I thought the questioning structure that Warren Berger presented in A More Beautiful Question was unique, concise and also had the potential to be frustrating. A lot of times with a complex question, which is typically difficult by nature, a person wants to put it off or find a less challenging avenue to pursue. By breaking these larger and complex questions into categories of why, what if and how, Berger makes it so that difficult questioning is accessible to all people. “It’s an attempt to bring at least some sense of semblance of order to a questioning process that is, by its nature, chaotic and unpredictable” (Berger, 2014, p. 33) Presenting it as a process of unpacking your thoughts instead of panicking at one big question makes this method a lot less scary and intense.
This questioning process would function great in a classroom setting, but a teacher would want to make sure relationships with students are stable before embarking on an endeavor like this. This method of questioning would be initially fun for students, as we know, they always have a lot of “Whys?” floating around. But as the questions progress and become deeper, I would be concerned about students becoming frustrated and shutting down because solving a problem seems too daunting. If they get stuck, that is where a good teacher student relationship would be important, so the teacher can provide encouragement. Berger’s method is designed to remove some of that scariness of problem solving, but I still believe that not all students would immediately want to wade from the “why” in to “what ifs” to “hows”. I can see students finding the questioning exercises “pointless” or just trying to get to the right answer, as they have been trained to do by our educational system. I have noticed many times in class when we are doing a more open ended/creative activity, students don’t like the structureless atmosphere or the fact that there can be more than one right answer (Admittedly, I can be like that too!) Putting this structure into practice with our Wicked problem project was a little bit less hard than I had imagined. Sometimes coming up with enough questions was challenging - I would have 9 solid questions, but knew the goal was to get to around 15. I also understand why the volume of questions was important because it continuously provides different angles from which one can look at and attack a problem. I also know in my own teaching practice I will try and remember this structure and attempt to use it. This questioning structure is one that forces me to slow down, something I am not always the best at, and I know will yield better results than if I just make a snap judgement. Sometimes quick decisions are unavoidable, especially in a classroom setting, but if I can use this to reflect on some of my bigger units and plans that I teach and use throughout the year, I can imagine there will be nothing but improvement to my work. I also believe that the more I practice this, the more second nature it will become and will help me function better within my classroom overall. References Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.
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TED talks play an important role in education. I have been to countless professional developments, workshops and staff meetings where we start off by watching a TED Talk. We even had the option to watch many this summer for the MAET program. I know I will be in the minority when I say this, but I don’t really like TED Talks. I find them too long and I usually get bored or distracted halfway through. I’m not sure if its because I’m not genuinely interested in the topic or if my attention span is too short, but they are not my preferred method of being informed. (I am not even sure if they are valid method to learn and be informed) I am curious why TED Talks are so popular. Why does everyone go bonkers for them? Is it because there are so many? Does talking about a TED Talk we just watched make us sound intelligent? Is it a good source of information? Who (or what) is TED? What is the deal!? While researching for this blog post, I was hoping to find some compelling evidence one way or the other if TED talks were “good” for me that would maybe inspire me to try a little bit harder to listen along.
I don’t know even know who or what TED is. I figured that would be a good first step as I was looking into TED talks. “TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.” (www.ted.com) The description of this sounds like something I would be interested in. TED is an organization that reaches far and wide. I like that they are available in many languages and while I personally am interested in technology, entertainment and design, I do think broadening their topics makes it more accessible to others. This is why everyone I know seems to have found a TED talk they loved. Forbes contributor Carmine Gallo has done a lot of research regarding TED talks. His conclusion is that “that the TED style is effective because it’s consistent with how our brains are wired to receive information.” (Gallo, 2015, para. 4) His blog post surmises that there is a pattern to how a TED talk is delivered and if one follows this pattern it will be appealing to the audience. According to Gallo, one of the key components of a TED talk is an emotional one, by telling a story to involve the audience. In my opinion, this is not different than teaching. You always need to find a “hook” or a way to engage your students with your lesson. This also sounds like it could be interpreted to be a form of entertainment to me, more so than an educational experience. As mentioned earlier, because TED is such a vast organization, there are always a variety of presenters and topics. As a consumer of information, I tend to question the credentials of the presenter and how we know that their ideas are good ones and genuinely if they are worth buying into. This is a similar train of thought that I read and talked about in my last blog post about educators on twitter. I find that I particularly picky around ideas and TED talks surrounding the field of education. While some people may find TED talks relating to education inspirational, I tend to always be listening with a wary attention span, unsure of how the discussion can apply to me, only because education and students are unique and there isn’t a one size fits all answer for everyone. Owen Carter wrote a blog post on why he believes TED talks are not the best platform about ideas for education and in his opinion TED talks “privilege the performance over the evidence, the message over the methodology.” (Carter, 2016, para. 5) His blog post references TED talks he watched regarding education in which some of the presenters were teachers with limited teaching experience or were never teachers at all. While I couldn’t find any definitive answers as to why TED talks are good (or bad), this research did help me learn more about TED than I had known previously and earn a bit more respect for its vast network of talks and conferences. I still do not think TED will be my preferred method of education or entertainment, but I admire the fact that the TED organization is inspirational to many people and because TED talks are offered in so many languages are accessible to people who want to learn, question and be inspired around the globe. References www.ted.com Gallo, C. (2015, March 17). Why our brains are wired to love TED talks [Blog post]. Retrieved from:https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2015/03/17/why-our-brains-are-wired-to-love-ted-talks/#86f23cf1322b Carter, O. (2016, May 25). Why I hate TED talks [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://blog.optimus-education.com/why-i-hate-ted-talks I was thinking about what exactly I wanted to cover in my final choice blog post. There was nothing that coming up as super appealing to me that I wanted to take a deep dive into and investigate further. I took a quick break and scrolled a bit through my twitter feed and then stumbled up this article. It is a compelling 10 minute read about educators on twitter and the evolution of #edutwitter and #teachergram. This is a very interesting topic to me and until I read that article was not a viewpoint I had completely considered.
I joined Twitter in college in 2009. I would go through and scroll to get my news of the day, the latest on MSU Football or Basketball and anything else that I had followed and allowed onto my timeline. As I became an educator, I was quickly introduced to the world of a #PLN and how the use of Twitter could allow me to reach out to other educators with thoughts, questions and allowed me interactions with people outside of my normal day to day life. I think overall this was good, but it also took a toll sometimes. I am definitely not innocent in making comparisons and having all these great teachers and resources was a bit overwhelming. A lot of teacher twitter has turned into teachers sharing out ideas and products that they “use in their classrooms!” and that “students just love!” and they I can go to their TeacherPayTeachers store and pay $3.00 to download and use it myself. In her blog post, author Sarah Gross (2019) questions “where is the line between promotion and pedagogy, and how many teachers actively think about that line while on social media?” (Promotion or Pedagogy?, para. 3) I had been using twitter to find good resources and ideas and it genuinely had never occurred to me that some teachers might just be using their audience to gain an extra profit (or that they were sharing ideas they had stolen as if they were their own!) If you look closer at some of these #edustars and Twitter famous teachers, some have even left the classroom and now are “consulting” or working at conferences to make a living. How do they stay current? How do they stay in touch with what works for students in our ever evolving society? A situation like this reminds me of when teachers gripe about administrators not being understanding of what happens in a classroom. They have been out of the classroom for so long they are “out of touch”. Wouldn’t the same be true for these consulting teachers? This article prompted me to take a considerate eye to the list of people I follow and remove a few accounts from the list. Gross (2019) points out “Just because they have a Twitter account devoted to education doesn’t mean they are an expert. Because tweets are microblogs, often full of platitudes, it’s easy for busy teachers to be hoodwinked.” (Promotion or Pedagogy?, para. 7) I think I blindly assumed that because someone was tweeting things out so fervently and so polished looking, they must be an expert. So who was I to question them? This mindset long term could be damaging to me as an educator, but even more so to my students if I buy into to pedagogy promoted by teachers who don’t really know what they are talking about. Gross also breaks down the situation on TeachersPayTeachers. TPT does not need to fact check or vet their work before it is published in a teacher’s store. I just bought resources during the TPT back to school sale to use in my classroom this year. I purchased from respected “stores” - teachers who I follow on twitter, typically. I did not once question what I was buying. Why is that? Since reading this article I have gone back and looked at the resources I downloaded and feel confident that they don’t violate copyright laws and aren't using someone else’s material as their own. Gross ends her article with suggestions on what we can do moving forward. To make #edutwitter better for all educators and not having it just be an echo chamber, she suggests actively discovering who you are following (Google the person! Don’t just click follow), pushing back if you disagree with someone, see who else their Twitter account interacts with and, ultimately, don’t make assumptions that just because they are on Twitter they must be a leader in their field. Have a critical eye when looking at what resources you are introducing to students in your classroom. As I have gotten older, more experienced in my career and social media has evolved, I have learned to take everything I see on the internet with a grain of salt. This article reinforced that ideas ten times over. I still get a lot of good ideas from Twitter and I know I will buy resources from TeachersPayTeachers in the future, but I will do so with a more critical and watchful eye. References Gross, S. (2019, August 10). Promotion or Pedagogy [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://blog.usejournal.com/promotion-or-pedagogy-638ef48cea28 The space that I want to redesign is not my classroom, but our building library. This is a space that benefits the entire building and not just my students. The books in the library have not had new titles since the 1970s. English teachers now have their own personal classroom libraries. The other part of our library houses 3 computer labs that are in constant use by classes in our building. The library is also where you can access our iPad and Chromebook carts. This library redesign would involve students and staff. Teachers use the computers and the work areas with their classes, but we also have conferences and staff meetings in the space weekly. I think right now the way the space in the library is set up is currently an “ individual work” focused environment. Ideally in my redesign, the computer labs will become more user friendly for teachers to use with their students. Right now if students are working on computers, the teachers are very hands off. There are no projectors or ways for them to instruct students while they are on the computers to help them troubleshoot things or show examples. The book titles in the library are outdated. Once they are sorted for anything valuable, it would be in the best interest of the students to get e-readers and e-books for the library to check out. The library could still serve the purpose with books and promoting reading, but in a more 21st century manner. Currently in this space there is a sensible set of chairs and tables. They are very heavy and clunky to move around. In my redesign, I would opt for more “user friendly” tables and chairs that can be moved around easier or even written on (like the white board tables!) I think this would be helpful for students when completing projects. I also think it would be beneficial to staff when working on tasks at staff meetings or department meetings. The library also overlooks over a nice courtyard, but there is no access door from the library itself. By providing an entry point in an out of the media center, students would be able to be safely in the school, but still have fresh air. In some circumstances it would be able to function as an outdoor classroom. I can’t tell you how many times I have students ask to go outside, especially in the spring months. This newly redesigned space would allow for more student collaboration with one another. Which potentially, would lead to more powerful questions and inquiry by students. Considering this library redesign, I was trying to take into account how much of the value in education and in classrooms comes from students questioning what they are learning and creating. Things need to be more open and not as sectioned off. Regarding the addition of the courtyard, I thought it was the ideal way to incorporate natural light as well as fresh air, but within the safety and security of our building. Within their resources, The Third Teacher says “children are ready to learn only when they’re safe and secure, so address those needs before considering any other aspect of a child’s environment.” (The Third Teacher Flashcards) Other outdoor options in our building are well out of the reach of protocols (tennis courts, soccer field bleachers) so I think this is an excellent way to make students feel secure. I think the new layout of the library also lends itself to technology, but that was not my first priority. This library needed to be redesigned as a media center, where students and their learning take center stage and the various technologies available to them and their uses take the backseat. Students need places they feel safe and comfortable in to be able to work and collaborate. Mishra and the Deep-play group (2012) point out “the technical details of the digital world shift continuously, which is part of the problem. Technology over time has always been a moving target, which we cannot hope to hit if we view it as narrowly as that which is just “digital” or “modern (p. 14) If I had solely focused on technology and incorporating that into the library, the redesign would not have been beneficial to students. The best way to see if this does benefit students and teachers, will be to test it out! If students are able to work successfully with one another and teachers have space to move around while instructing and supervising, I would consider it a success. References Mishra, P., & The Deep-Play Research Group (2012). Rethinking technology and creativity in the 21st century: Crayons are the future. TechTrends, 56(5), 13-16. Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thethirdteacherplus.com/resources The “Country Project” is something that the world language department in my district has done for years. This lesson plan will be it’s third version. Originally, it was a standard research project. Students researched specific facts about a Spanish speaking country, found some pictures and presented it to the class. The intent of the country project is for students to discover how far and wide Spanish speaking countries stretch around the globe. The project is introduced early on in Spanish 1 during the second week of school. This is part of a bigger unit addressing the “why” we think it is important for students to be motivated and excited to learn a second language. Typically Spanish 1 students are freshmen and are still adjusting to the high school mentality, so getting a project accomplished in the first few weeks of school is a big deal and demonstrates, yes, you can do this!
A few years ago the assignment was adjusted and students created an infographic about their specific country instead of a report. The tedious facts were lessened, it forced students to really think about what information they wanted to include and it was much more appealing to look at. When initially introducing TPACK, Mishra and Koehler (2009) state “teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational.” (Too cool for school? No way!, p. 18) Using this mindset, I reminaged the project yet again with even more visual appeal using Google Tour Builder and Google Expeditions. Students will still do research on their country, but now will create a Google Expedition using visuals from Google Maps and will lead their classmates through the country visually as they talk about what they discovered. Students will follow along in VR using a cardboard viewfinder and mobile device. As guides, students will need to “sell” their classmates on visiting their country and at the end we will vote as a class to see where we should go visit! This version of the country project is one that excites me because I finally feel like students are creating something interesting and interactive. I think the second version of this project, with the creation of the infographic met some of these needs, but ultimately students could still copy and paste information and there wasn’t always as much conscious thought put into what they were creating to talk about their country. Google Tours provides a way for students to make the project more unique than any version before. Students are forced to think about what specific locations and facts they want to highlight within their country and explain to their classmates why they should visit and how that ties into the overall image to how their country works within the world. I also like that students can vote about a tour and set a goal about where they might want to travel someday in the future. References Koehler, M.J., & Mishra, P. (2009). Too cool for school? No way! Learning and leading with technology. Earlier this week we designed an infographic about a learning theory of our choice. I have always found infographics to be interesting. I also feel like in recent years they have become very “cool” and are a popular way for distributing information to the millennial generation. Infographics are appealing to me in the way they display information visually and succinctly with graphs, colors and pictures. Alternatively, someone would just simply read an article and pull information from there.
Michigan State University’s Sarah Gretter (2016) writes that as a society “we are naturally inclined to “snackable” content.” (Using Infographics for Teaching and Learning) During this day and age, we are drawn to pieces of news, technology and apps that can provide a service almost instantaneously or in as little time as possible. I have found that my students' attention spans are not very long. Delivering news and content to them in an infographic like format is beneficial to them, because it is visually appealing and allows them to quickly read and gather the information they need to work with. Infographics “integrate design, writing, and analysis with the bulk of the information you want to convey.” (Gretter, 2016) “Most people can make sense of visual material much faster than they can absorb what they hear or read. The average person can process visual content 60,000 times faster than other types of content.” (The Benefits of Infographics for Education) This is perfect for students who most often will typically just scan a document or look for a section discussing the main points. A few years ago I made my syllabus into an infographic for students to have at the beginning of the year. It was well received and I thought relayed the information well. Aside from being interesting and unique documents, I have not always clearly understood how infographics might have a role in an educational setting and as continue in this program I would like to deeper explore how I might be able to use and design infographics and repurpose them for my students. The most important concept we have been talking about in year one has been TPACK and how technology, pedagogy and content knowledge can all intersect successfully in the classroom. With discussions we have had this week in our year one class regarding the TPACK, it would appear to me that infographics are a perfect example of a technology being repurposed and used in an educational context. Authors Punya Mishra and the Deep - Play group (2012) state “the TPACK framework emphasizes the importance of teacher creativity in repurposing technology tools for make them fit pedagogical and disciplinary-learning goals” (p. 14) As discussed earlier, it is becoming very common to see infographics being used more frequently in educational contexts. They are being viewed as more than just “fun” documents and hold a lot of valuable information in a unique manner. I don’t believe that the original intent behind infographics was for students to read and interpret them, let alone design their own in on any given topic, but I think the repurposing of them in an educational setting is useful. References Gretter, S. (2016, October 17). Using Infographics for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from http://insideteaching.grad.msu.edu/using-infographics-for-teaching-and-learning/ The Benefits of Infographics for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.copypress.com/kb/infographics/the-benefits-of-infographics-for-education/ Mishra, P., & The Deep-Play Research Group (2012). Rethinking technology and creativity in the 21st century: Crayons are the future. TechTrends, 56(5), 13-16. Learning isn’t something that is easily definable. The study of learning and how individuals learn has greatly changed throughout time. What previously was thought of as “learning” or mastering material is now not the case at all. It was previously considered that someone had learned material when they were able to reproduce certain facts or critical pieces of information. However, with the study of cognitive sciences, it has been found that while having a substantial and solid knowledge base is important, “one of the hallmarks of the new science of learning is its emphasis on learning with understanding” (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000, p. 9). It is how one applies knowledge moving forward that demonstrates learning and understanding and becomes a critical piece of the learning process. To simply possess knowledge isn’t enough. This concept has been something I have been grappling with for a few years now. I am a Spanish teacher and the World Language department in my district has been undergoing the beginning process of reworking and realigning our curriculum. The way some of our current assessments are set up are frustrating, because they are designed to work within the old framework of learning” On these assessments, I have many students that can adequately prove that they have mastered the facts that we discussed in class. However, if I ask them to apply their knowledge in a more “outside the box” manner or demonstrate their knowledge and applicable concepts, they are unable to reach this next step. It is also apparent that defining and assessing learning is dependent on each person as an individual. Students “come to formal education with a range of prior knowledge, skills, beliefs, and concepts that significantly influence what they notice about the environment and how they organize and interpret it. This, in turn, affects their abilities to remember, reason, solve problems, and acquire new knowledge. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000, p. 10) Learning might look different for a Spanish 1 student at the end of their first year of language study versus a heritage Spanish speaker at the end of their first year of Spanish study. We need to make sure we engage these students and really see and understand them. If you gloss over students and treat them all the same and not as individual learners, they will not take an interest in what they are supposed to be learning and might only learn for the sake of a test (if they bother to learn it at all.) Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) provided their opinion on how an expert teacher would function within a classroom, guiding novice students stating “expert teachers know the kinds of difficulties that students are likely to face, and they know how to tap into their students’ existing knowledge in order to make new information meaningful plus assess their students’ progress.” (p. 49) An expert teacher will acknowledge each student individually and be willing to work with their prior knowledge and preconceived notions to help them be successful. Expert teachers can see the bigger picture, even if the student can’t. The framework for an expert and novice educator is no different than that of an expert and novice learner. At the surface level, novices and experts are not that different. When being assessed over basic content area knowledge, there would be very little difference in the factual recall of both learners. However, experts push their learning deeper and can use and apply their knowledge and learning in different areas. Experts can take in the bigger picture of what is happening and make connections between their pieces of knowledge, whereas novices will have substantial information, but might not fully comprehend how it works together or what it is connected to. In my mind, an expert’s view of a situation would look like a concept map where everything is interconnected, whereas a novice might have a lot of the individual pieces, but is lacking the ability to make those connections. Achieving this expert level comes from long-term experience in an activity or content area and an expert learner’s ability to be metacognitive about their experiences. Educational technologies are new and ever changing, similar to learning itself. This is a relatively new, but important facet of education that is still in its early stages. What we know currently about innovative ideas in educational technology could be completely different again in another decade. Studying the theories and science of learning as well as what defines an expert and novice in a field are excellent topics as we delve deeper into these concepts. In our own right, we are all experts in some ways and as we discussed in class might even be “experts at being novices”. As we are learning about this new field of study, it is important to keep that idea in mind. Similar to how the study of learning has evolved, so should our teaching practices. Educators should never be stagnant in their teaching practice and should be pushing for deeper learning and understanding. References Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. |
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