Feeling Inspired

Just listened to Obama's speech on the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Watching this in our own backyard has been exciting, entertaining, and motivating.

Here are my thoughts. Task-based online learning gives me hope. As the quote below says, learning requires deliberate action - on the part of the learner and the instructor. Learning must be filled with purpose - purpose for reading, listening, and acting. It isn't about the content. It's about what is done with the content. This is the nature of good teaching, whether face-to-face or online.

Learning should be authentic and relevant - interesting how this comes up when talking about designing learning experiences and instructional messages. Problem-solving and collaboration are also mentioned. Sounds like our "common values" from the past year.

The idea of supporting self-regulation and metacognition in online learning also resonates with me. And the "social construction of knowledge" is a strong interest of mine.

My thoughts and questions revolve around my own experiences with creating learning experiences in the K-12 environment, whether face-to-face or online. How can we do it better? How do students "learn" in the 21st century? What needs to be done with content to prepare today's youth for the world in 10, 20, 50 years? What happens to students when their administrators don't believe in email, let alone online learning? How do we provide safe online learning opportunities without blocking and filtering the content students need to engage in authentic experiences?

5650 - I like this quote

In contemporary settings, the pitfalls and inefficiencies of content-based approaches are now widely recognised. The alternative approach which characterises contemporary teaching and learning is based not on learning about content, but about how to use it. The content itself is not the important part of the learning. Being able to use it meaningfully is the goal and aim of the learning setting.

(Teaching and Learning Online, p. 26)

This is a quote I can use!

Playing with Wordle...

...and didn't want to lose the image (yes, I skipped ahead a few weeks and this is exactly what I needed to find).

Thinking about Tufte

Read the first part of Tufte's essay last night, and can't stop thinking about it.

I really don't like "presenting" using PowerPoint - listing bullets, etc. But, I have done it. In my ideal world (prior to reading the essay), my "presentations" were more about guided activities, and the slides were used to give directions.

But, I've been faced with giving a couple of "stand and deliver" types of presentations over the past year or so -not much time to really engage participants in an activity, and the goal of the presentation was more about sharing information.

I have a couple more presentations like this coming up in the fall. I am wondering what to do and if "telling a story" would make the presentation more interesting?

Tufte just made my presentations more challenging, but much more likely to engage the audience and me. I will never look at a PowerPoint slide the same again.

Sharing the Play List

I took a bit of a risk today. Today was my day to send out a welcome message to our teachers. This time next year, I hope my view of a welcome message is entirely different - today's went out in boring, traditional email format.

However, my thinking is already evolving from the work I did last night in the IMD course. The playlist in Songza was on my mind. So I decided to share it with the teachers in the hopes that they might start to think in new ways about "traditional" messages.

I was a bit scared to send it out - this is putting something personal about me out there to people that I know and work with on a regular basis - typically a "professional" relationship. My colleagues encouraged me to go with it. And I'm so glad that I did. The responses have been limited, but positive.

Sharing with them has opened a new door for them to share back with me. In the course of a couple of hours, I have learned new things about two of our instructors and made wonderful personal connections that will last forever. I am grateful for the opportunity to make these connections and must remember to take the risk to get there.

First Impressions

This is the first week of two new courses in the ILT program. My first thoughts are on Instructional Message Design.

This could be a challenging course, but I'm excited about it because I need help in this area. I'm really good at bullet points on PowerPoint slides! I'm not so good at thinking creatively about changing up presentations to make them more effective. I seem to get really stuck in the routine of doing what everyone else does. PowerPoint is a tool I like to use to help me organize my thinking - but this doesn't mean it is an effective way to engage learners.

I look forward to re-thinking how to design effective "messages" for learners - I hope the creative juices flow this semester.