Mastery, Belonging, Independence and Generosity

I have asked myself about the OLPC Initiative, Is this a good idea?   It is true students in the developing countries can learn how to use the devices without any teaching or training, and it connects them to the world, but what about their learning environment?  How are they being inspired to learn?  How do we know the laptops will not become distraction devices, when there are no teachers or leaders guiding their curiosities? I researched OLPC before in my human development course. I looked up my presentation, Library Initiative.  I asked, What does OLPC say about human development? I never concluded with an answer.  I referred to Sherry Turkle's (MIT Professor) research on how technology and our connections are changing human relationships. Check out Sherry Turkle's TED Talk.  My favorite examples of the importance of relationships is from an amazing psychology book, Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future by Larry K. Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg and Steve Van Bockern.  I find a way to go back to this book every time when thinking about development and psychology.  It explains the wisdom of Native American child development called the Circle of Courage. The idea that  Mastery, Belonging, Independence, and Generosity are what frame positive human development, instead of mainstream psychology that is driven by negative terms like the 10 D’s of deviance (such as disorder, dysfunctional, disobedient, disabled).  After doing a Google search I am so happy to find their ideas are still alive -  Reclaiming.com is their website. The authors offer webinars and are holding a conference presenting on the Circle of Courage to educators.    

I also interviewed my grandmother as part of my presentation.  What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?  Check out this video about wisdom.

It's all about the stories

I connected to Steven Downes post Strive Less, Share More and his response to our class questions. The true art of storytelling lies in immersing yourself and giving yourself over to the audience. The idea that learning and sharing is best through stories has been a recurring theme for me lately (my recent post referring to Seth Godin’s post Coordinate and Amplify  that the best way to convince someone to embrace your ideas is through stories).  I love it when after I’ve read a story to students they fight over who gets to check out the book!  I know I I have succeeded in my sharing. When I am inspired from a story I read it with passion and it works with the kids.  Recently, my most passionate story is Catwings, by Ursula LeGuin. Here is an awesome audio clip of her reading the story.   I think it is the fantasy and immersing yourself in the cat's world that inspired me so much. What if cats had wings?  When I share that passion with students they feel it too. I am so lucky it is my job to share great stories with kids.  Many times it is these stories that spark their inspiration and passions. 

ADDIE and Instructional Design

What first struck me from ADDIE design theory is that it is based on systems theory.  When I took a Psychology Human Development course the Systems Theory impacted me.  The idea that the we process and learn (develop) as individuals within systems of complex relationships that grow increasingly larger and are interdependent, and that change through adaptive self-regulation and adaptive self organization.

Here is a diagram I liked explaining Urie Broffenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

Broffenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory
(image license under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0)

I had quoted how systems theory related to technology from the text, Development Through Life (Newman, 2009) "The direction of this [adaptive] change is not necessarily patterned, except that it is expected to move in the direction of creating new, higher levels of organization to coordinate newly developed substructures." Another point I noted how information technology is changing our development, "In the framework of systems theory, the boundary between the person and the environment is fuzzy; as an open system, a person is continuously influenced by information and resources from the environment and, at the same time, creates or modifies the environment to preserve system functioning." Development Through Life (Newman, 2009)

This was my Aha for the week, going back through these psychosocial theories of development helped me put connectivism into perspective.  I also concluded that as part of my own theory, I believe we need a combination of collectivism and individualism to be responsible and effective users of information and technology.

A design theory I have experience with is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It is not a step by step design system like ADDIE and instead a set of principles for designing curriculum that give individuals equal opportunities for learning.  Possibly the difference is UDL is a set of principles for design and ADDIE is a system for design?

One thing I need to consider in our mini course design is that I have a tendency to make the common mistake that was mentioned in Designing Instructional Systems of putting too much breadth and not enough depth (covering information rather than developing skills).

Libraries and Knowledge

I  joined the Library 2.0 network and watched a recorded webinar from the  Library 2.0 conference. I learned that instructional systems design is about creating a learning experience and that the new librarian's mission is to facilitate knowledge creation - like Michael Wesch says, to move from knowledgeable to knowledge-able.  I also learned about interactive OER's - and that libraries are in a great position to give more awareness to these resources, and create resources in MOOC's (they mentioned Coursera and Udacity).  I also learned about the Open Educator Resources Commons and Merlot II. I noticed though that when I searched for resources in both of these places I didn't always get quality results.  Merlot also had resources that were only available from "partners."  I remember seeing Merlot before when I worked for an educational video company for years.  We created videos and then clipped the videos and animations and sold short instructional "digital media assets." I remember finding Merlot as a possible partner for us to sell our media assets to.

I have thought more about what types of knowledge libraries offer access to and  the shift to offer more open resources. The Massive Open Online Course movement is amazing.  I am still wondering about the future of textbooks and authority of content and how open education resources will continue to change how we access and create knowledge.

Redefining the research process

Today, I took out an "old" document from 2009 that I created as my own model for the research process. It combined the research models of the Big 6, with Guided Inquiry, and Jamie McKenzie's Questioning process called The Research Cycle (during research one questions leads to new questions like a cycle, not a step-by-step process).  Looking at this old document helped me think about which of the Big 4 learning theories I use in instruction.  I noticed behaviorism, cognitivism and constructionism theories in my original model, however I didn't notice any connectivism. I would like to update this model considering the 4 theories and incorporating more of the connectivism theory.  There are also many more organizing tools such as evernote available.  At first I thought I should make the mini course for students, however I wonder if it makes more sense for teachers to be my audience?  I also need to consider I am in an Elementary school and remember my grade level appropriateness.

Symbaloo

I just signed up for Symbaloo and I am very excited.  I really needed this new bookmarking tool!  I had kind of given up on bookmarks and was just keeping them in different browsers.  Is this a tool I could have my 6th graders use for their bookmarks?  I am afraid they are going to want to apply it to their personal (non educational) network and not for learning related websites.  It may be helpful like in the video we watched from the student who created her personal learning environment.  Can I help them turn their personal into a learning network?

Connected Hangout

What a great way to learn!  Last Saturday we participated in a Google Hangout with educators that use technology from all over the world to talk about connected learning. It was eye-opening to experience this type of social interaction to learn what others are thinking, exploring and doing in education.  This was my first time participating in an event like this. Technology is so great when it works and allows for these types of experiences. The conversation and discussion made me think of a recent story on VPR, Not Your Granma's High School: Personalized Learning Plans about how Vermont legislature just mandated that every student in grades 7-12 develops a personal learning plan. What are the pros and con of this new type of assessment?

Our discussion also made me think of a recent post on Seth Godin's blog:

Coordinate and Amplify - He explains that in marketing (I interpreted it to any advocacy for something you believe in), the best way to convince someone of something is not to go out and evangelize it, it is connections that bring change.  This post made me think that it is stories that convince people to embrace ideas.  Is there a video or media project of connected learning stories? This could be another idea for me for my capstone.  

My aha moment this week was that we just did it -we connected our learning via our Wiki on learning theories.  I loved that I could go to others pages on the learning theories and see their examples and learn from them. Why don’t I add more connected learning into my instruction? I don’t know.  As we talked about this past week, it probably has to do with the way I was taught.  I have many excuses like I don’t have any planning time with teachers, I only have 6 computers in the library, and I am too busy with my library management activities.  I need to find ways to get over these excuses and put more energy into connecting learning with students.  I am thinking even with 4th grade - they would love an activity where they share their learning and get to see each others work.  We are going to write short stories about an SOS moment in their lives and I am thinking we should share them on VoiceThread.

I am also doing copyright with the 6th grade and they are going to create copyright public service announcements.  I really need to guide students to think of more real world copyright examples (on their own and not give them examples) and then discuss them.   I tend to just give them the information instead of ask them those good questions.

I also posted this week about my son’s school. I want to note that his teachers are excellent and he is learning a lot, even though he is not in a connected network for learning. His teachers are still helping him find meaning in his learning.  He learns so much from his teachers but he can learn so much from his fellow students too if they were all networked in an online environment. They would have more opportunities to share their learning. My conclusion is, "sharing your knowledge with other people will help you build your own." Learn, Connect, Share, Grow.

Education Technology.. about learning and knowledge

I am excited to start a new course.  I prefer learning and thinking about ideas and theories in Education Technology over applications and tools, so am looking forward to learning in this course.  Applying tools may be more practical for my everyday job, however I prefer learning as thinking instead of doing.   Learning should be a continual process.  Sometimes students just want to get an answer or complete the assignment without reflecting on their process or what they learned.  This type of reflection is a piece of assessment I need to work on as a teacher.

Knowledge is all that I gain through my learning.  It is what I can take back from my learning to apply to my experiences, whether it is a skill, a thought, or a feeling.  Knowledge can be theoretical or practical.  I need knowledge to form an opinion or place a value on something.  Knowledge is what allows me to assign meaning to something.  A lack of knowledge of something without having the means to obtain it or the access to resources to learn about it can feel frustrating.  I am thinking of the frustration I feel lately about my lack of knowledge of the complex situation in the Middle East. How or where can I learn more about a complex issue to feel I have enough knowledge to form an opinion or even understand a situation?  And what if there is knowledge about a topic that I don't have access to?  Valuing the importance of open access to information so knowledge can be obtained freely is one of the reasons I wanted to become a librarian.  Intellectual freedom is so important to knowledge.