12 education, it may not be of significance to post-secondary or higher education levels. There are old resources which needs to be updated to match the current or modern knowledge acquisition.

In conclusion, CK-12 Foundation is one of the most effective and versatile platforms for Kindergarten to grade 12 education. The customizable FlexBooks and high-quality STEM resources makes it a powerful platform for learning which suites all individuals. However I recommend that non-STEM resources would be reviewed and user engagement would be encouraged to benefits both students and educators. Nevertheless, the platform’s flexibility, accessibility, and user friendly design makes it a great resource in the modern educational settings.