A) The primary result of the study presented was to conclude
that higher level reflection was impacted by two sources, High Level Prompts
and High Level Observation. Interestingly, the quality of peer reviews did not
impact levels of student reflection. In terms of what this means in relation to
online learning, It seems that students tend to reflect and respond at higher
levels when the questioning performed by the teacher is set up in such a way
that the questions prompt students into higher levels of thought such as
analysis and synthesis. By providing guidance to student thoughts, they then
can understand where their thoughts should lead them and thus think on a higher
level. Additionally, by seeing high level examples to reflect upon, students
gain a better understanding of the breadth and depth of reflection expected in
the activity. Finally, in asynchronous discussion it seems that not as much
credit is given to student feedback, most likely because by its very nature
asynchronous discussions do not create a rapid back and forth dialogue. Thus,
individuals are not as concerned with the feedback from their peers. I believe
this also happens because people are typically more concerned about the content
of their primary or "Main" posts rather than responding to their
peer's remarks. Additionally, peer remarks often tend to be vague or
unsubstantial and thus do not merit a deeper level of thought. Coupled with the
lack of a face to face environment and the intimacy such an environment
creates, there is little respect for peer feedback.
B) One of the primary goals of robotics (and engineering as
a whole) is to problem solve. Often problems and their solutions arise from
experiences within our lives or that we may indirectly experience. For example,
when my dogs go out in the morning to use the bathroom, their paws get wet from
the dew. In order to keep them from tracking water into the house, I have to
wipe their paws off every morning. When I am in a hurry to get ready, this
becomes time consuming and irritating (not to mention I am lazy about this). To
alleviate this problem, I could come up with a paw drying solution such as a
mat to dry my dogs feet better. In order to get my students thinking about how
to solve problems and have them develop their own solutions, I would ask them
to take mental (or written) notes of things that bother them on a daily basis
in their lives. Once they have reflected on these irritations, I would then ask
them to choose one and develop a solution for this problem. They could then
describe or explain their problem and solution as well as its pros and cons
(requiring more reflection) and then could ask them to use the design
principles they learned in class to create a model or prototype of their
solution. If they are unable to prototype, I could have them find another
creative way of pitching their idea to the class. In line with the observations
made by Chen, Wei, Wu, and Uden, I could then provide examples for them of past
classes that had high-level, successful solutions.