Standard III - Diversity of Learners

Artifact Description:

In Spring 2021, I generated a class on the TinkerCAD website as an online learning environment for students in the EDLT302 Electronic Literacy for IT class. The online class was a part of the two-week learning module on TinkerCAD which aims to promote preservice teachers’ 3D modeling abilities. TinkerCAD developed by Autodesk was used as the IT for learning 3D modeling, which is an increasingly important concept in STEM education. Besides the learning module, I created a class in TinkerCAD as an online learning environment for students. A total of 43 students joined the online class through a link that I generated automatically. The artifact demonstrated how I fostered a learning community that empowered learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities.

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Reflection and Rationale:

The learners in the class had individual differences in their background such as content area, characteristics, and abilities, etc. For the learning module on TinkerCAD, students were encouraged to collaborate in learning the new technology. They worked with others as a team to create an artifact and designed a lesson plan based on their interests, which allowed for more creativity and freedom. For example, preservice teachers of Social studies designed an artifact of Pyramids on the topic of Ancient Egypt and integrated it successfully into their lesson plan. Another group whose content area was Mathematics submitted an artifact that recreated a linear pattern in nature. Furthermore, considering that every student had a diverse ability in 3D modeling, I allowed them to copy and tinker on other authors' artifacts through the Gallery of TinkerCAD. As a result, a great number of excellent and creative artifacts emerged from these students. This validated that educators must understand individual differences and foster an inclusive learning community of learners with diverse needs and characteristics.