Starting another journey
I wanted to try this and Iâm glad I did it early on in the course. It helps give perspective on how the online students are experiencing class. And now I can take the positives and apply them to when I am in class (as well as taking the negatives and sharing them so hopefully the online people will have an improved experience). I think everyone in class should try this at least once in July!
All you online learners, please add things I missed!
“fp071308-11”by fontplaydotcom
is licensed under CC BY 2.0
After our first class, I needed to go home and get right to work AND I needed to do absolutely nothing so my brain could absorb the conversations. So I compromised by gardening and cooking. After a significant break, I was able to work on creating my blogsite. Thank goodness I had done Thursdayâs readings already!
The Autoethnography: An Overview article was pretty heavy for me. So much vocabulary but yet the idea is quite simple: âan approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze personal experience in order to understand cultural experience.â The article listed a number of types of autoethnography, but quantifying and qualifying this type of research is complicated. âAs ethnography, autoethnography is dismissed for social scientific standards as being insufficiently rigorous, theoretical, and analytical, and too aesthetic, emotional, and therapeutic.â
Autoethnography is actually connected to a concern I have about our provincial numeracy testing and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) Mathematics exam I mark based on a mark scheme from IB: does the assessment require personal experiences that may influence a studentsâ success when unpacking the questions? If I research the success students experience in the numeracy assessment, based on their cultural experiences and the type of questions they chose to do their long answers on, then I would likely be using some variation of autoethnography. I can see that this is an area where I will need to delve a little deeper. Re-reading the article and making a dictionary of terms (as was suggested in class) is on my to-do list.
Research Diary: A Tool for Scaffolding was actually a feel-good read. It clarified and justified my chosen method of working. I have always been a list and note person, documenting what was done and what needed to be done. My formats just were not in the form of a traditional diary. With our school being so focussed on email communication, my email was a big part of my diary, with even some emails sent to myself with extra comments about things I wanted to remember or look back at in a few days, months or years down. My extensive filing system for my emails helped out a number of times, particularly when decisions made by staff that had departed the school were required to sort out an issue. I had my day planner and calendar online with many notes to look back at from year to year, as well as documents for specific big tasks that listed actions taken, the order that worked from year to year, justifications for decisions made and reflections on what to try in the future. Thus, I particularly connected with certain statements in the article:
As a researcher, I will definitely be more cognizant of keeping even more careful notes of what I have searched and found, particularly those items that are not of use now but may be in the future. With the speed of this particular course and the volume of information being taken in, I cannot depend upon my memory to keep track of bits and pieces the way I was able to at work.
Our second class was very interesting. The idea of trying to pull three items out of each reading helped settle me. I take notes from each reading (that I do not post) but I reread these notes a few times. I already know which articles will need a re-read, so not worrying about totally absorbing each one the first time helps with the overload. Also, I appreciated looking at research through the 4 Rs: Research (What? How?), Researcher (Who?), Researched (on What or with Whom?) and Reader (Who?). This will be important to do on articles I find to help judge reliability for whatever I eventually choose to do.
The short session with the librarian was really helpful. Research in my position at school was only in British Columbia Education documents. The last time I had to do significant research was in my BMusMusEd and BA days, when we still had to dig through all the cards of article abstracts and then read the articles on microfiche!
I was even more overwhelmed after class today than the first day. Plenty of work added to my to-do list and a realization of how helpful Fridays without classes was going to be. I am very thankful we have such a positive and open group of students and teachers.
“Mantelpiece Clock”by Ian Fuller is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
The amount of time to get through the assigned readings was more than what I expected, having forgotten the idea that each hour of class probably requires two hours of preparation. Plus, my ability to analyze and evaluate needs a substantial amount of actual ruminating as what I have read percolates through my accumulated knowledge. Therefore, it takes more time than anticipated â new skills for estimation of time to complete a job are required!
I appreciate that our first set of readings included a movie to set the questioning tone for our degree. Why technology and project-based learning and why now? Yes, the movie left much unsaid by focusing on just a few students, but it is a movie; when watching it as a documentary, you have to question what is behind the scenes that could be filmed to prove the totally opposite points. Similarly, the two readings presented opposing extremes of teaching methods while referencing the same study of medical students and interpreting the data to support their position. The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle.
The movie, Most Likely to Succeed, was presented in a way to convince the audience that project-based learning is the teaching method of the future. Some essential truths presented were:
Our two readings, Teaching for Meaningful Learning (Barron & Darling-Hammond)Â and Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark). My primary disagreement with the Kirschner et al. article was its limited definition of learning âas a change in long term memoryâ. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines learning as
The Oxford Dictionary defines learning as
Both of these definitions reference behaviour and behaviour modifications as a part of learning and the Kirschner et al. article downplays the importance of this. Even when describing crossing the street, Kirschner et al. only alludes to the importance of âinformation in long-term memory (which) informs us how to avoid speeding traffic, a skill many other animals are unable to store in their long-term memoriesâ and does not include the requirement of trying out that information multiple times in a real-life situation in which more information is gathered until you do not have to think about the information and your behaviour in most crossing-the-street situations is automatic. How successfully would a person cross a street if they only relied on memorized information? And I am not talking about crossing at lights, but at an uncontrolled area that was busy? There is a need for both gathering information as well as real-life opportunities to use that information.
Kirschner et al. also states that all information stored in working memory is lost in 30 seconds and only a few (2-3) new pieces can be retained, but items in long-term memory can be brought in over and over. According to the article, inquiry-based instruction does not support the limitations of working memory. Yet part of project-based learning is the requirement for students to communicate and make lists of ideas, information gathered and approaches tried, so they will be bringing in the information multiple times in order to get it stored in working memory. This is no different than bringing in the new bits of learning multiple times by having students hear it or practice it multiple times.
In my opinion, we need a happy medium; a balanced approach. Variety is good for students to be excited and not become stagnant. Some drill is helpful to speed up recall and develop behaviours that are automatics. Exploration is helpful to test basic knowledge and connect what you know with what you are learning. No one method is âthe bestâ. Even Kirschner et al. quoted other studies while referring to the practice at medical school where students experience problem-based learning:
As Barron and Darling-Hammondâs chapter states:
Successful education of the students in front of you is never the same from group to group and therefore we should base our educational practice in a broad mix of instructional techniques. We should not underestimate what type of educational style will be the ‘proper’ one to reach our students.
“Open book”by freestocks.org is licensed under CC CC0 1.0
I have considered doing a masters for a long time. I did ongoing research and training for the classes I taught, but that eventually became stale. Getting involved in the International Baccalaureate Educator network satisfied my craving for new information and pedagogy development, and then my career path changed â being in administration required a whole new set of readings and research. Although I just retired from full-time work, I plan on continuing with shorter contracts and as a consultant, so the timing is perfect for starting a Masters of Educational Technology.
Through IB training and learning how to run our new Information System, I have been in online classrooms, face-to-face inquiry/lecture workshops, and required to read many documents. Most of the documentation was not to be read critically, though. It was to be memorized and questioned so it could be applied, but there was only a little analysis and evaluation. This is a HUGE jump, because everything needs to be analyzed and evaluated and then you have to blog about it! Yikes! I come from a generation where we were trained to be careful about what we put in writing because it could come back to haunt you. And now I have to put it out in public, online, and not just in a letter or a report card! (Yes, we were given the option to keep it less public, but . . . ) As the saying goes, âfaint heart never won fair ladyâ, and in my case, the fair lady is this wonderful opportunity to take a Masters online, starting with a July of synchronous classes (half of us attend online), and connecting with a wonderful group of like-minded individuals. Time to analyze my readings!
“Bloom’s Taxonomy”by Vandy CFT is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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