EDCI 335 – Choose one (or more) of your planned learning activities from your Blueprint and identify any barriers to student success. How can you alter or adjust your current plan to reduce those barriers?
This week I learned about the importance of seeking out learning barriers to make learning environments more inclusive. For instance, in 2012 the Supreme Court of Canada acknolwdlegded the Moore case, a case reaffirming that educators must make their services accessible to persons with disabiltiies as per the human rights law (“Right to Education – Inclusive Education,” 2014). Therefore, being inclusive is not just the right thing to do, but an actual law. When a barrier is identified, accommodations must be provided to overcome that barrier (“Right to Education – Inclusive Education,” 2014).
Reflecting on my group’s learning blueprint, I was able to identify some potential barriers within some of our planned learning activities. It is so easy to overlook these barriers, which the “Selective Attention Test”, instructing viewers to count how many times the players wearing white pass the basketball, shows (Simons, 2010). I did not even see the gorilla walk by in the background. Furthermore, I was not actively looking for barriers within our learning activities, I did not see any, but now that I am, I have found a few. These barriers are important to remove in order to include all individuals, including those with disabilities.
Firstly, I noticed that all three of our learning activities: 3-3-1 summaries, adapting and assessing existing in-active lesson plans to be more physically active, and written reflections into which activities best fit their context, are all written based. Though we did not directly talk about it, I kind of assumed they would all be written, as written assignments are so common in educational environments, but providing learners with other ways to express themselves may help reduce some potential barriers. Not all students are able to write, or some may find that they better express themselves in other ways. Giving learners options to choose from, such as writing, audio recordings, video reflections, or visual representations, for these assignments would help cater to various learning preferences and abilities. For example, nerurodivergent people often struggle to initiate or hold a conversation (Bruisie, 2017). Therefore they may turn towards doing a reflection that does not require dialogue.
Similarly to the different options to do a reflection. Learners should also have different options to do their learning. Some students may learn best by seeing, others hearing, and other by engaging in hands-on activities. Though this could be due to a personal preference, it could also be due to a disability such as a sense impairement. Some ways to overcome this barrier are to make sure videos have accessible transcripts, captions, and audio description, and to provide learners with a range of resources from reading articles, to audio books, to watching explanatory videos of hands-on activities.
Lastly, as our learning resource is all online, it may feel disengaging for learners, especially as we have not included any interactive elements. Having a sharing component within our learning activities will help to engage our learners. For example, we could get learners to discuss questions before or after they have created their reflections. Before, would help learners develop new ideas, but after would also work, as learners will still see diverse perspectives, enriching their own understanding.
I will make sure to bring these potential learning barriers up with my group, in order to make oure learning resource more inclusive.
References
Chaunie Brusie, RN, BSN. (2017, June 28). All About Recognizing a Neurotypical. Retrieved from Healthline website: https://www.healthline.com/health/neurotypical#characteristics
Right to Education – Inclusive Education. (2014). Retrieved from Inclusiveeducation.ca website: https://inclusiveeducation.ca/learn/right-to-education/
Simons, D. (2010). selective attention test [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Hey Abby!
Really good points, and they link quite well to some themes in my blog post!
I like the ideas for adapting the learning activities, and agree that engagement is something that we will need to think carefully about. How to encourage comparisons and the sharing of ideas could be super important! Some online training that I’ve taken in the past has included written responses, which when completed give you access to see the responses from others who have previously taken the course. I found this useful, to gain more ideas to add to my own and to see where the similarities are. Perhaps an idea!
Sophie
These are great points and I have focused on interactivity in my blog!My own post was limited to just about the interactivity of the quiz, not noting that there will be many different people in the classroom, for example, each person likes to learn in a different way.I also recognize that when learning resources are all online, it can be difficult for learners to concentrate or there is no sense of interaction, so I have stated in my blog that I would like to see the course become more interactive, e.g. only correctly answering these questions will allow you to move on to the next section.
Hello,
Thanks for commenting on my blog!
Interactivity is so important in learning! I took a quick look at your blog and liked how you narrowed the topic down to just quizzes. It is such a vast topic, so breaking it down was very helpful. I agree that waiting until a participant gets a question correct before moving onto the next one is a good idea! This will help them develop a deeper understanding of their learning.
Hi Abby,
Your analysis of recognizing and resolving learning barriers is significant and insightful. Recognizing that inclusivity is not just a best practice but a legal obligation is a crucial point. Your approach to offering diverse options for learners to express themselves and interact with content shows a deep understanding of varied learning needs and preferences. Adding interactive components and multiple formats will definitely improve the accessibility and engagement of your learning material. It is great to see that you want to talk to your group about these possible obstacles in order to improve the inclusivity of your project. Keep up the thoughtful and inclusive work!
Hi Abby, thanks for sharing your thoughts on identifying and addressing barriers to student success in educational environments. I really agreed with your points on the importance of inclusivity and found your comment on the legal mandates for accessibility interesting!
With regards to inclusivity, you mentioned providing learners with options such as writing, audio recordings, video reflections, or visual representations. I was wondering how you plan to ensure that these alternative methods are assessed fairly and equitably? Additionally would you have rubrics that you would use to evaluate different formats? Or how would you go about this?
Emma 🙂
Hi Emma,
Excellent questions. I had not really thought about how assessments would differ with different formats. Thinking about it, at first I thought I would use the same rubric to keep things fair, but after further thinking, maybe having a slightly different rubric for each format would be more fair. For instance, those who choose to write or do an audio recording will not have the same visual elements and creativity displayed in visual presentations (ex. PowerPoint, PosterBoard, etc).
Hi Abby,
Thank you for sharing your insights on learning barriers within your interactive learning resource. Identifying these barriers is crucial to ensuring accessibility and giving everyone an equal chance at success.
I particularly appreciated your point about providing accessible transcripts for videos. This is an excellent idea that I plan to implement in my own learning activities.
I also resonate with your observation about the disengaging nature of online learning due to the lack of in-person interaction. The ability to communicate with peers is indeed vital to the learning process.
Could you share any strategies or tools you’ve found effective in creating peer interaction in online learning environments?
Thanks again for your valuable thoughts.