Roxanne Pompilio
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HOW TO CULTIVATE A NEW CULTURE OF LEARNING—Part II

10/29/2014

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REFLECTIONS ON A NEW CULTURE OF LEARNING—CULTIVATING THE IMAGINATION FOR A WORLD OF CONSTANT CHANGE  by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

Chapter Four: Learning in the Collective

Quote: "Peer-to-peer learning is amplified by emerging technologies that shape the collective nature of participation with those new media." (587) I selected this quote as it isn't all completely a new concept, but it adds a new element to consider when structuring group work. In fact, I'd argue it turns traditional 'group work' upside down.

Question: How do we get past the "free-rider" problem when we work as a "collective"? This becomes more of an issue, the larger the group. How do we measure collective success? Are we losing site of the individual agency?

Connection: "It is the combination of the active and passive forms of participation that make a blog or website successful" (633). I resonate with this in several ways. First it reminds me a lot of New Social Movement Theory. Thomas and Brown even reference Benedict Anderson at some point in all of this which I reference back in my MA thesis from UCSD on Political Parties and Social Movements. It also connects with my own blogging experience for EDL630. Students need to interact with their environments to continue to learn and grow.

Epiphany: "Blogs generate the space for a collective to emerge" (633). Probably more a connection than an epiphany, but this is the same type of space the people in Egypt were able to use to mobilize. As an educator, I've always struggled with traditional 'group work'. I have ended up assigning both an individual grade and a group grade in an attempt to escape the "free-rider" problem and ensure that everyone is doing their part. However, the "collective" model, turns this upside down. It sounds good, but can we tie it to a learning outcome or an objective?

Chapter Five: The Personal with the Collective

Quote: "we shape and define the boundaries of our agency and identity within the collective" (672). This resonates with me partly as a student fascinated by collective action and social movements, but I feel it is here that new identities get constructed, and action occurs.

Question: How do we evaluate collectives?

Connections: With the rapid change of technologies, it has become easier to work as a "collective." My own experiences with my 20% project have convinced me of the benefit of reaching out to a larger community in order to expand my knowledge and learning. Despite my acceptance of the need to foster the emerging collectives, I hope that identity does not get lost in the process.

Epiphany: The idea that technology has provided a bridge between personal interests and collectives, and has caused people to "think outside of" and challenge boundaries. This relates to technology leadership, as you often have to think outside the box and challenge existing boundaries to move to the next level. 
 
Chapter Six: We Know More than We Can Say

Quote: "We know more than we can tell" (955). According to Douglas and Brown  the tacit dimension of knowledge has become more vital in today's world than explicit knowledge. I selected this quote because I agree with the idea that we learn by doing, through observation, and by experiencing something first hand. 

Question: What is "indwelling" and how is it connected to inquiry?


Connection: The connection between passion, inquiry, and learning. The idea that student's learn best when they are able to follow their true passions. It is here when one tends to work harder to find the answers. I found this true about my 20 percent jam-making project. This project required inquiry, asking questions about what I don't know, and it required tacit knowledge. I had to experience making the jam to learn the process of making it. 

Epiphany: The idea of collective indwelling. How we can use inquiry to turn diversity into an advantage our classroom. This will afford multiple ways to answer a question and we can approach it using multiple learning styles. Also, that we need to consider the learner's sense of indwelling when trying to engage with the learner's passions. 

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How to Cultivate a New Culture of Learning

10/28/2014

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REFLECTIONS ON A NEW CULTURE OF LEARNING—CULTIVATING THE IMAGINATION FOR A WORLD OF CONSTANT CHANGE  by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

Chapter One: Arc-of-Life Learning

Quote: "Play, questioning, and—perhaps mot important--imagination lie at the very heart of arc-of-life learning" (64). This quote is at the heart of learning and captures how people make sense of the world. It also allows us to connect the way we learned in the past with the way we learn in the future.


Question: How do we combine the abundance of information and a structured environment to learn effectively in a world that is constantly changing?

Connection: My experiences in the EDL621 course and EDL630 course have caused me to rethink how students learn, how I learn, and what motivates today's learner. In many ways, these courses have transformed the way I think about education and learning, and what Thomas and Brown (2011) state as key elements for the new culture of learning: information, imagination, and play. From Wager's book, The Global Achievement Gap (2014), I learned about the essential survival skills students need to survive in this 21st century "world of abundance." Reflecting on my 20 percent project and on many of the "cool" technology tools I have learned through discovery, I feel I have become part of the new culture of learning. I have shared interests with many of the online communities I have joined, developed my passions (finally turned the wine grapes into jam), and have engaged in a play of imagination through my own participation in a 3D game lab or "gamified" environment. Much of Thomas and Brown's book remind me of the New Social Movement paradigms I learned about while in graduate school at UCSD (1990), only here the identities being constructed are being driven by the pace of technology and a need to change along with it, rather than new identities emerging as part of a counter culture or a need to overthrow existing regimes. 

Epiphany: The connection between resources and personal motivations,  and how everyday people are using these to construct something personally meaningful that at the same time, adds to the existing knowledge. I am inspired and challenged to integrate some of these new modes of learning into my classroom. In terms of my role as a leader in technology, I am committed to a more effective integration of it.

Chapter Two: A Tale of Two Cultures

Quote: "Encountering boundaries spurs the imagination to become more active in figuring out novel solutions within the constraints of the situation or context." (327). As children we are naturally curious and are constantly solving problems. I agree with the idea that boundaries challenge humans to find answers to problems. What is needed often is the time to figure out innovative solutions.

Question: How do we get our school environments to thrive in 21st century where many of the boundaries are not yet defined? If the answer is to form a symbiotic relation with our environment, how do we construct this new identity?

Connection: In order to survive in the 21st century abundance of information, students need to be able to create in this new culture and not just react or adapt to it. As educators, we need to help our students to emerge with the new environment and provide them with the resources and tools needed to continue to grow with it rather than be left behind.

Epiphany: Embracing what we don't know is okay, as long as we come up with better solutions, and continue to ask questions. As an educator, it is important to continue to learn, ask questions, and problem solve. In this way, we too, change with the environment and continue to construct the world around us.

Chapter Three: Embracing Change

Quote: "Embracing change means looking forward to what will come next. It means viewing the future as a set of new possibilities, rather than something that forces us to adjust" (454). I chose this quote because it conveys what is necessary to compete in today's world.


Question: How do I convince others to embrace change and be open to it rather than feeling like they are being forced to adjust, especially in education? What is the right balance of structure and freedom?


Connection: We need to embrace change and start looking at information as a resource or tool, and view learning in a new way (that it is constructed through our engagement and interactions with the world and through). As an educator, I must incorporate elements into my teaching such as questioning, play, and imagination, and I must be willing to change my teaching practices where needed to be part of the new culture.

Epiphany: Innovation and play are key to a happy workplace, happy life, and continued motivation, yet there is struggle to achieve this. Here is where the challenge lies.

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Eightfold Path to Survival in the 21st Century

10/28/2014

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Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner

Final Reflection: In my final reflections on Wagner and his Seven Survival Skills, I thought about what I might change and what I should keep. I concluded that all seven are essential to meet the needs of the 21st century student and teacher. However, I agree with many of my peers that something is missing. In this case, empathy. Being able to empathize and understand multiple perspectives and the heart of the human soul is invaluable, especially in a world where the global affects the local. The ability to empathize and put yourself in the perspective of another is an essential skill.

Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills (Mashup)

Survival Skill #1: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Critical thinking involves students being engaged in problem solving and approaching the original problem from various perspectives in order to accomplish their goal. This involves being open-minded, willing to take risks, and learning from failure. According to Wagner, rather than work being defined by an individual’s specialty, it is defined by the problem or task that needs to be solved and often requires students to be able to problem-solve as part of a team.

My students in World History use common core performance tasks that require critical thinking skills to solve real-world global issues and approach analysis of primary and secondary sources like an historian.

Survival Skill #2: Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
Technology has afforded students to work collectively and collaboratively with individuals across the globe from different perspectives and backgrounds. This involves a globe understanding of history and culture, and requires a degree of empathy. Students today need to learn how to effectively communicate with people of different races, perspectives, histories, and culture. This involves a more global definition of citizenship and what it means to be a citizen in the digital world. By learning about global events and how these affect history, including future histories, students become passionate and find new ways to influence global outcomes and make a different in their world.

Survival Skill #3: Agility and Adaptability
With the abundance of new technologies and the pace of global change, it is important to be able to process information and make sense of it. Students need to be able to quickly assess information, adjust for new information and adapt to new situations accordingly. This skill often involves practice and some risk-taking to get use to meeting various types of work demands or expectations.

Survival Skill #4: Initiative and Entrepreneurship
Leadership today involves taking more initiative and learning how to lead others through influence rather than through orders. This requires seeking out new strategies, new perspectives, and dynamic thinking to reach solutions and in meeting challenges. In teaching history, this often involves case studies, looking at changes over time, global comparisons, but not forgetting the human equation. It is important to be able to think outside of the box and to be innovative.

Survival Skill #5: Effective Oral and Written Communication
The ability to express one’s views clearly is becoming more important today with the growing pace of technologies that limit face-to-face interactions. Often, meanings get misunderstood in emails, texts, and even with video-conferencing. Students now need to learn multiple communication skills that are appropriate for different contexts. Contextualization, both orally and in writing is becoming a valuable communication skill.

Survival Skill #6: Accessing and Analyzing Information
To be an informed citizen and lifelong learner in today’s global world requires the ability to access and evaluate multiple sources quickly and efficiently. The growing use of and abundance of information at our fingertips, requires critical thinking and problem solving, thinking outside of the box, and being able to work with others to process the information or to create new meaning.

Survival Skill #7: Curiosity and Imagination
Creativity and innovation are also critical to problem solving, and to developing new products and meeting challenges in a different way. With the abundances of new widgets, products, and services, it is becoming more difficult to create something sustainable yet unique.

Survival Skill #8: Empathy
Being able to empathize and understand multiple perspectives is even more important with globalization. Natural disasters, human rights issues, and wars are no longer isolated events to be ignored but are part of a shared dialogue and must be understood as such.
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APP SLAM—Educreations

10/20/2014

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This is both an APP SLAM for the iPAD App Educations and a snapshot of how I'm using Educreations to capture my 20 Percent Project on making Wine Jams and Jelly from my Syrah Grapes. Enjoy!
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Improving teaching and coaching of Teachers

10/11/2014

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Making changes in education isn't always easy, but if the goal is to improve student learning, I agree with Wagner (2014) that we must also improve teaching and the coaching of teachers. Over the past few years, I am starting to see more and more of this at my own school. As a teacher I found this intimidating at first, as when it was done only during an evaluation and visits rarely occurred. However, in recent years, observation and feedback has been more frequent and constructive, and has occurred outside the standard teacher evaluation. Also, teachers are starting to observe colleagues to look at different strategies that are being used to teach common core or to assess students. An important point here is to make observations welcoming, collaborative, and informative.

Along with improving teaching and coaching of teachers, Wagner also looks at administrative competencies. Our school is still in the process of selecting a new principal, so this is something I have thought a lot about. We have had several meetings at our site discussing what we want in a principal and are in the process of putting together an interview panel. I agree with Wagner's list of administrator competencies, particularly a written School Improvement Plan, as we would have a better idea of principal's leadership style and whether it is a good fit for the school.

As for what happens when an educational team meets regularly to observe classrooms, discuss common practices, and look for solutions to problems, it is empowering and gives more control to the educator over their own learning, professional development that is needed, and "buy in" to the overall vision.
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Do State tests assess the skills that matter most for work, citizenship, and college?

10/11/2014

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Tony Wagner in his book The Global Achievement Gap takes us back to high school to dive deeper into the world of state testing. Two questions that are explored are: to what extent state tests assess the skills that matter most for work, citizenship, and college; and what is the impact of teaching to these tests on students' motivation to learn and to stay in school? In terms of the first question, it probably isn't surprising that skills needed to survive in the workplace are not being met through testing. What employers found was that students coming out of high school were unable to apply the content learned to pass tests to solve real world problems. Similarly, state tests do not prepare students to be responsible citizens in our society, or help them succeed in college. So why is there still so much emphasis placed on performing well on state tests in order to show readiness for the workplace, citizenship, and college? Is the move toward the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) to assess what has become known as Common Core a step in the right direction? Will it get us closer to redefining rigor and to developing the Seven Survival Skills Wagner holds essential? Given the abundance of information and access to twenty-first century technologies, memorization of facts becomes less important. Students need to be able to apply what they know. Incorporating 21st century skills into the curriculum not only will accomplish this, but will help reverse the impact of teaching to these tests. Students might be more motivated to learn and to stay in school.
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    Roxanne Pompilio is a History-Social Science Teacher at the School of Creative and Performing Arts. She currently teaches 7th and 10th grade World History.

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