0 Comments
The beauty of this program is that it takes you on a journey of self-discovery, research, and planning that leads to a goal of implementation in your organization. Throughout my journey in Digital Learning and Leading I have ran into many aspects of my project that I have had to reconsider during implementation. When beginning this program, we were asked to come up with a PLAN. During this time, I was able to narrow down my Why and focus in on My Growth Mindset.
Afterwards, we were asked to create a timeline, and research everything there was to know or encounter along the way. During this phase, and three of my courses, I was able to work out many kinks that would have hindered or held up the implementation process of getting Canvas and blended learning opportunities in the classroom. My Action Research, My Plan, and my Alternative Plan were all created during this time. Finally, I was able to build a cohesive website that walked my administrative team step by step through my thought process. My Presentation, My Media Project, and My Blog guided me through this portion. I was able to think out loud, and create something that was visible for my co-workers and students to see. This phase was a breath of relief and weight lifted from my shoulders. Currently, I am at the training phase of my implementation plan. It is going nice and the teachers I am training are impressed with the work that has gone into my website. As of now, they access the information that I have created during my graduate classes if they have questions about blended learning and Canvas. I have learned a tremendous amount of information about myself, my teaching style, and how I intake learning new material. My Blog reflects all my thoughts through this journey and the lesson I have learned along the way. Everything has worked thus far because I was able to catch errors along the way through this program. Each new class gave a new insight to the bigger picture and it was nice to adjust before presenting information to my superiors and co-workers, rather than researching in the middle of implementation. I promoted my implementation plan via email, posters, and seeking out teachers who were interested during on-campus professional development sessions. Week 5 ReflectionWhat an amazing journey! During this course I learned that the term digital citizenship involved much more than being courteous online. The most shocking thing I learned in this course were all the pieces of copyrights. Who knew there were so many aspects under the term copyright? We began our journey into the pleasant world of citing with our discussion on defining different terms and how they are essentially connected to protect works that have been produced. Our prompts for the week really made me question, second guess, and re-think my outlook on numerous topics that I thought I knew the answers to. The discussion this week asked us to read an article called Copyright in the News-Hudson Institute White Paper, and if it makes a good case for separation should they remain together. I agreed that the U.S. Copyright Office should be separated from the Library of Congress because the office needs to stay updated in this fast pace world we live in with technology growing each day. Keeping a paper trail is not going to be sufficient in a few years. There should be a single branch devoted to keeping track of copyrights. My biggest accomplishment in this course is making it to week 5! Seriously, it was the fact that I read, watched and enjoyed most of the material provided in our readings, sources, etc. weekly. All my other EDLD classes have put me to sleep reading the material, but I guess since there were so many aspects of this topic that I was unaware of, I was able to fully indulge in the information provided. Honestly time was not me best friend while trying to complete this course. It was the beginning of the year and mother nature was not having it! I am currently coaching two sports that take time Wednesday and Thursday night. I am also in a district that pushes supporting your feeder patterns, meaning my Tuesday nights and Friday nights are devoted to cheering on our Lady Wolves. With that statement being said…Hello from the half court line of our Varsity game! I am also an AVID teacher at an AVID Demonstration school. We are up for re-validation this year and our Coaching visit took place last week when I was mid-way through my culminating project…FUN. I feel like my best work was completed in week 4. At the middle school level, we cyber-bullying all the time which why my first instinct was to pick that for my final project. After week 3, it hit me that if we educate parents on all there is to know on the security side of this, we could probably eliminate a big chunk of these issues. What I learned in this course is I need to add more information to the first few weeks of my class. I need to probably start my course with 6 weeks of digital citizenship, then lead into my Canvas course. If there were topics, such as the copyright laws, that I was unaware of, I can only imagine how oblivious my 11-year-old babies are. Things I have learned in this course that will help me to continuously grow as an educational leader is that everyday something in technology is being produced. We have to stay aware and informed to keep our students and staff protected. My favorite portion of this course was the week that googled ourselves. That was the day that a digital footprint could truly make or break everything you work towards in life. Suggestions I would give other students to get the most out of this course would be use the resources to your advantage. Make sure to tune into the lectures and see what your peers are saying, and to read all the discussion board posts because you can get an enormous amount of information. Honestly, this course has probably been one of my more exciting courses. I have learned a tremendous amount and will forever go back and refer to my homework. To my friends, co-workers, and administrators I would say this course needs to be implemented into public school systems for teachers, students, parents, and staff. Finally signing off...Coach Ro! Week 4 ReflectionWhat a week of discovery! I had an idea of what cyber bullying entailed, the depth and the stories that I have uncovered this week have truly put me in a place of tissues, eye-drops, and reflection. In my mind, I feel as though I am aware and I place emphasis on internet safety in my classroom. This week’s lesson gave me ideas of areas to improve and additional lessons to put in place for my students. In our discussion this week we were asked to watch Monica Lewinsky’s The Price of Shame and figure out how we can guard ourselves against the endless outlets of internet humiliation. By being meticulous about what we post and what sites/apps we are accepting terms and policies for without reading through them. It is sad that we live in a time where the world has access to anything that we thought was private simply because we did not read through the terms and condition. Taking that extra time is key when you are a public figure, have a job that requires discretion, or if you have children that will someday find that terrible thing you thought was funny at some point being relived on the internet. Coping with a shame game is never easy when the story is about you. I was in 7th grade when the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal broke out. I was glued to the TV listening and watching every clip to figure out who was lying and who was telling the truth. The media did an outstanding job of following and sensationalizing this story even for an 11-year-old at the time. Had this story come out 7 years later when social media had taken off, I feel like Monica may have taken her own life. Cyber-bullying is nothing to be played with. When the WORLD is commenting on a moment that was meant for 2 people, I can only imagine the damage it does to your self-worth, esteem, confidence, etc. We have got to do better with laws against social media and people’s private lives. Continuing with our cyber-bullying lesson, we looked at two cases. The first case really touched my soul. Ryan’s Story is one of many years of being bullied by the same group of people up until the summer of 2003. Being cyber-bullied made Ryan feel out of control and depressed. There was nothing more to look forward to. He had already been harassed by this boy since 5th grade, he asked to be removed from the school, he learned how to fight, and with a sick twist of fate, was “be-friended” by the little boy. All these events still led down a path of children being mean to him. Physically, Ryan was only in one fight where he got in a few hits, but emotionally, he was depressed. Years of torment, and to add the girl pretending to be his girlfriend on top was the breaking point. I feel as though Ryan followed the rules for dealing with cyberbullies as best he could. He told his parents but warned them that the Principal would not take the necessary actions. He ignored them. He then asked to be removed, where his parents denied the request. He learned how to defend himself by exercising to Tae-bo with his mother. Finally, he felt as though life had given him a break and the boy who had made his life so miserable was now his friend. It was not until after his death that his mother checked his IM and received all the information no parent would want to hear about their child’s school experience. I do not have kids, but I feel like if my child came to me with these concerns, my first response would have been to be at the school no matter how my child felt about it. Second, if it continued after me going to the school, I would have documented the accounts and placed him in another school. I also feel as though the IM’s should have been checked nightly. There would not have been time for the bullying to continue. The steps that were taken by the trusted adults was the parents telling Ryan to ignore the bullies, the Principal calling about the fight, and finally the mom getting the password to Ryan’s IM. These steps were not effective because they allowed Ryan to make the first call of not going to the Principal to raise awareness. The second issue was not taking the situation more serious when he wanted to learn how to fight. Finally, allowing him to get an online profile for any reason was not an ideal situation, especially with the online generation. Ryan's Story Presentation. (2017). Ryanpatrickhalligan.org. Retrieved 30 September 2017, from http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/ Schoolyard bullying has gone high-tech. (2006). DeseretNews.com. Retrieved 1 October 2017, from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/645194065/Schoolyard-bullying-has-gone-high-tech.html Additional Resources that helped: Honestly, Dr. Borel did not leave any stone unturned with this week’s lesson. All the resources and videos were ones that I have used previously in class, except for Ryan’s Story and Monica Lewinsky’s TedTalk. Week 3 Reflection What a week!!!! Who knew there were so many aspects under the term copyright? We began our journey into the pleasant world of citing with our discussion on defining different terms and how they are essentially connected to protect works that have been produced. Our prompts for the week really made me question, second guess, and re-think my outlook on numerous topics that I thought I knew the answers to. The discussion this week asked us to read an article called Copyright in the News-Hudson Institute White Paper, and if it makes a good case for separation should they remain together. I agreed that the U.S. Copyright Office should be separated from the Library of Congress because the office needs to stay updated in this fast pace world we live in with technology growing each day. Keeping a paper trail is not going to be sufficient in a few years. There should be a single branch devoted to keeping track of copyrights. We were then asked to define some terms that I was sure I knew, but eventually found out that I simply lump together in the same category because they are similar…but not the same.
Sources that helped I found several sources this week that “dummied” the information down for me! Kinds of Copyrights. (2017). Smallbusiness.chron.com. Retrieved 23 September 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/kinds-copyrights-56983.html Movie Clips and Copyright. (2017). Insidehighered.com. Retrieved 23 September 2017, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/28/copyright Thompson, K. (1993). Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Society for Cinema Studies, "Fair Usage Publication of Film Stills". Cinema Journal, 32(2), 3. doi:10.2307/1225602 Wolfe, M. (2014). FAQ: Authorship and Ownership in U.S. Copyright Law | Authors Alliance. Authorsalliance.org. Retrieved 23 September 2017, from http://www.authorsalliance.org/2014/05/20/authorship-and-ownership-faq/ Week 2 ReflectionThis week we discussed so many topics that sparked my interest. In our discussion, technology in our classroom and personal lives was the focus. Lack of technology in today’s classroom, is almost comparable to not having a classroom book to teach from. My students use technology every day and in multiple forms. For instance, my bell ringer is completed through an app called padlet, we may review something from the day before using quizlet, kahoot, or breakout boxes. Finally, we will turn in a project using Canvas or google docs. As far as personal lives, there is not a day that goes by where I do not check my phone, laptop, iPad, or Samsung gear watch. My students feel the same about their devices. My personal and professional can be found on any of my devices, so without them life would seem hectic. Social media is a plus as well. According to our lecture, a digital tattoo or footprint is the mark that you leave behind when using the Internet and can shape your online reputation as well as your online experience. The footprints can be either positive or negative and mold your present self or future self. Intentional footprints are paths that you leave on purpose; such as posting on our social media pages. Unintentional footprints are made when you are on snapchat and the navigation has placed you in a location without you knowing that setting was on. Students can deliberately cultivate a digital footprint by creating their own websites/eportfolios. When they create these sites, they need to make sure that vital information is not shared. This would include: address, full name, age, phone number, social security number, etc. My digital footprint is not as scary as I thought it was going to be. When I “Googled” my full name, nothing but positive things came up about me. My job was the first thing that appeared on the list for Mansfield ISD, and several pages later, my LinkedIn account appeared. However, when I search my first and last name only more sites appear, still positive, but more. My Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and my profile picture is second on the images. I was not surprised by what I found, but rather the different search options I was typing in to find more information. There are several different places that I have a digital profile because of my profession. I have to say that the university I received my undergraduate and first graduate degrees from did an outstanding job with teaching us about Digital Citizenship. Since I grew up in the era of needing a college email address to create a Facebook account, our athletic director and the academic advisor of the Kinesiology department of Tarleton State University held an athletics meeting where they encouraged all students participating in any type of NCAA sports on campus to not set up an account if we were not going to post responsibly. If we were, the second suggestion was to keep the content elementary friendly because we represented the community as well and were role models for all students still in school striving to play collegiate sports. The final suggestion was to not post anything that could have a negative connotation in our future lives while trying to apply for jobs. At 17, I took my digital footprint seriously because I knew the amount of work I was going to put into my future and succeeding, I did not need a picture of a drunken night at the bar holding my career path back. Since the big talk at Tarleton, I have always been aware and conscious of the things I post. I have almost every social media account; however, I treat them as if they are a school account. Not to say that I invite my students to be my friends, but when they do a search, there is nothing they would find there that they would not find in my classroom. All in all, I would give myself a 4 in the digital footprint category. My grandmother is always pleased when she views my page! I could go on to talk about the impressive TedTalk video we had to dissect and pick a quote from, but I am sure I my reflection is little long winded at this point. Until next week.... Additional Sources: Honestly, this week it was tough to find additional resources other than those provided through the class. There were a few that I used last week that were present in this week’s resources tab. A 30-year history of the future | Nicholas Negroponte. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 16 September 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b5BDoddOLA Jacobson, L. (2017). What is net neutrality?. ABC News. Retrieved 16 September 2017, from http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/net-neutrality/story?id=48596615 Oversharing: Think Before You Post. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 16 September 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyjd73tUXig Week 1 Reflection As I reflect over the first week of digital citizenship, I realized that there were numerous aspects that went into culminating and defining the term. Nine elements compose what we know as digital citizenship, all working together to build an online community that is safe, legal, and informative for users. In our discussions this week, we were asked if there was a difference between digital citizenship and citizenship. I do not believe there is a difference between digital citizenship and citizenship. Being a good Samaritan is simply being a law-abiding citizen, and according to Marshall (1950), “Citizenship is a status, given to all full members of a community”. I feel as though the same concepts apply when dealing with digital citizenship. We were also asked to define digital citizenship in our own words. My definition of digital citizenship is simple,” Think before you click”.
Digital citizenship is the path of digital footprints you are leaving behind whenever you access the internet, media, etc. Will your trail lead to rainbows and sunshine, or does it lead down a path of cyber-bullying, inappropriate posts, or pictures that could make or break a college, career, or relationship opportunity? There are nine elements that are involved in the digital citizenship model, and although all of them are important, some areas need to be emphasized and focused on more when teaching lessons to students, teachers, and parents. In particular, I teach middle school students which is why the emphasis for me will be more on the access, communication, and security aspects of the nine components. Digital access is huge initiative in Mansfield. We are a 1:1 district, and our iPad roll out is happening today for our new 7th graders…yay for us! With access comes the responsibility. Our students can connect via Wi-Fi during school hours and wherever they are able to get internet connect outside of school. With Mansfield being a large district, our students can connect to our school Wi-Fi no matter what school location they are at elementary to high school. Digital communication was next on my list because our students are required to communicate with us via Skyward, through our websites, gmail, and our online classrooms. The first few weeks of school are spent going over etiquette, proper language, and plagiarism. We want our students to be productive learners and communicators in the online world, so we take pride in really enforcing the correct communication tools for them to be successful. Finally, digital security is of the upmost importance in our district. We recognize that our students are minors (11-12 years old) and they are being handed access to the world with these devices. We also realize that even though you have to be 13 or older to get most social media pages, students lie and create accounts anyway. Our district has a program that monitors what our students and staff are downloading on their iPads. We also have a “blacklisted” page that lists all apps that students are unable to download. Lastly, our students can only access the app store if they are 13. The iPad is customized to their real birthday and students are unable to change this setting. These protocols are in place for their safety and ours. Students put in too much information sometimes and are not aware of the danger they are putting themselves in. YouTube was my friend this week as I ventured out to find additional resources to support my research and build evidence for my culminating project. I found three videos that probably took the words straight from my mouth and into mini motion. The links below will take you to these videos.
Other helpful resources that I found this week were two websites. They helped me get a clear understanding of digital citizenship. Please check them out!
Marshall, T.H. (1950). Citizenship and social class: and other essays. Cambridge, MA: University Press. Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know (3rd ed.). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education Throughout this course we will be required to update our experiences with creating an LMS for out implementation plans. I imagine that it will be a simple process that will take a lot of time because of the amount of content we will have to upload and work on. It seems like it will be a fun process, so ready or not, here I go!
Week 1: As I updated my previous AVID website, I was so excited to announce to my students that I was implementing and online platform for them to use this year in AVID. I was able to gather all of my lesson plans, but those were lengthy, so I condensed my information into a calendar with 30 days (six weeks) and with all the activities and assignments we will be participating in. So far, this process is making me smile. I love that I can upload things so easily into Canvas. Week 2: I am still exploring Canvas and all that it has to offer, and I really like the setup up and navigation options. I originally decided to make each week a module and quickly decided against it. The information seemed overwhelming. I switched my decision last minute to create Six Weeks modules, and I think this decision was better because it gave the course a better flow. Week 3: This may have been a mistake! I am unable to really make the course work for this content. AVID is a class where I am teaching them how to be successful in other courses. There are no quizzes or exams. There are group projects, but I feel like that defeats the whole purpose of an LMS to only be catered to turning in projects. Help me please!!! Week 4: As I assumed myself, feedback from my professors provided the same information that I already suspected. This week I started at square 1. An unbelievable process. I chose to switch the content that I was going to use. I teach a dual credit course called Successful Coaching where I also ease my high school students into online learning environments so college is not a shock. I have created a new course for my professors to critique and hopefully this week will be a little better on the feedback end. Week 5: A Time of Reflection Reality Bytes Designing and creating an online course seemed as though it would be a simple task to complete and get a quick check-off on my list of things completed in this program; however, a harsh realization set in very quickly once all the elements each week were presented through readings, videos, and what my peers were writing about in the discussion boards. Although my ideas were excellent, a plan to implement meaningful content into an online forum with middle school students was the set back. So many questions became my roadblock and detour to success in generating my course. I would like to take a little reflection journey with words, which I am usually limited on, through the last 5 weeks of this course and the moment I learned that reality bytes; however, it can be fixed with patience and guidance through all the resources available in this course! Conspiracy Instructional Design Theories As educators, we want a miracle anecdote for the content that we teach. A guided training, with engaging materials, assessments that are powerful, and a perfect platform to provide all these essentials to every student. The perfect course seems like a conspiracy theory, until you evaluate the elements of each instructional design theory to create a course that meets all the criteria. Tony Bates stated, “The issue here is not who was right, but that we all have implicit beliefs about the nature of knowledge, what constitutes truth, how that truth is best validated, and, from a teaching perspective, how best to help people to acquire that knowledge” (Bates, 2015). In our week 1 discussion post, I initially stated that I think all theories are needed in effective teaching and instructional design; however, after developing my course, I applied more Cognitivism, Constructivism, and Connectivism theories over Behaviorism. Behaviorism is only a small portion of my course in the introduction phase that focuses on learning rules and procedures so the learning process can unfold. When demonstrating how to properly use Canvas and interact with the discussion board in a meaningful way, behaviorism takes place. When students begin using the LMS, I will continue to use positive reinforcement for this theory to take a small place in my implementation. Cognitivism highlights the role that environmental conditions play in advancing learning and the learner is an active participant in the process. I found an article written by Sarah Sincero titled Cognitive Learning Theory that helped me dissect cognitivism deeper so it would be easy to explain to my colleagues and students if questions arise about certain activities. The following was each component:
Through cognitivism, my students will be able to cope with the online conditions of my course, as well as adapt to change and be able to self-regulate assignments when they have the option of voice and choice while creating their projects (Sincero, 2015). Constructivists see learning as a lively process; learners construct new ideas and concepts based on their background knowledge. The project outlines I used for my course are designed to give students basic information on what needs to be incorporated into the project. The students then get to create whatever type of presentation they deem fit to show facts and competency of the unit. They will design their presentations based off prior knowledge and experiences to help them produce the best explanation of the assignment possible. This theory takes place in majority of my instructional design. According to Merriam & Webster, what sets connectivism apart from theories such as constructivism, is the view that "learning can reside outside of ourselves, is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing" (Merriam and Webster 1828). This theory is enforced in my course through making external connections through the projects and discussion boards. Students will be able to make connections between different contents and previous experiences to design and produce assignments for my class. As you can tell, all instructional design theories played a major role in the creation of my course and will keep guiding my decisions as an educator attempting to be innovative in the classroom. What Plan? Ohhh UbD Plan! I used my UbD plan by viewing the curriculum that I am required to teach. When I began designing my plan, I focsued on the overall learning goals that needed to be met by the end of the first 30 days of Unit 1. Using the UbD template really pushes me to think of the content standards, objectives and desired results I want my students to embrace. The purpose of a UbD is to help guide the formation of lesson plans that allow for students to scaffold information and work through analyzing evidence on their own with little instruction from me. At the end of a lesson, constructed properly using the UbD model, students are able to know and students will be able to complete a skill. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can also be used to assess current practices, to stimulate discussion with colleagues, and used to lead a deeper understanding of how UDL can be effectively applied in the classroom in a practical way. (Meyer, 66) http://erobersondll.weebly.com/my-blog/understanding-by-design Technology is LIFE! Don Knezek provided an amazing video, Perspective: Teacher Skill in a Digital Age, explaining how students, more than less, are capable of producing a meaningful lesson using technology over teachers. This video was an eye-opener because I know that my students are advanced when it comes to using technology, but regarding producing content that involves rigor that educators are unable to do, is inspirational. He also explains that it is acceptable to learn from your students, in fact, they love teaching teachers something they do not know. I have never been fearful of asking a student how they produced excellent work, or what app they chose to use because I was unaware of it. They love it! When teaching and learning is happening on both ends, it makes the classroom a less scary, boring, “have to do” place, and becomes an atmosphere where that knowledge is power and spread amongst everyone in the room no matter the title of the individual. Lesson Learned When creating your instructional design, you must know the curriculum and how you can turn online learning into student-centered learning, while still maintaining the integrity of the content but also allowing freedom of expression in their presentation of knowledge. Design, implementation, and authenticity take time so do not rush this process. Creativity and innovation should be a key ingredient when creating projects, videos, readings, and assignments. This course has been enlightening in many aspects and because of this, I am currently still redesigning, adding, updating, and re-wording sections of my Canvas course to make the information something they WANT to know about. Resources Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (Chapter 2). Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ Merriam, & Webster. (1828). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved August 18, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/connectionism Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. (n.d.). Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved August 19, 2017, from http://udltheorypractice.cast.org/reading?15&loc=chapter4.xml_l1969949 Perspectives: Teacher skills in a digital age (2:48) Published by: ChangSchool 01>2011 YouTube URL: https://amara.org/en/videos/R3sGzvS202Kq/info/perspectives-teacher-skills-in-a-digital-age/ Sincero, S. M. (n.d.). Cognitive Learning Theory. Retrieved August 18, 2017, from https://explorable.com/cognitive-learning-theory
Why?
The backstory to my idea is I was so exhausted from students not completing work, and complaining that it was not fun for them. I took a poll one day in class and asked my students how they would like to turn in their homework assignments and communicate with their peers. 93% of my students wanted to do something using devices, but were unable to explain to me what that would look like. After searching for something other than google classroom and Edmodo, I ran across Canvas. At the time my district was not offering this option for online classrooms, so I went with google classroom. I was not a fan and my students were still not excited about working on the work. The next year, a trial run went out to teachers interested in implementing Canvas to start building what they would ultimately use the next school year. I immediately fell in love with all the advantages Canvas had. You can set up modules, daily/weekly discussion boards, group projects, assessments, etc. The class that I teach is called AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination). It is designed to prepare my students for rigorous, higher-level thinking work, and prepare them for college. Since so many classes are available to take online at the collegiate level, I felt as though my students would benefit from participating in all the aspects Canvas has to offer. Why Implementing an online element into the world of digital-aged students will spark interest on a new level; engaging and enhancing their minds, souls, and productivity to higher levels while breaking boundaries in education. How With help from administration and stakeholders, the online element can be easily integrated creating a learning culture that is advanced and unique prompting students to take ownership in the learning experience while being self-guided, incorporating problem-solving strategies, and utilizing peer collaboration in discussion forums. What Canvas Instructure is a learning management system that inspires students to explore, create, and collaborate while gaining a deeper understanding of content in a way that is stimulating for this technology-driven generation. My "Why" statement creates a sense of urgency by telling my audience (administrators, teachers, parents, students, and the technology department) that the students we are teaching are “techies”. If learning does not involve any technology, it is not fun or meaningful for the student population I have encountered and taught over the past 7 years. There is not a day that goes by when I do not hear, “Can we use our devices on this project or homework assignment?”
I used the words engage and enhance because they promote a feeling of collaboration and growth. The audience must be aware that change is happening and it is for the betterment of our students. Dr. Kotter shows us that by not creating a sense of urgency “we do not have a solid base for people to hear it, want to hear it, or understand it”. When it comes to advancing a student’s education in an exclusive way, administrators, teachers, parents, and even students are open to learning about what plan is being considered for implementation, especially if it has to do with technology. In reviewing Simon Sinek’s TED talk video, we learn that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. He shows us his “golden circle” and explains that companies typically work from the outside in. While organizations know what they do and how they do it, most do not know the why. He goes on to show us how the company Apple works. After understanding how the golden circle worked, it was difficult for me to come up with a "why" that sparked attention while still being inspirational and connecting with the hearts of others. This simple concept of reversing my order of thinking allowed me to dig deep and make an emotional connection with why I needed my innovation plan of incorporating an online learning environment. I felt as though a sense of urgency had been established, and that a connection with my audience's hearts will be made through my Why, How, and What. References K. (2013, August 15). Retrieved January 21, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yfrj2Y9IlI&feature=youtu.be S. (2013, September 29). Retrieved January 21, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sioZd3AxmnE&feature=youtu.be Creating My Significant Learning Environment
Creating a shift to a more holistic view of learning can bring about change in the learning environment by giving students a “big picture” of expectations and embarking them on a path that will get them to their destination. There are two fundamental ideas from A New Culture of Learning that I will bring into my learning environment: create learning that incorporates imagination and rules, and understanding that my role is to create context, not content. In my classes, I feel that this type of learning is already taken place, but can be taken to new heights. I’m fortunate enough to not teach a core subject so I’m not constrained to teaching to the test. I require imagination on most work. I will provide basic instructions, but leave much of the content details up to the student. Sometimes a few of them get it wrong, but for the most part, I’m pleasantly surprised by what I get back. Understand that my roles are to create a context, not the content. This is certainly a change for me, but one that I don’t think will take too long for me to adapt to. I find myself thinking much like my students in that I compare information from several sources and then make my own conclusions. Therefore, I expect that they will do the same – take the information I give them as context and create their own content. Challenges that I must address will be:
In pursuit of getting others on board with thinking more broadly or holistically I believe that by making learning personal to the individual learners, you broaden their thinking. Once they realize that content or context directly relates to or affects them, they have a whole new attitude toward the learning process. Also, incorporating their interests goes a long way to getting them on board with listening to what you must say and retaining the information for later use. I believe that my perspective in broad enough to become a foundational perspective that will influence my learning philosophy and my actions. I already feel as though I am transforming learning from its traditional roots in my classroom. Students have a lot of influence and input in the learning process which makes learning more engaging and fun. My learning philosophy is a lot like the ones discussed in the videos this week and I’m 100% for making a change for the better. Creating significant learning environments will support and enhance my innovation plan created in 5305. My plan was to incorporate Canvas which gives my students 24/7 access to learning materials. Changing my learning environment in a way that allows them to compare and discuss all content and contexts beyond the classroom walls and well beyond school hours will be beneficial for students and me. References C. (2015). Retrieved December 23, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_sLNGurA&%3Bfeature=youtu.be N. (2015). Retrieved December 23, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4&%3Bfeature=youtu.be T. (2012). Retrieved December 23, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U&%3Bfeature=youtu.be Both Finks 3 Column Table and the UbD template are great design processes for teachers who do not have a curriculum plan. I, however, have a curriculum that is planned day to day that I must adhere to. If I taught a subject that would require me to sit down and plan, I would go with the UbD template because it essentially works backwards. You start with the "End Game", and figure out the plays you need to get there. Completely brilliant. You can also complete this task in a PLC and not be alone in the process, while adjusting individually to meet your class needs as your group discusses. This process, for me, will not help me in implementing my innovation plan. It was a great resource to take back and give to staff on my campus, but for me, not the most beneficial because, again, my curriculum is already mapped out day to day.
|
Erica RobersonEager learner who loves to challenge the minds of today's youth and figure out ways to keep them interested and engaged in the learning process. Archives
December 2017
Categories |