Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

Stories help people connect reality and theory very well. In my major class, I had a hard time understanding some specialized theories, but if the professor told a story as a more direct example, it was easy for me to understand and made learning more interesting. Storytelling does drive our imagination, drives our thoughts, and allows us to focus better on the story.

For example, in Rich Mccue’s storytelling example, the 46-second recording showed me what the 3-2-1 Backup Rule was, but I wasn’t impressed or interested. But after watching his video, through the story he told and the corresponding pictures, I deeply understood the importance of the 3-2-1 Backup Rule and was impressed with the story he told. In his video, which satisfies my auditory and visual senses, In his description of his student standing in front of him with tears sliding down her face very slowly made me see a sad girl, as well as the description of the story of the girl waking up from a friend’s house after the fire and learning that her laptop and the hard drive she backed up her data on had been completely destroyed, I also felt that sadness and despair. He follows Mayer’s segmenting principle as well as Mayer’s coherence principle, which summarizes the topic well and highlights the video’s focus through its brief content. It also follows Mayer’s Signalling principle, adding many pictures related to the story in the video, so that the audience can better immerse themselves in the story.

In the seven TED talks, each of these seven storytelling techniques I identified with and was interested in and was really engaged in while listening to them. But if I were to choose the one that appeals to me the most, it would have to be the third one: create suspense. At the beginning of the story, the speaker tells of an assassination, and a bombing attack, creating suspense that was very intriguing to me, and I was shocked when he revealed that the assassination and bombing attack was carried out by his father.

As Chibana (2015) says, a good story will always have conflict and plot. The speaker says he grew up with violence, but he did not grow up to be like his father.

Although it is stated in Mayer’s personalization principle that the narration process should be energetic and enthusiastic, it is also appropriate to change the tone according to the content of the story. For example, in Zak ebrahim’s speech, after all the difficult and painful things he went through, he was able to tell his story in such a calm tone that I was very impressed.

Next is my story template, my theme is how to complete a makeup look. When creating the story version, I tried to use DALL-E, an AI tool, to generate images. The more specific I described, the more it could generate images that fit my conditions, as well as being very detailed.

Resource： Chibana, N. (2015), 7 Storytelling Techniques Used by the Most Inspiring TED Presenters, VISME, retrieved from: 7 Storytelling Techniques Used by the Most Inspiring TED Presenters (visme.co)

Through this week’s study, I feel that there is a common step in a range of approaches to establishing goals.

For example, I think the constructive alignment model is a way in which the professor guides students to integrate classroom activities, and students construct meaning through various activities. The purpose of learning is not to memorize rigid knowledge, but to apply what we have learned to practice. Before the class begins, the professor informs the students of the objectives of the lesson, the form of assessment, and the activities that the students will be required to participate in, and then focuses on the themes of each unit. I have seen this pattern in this section of EDCI 337 and my EDCI 339, where the professor would give us a detailed outline at the beginning of the semester, which would have details of their weekly assignments and topics. However, in some of my economics courses, some professors would only tell us the grading criteria in advance, and the specific topics and assignments would be learned as the class progressed.

And for the backwards design model, it’s also about first identifying expected learning goals to make sure students know what all they need to do for the semester, second creating assessments to measure student learning, and then finally planning activities and lessons around the goals and assessments that will contribute to student success. In backwards design, the level of student understanding is pursued. Under a model where assessment is preferred over curriculum design, a close connection between instructional activities and learning outcomes can better facilitate students to achieve understanding and apply their knowledge to accomplish their initial goals.

No matter when and what you do, having a clear and unambiguous goal is the key to success.

In Merrill’s First Principle of Teaching, I identify with Problem/task-focused, Activation, and Integration.

Problem/task-focused is that learning can be facilitated when learners show that they are competent at the task or can solve the problem when the course or learning is completed. Learning can be facilitated when learners are engaged at the problem or task level, rather than simply at the operational action level. Learning can be facilitated when learners solve a series of problems that are clearly further along than others. This was particularly evident to me in my major economics course, where most of the economics professors would give us basic, or extended, problems. Whenever I applied what I had learned or prepped to answer these questions, I became more and more interested in learning and eager for new knowledge.

In Activation, when relevant learning experiences are recalled under guidance and activated, it can facilitate learning. When I was working on a problem, whenever I saw some topics that were familiar but I couldn’t recall, I felt tired, but once the memory was activated, it became very motivating.

For the integration principle, when learners are encouraged to integrate new knowledge into their lives or work, it promotes learning. This is something I also know well. In another of my EDCI courses, the professor asked us to create a Mini course, and I chose a piece of knowledge from economics to make the Mini course. It was an opportunity for me to open up my learning skills and delve into that knowledge, and I felt very good about it.