Reflections

These past few days I have started to feel a bit overwhelmed with all that I want to write about, and with the encouragement of my professor I think it is wise to take a step back and reflect on how things are going in general. 

I started this semester reading David Buckingham's Media Education, a book that I feel is extremely important for anyone interested in teaching and learning in today's digitally saturated world (see my whole review). Perhaps the most significant point I learned is the importance of understanding that children are "growing up" much faster merely due to the fact that information is so ubiquitous. It is essential that teachers and parents not only recognize this fact, but take active measures to utilize the situation for the benefit of the children. Media and technology literacy should be at the forefront of our education system, and if it isn't then students will learn those skills in other ways that may lead them down a less healthy road. After reading this book I realized that knowing principles such as how to connect, create, and consume in an informed way on the Internet will become increasingly more important. We need to start teaching this now. 

About a month or so ago I had the chance to read The Odyssey. It was my first time reading Homer's classic, though I have heard the story before. As I read I thought about how the ancient story carried with it specific themes that we may consider to be elements of digital culture (see my past post about masks). I really enjoyed looking for these themes, and connecting the literature to concepts like identity, exploration, and self-control was revealing as I came to realize that many of the seemingly new issues of the information age are really as old as civilized society. 

In thinking about the movie clip database, and more recently educational badges, I have learned to take a large initiative in my personal learning. I have learned and started to actively use Diigo, Google Sites, Twitter, Google Reader, and Google+ among other networks and tools. These platforms have lead me to enormous vaults of knowledge and helpful opportunities for progress and feedback.

So far the experience with these new platforms and concepts have been greatly supported by my classmates. We have been interacting on Google+ and I have found that receiving just a small degree of social proof has had a remarkable impact on my motivation and ability to accomplish things. In addition to the sense of encouragement I have received, I have been exposed to some really interesting and helpful ideas. My classmates are doing incredible things, and at times I feel a bit inadequate when I make the mistake of comparing my progress to theirs. 


Perhaps the most intriguing concepts I have found so far in this experience is that there really is a digital culture both online and all around us. By jumping onto these different platforms I have started meeting people and having conversations I thought I wouldn't be having for another 10 years! It is remarkable what a little initiative and activity can accomplish these days. There are so many things I am interested in, and I have been especially excited by how in general people online and experts in fields like media literacy and education are kind and positive. I am probably getting ahead of myself and the process, but I want to turn some of my somewhat abstract ideas into concrete products. I also want to learn how to better manage my online presence so that I am more consistent and less spastic when it comes to my online activity. 

Anyway, this has been a somewhat brief but much needed reflection on my experiences so far with these projects and in my digital culture class at BYU. Look for more posts soon about the badge project (we still need to find a good name for this) ! 

"Making Curriculum Pop" and Nailing It

Recently I discovered an amazing social network for teachers called "Making Curriculum POP". Not only do all the teachers in the network share the same desire to utilize pop culture in the classroom, but they actually respond and help one another. I say this as if I am some expert on social network sites, or interacting with teachers - neither of which is remotely true. It is simply refreshing to go to a place where so many people are gathered together, working in a united way, and answering questions in a generous and open manner.

If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend taking a minute or two to set up a profile and start getting to know a few people on the site. Hopefully I will continue to form friendships and learn with the other educators who give valuable advice and share helpful experience. It is good for a youngster like me!

Yesterday I had the fortunate chance to visit with Peter Gutierrez who authors an excellent blog titled "Connect the Pop".  He gave me some helpful counsel about my emerging crowdsourced-movieclips-in-the-classroom concept, which it turns out he had already done a great deal of work on a few years back. In light of his feedback, and that of a faculty consultant where I work, I feel that this project faces a crucial fork in the road (and potentially multiple forks). Right now I am trying to "nail" the concept in my mind in a way that others can understand and visualize it - and perhaps after using it to help the 7th/8th grade students this semester it well flesh out a bit more. Once the concept is truly pinned down then I think that is when I really need to start figuring out whether this would be a good non-profit model, small-business model, or something along those lines. But at the same time, the counsel from my digital culture teacher is important to keep in mind. He has taught me that we don't have to always think like print culture has taught us. You don't have to have a complete and polished concept before trying to move it forward and get feedback on it. I need to round out my idea more, but I have already discovered that I don't have to have a flashy product before experts are willing to give me social proof.

What I am learning and enjoying about this whole process is that I am entering a place in my life and education that is no longer moderated by a teacher or a professional. For the first time it seems that it is completely up to me to go out and make strong connections with others, learn what I need to do, and choose to act upon the things I feel are most important. It is very exciting, and at times extremely frightening. I mean, there is no right answer. This age of information, with all of the tools to consume, create and connect, provides an abundance of opportunity I feel I am only just rubbing up against.

ADDIE, Deep Learning, and Badges

As of a few days ago I became a part of a small group working with an 7th/8th grade English teacher here in Utah Valley to develop a series of informal badges for her students. I am very excited for this opportunity, though the other members of my group may quickly ratify my opinion that we are sort of flying by the seat of our pants. Here is our recent video pitch we created as a early sketch/prototype of what we are aiming to do. I will be mainly focused on the second part of the proposal. 

This evening my classmate Katie and I met with the teacher we will be working with, and it was very exciting to discuss the possibilities and experiences that lay ahead. As we tried to think about the best roles for badges to play we tossed around different ideas including, "what needs are in the classroom?" "what concepts are challenging for students to grasp". From that point we started pinning down the fact that we want to focus on helping the teacher invite the students to have deeper experiences and meaningful interaction with the lesson material. Now we are planning on taking some specific topics she has given us to develop and design some material that will culminate in earning a badge. Our idea at the moment is that to evaluate our success in this experience we will need to find some way of measuring whether we were able to satisfy our purpose of helping students engage with the content in a deeper way. However, if they just do the steps required for the badge we hope that the mere experience of doing these things will influence them in a meaningful way. 

As we discussed I realized we were actually following an old and established model of instruction - ADDIE! It feels good to try to apply something, even if it wasn't our intention from the outset. 

At my current job I have had the opportunity to do a little research, have access to knowledgeable people and resources, and time to write learning and teaching tips. One such tip is about Deep Learning, which I think applies to what we are trying to encourage in the 7th and 8th graders in this English Class. 

Sometimes it can be tempting to see the college experience as a series of hoops to jump through or one big game. Interestingly enough, researchers and scholars have studied the impact of this perspective on students and have found that it can lead to superficial retention of material and really doesn’t bring about long-term understanding or retention (Warren,2004). So what if this is the way you generally approach all of your classes? If this is the case, it is essential for you to learn about a term called Deep Learning.

Over the years, the terms “Deep Learning” and “Surface Learning” have arisen as scholars and academics have studied student and teacher attitudes in education. According to experts at the University of Oxford, the general characteristics of Deep learning include:

• An intention to understand material for oneself
• Rigorous and critical interaction with knowledge content
• Relating ideas to one’s previous knowledge and experience
• Discovering and using organizing principles to integrate ideas
• Relating evidence to conclusions
• Examining the logic of arguments

In many ways Deep Learning is related to developing a “Growth Mentality” and “Learning for the Right Reasons”, and has important and lasting influence on other aspects of your life. Opposed to Deep Learning is Surface learning. Lublin (2003) explained that students who take a surface approach tend to:

• Try to learn in order to repeat what they have learned
• Memorize information needed for assessments
• Make use of rote learning
• Take a narrow view and concentrate on detail
• Fail to distinguish principles from examples
• Tend to stick closely to the course requirements
• Are motivated by fear of failure  

Hopefully the badges we create, and the small bits of instruction that we design will not only be motivating, but promote deep learning.