Time flies. In the past 12 weeks, I have gone through 5 topics with 7 group mates under the support from 2 facilitators. The course is very inspiring and full of new knowledge, new ideas and new tools, at least to me. Even though the course is finished, I fully agree that it is not an end; instead, it is just a start. To implement what I have obtained will be more challenging and also more exciting. If I look back, the following two issues are more critical to me.
For educations in different stages, the role of teachers should be different. In the primary and secondary schools, the learning processes of students replies quite much on teachers. For students in universities, generally speaking, they should be clear about their goals, as they make their own choice when choosing the subject. In order to fulfill their goals, they should be able to motivate themselves to study. Especially in today’s digitalized world, internet has changed the way people are learning. Students can obtain knowledge from many sources. So it is crucial for teachers to guide students to understand why something is important, how the knowledge can be applied to solve real problems, and how to find out they need. There are more and more tools available, which can support teachers to achieve such goals and make learning more effective.
As students have their own personal characters and backgrounds and different courses in different subjects have different learning outcomes and challenges, different pedagogic approaches should be adopted. Blended learning provides teachers such an opportunity to customize the teaching. A further step from blended learning could be customized learning, which, may be more attractive, but also require more sources. Blended learning relies on technology integration. The video from Jen Jonson well explained the relationship between them.
Much attention has been focused on the development and application of tools and technologies. Nevertheless, it is more important to understand the needs of students. Different activities should be designed in order to match the demand of different students. Unfortunately, there were few discussions on how to identify students’ characters and how to select a property approach and tool in the course.
Learning by doing is always an effective way. And we shall not be afraid of changes. I am looking forward to testing some approaches and tools in the coming courses.
Picture source: http://www.cbcstittsville.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Starting_Point.jpg
course reflection 
Dear Hailong,
thanks for sharing your thoughts, especially when you say “….in today’s digitalized world, internet has changed the way people are learning. Students can obtain knowledge from many sources. So it is crucial for teachers to guide students to understand why something is important, how the knowledge can be applied to solve real problems, and how to find out they need”. I totally agree. Thanks for sharing the video, it make very clear what is blended learning, that is not only integrating technology. In your reflection you state “In order to fulfill their goals, they should be able to motivate themselves to study”. Sometimes, I feel that I need to motivate the students :). What do you think? Who should motivate who?
Regards,
Pietro
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Hi,
You see that this is the end of the course but maybe more of a start for you in transforming your teaching. You also see that students in higher education needs more like a “guide” to help find sources and how to learn from sources to solve real problems. You also see that teachers need to design for blended learning, and also “customized learning”. You don’t really explain, though, what you mean by that. I wonder if this is a more personal adaptable learning journey? And if so, does the collaborative aspect come into this at all?
You say that your focus has been on the tools, but I wonder if that is true? Haven’t you throughout the journey also thought about the students? How can they learn better…? You end up by discussing differences among students, and maybe different tools for different types of learning…? Or could it be enough to build the assignment in such a way that that differences can be a resource?
-Thank you for your reflections! Looking forward to hear more from your journey!
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