Final Reflection on Assignment 2

I've made no secret of my skepticism regarding the connectivist approach. Truthfully I still am skeptical about it, but maybe that will change. I've got much to learn, and I'm open to trying new things. I wasn't sure where this assignment would lead me, or if it would be useful. Would it be something that I would do, but my heart wouldn't be in it? What would I learn from it? 

As it turned out, it was useful, revealing, enjoyable, and I gained insight not only in this class, but in my professional life as well. I may continue this blog after the assignment and may expand to other blogs.  I am an avid reader of editorials on policy. Educational policy is a personal favorite. Maybe there's something there? In any case, 

Blogging with constructive critique is a winner. I hope this is a part of future classes in my OMDE program.

It Seems So Simple Now

I've been frustrated for about a year with the work submitted by my students on a weekly assignment. My students are required to find and analyze an editorial pertaining to U.S. Government. The submissions are generally lacking the level of insight and reflection I am seeking. Much of this has to do with students waiting until the last minute to do the assignment, but I think there is more to it.

Maybe blogging the assignment is the way to go. The work would stay up for the year, allowing students to reflect over time on their original analysis, as well as comment on the work of others. Maybe the assignment needs to be relaxed to allow for a greater range of perceived relevance.

I'm quite optimistic that transitioning the assignment to a blog is worth a try.

What Position Will I Play on the DE Team?

I am a high school teacher. My county school system is reasonably well outfitted, and provides an underutilized LMS system. Originally it was a system called Angel, which is now owned by Blackboard. We couldn't leave well enough alone, so ours is called SCORE. We had enough technology talent on the payroll to meddle with the coding and offerings, but now those who did that have moved on, and other than maintenance updates, very little has changed or evolved in the past six years. I mention this because any team above an author/editor model requires a team to make online courses work well. 

Being a high school teacher who is interested in online courseware is sort of like visiting a relative's house and picking about it their garage. The relation never throws anything away, and often replaces perfectly good items with new ones because they got it free when they bought something else. You can find some really cool stuff that you've never seen before. If you ask the right person, they may be able to tell you about your find. You might be able to figure out how to use something on your own. Sometimes your discovery looks like it will be useful, but the piece that make it work was lost long ago. 

Smart people figured out that if you are going to go online, you've got to have a team, and it's got to be a DE team. The author/editor model may work in some cases, but probably not well, and will probably be little more than standard coursework delivered online in both directions, or a project utilizing online materials or applications. So, after reading about course design and development, I started thinking about the position I'd like to play. It looks like I'll need to hit the proverbial gym and bulk up some skills, as the skills that moved me to enroll in this program are the skills that I may need the least.

I got into teaching not because I was in love with education. In fact, I was 38 when I returned to a classroom. After earning my undergrad, I was happy to be finished with formal education. It didn't take long to realize that I'd be back in the classroom from time to time as skills needed updating, or new career paths dictated, but this was a means to an end. I became a teacher because just about everyone assumed I had been one after we'd have a discussion about history or American government. The question is, will I continue content delivery when I have concluded this course of study?

The positions on this new team I'll be playing for will have a content expert, course designer, instructional material designer, writer, technology specialist, graphic designer, as well as various hardware and software specialists. Are these positions full-time, or are they ad-hoc when a new offering needs to go online? Are they support positions in the IT department? Are they interested in the content, or is the content a cog? Of course they care about treating the cog well, and making sure it is supported and presented well, but is it a cog like the cog that from last week, or the cog to come? I've got some decisions to make.

Are Teamwork, Problem-Solving, and Interpersonal Skills Really Revolutionary?

There appears to be serendipity surrounding my desire to blog and the interesting articles I find on the web. I knew it had been too long since my last post, but life does have a way of dictating the schedule. This is probably why I am enrolled in a DE program rather than a "red brick" program, even though there are graduate DE programs locally.

I was drawn to an article that appeared in the October, 15 edition of Wired Magazine titled: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses (Davis, 2013). How could I ignore a title like that? One of my favorite education authors, Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, would likely be skeptical of the content of an article with a title so bold, as was I. What I read was an anecdote about a two students who attended an under-equipped school, but achieved a high standardized test score. The students' teacher tried a connectivist approach to education, and all were stunned at the results.

I hope those reading my blog understand that I am willing to try anything as long as it gets results, but I don't want to trade hard knowledge for soft feelings. I am also not opposed to the connectivist philosophy, though I am skeptical of throwing off the proven cognitive-behaviorist foundation based on the idea that students prefer doing what they want, when they want to do it. Most traditional parents have a friend or two who utilize that free and open parenting style. I've not seen too many who are keen to spend much time around those kids, though I'm sure they'll grow into wonderful adults somehow.

The Wired article is an indictment of modern western education, making it clear that the system is "fatally flawed (Linda Darling-Hammond), and that rigid, top-down education models are ineffective. The digital classroom requires "innovation, creativity, and independent thinking" (Davis, J,. 2013)to prepare for the global economy. Is this really new? If the digital dinosaurs ( I wish I'd have coined that term ) hadn't invented the technology and devices that the digital natives utilize...well we get into a real chicken and egg thing here.

Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in the UK was featured prominently in the article, as were Peter Gray from Boston College, and Nicholas Negroponte from MIT and founder of the One Laptop per Child Initiative. Each of these scholars owns an impressive body of work in the field of technology education. Gray argues that the human brain is innately incompatible with the western style of schooling. He argues that students are motivated by play and curiosity. While that is no doubt true to some degree, is it a proper rationale for remaking the educational system?

The underlying ideas aren't new. Socrates, Maria Montessori, Rudolph Steiner, and A.S Neill date back decades to thousands of years. All advocate a less structured environment, much like the DE environment advocated by Otto Peters among others. I agree that it is easier to get children to participate if they are enjoying themselves, I am unconvinced that learning will not take place if they are in a structured environment. As a former board member of a Montessori school, and parent of children who attended the same, I can vouch for the results, though the reality is the level of freedom the article indicates is present is not accurate. Students are not free to educate themselves when and how they see fit, but rather they choose from a set of educational options. So, while they have greater say in the order, they are still expected to cover all of the lessons by the end of the day. This is not very radical.

Big Picture Learning schools, which has approximately 120 locations around the world provide a student-led collaborative learning environment. They have a graduation rate of greater than 90%, but I'll need to see the demographic data as well as the graduation requirements before declaring this superior. I'd also like to see how those students compare in ACT and SAT scores to a school of similar demographics.

My bottom line is still that of andragogy versus pedagogy. Do the rules and philosophies that guide adult learning apply to children? The existing population is made up of adults who were schooled in the traditional manner during their primary and secondary years. What will the result be when we have adults who chose their own educational path running society and business? Will they possess the basic knowledge that connects people, or will they simply be good at finding artifacts? Will they lose interest if the learning is difficult or does not yield rewards soon enough? Will they be satisfied with being told that they'll appreciate the knowledge later? Adults have generally accepted delayed gratification and long-term goals, not because they wanted to, but because these were imposed on them by a rigid system and they eventually discovered the value.

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/all/

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/21st-Century-Skills@-The-Challenges-Ahead.aspx

Am I blogging out of desire or duty? I wouldn't have created this blog if it weren't an assignment, but I am earning a Master's Degree because I want to, and I enjoy the content very much. How can I get the best written work out of myself and by extension my students?

In Module 3 we are learning about and utilizing blogs and wikis. Is a blog a glorified notebook and a wiki a way for a group to work together from anywhere? Maybe they are, so how can I utilize them? What is the purpose of the blog?

Earlier today I read an article on the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. 166,000 adults were tested and evaluated for problem solving using technology, reading and math. Counties that scored the highest on technology were Japan, Finland, Australia, Sweden, and Norway. U.S. scores were lower and similar to England, Estonia, Ireland, and Poland. These groupings seem to occur in other rankings of the U.S. against the world. Is it the diverse population of the U.S? Is it that those with education tend to have skills, and those without formal education are more likely not to? Perhaps online learning will be the bridge for those who do not know they will be seeking education soon.

U.S. adults are dumber than the average human. (Associated Press, 2013) October 8

Are New Generations of Pedagogy Evolutionary?

What is the future of education?

I pose this question for reflection because I am a teacher. Several of the readings from this class and 601 have dealt with generations, or waves of educational theory. I am a cognitive-behaviorist, and find truth in the constructivist philosophy as well. People learn in certain ways, but that learning can be affected by previous experiences whether educational, cultural, or socio-economic, among others. When it comes to the connectivist wave, I have serious doubts. Is knowing where to find something the same as knowledge? Is discovering artifacts truly discovery? The question I'm most interested in is whether connectivism leads outwards or inwards?