Artifacts:
Reflection:
Although ETEC 522, Ventures in Learning Technologies, was the most restrictive course in terms of criteria, perspective and expectation, it was also my most reflective course. Although this seems counter intuitive, this course forced me to arrange my ideas and knowledge within a concise working model that I had to explain and sell to an investor or supporter, in my case, the school district.
During my discussion with my professor, David Vogt, about the idea of a Pinterest-like professional development (PD) site, he expressed concerns that it was frivolous and might not provide enough structure or opportunity for more in-depth PD. He was a bit more positive after I presented him with my final SHARED LESSONS PITCH, but continued to be cautiously skeptical. However, based on my experiences in MET, on social and experiential learning, and the reception of teachers and technology specialist in my district, I continue to believe that Shared Lessons (SL) provides a balance between encouraging meaningful social constructivist learning and addressing the many issues that plague teachers in PD including motivation, time, energy, and interest. On one hand, SL is a friendly, visual and interactive platform where people can follow other teachers’ activities or can be followed by others. And on the other hand, teachers are able to engage in meaningful observation and discussion of other’s lessons, classes and resources. So, despite doubt and criticism, I continued to persevere and am in the latter stages of bringing the site to fruition as you can see in my SHARED LESSONS reflection.
Ultimately, I had many good reasons for pursuing my dream of a more informal PD site. The groundwork for this shift in perspective, from more intense forms of PD like Lesson Study, began during the writing of my ETEC 500 LESSON STUDY LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROPOSAL. The realization that teachers needed a more informal and autonomous form of PD coupled with my enthusiasm for constructivist and social learning, led me to the development of a more independent, interest based and social site like SL. The theoretical basis for developing this platform was based on Vygotsky’s (1934) social scaffolding and Piaget’s (1964) experiential learning theories, in which experimentation and social scaffolding lead to accommodation of information into our understanding of the world. As well, my knowledge of the importance of visual, interesting, malleable, interactive, dynamic properties in online learning environments, based on Bates and Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS model and personal experience, also influenced my choice of platform. The potential behind Shared Lessons is its ability to provide teachers with a platform to share their experiential and social views within the context of their own and others’ lessons and practices. Most PD methods attempt to teach a finite number of methods through didactic transference, leaving many teachers confused when they attempt to try these techniques on their own and find that they don’t match their style or there is no available support for implementation. But by watching, seeking and questioning others as they attempt to socially negotiate their peers’ approaches and ideas into their own understanding and practices, teachers can accommodate the information they are receiving. Ultimately, this process better enables them to apply others’ ideas in their own classrooms and further investigate their own models of teaching.
DORI: So you have designed a site based around the idea of pinning stuff on a board, how original, where did you come up with this idea, genius! How is this any different from pinning some lessons onto a board in the staff room. I mean really…you humans are so unoriginal. Besides, what can you human’s learn from a few posted online lessons, don’t you already have sites like that? This seems like a big waste of time and energy.
Dori, I can always count on you to keep it real! My instructor, David Vogt, might agree that a Pinterest like site is too simple for PD. In fact, he suggested that this site might be too superficial to lead to any significant PD. And in fact, this is a major deviation from my previous direction in researching and designing online Lesson Study courses and communities, including ETEC 500 Lesson Study Literature Review and Proposal, ETEC 531 Lesson Study Essay, and ETEC 565 Lesson Study Moodle Course.
And it’s true, the main worry with SL is that interaction may stay shallow with minor social scaffolding thru sharing of lessons and ideas without in-depth discussions. And for some, this may be true if they simply borrow a few ideas or lessons from others while contributing little in the way of extra meaning. However, like web 3.0 which will give computers more autonomy, shared lessons is a site that attempts to open up possibilities for teachers in more ways than one as the need for teachers to become more self-directed and ever-evolving is further driven by our rapidly changing world. And let’s not forget, teachers time is very limited and valuable. Unlike you, who never sleeps, we have many different responsibilities demanding our time. So many of us need to get the most bang for the time we spend on PD. This means not just connecting to our close colleagues, but connecting to specific peers that can offer us the most to be gained. Sometimes the benefit comes from others with similar interests, or people that act as mentors. Or sometimes learning comes from acting as someone else’s mentor. Maybe we want to find teachers that share the same style, subject areas, professional development goals, etc. But ultimately, we need a method to find them and connect in the most efficient manner. In this new online world, we aren’t just looking to connect, we are looking to connect intelligently. It’s true, some teachers may borrow a few ideas or lessons but contribute little to added meaning. However, like my own experiences with PD, I think the site has the potential to stir in teachers the desire for greater sharing and discussion, especially amongst like-minded others.
Like Vygotsky’s (1934) claims, we scaffold each other’s learning by building on the knowledge of others, and who better to scaffolds one’s knowledge than people that think like us, share similar interests, or have compatible personalities. Although I do believe that we can learn the most from those that challenge our beliefs as mentioned in my first reflection in CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING and backed up by Piaget’s (1964) and Von Glaserfeld’s (1988) writings on dis- and re-equilibrium , this is a very involved process of negotiation that is difficult to achieve for teachers that are usually crunched for time. In a perfect world, we would all have endless amounts of time to play with our understanding in a constructivist sandbox with every tool and technique at our disposal. However, unlike my intensive Lesson Study Moodle course in ETEC 565, that was heavy and intense and unlikely to attract many users, Shared Lessons (SL) provides an easy, fun, social environment with improved hope of offering greater opportunities and desire to discuss and scaffold each other’s teaching and learning. For, it is my belief that SL doesn’t preclude more in-depth PD, but rather provides the connections and motivation necessary to pursue deeper PD.
Through the development of ‘followers’ and ‘followees’, people have the ability to organically connect with like-minded others. And it is these connections that may drive them to form more private and in-depth study circles. This idea is supported in the Baek & Barab (2005) study on online PD in which teachers wanted the ability to share in more private spaces with others that they connected with in the larger community. Moreover, it is my hope to survey SL users that have formed these types of groups in order to research how a platform could be created to support these interest groups that want to continue their collaboration in more private and in-depth environments. In the future, this site could include private forums, chats, video conferencing, wikis, interactive online whiteboards, etc. If SL takes off and these kinds of deeper relationships are formed, there is a definite potential that teachers could hunger for more PD opportunities, as discussed above.
References:
Baek, E. O., & Barab, S. (2005). A study of dynamic design dualities in a web-supported com munity of practice for teachers. Educational Technology & Society, 8(4), 161-177.
Bates, A. W., & Poole. G. (2003). A framework for selecting and using technology. Effective Teaching with Technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Piaget, J. (1964). Development and learning. In R.E. Ripple &V.N. Rockcastle (Eds), Piaget Rediscovered (pp. 7-20). Retrieved from http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35piaget64.pdf
Von Glasersfeld, E. (1988). The reluctance to change a way of thinking. Irish Journal ofPsychology, 9, 83–90. Retrieved from http://www.vonglasersfeld.com/111
Vygotsky, L. (1934). The development of scientific concepts in childhood. In Thinking and Speaking (ch 6). Published by the M.I.T. Press, edited and translated by E. Hanfmann and G. Vakar. Retrieved from http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/words/ch06.htm
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