Tag Archives: Learning Journal

Blended Learning, Educational technology, Learning

Journal Entry – PIDP 3240 – Week 4

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Objective

Change is not only coming to higher education; it has arrived. In Teaching Naked, Bowen (2012) discusses the impacts that are coming to university campuses and links them to similar revolutions in the distribution of journalism and music. Two recent articles I read pose differing opinions of how universities are reacting to this change. Some universities seem posed to lose their perceived value of prestige (Kinsley, 2016) by offering more and more open online courses, often for free and some even for credit. Other post-secondary institutions, particularly those that have lost status compared to their higher-priced competitors, are reacting by actually raising tuition (Askner & Bothner, 2016), using the notion that a higher price indicates higher quality, not unlike how Champagne can fetch prices higher than sparkling wines of similar quality from other regions. Similarly, there is a battle for control of access to academic research, to the extent that Russian neuroscientist has created a controversial site that allows free access to over 47 million academic papers that normally would be only available behind expensive paywalls (Resnick, 2016)

Reflective

What does this mean for the post secondary system? Does the fear of the unknown actually create more rapid change within colleges and universities (Wheeler, 2016), which are build on a foundation of innovation and expanding thought? Bowen (2012) suggests that colleges should challenge assumptions like time-based teaching and even look at how space is configured and accessed to react to not only a change in technology, but in learning itself. I am actually quite excited to see what the post-secondary world looks like in another 20 years, and whether or not some of the new innovations like badging, gamification, and adaptive learning (Wheeler, 2016) have taken hold fully.

Interpretive

I see so much potential in the emerging trends of education, particularly in how this translate to life-long learning and professional development. Will we get to a place where the workplace and the classroom are fully integrated? Will we still feel in 20 years’ time that the knowledge students get in their first year classes will be largely irrelevant by the time they graduate (Dougherty, 2016). Perhaps the whole notion of graduation and degrees will have changed, and employers will be looking for more competency based evaluations and endorsements like those that populate our LinkedIn profiles will carry true weight. Is the google degree that far off?

Decisional

I believe that we will get to a place where it is no longer questioned that content is freely accessible and that the value in paying for an education is in the understanding of how to interpret that knowledge. Open content is being delivered by open courseware, and now even syllabuses are being shared in the open realm (Karagnis, 2016). The curators of open content will have a responsibility of not only maintaining the resources, but also for being the new gatekeepers that allow us to find the most relative information out of the cloud.

I started a massive online open course (MOOC) last year (ironically, it was a MOOC on how open education is changing the post-secondary space) through Stanford Online, and quickly realized that although the content was relevant and engaging, participating in discussion threads with thousands of others from around the globe meant being constantly bombarded by attacks on my inbox with the latest response to a thread, many of which even started to include spam and clear advertising links! Sifting through the noise became too much of a distraction, so I abandoned it a few weeks in.

I have a colleague who likens what is happening with higher education to handing someone a library card and telling them everything they need to know can be found in the New York Public Library and to go and help themselves. Without systems in place that will allow us to filter, and people available to discuss the meaning of what we find, even if they are at the end of a phone or on an ooVoo chat, we will be lost.

I, for one, am happy to pay a bit for that filter and a smaller community of learners around me, no matter how far apart physically we may live.

References

Askner, N., Bothner, M. (2016) Status-Aspirational Pricing: The “Chivas Regal” Strategy in U.S. Higher Education, 2006–2012. Administrative Science Quarterly. Retrieved from http://asq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/01/29/0001839216629671.full#sec-14

Bowen, J.A. (2012) Teaching Naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Dougherty, I. (February 16, 2016) Money won’t fix what’s wrong with post-secondary education. iPolitics. Retrieved from http://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/16/money-wont-fix-whats-wrong-with-post-secondary-education/

Karagnis, J. (February 18, 2016) How a “Syllabus Commons” Could Change Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/How-a-Syllabus-Commons-/235330

Kinsley, M. (February 5, 2016) How the Internet will disrupt higher education’s most valuable asset: Prestige. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-the-web-will-disrupt-higher-educations-most-valuable-asset-prestige/2016/02/05/6bddc1ee-c91e-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html

Resnick, B. (February 17, 2016) Why one woman stole 47 million academic papers — and made them all free to read. Vox Science and Health. Retrieved from http://www.vox.com/2016/2/17/11024334/sci-hub-free-academic-papers

Wheeler, D. (January 13, 2016) Technology and the Imminent Disruption of Higher Education: Is Fear the Path to the Dark Side? Academica Forum. Retrieved from http://forum.academica.ca/forum/technology-and-the-imminent-disruption-of-higher-education-is-fear-the-path-to-the-dark-side

Competency Based Education, Learning

Journal Entry – PIDP 3240 Week 3

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Objective

There is no doubt that technology is changing the world of education. In chapters 4-8 of Teaching Naked (Bowen, 2012), the author takes us through the various ways that technology will impact course design, delivery of information, student engagement, assessment and ultimately how teachers use the classroom. These changes and more are already taking place, as recent literature continues to unfold and predict how technology is shaping education in increasingly short, iterative cycles. Contact North recently released a two part essay featuring their 2016 outlook on online education and highlight many of the themes predicted in Bowen’s book, but also some that were not even on the horizon yet, such as the emergence of adaptive technology and artificial intelligence into the education space (Contact North, 2016).

Colleges and universities are also moving away from standardized tests and doing more assessment of learning outcomes, with the number of colleges using standardized assessments of knowledge to benchmark student achievement dropping to 38% compared to nearly 50% in 2008 (AACU, 2016). While this is happening, we still rely almost exclusively on high stakes- must pass multiple choice written examinations as a mechanism for certification. The Red Seal program, which issues inter-provincial certification endorsements for 57 trades, relies on a must pass, 100 to 150 question multiple choice exam with a fixed pass score of 70% (Red Seal Program, 2016) as the single most important benchmark for certification. A focus on time spent in the trade, but not necessarily how that time is spent, is the second most used critical factor.

Reflective

As someone who has worked for a number of years within the post secondary system and specifically in the trades context, this would seem to be an insurmountable challenge. All of the information and research around adult education over the last half century would lead us to believe that must pass certification exams combined with time in trade are not necessarily the best indicators of competence.

Other fields, such as the medical community are moving away from cumulative certification exams and time in trade towards more competency based models (Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, 2015). For those faced with the reality of our certification system in the trades, does this limit the ability of instructors to use technology to transform our educational practices, or does is mean that they have to approach the situation differently?

Interpretive

This presents an interesting paradox for those teaching and designing learning in the trades. While there are those who want to embrace the latest thoughts on course design and ways to use technology to deliver information and assess our students, the reality is that we must still prepare students to write a comprehensive, paper based, multiple choice, timed exam that will be recorded and scored on a bubble sheet. No books, no devices, and not even their instructor will be in the room, as the process is overseen by a third party government assigned invigilator.

Whether or not the students pass this test will be used to determine in part the effectiveness of the teaching, and may also be used to determine which programs get funded in the future, as educational budgets tighten. But does that mean that we can’t embrace better ways of imparting information to the student, and that we shouldn’t strive for students to really understand and interpret the content so that they can apply it to practice in the field? Bowen (2012) articulates how we can use instruments like multiple choice examinations to test higher level thought processes, and perhaps that is one way we can attempt to bridge the concept of using modern teaching practices in a world where antiquated assessment processes still exist.

Decisional

The reality is, even in the most progressive universities and colleges there exist these kind of paradoxical challenges. I have no doubt that eventually the mechanisms by which we certify tradespeople will shift. I was fortunate to work on a national pilot with The Canadian Centre of Directors of Apprenticeship which tested out various competency based assessment approaches, and which is informing further work to evaluate and implement additional assessment methods and improved national occupational standards through the Strengthening the Red Seal Initiative (CCDA, 2012). It will likely be several more years yet before we see any real change how our summative Red Seal assessments work, but that doesn’t mean that embracing new ideas for teaching and using technology in and out of the classroom is for naught.

I can see that by building skills and scaffolding learning, along with using technology and elements of game play to deliver content and assess progress, we will make the students better prepared for the workplace, but also help them to pass the dreaded “final exam” at the same time. I liked how Bowen (2012) referred to students knowing all of the answers in the test bank as being perceived as cheating or teaching to the test, but his view was of them actually really having a full grasp on the content. We need to look at certification exams as a necessary evil, and do everything in our power to ensure our students are best prepared to succeed. Introducing game play and having them “level up” each time they master a section of the content is a great way to make that happen, as is finding new and engaging ways of delivering the content to them in ways that they will best be able to understand it.

Technology is changing education, but education changes at a much slower pace.

References

Association of American Colleges and Universities (2016) Trends in Learning Outcomes Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/2015_Survey_Report3.pdf

Bowen, J.A. (2012) Teaching Naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (July 2012) Strengthening the Red Seal: Lessons Learned and Next Steps. Retrieved from http://www.red-seal.ca/images/SRS-FinalReport-ENG-Accessible.pdf

Contact North (2016) A 2016 Look at the Future of Online Learning – Part 1. Retrieved from http://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/exploring-future-education/2016-look-future-online-learning-part-1

Red Seal Program (n.d.) Overview of the Red Seal Examination. Retrieved from http://www.red-seal.ca/resources/.2x.1ms_.1b.4.5t-eng.html

Royal College of Physicians of Canada (n.d.) Competence by Design. Retrieved from http://www.royalcollege.ca/portal/page/portal/rc/resources/cbme

Blended Learning, Educational technology

Journal Entry – PIDP 3240 Week 1

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Objective

The world of education is changing. With that change has come a new focus on the ability of graduates to perform effectively in the workplace, and the question of whether credentials themselves are valued less than the skills, learning or knowledge they represent. In 2015, several leading companies, including Ernst and Young, Penguin Random House, and Deloitte all removed the requirement of a university degree from their recruitment policies, citing no clear link between holding a university degree and better on the job performance (BBC, 2015).

More and more students are taking online courses, with over a third of all post-secondary students taking at least one course online and over 70% of academic leaders saying that online learning is critical to the long term strategy of their institutions ( Allen & Seaman, 2015). With that, educators are starting to focus more on developing the skills needed for the 21st century economy, which has meant that knowledge management, or the ability to find, analyze, and apply information, and new information in particular, has become more important than all of the knowledge gained during one’s course of study (Bates, 2015).

Add to this pressure from administrators to embrace new classroom technologies, as well as an influx of tech savvy younger teachers entering the college system, and the stage is set not only for change but also for some huge opportunities for existing instructors to re-think how they teach their craft.

Reflective

For teachers, this can be a scary thought. Most instructors I know, particularly at the post secondary level, were hired on the basis of expertise in their field. To now face a cohort of digital natives, who have access to the breadth of information accessible from smartphones anywhere there is wi-fi or a data plan, poses a whole new set of challenges, and can be downright scary. Much of the information students bring forward will be untested, unreliable, or even downright wrong. There will also be things you as an instructor haven’t seen and new insights that will add to your expertise.

This will undoubtedly create some discomfort, particularly for faculty who have been teaching the same subject matter for a long time. In my field of expertise (cooking), there have been huge changes in style and technique is the relatively short time since I left the industry, so without some way of being connected to those trends, there is no way that I would be able to even fathom some of the concepts that questions students may have questions about.

Interpretive

The question becomes, what to do as a teacher in this environment? Some will try and grasp furiously to tradition, and others will willingly embrace the technology that has effected the change. To be able to access something close to the sum of all human knowledge from the palm of your hand is overwhelming and presents a host of distractions, but also creates the opportunity to leverage that power for the collective benefit of the class. Technologies change rapidly, and as quickly as they emerge they change or are overtaken by a new trend. Without awareness and understanding of how students are changing their ways if accessing information, how are we supposed to help the students make sense of the informational overload and learn to select, analyze, and disseminate information? Perhaps we should be encouraging students to individually search for the same content and then work together to separate the wheat from the chaff. More than anything, we need to help students harness the technology and the world they live in and apply it to the context of learning.

By embracing the technology and speaking the same technological language as our students, we as teachers have the ability not only to be current, but also to be a leader and a catalyst for change within our organizations. For me, as an individual who entered the workforce just at the same time the personal computer did, I have seen the evolution and insight that using technologies as they emerge can bring. Having had to write assignments longhand or type them, without the benefit of spellcheck, fonts, or formatting, I jumped at the idea of a personal computer and every new technology since that has emerged with a new opportunity.

Decisional

I’m actually quite excited about the opportunity that today’s connected society brings to the classroom. It’s now a given that students can go out and find as much information as they need on anything. I love the fact that I can watch something happening in the kitchen of one of the world’s top restaurants in real time on Periscope and interact from half a world away in real time. As I write this, the twitterverse was aghast at the rumours of moving from a linear to an algorithmic feed (Fingas, 2016), but it’s just another example of how rapid information moves in today’s world.

The role of the teacher is transitioning just like the world around us, and actually is allowing us to focus more on helping students understand the information they are given, than a focus on being the fountain of all knowledge. We need to be connected, to use the platforms they use and discover new tools for ourselves. We should be coming into the classroom knowing what was happening in the social feeds since we last saw our students, and we should be finding ways to use the tools of their generation to connect the knowledge of ours. To do anything less would be to turn our backs on why many of us wanted to teach in the first place – a commitment to the sharing of knowledge and life long learning.

References

Allen, I.E., Seaman, J. (2015) Grade Level: tracking online learning in the United States. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://info2.onlinelearningconsortium.org/rs/897-CSM-305/images/gradelevel.pdf

Bates, A.W. (2015). Teaching in a digital age [Bccampus open textbook version]. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/section-1-3-the-skills-needed-in-a-digital-age/

Couglan, S. (January 18, 2016). Penguin scraps degree requirement. BBC.com. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/education-35343680

Fingas, J. (2016, Feb 6). Twitter says your timeline isn’t changing (update: details). Engadget.com. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/06/twitter-says-timeline-isnt-changing/

Learning

Journal Entry – PIDP 3100 Category 4

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“The flipped classroom is…essentially reversing the traditional order…this approach fits adult education’s values of active learner engagement and self-direction.” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p.207)

Objective

I first heard about the flipped classroom at an educator’s conference in 2013, and was immediately interested in learning more. When I saw this quote, particularly in context to the rest of the course and material I have been studying, it offered an opportunity for critical reflection, ironically enough. At first sight, the flipped classroom model, where the lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed (EDUCAUSE, 2012) offers an opportunity to maximize face to face time between instructors and students. The logic behind this is sound – why fill a student with a pile of new information and then send them home to figure it out by themselves, or with the help of their peers or parents who may know even less that they about the subject matter, when we can do the opposite.

Reflective

As a concept it sounds simple enough – give the students the lecture to watch at home and work on their assignments with them in class, but in approaching the delivery sequence differently, we must also look at how we design and deliver each of the components in a different way as well. Rather than just delivering the content the same way, we will need to shift our role as educators and maximize the power of all of the technology available (Gillett, 2015). Simply flipping the classroom and sending students home with a lecture and doing the homework in class is what has critics of the approach talking about it as an ineffective method. (Atteberry, 2013)

Interpretive

As someone who has always enjoyed the solving of the problem more than taking in the theory need to do so, the flipped classroom offers a lot of appeal. An important insight is that the approach may not work for all subject matter or for all learners, so careful thought must be taken to ensure that what the learner is getting is best suited given the situation. Creating meaningful and engaging content that can be delivered remotely, and having giving students the tools to come to class prepared to act on their newfound knowledge are two things that are critical in the flipped classroom. One might even argue that flipped is the wrong word. For me, it’s more of a shift, as the new concept is still delivered before the activity, it’s just which portion of the learning the instructor spends the one on one time with the student that is reversed.

Decisional

I see this as one of the most beneficial uses for educational technology, particularly in vocational training. Most vocational instructors enjoy most teaching the hands-on portion of their course. For a cook, standing in front of the class explaining how to use a knife is far less rewarding that showing someone directly how to adjust their grip and seeing the benefit that has on their productivity and control. To add to that, shop time is very valuable, and having students in in a classroom getting a theory lesson instead of spending as much time as possible on the tools kind of defeats the purpose. On that basis, bringing the flipped classroom to the trades is an excellent fit, the challenge for us as educators will be coming up with take home lessons that will precede the shop time in a new and inventive way, and not trying to just send them home with a recording of our face to face theory delivery.

References

EDUCAUSE (2012, February 7) 7 things you should know about flipped classrooms. In Research and Publications. Retrieved from: https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7081.pdf

Gillett, B. (2015, April 29) Education in the Digital Age. In Academica Top 10. Retrieved from: http://forum.academica.ca/articles/2015/4/29/written-by-bob-gillett

Merriam, S.B., Bierema, L.L. (2014) Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Emily Atteberry (2013, December 5) ‘Flipped classrooms’ may not have any impact on learning. In USA Today Online. Retrieved from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/22/flipped-classrooms-effectiveness/3148447/

 

Learning

Journal Entry – PIDP 3100 Category 3

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“learning from one’s experience involves not just reflection, but critical reflection.” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, p.117)

Objective:

Reflective practice as a part of the experiential learning cycle has been a key component in modern education since Kolb and Fry first developed their experiential learning model and learning style inventory in the mid 70’s. The Kolb model is used by educators and business leaders alike as a way to create meaningful learning and evolving trains of thought, and a road to continual improvement. But it is not only taking the time for reflection, but critical reflection that stands out in this reference. Brookfield proposed three stages of critical reflection – taking our assumptions, scrutinizing them, and then reconstituting them (as cited in Merriam & Bierema, 2014). By including critical reflection, we are creating a call to action that should result in meaningful change and growth. This thought process is evident in the development of transformative learning as a theory posed by Mezirow that identifies 10 stages of transformation, starting from a life crisis or major transition which triggers a disorienting dilemma, through to reintegration.

Reflective

Critical reflection is a way for the learner and teacher each to challenge their own assumptions. As humans we are naturally inquisitive, as anyone who has lived through the “why” years of raising young children can attest. By including regular reflection and evaluation into our lives, we offer ourselves the opportunity to make changes and also to question why or why not we do things. We learn from our own reflections, but also by the critical reflection that comes when asked a question that seems relatively innocent. In my early years as a chef, I used to get really worked up for the busy weekend evenings. I would work faster, push my team to do the same, and thought nothing of it, until one day a 16-year-old dishwasher asked me a fairly simple question. He said, “Chef, why do you get yourself and everyone else so worked up on Fridays? We only do 10 more dinners than we do on Thursday.” From that moment on, I used that same rationale to calm down others I saw creating bigger challenges for themselves than they needed to in similar situations.

Interpretive

By looking at critical reflection as a natural part of the learning cycle, we place ourselves in an place that can have both high reward and risk for the teacher. Are we really able to have our students challenge our assumptions, or to ask difficult questions of us? I hope so. Offering students the opportunity to reflect critically on their own work is one thing, but a huge part of growth and learning to teach and to lead is to develop the ability to critique in a manner that is constructive, and to build trust by offering up opportunities for students to critique and challenge your assumptions as a teacher or leader. Without doing do, we run the risk of reflection being a cursory exercise, with out the meaningful insights that come from looking truly at opportunities for improvement. This quote challenges us to not fall into that trap, and that in order to really learn, we must be willing to reflect critically and make changes as a result.

Decisional

One of the more difficult things about teaching adult learners, especially those who have developed the skills to think critically and to participate actively in the learning process, is letting go of any assumptions that you might have about being the “expert” in the room. Just as the skills managing people need to change and evolve depending on the individuals, their needs, so does the approach to teaching. We should always be looking for ways to be more effective, more engaging, and to create the most meaningful opportunities for our students. Critical reflection not only offers us the opportunity to make that happen, it is a necessity. As a friend of mine once said when addressing a group of young cooks, “Every day, I try and do what I have done before just a little bit better. Even if I’m just making mashed potatoes, I think about how I can make them better today”

References

Kolb. D. A. and Fry, R. (1975) Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In Theories of Group Process. London: Wiley.

Merriam, S.B., Bierema, L.L. (2014) Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Wikipedia. (2015) Transformative learning. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformative_learning