Standalone Learning Unit
“Its not the professors or the prestige of the university that bring value to [MOOCs], it is how well designed they are to meet the needs of each learner” (Mazoue, 2013).
During the course on Issues, Trends, and Innovations, I designed a brief learning unit that caters to the learning needs of children ages five years old and over. The unit functions as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). It facilitates independent learning, collaboration, group work, peer review and support, assessment, and synchronous learning among the users. This learning unit also includes the creative use of an animated, internet-based, teaching-learning presentation tool called PowToon which enabled its standalone feature.
This goal of the lesson was to teach its targeted learners how to recognize “at” words by sound and in text. Its goal extended to helping them to understand that these words sound alike and have the same word ending. It is the understanding that because of the similarity in sound and appearance in text that the words can be grouped together and are therefore related to form a “family” of words.
Lesson features include:
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Narration and repetition of the words to convey the message that they all rhyme and sound alike.
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Use of colour to highlight the word endings and to relay that they share the same “at” ending.
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A sing-song rhyme to assist with the information processing, schema building, cognitive processing and knowledge construction.
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Strategies such as repetition and practice, use of pictures, graphics and effects eg. “…cat sat on my hat and made it go splat [splat graphic]” (see Slide 6).
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Humour and attention strategies to engage the learner.
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Convenient delivery and easy access via the world wide web (https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dggIC0FRxg4/the-at-word-family/)
Research around the targeted learners show that the strategies used are appropriate for the targeted learners of children up to age five (5) years. Their developmental milestones show that children in this age range like to sing, dance, and act; show concern and sympathy for others; can speak clearly; can tell/retell a simple story using full sentences; and know about everyday things and activities. They should also be able to create letter patterns, recognise everyday pictures, connect rhyming words, and form letters (GreatSchools, 2014). They should also be able to recognise letters and letter-sound matches, begin to match spoken word with written word, begin to write letters of the alphabet and some words they hear often and participate in rhyming games (Reading is Fundamental, 2014).
My Role
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Lesson planning, designing and development
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Research around the MOOC as a standalone learning system
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Creation of assessments and rubrics
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Voice over and recording
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Design and development of the Powtoon presentation/learning unit
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Timings
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Voice overs
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Script development
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Image selection
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Layout and arrangement
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Components of the Learning Unit
A breakdown of the learning design includes:
My Experience in the Design
Other skills gathered from the design was the use of the presentation tool and software by Powtoon a web-based animation software tool. While this tool is useful for presentations in any medium, it was appropriate for this project which targeted young learners as it brought excitement and fun through the use of cartoon-like characters, colour, activy, voicie-overs, and background music to attract the learners and motivate parents and teachers to use with their children/students.
While designing and developing the course content, activity and performance objectives and rubrics, and seeking feedback about its objectives, outcomes, aptness of design in relation to the targeted learners, the greatest challenge was in learning the technology. At the the time Powtoon required special attention to timings, layout of characters, text, and presentation animations, and recording and correcting errors which are all minute details that added a tremendous energy and effort to producing a simple five-mintute presentation.
Nonetheless, it was an amazing learning expereince and achieved both instructional and learning goals.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014, March 27). Important Milestones: Your Child at Five Years . Retrieved October 17, 2014, from Developmental Milestones : http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-5yr.html
GreatSchools. (2014). Kindergarten Writing Worksheets . Retrieved October 17, 2014, from Worksheets and Activities: http://www.greatschools.org/worksheets/kindergarten/writing/
Mazoue, J. G. (2013, January 28). The MOOC Model: Challenging Traditional Education. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from EDUCAUSE Review Online: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/mooc-model-challenging-traditional-education
Reading is Fundamental. (2014). Literacy Milestones from Birth to Age Six. Retrieved October 17, 2014, from Families and Literacy: http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/literacy-milestones-from-birth-to-age-six.htm