OLTD 509- Emerging Technologies
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Jan/Feb 2018
Evidence of Learning: Critical Analysis Chart
Learning Outcomes Demonstrated:
- Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to emerging technologies.
- Research and identify emerging technologies with educational applications not yet adopted by mainstream education or in early adoption phases.
- Examine current research around technology/pedagogy adoption and change management.
- Adapt or develop understanding for assessing emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Consider potential design/implementation opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to emerging technologies.
- Research and identify emerging technologies with educational applications not yet adopted by mainstream education or in early adoption phases.
- Examine current research around technology/pedagogy adoption and change management.
- Adapt or develop understanding for assessing emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Consider potential design/implementation opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies/pedagogies.
Reflection to Support Evidence:
My first evidence piece for OLTD 509 is a comprehensive chart that records my reactions, connections, thoughts, and conclusions on all of the gamified content quests I engaged in during the course. It was a marvelous way to track my learning and house my thoughts in one dynamic document. I found that this enabled me to easily make connections between content areas and to recognize recurrent themes in my thinking.
This critical analysis chart organized my thoughts clearly around the critical questions for the course, which centered around making connections to my own philosophy of education (or credo) and extensions to my own practice. I relished the opportunity to explore three "sides" of my personality through the lens of the characters of "Yeslie", "Nolie", and myself. As someone who does like to think deeply on the consequences of any innovation before I take action, having a personified Pro/Con list was helpful, while providing a creative outlet to increase my engagement and add depth and richness to the learning. I respond really well to narrative and story, and this framework was excellent for my learning style and preferences. I appreciate that the course allowed for other ways of demonstrating learning, and I am pleased that I was able to find one so well suited to me.
I regards to the specific OLTD outcomes, this ongoing assignment documents my achievement of all the learning goals outlined in the course. I became familiar with terms and definitions of emerging technologies, pedagogies, and challenges by immersing myself in them and using them to describe my thoughts. The course structure itself immersed me in emerging pedagogies that I would like to build into my own practice as I found them both incredibly engaging and immensely able to be personalized: gamification and application of course credit for time on task rather than for number of assignments completed. The quest chain structure allowed me to research and explore emerging areas of interest to me, and helped me clarify both my own interests (emerging challenges and sustainable change) and themes in my conclusions (importance of leadership and school culture). I was able to shape my own learning experience as needed to develop my understanding of emerging pedagogies, such as formative assessment, and use these new understandings to shape my understanding of how school leaders can affect real, transformative change through structures and supports similar to those we would provide to our students. I had a personally transformative epiphany when I was able to contextualize this learning into my own school and district, and project how I might be able to make changes that would benefit both students and teachers, mostly by deconstructing many of the current school systems that I feel no longer serve our greater educational goals. This final connection to my own context really cemented my learning from the different sources and quests, and gives me some great ideas and focus for where I might want to go with further exploration as I ladder into the MEdL program at the end of OLTD.
I have linked to my blog (below), as most of the ideas contained in the Critical Analysis Chart were further developed into pieces of writing. Again, the ability to use narrative storytelling to form my thinking allowed me to get deeper into the concepts, and the ability to count this reflection on my learning towards my final grade meant that I was willing to take the time to go deeper rather than worrying about whether I would be able to meet all the outcomes and complete all the required tasks.
The ultimate product of the critical analysis chart is my Recipe for Sustainable Change, which I provide as my next piece of evidence below. Seldom have I felt as engaged or connected with learning as I did in this course. I presume this is due to a number of reasons. The course set up allowed for a tremendous amount of personalization, allowing me to take the learning in the direction I wanted. The repeated reminders to connect to my own credo and practice kept the learning practical and meaningful, rather than purely theoretical and remote. And finally, the credit for time on task (via The 500) honoured my interests and abilities as an individual, while encouraging me to delve deeper, rather than to "check items off a to-do list", which is a particularly disengaging method of learning for me (though one I have become quite good at after years of participation in our outdated educational systems). I feel activated and motivated to take my learning back to my school and to engage in some disruptive innovation, using my next evidence piece, my Recipe for Sustainable Change.
This critical analysis chart organized my thoughts clearly around the critical questions for the course, which centered around making connections to my own philosophy of education (or credo) and extensions to my own practice. I relished the opportunity to explore three "sides" of my personality through the lens of the characters of "Yeslie", "Nolie", and myself. As someone who does like to think deeply on the consequences of any innovation before I take action, having a personified Pro/Con list was helpful, while providing a creative outlet to increase my engagement and add depth and richness to the learning. I respond really well to narrative and story, and this framework was excellent for my learning style and preferences. I appreciate that the course allowed for other ways of demonstrating learning, and I am pleased that I was able to find one so well suited to me.
I regards to the specific OLTD outcomes, this ongoing assignment documents my achievement of all the learning goals outlined in the course. I became familiar with terms and definitions of emerging technologies, pedagogies, and challenges by immersing myself in them and using them to describe my thoughts. The course structure itself immersed me in emerging pedagogies that I would like to build into my own practice as I found them both incredibly engaging and immensely able to be personalized: gamification and application of course credit for time on task rather than for number of assignments completed. The quest chain structure allowed me to research and explore emerging areas of interest to me, and helped me clarify both my own interests (emerging challenges and sustainable change) and themes in my conclusions (importance of leadership and school culture). I was able to shape my own learning experience as needed to develop my understanding of emerging pedagogies, such as formative assessment, and use these new understandings to shape my understanding of how school leaders can affect real, transformative change through structures and supports similar to those we would provide to our students. I had a personally transformative epiphany when I was able to contextualize this learning into my own school and district, and project how I might be able to make changes that would benefit both students and teachers, mostly by deconstructing many of the current school systems that I feel no longer serve our greater educational goals. This final connection to my own context really cemented my learning from the different sources and quests, and gives me some great ideas and focus for where I might want to go with further exploration as I ladder into the MEdL program at the end of OLTD.
I have linked to my blog (below), as most of the ideas contained in the Critical Analysis Chart were further developed into pieces of writing. Again, the ability to use narrative storytelling to form my thinking allowed me to get deeper into the concepts, and the ability to count this reflection on my learning towards my final grade meant that I was willing to take the time to go deeper rather than worrying about whether I would be able to meet all the outcomes and complete all the required tasks.
The ultimate product of the critical analysis chart is my Recipe for Sustainable Change, which I provide as my next piece of evidence below. Seldom have I felt as engaged or connected with learning as I did in this course. I presume this is due to a number of reasons. The course set up allowed for a tremendous amount of personalization, allowing me to take the learning in the direction I wanted. The repeated reminders to connect to my own credo and practice kept the learning practical and meaningful, rather than purely theoretical and remote. And finally, the credit for time on task (via The 500) honoured my interests and abilities as an individual, while encouraging me to delve deeper, rather than to "check items off a to-do list", which is a particularly disengaging method of learning for me (though one I have become quite good at after years of participation in our outdated educational systems). I feel activated and motivated to take my learning back to my school and to engage in some disruptive innovation, using my next evidence piece, my Recipe for Sustainable Change.
Evidence of Learning: Recipe for Sustainable Change
Learning Outcomes Demonstrated:
- Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to emerging technologies.
- Examine current research around technology/pedagogy adoption and change management.
- Adapt or develop understanding for assessing emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Consider potential design/implementation opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Be familiar with common terms, definitions and elements related to emerging technologies.
- Examine current research around technology/pedagogy adoption and change management.
- Adapt or develop understanding for assessing emerging technologies/pedagogies.
- Consider potential design/implementation opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies/pedagogies.
Reflection to Support Evidence:
Is there anything that demonstrates engagement and pedagogical success more than a student completing work that isn't actually required for marks? This Recipe for Sustainable Change is something I created after I had accumulated the number of points required for full marks in the online portion of OLTD 509. However, when I was "finished" accumulating points, I knew that I wasn't actually finished putting my thoughts together. I wanted to create a final product that summarized my learning and cemented the ideas from the course that I will carry with me as I continue my journey in OLTD and in my practice as an online teacher.
OLTD 509 had us looking at a variety of innovative ways of thinking: Emerging technology, Emerging Challenges, Emerging Pedagogies, and Sustainable Change. Initially I had envisioned the course being about cool new technology we could use with our students, which sounded fine, but not something that really gets me excited. I knew that the course was gamified, and that intrigued me because I’m always on the lookout for new techniques I can use to engage my students. This is the crux of my teaching interests - I want to know the reasoning behind the choices, and know that anything I’m employing works to help engage students and improve learning. In other words, I need to be able to connect any new ideas, new technology, and innovative solutions to challenges to my credo.
As I continued through my studies, I came to realize that I was viewing the material through the filter of my experiences and my beliefs about the world: through my mental models. Reflecting on this framework can give me some insight into my reactions to innovations, as well as my reactions to the behaviours of others. Typically I am slow to jump on board with innovations. I like to have a solid belief in the reasons behind them, and to understand my reasoning enough to explain it, and indeed justify it, to others. This isn’t to suggest that I’m afraid of change - quite the contrary - it just means that I like to take my time with decision making, and to be sure of my choices before I move forward.
These realizations had me start to question failed innovations that I have seen during my career, and ask what could have been done differently to increase the chances of success. I imagine that all educators have seen something inspired and exciting just fizzle out and lose momentum. Ultimately I have decided that the success of innovation - and indeed the likelihood of sustainable change - all comes down to leadership and the culture and community that leaders can cultivate.
Policy makers and administration have to have the same clarity in their vision that teachers need to have in their assignments and lessons. What are the intended outcomes? What paths can you take to get there? What skills do you need to develop? How will we know when we have gotten there? What does success look like? Just as teachers need to ensure that students know how to use feedback in order to make improvements in their skills and knowledge, leaders need to ensure that teachers know how to make use of the services and supports available to them. There’s no point in spending time and money on support for staff through Pro-D if teachers don’t understand why it’s important and how it connects to something important to them. Just as we need to personalize learning for students, we need to personalize training and innovation for teachers. If we can’t connect, we won’t use it. And perhaps most importantly, leaders need to honour the shared values of the teaching community by taking the time to ensure that any innovations they bring forward fit with what teachers actually want (and that we all understand how it matches).
As a student, I was that kid who was always asking why. As a teacher, I’m the same way. Why is this important to me? Why is this something I should invest time and effort in? Why is this better than another option? Leaders need to know the answers to these “whys” - which means they need to have analyzed them first. For this evidence piece I have provided my recipe for sustainable success - the elements I think we should strive to include when we’re making decisions for pedagogical change.
Reflection is really important for me as a learner. I need to be able to link new ideas to my existing understandings, and formulate them (usually in words or a graphic) in order to really have them stick. For my own learning purposes, I have created an annotated record of my journey through OLTD 509, highlighting my main leadership and culture takeaways from each step. I can picture myself using digital technologies to make a virtual tour through my learning journey in the future, but for now, here it is.
OLTD 509 had us looking at a variety of innovative ways of thinking: Emerging technology, Emerging Challenges, Emerging Pedagogies, and Sustainable Change. Initially I had envisioned the course being about cool new technology we could use with our students, which sounded fine, but not something that really gets me excited. I knew that the course was gamified, and that intrigued me because I’m always on the lookout for new techniques I can use to engage my students. This is the crux of my teaching interests - I want to know the reasoning behind the choices, and know that anything I’m employing works to help engage students and improve learning. In other words, I need to be able to connect any new ideas, new technology, and innovative solutions to challenges to my credo.
As I continued through my studies, I came to realize that I was viewing the material through the filter of my experiences and my beliefs about the world: through my mental models. Reflecting on this framework can give me some insight into my reactions to innovations, as well as my reactions to the behaviours of others. Typically I am slow to jump on board with innovations. I like to have a solid belief in the reasons behind them, and to understand my reasoning enough to explain it, and indeed justify it, to others. This isn’t to suggest that I’m afraid of change - quite the contrary - it just means that I like to take my time with decision making, and to be sure of my choices before I move forward.
These realizations had me start to question failed innovations that I have seen during my career, and ask what could have been done differently to increase the chances of success. I imagine that all educators have seen something inspired and exciting just fizzle out and lose momentum. Ultimately I have decided that the success of innovation - and indeed the likelihood of sustainable change - all comes down to leadership and the culture and community that leaders can cultivate.
Policy makers and administration have to have the same clarity in their vision that teachers need to have in their assignments and lessons. What are the intended outcomes? What paths can you take to get there? What skills do you need to develop? How will we know when we have gotten there? What does success look like? Just as teachers need to ensure that students know how to use feedback in order to make improvements in their skills and knowledge, leaders need to ensure that teachers know how to make use of the services and supports available to them. There’s no point in spending time and money on support for staff through Pro-D if teachers don’t understand why it’s important and how it connects to something important to them. Just as we need to personalize learning for students, we need to personalize training and innovation for teachers. If we can’t connect, we won’t use it. And perhaps most importantly, leaders need to honour the shared values of the teaching community by taking the time to ensure that any innovations they bring forward fit with what teachers actually want (and that we all understand how it matches).
As a student, I was that kid who was always asking why. As a teacher, I’m the same way. Why is this important to me? Why is this something I should invest time and effort in? Why is this better than another option? Leaders need to know the answers to these “whys” - which means they need to have analyzed them first. For this evidence piece I have provided my recipe for sustainable success - the elements I think we should strive to include when we’re making decisions for pedagogical change.
Reflection is really important for me as a learner. I need to be able to link new ideas to my existing understandings, and formulate them (usually in words or a graphic) in order to really have them stick. For my own learning purposes, I have created an annotated record of my journey through OLTD 509, highlighting my main leadership and culture takeaways from each step. I can picture myself using digital technologies to make a virtual tour through my learning journey in the future, but for now, here it is.
- Secret Lair
- Put the oxygen mask on yourself before you help anyone else who might be traveling with you
- Culture of support needs to extend to the health and wellness of your team
- Will teachers be replaced by technology?
- Need to value the contributions of individuals
- Teaching is so much more than delivering content and taking attendance
- Critical analysis
- Need to become aware of various viewpoints and adequately weigh the benefits and downsides - as well as challenges
- Leaders should strive to think about how different personalities will respond to initiatives - anticipating difficulties is a great way to think of solutions before problems arise (think of debate preparation - you always have to think of counterarguments
- Alive in the Swamp
- Need to have pedagogical heart and base decisions off this. Then be able to communicate. Make decisions based first on how it will improve learning, then ensure tech makes things easier and “delightful” for the user & doubles learning outcomes. Finally, ensure you provide enough support, and keep it ongoing.
- Need to have pedagogical heart and base decisions off this. Then be able to communicate. Make decisions based first on how it will improve learning, then ensure tech makes things easier and “delightful” for the user & doubles learning outcomes. Finally, ensure you provide enough support, and keep it ongoing.
- Credo
- You can’t make decisions unless you know what’s important to you in terms of teaching (that’s step 1 in choosing innovations)
- You need to ensure that ALL staff have a chance to express what inspires and motivates them, and base your innovations off these shared values
- Formative Assessment
- You need to design for success by teaching your students how to make use of the feedback you give them. Leaders could use the SAGE Recipience skills to design for innovative success by providing the same design elements to staff and by building a receptive culture.
- Feedback is a form of communication, and communication involves two parties. Leaders need to involve the other party when communicating.
- Be aware of the emotional impact of what you’re saying, and frame it appropriately - people may not want to change if they feel they are being attacked
Authentic Learning Experiences
- You can’t direct something and have it authentic - students (and staff) need to have the autonomy to reach the shared goals in your own way
- Change your mindset towards growth and risk-taking and away from results and achievement. You can’t expect people to transform their teaching if you’re expecting them to meet quotas at the same time. Trust in the process and trust in your staff.
- If we want to truly affect change, then we need to be willing to disrupt the status quo - and that might mean breaking down the systems (bells, content area silos, attendance-taking paradigm, report cards) that restrict truly innovative thinking and teaching.
- Mental Models
- If nothing changes, then nothing changes
- Change needs to begin with yourself - and this means that everyone (leaders included) need to check their assumptions at the door. Maybe I believe strongly in formative assessment, personalization, and basing my lessons around critical questions. This works for me, and this is my way to reach the goal of student success. I cannot assume that this teaching style would work for everyone - or indeed that it even needs to. Just because I think this is the best way to help learners doesn’t mean it’s the best way for everyone to help learners. I can think of very traditional teachers I have worked with who are excellent educators. The children learn and they are empowered by the experience. The beauty of diversity means that we are all different, so what best practice looks like for me might be completely different than what it looks like for someone else. The lesson I am taking away from the mental models quest in terms of leadership is that a school culture needs to honour differences, and leaders need to give teachers the support to reach our shared goals in a way that is authentic for them.
The process of creating the Recipe for Sustainable Success, as well as my annotated journey through the course really solidified my understanding and raises some additional ideas for contemplation as I absorb, integrate, and articulate my learning.
Note* All graphic text images were created using Piktochart.
Note* All graphic text images were created using Piktochart.
Photo: Weebly Stock