EDU 643

Final Course Reflection

As I think back to my growth over the past 8 weeks there are a few things that stand out for me in my journey throughout this course. A few of the big themes that kept on coming up were topics relating to UDL, (specifically in the context of my class, which requires students to have a certain amount of tech to participate), as well as the possibility that it may have been an error on my part to select a lesson that wasn't new, and was something that was already somewhat refined to use for this class.

The reason why I potentially regret my lesson choice is that I feel that I possibly didn't have the opportunity to learn as much, or benefit as much as I could have, since the lesson I had chosen to use for this class was something that I had already taught and refined a few times in the past. Though, I didn't understand at the beginning of this course how our choice for a lesson idea would affect the rest of the course, and teaching this was something that was on my mind at the time when we were starting this course, so it felt like a natural choice. If I did have the opportunity to go through this process again, I do feel that choosing something that was a completely new idea would have likely benefited me more, and would have allowed me to grow more as an educator. Although, as I reflect on the processes we went through in this course - empathise, refine, ideate, prototype, test, & ideate - and think about ways I will be applying these to each of the lessons I create in the future, I do feel this process to address my current model for teaching my classes.

Thinking back on the things I appreciated most in this course, I think of the tangible things that I created and could actually use with students, such as the flow charts I made for my students, (the ones that allowed students to self-assess their problems as they progressed through the activity), and the lesson slides that I produced to help me teach this lesson.

Thinking about what I learned that caused me to reassess and/or question my practice the most, I definitely feel my the valuable feedback I had regarding UDL and struggle I went through to address UDL in my practice, as well as the testing and refining stages, where I was able to see where my plan went wrong which allowed me to revise my thinking. I also appreciated the concept of introducing the lesson objectives for students at the beginning of the lesson, to prime students for what's to come in their upcoming learning.

Even though I do feel I may not have benefited as much from this class as I would have if this were a fresh lesson I was trying to develop for the first time, I do value the fact that I was able to take a previous lesson of mine through it's 4th or possibly 5th revision to refine and perfect its finer details. Even if the refinements at this stage were much smaller, they were still important changes to the lesson and were still valuable.

Something that resonated with me in this course was the importance of the user experience, instead of only the product being produced at the end. Especially in our activity where we critically analysed objects that had good and bad user experiences. I appreciated the idea that the user was more important than the product, and that this lesson made me think about ways to make lessons more engaging for the user, and more accessible for as many kinds of students as possible. While assessing the item that I reviewed that had the bad user experience (the "MÖJLIGHET Headset/tablet stand" from IKEA) this was something that I always hated using, and it's obvious the user wasn't kept in mind when producing the object, but the end product was the main focus, ie: whether or not it was easy to produce, how well it fit together in bundles for shipping, etc. When I think about how I can apply this learning to my own lesson design, I realise that I do have to keep this in mind when considering how I design my activities, from the videos that I share with my students to introduce my lessons, all the way to the activity I have them do and the tech they use to do it. The student needs to be the centre of that learning and the first consideration at all times.

Another way to make my students the centre of their learning is to consider level 1 of the Kirkpatrick Model, and think about ways I can engage students to see how they feel about the what they're learning, potentially through a quick survey following the unit (which I have added to the content of my lesson seen at the bottom of this page). Thinking specifically about stop-motion animation, I know that it can be tedious and a "labour of love" so trying to get feedback on whether or not my students appreciated learning more about it would be a beneficial way to improve my practice. Additionally, level 2 of this model fits in nicely with what I am already doing, as I often do diagnostic assessments and compare this data with summative assessments, which then helps me guide my programme further while I use this data. When considering level 3 of this model, I can consider the behaviours my students exhibit and if my activities are directly impacting how they address learning in my class. And finally, I can use level 4 of this model to consider the actual long term results of my activities, and reflect on my own lesson design to consider if these lessons create effective changes in my students and their ability to create content in my classes.

As I've stated in previous reflections, I feel there is room for growth for me in the realm of UDL, specifically how I allow my students express their learning. I've had varying thoughts on this, especially as an educator of an elective programme that requires students to learn very specific things and demonstrate very specific tasks. Although, I am interested to learn more and further improve this element of my practice to understand how I can be as inclusive as possible and give students more choice in how they demonstrate their understanding. This will be one of my big takeaways from this course and an area that I feel I will continue to research and keep in mind more than before as I continue with my practice. I have attempted to directly address this in my lesson plan.

One big thought I had in a previous reflection was that I often didn't even offer students to consider an alternative method of expression, and only waited for students to ask if they could do the activity in a different way. Something that I have already begun (literally last week) was to actively make sure that if students have an idea to complete their task in a different way that they do not hesitate to approach me to ask if it would make sense for the project. I think this is something that will "stick" and will be something I actively continue to do in my practice.

Another takeaway I've had from this class has been thinking about how accessible my activities are for students who are online/remotely learning. I feel generally, this lesson, and a number of other lessons I teach, can easily be adapted for an online environment, however, it does require some work in advance, such as sending home simple equipment, or ensuring students have access to an iPad with specific apps in advance. Although, in my context of an international school setting where students come from fairly well-to-do families, this isn't really a problem, though, I can see how this can become an issue in other environments and makes me think of how I would teach these lessons in a different environment. Prior to the pandemic, I would feel that I would not be able to teach my programme online, but I luckily have had a good amount of practice revamping my course and re-thinking my model of content delivery, and the pandemic has forced me to be more adaptable for these types of situations. The biggest change was to eliminate the need for additional tech (eg DSLR cameras/expensive editing software), which is the main reason why my program may not be accessible to students. Since adopting a byod model, my program has become more inclusive and more accessible to all - I still have plans to use a variety of expensive tech in class when I have students in person, although, my ability to teach with students online has been significantly increased. And I feel this course has allowed me to revisit that model even more.

Lesson Materials (For Instructor)

Lesson Materials (To Be Used With Students)