Looking back this semester, I have learned a lot how to improve my teaching practices and how I can strive to be a better teacher. As we learned by reading Dervin, our society has often a miscommunication with each other due to people not asking the right questions and not truly understand the needs and wants of the person asking for help. As teachers we tend to forget this important fact and for us to reach our students and help them grow we must understand their background and behaviors more often. Reading Clark's work, her writing reaffirmed the notion that teaching the concept is more important than just teaching the facts. Teaching concepts what social science is about, where concepts are constantly repeating themselves, just like historical events.
When this new school year starts I will try to implement more technology in the classroom but also see what little things I can improve from my old lesson plans. Just like what Baggio was talking about in her book, “Knowledge can be developed by learners and shared without necessarily having to first pass through an instructor. The teacher is the “facilitator.” The idea is that students need to be part of the process, not just receivers of information. I at times catch myself talking to my students, rather than getting them more involved in the lesson. If I want to get my students ready for the 21st century I must do this more within my classroom. The new tech I am really excited for is to try Powtoon and Screencastify for next school year. Powtoon would be really fun to use and I believe my students will be excited to try to use this too making learning fun. Drawback is the Powtoon only allows a few free projects and has a 3 minute narration limit on its free version. To upgrade to the next level from the free version is a total ripoff and the price is way too high. Screencastify also seems to make learning more fun and get the students more involved in their learning. Screencastify's drawback is that there is only a 50 project limit and then you are not allowed to make anymore projects. This semester's readings and work has really opened my eyes to new ideas and re-energized me to upgrade my old lessons. Just like our students, we teachers must "keep moving forward". `Walt Disney.
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As we draw to a close of Class 791 I have learned a lot from the multiple readings in regards to my teaching and to my driving question. Making Sense of making sense refreshes the idea that we teachers don't know everything despite we may have been teaching for over a decade. We, as teachers, need to grow just like our students in our own crafts and in our own subjects. Yet, we teachers also need to grow with our students trying to understand each one of them and how they individually think, how they individually learn, and how they individually interact within their school and their communities. By understanding this can help bridge the gap of miscommunication and both teacher and student can easily and quickly reach their goals and full potential.
By integrating technology into this concept will help bridge the gap between teacher and student. TPACK, or Total Package in teaching with Technology, is a great concept to use within the classroom. To "keep up with the Jones", technology can not be used just to be used. Technology within the classroom must be used with purpose and meaning, which is TPACK. It is the meeting point where content, pedagogy, and technology is where true "intelligent integration of technology" happens where the use of technology within the classroom has purpose and true meaning. To get our students ready for the 21st century and the demands of the new technological age, teachers must inter grate the concept of TPACK within their classrooms to not bridge the gap between them and their students, but to also prepare their students for the future. So far in this summer session the reading has been very intriguing and refreshing compared to last semester's reading. I feel I am learning more on how to prefect my craft as a teacher and polish my skills from the readings such as Dr. Bobbe Baggio to Daniel Pink's book. In Dr. Baggio's book I relearned the idea of polishing my visual presentations using the CRAP idea. The idea of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity can upgrade my current presentations with more meaning and more "umph" to my lectures. I didn't realize how these small factors in presentations can make such a large impact. As for Dr Pink's book, I am learning so much about the right side brain and how we need to bring our society back to this hemisphere of the brain. He discusses about "true" happiness and the different levels of workers effort based on this "happiness". I can see that within my classroom because I see more effort and better scores when my students are "into the lecture" while my other boring more out of the book lesson plans my students are just going through the motions and not really learning to their fullest potential.
How will I use this new information within my new DQ seems pretty straight forward. After talking to Brenna and how I can use an old project to answer my DQ seems so much easier rather than recreating the wheel. I will use the new concepts I have learned from Baggio and Pink and upgrade my project and presentation to give it a new face-lift to answer an old problem. How can we get more students involved in our society and how to get students more proactive within our government. Or in other words as stated in my newly reformed DQ, How can we use technology to promote more empathy from today's students. With this new found concept from what I have been learning so far in this summer session it will force me to think more outside the box to upgrade my old lesson plan and old senior project. What dilemmas I have face so far is the same old story since the first semester in the Spring, trying to find the time in our busy schedule of work, family, and life within this program. It would seem so overwhelming, especially when conflicting words of advice is given to us as students within this program, but my cohort and I are plugging along and doing our best at every turn. For example, I am sacrificing vacation time and family time and making things work because I believe in what we do as teachers and how we need to improve ourselves for our students. Granted, it is pretty cool being able to do this HW while on an Alaskan cruise, but it is a sacrifice I have to make for this program and what I believe in. In the end, I know that my cohort and I will be better teachers for ourselves and for our students. After reading more about Ruth Clark's ideas it almost made my head spin. It was a lot of information to learn and understand in one sitting. Despite the abundance of dry information, I still learned a lot and how all of this information can help refine my driving question. Just like in the subject I teach and my teaching philosophy, I believe teaching the concepts is more important than just teaching the facts. Just like what Clark said about concepts, "is a mental representation of ideas that include multiple specific examples." Teaching concepts in social science is important concepts is what social science is about, where concepts are constantly repeating themselves, just like historical events. One of my favorite quotes that I learned from my Master Teacher and still use up to this day is the concept of history repeating itself. "Names, dates, places change, but the concepts always stays the same." Teaching students more about the concepts of historical event or fact, I believe, is more important than just learning facts because these concepts will reappear again throughout history. When students learn and understand these concepts, they are more prepared for the future and be able to problem solve better.
How all this relates to by DQ is that I redefined my driving question to where it teaches more of the concept rather than just the fact. My DQ changed now to state, can the use of tech increase student empathy for effecting social change? So in this example, it doesn't matter of my students choose to support a non-profit organization that helps the homeless to fresh water in Africa, the concept that students have the power to effect social change is the end goal. Just like what Dervin stated in her research, it doesn't matter what tool one uses, but it is the way it is presented that will make the most difference to the learners. With this in mind, it doesn't matter if the students creates blogs on Weebly or creates Google Slides using Screencastify, their message of involvement to help create a better world or to help their community (the concept) is more important and more everlasting. By knowing my audience, which are my students, and what their likes and dislikes are, will help teach the concept of empathy better to them and allows students to be more connected to the subject being taught and to their communities. My original thought of my audience was my students based on my driving question. As a social science teacher I always wanted my students to be more than just academic smart. I wanted my students to know that they can become successful many different ways other than book smart or excelling in their classes, but also paying attention to the world around them. Taking opportunities when presented and making the best of those opportunities. For example, if their love working on cars they need to take the opportunity to learn about cars and get their hands dirty and work on cars. Just like what Dr. Baggio stated in chapter in chapter 5, "many of us, if not most of us, are predominately visual learners." But how do students learn by visual learning if they don't take advantages of the opportunities to learn and be confident in what they want? That is why my original thought of my audience was my students. I wanted them to know that their use of technology today, especial Social Network Sites, can give them the opportunities to be successful outside the classroom, gain the confidence to want more, and to be proactive in their lives to make our society better as a whole.
Now, I feel like my audience is both students and teachers, coworkers, peers. My new audience my include teachers and peers is because to reach this goal of using SNS that can influence our students to become more proactive and confident in their lives and their community it will take more than me. It is like a family, with family by your side doing the impossible is possible, unlike being b yourself. To reach this goal SNS must be infused with each teachers teaching to make it feel more natural for them and the students. It doesn't matter what kind of SNS is used, from Facebook, Snapchat, to Twitter, students and teachers should use SNS within their subject to help increase education in the 21st century and to learn about issues that are effecting their lives that they can make a difference in. Just like Clark stated it’s the instructional methods that make the training more or less effective, and the delivery media are just ways to deliver the instructional methods to the learners. Or where Baggio states "it makes no difference which technologies or approaches you useto create a learning experience ." My initial ideas in addressing the challenge of creating a resource to influence others is by finding "visual examples" or real stories that would help promote my driving question. I would create a list of websites, apps, and primary resources to use as evidence to help share my knowledge and research findings to my peers. But most of all, make sure my peers understand that each student has their own way of learning, their own way of "remembering" and "applying" the lesson, and that each lesson should be fluid and flexible and not rigid like old lesson plans. Key Ideas from Clark:
Clark defines technical training as “a structured learning environment engineered to improve workplace performance in ways that are aligned with bottom-line business goals.” ISD(Instructional Systems Design) is a “systematic process for planning, designing, and building” training materials.” There is no one type of delivery media that’s “better” than others it’s the instructional methods that make the training more or less effective, and the delivery media are just ways to deliver the instructional methods to the learners. Not all delivery media types can include all instructional methods. It’s a good idea to pick and choose the delivery media for each training need with that in mind. Key Ideas from Dervin: How people see their “gaps” and how they choose to “bridge” them is fundamental to understanding sense making. How do we as teachers accomplish this? Different types of barriers exist (decision stop, barrier stop, spin out stop, washout stop, and the problematic stop). Each one is how the person perceives each one of these barriers. Sense making refers to how people “construct sense of their experiences” as a way of gaining information. If each person views reality in such different ways, how can we tailor to the individual enough to help them be successful? “Something systemic about individual behavior to be found by pursuing process orientations.” Having an effective process is necessary. Seems to be summed up as a way of understanding human behavior and using it to try and predict which “road” someone might take that is trying to obtain information. The how they got there is more important than the answer itself. Is the “system the essential order and the person/user bends to it rather than the other way around? The “chaos of individuality.” Each student is so uniquely different. We use different tactics to gain information depending on the circumstance. “Studying the constructing that humans do to make sense of their experiences.” Key Ideas from Baggio: Constructivism is “widely accepted today.” The “learner constructs knowledge by integrating prior and current knowledge.” This approach focuses on what people have learned rather than what has been taught. “Active rather than passive learning.” “Knowledge can be developed by learners and shared without necessarily having to first pass through an instructor.” The teacher is the “facilitator.” The idea is that students need to be part of the process, not just receivers of information. This says that subject matter experts are no longer necessary. People are becoming more and more of visual learners. WIIFM- what’s in it for me? The focus should be what is best for the learner. 4 ways that we use our vision; attention, perception, visualization, and imagination. Mental repetition can be just as helpful as the real thing-basketball example. “Knowledge defines what we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.” Connecting the two: Student expectations are radically different than they have been in the past. Skills like evaluating and analyzing are beginning to have a more prominent role than repetition. Understanding how students learn is vital to helping students “bridge the gap” in their learning. The “how” they got there and the behaviors that shaped those choices are important items to understand in the learning process. Due to these changes, we need to make students feel that they are part of the process. They can just be there to have a bunch of info dumped on them. We need to understand the barriers that students face, the choices that they make to try and make connections to the information, and this can be accomplished through communication. Creativity needs to be a focus. Somewhere along the line students lose their love for learning. What steps can we take help them find it again? On top of all the curriculum and digital citizenship that needs to be taught, how do we teach “agency”? Helping students understand how they got confused, and what steps to take to overcome that confusion, are important metacognition skills that also need to be taught. How can we use visuals in the most effective way possible? Just because we use visuals doesn’t make them useful in students accessing content. After reading all three authors I still believe my driving question is still the same. I would still like to know how can SNS promote civil service, more students being proactive within their communities, and make them more vocal in politics. What I need to know more of maybe is more of the students learning methodology, more family history, or more student preference in their own politics. Looking back to last semester it would seem it was a blur with positive and negative experience. On the positive side I feel like my own knowledge on how to become a better teacher using 21st century technology in my classroom as grown exponentially. On the negative aspect, it would seem it went too fast and my action research was not up to par if it was given a bit more direction and time to truly research and implement. However, the experience and data gathered opened my eyes on how I can be a better teacher and that I can use multiple technology within my classroom to reach my students. For example, in Dervin's article, she talks about how we as teachers must go deeper knowing our students to really know and understand our students. We must try to know them where they come from, their family history, their specific reasons why our students are they way they are, rather than judging them based on their test scores.
Using this idea from Dervin it makes me wonder how I can improve the data collecting from my action research from the 1st semester. Should I ask more questions about my student's personal history? Should I ask more questions to my students about their political ideology? Should I ask more questions to my students about why they vote or don't vote? Maybe through these type of questions will give me more insights on why young adults between the ages of 18-25 don't vote or don't feel more proactive within their communities. Also, with more of these type of qualitative questions it will give me more insights on how Social Network Sitessuch as Twitter and Facebook, to get more students involved with their communities and to promote civil service. When I first read the article by Dr. Dervin and the way she talked about "bridging the gap between the seeker and his or her answer" reminds me of a key term used within my government classes. In my government classes we have a term called "linkage institution", where it is a structure within a society that connects the people to the government or centralized authority. These institutions include: elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media. These structures within our society helps "bridge the gap" between the government and the people within their society. In other words, linkage institutions such as mass media, the internet, and social network sites, can relay messages, ideas, and wants much easier and faster to the government and to its people.
Yet, according to Dervin, our society has often a miscommunication with each other due to people not asking the right questions and not truly understand the needs and wants of the person asking for help. One of the main reasons for the lack of communication is due to the lack of focus on behavior. "As such, that the important things that can be learned about the human use of information and information systems must be conceptualized as behaviors." (Dervin, 1992). As teachers we tend to forget this important fact and for us to reach our students and help them grow we must understand their background and behaviors more often. For example, a student who does not do their homework doesn't mean that they are trying to be defiant towards the teacher or being lackadaisical, but maybe instead they didn't have time to do their homework due to working long hours to help pay their family bills, the student doesn't have the proper resources at home such as internet to complete their homework, or other psychological or emotional issues they are trying to avoid at home that prevents them from doing their homework. Teaching at a Title I school I see these reasons a lot of why students do not attempt or finish the homework assigned to them in class. Once the teacher takes into account the student's behavior, the teacher can then figure out which tool to use for that particular student and is able to "bridge the gap" between them leading to less communication. "Sense making is more than a theory. It is a methodology for understanding human behavior and learning ways to meet human needs." (Leporati, 2013) If I had to teach this same reading content my students, I would definitely not give them this article to read and try to comprehend. I would break this article into mind-sized chunks by finding similar articles that are less dense than Dr. Dervin. I would also use YouTube and find videos on Dervin's main ideas and show my students that way instead of reading the article. Also, as a government teacher, I would use the Socratic method to induce class discussions and class reflections on student personal lives that relate to the article form them to relate more on this topic. I have found by doing this method it "bridges the gap" easier and faster when my students can relate to the topic being discussed. |