Carolyn Harris EDUC 5313 - Week 1

Part 1: Self Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Carolyn Harris. I am from Grenada, which is a country in the Caribbean, also known as the 'Isle of Spice'. I have an educational background that centers around the English Language. I obtained a bachelors degree in English Literature, a TESOL certificate and currently pursuing a Masters Degree in English Education: Curriculum and Instruction. I am teaching at a medical university which I've been at for 3 years where I teach Academic English Writing to premed students. I also edit and provide feedback on student CVs and personal statements. As a future goal, I am interested in exploring different career paths apart from education, specifically in technical writing and developmental editing. I recently began a 6 course Technical Writing certificate in order to develop foundational skills in this field. 

Part 2: ISTE Standards

The ISTE Standards that closely align with the educational level and content that I teach is 1.3: Knowledge Constructor. Under this ISTE Standard, students will use different digital tools to research, evaluate research, collect digital resources and use these resources to build a comprehensive understanding of real world issues. As mentioned before, I teach Academic English Writing to premed university students. In this course, one of the learning objectives is to help students research and gather information on a medical topic in order to both inform and persuade readers. Therefore, the ISTE standard closely aligns with my classroom content since my students research using different online databases such as Google Scholar, EBSCOhost and Research4Life. Students also use the advanced search feature in these online databases to evaluate for currency, relevance, credibility and so on. At the end, students synthesis research to write a comprehensive informative or argumentative paper on a medically related issue. 

A learning activity that can help students learn content even more under this ISTE standard is the incorporation of AI tools. Students are already using AI and it is quite difficult to place restrictions on its use. Therefore, instead of failing to enforce AI restrictions on students, AI can be used more openly within the classroom with guidelines to ensure appropriate use. AI tools such as ChatGPT can be used as a research database where students can find different articles along with prompts to evaluate for currency, relevance, credibility and so on. In this way, students can use AI in a more ethical and meaningful way. The AI chat can also serve as an organizer where all potential articles and evaluations are kept under one chat log. 

Part 3: Kolb's Triple E Framework

Here is how the learning activity meets Kolb's Triple E Framework:

- Engage: Research through online databases can be a tedious process and I personally have experienced how students became frustrated from not finding the articles to build their research paper. AI tools can assist since it is more efficient and it searches through a vast number of online databases apart from the commonly used databases. This can ensure that students are kept engaged throughout the research process without much frustrations. 

- Enhance: AI tools can enhance student learning by providing short summaries of articles. Before, my students would skim and scan to determine whether articles can be used for their research papers. However, skim and scanning may not be advantageous in providing students with in depth overview of the research. On the other hand, an AI tool can help students gain a deeper understanding of what each article entails. Even if the student does not end up using the article, that deep understanding (to a certain extent) can still be used in another context.

- Extend: AI tools can be used outside of the classroom if students have access to internet connection or a cellphone/laptop outside of the classroom. Online databases can also be used outside of the classroom as well. However, AI tools can extend learning further outside of the classroom since students can develop critical thinking by asking questions to ensure currency, relevance, credibility and so on. More so that simply using an advanced search.


References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2024). ISTE Standards: For Students. https://www.iste.org/standards/students.

Kolb, L. (n.d.). Triple E Framework. https://www.tripleeframework.com.

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