Learning Experiences: One that change my life

Six years ago I moved with my husband and sons to a new area and began teaching at a new district. The technology blew me away. I learned quickly, but to be honest, I was not always sure if I was using technology in a way that would truly benefit my students. 

This was one of the reasons that I chose to get my Masters of Arts in Educational Technology. Now two years later, I am less than a week from graduating, and I will never be the same teacher again.

Learning experiences that change our life come once in a while. As I reflect on my journey in this program, I realize how profound this experience has been. There have been books, articles, programs, theories, software, experiments and research that have challenged me and forced me to think outside my box...outside my world. They have also taught me how to rely on others for support and work together to complete a project.

As much as I have learned, I am constantly reminded how much more there is to learn. Yet, I feel prepared with the tools to continue to learn and develop as an educator. Technology is just a tool and through this program, I feel both more confident in how to use and facilitate student use of technology effectively. But I know that I cannot stop with what I have learned. Technology, society, and the world are changing and as an educator, I must continue learning too. 

Lifelong learning is essential educators. Whether we learn through our peers, conferences, or formal educational programs, the value is learning.  May we all continue to learn for both ourselves and our communities. 

5 Principles of Knowledge Building

Ideas are spread from one source to another. Sharing knowledge and ideas has always be a integral part of society. Yet, the 21st century has rapidly expanded this ability with readily available knowledge and information. 

Recently, I learned about learning theorists and researchers Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter work on Knowledge Building. Though there is a wealth of knowledge about Knowledge Building the key concepts include a focus on intentional learning to create and improve knowledge in a collective process for the greater community.

In education, students often view their teachers as knowledge givers and themselves and receivers. Knowledge Building seeks to use technology to collectively investigate and improve knowledge for both education and professional organizations alike. 

Knowledge Building requires a shift in thinking from What do I need to know? to How do I contribute and create knowledge that is valuable to the community. 

In an effort to support the collective knowledge of this research, I thought I would cover five of the important foundations that Scardamalia and Bereiter describe as principles of Knowledge Building:

1. Use Real Idea, Authentic Problems. Students need to understand there are real problems and ideas out there in the world, and they can learn and investigate them  

2. Investigate Improvable Ideas.  A foundation of  Knowledge Building is that ideas can be improved on. 

3. Idea Diversity. Understanding one idea leads to another idea. Ideas are developed and improved in relationship to other ideas. 

4. Community Knowledge.The goal should be to bring valuable knowledge to others, not just the learner.

5. Knowledge Building Discourse. Knowledge is shared, refined, and improved upon in discussion online or in person. 

The 21st century has problems our students need to solve. Creating communities of Knowledge Building, may in part, work to build their capacity to do just that.

Thankful to Learn

Recently, I have been posting about communities and learning based on my studies in my learning theory class. One thing I am continually surprised by is how we are constantly learning and often learning from others. 

In this thanksgiving season, it makes me feel grateful for all of those in my life that have helped me learn. There are many extra special people who always push me to learn, refine my learning, or try something new.

We often take for granted the ability to learn, grow, and adapt. Yet, it is amazing that our minds can learn at any age. I came across this Ted Talk and it is inspired me to be grateful for how amazing our minds really are. 

After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd | TEDxVancouver

Experiences that affect learning

Powerful experiences affect learning. I will never forget in 5th grade receiving an F on a math test for fractions. I was ashamed, embarrassed, and immediately convinced that I was "bad" at math.  I do not remember feeling that way before that moment. Math became a struggle in that moment, and it stayed with me even through college.  At 10 years old, I did fail, but not at math. It was not understanding that failure is an opportunity to grow and learn.

Negative experiences stick with us, but so do positive ones. Experience is learning. We learn what to do and what not to do. 

John Dewey, an American educational philosopher, describes the value of experience in education. He believed that education should not simply be a prescriptive set of information passed down that a student may or may not use in the future. Instead educators should develop and facilitate experiences that encourage a love of learning.  Yet, he argues against experience without guidance.

 In the book, John Dewey Experience& Education, he writes that the facilitator has "the responsibility for instituting the conditions for the kind of present experience which has a favorable effect upon the future. Education as growth or maturity should be an ever-present process."

This makes me wonder as an educator what kind of experiences I am creating for my students. Do I put content over positive experiences? I wrestle to answer this question, but I also believe it is critical that I ask it. 

I want my students to have positive experiences and grow to be excellent writers and readers. Even as a teacher, Dewey's words ring true, growth and maturity is an ever-present process. 

Communities that shape our identities

What do you do?

Where do you work?

What are you involved in?

Questions of identity are common place when you meet someone new. Why do we ask identity questions? It is something I have wrestled with in the past. Yet, they seem to be easy surface level questions that we all default too. There are many elements that shape our identities. Here are a few:

• Career or job
• Family
• Beliefs
• Education
• Culture
• Communities

Though our identities are complex, I am going to narrow this post to how communities of practice shape our identities. There are many different types of communities of practice from a book club to church. In a community of practice there is both the individual and the collective part of the group.  People interact with others in the community and learn and participate. These interactions and belonging to the community shapes both the group and the individual identity. 

Etienne Wenger, author of Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity and researcher from the Institute for Research on Learning discusses identity in a community of practice.  He states, 

"Who we are lies in the way we live day to day, not just in what we think or say about ourselves, though that is of course part (but only part) of the way we live."

What are the day to day experiences and communities you are apart of that shape you? 

I think about how my colleagues at my school have shaped my identity as a teacher. I am a more compassionate and passionate educator because of the interactions with other inspiring educators and administrators. 

Each community that we participate in has the power to influence our identity. This makes me think of the advice the high school counselors often give incoming freshman students. Get involved. Join a club, try a sport, and participate in school events. I think that advice may be something even as adults we could use because belonging to a community shapes our identity.      

Communities shape our learning

Community is all around us. Some communities we join intentionally. From book clubs to soccer teams, kids and adults regularly choose communities to participate in. 

Other communities are just part of the everyday life of work or school. Students do not get to choose their classmates, but they are each part of a connected community. Adults are part of their workplace communities.

Whether we choose the community or not, it drastically impacts what and how we learn.  In the book, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, (1998) Etienne Wenger states that "engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we learn and so become who we are." As people interact and participate in community they are shaped by the people and processes that are part of that social group. 

We may not often think about our day-to-day interactions as learning. However, learning is something we never stop doing. Our experiences and interactions with others shape our learning. 

How do we learn?

If you needed to learn something new, how would you do it? Tonight I asked my three- year-old son that question. He said, "I would watch you mommy!" When I asked my eight-year-old, he responded, "I would practice, practice, practice."

Learning is an amazing phenomenon. How we learn and engage in new knowledge is fascinating and complex. I am far from an expert. Yet over the next four weeks, I will deepen my understanding through a class on learning theory. 

Just like my two sons, no two people learn exactly the same way.  That is why there are multiple learning theories. 

Show me how

Modeling or demonstrating is an effective way to transfer knowledge. A learner can observe the process and learn from others. This is an important part of the social learning theory. We learn from one another. The 21st century has expanded the opportunities of modeling for society. No longer do we need to learn only from those in our day-to-day world. Through websites and apps such as YouTube and Khan Academy people can learn from some of the best and brightest minds in the world.   

Practice, practice, practice.  

Learning from direct experience is another aspect of social learning theory. As people make choices they are given input that they may use to direct their path the next time. If a person makes a decision, and it has a positive outcome, he or she will learn from that experience. These outcomes are reinforcements that shape learning. In education, students can learn through practicing skills and receiving feedback. Using educational games on websites, such as Xtra Math for multiplication facts or Quizlet for vocabulary words, can be particularly effective. 

Being connected

Connecting with others facilitates learning. There is a difference between reading about a topic in isolation and reading and discussing it with colleagues.  As people process their learning with others, they can solidify new knowledge and make connections to other ideas. The theory of connectivism focuses on how learning is derived in part from connections. Social media has allowed connections beyond face-to-face encounters. People can connect through a variety of topics or ideas and share their own. 

Motivation Matters

I will never forget my first F on a math test. I was in 5th grade, and in that moment, I knew that I hated math. (Growth mindset was not a hot topic in the 80's.) This negativity followed me throughout the rest of my education. I love problem-solving, probability, and strategy yet I never connected that back to math. Therefore, I never learned mathematical strategy. The mental block I created, followed me. So much of learning is mindset. If a person is motivated, then they will find a way to learn. This is seen in many computer and video games. When my son loses in a computer game, he doesn't give up. He tries again and again. He is motivated to learn how to win. Motivation impacts learning in both positive and negative ways.