I recently attended a workshop entitled “Beyond Assessing for Knowledge” presented by Kimberly Tanner whose research agenda is:

To understand how people learn science and how teachers and scientists can collaborate to make science teaching and learning in classrooms – Kindergarten through college – more like how scientists work (http://biology.sfsu.edu/people/kimberly-tanner).

The key points that I extracted from the talk are:

• To what extent do current assessments yield insight into the development of “Thinking Like a (Professional in the Field Being Studied)?”
• The problem with many assessments is they measure what students know not what they can do with that knowledge.
• How can instructional strategies help learners develop expertise in the content area?

Dr. Tanner presented her research about the development of expertise among graduating undergraduate biology students. Simply stated, she used card sorting to analyze expertise.  She got some baseline data using biology faculty and non-biology freshman.   Obviously, the biology faculty far outscored the non-biology freshman.  Then this same task was given to graduating biology students.  The predication was that the graduating biology students would more closely match the faculty, but the results indicated that that they were only a few percentage points above the non-biology freshman.

The results don’t surprise me as I believe this is indicative of the problem we not only have in higher education, but also in K-12 environments.  Students learn the basic surface knowledge related to the content presented in their classes.  Their test scores often indicate as such.  But what does testing students on the lowest levels of Blooms taxonomy – knowing, possibly understanding  – really tell us?  What will the students know, understand, and use outside of the classroom related to the content taught?  How will their ways of being and interacting in the world be different because of these learning experiences?

This information is not new nor earth shattering.  I have a hunch that similar results would occur if this research was used to assess students’ knowledge about most any content area.  There are several key elements or questions that are pertinent to this discussion:

1. What is the ultimate goal of teaching and learning?  For students to know something on the surface or for students to be able to think and do something differently?
2. What is the clarion call from the research like Dr. Kimmer’s?
3. How should and can instructional strategies be reformed to help learners think like the professionals in their respective fields?
4. What types of assessment measure deep learning?

One strategy proposed by Angela Maiers in Who Are Their Learning Heroes — and Why? is to have learners build a dream team of thinkers and doers, a team of their heroes and explore not only their knowledge base but also their -

• work ethic
• study habits
• thought process
• energy focus
• other behavioral practices

I believe that a focus in Passion-Based Learning can also lead to deep learning.  I discuss this more in PBL is Passion-Based Learning: Show Me Your Passion.

This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Business was recently published by Fast Company. It’s intent is to introduce and describe some of the key movers and shakers in the business world and includes danah boyd and Peter Cashmore.  What is of particular to me, as an educator, is those factors that influenced their successes.

Some the key points from this article include:

The fast rate of change creates difficulties in predicting the future . . .

The pace of change in our economy and our culture is accelerating–fueled by global adoption of social, mobile, and other new technologies–and our visibility about the future is declining.

New technologies and social media are producing vast, significant change . . .

In an age where Twitter and other social-media tools play key roles in recasting the political map in the Mideast; where impoverished residents of refugee camps would rather go without food than without their cell phones; where all types of media, from music to TV to movies, are being remade, redefined, defended, and attacked every day in novel ways–there is no question that we are in a new world.

Being able to conceptualize today’s world in a single, static paradigm is impossible . . .

There is one certainty, however. The next decade or two will be defined more by fluidity than by any new, settled paradigm; if there is a pattern to all this, it is that there is no pattern. The most valuable insight is that we are, in a critical sense, in a time of chaos. Chaotic disruption is rampant.

Old and institutionalized models of problem-solving do not work for today’s problems in today’s institutions . . .

There’s a difference between the kind of problems that companies, institutions, and governments are able to solve and the ones that they need to solve. Most big organizations are good at solving clear but complicated problems. They’re absolutely horrible at solving ambiguous problems–when you don’t know what you don’t know. Faced with ambiguity, their gears grind to a halt (sounds like the current educational system).

The nostalgic “we’ve always done it that way” will lead to failure.  A future-focus needs to drive change . . .

If ambiguity is high and adaptability is required, then you simply can’t afford to be sentimental about the past. Future-focus is a signature trait of Generation Flux. Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before. It’s also about as useful as an appendix right now. When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seem simpler, and we have the urge to re-create them.  But when the past has been blown away by new technology, by the ubiquitous and always-on global hypernetwork, beloved past practices may well be useless.

It is imperative to learn the technology tools of the day and these change daily . . .

It’s irresponsible not to use the tools of the day. If you master those things and stop, you’re just going to get killed by the next thing. Flexibility of skills leads to flexibility of options. To see what you can’t see coming, you’ve got to embrace larger principles.

Only those who are open and adaptable will survive . . .

To flourish requires a new kind of openness. More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin foreshadowed this era in his description of natural selection: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” As we traverse this treacherous, exciting bridge to tomorrow, there is no clearer message than that.

21st Century and Workforce Skills

Organizations such as The Partnership for 21st Learning and Institute for the Future have proposed skills necessary to survive and thrive in the current and future workforce.  But given as the article proposes, our visibility about the future is declining, even these might not address this Generation Flux.

Extracted from the article are the current 21st century skills needed in today‘s workforce:  (Note that the words current and today are highlighted meaning that they might change in the near future.)

• Embraces instability.
• Learns to recalibrate thoughts, actions, attitudes based on what is what is being presented.
• Learns continuously from multiple sources of information.
• Understands global, mobile, and technology trends.
• Ability to work collaboratively and within teams.
• Ability to work with and solve complex, ambiguous problems.
• Takes risks while managing fears.
• Has a passion for learning new skills.
• Open-mindedness.
• Future-focused.

How does the school curriculum reflect and “teach” these skills?  What is being done to prepare learners for generation flux?

I was at a summer day camp in sixth grade.  They took us on a field trip to a local amusement park.  I had wandered away from the group and settled on a park bench to watch a group of kids with developmental disabilities on the merry-go-round.  The looks of pure delight and squeals of joy resonated deeply within me.  I had never seen such pure and innocent joy.  The richness of the experiences I was witnessing brought tears to my eyes.  Growing up I had been given a message that folks like the ones I was seeing had disabilities but wondered who really had the disability.  Most of my friends and the adults I knew did not seem to have the capability to be that fully present in a moment.  So where was and who had the real disability?  This was a peak experience in my life.  I so desperately wanted to discuss my thoughts with someone but knew that my friends wouldn’t understand nor were there any adults in my life with whom I could share my thoughts.

I later become a counselor focusing on at-risk youth.  My preference was to use group counseling.  The things shared by youth in that setting were profound, insightful, and sometimes earth-shattering.  Not only did they share their often very difficult life experiences, they talked about religion, sexuality, and prejudice.  Since many were the “outcasts”, they had ideas often not shared by a mainstream public.  I often left those sessions and went to have a deep cry about the life experiences and thoughts shared by the kids.

Now as an educator and teacher educator, I wonder, given the extremely structured settings of education, where kids can share their personal ideas and thoughts.  Kids spend much of their time in school and this may be the only social setting in their lives.  So I believe school and after-school programs need to provide kids with a place and space to express themselves.  I believe this place needs to have the following characteristics.

• There is no agenda, topic for discussion, nor curriculum.
• It should be non-judgmental  – all ideas and thoughts are accepted, even those that would make adults shutter.
• There should be opportunities for all kids to have a voice.
• There should be materials for kids to share their voice in different ways through the spoken word, written word, photography, videography, and other art and music venues.
• It should be multi-age so the perspectives from different age groups can be shared.
• The role of the adults and educators in such a setting would be that of active listener and a witness not a teacher nor advice giver.
• I believe it can be done virtually with a moderator who censures comments and artifacts that do not meet the above criteria.

Most classes, starting with about middle school, begin the school year with reviewing the content to be covered, expectations regarding grades, and other academic information provided by the teacher or instructor.  The human or social element is often disregarded.

What is interesting is that most learners enter the classroom wondering who is in the course.  They want to know about the teacher and the people in the class not what material is to be covered. What this says to me as an educator is that it all begins with a social connection – between the educator and the learners, and between the learners themselves.

All of my classes, regardless of student age or demographics – elementary gifted students or graduate students, begin with ice-breakers and team-building activities.  I recently developed a passion for using students’ mobile devices to do so as this devices have become natural and personalized extensions of students’ “selves.”

What follows are several of the mobile-driven ice-breakers I recently used in an undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relations.  I also include some student reactions to these activities.

Cell Sharing

• Ask participants to locate a photo, song, or video from their mobile device that best represents them.
• Each person then shares his or her media and the reason it was selected.
• For photo or video sharing:  Pass the device around so all students can view the image or use a webcam to project the image onto a larger computer screen or whiteboard.
• For sharing of music: Attach portable speakers to assist with the sharing of songs so others can hear them.

Student Reflections about Cell Sharing

Several students stated that this was their favorite activity of the class.

I thought it was awesome that you wanted everyone to show the class a picture or type of music that had meaning to us. By doing this we got to see and learn a little bit more of our peers.

We did a photo/audio thing which was my favorite activity because we got to learn a little bit of everyone’s lives

Question Selector

• Participants use a random number picker to select a number from one to 145.
  • Online
    • http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/
    • http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html
  • Blackberry
    • http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/18863?lang=en
• They then answer the question that corresponds with their number on http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Question_Cup
• Answers are posted on a Sticky Note Board such as Wallwisher or Wifitti.
• The answers can be projected on a whiteboard (if done face-to-face) or students can view the answers via their own computers (face-to-face or virtually).

Texting Interviews

• Randomly pair students (can be either face-to-face or virtually).
• Ask them to develop questions that they would ask to help them get to know someone better.
• The pairs text their questions and answers back and forth.
• Interviewers summarize what they found out about their partners and posts their partners’ names and this information on a Sticky Note Board such as Wallwisher.

Student Reflection About the Texting Interviews

I enjoyed the texting exercise. It’s pretty cool when your teacher lets you use your phone for the activities especially since I got to learn more about my partner.

Student Reflections About the Ice Breaker Activities

I think that those games helped us get to know each other and were a very good ice breaker to help us know who our class mates are.

We played many activities and I believe that they all helped in breaking the ice between us all. We were able to get to know each other easier and faster than in a typical classroom environment.

I learned to communicate better instead of hanging back in a corner.

Although we all come from different backgrounds and cultures we all related quite well and by learning about each other we can start to establish friendships

]]> http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/first-class-ice-breakers-using-mobile-devices/feed/ 7 jackiegerstein 2012-01-04_1837 638148 6864481 8395077_orig http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/student-reflections-as-part-of-class-design/ http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/student-reflections-as-part-of-class-design/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:36:14 +0000 Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D. http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/?p=1964 ]]> I previously blogged about the important of including reflections in education in Where is reflection in the learning process? This posts describes two ongoing strategies I use for student reflections for an undergraduate course I teach.  These strategies are extremely easy to implement and provide such rich information both for the learners and me as the educator.

End of Class Reflections

At the end of each class session, students report in a verbal go-around, what the class session meant to them.  They are asked to extract key and significant learnings.  The video that follow was from our first class together that focused on building a learning community.

I view this as a verbal exit ticket.  I see the power of the exit ticket especially in shorter class periods, but the verbal reflections permits the entire classroom community to hear one another’s responses.  This method also allows me, as the teacher, to get immediate feedback about how the class went and which activities were the most powerful/significant for the students.

Class Reflections on Facebook

Each week (the class meets once a week), students post their reflections about the class onto a Facebook page set up for the course.  They are also asked to respond to at least two other members.  All students have Facebook pages so this increases ease of access.

The use of the end of class verbal go-arounds and the Facebook reflections allows for a community-based form of reflection.  Not only do students get to personally reflect on and learn from the class activities, the community of learners get to learn about what others got from these experiences.  This builds a sense of community and increases the potential learning of all students in the class as they get to discover what others have learned.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 37,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

I have taken this advice into my teaching.  My teaching experiences include elementary gifted and PE, and teacher education courses.  Some classes last an hour, some a full day (gifted kids and weekend intensives for pre- and in-service teachers).  I bring this philosophy into the classroom in all my teaching – no matter the age or content.  The learners are giving me their time, literally pieces of their lives.  It becomes my responsibility to provide them with experiences worthy of their time.  In most of my teaching situations, I would see them again for the next class – but one never knows.  I have had a handful of students who suddenly went missing-in-action due to family conflicts, emergencies, etc.

In terms of what this means in my teaching practices, I strive to bring magic and joy into my classroom.  I want students to shiver with positive anticipation and energy when they enter class that day – not knowing exactly what to expect, but knowing it will be something exciting.

I work towards having my students experience one or more of the following:

• An “Aha” – a new insight about the content, self, or the world-at-large.
• A feeling of being an important part of and connected to the world.
• A rise in self-esteem (Note: Seeing a student’s eyes light up/body posture change – observing the growth in self-worth is the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed.)
• A new question to explore.
• A new topic of personal interest.
• A new friend to learn more about.
• A flow experience.

I work towards and have a desire for every student to leave each class qualitatively different than when he or she came to class that day.  This is a lofty goal but really adds to the creativity, engagement, and joy I attempt to infuse into each class session.

As is true for many of us using educational technology in the classroom, we are experimenting with how technology can enhance the learning experiences of our students.  Sometimes we have failures, often times we have successes.  Yet, in this age of evidenced-based education, educators, administrators, and other decision-makers are depending on and using the data gleamed from large studies often completed by companies with vested interests, e.g. Gates Foundation, book publishers, and testing companies.

Educators can easily conduct action research about the practices they are using in their own classrooms especially given the ease of creating online surveys and data collection methods.  Yet, it seems that it is rarely done.

For example, I introduced Quest Atlantis into my gifted classes a few years ago and asked these 3rd through 5th graders to complete a survey to assess its efficacy from the student perspective.  The results I received were rich and informative.  The kids offered great feedback, ideas, and suggestions.  See Beyond the Game: Quest Atlantis as an Online Learning Experience for Gifted Elementary Students.

So if educators want to influence what occurs in not only their own classrooms, but in the classrooms of their co-teachers, then they need to invest the time and energy to demonstrate best practices.  In a related blog, I discuss Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.

End-of-Course Survey

The Interpersonal Relations course was offered during Fall, 2011.  There were 12 students in the course – five were male, 7 were female; ten of the students were 18 to 20 years old, one was 25 years old, and the oldest student was a female in her 50s.

The first section of the survey listed all of the class activities that used the students’ cell phones.  I blogged about the individual activities.  The archive of these blog posts can be found at User-Generated Education tagged with mobile learning.

Obviously the sample size is small, but I was excited to find that most of the students found most of the activities of some value and that only one student found one of the activities a waste of time.

I also asked a series of open ended questions . . .

Favorite and Least Favorite Activities?

These were all over the map with no general consensus.

What was the greatest advantage of using students’ mobile phones to get to know one another and build a sense of community in the class?

The responses centered around being able to use the devices they used outside of the class,

It was something that we use everyday so it related back to us.

It was something they were familar with.

The students use their phones on a regular basis.

. . . and that their devices helped to create an environment of sharing, friendliness

It provided us with a common ground on which to get to know each other.

We got to talk to each other outside of class, not just when we were in class.

We were able to communicate outside of class and create friendships.

You got to know the people better though them.

To get a better experience from the class and enjoy coming to class.

What was the biggest problems in using students’ mobile devices during class time?

As was expected, most of the student responses centered around them being a distraction.

People would abuse it and text friends and do other things that the activity wasn’t for.

The students were tempted to use the phones for personal use.

Sometimes people weren’t always doing what they were supposed to be doing.

Students had more of a chance to get distracted.

Some people texted when they should have been participating.

(Note:  I had to implement a device away strategy, when I had to ask students, often several times, to put their devices away when we weren’t using them for class activities.)

A few mentioned service problems.

Some didn’t work.

The service was bad because i would send a text and it would show up ten minuets later.

What recommendations would you make to improve the use of students’ mobile devices for class activities and community-building?

Most of the students stated, “None.”

There are none everything is A Okay.

Interestingly, two mentioned having laptops available for all students.

Change the moblie devices into personal laptops provided by the school.

Have computers for each student.

Next week, I begin this course again with a new group of students.  I will continue to test out the mobile learning activities and get student feedback about them.

Thanks Fall, 2011, students!

]]> http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/a-end-of-course-student-survey-the-use-of-mobile-devices-for-class-activities/feed/ 1 jackiegerstein 2011-12-27_1817 IMG_4013 http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/evaluating-the-value-of-apps-for-educational-use/ http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/evaluating-the-value-of-apps-for-educational-use/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:43:10 +0000 Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D. http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/?p=1887 ]]> As of the writing of this post, there are approximately a million apps available.  On my daily Twitter feeds, I see list after list of apps for educational use.

• Monster List of Apps for People with Autism
• 22 Best Apps for Education
• 250 best iPad apps: education

Yesterday, I saw a post from TechCrunch The Top 20 iPhone and iPad Games Of 2011.  I downloaded and have been playing Cut the Rope for two days now.  It has been giving me hours of joy.  See Cut the Rope: Experiments Review. If I was still teaching my 3rd through 5th grade gifted students, I would definitely introduce them to this game.

I have been critical of the use of educational apps and games in the classroom in that many of them have been developed by adults in business ventures.  They are more like worksheets on steroids rather than games and apps for higher-order thinking.  I also wonder as I read through the lists of recommended apps if the kids, themselves, would find them educational and interesting . . . worth their personal time in using and playing with them.

As such, I test out technology tools and games from the standpoint of a user rather than an educator . . . asking if I’d like to use it if I were one of today’s young students.  Based on my own experiences as a gamer, educator and kid at heart (one of my 4th grade students gave me the compliment, “You haven’t forgotten what it is like to be a kid.”), I developed my own criteria for evaluating the potential of apps for educational use and engagement:

• Does it have cool graphics and an interesting interface?
• Is there a game-like and/or creative intent to the app?
• Is it fun and entertaining?
• Does it make the user laugh with joy?
• Does it require creativity, ingenuity, imagination, and problem-solving in its use?
• Do the tasks get more complicated, requiring more skills as the user works through the game-app?
• Does the user have the opportunity to gain points and level-up?
• Does it have an addictive quality (yes, I believe in this) in that it calls for continuous play?
• Does using the app create a state of flow?
• Are there opportunities to connect with other users for socializing? problem-solving?  strategizing?

As I said, I am currently spending my time playing Cut the Rope (physics and geometry).  Past personal addictions have included Scrabble (language arts) and building in Second Life (geometry and spatial reasoning).  Friends’ and colleagues’ game and app passions have included World of Warcraft (economics, social bargaining/cooperation) and Angry Birds (physics).

Excluded from the list is a question about educational value.  A good educator can extract learnings from any app that meets most of the criteria discussed above.  If educational value can be extracted from Angry Birds, then it is possible with almost any app

It is important to note that one person’s app and game joys may not be another person’s, but most offer educational opportunities.  An educator can leverage what students are using and playing in their own lives and explore ways they can be integrated into the curriculum to learn different content area concepts.  The role of the educator is this era of learning of that of facilitator.  What a great way to facilitate learning – to leverage what the learners are using in their own lives to teach broader content-related concepts.

The bottom line becomes focusing on quality rather than quantity – to find those apps and games that have potential for long term use and engagement.  Following a constructivist model of education, an effective educator can assist students to extract their own meanings from an app of personal interest, helping them make larger world connections (which includes addressing those ever present content-related standards).

Most educators would agree that a major purpose of education is to assist learners in gaining the skills, attitudes, and knowledge for having a better quality of life now and in their futures.  So any discussion about technology integration should include this purpose.

Qualitative evidence points to the ease by which kids pick up their computer devices and use them as if they were brain-wired to do so.

But even as some parents and educators express unease about students’ digital diets, they are intensifying efforts to use technology in the classroom, seeing it as a way to connect with students and give them essential skills. Across the country, schools are equipping themselves with computers, Internet access and mobile devices so they can teach on the students’ technological territory.

“If it weren’t for the Internet, I’d focus more on school and be doing better academically,”  says one youth. But thanks to the Internet, he says, he has discovered and pursued his passion: filmmaking. Without the Internet, “I also wouldn’t know what I want to do with my life.”   Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

Hmm.  So in the big picture, do we want students to do better academically or find and pursue their passions?  I do understand that many educators would argue for both.  The current educational climate is so centered on academic achievement and standards-based curriculum, I believe we need to make proactive, concentrated attempts to get the pendulum to swing towards semi-structured, open-ended, process-oriented and student-driven learning environments.

Two recent and interconnected discussions have implications about how technology can be used in the classroom to ignite passion, innovation, and creativity . . . technological imagination and tinkering.

Technological Imagination

A course being offered at the University of Washington during Winter, 2011 provides this description of technological imagination.

Humans have always been technical beings. We live in and through our technology: from stone tools and woven baskets to combustion engines and computers, our society is continually altered by the existence of these technical objects. Living in a highly industrialized, networked society such as ours, one need only try to imagine life (let alone college life) without computer or Internet technologies, or any number of everyday information technologies which seamlessly mediate our daily routines; yet this is precisely what it is so difficult to do: to “think” technology, and to see its peculiar agency in our individual experiences and in our social world.  For us, this situation seems magnified by globalization and the intricate layering and interconnectedness of technical systems, complex industrial machines, and vast networks. Our needs go beyond an immediate understanding of a given technology to the development of a more reflective technological imagination in which we consider the ways technologies enable us, and shape and reshape our experience and social realities. “Developing the Technological Imagination” (Winter 2011)

Tinkering

In order for technological imagination to develop, tinkering needs to be encouraged within educational settings.  In his discussion about Learning for the Digital Age, John Seely Brown presented the following slides about tinkering.

If we want more young people to choose a profession in one of the group of crucial fields known as STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — we ought to start cultivating these interests and skills early. But the way to do so may not be the kind of highly structured and directed instruction that we usually associate with these subjects.  Time: In Praise of Tinkering

In a discussion with Howard Rheinhold, Mitch Resnick stated the following about tinkering.

One thing we’ve seen is that the best learning experiences come when people are actively engaged in designing things, creating things, and inventing things – expressing themselves. It’s not just a matter of giving people opportunities to interact with technologies or using technologies, but if we want people to really be fluent with new technologies and learn through their activities, it requires people to get involved as makers – to create things.

A lot of the best experiences come when you are making use of the materials in the world around you, tinkering with the things around you, and coming up with a prototype, getting feedback, and iteratively changing it, and making new ideas, over and over, and adapting to the current situation and the new situations that arise.

I think there are lessons for schools from the ways that kids learn outside of schools, and we want to be able to support that type of learning both inside and outside of schools. Over time, I do think we need to rethink educational institutions as a place that embraces playful experimentation. Mitch Resnick: The Role of Making, Tinkering, Remixing in Next-Generation Learning

The full interview can be viewed . . .

As I’ve stated before, I believe that the educator is now “the tour guide of learning possibilities”.  Educators should expose learners to the potential types and uses of technologies and then get out of the way so that the learners can tinker and develop their own technological imaginations . . .  ones not driven by state standards, competencies, outcomes, nor products.

Each educator needs to decide how to implement tinkering into his or her educational setting.  When I taught gifted elementary students, the last 45 minutes at the end of the school day was dedicated to tinkering.  I’d introduce the learners to Web 2.0 tools and hands-on technology kits like WeDo and PicoCricket.  I’d then get out of the way so they could  play, tinker, experiment while sharing their findings with me and their peers.