October 30th Class Reflection – Learning Design Frameworks

This week’s class, we started by giving updates to the class on our group projects. We were able to explain our projects and get some feedback from the class and Michael. He was able to suggest some ways we could go with our projects and suggest some resources to use for our projects. Our project will be based on how accessible Google Classroom is for those who have never used it. I have quite a bit of experience with Google Classroom, while Rachel and Kristina don’t. We also wanted to compare Google Classroom to Brightspace as an educational resource. Michael also suggested we could look into the ethics of Google Classroom and how they hold data and their strategies on who they serve. Then Michael discussed some Learning Design Frameworks and how we can integrate technology models into these designs. Some strategies we discussed are SAMR, Nine Events of Instruction, and TPACK. We talked through some other more strategies as well.

It is important to discuss these learning design frameworks because we need to diversify the ways we teach students so that our lessons can be as effective as possible. We also need to look at how we can incorporate technology into our strategies. Technology is becoming such a big part of our lives as it develops, and we need to work with it. We need to teach children how to work in these new times. I don’t know if, as a teacher, I want technology to take a primary role in my classroom, as I want students to focus on other basic skills before developing technological skills. But I do recognize the need to teach it so children can keep up in the world we are in.

One of the teaching strategies that Michael discussed that I want to research more and incorporate into my classroom is SAMR. It stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. I like the idea of starting to use technology as a tool in ways you didn’t before. I don’t think that technology should be the focus but we should start to use it as a tool.