Educational Technology and the Adult Learner Week 7 – Pulling things together

This is the last ‘blogging prompt’ blog post for the course as the course wraps up immediately after the last class next week. I like to think of these posts as prompts rather than questions or content as they are meant to start thinking down a particular line rather than control what people are going to think. There is some tendency, always, for people who are being assessed by someone else to think they are supposed to agree with that person. The goal with this course has been to provide opportunities for people to take a given line of thinking and map it up against their own experience, be that the work that they do in an official teaching role, as a professional, as a parent or as a friend.

This last prompt is meant to pull together all the things that we’ve talked about and talk about the identity, at least partially, of this mysterious ‘adult learner’ and what that person might care about whether you use educational technology with them or not.

Conversations
Learning contracts – This addresses the power structure of a course. The design of a course should provide enough structure to help build a context for learning. It shouldn’t, in my view, simply lock down the content so that what constitutes ‘learning’ is measured in how much we can prove that content has been transferred from the instructor to the learner. The technologies provide a whole new way of accessing information which frees us from relying on a static set of books or the contents of my head as resources. The learning contract is meant to broader the possibilities. This measures, hopefully, the amount you’ve worked, not ‘what you’ve learned.’ It’s my job as an instructor to make sure you’re learning.

Cheating as learning – If we think of the ‘content’ of a course as the thing we are engaging in the learning contract for, then ‘taking’ that content from someone else is cheating. If we say that we aren’t concerned about the specifics of the content you are picking up, then taking information from others becomes sharing. In this sense cheating and sharing are actually the same activity, just with a different power structure surrounding it.

Keeping track of digital stuff – One of the side effects of giving people freedom to create their own content is the taking the textbook based, pre-defined content out of the course. One of the challenges that this presents is that you can’t just ‘look back at the textbook’ to see where you are. You can’t simply follow the assignments or the syllabus to remember what is going on. When you add the vastness of the internet to this, one of the prime literacies required for learning using technology is the ability to keep track and organize your work. If the facilitator is not controlling it… you need to.

Evaluating technology – I don’t think it makes sense to talk about technologies until everyone has a passing comfort with them. With three weeks of using our class based educational technologies (blogging, twitter and googledocs) under our belt, the search for new technologies starts to make more sense. The use of nodes of trust, and the ubiquitous online top ten list (or top 100) makes that process even easier. At the end of the day, though, we are still just going to the internet and trying stuff out.

Collaboration – And there are too many things to try out. Too many lessons to learn and in to many ways. Collaboration in a classroom provides more scope for learning, and, I think, a more rounded view of what a person is learning. If we can share how 20 people (or 2000) see given topic or idea (be they technological or not) we get to see it from many perspectives. That broad scope, I think, makes for the best kind of teaching.

Responsibility – The key glue to all of this is where the impetus to learn stems from. If we allow for all this freedom and control, it can’t be driven by the ambitions of one educator. We are only in a classroom for a few hours, and learning in any context is a lifetime event. A classroom that creates a scenario where people are only interested in learning when they are told to learn and what they’ve been told to learn encourages passivity. A classroom that supports student responsibility as a core principle is one that encourages active, ongoing, life-long learning.

Final Thoughts
Throughout this course we have all reflected on educational technology and our own feelings about it on our blogs. The next step, I think, is in synthesizing the ideas of ourselves and others and starting to make early judgements about how our own learners will respond to educational technology. If you think about the different people in our class, and the journeys that they have been on, different answers to that question will present themselves.

I don’t believe in ‘learning styles’, but in people. People have complex lives, they have eye surgery, and deaths in the family, and anniversaries, and the prom and a hundred other things going on. (Not to mention a beer at the beach). If you put 20 people into a classroom the web of complexity gets wider, add in access to almost every bit of knowledge ever produced on the internet and its a wonder we make it out of class at all.

Given all this complexity, what have we learned? How would you use educational technology with the adult learner?

Goosing the Gander

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is granting No Child Left Behind waivers to states that adopt Duncan’s favored reforms, notes Rick Hess. If Romney wins, what sort of waivers would sauce the gander?

First, Romney ought to announce that waivers from NCLB will require real options for parents in all persistently low-performing schools. Since Democrats are right to point out that there aren’t enough seats for all the affected kids to escape to, Romney ought to insist that states adopt the “parent trigger” in order to give parents the option to radically remake their children’s school. Given that the parent trigger has been championed by Democratic school reform activists, but angers traditional Democratic allies in school districts, it’d be a neat piece of political jujitsu.

If states can’t provide alternatives for kids in failing schools, Romney could require a voucher option, Hess suggests.

In addition, waiver-seeking states could be required “to emulate Wisconsin and Indiana and restrict the scope of collective bargaining to wages and wage-related benefits, so that it no longer encompasses policies that can impede school improvement.”

Romney could require waiver states “to undergo an independent audit of their health care and retirement obligations and to adopt a plan that establishes a sustainable financial model.”

Finally, he ought to insist that states demonstrate that they’re spending federal funds wisely. This requires meaningful cost accounting, including calculating ROI (return on investment) at the school and district levels.

Yes, it would be federal overreach, Hess writes. But if the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can too.

How Many Classes Should you REALLY Take Freshman Year?

Coming from an English major, my opinion may vastly differ from those of Science and Math majors, but I feel like I had a pretty good grip on my freshman year, which has made me confident enough in myself to give you kiddos some advice. Well… let’s call them “college-educated guesses.”

At my university, the recommend amount of units (keep in mind, babies, that one class is USUALLY three units… unless it’s a dance class or something) for a freshman is 12-15. That’s four or five classes, for those of you keeping score at home. Now, my first semester, I got away with four classes. Actually, most people I know did. But for some reason, that doesn’t seem to fly second semester. When I say that, I mean with your peers. Having four classes second semester was almost a cop-out.

Image credit: flickr

The real answer to this question, like nearly ever other college question, is basically: it depends. If you have a horribly difficult major and all of your classes are equivalent to junior and senior level, TAKE FOUR. I don’t care what anyone says, you deserve it (if only they knew…) If you know you can handle more classes (maybe you have a inter mural basketball class for one unit thrown in there) then take more. Keep in mind that you school may have a “cap” on how many classes you’re allowed to take. At Chapman, if you take three or fewer classes, you’re considered a “part-time student.” To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but if you get flack for taking four classes, imagine how much you’ll get for going to school “part-time” (if you aren’t, in fact, a part-time student, of course!) There may also be a limit to how many classes you can take. As a freshman, I often heard rumors about eight being the limit, but many also said it was six. Find out from a professor or a student advisor–it’s not always best to take your floor mates’ advice for EVERYTHING.

Now, I really don’t think I gave you all any more information than you already knew. I’m sorry about that. When it comes to classes, everything is relative to the kid taking them. Hopefully by now, you know your limit and what you can and can’t do. Save “pushing yourself” for next semester–maybe even next year. Getting into the “swing of things” in college is essential. I promise that you’ll be sorry if you bite off more than you can chew. That reminds me, I need to do a post on the Freshman Fifteen…

Self Paced Ebook

For every self-paced e-learning course out there in the workplace, there are at least ten consumer video tutorials online (I made that figure up - but there are clearly lots more). You hardly ever see e-learning used as a medium of choice outside work but you’re beginning to see a much greater interest in video at work. What am I saying? That video has really arrived and we should take it seriously as a self-study medium.

But I’m not completely stupid. I know that e-learning and video are very different media and, as a result, work in different circumstances. Most e-learning is aimed at imparting knowledge or, to a lesser degree, cognitive skills. On the other hand, while video can be used to put across more general principles as well as to deliver presentations, discussions and documentaries, it’s at its best when it’s showing you how to do something. And not surprisingly, that’s what most of those YouTube videos do.

Clearly a video used alone cannot check understanding and doesn't track progress, so it’s not the ideal compliance tool. But it is more engaging, more versatile and less impersonal. It can be used to trigger interaction, both individual and group - and can be blended with more reflective materials such as web articles, blogs and PDFs.

So I reckon we’ll see an even greater use of video in the workplace. Learners like it (why is not always true of e-learning) and it’s much easier to produce than it ever was (though not trivial - I’ll be returning to that soon). While there are some niches where e-learning is irreplaceable, I won’t be unhappy to see other media come alongside. After all, I started my interest in media and technology with corporate video many moons ago and so for me it’s just another turn of the circle. 

Courses are dead. Just foolin’

Several people have asked me not to denigrate formal learning in the workplace, the 10 of the 70:20:10 model. Indeed. Formal learning has its place. It’s apt for bringing people up to speed in a new discipline or topic. Formal learning accelerates exposure to the landscape, the rules of thumb, the frameworks and specialized vocabulary, and a lot of other things that would be laborious to learn from experience.

Standing around the water cooler is not the best way to learn algebra.

Furthermore, it’s a fast-changing world. We’re all novices at some things so even senior people shouldn’t write off attending the occasional workshop.

Reconsider Your Neutral Brainstorming Assumptions

I’m continuing to read and love Jonah Leherer‘s book, “Imagine: How Creativity Works.” His discussion of research on “brainstorming” versus discussions that involve debate and critique are particularly insightful. In the past, I just assumed “the right way” to generate ideas in class or in another group was to follow “traditional” rules of brainstorming, where all ideas are accepted neutrally and not criticized. Now I’m reconsidering that assumption. Leherer writes:

…when all new ideas are equally useful, as in a brainstorming session—we stay within ourselves. There is no incentive to think about someone else’s thoughts or embrace unfamiliar possibilities. And so the problem remains impossible. The absence of criticism has kept us all in the same place.

He supports this idea with citations from research articles as well as lots of stories, including several from Pixar. I’m rethinking my own use of traditional “brainstorming rules” as a result.

AM News: Romney, Bush, & Spellings Make Convention News

Romney Disagrees With Himself  Huffington Post: One of the more awkward moments of Mitt Romney's speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention came during the newly minted presidential candidate's question-and-answer session with the audience.

Bush appeals for new dedication to equal education, wants Obama to stop ... MiamiHerald: Bush appeals for new dedication to equal education, wants Obama to stop blaming his brother. TAMPA _ Former Florida governor Jeb Bush used his prime time spotlight at the Republican National Convention Thursday to pass a symbolic torch to his party's ...

Spellings Slams Waivers, Race to the Top PK12:  Spellings and I chatted after a panel on education policy sponsored by Bloomberg and AT&T. Those appearing with Spellings included: Jeb Bush, who is clearly the K-12 Mascot of the Republican National Convention in Tampa; Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State and the new voice of the school choice movement; and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, who also trashed the waivers, calling them a "substitution of Obama standards" for NCLB. 

Stand for Children makes its endorsements EdNewsCO: The education advocacy group Stand for Children has endorsed a split ticket of six Democrats and five Republicans in 2012 races for seats in the Colorado legislature.

Norwalk, Ct., Schools Avert Budget Crisis NPR:  Like many cities, Norwalk has been repeatedly forced to cut its school budget. But this year, a $10 million shortfall forced a demand for even steeper cuts and big concessions from the teachers union. As the new school year begins, wounds are still deep after the frustrating budget battle.

Parents: School asked to change deaf son’s name sign Today: Hunter Spanjer’s parents say officials at his Nebraska school asked them to change the sign for Hunter’s name, saying it looked too “gun-like,” but the school is denying they ever made the request. NBC’s Ron Allen reports and the Spanjer family talks about what the principal told them.