One of my most memorable online learning experiences was when I watched khan academy‘s calculus teaching videos when I was a freshman. Mathematics is not my strength, plus I was new to Canada at that time so that my English was not very good; therefore, I may not be able to fully understand the content of lectures. In order to keep up, I found related teaching videos on Khan academy.
Like most traditional education, the educational communication of this online educational resource is strategic communicative action: it teaches specific reified knowledge to students. I like watching these videos because each video is not long and each video doesn’t cover much. Basically every video introduces just one point of knowledge. These instructional videos really helped me a lot, although I only got a B finally.
Beside EDCI 339, I am also taking some other online courses like EDCI 335 and 337. In the book Creating Online Learning Experiences, the author Crosslin said that “a larger concept to keep in mind is the isolation that can occur to learners in online learning, away from the immediate contact created by being in the same physical location as other learners. Some learners may prefer this distance, while others may feel the effects of the isolation.” I believe I am the latter. I have a low learning efficiency at home, so I usually choose to study in a library, but I am now in Shanghai, China, and because of COVID-19, public places like libraries are currently closed. I miss the time when I can sit in the library with my classmates to discuss topics.
Speaking of online education, there is now a software in China that I have to mention: DingTalk.
As far as I know, DingTalk was originally a software for corporate offices, but now it is used as an online education platform. Affected by the COVID-19, all schools in China, from elementary school to university, are now using DingTalk for online teaching: teachers teach classes by making live broadcast on DingTalk. And with the outbreak of COVID-19 in Japan, Japan is also likely to use this application for online teaching.
About DingTalk, recently here is a fun story about it: (4:40-5:40)
Like Crosslin said, “technologies are merely tools that can be used in a variety of ways. What matters more is how technologies are applied.” DingTalk is a good media combining some good technologies, how these technologies are used is important, now DingTalk is definetly a qualified online educational platform.
References
The picture is from the official site of DingTalk: https://www.dingtalk.com/
Crosslin, M. (2018). Creating Online Learning Experiences. Retrieved from https://uta.pressbooks.pub/onlinelearning/