I am restraining from Impulsivity! Please indulge me.

I am taking a much needed moment of reflection and restraining impulstivity! 

After coming out of Cyclone Ului which hit the North Queensland coast on 21 March 2010 110 klm north of Mackay, my family and I, and all of those around us were so fortunate to have only had minimal damage to our homes or properties, if any. 

Mackay was not in the heart of the cyclone when it crossed the Queensland coast at 1.30am, but we did however experience destructive winds which the Bureau of Meterology (B.O.M.) classify as 125 - 164 km/h winds with minor house damage possible. Significant damage to signs, trees and caravans. Heavy damage to some crops. Risk of power failure. Small boats may break moorings.

For my family, we received minimal, but inconvenient damage as our home office was destroyed and we  received structural damage to our roof and gutters, causing leakage.  Here though, I must mention that our beautiful home is 75 years old and she has stood the test of time and Severe Tropical Cyclone Ului somewhat remarkably!

So, you may be wondering why I am addressing this issue today, 2 weeks after Severe Tropical Cyclone Ului's arrival, and what relevance it has to my studies, and restraint of impulsivity?

Well, similiar to tens of thousands of others affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Ului, after initially loosing power in the first week and luckily regaining it quite soon, we moved on to contacting the insurance company, then the builder.  This was all done upon the backdrop of the daily and consistent wine of chain saws and industrial "mulchers" removing downed trees in our neighbourhood.  Amongst all of this, my "classroom" had dbeen destroyed.  But, I was not to be perturbed, I relocated with my laptop to another part of the house.  It was difficult howerver as I have been largely unable to find a "quiet spot" to study.  I have not been able to leave the house to go elsewhere for the most part, as I have had to be home for insurance inspecters, builders, window replacement workers and the like.

OK.  So this morning I have realised just how much the disruption has affected my motivation to learn as I pulled into the drive way with the industrial mulcher beside me.  This prompted me to reflect back on what I have been studying.  I have been ever so slowly plodding through the coursework and not knowing why I have not been up to my usual standards.  As I write this blog, there is a gentleman working on putting new windows in our home - of which I am very grateful, but it does nothing for my focus or concentration!  And behind that noise is the industrial tree mulcher next door removing and mulching some more debree.  He is the third in 10 days, after the school across the road (which went for days) and then the neighbour on the other side who lost a big Macadamia Nut tree.  And next week, we will be having our entire roof replaced.

I am not writing this to be taken in a negative light. It is part of the process of my reflection and I simply wanted to highlight how important I feel motivation is to the learning process as mine as certainly wavered over the past week or so.  Reflecting back at Maslow's Motivational Theory which is modelled by his Hierachy of Needs (1970), he states that no learning can take place until certain needs are met, the most basic of these needs being the psyshological need which includes food, water, shelter and warmth.  If these needs are not met, we cannot go on further up the hierarchy.  Or similary, if something happens to diminish our motivation, we go back down to the bottom of the hierarchy to start again.

With this then, I was also able to reflect on the higher order habit of mind categories and how, at this point in time, I need to "refrain impulsivity".  My attitudes and perceptions (the first assumption in the Dimensions of Learning framework) have been impacted upon with my comfort zone in my classroom having been removed and my motiviation levels having wavered.  However, this is all temporary and through reflection I have come to see that it is how I perceive the situation that has made the biggest impact and how, by changing my attitudes and perceptions and embracing the general categories of the Habits of Mind (namely critical thinking, creative thinking, and self-regulated thinking) I can turn the situation around.  I found this youtube video very relative. 

In short, this has helped me to realise how I can make an impact on my learners.  Through my learning journing, I am experiening what my learners will experience, giving me the ability to relate.  And, realising my motivation - or lack of my usual level of it - I am able to make adjustments to my attitudes and perceptions.  As outlined in The Dimensions of Learning, certainly Attitudes and Perceptions and Habits of Mind do lay the background for all learning (2006, p7).



Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and Personality (2nd. ed.). Harper & Row.
Marzano, J., Pickering. J. (2006). Dimensions of Learning : Teacher's Manual (2nd ed.). Victoria. Hawker Brownlow Education.
Maslow's Hierarch of Needs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxdNzOVRAmA&feature=fvw

Blogging and Wikis in Education.

As a part of my coursework as a Pre-service learning manager, I have just undertaken something that I never thought I would ever do, little own have a need to do…I have dabbled in the world of blogs and wikis and there is no doubt that I will be spending much more time there!

So, having spent the last couple of days exposing and applying myself to these new learning experiences, (albeit fun, it is aIot for this old girl to take in!), I feel that a period of reflection will now help me to bring it all together and give me time to process everything.

One of the first things that came to my mind when I had gone through the steps of setting up my first Blog ever (and a wiki too no less), was that I felt ENJOYMENT. I started to recognize that the feelings of anxiety and apprehension I had been harboring leading up to this experience had actually turned to enjoyment, wonderment and awe.

Recalling Costa in Describing the 16 Habits of Mind, I called on a” ‘I CAN’ attitude” where my curiosity was peaked and I was engaged in activities that ignited me to “enjoy figuring things out by (myself)…” and I felt connected again to the path of “continu(ing) to learn throughout (my) lifetime” (p9).

This also made me reflect on how my learners would benefit from such learning engagement. Certainly there are many types of learning personalities that I need to take into account when planning.

We just have to look at such theories as Multiple Intelligence put forward by Gardner where he refers to there being 8 different intelligences that everybody experiences in different degrees due to personal and environmental influences (body-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalist, verbal-linguistic, visual-spacial).

And another by Richard Felder whose research let to his development of an index of learning styles, which gives us, as learning managers, much more individual information on our learners when planning learning activities.

Yet another, different theory of learning styles is offered by research done by Jung and Myer’s Briggs who suggest that our personality also affects our ability to learn.  And this is not to leave out learners who may experience certain disabilities, being Gifted and Talented, Asperger's Syndrome or Autism, for example.

So, the very nature of ICTs would allow learning managers to plan effective pedagogy in the attempt to achieve positive outcomes for all learner type because the use of ICTs in Education offers student-centredness, creativity, collaboration and a hands on approach to learning.

Essentially these “web based writing platforms”, as described in the podcast “21st Century Learning” shown below (which I was directed to by my Lecturer Scot Aldred in the course ware) allow learners the opportunity to DO things themselves, such as writing and editing text and adding pictures etc.


The web base allows for not only comment by the teacher (as is the case in the current curriculum based classroom techniques) but also for comment on a world-wide scale. Suddenly, the audience and thus the input, is dramatically increased. Learners are able to received feedback and write reflectively of themselves, as well as offer feedback to and be part of the learning process of their peers.

I believe this all marries up nicely with Kiersley and Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory which offers that all learners will benefit though being engaged in the learning process. They describe engaged learning as “…all student activities involve active cognitive processes such as creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making and evaluation. In addition, students are intrinsically motivated to learn due to the meaningful nature of the learning environment and activities”. Here, the authors go further to describe their method of attaining this as being summarized in three components - RELATE-CRATE-DONATE (P1).

Certainly working on the world wide web in such a way as using blogs and wikis forces one to engage in this theory – Creating by way of setting up and deciding what to write and how to decorate and what to incorporate into a design, relating through collaboration and meaningful dialogue with such a large and responsive audience, and Donate by way of sharing your outcomes and ideas and knowledge with everyone. Reflection is also part of what ICTs bring to the learning journey.

Also, Lynch’s 8 Learning Management Questions suit the inclusion of ICT usage in the learning process. This process takes into account the different learning styles of learners and brings attention to resources and that the learning journey (lesson plan and units of work) “…must create an authentic and meaningful learning experience based on the learning required and the learner’s profile” (Lynch, p33).

Some examples of strategies that I may utilize in my pedagogical planning using ICTs have come from ideas listed in Marzano and Pickering’s The Dimensions of Learning Number 5 – Habits of Mind (pp275-297), used to locate reference materials (be accurate and seek accuracy), ask for people to check your work before delivering it to an audience (be clear and seek clarity), learning about different perspectives (maintain an open mind), find examples in current events (take a stand when the situation warrants it), ready access to information immediately at fingertips (push the limits of your knowledge and abilities), keep a journal that includes reflections on what you are thinking (monitor your own thinking), respond appropriately to feedback, collaboration (evaluate the effectiveness of your actions).

Living in this new Knowledge Economy, I can say that I am convinced that ICTs have a very valuable role to play in Education. This is not to say that it must be included at the expense of something else, but instead as a tool just as one may use a pen.

References:
Costa, A.: http://www.mindfulbydesign.com/sites/default/files/16%20Habits%20Info.pdf

Gardner: Multiple Intelligences http://www.gp-training.net/training/educational_theory/multint/multint.htm

Marzano. R., Pickering. D. (2006). The Dimensions of Learning. Teacher's Manual.  Victoria. Hawker Brownlow Education. 

Smith, Lynch & Mienczakowski. (2003). The Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) and Education Capability: Why we do not Prepare 'Teachers' Anymore in Change: Transformations in Education. Vol 6.2. CQ University.

“21st Century Learning” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkqcp11pHM

My Education, Dale’s Cone and the Learning Pyramid and ICTs in Education

My own learning to date compared with Dale’s Cone and the Learning Pyramid.

When I initially set out to list down my learning experiences to date, I could only relate to learning experiences that were at the top end of Dale's Cone, that is, my instruction was completely curriculum based, “chalk and talk” style. My instruction was very formal right through from Primary school to University. The only time I believe I engaged in any kind of group activity was during language courses at University which consisted of dialogue construction and delivery in pairs. Unfortunately this was about as creative as my education got to my recall. Even my Year 11 school camp was cancelled due to unsavoury antics at the camp the year before!

Then, it occurred to me that I have encountered countless other learning experiences outside of formal education. After all, that is what life is all about isn’t it - life experience is learning, it is about whether we are aware of the Habits of Mind to realize this or not. After considering such learning experiences I concluded that perhaps one my biggest learning experiences in life was becoming a parent. There was no "taught" way to becoming a parent. All I could do was communicate with others (collaborate), draw on their experience and feedback, research all of the information I could get my hands on, make decisions based on this and reflect on my strategies. Parenting is a life long learning journey, where I am the learner and my learning experience has been and will continue to be very direct and purposeful – albeit unconsciously to date (consciously now!). Per Kearsley & Schneiderman’s Engagement theory of creation, collaboration, real world scenarios and experiences in learning and donating back to the world (CREATE-RELATE-DONATE) I continue to use this personal learning experience to relate to this and align me with what I need to be focusing on as a learning manager(1999). With this, I could experience effective learning as outlined in Dale’s Cone and the Learning Pyramid. And this time, it turned the cone around to the right order, that in which Dale dictates is the effectiveness of active learning!

References:
Dale’s Cone: http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm

RELATE-CREATE-DONATE Engagement Theory: Kearsley & Schneiderman. Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. (1998) http://home.sprynet.com/-gkearsley/engage.htm

What is the possible role of ICTs in changing learning Design in Education from a teacher-centred to student centric paradigm?

I also had the following thoughts, based on the question of the place of ICTs in changing a curriculum based framework into a pedagogical framework. That is teacher centric vs student-centric.

I beleive that technology offers empowerment to learners over their own learning. It enables the learning manager to facilitate the learner’ learning experience; that is, it allows the learning manager to become the facilitator of the learning process instead of the dictator. Technology offers a way to get information now, thus allowing for immediacy. This no doubt aides in enhancing learner engagement in the learning process. As George Lucas stated in his speech on edutopia at dreamforce 2007, learning is fun if you are interested.

Technology also takes away from the teacher-centric approach in that it is interactive,cooperative and collaborative by nature; that it, it engages public feedback on a world stage. Again to refer to George Lucas where he states ... "children learn out of curiosity"... Interaction with each other and their real world is how they will learn the best, all facilitated by the nurturing and caring hand of their teachers who will guide their interests and instill confidence (student centred learning).

Reference: http://www.edutopia.org/george-lucas-education-dreamforce-2007

Thankyou
Kylie B

I made it!

I am so proud of myself at the moment - yes I know...it is only a Blog. But it wasn't very long ago (only a few short weeks actually), that I was asking anyone and everyone who would listen, what a blog was and why did we need it? Well, I have suprised myself and I hope to now work towards becoming a successful blogger! I have certainly been very inspired by all in my current course of study.

This feeling of achievement and sense of accomplishment certainly allowed me to reflect on just how important ICTs could be to engage learners in the learning process. Reflecting on my own learning, something that this current course of study has prompted me to do, I have been able to once again be conscious of the joy and sense of achievment I feel when I am engaged in the learning process. Aurther Costa described this as "responding with wonder and awe" in his work:  Describing the 16 Habits of Mind. Once again my curiosity has been ignited!

I felt excited and nervous as I set out to complete this task, but feel such a sense of achievement in being able to do it. I know setting up a blog is not rocket science, but the satisfaction for me was in the process, the learning experience. It has been an achievement for me as it is something that is relevant to the real world and something that has certainly taken me outside of my "comfort zone". This, I now realise with awe and certainty, is how I want my learners to feel and feeling it myself, I know that I can deliver!

Scot Aldred (my CQ University Lecturer) clearly outlined that the Rules of Engagement for ICTs use in pedagogy must be that the ICTs are used to enhance the learning experience, making it more effecitive and meaningful.  In addition, their use and incorporation into any learning experience must make the learning manager's job easier - not more time intensive.

With this in mind, the simplicity of setting up a blog, the little time it takes to do it, the immediacy of information and help available and the freedom (both creatively and financially) make it a wonderful tool for any learner of any level or learning style or learning intelligence to master.  Learning styles include Dale's Cone of Experience which is based on Active Learning where the effectiveness of learning varies in accordance with the type of media involved in the learning experience.  Learning Styles have also been described by Richard Felder in his Index of Learning Styles. The following movie is delivered by Howard Gardner and is based on his theory of Multiple Intelligence:



Personality has also been researched extensively and linked to learning through such examples as Jung and Meyer's-Briggs personality sorter and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

I have been engaged in this course - ICT's in Learning Design (in which I am currently enroled at CQ Unversity) for only four short weeks now and I have come to understand the central concept of the course.  In Scot Aldred's words, this course is about "engaging students, not enraging them".  That is, it is about Engagement and how this can counteract, or better still, avoid Behaviour Management issues.   Essentially as outlined in Marzano's Dimensions of Learning (Marzano & Pickering. 2006) and Lynch's (8LMQs)Eight Learning Management Questions (Lynch. 2003), knowing what your learners know and how they learn will ultimately lead to the ability to become an effective Learning Manager and deliver ICT pedagogy that will cater for all types of learners and learning personalities, thus engaging students, enhancing learning and achieving positive outcomes.

Keeping all of this in mind, I forsee the use of blogs in my learning management as a way of allowing my learners to be reflective (an important part of higher learning) as well as being in charge of,  and creative in the pursuit of their own learning journeys. I will be encouraging their use for students as a way of documently their own learning journeys, just as learning journeys in the classroom today are part of some areas, but done with paper and pen.  I would also use blogs for professional interaction and discourse between my learners, myself and my peers.  I beleive blogs to be an effective tool in assisting in the different and varied learning styles of my learners, whilst being accessible and easy to use.

I now look forward to updating my blog and keeping it regular with hopefully interesting reflections, insights, feedbacks and information.

Good luck everyone. See you on blogger!

Kylie B

References:

Costa. A. Describing the 16 Habits of Mind retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/15802003/16-Habits-of-Mind

Felder. R. Index of Learning Styles (ILS) retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html

Gardner. H.  Theory of Multiple Intelligence retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2QtSbP4FRg&feature=player_embedded

Jung and Brigg's-Meyer. Identify Your Type with Jung Typology Test retrieved from http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

Marzano. R., Pickering. D. (2006). The Dimensions of Learning. Teacher's Manual. Victoria. Hawker Brownlow Education.

Mazlow. A. 1970 Motiviation and Personality (2nd ed). Harper and Row.