How to Make a PBJ Sandwich - version 2

How to Make a PBJ Sandwich

To make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you will need, bread, peanut butter, and jelly. You will also need a knife to spread the peanut butter and the jelly, and probably a plate to keep the counter from getting too messy.

Your first step is spread peanut butter on one side of one slice of bread. You want enough peanut butter to cover the slice, but not too much to make the sandwich gooey.







 Your next step is to spread jelly on one side of the other slice of bread.  Be sure to cover the entire slice.

 The third step is to put the sandwich together, with the peanut butter and jelly sides of the bread facing each other. Put it together carefully so that the jelly doesn't ooze out the sides.

Finally, slice your sandwich in half to make it easier to eat. Enjoy your sandwich!

Rodin's Le Penseur

Photo by M Large

In my job, we've been doing some work around Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design. I've also just finished reading Carol Dweck's Mindset. As I have worked on developing a model unit, I've also been thinking about the ways in which the experience is making me grow as an instructional designer. The unit I'm designing now is worlds better than the units I designed a decade or two ago, and I really hope both it and my reflections about the process will serve as a good model for the teachers that go through my professional development.

But the real goal of learning is understanding, and understanding involves transference. So how will I apply this concept of learning for understanding in the course I teach for teacher credential candidates?

First, I would say that the progression of activities in ED407 already leads through acquisition, meaning-making, and finally transfer with the final product. At least on paper. Designing a project-based WebQuest or other unit certainly demonstrates students' ability to transfer their skills and knowledge into a meaningful product. But in the interest of growth (for both me and my students) I think there are some other pieces I may need to provide during the acquisition phase to help my students better get to the point of creating a unit that truly works in the real world, with real students.

Second, I think that I could incorporate meta-cognitive activities that would do a better job of modeling a growth mindset and helping to ensure a transferable product. While this will require some changes to the flow of the course, I think it will be better for students in the long run as they embark on their careers as teachers.

Third, if my primary goal in the course is student ability to transfer the skills and knowledge about integration of technology into their own classrooms, I need to explicitly design for that. Since the course is project-based, it is well suited for making meaning. Many of the discussion prompts I already use ask questions that help students identify relative strengths and weaknesses of various tools, with growth oriented prompts that are intended to help lead students towards the application level. But I think my discussion responses tend to focus more on the meaning and less on transfer, so I may be inadvertently keeping the focus on only one part of the process. I also think that I should be able to make some of the assignments that are currently primarily skills-based into transferable products simply by changing the focus to something that is usable in their classroom.

It's a new year - time for a growth spurt!

The Most Pressing Issue...

Image credit http://cdn.business2community.com

The most pressing issue in educational technology is the shift that is happening in the way we define technology. From being an add-on, to a tool, to being “integrated” into the curriculum - up until now technology has been a thing apart. Teachers chose whether or not to use technology with their students, and chose the activities that students would do when technology was allowed. For the most part, technology has been used to facilitate analog activities - the activities that took place before the technology existed.

But now we’re at the tipping point - technology is no longer a tool, but an environment. It’s ubiquitous, pervasive, and is happening with or without educator consent. It enables things never before possible, and students are doing those things, again with or without us. With free online courses from highly regarded individuals and institutions, learning has never been more readily accessible. 

But that learning is beginning to bypass our school systems that are wedded to an analog model of “educational technology” which persists in setting technology apart. “Any time, any place” learning is no longer just a description for the few students enrolled in online courses, but an apt description of what our students’ lives are like. 

So why is this the most pressing issue? If we as educators can’t tap into this paradigm shift, we run the risk of becoming irrelevant. We can call ourselves the gatekeepers of formal education as much as we want, but now there are performance-based badging systems and real-world digital portfolios that students can use to prove their competency. We must facilitate an environment in which students can explore new ideas in a deep and meaningful way, and help students to identify and nurture their passions

Learning in a Networked Society

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. I've been exploring the nature of learning and motivation in a variety of formats - in my work, in my studies, and in my personal life. I ran across Coursera while looking for online learning object repositories, and began to realize that learning is starting to happen more and more outside of education. At work, in discussing a student who completed a certification program but didn't bother to do the final step of creating a portfolio, a colleague said, "she was more interested in the learning, not the certification." The ascendancy of learning as facilitated by technology is striking, and it raises some fascinating questions about the purpose and future of education.

The video below showed up in my blog roll to reinforce the entire set of lessons I've been learning this week. My favorite quotes from the video: 

• "There is a very big difference between access to information and school - they used to be the same thing."  ~Seth Godin
• "It is the teacher's job to point young minds toward the right kind of question. The teacher doesn't need to give any answers, because the answers are everywhere." ~Sugata Mitra
• "Learning prepares you to cope with the surprises. Education prepares you to cope with certainty. There is no certainty." ~Stephen Heppell

For the complete video, please visit http://youtu.be/quYDkuD4dMU. It's 20 minutes, but well worth the time.

About Me

I am currently the Grants and Professional Development Coordinator for the California Technology Assistance Project in Region 10 (RIMS CTAP). I work out of the San Bernardino County Office of Education, supporting teachers and administrators in the effective implementation of instructional technology tools. Over the past several years, I have been involved in spearheading the development of several professional development programs in my region, including Integrating Technology for English Language Learners (iTELL), Technology Integration Coaching, Data Academies and a workshop series about the use of interactive technologies called Digital Classroom. In addition, I provide the “technology pieces” in our county Common Core training in English Language Arts.

Over the past two years, I have been involved in piloting and then serving on the Curriculum Committee for Leading Edge Certification for the Online and Blended Teacher, which is a 60 hour course in the pedagogy of online instruction. We see this as a first step towards a credential authorization to help ensure that teachers of online courses have the proper preparation and exposure to instructional strategies to be effective in the online environment. I coordinate the delivery of Leading Edge Certification in RIMS, and help to provide training for other LEC trainers around the state. 

I am also an Adjunct Instructor at University of La Verne. I teach a class called "Learning Technologies for Educators", which is a required course for a teaching credential. I teach the class in a fully online environment, and I love exposing my students to educational applications of various Web 2.0 tools. I also like the fact that I am helping to dispel the myth that online courses are impersonal and lack communication and collaboration, as I have different student groupings on different projects, and model both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools. 

I have a Bachelors of Science degree from Indiana State University in Elementary Education, and a Masters degree in Educational Technology from California State University, San Bernardino. My Masters project in 1997 involved helping districts write Technology Use Plans. Since then, I have received my administrative credential, and have worked in county administration for the past 10 years. I began the Doctor of Educational Technology program at Boise State University in Fall 2012, with an anticipated completion date of Spring, 2017. My primary areas of interest are online learning and the needs of English Language Learners in the online environment.

My interests outside of work and school include traveling, reading, gardening and cooking. I enjoy exploring different cultures and environments, and spending time in out-of-the-way “local” spots as I travel. With grown children, my husband and I now have more opportunities to explore areas we enjoy, such as Mexico, and visit places we’ve only dreamed about, such as Africa. My garden changes every year, but always starts out organized and ends up wild and overabundant. I try to implement at least 2-3 new recipes every month, and sometimes manage 2-3 in a given week. Everyone in my family is a Dodger fan, and I try to get to several games every year. And just in case I wasn't busy enough, I am currently training for a half-marathon!

Doctoral DIY

Today I read an article analyzing self-help dissertation advice books. First, who knew there were self-help books for writing your dissertation? I guess there's a DIY book for everything, but really?? Just for the fun of it, I checked YouTube, my normal place for DIY advice, and found that YouTube can also teach me how to write a dissertation! There are dozens of "classes" about writing a dissertation, and many more showing various candidates' actual defenses. An hour later, I can say I didn't find a single useful video. (Yes, an hour. It is YouTube after all.)

It seems that one factor all of these "how to" manuals have in common is the claim that, if you follow their steps exactly as written, you will automatically have success. That's a tough one for me, since I typically think the step by step directions on putting together a bookshelf are only broad guidelines. Although the bookshelf makers presumably have tested this thousands of times, I do not necessarily believe that their interpretation of the steps and the order makes the most sense.

A second common factor in these dissertation advice books is providing writing guidelines, again as a set of steps. Again, I don't see that working for me. I'm perfectly happy to start with a piece of writing that's in the middle of my topic, and build out from it. I write like a spider web, and suggesting that the only correct way to do a dissertation is to write in a line just rubs me the wrong way. I do believe that there are other people out there who also are non-linear who have successfully managed to get a doctorate degree, and who have not compromised their writing style in order to follow a recipe for success.

The third common element that really jumped out at me was that these self-help books don't truly address the complexities of writing. They deal with mechanics and grammar, structure and vocabulary, but seem to completely ignore voice, tone, and nuance as literary tools. Which implies that dissertation writing is a dry reporting process rather than an interpretive learning and sharing process. For anyone who knows me, it should come as no surprise that I am hoping my dissertation and defense more resembles Hans Rosling's way of sharing data!

I'm hoping that it will be okay for my dissertation to reflect my voice - I'm optimistic that the fact that my program shared this article with us is a sign of that!