OLTD 502- The Digital Continuum
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Nov/Dec 2016
Evidence to Support Learning: Reflective Blog Post
Learning Outcomes Demonstrated:
- Engage in learning communities and communities of practice
- Become familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to blended and online learning environments.
- Plan learning opportunities most suitable to the strengths and challenges of blended and online learning environments.
- Integrate current cognitive learning and change management theory
- Examine current research on emerging practices for blended and online learning environments
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning
- Engage in learning communities and communities of practice
- Become familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to blended and online learning environments.
- Plan learning opportunities most suitable to the strengths and challenges of blended and online learning environments.
- Integrate current cognitive learning and change management theory
- Examine current research on emerging practices for blended and online learning environments
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning
Reflection to Support Evidence:
This blog post represents the outcome of an amazing day of thinking and reflection, and a turning point for me in this course. The 2016 Global Education Conference happened to correspond with a non-instructional day in my district, so I was able to attend and participate in several sessions that opened my mind to other ways of teaching and allowed me to synthesize many of my own ideas that have been percolating for some time. It also let me connect the many of the readings from the weekly assignments to my own experience and how I could interpret those readings and apply elements to my own teaching.
This post led me to frame my learning in terms of my own practice and experience, and how I can shift my practice away from rigid course design and toward more cooperative, inquiry, and project based learning online. It got me thinking about what I have to offer my students that they can’t find somewhere else, and gave me some real direction for a unit redesign that I will able to start using in January. Perhaps most importantly, it got me thinking about some real solutions to the challenges of blended and online learning environments.
Reflecting on a reflection is the kind of cyclical thinking that as a former English major I can really enjoy! The most helpful point in writing this post was when I decided to make the learning “sticky” for me, by thinking about it in my context. How could I apply this to what I’m teaching on a daily basis?
How could I adapt my pedagogy to make learning richer and more authentic for my students? This tied so beautifully into the following weeks in 502, in which we studied course design and emerging practices for blended and online learning. I was able to connect the knowledge from class (UbD, CoI, UDL) to the Global Ed workshops I had attended, and really concentrate on how I could apply it to the redesign I was working on for my final project. Being able to hang my new learning on the metaphorical hooks set up during the writing of this blog post made the remainder of my time in 502 extremely meaningful (though at times frustrating, as the “quicksand” as Randy put it started to draw me into deep, but not necessarily forward-moving, study).
As I stated above, this blog post was a turning point. It had the immediate effect of making the learning “all about me” - or more specifically - all about my students. Mark Nichols and his Challenge Based Learning presentation got me excited about Communities of Inquiry in way that complemented
the best practice resources we had provided for us in 502. The presentation gave me some much needed practical examples, which I am finding to be the most difficult part of integrating the current research into my practice.
Another meaningful element of this learning activity was my budding engagement in true communities of learning. My online style is that of a wallflower. I feel the pressure to contribute to discussions, but I need a lot of processing time to be confident that I know what I’m writing about and that my contributions are meaningful. I worry a bit that my personal preferences towards “checking all the boxes” takes over my desire for real learning, and quite a bit of tension builds as a result. Do I comment because I have to? Do I comment because I have something to say? The Global Ed Conference and my resulting blog post/reflection were perfect for a wallflower. I was able to participate in the collaborate sessions without any expectation of personal contribution. That
said, with the pressure removed, I actually participated quite a bit in the chat, and even raised my hand to ask a question! The blog element forced me to reflect and synthesize my new ideas, with the added benefit of as much processing time as I needed to feel comfortable. I still have a little flutter of
nerves when I post and make my writing public, but at least I have time to think about it first! In terms of my pedagogy, this gave me some insight into ways I can design for including the “wallflowers” in my course discussion boards, and some ways to make use of the Global Community as well. This learning activity left me excited to learn more, and motivated to make use of what new knowledge I had acquired. All in all, it was an excellent activity, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to participate.
This post led me to frame my learning in terms of my own practice and experience, and how I can shift my practice away from rigid course design and toward more cooperative, inquiry, and project based learning online. It got me thinking about what I have to offer my students that they can’t find somewhere else, and gave me some real direction for a unit redesign that I will able to start using in January. Perhaps most importantly, it got me thinking about some real solutions to the challenges of blended and online learning environments.
Reflecting on a reflection is the kind of cyclical thinking that as a former English major I can really enjoy! The most helpful point in writing this post was when I decided to make the learning “sticky” for me, by thinking about it in my context. How could I apply this to what I’m teaching on a daily basis?
How could I adapt my pedagogy to make learning richer and more authentic for my students? This tied so beautifully into the following weeks in 502, in which we studied course design and emerging practices for blended and online learning. I was able to connect the knowledge from class (UbD, CoI, UDL) to the Global Ed workshops I had attended, and really concentrate on how I could apply it to the redesign I was working on for my final project. Being able to hang my new learning on the metaphorical hooks set up during the writing of this blog post made the remainder of my time in 502 extremely meaningful (though at times frustrating, as the “quicksand” as Randy put it started to draw me into deep, but not necessarily forward-moving, study).
As I stated above, this blog post was a turning point. It had the immediate effect of making the learning “all about me” - or more specifically - all about my students. Mark Nichols and his Challenge Based Learning presentation got me excited about Communities of Inquiry in way that complemented
the best practice resources we had provided for us in 502. The presentation gave me some much needed practical examples, which I am finding to be the most difficult part of integrating the current research into my practice.
Another meaningful element of this learning activity was my budding engagement in true communities of learning. My online style is that of a wallflower. I feel the pressure to contribute to discussions, but I need a lot of processing time to be confident that I know what I’m writing about and that my contributions are meaningful. I worry a bit that my personal preferences towards “checking all the boxes” takes over my desire for real learning, and quite a bit of tension builds as a result. Do I comment because I have to? Do I comment because I have something to say? The Global Ed Conference and my resulting blog post/reflection were perfect for a wallflower. I was able to participate in the collaborate sessions without any expectation of personal contribution. That
said, with the pressure removed, I actually participated quite a bit in the chat, and even raised my hand to ask a question! The blog element forced me to reflect and synthesize my new ideas, with the added benefit of as much processing time as I needed to feel comfortable. I still have a little flutter of
nerves when I post and make my writing public, but at least I have time to think about it first! In terms of my pedagogy, this gave me some insight into ways I can design for including the “wallflowers” in my course discussion boards, and some ways to make use of the Global Community as well. This learning activity left me excited to learn more, and motivated to make use of what new knowledge I had acquired. All in all, it was an excellent activity, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to participate.
Evidence to Support Learning: Social Studies Unit Redesign
Learning Outcomes Demonstrated:
- Engage in learning communities and communities of practice
- Plan learning opportunities most suitable to the strengths and challenges of blended and online learning environments
- Develop and design intentional learning activities suitable for the learning environment and the learner
- Incorporation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles; and
- Selection of strategies and resources appropriate for the learning environment, learners, and learning outcomes.
- Create assessment and evaluation methods and tools most suitable to the strengths and challenges of blended and online learning environments.
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning
- Develop practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc. for blended and online learning environments.
- Develop skills to optimize learning experiences through personalization based on characteristics, needs, stages of development, current personalized learning mandates, and misconceptions.
- Engage in learning communities and communities of practice
- Plan learning opportunities most suitable to the strengths and challenges of blended and online learning environments
- Develop and design intentional learning activities suitable for the learning environment and the learner
- Incorporation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles; and
- Selection of strategies and resources appropriate for the learning environment, learners, and learning outcomes.
- Create assessment and evaluation methods and tools most suitable to the strengths and challenges of blended and online learning environments.
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning
- Develop practical and technical skills in all phases of concept, development, design, implementation, etc. for blended and online learning environments.
- Develop skills to optimize learning experiences through personalization based on characteristics, needs, stages of development, current personalized learning mandates, and misconceptions.
Reflection to Support Evidence:
For this reflection, I will be discussing the Social Studies 9 Unit Redesign that I completed with Emily Kobetitch. It was an incredibly rich learning experience, and I am happy with our results, though we are also hoping to continue developing this unit (and possibly others) as we continue through the OLTD program. Here are links to the supporting documents for our redesign (rationale and critique).
Revolutionary Re-Design:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10jta1F8skc77ngmx_lhWVfJ_uUoG5B1cIf1ywBJfJLY/edit?usp=sharing
Critique of BC Learning Network Socials 9 Course:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L8pNWQVU2EINIJCUyd6cd4gNwy9SpnfLnrDzNWhztVQ/edit?usp=sharing
This developed into a massive project that totally absorbed my life for three weeks. I learned an amazing amount through research, conversations, closely working with another person, and trial and error. My partner, Emily Kobetitch, and I took on a unit redesign, and discovered how overwhelming and exciting it can be to pour your effort into such a practical and engaging assignment. I’m grateful for the opportunity to tie the critique and redesign into the final project, as it allowed me to engage in the learning to a deeper degree than if I had spent only one week working on it, or only tried to redesign one activity.
What made this project so meaningful was its deep, authentic connection to my own teaching practice. Both Emily and I teach online using BC Learning Network courses, and we redesigned a full quarter of Social Studies 9 to better suit our idea of what would make learning meaningful and engaging for our students. We used the Community of Inquiry template, the Universal Design for Learning template, and the Understanding by Design template to analyze the pedagogy used in the original course design, which really got me thinking about which are the best strategies for teaching in an online environment, and we selected new resources and activities that are better suited, we feel, to all learners. Focusing our revised unit around critical thinking questions allowed us to target the skills that we want our students to develop, rather than targeting content, which can be increasingly accessed online. This, we felt, better reflected the the new BC Curriculum document.
Actually participating in this redesign allowed to me to get my hands dirty and achieve almost all of the outcomes for OLTD 502 in a practical manner. It was overwhelming at times, as we tried to put the theories we had been learning about into action.
The most exciting part is that I will be able to use this unit immediately, as I have several students who are taking Socials 9 and have yet to start the Revolutions Unit. I loved the opportunity to engage in a community of learning with Emily, and we tried to mimic this opportunity by adding a synchronous section to the culminating activity.
This “Revolutionary Re-Design” is evidence not only of my own pedagogical shift towards Communities of Inquiry and Challenge-Based Education, but a revolution in terms of my own classroom as well. I have been struggling with the question of how to engage my self-paced learners in cooperative learning, and I’m just starting to venture into it with the synchronous section of the unit, where the students make use of chat, Google Docs, and an online session to construct and defend their ideas in a group. I’m hopeful that if this activity works well, I will be able to expand cooperative learning into more of my courses as well.
Revolutionary Re-Design:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10jta1F8skc77ngmx_lhWVfJ_uUoG5B1cIf1ywBJfJLY/edit?usp=sharing
Critique of BC Learning Network Socials 9 Course:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L8pNWQVU2EINIJCUyd6cd4gNwy9SpnfLnrDzNWhztVQ/edit?usp=sharing
This developed into a massive project that totally absorbed my life for three weeks. I learned an amazing amount through research, conversations, closely working with another person, and trial and error. My partner, Emily Kobetitch, and I took on a unit redesign, and discovered how overwhelming and exciting it can be to pour your effort into such a practical and engaging assignment. I’m grateful for the opportunity to tie the critique and redesign into the final project, as it allowed me to engage in the learning to a deeper degree than if I had spent only one week working on it, or only tried to redesign one activity.
What made this project so meaningful was its deep, authentic connection to my own teaching practice. Both Emily and I teach online using BC Learning Network courses, and we redesigned a full quarter of Social Studies 9 to better suit our idea of what would make learning meaningful and engaging for our students. We used the Community of Inquiry template, the Universal Design for Learning template, and the Understanding by Design template to analyze the pedagogy used in the original course design, which really got me thinking about which are the best strategies for teaching in an online environment, and we selected new resources and activities that are better suited, we feel, to all learners. Focusing our revised unit around critical thinking questions allowed us to target the skills that we want our students to develop, rather than targeting content, which can be increasingly accessed online. This, we felt, better reflected the the new BC Curriculum document.
Actually participating in this redesign allowed to me to get my hands dirty and achieve almost all of the outcomes for OLTD 502 in a practical manner. It was overwhelming at times, as we tried to put the theories we had been learning about into action.
The most exciting part is that I will be able to use this unit immediately, as I have several students who are taking Socials 9 and have yet to start the Revolutions Unit. I loved the opportunity to engage in a community of learning with Emily, and we tried to mimic this opportunity by adding a synchronous section to the culminating activity.
This “Revolutionary Re-Design” is evidence not only of my own pedagogical shift towards Communities of Inquiry and Challenge-Based Education, but a revolution in terms of my own classroom as well. I have been struggling with the question of how to engage my self-paced learners in cooperative learning, and I’m just starting to venture into it with the synchronous section of the unit, where the students make use of chat, Google Docs, and an online session to construct and defend their ideas in a group. I’m hopeful that if this activity works well, I will be able to expand cooperative learning into more of my courses as well.
Photo Credit: sciondriver tinyurl.com/gtrovj9