Hat’s Off to My Colleagues! You Inspire Me!

This educational journey has provided me with the privilege of working with some innovative colleagues. For some of my colleagues and me, the world of creating blogs was new a new experience that allowed us the opportunity to expand our horizons. There are number of blogs created by my colleagues that provided me with the opportunity to familiarize myself with some new technology, resources, and approaches. Below you will find three of the blogs that I have found particularly beneficial  for my professional practice.

Technology

One of the first blogs for the course required us to identify and learn more about the latest educational and/or technological innovations that enhance learning. Janeal’s blog on Neuroscience and the Adult Learner introduced me to Eyejot. Janeal discussed how she uses this technology to communicate with her online learners. As a result of this introduction, I have also started using Eyejot as a way of communicating with my online learners. 

Resource

  

Elizabeth provided me with some ideas and resources to share with the learners I work with enrolled in the pre-service early educator program. In Elizabeth’s blog Technology a Grandmother Can Love she shared her experience with technology from a grandmother’s perspective. Elizabeth provided her experience with recordable books and Recordable Interview books. From my perspective these are great tools to share with learners that they can in turn use with the young learner in which they encounter.

   

Approach

 

Daphney’s blog investigating the topic of motivation provided me with further understanding of the role of motivation in the learning process. In Daphney’s blog, she asked Can Motivation be Innovative? This blog provided me with some approaches to consider and utilize with respect to developing online learning environments that incorporate the ARC motivational model. I was especially appreciative of the Motivating Learners with Tools and Pedagogy: ARCS Motivational Design and VoiceThread resource she provided.

To Blog or Not to Blog that is the Question

 

During these past two semesters of my educational journey, I have been introduced to several new technological experiences and blogging is one of them. As I close out another quarter I am asking myself two questions “what new knowledge have I gained?” and “will I or how will I use this knowledge?” An obvious answer to the first question is I gained the knowledge of how to blog. Great, woohoo, I can blog. Now however, I am led to a deeper question and that is will I use this skill ever again? A part of me says “no” because at times it just felt like added work. When I allow myself to get past that surface response of “no” however, I see my answer transforming to a “yes.” Yes I can see blogging as a valuable tool not only for myself, but also for the learners that I encounter (I can’t believe I just said that).

In 15 Reasons Why Blogging Matters More Than Ever, Mitch Joel highlighted reasons for blogging that touch on my areas of interest, metacognition and social-emotional development. Mitch Joel shared for example, that blogging allows you to “get something off your chest” good, bad, or indifferent and provides “different perspectives” by breaking down “cultural and geographical borders.” Pernille Ripp also shared the top 10 reasons of Why Students Should Blog. Ripp’s reasons also touch on metacognition and social-emotional development. Through this educational and technological journey, I have also come across a couple of blogs that I have been able to use as resources in my work the pre-service early educators such as Teach Preschool and Teaching Metacognition through Critical Reflection: Strategies and Tools.

Essentially, I do see the benefits of blogging especially as a tool for developing the pre-service early educator’s metacognitive and social-emotional skills. I also have to admit that I see how it has provided me with an opportunity think things through out loud (so to speak) and share my perspective. So the short answer is yes I will utilize and incorporate reviewing and creating blogs into my work with the pre-service early educator. From my perspective, blogging is a valuable metacognitive tool and process for the blogger.

Does Technology Really Make the Innovation Innovative?

In my dissertation companion course I was asked to assist with further defining the term “innovative.” “What does this word really mean, and how might it apply to finding innovative research topics to study?” At first glance, defining the word “innovative” seemed like a “no-brainer.” As I strived however, to complete the assignment and consider my dissertation topic, it has turned into a job for a “big-brainer.” For some reason, technology and the state of being innovative seem to go hand-in hand, but I am questioning whether it really has to go hand-in-hand. 

On my journey toward gaining a better understanding of the term “innovative,” I came across a Disney blog. In the blog, Tom Staggs (2011) conducted an interview with Jeff Kober in discussing the organizations perspective of the term “innovative.” In the interview Kober stated

Just as everyone is responsible for safety, courtesy, show and efficiency, we should always be trying to discover new ways to challenge the status quo, be more efficient, and to surprise and delight our Guests at every turn. We often talk about innovation in terms of technology. But innovation goes beyond technology and should extend to everything we do. Regardless of our roles, each of us has the opportunity to innovate and improve on what we do and how we do it” (par.3).

I know that this source may not be scholarly but from my prospective, it provided a simple yet complex understanding of term “innovative.” Essentially, what I have gleaned from this statement is that being “innovative” is not just results oriented, it is also contextual. Consequently, this could very well mean that what is innovative in one context, may be old news or irrelevant in another context.      

Considering the term “something” which is a component of the Walden definition, I suggest a more specific identification of this term. Utilizing the term “something” from my perspective, naturally leads to a “product” only perspective of being “innovative.” The U.S. Department of Education also discussed innovation in terms of product and processes. I therefore suggest specifically identifying the “something” as a “product, process, or approach” 

Innovative:

• old product, process, or approach used in a contextually appropriate new way
• new product, process, or approach used in a contextually appropriate old way
• new product, process, or approach used in a contextually appropriate new way

My interest is with regard to the pre-service early educator’s emotional intelligence. As I am gaining familiarity with the concept of metacognition especially as it relates to emotional intelligence, my interest leans with that topic as well. My question (for right now anyway) is what difference does a phone call from the online instructor to the online student make as means of formative feedback with regard to the development of metacognitive skills? Many of the community college students I work with take primarily online courses and unfortunately a good portion of those students lack in the necessary emotional and metacognition skills needed in order to be an effective early educator. For some of those students, the only time that the instructor hears their voice is if there is a problem, or at graduation. I wonder if having scheduled instructor initiated phone calls throughout the semester would assist with the development of metacognition skills. 

In terms of my revised definition of “innovative”, this dissertation topic idea would align with an old product, process, or approach used in a contextually appropriate new way

References

Staggs,T. (2011, December 5). Staggs: What does it mean to be innovative? - Disney at work . Retrieved January 4, 2014, from http://disneyatwork.com/2011/12/staggs-what-does-it-mean-to-be-innovative/

U.S. Department of Education. (2004, December 6). What do we mean by "innovation"? Retrieved January 4, 2014, from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/about/definition.html

Social Media…in Education…Really??? I’m Not Ready!!! Or Am I?

 

From one perspective, social media undoubtedly has the potential to transform the educational system into a classroom without cultural boundaries. While this is true, I am also aware of some of the challenges, hazards, and obstacles identified by Karen Lederer, involved with incorporating social media into the classroom. Admittedly, I am not an avid user of social media. Yes, I have accounts on both Facebook and Twitter, but I rarely post on either site, after all, creating and posting this blog has been a new and challenging experience.

A number of studies indicate that although higher education faculty agrees that social media has value, there remains a great deal of hesitation and reservation about adopting this innovation in the classroom. A major factor from my experience and perspective is due to a lack of knowledge and comfort with utilizing and incorporating social media into the curriculum. Additionally, because I am working with learners who must learn to have direct contact, positive and effective interactions with children and families it makes it even harder to embrace SOCIAL media fully.

Overall, my goal is to assist the learners that I encounter with developing the capacity to interact positively with young learners. While there is a place for social media in education, I am still working through how it fits within my work with the pre-service early educator. With this in mind, I decided to use this blog post to assist with increasing my comfort level with social media and incorporating it into the higher education curriculum. Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom is a slide share slideshow that provided explanations for and examples of how to incorporate social media into the higher education classroom.

Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom from Florida State College at Jacksonville - Open Campus

Patrick Mott also created a blog titled Incorporating Social Media in Your Classroom. In his blog, Mott identified specific social media and activities as a means of incorporating  social media into the classroom. How Teachers Use Social Media In The Classroom To Beef Up Instruction was another article that provided discussion on how to incorporate social media. Additional resources that identified social media sites specifically for educators included an article found on the Education World website, Best Social Media Sites for Teachers and on the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website, The Top 18 Educational Social Networking Websites for Teachers.  

As stated earlier, I am working on improving my comfort level. As I begin a new semester with new learners, I plan to step out of my comfort zone and utilize one or two of the approaches presented in the articles. Specifically, Pinterest is a social media that I can envision myself incorporating and utilizing as a means for students to secure and share activity ideas. I can also envision myself incorporating Linkin as tool for students to develop a professional online appearance as well as make contacts with other professionals.  I will keep you posted on how things develop.

Synapses, Neurons, and Glia…Oh My!

Neuroscience, what an intimidating yet interesting topic!  One would think that knowledge of the brain and its functions would come naturally to an educator, especially because the brain is the organ used to gain knowledge. This topic however, has helped me to recognize just how little I do know about the brain and how it functions. Judy Willis explicated in her blog “A Neurologist Makes the Case for Teaching Teachers About the Brain” the need for integrating a foundational understanding of neuroscience into the teacher education curriculum.  In an effort to gain further understanding, as a learner and learning leader, of the brain and how it functions, the Genes to Cognition online interactive brain provided an opportunity take an up close and personal look at the brain. Additionally, Genes to Cognition online provided an opportunity to gain an understanding of the cognitive processes related to learning and memory. 

 

Metacognition is also an area of interest that I have as a learner and learning leader. As a learner developing the skill to “think about my thinking” aids in making connections between new and prior learning and as a learning leader this is necessary skill which will assist me with making necessary adjustments to my instructional strategies. Scoop.it, Pearltrees, and Wisemapping are online thought organization tools. Utilizing organizational tools such as these assist with documenting and cultivating thoughts. ItsMyDiary which is an online diary, is another metacognition tool that learners can use to assist with processing thoughts.