Session 3 Baggio, Clark, and Dervin
I would first like to say that I have really loved thinking about education from a product design and instructional design point of view. I focus a lot on student engagement in my class as well as in my research, and so I often find myself thinking about the best ways to “sell” the learning experience to my students. Reading these three authors has informed and changed my perspective on this topic, but has also left me with even more questions.
Baggio
In Baggio I find an undercurrent of a theme further developed by Dervin. That while all people are individuals, and therefore process new information in a unique way, there are some patterns that educators can capitalize on in order to make their instruction more effective. All of my students express their affective, cognitive, and conative domains differently, and there will most certainly be a wide variety of learning styles in my class. But, I can use my students’ shared context to build meaningful learning experiences for them, that will engage them in learning. In terms of my driving question I would like to focus more on this idea of context providing relevance to the learner.
Clark
Clark focuses on the Instructional Design from the perspective of training adults. While I can relate to the lack of effective training with new technology, in relation to my research I am more interested in the process Clark suggests to create an effective training experience, specifically the Instructional Systems Design model. This model asks the trainer to focus on needs analysis, task analysis, learning objectives, materials, assessment, revision, and implementation. Reading about this model was very helpful to me because it forced me to realize that I have skipped a step in the design process. I have been trying to find ways to engage my students without first really understanding what caused my students to disengage in the first place.
Dervin
While I know that bridges and gaps and uses are Dervin’s main focus, one small part of the article has really stuck with me. That people, while impacted by their cultural history as well as their own individuality, are united by the shared situations or challenges they face. For me this quiets the panic of engaging 30 different students, with different backgrounds and life experiences, with one activity. While all my students are different, they have a shared experience in my classroom every day. I can use that experience in some way to make my instruction more meaningful, relevant, and hopefully engaging, but how?
After completing these readings, I am forced to look at my driving question through a new lense. Instead of how does student choice impact student engagement, my question is more focused on how can I use student choice to create a meaningful context that will engage my students? For this my need to knows are: What is causing my students to be disengaged? Did the disengage due to a lack of choice? And how can I use shared context and shared experience to create more engaging learning experiences?
Baggio
In Baggio I find an undercurrent of a theme further developed by Dervin. That while all people are individuals, and therefore process new information in a unique way, there are some patterns that educators can capitalize on in order to make their instruction more effective. All of my students express their affective, cognitive, and conative domains differently, and there will most certainly be a wide variety of learning styles in my class. But, I can use my students’ shared context to build meaningful learning experiences for them, that will engage them in learning. In terms of my driving question I would like to focus more on this idea of context providing relevance to the learner.
Clark
Clark focuses on the Instructional Design from the perspective of training adults. While I can relate to the lack of effective training with new technology, in relation to my research I am more interested in the process Clark suggests to create an effective training experience, specifically the Instructional Systems Design model. This model asks the trainer to focus on needs analysis, task analysis, learning objectives, materials, assessment, revision, and implementation. Reading about this model was very helpful to me because it forced me to realize that I have skipped a step in the design process. I have been trying to find ways to engage my students without first really understanding what caused my students to disengage in the first place.
Dervin
While I know that bridges and gaps and uses are Dervin’s main focus, one small part of the article has really stuck with me. That people, while impacted by their cultural history as well as their own individuality, are united by the shared situations or challenges they face. For me this quiets the panic of engaging 30 different students, with different backgrounds and life experiences, with one activity. While all my students are different, they have a shared experience in my classroom every day. I can use that experience in some way to make my instruction more meaningful, relevant, and hopefully engaging, but how?
After completing these readings, I am forced to look at my driving question through a new lense. Instead of how does student choice impact student engagement, my question is more focused on how can I use student choice to create a meaningful context that will engage my students? For this my need to knows are: What is causing my students to be disengaged? Did the disengage due to a lack of choice? And how can I use shared context and shared experience to create more engaging learning experiences?
Key Ideas and Questions!
1) Education is a product!
While this is not a key idea put forth specifically by any author this week, the implication of these readings in an education course is that we are now thinking about education as a product. I had started to think about this idea before the start of this class in terms of engagement. I found it helpful to think about students who were not engaged as rejecting the product I am trying to give them, rather than rejecting me or school in its entirety. This mindset helped me to be a better problem solver and to stay calmer when working with really reluctant students.
2) Students often don't know what they need.
Dervin identifies what people need in order to solve a problem as "the gaps." In the article she gives many examples where people are lacking a service, and are asking why it does not exist. These examples always include adults who know what they need in order to solve their problem, but are unable to provide a bridge for themselves. I have found that children often lack the life experience to know what they need in order to solve their problem. If a student is struggling to learn long division, they often don't know what skills, experiences, or understanding they are lacking. All they know is that they don't know how to do the problem in front of them. I worry that they might become overwhelmed if we then start asking them to come up with solutions to their problems independently. What is a good way for me to guide my students towards some possible bridges without limiting their learning experience or taking over the learning process that should be determined by my students.
3)Culture will impact the way that students interpret visual representations.
Baggio states that "By using powerful images to impact the way people learn, you can increase the probability that the learning will learn." (Baggio, 2010) But Dervin points out that every individual is impacted by their experience and culture in the sense-making process. This means that the way a student will interpret an image will differ depending on their independent experience. In a classroom like mine, where I come from a different culture than many of my students, it is important that I grow to understand that culture well enough to know how it will impact my students' experiences. An image that might be a clear visual representation to me, might not have the same meaning for my students.
4) How do I design an environment that works for all of my students?
In all of the readings we have completed for this course it has become abundantly clear that is the role of a teacher to create an environment where students are most able to learn. Instead of imparting knowledge onto my students, I need to facilitate their learning experience. But I have 30 students from different backgrounds with different learning styles and preferences. Some of my students have learning disabilities or developmental disabilities that mean that they would benefit from very different learning environments than each other. For example collaborative work is great for many students but poses significant challenges for autistic students who have difficulties communicating and can easily be overwhelmed by loud or chaotic environments. How do I create a classroom environment that benefits all of my learners?
Citation
“Only You Can Construct Your Thoughts.” The Visual Connection: Best Practices for Teachers, Trainers and SMEs, by Bobbe Baggio, Proteus Press, 2010.
While this is not a key idea put forth specifically by any author this week, the implication of these readings in an education course is that we are now thinking about education as a product. I had started to think about this idea before the start of this class in terms of engagement. I found it helpful to think about students who were not engaged as rejecting the product I am trying to give them, rather than rejecting me or school in its entirety. This mindset helped me to be a better problem solver and to stay calmer when working with really reluctant students.
2) Students often don't know what they need.
Dervin identifies what people need in order to solve a problem as "the gaps." In the article she gives many examples where people are lacking a service, and are asking why it does not exist. These examples always include adults who know what they need in order to solve their problem, but are unable to provide a bridge for themselves. I have found that children often lack the life experience to know what they need in order to solve their problem. If a student is struggling to learn long division, they often don't know what skills, experiences, or understanding they are lacking. All they know is that they don't know how to do the problem in front of them. I worry that they might become overwhelmed if we then start asking them to come up with solutions to their problems independently. What is a good way for me to guide my students towards some possible bridges without limiting their learning experience or taking over the learning process that should be determined by my students.
3)Culture will impact the way that students interpret visual representations.
Baggio states that "By using powerful images to impact the way people learn, you can increase the probability that the learning will learn." (Baggio, 2010) But Dervin points out that every individual is impacted by their experience and culture in the sense-making process. This means that the way a student will interpret an image will differ depending on their independent experience. In a classroom like mine, where I come from a different culture than many of my students, it is important that I grow to understand that culture well enough to know how it will impact my students' experiences. An image that might be a clear visual representation to me, might not have the same meaning for my students.
4) How do I design an environment that works for all of my students?
In all of the readings we have completed for this course it has become abundantly clear that is the role of a teacher to create an environment where students are most able to learn. Instead of imparting knowledge onto my students, I need to facilitate their learning experience. But I have 30 students from different backgrounds with different learning styles and preferences. Some of my students have learning disabilities or developmental disabilities that mean that they would benefit from very different learning environments than each other. For example collaborative work is great for many students but poses significant challenges for autistic students who have difficulties communicating and can easily be overwhelmed by loud or chaotic environments. How do I create a classroom environment that benefits all of my learners?
Citation
“Only You Can Construct Your Thoughts.” The Visual Connection: Best Practices for Teachers, Trainers and SMEs, by Bobbe Baggio, Proteus Press, 2010.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Wesley Fryer