CLT Symposium

Last week, Dr. Maha asked us to attend a symposium about how AUC faculty use teaching innovations in their classrooms, digital education and how the university itself help in the matter. This is an interesting topic to me because I am visual learner, so applying digital platforms to learning allow me to reflect better on the things I learn and also it helps me with the overall learning experience. I attended Teaching in an Age of Complexity: Considering Open, Participatory and Equitable Pedagogies lecture by Catherine Cronin. The talk was mainly about the extent which educators are helping the literacy practice develop in the way they teach. I found this lecture very interesting, although I would have liked the speaker to talk more about the term “Pedagogies”. She already explained it in her speech but I it would have been better if she would have linked it to the topic more. The speaker links real life activities to the knowledge we should acquire and I think this is what was exactly needed because many professors who were attending were keen on learning the methodologies of applying digital literacy tp their way of teaching. So, linking it to real life events was helpful much. In her speech as well, she focused on the continuity of work, and how it educators would do such thing. I feel like this is a turning point in any learning experience because you don’t want only to acquire knowledge and apply it in the present moment, you want to maintain the momentum of creating ways that will crush the complexity of any learning experience. Lastly, although the speaker was adamant on giving advice to educators, she was not very engaging in a way that allow others to speak up their mind or actively engage with the material she is explaining. In regards to the second lecture I attended online, which was “Reimagining Education in the Digital Age” by Alec Couros, I don’t have much to say about it actually. I found it overly interesting that I wished I would have attended it live. The topic was interesting but a bit similar to the one I attended by Dr. Catherine. It mainly talked about online access to courses and how this opportunities have created new possibilities for digital learning and how this do not only affect learning experience but it also counts as social networking, that using its tools allow us to connect to global audience. To me, I felt this topic is very relatable because the traditional ways of learning aren’t as sufficient as they used to be and the more you integrate with global audience, the more you widens the knowledge you acquire. What really caught my attention in this lecture is how Dr. Alec provided practical solution. I always have hard time connecting with theoretical approaches, so for me, the more practical the learning experience is, the more knowledge I gain. This was one of the lectures I learnt best not because of his way delivering the information, but mainly for the information itself which Dr. Alec provided and the way he gave us a glimpse on how to exploit those online resources.

Digital Narrative Games

When the Dr. Maha asked us to play games, my first reaction was wow this is going to be fun. However my first reaction was sure we will have fun, but how playing games will add to our course and once I started playing different games, my questions were answered. I played 6 games in total, and each one of them was an added value to me in a way or another. Since I am a person that learns best b practice, this was extremely beneficial to me.

First game I played was ‘Spent’ and let me tell you, this one was of the most frustrating games I have ever played, not because it was hard, but because it reflected every hardship anyone could ever feel. For me, I have hard time letting my things away. So, sacrificing everything I have in order to make ends meet is one of toughest decision I can make, and in this game I had to do it a lot in order to survive. This was in fact frustrating not because of how I had to sacrifice everything , but because it pushed me to learn that some people are simply being forced to do so in order to survive in the world.

Second game was ‘BBC Syrian Refugees’. Let me tell you one thing, this game is a marketing campaign in of itself. If they wanted to virtually allow people to feel for refugees, they wouldn’t have done this game any better. Taking you through the experience of a Syrian Refugee though vivid visuals and letting you decide as if you are a real refugee was very heartfelt and traumatizing at the same time. This game was exceptionally done.

Third one was ‘Reality Check’, which is about fake news. This game was more on the informative side than the practical side because you just keep clicking on the search button in order to move on with the game and that is it. I though it was a bit obvious because it is logically known that is how we search but based on human nature, we tend to take the easy way out and just judge a piece of new by the first look without taking the time to actually do the research. So I found it difficult to navigate through.

Fourth game was ‘Domestic Violence’. My first thought is “this is a very weird interface for a game”. Second thought is some images were really disturbing in this one, which reflected the severity of the situation of domestic violence. What I didn’t like about this game was how extreme were the answers, there were really no in-between ones, it is easier being completely passive or completely responsive to your situation. So I thought if this was about reality, not all these solutions will be the case. On the other hand, what I really liked about this game is that they give facts about domestic violence related to each situation after you answer the question which makes you re-think your choice and think how would I have chosen to do better in a situation like this. Also, in some questions there were open answers for solutions which I found very involving. So overall, I sometimes felt frustrated because of how extreme some answers were.

Fifth game was the ‘Voters Suppression Trail’. I am not American, so I found this interesting to play because I wanted to try (even if virtually) how the voting experience in American is like. The thing that caught my attention was the reaction after each action because they were exactly what I would have done if I was really in that situation. For example, the one after waiting in line for some time and then finding out that your location has changed; FIRST thing I would have exactly done is sigh. Not yell, not stomp my feet, nothing but sighing to express my frustration because voting is something essential and you have to do it .I was curious to try different circumstances and guess what when I tried it again? It was the easiest experience ever and everything went smoothly, so this was cool to try as well.

Last game I played was ‘Know Yourself’, and this was the least favorite game to me honestly. Its name gives false assumption about the objective of the game because in fact, I did not learn anything about myself. The situations were weird and when I thought I was choosing moderate answers, I find out that I am being judgmental almost all the time. I was like “I am not being judgmental, I am being considerate”. So I found the feedback weird at some times.

Overall, I find this activity very engaging and helpful because not only do I get to play games, it is in fact, a creative learning experience as well. 

Digital Literacy

In all honesty, I have never heard of Digital Literacy before taking this class, but once I have known about it, I tried to guess what this term may entail. By simply translating it, I assumed that it is how we are able to communicate our way through different digital platforms. Per my understanding and very basic knowledge, I thought Digital Literacy refers to how to use technology and different digital platforms. However, reading more and more about it, and more importantly, practicing it more, allowed me to gain an insight on what Digital Literacy truly means. This clear term encompasses much more than it gives away. Simply put, Digital Literacy refers to the know-how of using digital platforms; rather than focusing on how, it focuses on every nitty-gritty detail related to this simple “how”.

Not long ago, I tried to minor is Information Systems because not only technology in of itself is a very booming field, but I was also enamored with how technology is integrated in every aspect of our lives like education and such. This integration allows for creating access, transparency, and opportunities for more in-depth learning and exploration. However, what I find it distinctive in Digital Literacy is how it is a 360-degree learning experience, meaning that, it acknowledges us of every aspect related to digital use. In addition to teaching me how to blog and post on social media for example; it teaches me how do I protect myself by not revealing or sharing too much information online. Since the field of technology is an exceedingly vast field where you have access to endless information, it is very important to learn the skill of limitation in regards to sharing and receiving as well. I mean what matters here is the notion of control, as thoroughly discussed in Teaching Tolerance Podcast. So what Digital Literacy exactly does, as mentioned in an article by Charles Sturt University, is that it teaches you how to become an active rather than a passive user of technology by teaching you how to correctly judge and enhance your awareness in terms of technology use and utilization. This is the optimized learning level from my perspective because as I mentioned before, it doesn’t leave you hanging with only instruction of how to use but also of who and what exactly to share, so you become aware of every aspect there is to know in regards to digital technology and its use. This is not by any means an easy aspect to be taught, because technology, along with people using it, are becoming more advanced and more expertise is thrown into the equation. With this advancement, people are finding it harder to differentiate between what is fake and what is real.

After listening to Teaching Tolerance Podcast, I found the aspect of control very striking and appealing to me. With social networking taking cyber bullying to the extreme levels ,especially in Egypt, it is really important that children and young generations learn how to carefully use social networks and generally take the use of technology seriously. What we have in Egypt is high level of illiteracy in regards to not only technology but to the “social” aspects related to it. Those social aspects need to be addressed sufficiently in order to increase awareness of the drawbacks, and mainly those drawbacks are in form of cyber bullying. I can refer to those as virtual attacks because to me, they are not direct by all means; they are sneaky and intimidating and need to be dealt with carefulness. Therefore, indulging in digital literacy is an exceedingly crucial field of learning because it as much as it gives you the knowledge of teaching you how to use technology, it teaches you how to cope with this advancement with all its prospects.

Digital Confidence

This was an easy survey to do, the questions were very straightforward and the explanation attached to each answer was right to the point. I felt like the level I chose every time were describing me wholeheartedly.

I would like to work on communication and collaboration because although I am familiar with blogging websites and such, I am not that comfortable with using them more frequently.