Reflection 4, Thursday

We talked a lot about learning…

Sharing ideas, inspirational and fun things. Storytelling in a sense… Telling our own stories. Much like the essence of the 'Romeo and Juliet story,' asking folks to share material and sources of inspiration (or gives them a good laugh) creates connections.

Asking students to find resources to support a learning challenge you issue is a great way to stir things up. 

What are some other creative ways to do this?


We discussed the SAMR model as a framework to help cast ideas into our work. 

Start with an assignment or task and see what it might look like on each step from enhancement toward transformation, S - R.

Try a web search for SAMR

Check Images to see visual of ( oh so ) many different models

Check Kathy Shrock's page on SAMR for more detail on this model.

Then we started talking about final projects, expectations we have, making connections, and frameworks of learning to provide direction. 

This video… can open up a lot of great discussion on teaching and learning. 

What teaching strategies does McFerrin employ here? Why? Why is he successful?

Creating opportunities for students and ourselves to explore multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner) opens up learning.

Writing. Video. Audio. Drawing. Building. Singularly or combined… in any or all combinations. People learn in different ways, after all. 

Then we dove into final project tinkering by discussing some learning models that can help you (and students) move forward.

Starting an idea can be difficult sometimes. FInding the next step can too.

Design thinking is one model to help you move forward

Learning Theory: Understanding how you learn and the goals of a particular project is key. The four 'isms' also help us understand how you learn and how best we can help you. Start with behaviorism to get things started… a simple set of directions.  Explore thinking (cognitivism). Why am I doing this? Construct knowledge (constructivism). Start tinkering with ideas aka prototype. Connect with people, solicit feedback. Great thing, btw, to do with assignments. 1. Shows kids their opinions matter. 2. Gives you all sort of great ideas to make things more relevant to your audience, 3. helps you break outside your 'folksonomy,' your way of thinking.

ADDIE: Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate We use this flowchart to help us plan projects and the training materials we design. This chart helps remind us of a process to keep improving material to help you accomplish your goals.

Instructional Design and User Testing It's easy to design things. Understanding how clients perceive and understand though is a key to success. We test our materials with users and with peers before we send them to you.

OSI Model The OSI model helps us understand how information flows. This diagram is a process we use to learn to troubleshoot technology problems in the Lab and with the IT Department. It might actually be as simple as plugging it in (physical layer) ; )

The 'Four Frames', Structural. Political, Symbolic, and Human Resources (HR) help us understand and plan projects more thoroughly. The Frames also help us understand how clients and ourselves may be perceiving a particular problem. Looking outside the 'frame' or midset you might be in currently and into others helps projects have more depth. That equals more success.

… and then we took a

to connect and share ideas on our projects.

Changing scenery, venue, look and feel of learning has value. Much like playing music in class does while group work is going on. Learning is much more than seat time and carnegie units after all.

Three hours of project work after that… how time does fly ; )

Many thanks again for your work today, folks. See you tomorrow.