OLDaily

Teaching with Care: Why Community is at the Heart of Successful Pedagogy
Juli S. Charkes, Mitch Fried, Faculty Focus, 2021/08/03

Honestly, I can think of a dozen factors that are more important for student success than building a community based on a foundation of belonging and shared mission. Indeed, it seems to me that this sort of approach to learning tramples all over any concept of student autonomy. Not everyone wants to learn in a 'supporting caring environment', 'build a sense of common purpose' or 'work on shared documents in real time'. Yes, it can be argued that all these are beneficial to students, but so is eating vegetables, and we wouldn't require that of students studying trigonometry or modal logic.

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Virtual Reality in Education: How VR is Used in Immersive Learning
FutureLearn, 2021/08/03

This is an overview article describing "what virtual reality is, how it works, ways that it can be used within education, and why VR is perfect for modern learning environments." That last point might be debatable, and trhe article makes no particular effort to support it, but there's no doubt that there is an increasing interest in the subject. It's a good resource to use for people who haven't really been exposed to the idea of VR in education, but should probably be supplemented with more critical assessments as well.

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Introducing Pearson+: The Most Student and Budget Friendly College Learning Experience
Cision, Prnewswire, 2021/08/03

I may as well link directly to the press release because the media coverage doesn't really give us any additional insight. The Pearson+ plan gives students access to a 1500 book library for $US 15 a month. What's significant here isn't the model, but rather the price point, coming in at a bit less than half the $40 cost for access to online course libraries. And the key question for students will be: is one subscription enough, or are they going to need subscriptions from a half-dozen different publishers? Looking through the selection of 1620 titles, it appears these aren't going to take you much beyond a first year curriculum in any subject (excepting possibly computer science or teacher education).

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Curriculum design for social, cognitive and emotional engagement in Knowledge Building
Gaoxia Zhu, Preeti Raman, Wanli Xing, Jim Slotta, 2021/08/03

Though the authors are careful to state that improvements in student engagement cannot be attributed entirely to highlighting student voice, the bulk of the paper is devoted to the idea that refining course activities based on student resulted through successive iterations in an increase in the density of students’ reading networks. "They theorized more deeply, introduced more authoritative resources, and made greater efforts to integrate ideas within the community knowledge base." I don't think we can draw any quantitative conclusions or generalizations from a study of 23 MEd students; the best we can say here is that attending to student feedback can improve engagement. I am therefore quite sceptical about the theoretical structure imposed on this research (specifically, the assertion that "the design of Knowledge Building activities may influence the level of social, cognitive, and emotional engagement") and would say that it obscures, rather than clarifies, any conclusion that can be drawn from this work.

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Enhancing MOOC learners’ skills for self-directed learning
Meina Zhu, Distance Education, 2021/08/03

I like this article for a number of reasons. First, it draws on Randy Garrison's comprehensive model of self-directed learning (behind a paywall, but you can find it here). Second, it draws from people who have offered a variety of large and small MOOCs. And third, it offers concrete suggestions on how to support self-directed learning, rather than leave it to the learner's existing capacity and skills. These strategies include goal setting, time management support, providing flexible learning resources, clear navigation and navigation instruction. This is a rare open access article from this journal, and I address my appreciation to the author.

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Teachers' Essential Guide to Social and Emotional Learning in Digital Life
Daniel Vargas Campos, Common Sense Education, 2021/08/03

The primary concern I have with social-emotional learning (SEL) is the tendency to shift the full responsibility for life events to the learner in question. It's too easy to say that the challenges they face are a result of poor self-awareness or bad decision-making, instead of social, structural and economic factors beyond their control. Different aspects of SEL are cultural markers rather than skills in and of themselves; self-promotion and entrepreneurship, for example, are seen as positive traits in some cultures but are considered rude and boorish in others. At the same time, many aspects of SEL are, like mathematics and critical thinking, basic tools people can use to improve their prospects in life. Some guides manage this balance well, some (like this one) try, and some are completely insensitive to it. See also: Elementary School Activities, Middle School Activities and High School Activities to Promote SEL in Digital Life, by the same author.

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