“Education lies at a peculiar crossroad in society. On one hand it has the responsibility of anticipating real-life skills by preparing us for an increasingly complex world - but education methodologies can only be formalized after practices have been defined. This dichotomy is particularly aggravated when it comes to technology, where fast-paced innovation and perpetual change is the only constant (Michell Zappa, 2014).” After looking through various websites through the lens of "end-user needs," preparing for our third week of "distance learning," and developing reference materials for students and fellow colleagues, here are my thoughts about designing my website:
Ultimately, as I've considered the end-user of my work, with one particular face in mind, I've been reminded that empathy for the learner is as important, if not more important, than all of the critical details of instructional design. At the end of the day, if we don't have empathy for our learner - with individual knowledge, skills, circumstances, and goals - we may very well miss the point of our instructional design, which is to facilitate true learning within each of our students.
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This has been such a challenging week to try anything new with students... as we are now out of school for four weeks or more to "flatten the curve" of the coronavirus. Any plans I previously had must be completed in the classroom, so I've been stressed about keeping my students' learning meaningful at the same time as getting other areas of life settled to "shelter-in-place." Educationally, this is an unnerving yet exciting time! People all over the world are coming together to re-look at how we provide meaningful education to students remotely. My efforts this week have been on reworking my content to keep it relevant to students in their diverse situations. I finally feel good about this Reflection: Adaptations to our Environments, in which my students connect their learning from the previous three projects with what they're currently experiencing. As I was writing this blog post, I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my "challenging" students responded BEFORE the reflection is assigned... tomorrow morning. Hmmm... this always gives me something more to think about. I've experimented with a couple add-ons, but did not find them useful for this exact moment in time. So, I've been playing around with some of the conditional formatting and soon coding from Forms to Docs or Slides, as recommended by Alice Keeler, as I gather information from my students this week. I will also publish my students' work from this coming week in a Project Database, as Adam Schoenbart (GAFE certified trainer) suggests - for students to view and give feedback for each others' work. I love using Google Forms - and even more so experimenting with different ways to apply them to my classroom practices and my action research:
My next steps:
UPDATE: After reading Jeremy's blog, where he invited participation, I got an idea! If you have time and are willing, please complete one or more of my Daily Starters during "Distance Learning". I appreciate your help in testing my form as well as seeing how adults respond to the prompts. Thanks! The more I read, the more concepts I have swirling around in my head.
I've always been a teacher who focuses on concepts, big pictures, patterns and connections, etc. over facts and information that can be "googled." My action research focuses on how students can become independent researchers in order to conduct their own inquiries - generally of concepts, patterns and connections. As I'm reading Ruth Clark's work more in-depth and making connections with Bobbe Baggio's Visual Connection, I feel validated in much of the learning design that I've done over the years. Much of what these two women write resonates with me - I just didn't know the theories and practices behind what I was intuitively doing. Now that I'm learning more and making deeper connections between these readings, the SITE model, and the Pebble-in-the-Pond model, I can see ways in which I can teach procedures, concepts, and facts in more concrete and intentional ways. And it's a good thing, too!... as schools across our nation are beginning to experience "distance learning" due to school closures because of COVID-19. I'm grateful to be reading more tonight, March 15, 2020, as I prepare for the e-learning that my students will do. As I design my students' learning experiences, I can be even more intentional - yes, with the concepts, patterns and connections - but now even more so with the technical designs my students need to support them in focusing their attention on what, how, and why they're learning at this time in history. Q: How can/should social media be used to help you develop/collaborate/communicate as a professional? A: I cannot remember not using social media professionally (even though I know it's not been around for all 22 years of my teaching experience).
Q: What are the critical issues to consider? A:
Q: What would you do if you were to come across an inappropriate post made by one of your students outside the school? A: When I have either seen or had inappropriate posts by students reported to me, I have always discussed them with my administrator(s) to determine next actions.
This quote sums up my experiences in writing this week's blog, in which I have needed to "take a moment to try and make sense of how [I] might use what [I've] explored" through the readings in my next Action Research round. At first I had so many different thoughts & ideas swirling in my head that it was difficult to make sense of how I could use many seemingly disconnected ideas in my own work. I kept rereading the part of the prompt that said to "try and make sense." However, as I'm about to publish this post, I can see how the ideas from these different design models can help my next Action Research steps: Pebble-in-the-Pond model:
Ruth Clark's Developing Technical Training:
SITE model:
After reviewing my notes, here are questions to guide my next Action Research steps:
The methods I plan to use to gather this information include:
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Megan BurtonInnovative Learning Archives
June 2020
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