The purple and teal walls of my high school classroom look quite different from the bland ones of Michael Wesch’s university classroom. But, if they could talk, they would point out the differences in our student populations and the differences in our students’ skin color--but that is another conversation. His students’ complaints address valid concerns about our current education system and he explains how technology is changing teaching and learning. The ideas shared in Wesch’s 2010 video, “From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able,” have been developed among the edtech community over the past five years; “embrace real problems, let students collaborate, and harness relevant tools.” Currently, I am confident in my ability to create lessons that push students to collaborate and use tools, but I am still working on figuring out the best type of “real world problems” to ask my students to explore. When developing project-based learning units or even just selecting text for my English 9 and 10 classes, I often get hung up on Welsh’s question, “What do we need to know for the rest of our lives?” I know my freshmen and sophomores should publish “something of worth” to keep up with the privileged students from our county’s High Tech High and Canyon Crest Academy who will be sitting next to them in college classes in a few years. However, I also acknowledge my students’ pasts, current challenges, and harsh realities they will face after graduation--just this morning I found out that one of our alumni just died of an overdose. Wesch’s 2010 statement that students should be taught to “embrace real problems” is a predecessor to the current trend of problem-based learning, which I am currently attempting to implement in my classroom. This past spring, I created a unit following the Buck Institute’s Project Planner. As I developed the unit, I intentionally decided to select a driving question directly relevant to my students. I want to help them learn this new learning process before pushing them into advanced unfamiliar content. My sophomores answered the question “How can we use digital media to persuade foster youth to attend San Pasqual Academy?”. While working on the project, students followed Wesch’s steps to “connect, organize, share, collect, collaborate, and publish.” I stepped back, observed, and coached as they worked. I learned that the learning which occurred throughout the entire process--from brainstorming to debriefing after the showcase--and was greater than the content of the videos they produced. In the effort of pushing myself to share, my Resident Recruitment project plan is available here. Looking ahead to the units I will plan for this summer and the upcoming school year, I want to continue to create problem-based learning units. But, I am not going to jump my freshmen right into trying to solve the world’s problems. Instead, I want them to focus on learning the process. I want the content they explore to be “of worth” to their lives, such as independent living skills, managing emotions, social skills, financial literacy, and creating and maintaining healthy relationships. These baby steps will help them to slowly build toward what Wesch terms as “knowledge-able.” Ideally, these units will better prepare them to emancipate from the foster care system while also preparing them to participate in college classes with those High Tech High students. Resource TEDxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able. Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leaahv4uti8
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As I viewed Dr. David White’s video “Visitors and Residents” (2013) and learned about the visitor/resident theory of internet use motivation, I saw my own movement along his continuum. I was rapidly moving away from the visitor end of the continuum toward the resident end around six years ago, but I have allowed my resident role to regress over the past four years. Fortunately, I am now moving back toward the role of a public educator on the resident end of the continuum.
Around five years ago, I figured out how the edtech world of Twitter, blogging, and conferences worked. I had the skills to become a strong resident and tested the waters. I engaged by making my classroom public, writing reflective blog posts, sharing resources, participating in chats, and attending conferences. However, I noticed that the amount of time and energy it took to maintain this level of participation distanced me from my classroom. I was connecting with other educators instead of my own students and their invested adults. I was focusing on trends in education instead of developments in educating traumatized foster youth. I intentionally migrated back toward the visitor end of Dr. White’s visitor-resident continuum. But, I went too far. I zoomed too far into my campus. I practically stopped reading educational texts, stopped Tweeting, abandoned my classroom and professional blog, and moved my classroom’s online presence to a closed learning management system. I focused on building relationships with, and learning from, adults on my campus from partner agencies and instructional coaches provided by my district’s new administration team. I increased my responsibilities on campus by adding varsity volleyball coach and ASB advisor to my existing role as English 9 & 10 teacher and yearbook advisor. My professional online identity began suffering from neglect--but so did my teaching. However, I still used Instagram to connect with educators in my personal learning network. This nudged me back over to the resident side of Dr. White’s continuum. Among a feed of pictures of my friends’ pets, children, and dinners, I began to see posts of creative projects from Reuben Hoffman (@reubenhoffman), makerspace tinkerings from Mark Rounds (@markrounds5), and conference networking adventures of Jeff Heil (@jheil65). They were having fun and just plain doing cool stuff. They made me want to jump back into the world of learning, taking risks, and sharing. I started photographing and posting events on my campus. But, I noticed that I was not posting many images from my classroom---because nothing worth photographing was happening! When I pulled back from reading, writing, and sharing with other educators to focus on campus, I had unintentionally pulled back from learning and challenging myself. Even though I had not heard of Dr. White’s visitor-resident continuum at the time, I realized that I needed to push myself back into participating in conversations in order to continue learning. So, I am back! I am now intentionally pushing myself along Dr. White’s continuum from the visitor position I regressed into and back toward the resident side where I know I need to be in order to be an effective educator. I am Tweeting again. I am reading educational text--including books about trauma. I am teaching lessons worth sharing on Instagram. I am registered for conferences. I am learning Google+. I am locked into a Master's program that I know will hold me accountable in case I get distracted. And, I am writing my first reflective blog post in four years. Works Cited White, D. (2013, May 30). Visitors and Residents. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFBadv04eY |
@npriesterA collection of my learning from SDSU EDL 680 Seminar in Personalized Learning Archives
August 2015
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