Discussion Applied Pedagogies Ch. 5

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Discussion Applied Pedagogies Ch. 5

10/2/2016

Let's chat about Applied Pedagogies. This space is for discussion on the chapter five.

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3 Comments

Michael Greer

10/8/2016 04:16:38 pm

Reading chapter 5, I take a moment to ask myself: How many articles have I read on OWI that talk explicitly about issues of race and ethnicity? Not many. The issue of diversity comes up in the abstract, but this is one of the first articles I can recall that links different learning styles and pedagogical strategies to specific ethic and cultural groups.

I am always wary of arguments that begin to sound essentialist, but I realize that this author is trying only to make some broad comments about how different student populations may learn differently for cultural and linguistic reasons. Not every Mexican American student will learn the same way, but some general comments about how Mexican American learning culture may be different still seems valid to me.

This article clearly links multimodality to diversity, and I strongly agree with that point. Multimodal assignments and multimodal content can engage a much wider range of students than can a predominantly text based model.

This article makes several points that I think merit further investigation and research:

1. LMS and other technologies are not neutral tools. They embody and construct a culturally specific learning experience. As chap 5 argues, Blackboard, for example, quietly, silently, but powerfully embodies a white male cultural framework. This leads me to ask--what would a more culturally open LMS look like? How might we build a more feminist, multicultural learning technology?

2. Learning is social and cultural: How do OWI spaces embody different cultures? What might a Latina OWI pedagogy look like, for example? Much of the research I read about "learners" treats learning as something that happens cognitively, in and for individual minds. In what way are minds cultural? In what ways is learning a social and cultural experience as much as a cognitive or neorological event?

I think these are important questions, and lines of inquiry that I have not seen addressed to the extent that they need to be.

Really a great chapter for me--except now it has me scrambling to think about how to engage issues of culture, race, and language more deeply in the multimedia OWI course I am teaching in about a week! ;-)

Jessie Borgman

10/11/2016 06:15:06 pm

I really like your perspective on learning and your assessment of Chambers' idea of learning being social and cultural. You pose some interesting questions in # 2 here!

I agree that these things need to be researched more thoroughly! I've not seen much on online learning and cultures either, so it seems there's a lot of opportunity here for more pieces like Chambers' piece.

I like how you took Cahmbers' discussion of the LMS and raise the question of a culturally open LMS. I think this could be another branch of research next to the most current research of making the online classroom more accessible and ADA compliant.

I don't know what this type of LMS would look like! However, I think looking at options for the LMS would be interesting! There are lots of things to consider when assessing an LMS beyond disability and culture, so taking Chambers' argument about Blackboard and applying it to the creation of other LMSes would prove intriguing!

Jessie Borgman

10/10/2016 08:20:20 pm

This was a very interesting chapter! I am continually thinking about accommodating learning styles when I design my courses, but this discussion of cultural approach to learning and student agency adds a whole new level to my design considerations that I'd not thought much about until now.

I enjoyed the multimodal approach argument because not only does it address cultural approaches to leaning, but it also addresses learning styles with all students regardless of cultural background.

I found the broad sweeping generalizations of specific student populations a little off putting at first, but I understand why they are present, and I think the underlying argument that we as online instructors (and I would extend this argument to instructional designers as well) need to pay more attention when facilitating and designing online courses is a solid one.

This chapter reminded me a bit of Coombs book on making online teaching accessible. In it he mentions that making an online course accessible is a way of "leveling the playing field" for students with disabilities. I think this notion of "leveling the playing field can be applied to Chambers' argument as well. I thought more about this chapter from a design perspective is of a teaching perspective, but clearly apples to both, even if Chambers' focus was on pedagogy.

Discussion Applied Pedagogies Ch. 5

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Discussion Applied Pedagogies Ch. 5

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