Author: stephany

The learning that stuck out to me the most this week in EDCI was on critical thinking based off the private talk with a philosophy professor. I took Philosophy 201 asynchronously with UVic last summer. As a first-year student that needed to take an elective, I chose this course for my personal interest as a first step into philosophy. Critical thinking can be described as “the ability to interpret, evaluate, and analyze facts and information available to form a judgment or decide if something is right or wrong” (Coursera, 2025). The philosophy of critical thinking allows us to be curious about the information we receive and search for any biases. I really enjoyed this course because the material was organized, and quizzes were made to help with my learning, which is critical in an online course for proper learning.

The main takeaways I got from this course were how to evaluate an argument’s pattern, judging the relevance of a sample for research, and identifying fallacies and biases. Overall, this helped me to properly analyze the sources I receive my information from. To this day, I still check for biases in my research, and I try to avoid letting my own biases get in the way of making a decision. One bias that I learned that I tend to fall victim to often is the confirmation bias. Confirmation bias essentially proves that we are more biased towards information that confirms our beliefs. Having strong critical thinking skills allows us to avoid making these mistakes. Elizabeth Perry states that there are six critical thinking skills: identifying biases, inference, research, identification, curiosity, and judging relevance (2025). By engaging these skills during a critical thinking process we can avoid falling for invalid information. As a student it is especially important to think critically when consulting with information for your learning. I provided a Ted Talk below that I like because it illustrates how to improve critical thinking in an easy way that everyone can implement in their lives.

References

Coursera. (2025). What are critical thinking skills and why are they important? https://www.coursera.org/ca/articles/critical-thinking-skills

Perry, E. (2025). How to start thinking critically and sharpen your mind. Better Up. https://www.betterup.com/blog/critical-thinking-skills#improve-your-critical-thinking-skills%C2%A0

TED-Ed. (2016, March 15). 5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking – Samantha Agoos [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dItUGF8GdTw

This week I consulted the talk about CAL by Charlie Watson, Sydney LaMarsh and Szymon Stecewicz.

References

University of Victoria. (n.d.). Support for students with disabilities. https://www.uv ic.ca/accessible-learning/index.php

University of Victoria. (n.d.). How to register. https://www.uvic.ca/accessible-learning/students/how-to-register/index.php

This week’s learning in EDCI focused on artificial intelligence (AI), and academic integrity. I particularly enjoyed watching Dr. Mariel Miller’s video on learning with AI as I have had the chance to take a class with her in the past. Last fall, I took ED-D 101 with Dr. Miller which focused on learning strategies for university success. This class really helped me transition my learning from high school to university and gave me tools to enhance my education. Being an online class, it also provided a great first-experience for online learning at UVic. At first I found it challenging to stay on top of tasks, but with the help of a course schedule that we made in class I was able to find a routine that worked. I also found it difficult sometimes to connect with Dr. Miller and other classmates. That is one reason why I really enjoy this course. Using the mattermost chat allows for quick and easy communication which I appreciate in an online class.

Back to AI and academic integrity, with the recent rise of generative AI, I believe it creates great opportunities for digital learning, but also poses some concerns. Tools such as ChatGPT being so easily accessible to students creates a greater risk for academic integrity violation than ever before. As a student, I think that when considering whether to use AI for coursework it is important to consider how it effects your learning. Using AI to complete work is a violation of academic integrity, as well as it prevents you from learning from your coursework. However, I do see the potential for AI to be helpful with learning. With respect to academic integrity, I think it can be useful to help generate ideas or prompts, or even create schedule for students to manage their time and deadlines. I am curious to see how artificial intelligence will grow in the future and the impact it will have on our world!

The article published by Saanich News describes a story which took place in 2017 regarding an artist using pieces from various photographers without permission. At the time the artist, Suzanne Heron, was not aware that she was coping writing the work of others, and she never checked with the photographers to ensure she had the right to copy their work. Copyright and plagiarism are huge issues, and it can be very problematic for artists. It is easy to find an image online and assume you have the right to illustrate it, which is what Suzanne did and then sold these pieces on her website. Janis Morrison, one of the artists that Suzanne copied an image from, came forward after finding out her work was essentially stolen. Janis saw this as an opportunity for people to learn about copyright laws and understand that they cannot steal pictures they find online. After receiving backlash, Suzanne took responsibility for her actions and worked to fix her mistakes. She compensated everyone who she had stolen work from and educated herself on copyright laws.

I think it is honorable that she is donating 100% of the money made from these pieces to the photographers. This article is a great example of using mistakes to learn and improve. The biggest lesson I learned from this story is that when you make a mistake it is important to recognize what you did wrong and apologized to those you wronged, but also educate yourself to not make this mistake again. As a student it is important for me to follow all copyright laws and the UVic academic integrity policy.