Learning Spaces as Student-Centric, Personal Narratives

One of the common teacher rituals when beginning the school year is the set up of the classrooms.  Teachers, driven by best intentions, set up their classrooms in ways they believe will promote learning.  But, inadvertently, the message given to students is that this is my (the teacher’s) classroom not yours.  The classroom becomes the teacher’s narrative, not the students’ individual narratives.  Even when the teacher puts up student samples, it is often the teacher who selects the samples and the spaces where the samples are displayed.

In Learning Spaces (School?) as Narrative Architecture, I discuss the importance of creating learning spaces where learners can develop and share their own unique voices, develop their own personal narratives of learning.

One of the tenets of Narrative Architecture is meaning making is not exclusively in the morphological properties of space themselves, nor in the cultural processes of its formation and interpretation, but in the dynamic network of spatial, social, intellectual and professional practices that embody and produce different kinds of social knowledge. (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/spsarra/book__architecture_and_narrative_)

The essential question becomes, How can the educator create the learning spaces to elicit the positive power of narrative architecture? This would be a space where learners feel as though they can tell their stories as the producers of their own learning.

Learners working in collaborative learning spaces will interpret and form the learning space to have personal, and ultimately collective, meaning. They do so in all learning spaces.  Does the learning space create stories of boredom . . .  fear . .  . isolation?  Or does it create stories of engaged and passionate learning experiences?  Because I fully believe that since time spent in any learning space becomes a narrative architecture for the learners, educators should approach that space with intention, knowing that learners will draw from and create meaning in and about that space.

Henry Jenkins used the concept of Narrative Architecture in his ideas regarding interactive gaming. “The game space becomes a memory palace whose contents must be deciphered as the player tries to reconstruct the plot and in the case of emergent narratives, game spaces are designed to be rich with narrative potential, enabling the story-constructing activity of players.” This statement can be translated to – have meaning for learning spaces: “The learning space becomes a memory palace whose contents must be deciphered as the learner tries to reconstruct what he or she is attempting to learn. Learning spaces should be designed to be rich with narrative potential, enabling the story-constructing and sense-making activity of learners.”

The how-to of creating this Narrative Architecture becomes having the educators and learners co-create this space together – all being equal participants in the process.  The space then becomes part of the learning process – increasing the opportunity and potential for deep and indelible understanding of the learning process and content.

Related Resources

• In Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content, I discuss Roomination when I began the school year teaching 6th graders by just piling the furniture and wall decorations in the middle of the room.  In small groups, students developed blueprints for the classroom.  Teams presented their designs to the rest of the class and their favorite design was voted upon.  Students arranged the room according to the winning design.

• 4 Lessons The Classroom Can Learn From The Design Studio: Perhaps the lexicon of education is broken. While the traditional construct of “classroom” may limit how we interact within our spaces, the labels of “teachers” and “students” (not to mention the conflation of authentic learning) may paralyze our progress as well. What would happen if classrooms operated more like studios?

• School Without Walls Fosters A Free-Wheeling Theory Of Learning  When planning the school, Bosch reached out to both teachers and students. “From the children we learned that there were different types of design that didn’t appeal to them,” she says. To wit: Because they work primarily on laptops not blackboards, they like seating arrangements that let them steal a peek at each other’s screens. “We therefore created special furniture that gave them more flexible ways of working side by side and together with their laptops,” Bosch says, “For example: spread out on rugspots, sitting side by side on a sitting island or in the organic conversation furniture.”

• What if eighth-graders reinvented the classroom? The students researched what their peers wanted in terms of school furniture, sketched out their ideas, created 3D computer models and physical mock-ups, and learned about appropriate materials and manufacturing techniques. Their prototypes then were made public at ICFF.

Note: At 4 minutes she discusses how they asked the high school kids to design their cafeteria.

Mobile Learning Lesson Plans

I teach an Integrating Technology Into the Classroom course for the Boise State Universities EdTech graduate program.  As part of the course, students are given a choice menu of options for integrating technology into their respective content areas.  One of these choices is to develop a Mobile Learning Lesson Plan.  This is the template they are asked to follow:

• Background
  • Content Area:
  • Title:
  • Grade Level or Target Group:

• Pre Planning
  • Big Idea(s):
  • Essential Questions:
  • Objectives:

• Lesson Opening
  • Lesson Opening (The Hook): Include a least one content-area app to gain students’ interest.

• Lesson Body
  • Explanation: Include at least one content-area app that provides an explanation of the concepts
  • Check for Understanding: Include at least one content-area app “tests” student knowledge of the concepts.
  • Extended Practice: Include at least one content-area app that assists students in getting more practice in applying content-related concepts.

• Closing
  • Lesson Closing: Include at least one content-area app that assists students creating a project – producing a project that integrates and demonstrates the lesson’s concepts.

What follows are some examples from students who selected this option.

Language Arts

Poetry In Motion

Big Idea(s):

• Poetry is “Found” Everywhere
• The  Power of Expression (word choice / word combinations)

Essential Questions:

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge states, “Poetry: the best words in the best order.” Why is word choice especially important to poetry?
• Marshall Mcluhan states, “The medium is the message.”  Does the “medium” influence how the message is perceived?

Full Lesson: http://itechnow.weebly.com/poetry-in-motion-mobile-learning.html

Mobile Learning for Writing

Big Idea:

• Different pre-planning and organization methods are used based on the reasons for writing and the intended audience.

Essential Questions:

• How does the style and genre we choose to write in effect the message?
• How do different organization structures support different writing genres?

Full Lesson: http://evolvingeducator.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/mobile-learning-lesson-plans/

Writing a Paragraph

Big Idea:

• Begin by brainstorming, move on to main idea and supporting details, conclusion, and eventually write a complete how-to paragraph.

Essential Question:

• Why do writers need to make sure their writing is effective?

Full Lesson: http://gieson-edtech541.wikispaces.com/Content+Area+Learning+Activities~Mobile+Learning

Sight Word Writing for Kindergarten

Big Idea:

• Learning and practicing sight words helps students not only read at grade level, but also helps students express their ideas to produce pieces of legible, coherent writing.

Essential Questions:

• What does the word start with?
• What do you hear at the beginning?
• What sounds do you hear?
• What do you need in between your words when writing a sentence?

Full Lesson: http://kathrynaverkamp.weebly.com/mobile-learning-witih-apps.html

English Language Learning

English through Social Media on a Mobile Phone

Big Idea:

• Language learners can improve their English language skills and increase their global awareness by interacting with English-based, social media platforms.

Essential Questions:

• How can language learners express their ideas and opinions in response to authentic social media discourse?
• To what extent can language learners accurately express their ideas and opinions in response to authentic social media discourse?
• Can this type of lesson help language learners such as those students in the Academic Bridge Program achieve course learning objectives?

Full Lesson: http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/randyvanarsdale/541/mobilelesson.html

Mathematics

Money Management Mobile Learning Activity

Big Idea:

• Mobile apps allow students anytime/anywhere access to money managementinformation and tools.

Essential Questions:

• What are the core concepts that make up money management?
• What can one do to better manage their money?

Objectives:

• Students learn concepts of money management.
• Students increase their ability in money management.
• Students are more confident when it comes to managing their money.

Full Lesson:  http://classroomtechintegration.weebly.com/mobile-learning-activity.html

Solving Multiple Step Equations: Mobile Device Lesson

Big Idea:

• Students will be able to undo the math operations and keep the equation balanced to solve for the variable.

Essential Questions:  

• What is the process to solve for the missing variable?
• Is there a pattern in solving for the variable?
• How does PEMDAS work when solving for the missing variable?

Full Lesson:http://jpiatt.weebly.com/mobile-learning.html

Art and Design

Digital Restaurant Flyer

Big Idea:

Using mobile technology, learners will develop conceptual, organizational, marketing, and artistic skills while producing a tangible digital composition in a real-world, design scenario.

Essential Questions:

• How can mobile technology be used to create an artistic design?
• How can mobile technology be used to develop an individual’s conceptual, developmental, and artistic skills?
• How can multiple mobile technologies be combined to make one, cohesive artistic design?
• How does the style and content of a design affect the overall perception and effectiveness of a marketing piece?
• What role does organization play in executing a design from the development of a design to the final delivery?

Full Lesson: http://joshuaslearninglog.com/mobile-learning-lesson/

Educators as Social Networked Learners

http://gretelpatch.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/periodic-table-of-connectivism/

This fall, I am getting the opportunity to design and teach a graduate course for Boise State University’s Education Technology Program entitled, Social Networked Learning.  The majority of students in the program are K-12 in-service teachers who are seeking ways to enhance their teaching with integrated and emerging technologies.  I am so excited about what students are producing for this course and in terms of meeting this goal that I wanted to share information about the course, a sampling of course activities, and example student work.

Course Description

This course explores collaborative and emergent pedagogies, tools, and theory related to the use of social networks in learning environments. Participants gain hands-on experience with a variety social networking tools, create their own personal learning networks, and have an opportunity to develop a MOOC-inspired course for their learners.

The ideas, content, and exercises presented in this course are driven by two basic tenets:

1. We are living, learning, and educating in an information-rich (Shirky), connected (Siemens), creative (Florida), participatory (Jenkins) culture.
2. This culture is seeing growth, development, and evolution of information and technology as never seen before in the history of  humankind.  As such, educators need to become learners along with being teachers.  Educators, in this age of teaching and learning, have a responsibility to connect with, learn from and with, and share resources and information with their students and other educators both locally and globally.

Drawing from these tenets and borrowing from Howard Rheingold’s syllabus on Social Media Literacies, I believe the course can be further described by the following:

Today’s personal, social, political, economic worlds are all affected by digital media and networked publics. Viral videos, free search engines, indelible and searchable digital footprints, laptops in lecture halls and smartphones at the dinner table, massive online university courses — it’s hard to find an aspect of daily life around the world that is not being transformed by the tweets, blogs, wikis, apps, movements, memes, likes and plusses, tags, text messages, and comments two billion Internet users and six billion mobile phone subscribers emit. New individual and collaborative skills are emerging. This course introduces students to both the literature about and direct experience about how to leverage social media for teaching and learning, skills and tools necessary for critical consumption of information, best practices of individual digital participation and collective participatory culture, the use of collaborative media, and the application of network know-how for professional development and networking teaching and learning.  (http://goo.gl/h5CIW)

Learning Goals 

1. Use a Personal Learning Network, and explain its value in educational settings.
2. Understand the value of web-based social networks within educational settings.
3. Identify learning theories and researched-based practices that support current approaches to effective use of social network technologies for learning.
4. Analyze strengths and weaknesses of various social networks and information management technologies for a variety of learning goals.
5. Contribute to professional-based social learning networks using a variety of media and communication mechanisms.
6. Identify factors with successful social networks, and create a social learning network-driven course for learners addressing these factors.

Course Modules

• The Theories Driving Social Networking: Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks
• Social Media for Professional Development & Reputation Management
• Building Your Personal Learning Network
• Social Networking As An Instructional Strategy
• Creating a MOOC-Inspired Online Community of Learners

Course Assignments

• Set Up Course Social Networking Areas and Sites
• Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks: Resource Identification
• Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks: Creative Understandings
• Social Media for Professional Development & Reputation Management
• Real Time and Live Professional Development
• Positive Digital Footprint and Reputation Management Plan
• Curation: Criteria for Quality Curation
• Curation: Curated Topic
• Building Your Personal Learning Network
• PLE Diagram
• Social Media Policies and Your Own Online Communities
• Synthesis and Application of Social Networking Tools and Ideas
• Creating a MOOC-Inspired Online Community of Learners
• Peer Review and Reflection

Module One: Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks

Assignment

During this module, you will be exploring communities of practice, connectivism, and personal learning networks. Understanding these concepts, philosophies, and ways of thinking provide a foundation for social networking.  It can help you use social networks strategically and with intention.  It helps inform your actions so you can use networks for engaged, participatory learning.

Create one or a combination of the following to demonstrate your understanding of these concepts:  a slide show or Glog of images, an audio cast of sounds, a video of sights, a series of handrawn and scanned pictures, a mindmap of images, a mathematical formula, a periodic chart of concepts, or another form of nonlinguistical symbols.  Note that it is not about words but about images and symbols.   Your product should contain the major elements discussed in this module: CoPs, Connectivism, and Personal Learning Networks.  Include a reference page of at least 10 (ten) CoP, Connectivism, and PLN resources you used to inform your work. Creating a “product” to represent your understanding of the concepts addresses (1) that we have become producers as well as consumers in this age of social networking and web 2.0; and (2) according to neuroscientist, John Medina, visuals are very powerful means for learning and understanding.

Student Examples

Communities of Practice are demonstrated by multiple instruments playing a major scale. All the musicians share the same passion (the scale). At first the musicians are out of sync but as they continue to work together and learn more the music begins to come together. By the end they are all playing together (Wenger, n.d.). I felt this was a good representation of how learning can be facilitated through Communities of Practice.

Personal Learning Networks are demonstrated through the use of drum beats. It starts with just one beat and slowly more and more beats are layered on top making the music (the learning) grow. The use of all drums represents the similar interest shared by people in a PLN and the variations in the beats represent how each person brings a unique perspective to the learning environment (Kharbach, 2012).

Connectivism is demonstrated by different instruments slowly being layered on top of each other. As the music becomes stronger it’s representing how learning can grow by connecting with others around the world through web 2.0 (“Connectivism”, n.d.). It also shows how learning with others is more effective than learning alone. (Creative Expression: CoPs, PLNs, and Connectivisim)

Module Two: Social Media for Professional Development & Reputation Management

 Assignment

Educators really can’t afford to NOT be on Twitter.  Our educational landscape is changing very rapidly.  Our students are using this technology every day, and as educators we must continually be growing and finding new ways to learn and to reach our students.  Is Twitter perfect?  By no means.  But used correctly, Twitter can really become a catalyst in transforming your classroom, your school, and your teaching.  (http://www.texasprincipal.org/index.php/texas-principals-education-help-support-team/entry/twitter-a-necessity-for-educators-in-2012)

If you haven’t done so, set up a Twitter client (e.g. Tweetdeck).  Find at least five hashtags that reflect your interests and set up columns for them on your Twitter client.  Tweet out your chosen hashtags using #EdTechSN.  Post a screenshot on our class Facebook page of your Twitter client with the at least five hashtagged columns (not including #EdTechSN). Include a summary of what hashtags you follow; three new things, resources, ideas you learned by following them; and your thoughts about about using Twitter as a form of just-in-time professional development.

Student Examples

A few student reflections about setting up and using Twitter for Professional Development:

• Thoughts on Twitter for Just in Time PD
• Twitter Power

Module Three: Positive Digital Footprint and Reputation Management Plan

Assignment

Your task for this assignment is to develop a specific plan for you as a professional to establish a positive professional online presence while at the same time developing steps to insure that your reputation remains “safe” and positive.  Include at least 10 individual strategies.  Use references to support your ideas/strategies.  Post your ideas on a site that permits comments and feedback – you can create a video and upload on Youtube, a Voicethread, a Flickr slide series, a Facebook Page, a wikipage, or a Google doc (making sure you enable comments).

Student Examples

Module Four: Curation

Assignment

“Curation comes up when search stops working,” says author and NYU Professor Clay Shirky. But it’s more than a human-powered filter. “Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.” Why Content Curation Is Here to Stay

Review the readings and resources about curation. Based on your readings, develop a checklist of at least 15 criteria that will serve as a tool for assessing the the quality and value of a curated topic related to your specialized content area and/or grade level.  This is a group assignment – to be completed with the group you formed in the last module.  Decide as a group which collaborative online tool you want to use to complete this list of criteria, e.g., Wiki, Google Doc, Primary Pad, etc. Reflect on the process of creating the checklist and working as a group in the comments section of their Facebook checklist post.

Using a tool specific for curation (e.g, Pinterest, Scoopit, Educlipper, Livebinders, Learnrist, MightyBell), curate a topic of your choice, applicable to your content areas and/or grade level.. This is an individual project. Include at least 25 resources. Use your group’s checklist to self-assess its value.  Post your results in the comments section where you posted your the link to your Curated Topic. Use your group’s checklist to assess the curated topics of your group members.  Please note what was especially noteworthy and also what needs further development/tweaking.

Student Example

Curating is hard work. To come up with this list of 25 acceptable resources involved a lot of filtering, sifting, and otherwise weeding out. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. That somebody is me – and lots of educational technology professionals like me who take pride in their work. We do the hard stuff so you don’t have to. The end result is a resource I feel is substantial, helpful, and contributes to the greater good of knowledge. Gretel P.

• Behind the scenes of NETS•S K-5 Curriculum Integration Curation: A Reflection

Module Five:  Your PLE Diagram and Reflection

Assignment

Create a PLE diagram of your online communities.  Represent at least 10 different online communities in your graphic and explictly show connections between the communities. You can be as creative as you’d like with this depiction.  You can hand draw and take an image, or use any type technology.  There are a number of mindmapping tools that can help you – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/18-free-mind-mapping-tools-for-teachers.html  Post a link and screenshot of your PLE so you classmates could view it on Facebook and Tweet your diagram out using the #EdTechSN hastag.  Complete a reflection that addresses the following questions:  What did you learn about yourself when looking at your PLE? Visit your classmates’ PLE posts.  How does your PLE compare to other peers in class? Write a self-reflection and a comparative analysis that discusses similarities and diffierences between yours and your classmates’ diagrams.

Student Diagram Examples

Student Reflections: Completing the PLE Diagram

This experience has allowed me to look at the communities in a new light. Before, I simply used them for their entertainment value. An escape from work and learning. Little did I know that they would become the basis for my new way of learning. Each day I am amazed by what I find.  Andi

This class, or more importantly this assignment, has made me realize just how much I have not been truly using the Internet and all its tools and resources to its ability.  It is like when you bite into a candy thinking that there is yummy goodness in the middle only to find out that the middle is actually hollow and the candy just had a thick shell.  But it also has allowed me to immerse myself into resources, tools, and communities that I might never thought of using/joining and broadening my network for the better.  Christina

This idea of growing our network, of growing ourselves, aligns well with the connectivist framework I have been researching lately. Like George Siemens said, “The learning is the network” (2004). Gretel

I had a wonderful experience creating my PLN and it gave me a map to use when socializing and gaining information to help me with my teaching degree. It is now much easy to “see” where I should be going and “who” I should be networking with. I am excited to see where this will lead me and what the future holds. Debi

 I have learned that I have ideas that may be beneficial for other educators and students and often felt like I had no avenue through which to share them besides in direct communication with the students and teachers at the school/colleges where I teach. By creating this PLE diagram, I have been able to see how many avenues I do have to make more of a contribution to the educational community at large, going beyond the schools I am directly affiliated with. Jaime

Joining new professional networks to include on the diagrams stretched me outside of my comfort zone. Activities that instigate discomfort can be amongst the very best opportunities to learn. angi

PLE Diagram Blog Entries

• http://edtech.cominotti.net/llog/2012/10/29/263/
• http://benmooreedtech.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/543-personal-learning-environment-reflection/

Module 6: Social Networked Learning in Your Classroom

Assignment

Social media is fast becoming as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. Many schools and districts around the country have taken steps to create social media policies and guidelines for their students and staff. In my work with several districts to draft these documents, I have seen many approaches that work well, and some that don’t. That said, there is no silver bullet for administrators; every school, district, and state has a different set of circumstances. (How to Create Social Media Guidelines for Your School)

Either (1) develop social media policies for your learning environment, or (2) establish a plan to have your learning community develop social media policies for your school or organization.  Include steps to get input and ideas from students, parents, teachers, staff, community members.

Student Reflections About Creating a Social Media Policy

While many teachers still choose to keep their head in the sand, the fact is that Social Media is in our schools.  Moreover, that’s where it should be.  There is no doubt that dealing with social media in a school setting is tricky business.  Fears about students safety, cyber-bullying, reputation management, distraction in school and the like are real issues that should be addressed by school communities.  More and more, this is being handled by the development of a Social Media Policy for the school or school district.  This is an important part of creating a culture where students learn to use social media,, something they are already doing in the personal lives, in the space they spend so much of their time.  By taking the approach of creating a policy that cultivates an understanding of the proper use of social media, schools not only protect themselves and their students, they also help students learn to better use such technology.  Jon F.

I’m disappointed, though not surprised, to see how many districts and schools ban external social media sites completely. Sure, it may protect and cushion students, but it also creates a long-term problem of not helping students learn to navigate a world they are already using daily. Schools do students a huge disservice and only compound the problem by feeding school-life-home disconnect. Students will still use social media outside of school but are given virtually no practice to use it wisely and well – and certainly not for learning.  I drafted a social media policy for our school and will present it to the Technology Committee for preliminary review and hopefully adoption. I believe it’s important to have this in place in addition to an Acceptable Use Policy, because 1) it states our belief that social media has a valuable place in our school; 2) it educates students, parents, and teachers on appropriate online behavior within social media sites; and 3) it helps ensure that everyone is accountable and safe.  Gretel P.

Examples of Established Social Media Policies

• Development of a Social Media Policy
• A Plan to Develop a Social Media Policy
• Social Media & Acceptable Use Policy Plan
• Social Media Policy

Assignment

You are going to establish your own online social learning platform for your teaching environment.  You can use any platform. Edmodo is highly recommended, but NINGs, Mightbell, Facebook for Schools, Moodle, Wikis, and PB Works are options, too.  Please complete the following for this assignment:

1. Establish accounts.
2. Describe your learning audience.
3. Establish procedures for learners to join the platform.
4. Establish some general acceptable use guidelines for your social learning platform.
5. Describe some potential uses of this social learning network or online community for your content area and grade level.

Student Examples

• Outcast Genre Writers Group
• Welcome to Open Chemistry

The final project for the course is for the established groups to develop a MOOC inspired course using the theories, strategies, and tools developed throughout the courses.  This project will be discussed in a separate blog post.

The Power of Synchronous Online Learning

I have been an online faculty for close to a decade.  For the past few years, my online teaching has been 100% online.  I believe in the power of the teacher-student relationship for facilitating learning.  This, admittedly, has become more difficult to achieve in my online teaching.  The majority of the instructional tools are asynchronous – discussion boards, blog posts, assignment dropboxes.  I have developed relationships through dialogue with students but not deeply enough for my liking.

Beginning Fall, 2011, I became one of several Cohort Facilitators for the Western Governors University Demonstration Teaching.  As part of my responsibilities, I meet with students one evening a week for 12 weeks while they are doing their demonstration teaching.  We meet in Adobe Connect.  I enable participant webcams so those who want can turn on their webcams.  We have anywhere from 2 to 12 (all) students on webcam during our sessions.  Each student gets the opportunity to respond to weekly prompts and to discuss successes/issues with their demonstration teaching.

Tonight was our last session.  As was true for the previous two semesters, I am very sad to see it end.  We have become a community of co-teachers and co-learners.  Students in the cohort have also expressed sadness in its conclusion.  This does not occur in online courses that utilizes only asynchronous tools.

I feel that we’ve know each other forever.  It is so great to know we are not alone in this.  I never imagined how much fun it would be.

It’s been like an unexpected treat.  I learned so much every single week.  To hear others experiences has helped tremendously.

I love coming to cohort every week – I wanted to be here every week.  It’s been so helpful.  The group has been so supportive for me.

Being part of this cohort has taught me how many right answers there are.

It was nice to know that we can ask questions and get clarifications each week, even when I just wanted to take a nap instead of going to class :).

It made me feel more connected than anything else in my online education experience.  It made me feel more normal.

It has been nice to see everyone on webcam – it was great just to see everyone.

Reflections via a Wallwisher

The Flipped Classroom: Professional Development Workshop

Module One – Powerful Learning Experiences

During this module, we will think about, explore, and discuss these areas:

• Qualities and characteristics of epic learning.
• Building a community and student engagement as prerequisites for a successful flipped classroom.

Learning Activities:

1. Discussion: Discuss an Epic Learning Experience.
   • What is an epic learning experience you had as a learner or facilitated as an educator?  This is a  learning experience that you would classify as a peak experience, being in a state of flow, and/or an epic win.  (Note: It need not have occurred within a more formal educational setting. Learning occurs all the time in all types of settings.)
   • What made your learning experience epic?
   • Add a slide (image and statement) about your epic win to our Google Presentation at http://goo.gl/LS0DD
2. Activity: Choose an artifact (photo, symbol) that represents peak learning experience or epic win (as related to #1).  Be prepared to show and tell about it.
3. Discussion: Brainstorming “What Questions Do You Have About the Flipped Classroom?” after reviewing resources.

Resources:

• The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture
• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education
• ebook The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

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Module Two – Experiential Engagement

During this module, we will think about, explore, and discuss these areas:

• Characteristics of Engagement
• A Rationale and Methods for Experiential Engagement

Learning Activities:

1. Discussion: “How do you define and promote meaningful learning engagement?”
2. Discussion: “How do you define experiential learning and how can you facilitate it in your own educational setting?” Experiential learning is loosely defined as authentic, hands-on, multi-sensory learning.  Expand on this to include how you would define it in the context of your learners, educational setting, and content area.  What are some general strategies you can use to facilitate experiential learning within your learning environment.
3. Activity: The first phase of The Flipped Classroom – The Full Picture is engaging learners through an authentic, engaging experiential activity.  Locate and list at least 10 experiential activities that you could use in your setting to engage your learners and motivate them to learn more about the content/topic.  These can be activities selected from the resources found below, ones you’ve created, and/or other activities you’ve heard about/located.

Resources:

• Meaningful, Engaged Learning
• Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement
• Flow – A Measure of Student Engagement
• Experiential education
• John Dewey: Education and Experience Synopsis

Experiential Activities

• Wilderdom Index to Group Activities, Games, Exercises & Initiatives
• Teampedia
• Energizers® Classroom Physical Activities
• Steve Spangler Science
• Kitchen Science Experiments
• Pure Mathematics Project Ideas
• Experiential Mobile Learning
• Kennedy Center Artsedge Arts Activities
• 100 Incredible & Educational Virtual Tours You Don’t Want to Miss
• Phet – Interactive Science Experiments
• Google Earth Showcase
• Google Art Project

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Module Three – Conceptual Connections

During this phase, learners are exposed to and learn concepts touched upon during Experiential Engagement.  They explore what the experts have to say about the topic.  Information is presented via video lecture, content-rich websites and simulations, and/or online text/readings.  In the case of the flipped classroom as it is being currently discussed, this is the time in the learning cycle when the learners view content-rich videos.  This is where and when videos are used to help students learn the abstract concepts related to the topic being covered. The role of the teacher, during this phase, is to offer the learners choices of video and related online content to learn the concepts being covered.

During this module, we will think about, explore, and discuss these areas:

• The Purpose and Function of Conceptual Engagement Within the Cycle of Learning
• The Role and Characteristics of Video Lectures and Other Online Material to Support Concept Development

Learning Activities:

1. Discussion-Activity:  “What purposes do lectures service in the classroom?” Be prepared to have a debate during  around the question, Should lectures be used in face-to-face learning settings?  A Mentormob playlist has been prepared with resources about this topic – http://www.mentormob.com/learn/i/lectures-in-the-classroom.  A forum on Debate.FM has also been set up – http://www.debate.fm/745454938/should-lectures-be-given-during-facetoface-class-time.  (Note:  Sometimes it is an interesting intellectual challenge to take what is known as a reasonable opposite, this is a position that is opposite of your own belief, but one that you can argue.  It provides a prospective from the other side).
2. Discussion:  What are the characteristics or qualities that define a good video lecture?”
3. Activity:  The second phase of The Flipped Classroom – The Full Picture is assisting your learners to learn the concepts related to the topic being explored.  Locate and list at least five videos or other online resources you could use in your setting to help your students learn more about the content/topic.  These can be videos selected from the resources found below, ones you’ve created, and/or other activities you’ve heard about/located OR use a screencast tool to create a short video about your topic.

Resources:

• Lectures in the Classroom– Opinion Pieces Mentormob Playlist
• Aggregates of Online Video Lectures – Mentormob Playlist
• Categorized Directory of Online Video Sites – http://tubeteaching.blogspot.com/p/video-directory.html

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Module Four – Meaning Making Through Critical Reflection

During this module, we’ll discuss the third phase of The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture Based on an Experiential Cycle of Learning:

During this phase, learners reflect on their understanding of what was discovered during the previous phases.  It is a phase of deep reflection on what was experienced during the first phase and what was learned via the experts during the second phase. Learners develop skills for reflective practice through discussing, reviewing, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing key learning through their experiential activities and exploration of expert commentaries.

I discussed the importance of reflection in a blog post, Where is reflection in the learning process?

Learners do not just receive information only at the time it is given; they absorb information in many different ways, often after the fact, through reflection. The most powerful learning often happens when students self-monitor, or reflect.

Students may not always be aware of what they are learning and experiencing. Teachers must raise students’ consciousness about underlying concepts and about their own reactions to these concepts. ETE Team

Learning Activities:

• Discussion:  Discuss the following questions in a way that makes sense to you.
  • What does it mean for you to be accountable? How do you demonstrate your own accountability in your educational setting? To your students? To your colleagues?  To your institution?  To your profession?
  • What do you do to encourage students to be accountable for their own learning?
  • How do you assess student learning?
  • How to do assist your learners in identifying and acknowledging their own learning and progress?
• Discussion: Using the follow table as a guide, discuss your own philosophy regarding constructivism and how you promote learners constructing their own meaning in your educational setting.
  http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index_sub1.html
• Activity:  The third phase of The Flipped Classroom – The Full Picture is assisting your learners to reflect on what they experienced during the first phase and what they learned during the second, the concept exploration, phase.  Discuss what reflective strategies you can use in your learning environment based on your content area interests-grade level.

Resources:

• Mentormob Playlist: Meaning Making
• Why Reflect?
• Technology Tools for Reflection
• High Tech Reflection Strategies Make Learning Stick

  Reflection (Blogging)

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Module Five – Demonstration and Application

During this phase, learners get to demonstrate what they learned and apply the material in a way that makes sense to them.

When students have multiple choices in ways to demonstrate their knowledge, the evidence of their learning is more accurate. We wanted the students to actually become the experts through the learning process. This assessment isn’t just a fancy term for a presentation at the end of a unit. To actually engage in an authentic celebration is to witness a true display of student understanding. (http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/strategies/topics/Assessment%20Alternatives/meyer_glock.htm)

This goes beyond reflection and personal understanding in that learners have to create something that is individualized and extends beyond the lesson with applicability to the learners’ everyday lives. Opportunities should be provided for students to, at the very least, make concrete plans how they will use the course content in other aspects of their lives.

Learning Activities:

1. Contribute to the discussion, “How do you assess if your learners developed new habits of thinking and/or doing?”
2. Contribute to the discussion, “What techniques do you use/can you use to assist students in transferring what they learned in your class to apply to other settings?”  Discuss at least two.
3. Complete Week 5 Activity: Celebration of Learning: Demonstration and Application of Learnings from This eCourse.

Resources:

• Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really.  http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/everything-you-know-about-curriculum-may-be-wrong-really/
• A Technology-Enhanced Celebration of Learning – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/a-technology-enhanced-celebration-of-learning/
• Celebration of Learning –
  • Prepare a celebration of learning that symbolizes what you learned during this presentation and how you plan apply these learnings to your teaching.
  • Prepare a “sales pitch” for implementing the Flipped Classroom: The Full picture by either writing a two page paper, recording a 5 minute video (Youtube, Animoto, etc), or developing a image-rich 25 slide Powerpoint presentation.

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Module Six – Exploring Your Own Topics, Concepts, and Connections

During this module, we’ll discuss and develop a foundation for The Flipped Classroom Lesson.  The foundation is driven by essential questions and over-reaching concepts.  This serves two purposes.  First, it  helps to insure that the concepts, as opposed to the technologies, are central to the learning process.  Second, essential questions and over-reaching concepts provide touch points as the instructional activities for The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture are established.

Learning Activities:

1. Discussion: Purpose of Essential Questions – Drawing from your own understanding and the unit resources, how would you describe essential questions and concept driven curriculum?  How do or can essential questions drive your lesson planning?
2. Activity: List two essential questions for the lesson you want to develop or modify for the flipped classroom the full picture.
3. Assignment: Develop and post a concept map for your lesson. Include all the essential questions, and major concepts and skills you want you learners to acquire.  Either through hand drawn or web tool (Inspiration, Creately, Mindomo), show the major connections of between the essential questions and major concepts.

Resources:

• What’s the big Idea? by Grant Wiggins – http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=99
• Essential Questions – http://questioning.org/mar05/essential.html
• Understanding by Design: Essential Questions – http://www.huffenglish.com/?p=363
• Essential Questions Prezi – http://prezi.com/7q8zgwquxlpd/copy-of-essential-questions/
• Use of Visual Maps –http://agilitrix.com/2010/10/thought-you-were-a-good-trainer-guess-again/
• Concept Mapping in the Classroom by Kathy Schrock – http://www.schrockguide.net/concept-mapping.html

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Module Seven – Lesson Planning: Developing a Natural Cycle of Learning

During this module, you’ll be putting the learning activities you located and developed in the first half of the course into the Flipped Classroom: The Full Classroom framework.  The result will be a lesson based on a natural cycle of learning using videos and media to support student learning.

Learning Activities:

• Discussion: What obstacles do you foresee facing when trying to implement The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture based on an experiential model of learning?
• Activity: Using the template,  flipped%20classroom%20template.pptx, list the learning activities for the lesson you began in the previous module.  List activities for each phase of The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture.  Substitute your learning activities for each of the “directions” within each quadrant.  It is a PPT slide as it permits easier use of graphics.  Upload your PPT slide or as a PDF.

Resources:

• Experiential Learning Cycle – http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/sgitc/read2.htm
• The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture
• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education
• ebook The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture
• The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Tinkering and Maker Education – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/the-flipped-classroom-the-full-picture-for-tinkering-and-maker-education/
• Mobile Learning and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/mobile-learning-and-the-flipped-classroom-the-full-picture//a>

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Module Eight – Lesson Planning:  Embellishing on Your Learning Activities

As you discovered when you were working through your flipped classroom lesson, there are phases of the cycles that caused you some problems.  Most educators have some problems thinking about, locating, creating learning activities in one or more of the phases.  As such, this week, using checklists and peer evaluations, we will examine how your learning activities can be expanded and enhanced.

Learning Activities:

1. Discussion: As you discovered when you were working through your flipped classroom lesson, there are phases of the cycles that caused you some problems.  Most educators have some problems thinking about, locating, creating learning activities for one of more of the phases.  Which one(s) gave you some problems?
2. Discussion:  This week you will get some feedback from your peers about your lesson plan.  Where and how in your everyday work setting do you bounce ideas and get feedback about your instructional strategies?
3. Assignment: Using the checklists provided, provide feedback for two of your co-learners.  Insure that you address each phase of the cycle in your feedback,

Resources:

• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture Lesson Plan Evaluation Checklist (downloadbale document) 
• Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning

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Module Nine – Assessments, Evaluation, and Developing a Change Mindset

Implementing The Flipped Classroom:  The Full Picture is obviously more complex than some to the simpler lesson plan models that teacher use.  As such, when implementing this lesson plan, you should build in formative assessments and evaluations throughout the cycle to help insure that:

1. The learning activities are achieving desired results.
2. Students are getting ongoing feedback about their performance.

Experiential Engagement

• Group Satisfaction Assessments
• Self-Assessments
• Exit Tickets
• Journal Entries
• Drawings

Conceptual Exploration

• Research Notes
• Outlines
• Graphic or Visual Notes
• Developing Questions
• Use of Graphic Organizers
• Exit Slips

Meaning Making

• Self-Assessments
• Peer Assessments
• Interviews – Being Interviewed
• Documenting Processes
• Evidence of Personal Meaning/Usefulness
• Analysis of Use of Resources
• Exit Slips

Demonstration and Applications

• Rubrics – both teacher-generated and student generated.
• Creating, Collaborating, Verifying, Summarizing
• Publications
• Exhibitions
• Synthesizing Performances
• Error Analysis

(Ideas gathered from 4MAT)

http://4mation-web.com/aboutlearning/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=10

Learning Activities:

1. Discussion: What does authentic assessment mean to you?  How do you build authentic assessments in your daily lessons?
2. Discussion: The use of technology and the flipped classroom methods often ask the educator to try out new things in the classroom.  How do you/will you evaluate the efficacy of the learning activities during the cycle of learning?  What will/can you do if you find the learning activities are not achieving desired results?
3. Assignment:  Implementing The Flipped Classroom:  The Full Picture is obviously more complex than some to the simpler lesson plan models that teacher use.  As such, when implementing this lesson plan, you should build in formative assessments and evaluations throughout the cycle to help insure that:
   • The learning activities are achieving desired results.
   • Students are getting ongoing feedback about their performance.

   For this assignment, identify the types of assessments you plan to use during each phase of the cycle.

Resources:

• The Flipped Classroom on Prezi
• Formative Assessments Presentation

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Module Ten –  Personal Integration and Celebrating Integrations

It is the final module of the workshop.  It is a time for reflection and establishing the “What’s Next”.

Learning Activities:

1. Assignment: Develop a personal integration plan for future lesson planning that includes significant learnings from the past nine modules.  What specific action steps do you plan to take to enhance your lesson plans due to things you discovered during this course?  Please list at least 10.
2. Assignment: Use one of the following Web 2.0 tools to visually/metaphorically describe The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture –

• http://www.glogster.com/
• http://bighugelabs.com/
• http://www.imagechef.com/ic/product.jsp

Resources:

• Transfer of Learning – Theories and Implications
• Teaching for Transfer of Learning

Educational Networking and Networking Bubbles

I started off my journey as an educator in experiential education. For about a decade I was member of and attended the annual Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Conference.  Their vision is:

Our vision is to contribute to making a more just and compassionate world by transforming education.  Our mission is to develop and promote experiential education. We are committed to supporting professional development, theoretical advancement and the evaluation of experiential education worldwide.

This group of educators preaches, promotes, and practices the tenets of John Dewey and Kurt Hahn.  They design learning experiences that are hands-on, learner-centric, group-focused, and service-oriented.  As a young educator, I was excited to have found my tribe. I needed this educational network even back then as public schools have a history of being didactic and curriculum-text-test driven.  I found other educators who had similar pedagogical beliefs and instructional practices.

My teaching still focuses on experiential learning, but I began integrating technology as a means to enhance the learning experiences.  As such, I discovered and re-established my educational network through Twitter, Virtual Conferences and Webinars (Classroom 2.0 Live, The Global Education Conference, The Future of Education) and face-to-face educational technology driven conferences (ISTE, DML, EdCon).

Last year, I integrated mobile learning into my undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relations.  I used a lot of activities I learned through my early days in experiential education, but added a mobile element to them.  The results were very exciting, see:

• Technology Driven Community Building Activities – http://community-building.weebly.com/
• Mobile Learning: End of Course Student Survey Part II – https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/mobile-learning-end-of-course-student-survey-part-ii/

Recently, I became loosely reconnected with AEE by following them on Twitter and Facebook.  I noticed a lack of technology integration and social-educational networking by its members.  Coming from a mentality that when promoting technology integration, we must begin where the educators are at, I thought that presenting at this year’s AEE conference might help members of the organization see the value of technology integration.  The activities I use for experiential mobile learning are familiar to the members.  They just have the added enhancement of technology integration.

My workshop got accepted and I presented it to about 20 educators.  They laughed, played, bonded, and created. See photos from the workshop:

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I was excited to see the close to 100% engagement throughout the workshop until I get to the final reflection.  To end my workshops, I do a go-around the circle inviting participants to describe how they might use the workshop activities in their own learning settings.  Many of the participants questioned and criticized the use of technology in schools. “Kids will abuse it.”  “Our IT department has shown us all of the non-student friendly parts of the internet.”  “Technologies are not stable enough.”  A few did “get it” . . . The 30 something teacher said, “I thought I knew technology but need to get more up-to-date,” . . .  The 21 year old college student who said, “This is natural to me.  I wish more of my college teachers would use technology,” . . . The twenty-something French Canadian teacher who stated that she can’t wait to try these with her French class.  The workshop evaluations were less than stellar (not poor but not great either) and confirmed their skepticism about educational technology.  I was extremely grateful for one comment on an evaluation that stated, “It was great to have some new activities at the conference.”  Their negativity and critical responses took its toll on me especially given the amount of energy, passion, and excitement I put into my workshops

As I feared, they are not my tribe any longer.  I not only mourned the loss of this tribe, who meant so much to me earlier in my life, but also mourned that this organization cannot transform education, as per their mission, as long as members remain in their like-minded educational network bubble.

The questions that have emerged from this experience include:

• So do I teach and present to those who are already or partially converted to the power of technology to enhance learning; or focus on those who may have a solid/progressive pedagogy but are technology skeptics in hopes that a few of those educators see its power?
• If I do decide to save myself the emotional toll of critics and naysayers, am I doing the same thing as the members of the Association of Experiential Education – staying with like-minded educators, staying safe within my own educational networking bubble?
• Do these educational networking bubbles actually do the opposite of their intended visions – hinder advancements in educational reform rather than promote them?
• Is my passion and excitement for educational technology perceived by others, who are not “converted,” as being too zealous resulting in the opposite results – a turn-off rather than a turn-on (double meaning intended – turn-on the technology).

Whichever direction I choose to go, I grateful for the opportunity to connect,  share, and get support from my human-humane network . . . which has become so much more to me than just a social network.