Tuesday, 23 September 2014
Thursday, 18 September 2014
Why - and How?
I am in awe of the opportunities for reflection that are offered in watching the Connected Courses video by Mike Wesch, Mimi Ito, Helen Keegan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFcjrwaJV0E#t=2527 . I find am watching this video a few minutes at a time because I keep having to go offline and think. Thank you for the great insights!
I identified with Mike Wesch’s comment about teaching a required course to learners of different backgrounds and levels of preparation. I teach at a Canadian Community College. Many of my students can be described as non-traditional. I thought I taught a course on how to be a better student, it turns out the course is more about how to be a better person. I have taught this same course back-to-back, often in multiple sections. Every class is different. I have learned one thing. The most important moment for the people in that class are when I stop teaching and allow learning.
One issue that I face is difficulty with assessment. In the game titled “How to be Better Person” everyone starts and ends in different places, so assessments that are content oriented are less useful. In fact so often much of real learning is not visible or externally discernible.
I also teach horseback riding, and have for the past 15 years. When I teach riding I focus on the students goals and build their skills towards those goals. I coach, inform, ask questions, and present exercises which allow learning to happen. One great instructor I had along the way told me there are three instructors in the ring: you, the horse and the exercise. I think the student should also be included.
One technique I use in both riding and post-secondary teaching is Bloom’s Mastery learning http://www.education.com/reference/article/mastery-learning/ . The technique of providing feedback and the opportunity to try exercises again. It works. However it is also a lot of work, and I don’t know if it is scalable on the level of an Open Course.
One question I have is how to get that feel of coaching into a more scalable form?
I identified with Mike Wesch’s comment about teaching a required course to learners of different backgrounds and levels of preparation. I teach at a Canadian Community College. Many of my students can be described as non-traditional. I thought I taught a course on how to be a better student, it turns out the course is more about how to be a better person. I have taught this same course back-to-back, often in multiple sections. Every class is different. I have learned one thing. The most important moment for the people in that class are when I stop teaching and allow learning.
One issue that I face is difficulty with assessment. In the game titled “How to be Better Person” everyone starts and ends in different places, so assessments that are content oriented are less useful. In fact so often much of real learning is not visible or externally discernible.
- How can you measure an increase in confidence?
- How do we measure a process of analyzing the pros and cons of risk taking?
- Can you tell when someone is in the process of developing resilience? Sometimes you see it and sometimes you don’t.
I also teach horseback riding, and have for the past 15 years. When I teach riding I focus on the students goals and build their skills towards those goals. I coach, inform, ask questions, and present exercises which allow learning to happen. One great instructor I had along the way told me there are three instructors in the ring: you, the horse and the exercise. I think the student should also be included.
One technique I use in both riding and post-secondary teaching is Bloom’s Mastery learning http://www.education.com/reference/article/mastery-learning/ . The technique of providing feedback and the opportunity to try exercises again. It works. However it is also a lot of work, and I don’t know if it is scalable on the level of an Open Course.
One question I have is how to get that feel of coaching into a more scalable form?
Friday, 12 September 2014
Connections and Openness
I have been thinking about connections a lot this week ... and possibilities ... and reading the background material for the upcoming Connected Course. And reflecting on the subject of Open Education. And watching my new crop of students watching me. I think some of the most intriguing connections are those we have yet to make.
Scrap the old boring image of stairs. This is connection!
Photo credit: L. Jones
Scrap the old boring image of stairs. This is connection!
Friday, 5 September 2014
Pictures of connections
Thursday morning I
woke to one of those work anxiety dreams – the kind where you show up late and
inappropriately dressed (for me I showed up in a college class prepared to
teach horseback riding - a past occupation). However I was glad to tune into a dream
like that again, because for a while after my stroke I was not able to dream so
creatively. And, perhaps because I had been forewarned I showed
up early and on time - including remembering to email and check-in with the
online class. However, when I looked at
the calendar I because aware I had missed an instructor’s meeting on Wednesday –
Drats! One step backwards, two steps forwards.
I have been reading
the blog posts on blog posts from the other connected courses participants http://connectedcourses.net/ and became intrigued by images and videos of connected learning here is my contribution:
This image I took of the lighthouse in St. Augustine Florida reminds me of how I used to think about learning (I was a computer geek, before the web). Now for connected learning hmmm ... how about having steps connected to other steps, similar to hyperlinks.
But I suspect Connections are even messier, because we also connect through our first order connections, and sometimes connections are stronger or weaker, or involve (gasp!) feelings so become messy and don't follow straight lines.
This is beginning to look a lot like the art my children produced when they were young. However have a look at this learning analytic graph showing engagement in online courses from
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Courageous?
Claudia posed an interesting question - asking if I left out the adjective courageous when I declared myself optimistic.
I think that we tend to collect adjectives as we gain mileage and I also believe adjectives fall into two categories: 1) Self-imposed adjectives and 2) Adjectives awarded by others (often not-positive - think of the last person that cut you off when driving). I think courage, which most people consider a positive trait, more often falls in the adjectives awarded by others category.
The people that I know who are truly courageous tell me it that when the going is tough, courage feels a lot like just putting one metaphorical foot in front of the other until going gets easier. A lot like how we deal with speed bumps.
So Claudia, I would answer you by saying I don't consider myself courageous. However I am going back to teaching today. I'll keep you posted.
I think that we tend to collect adjectives as we gain mileage and I also believe adjectives fall into two categories: 1) Self-imposed adjectives and 2) Adjectives awarded by others (often not-positive - think of the last person that cut you off when driving). I think courage, which most people consider a positive trait, more often falls in the adjectives awarded by others category.
The people that I know who are truly courageous tell me it that when the going is tough, courage feels a lot like just putting one metaphorical foot in front of the other until going gets easier. A lot like how we deal with speed bumps.
So Claudia, I would answer you by saying I don't consider myself courageous. However I am going back to teaching today. I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
Me at Fifty-three - hey it Rhymes :)
I’m 53 years old and have hit more than a few speed bumps the wrong way. But I am an optimist.
The most recent speed bump was having stroke in May. I could not talk except a few words and I lost my left hand and portions of my left side. It is September now, and if you were meeting for the first time you could not tell anything was amiss (see - I am optimistic!). I don’t drool anymore, and I as long as I am not tired I speak with good voice infection. I am still having trouble inserting post-and stud earrings, but I am working on that and anyways dangle earrings are fashionable.
So … I am starting a course this Fall (possible speed bump?) called Active Co-Learning in Higher Ed (opens in new window). It is time for me to figure out how-to create an online presence for myself – and the act of blogging and ideally being creative while doing this activity will help exercise my brain. I also want to share some life’s speed bumps, because I imagine there are a lot of us that have speed bumps along the way.
Welcome to this blog!
The most recent speed bump was having stroke in May. I could not talk except a few words and I lost my left hand and portions of my left side. It is September now, and if you were meeting for the first time you could not tell anything was amiss (see - I am optimistic!). I don’t drool anymore, and I as long as I am not tired I speak with good voice infection. I am still having trouble inserting post-and stud earrings, but I am working on that and anyways dangle earrings are fashionable.
So … I am starting a course this Fall (possible speed bump?) called Active Co-Learning in Higher Ed (opens in new window). It is time for me to figure out how-to create an online presence for myself – and the act of blogging and ideally being creative while doing this activity will help exercise my brain. I also want to share some life’s speed bumps, because I imagine there are a lot of us that have speed bumps along the way.
Initially I will use this blog for course-work, but as I get better at blogging I expect to branch out. I will place a connect-course label on posts related to that course, so it should (in theory) be easy to view or not view those posts.
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