Final Course Reflection – Week 6
I cannot believe how many new tools and technologies I’ve learned in just six weeks, and how much it personally challenged my ways of thinking. As a learner, I always respond best to a ‘tinkering’ approach, but it was surprising how much I struggled with things that seem so easy ‘on paper’. Things that seemed simple and straightforward were often the most challenging once I tried to actually do them (recording a video, embedding media). And things that seemed complex and intimidating turned out to be a blast (using a USB microphone, learning graphic design software). Seeing everyone else’s projects each week, I learned even more about different struggles, new solutions, the potential of different tools, and cool new ways of creating and working. It’s been so great.
Because I work as a writer, I can be blind to the fact that writing and reading are not the only way for learners to learn – or for learners to share and grow in their learning. Doing a podcast was a different learning experience to making a video, which was a totally different experience to making an infographic. Each medium increased my creative engagement, focused my mind on different aspects of what I was teaching, and showed me a different perspective on a topic and how to teach it. I’ve really loved the creative license and the exploration, and I can truly say I have much more confidence in my learning design than I did six weeks ago. I have so many more tools to offer for Universal Design for Learning, and making sure that no learners are left behind or ignored in the learning products I design.
One other thing I will take away from this course is the fact that although these tools are so amazing for teaching, learning and responding, there is also a steep learning curve for some of them. This course has been paced perfectly to build our learning each week. But if I want my learners to create a podcast (for example) as a project, I need to step them up incrementally with the skills and confidence to do that. After this course, I now understand how much work goes into even the simplest of these projects.
Thank you so much, Josh!