blog post #9

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been thrust into complete and total virtual learning. This has proven to be difficult for many students, as having to focus and learn completely through a screen may not be the best way for them to learn. Personally, I always chose to include at least one online class in my schedule when I had the option to, as I liked having the flexibility and self-learning pace that came with online classes. So when the pandemic started and classes were solely online, at first I wasn't too fazed. But recently, I've been starting to feel the effects of burnout. I'm definitely missing the in-person learning experience, as I'm someone who likes to be in the classroom and learn by paper and pencil. When I become an educator, I will make sure to diversify my instruction so that my students aren't just doing one type of assignment over and over again, but that they have a range of different types of assignments so that they aren't finding themselves bored and burnt out.

One of the ways in which I could diversify my instruction is through the implementation of open educational resources within my curriculum. OER are readily available and easily accessible learning resources that are typically found online, as to be most accessible for outside classroom use. These resources are "open" in the sense that they are protected under creative commons licenses, thereby allowing distribution and adaptation for educational purposes. They are also free of charge to use, which makes them even more accessible for students and educators looking for supplemental resources but who may not have the funds for more expensive resources. Two examples of OER that I've come across during my college experience and which I now actually use all the time are Lumen Learning and NOBA. Lumen Learning is an online collection of textbooks for multiple different areas, while NOBA is specifically psychology-focused and includes entire lessons from Psychology professors from universities all across the world, with our very own Dr. Patrick being featured on his lesson on Psychopathy! I would 100% encourage my students to take advantage of these resources especially since they are absolutely free to use and are readily accessible with an internet connection. 

Working on the past few PowerPoint assignments has actually really forced me to reevaluate my skills section on my resume! For the first assignment, I was much more comfortable, although I still struggled with some concepts that I had never learned/used before in my presentations. However for the second PowerPoint assignment, I was much more outside of my comfort zone, and frequently found myself needing supplemental help when trying to incorporate non-linear aspects into the presentation. Creating a jeopardy game through PowerPoint was something that I had previously done many times before, but I realized that I never actually had to make one myself and that it was much more complicated than I thought it was going to be! However, I truly am glad that we learned how to create more interactive activities because as a future educator, I really am all about trying to make learning as fun and entertaining as possible to make sure that my students can find intrinsic joy in learning new things. I think that for next time, I could really benefit from an example so that I would have a model for comparison to ensure that I am doing things correctly.