Making a WebQuests Video

Since I graduated in 2013 at SFU, I've been wondering how to apply my degree in Interactive Technology, to the field of Education. In 2014, I returned to take a class which helped fuse my understanding of technology and a classroom learning environment. This is where I discovered WebQuests.

One of my major assignments at SFU was to develop a WebQuest, for any open topic. I challenged myself to make it a broad, cross-curricular WebQuest, to prove that it could be done. My professor, as well as some high school (and post-secondary) students have gone on to use it in their classrooms.

What better way to show off WebQuests, than to introduce it to our class, and show them that I have direct experience using them. They can be very useful in a classroom where people aren't used to working together on team projects. They can build teamwork skills, as well as achieve a primary objective of creating or absorbing knowledge.

WebQuests allow a team of learners to use existing frameworks to research information, and organize it into knowledge. They will then present this knowledge to an external body (outside of their team), or to themselves to keep as study material.

In this short video (under 5 minutes), I think I have captured the base of WebQuests, in a nutshell. Please take a look:

I can definitely add this to my portfolio, and I also hope that this video helps show people that WebQuests are a viable option for learning in their teaching environments.

I never introduced myself!

Well then, how rude of me!

I never really introduced myself. My name is Adam Dewji, and I've been wanting to be a teacher for quite awhile now. I'm not too good with kids, I'd rather have my students potty trained and all.

In 2013, I graduated from SFU with a degree in Interactive Arts and Technology. I know, sounds fancy and all, but all I really learned how to do was Google things faster than you. We taught ourselves most of the coursework. Theoretically, I should be able to program robots, design interactive buildings and animate crazy things in 3D. What was that program missing? Great teachers. Instructors that knew the material, knew how to teach it, and could be engaging. I took away one part which really did engage me - User Experience (UX) Design.

What is UX Design? Imagine one of the websites you visit most (Facebook, perhaps?) -- I'd be one of the guys that makes sure every click is intuitive, and every pixel of colour (or non-colour) was designed in a way that made sense to the user. Every item placed has its purpose, and the site will flow, meaning you don't have to try and teach yourself how to use it every time you log on. I guess that's why we "dislike" every time Facebook made a change to itself (see, the new big change coming is the Dislike button).

Likewise, I decided that as a graduate of that program, I'd spend a couple of years specializing in UX Design, and now I work at Purdys Chocolatier, helping them with their seasonal website. I also run my own Craft Beer review blog, called Brewji (you can visit that here).

I live in the Vancouver area, and I have 7 years of college radio broadcasting under my belt, as well as Crohn's Disease, and a bit of a thin filter (I tend to be myself in almost all situations).

If you have any questions about anything, feel free to give me a shout! If you're in Vancouver and looking for (or just want to talk about) craft beer, you know who to ask.

Cheers!

Schema vs. Engagement

With what we've learned from Barkley's notes on schema (p. 18), I wonder if a pre-disposed schema is created by adult learners before they have reached the classroom. What I mean by this, is having a schemata of what they expect the classroom to look, feel, and sound like before anything begins. Is there a negative pre-disposition that we are putting adult learners into, which can potentially disengage them before any learning begins?

I guess the basis for an introductory class then would be to organize the so-called information cloud into structured, easy-to-digest chunks of information for the mind to understand. While re-structuring and creating this information for people, we must also help them to be engaged in the content.

Could this introductory schema have a major impact on the rest of the course, if conducted poorly or not conducted at all? These are things I wonder about, and hope to not make mistakes when I eventually facilitate a classroom.

First Post on a New Blog!

Okay, so things have been a bit hectic lately. I somehow can't even manage to find the time to upkeep my main blog Brewji.

However, I have started on an educational journey through the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP) at Vancouver Community College (VCC). 

In my first week, I have taken the liberty of figuring out how to balance work, life, school, and play. These are all core values that make up who I am, and I needed to take the first week to find the balance, so that I can properly juggle all of them. On top of that, my health plays a factor too.

That aside, in this first week, we looked at Andragogy vs. Heutagogy. I mean, I've seen these terms before, but never really thought of them because they looked scary and I didn't want to delve into figuring out what they meant. Well, now that's over.

Andragogy is pretty much just a means of learning, which (for now) is seen as mainly applied to adults. There is a need to better oneself or gain a new skill to advance towards a larger goal. For example, my mother is just being told she will lose her position at the end of the year, and needs to take classes for some basic computer skills. She has the overall goal of achieving a new position in the same field, while taking as little time out of her life as possible, to acquire a skill and become proficient. This, in turn, will help her maintain a job so she can pay bills.

Heutagogy is sort of like what I'm doing now. I find education (and the study within the realm of it) engaging. I try to break down larger topics into smaller, easier to digest chunks, and get myself to find the tastiest chunk and become curious about it. Being curious about this will lead me to other things as I ask more questions and try to uncover more information. There is a less linear approach, but that way it allows me to facilitate my own story in this choose-your-own-adventure of learning.

I'm pretty sure most of my other classmates will post something about the first week's content, but I wanted to put my own personal twist on it. Why? Because when I look back at it, then I can remember how closely reflective to myself these topics are. Plus, that way it's a raw version of my understanding. If I'm wrong, then my lovely instructor can point it out and throw stuff at me (virtually).

That's about it for this post. Cheers!