OLTD Learning Outcome:
Context of the Evidence in relation to the Outcome: In OLTD 509, the learning was highly personalized in a structurally gamified environment, Significant choice in learning quests was provided so that students could explore their interests deeply. During OLTD 508 and 509, I reflected much on my own teaching practice.
Context of Outcome as it Relates to my Teaching Practice: In my reflections, I considered how much (or how little) I personalize the learning in my classes. I provide some choice to students in how they meet learning outcomes, but I do not structure my courses with a significant number of choices. The structure of OLTD 509 was gamified and full of personalized learning opportunities. I intend to build a literature course that will be structurally gamified using 3D GameLab. I want to enhance the personalization of learning in my courses.
Gamification: From a Novi to a Novice
I have never taken to video games so at the outset of OLTD 509, I was very skeptical as to whether gamification would be relevant to my teaching practice. But I like physical sports, board games and card games. In fact, I can get quite competitive while playing them, even to the point where I won't necessarily let a child win. That happened recently while playing Monopoly with my stepson. I won't get into Freudian explanations for father/son, father/step-son rivalries. I simply eliminated the 11 year-old from the game, and he didn't take it well. A week later, he legitimately beat us all in Clue, a game I enjoy much more than Monopoly - good for him. A friend of mine who designs card and board games says that, despite it's popularity, Monopoly is one of the most poorly designed games, because some players can lose very early on in the playing, while other players can continue playing for hours before a winner is decided. What do the eliminated players do in the meantime?
Certainly, this type of early elimination/eventual winner outcome would not work well for gamified learning. As an instructor, you'd want all the students to be engaged in the gamified learning for as long as the learning continues. I was surprised to discover during OLTD 509 how engaged I became in the gamified learning environment - surprised because the gamification was educational technology-based, which I previously associated with video games - a platform that I have not enjoyed ... yet.
The 2014 K-12 Edition of the NMC Horizon Report describes how "effectively designed games can stimulate large gains in engagement, productivity, creativity, and authentic learning. " I notice that when my stepson plays video games, he is motivated by achieving levels. I found in OLTD 509 that I was motivated not by badges or levels, certainly by points, because I wanted to achieve at least 80% in the course (I'm a product of that paradigm), and I was motivated by the narrative. This aspect surprised me the most. Since, like most people, I love a good story, and because I'm an English teacher, too, a strong narrative can be the key to engaging me. Our OLTD 509 instructor, Avi Luxemburg, introduced the narrative in the first simultaneous session. From my perspective, it was a narrative that modelled metacognitive reflection on teaching practice, and that aspect has been the main take-away for me. During the six weeks of this course, I have reflected on my teaching to date and opportunities for future teaching practice more than I have in the past ten years.
While the quality of the narrative is the motivating piece for me, the use of a gaming LMS is the most daunting aspect. I know that the preparation of the gamified LMS, sets the stage for personalized learning (also a highly motivating aspect), but I can see that using a LMS such as 3D GameLab requires learning the management system and then a tremendous amount of work setting up the gamified learning environment. At the beginning of OLTD 509, I was closed to the idea of gamification for my first year English courses because, first, I hadn't related the power of narrative to gamification, and I was overwhelmed whenever I thought of the possibility of setting up the LMS.
The experience was similar for Lee Bessette, first year composition instructor and regular blogger on "Inside Higher Ed", but she has recently become more open to the idea as she reflected on how a gamified learning environment lines up with her philosophy of teaching and learning:
"The challenges and problems students will be facing in college and beyond are open-ended and don’t have one right answer. Video games are much the same, educational or not. There are seemingly endless possibilities and variables, forcing players to improvise, strategize, and experiment. And, when you fail at a video game, your life doesn’t end and your financial aid isn’t revoked – you start again, with new lives and another chance to learn from your mistakes. These are all skills that I wish my students had more of" (Bessette, 2012).
Bessette described a specific learning unit within which she and her students read a piece about contemporary life in rural Haiti and then followed that up with a video game that required the students to provide the necessary sustenance for a Haitian family of five. The game is largely text-based, so it does not require the quick-trigger reflexes of most video games in order to succeed, and, again, the strong narrative is motivating for the students.
I think this example provides me with an opportunity to integrate gaming as deeper learning. I'll search out accessible games that are relevant to the topics I cover in my first year English courses and consider whether I can integrate them and whether they have captivating narratives and contribute to personalized learning. That I am even considering this possibility is an indication of the shift I've made during OLTD 509. While I am barely a novice in emerging pedagogies, I am no longer a confirmed Novi.
Works Cited
Games and Gamification - Time to Adopt: Two to Three Years. (2014). NMC Horizon Report: 2014 K-12 Edition. Retrieved from:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxvbHRkNTA5fGd4OjE4N2M2MGYwZmZmZjk3Mjc
Bessette, L. (March 11, 2012). Now You See It: Gamification of FYC? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/college-ready-writing/now-you-see-it-gamification-fyc
OLTD Learning Outcome:
Evidence: Evidence for this outcome is a learning quest in the form of a blog post about an Edutopia piece related to risk-taking in online teaching that leads to growth in teaching practice.
Context of Evidence related to the Outcome: As my knowledge, skill and confidence has grown through OLTD I have brought new strategies into my teaching practice. I have assessed my own readiness for the use of resources. Last semester, I brought a small amount of blending to one course through discussion posts in a f2f course, and I introduced the option of using Twitter for one of the assignments in another course.
Context of Outcome in Relation to my Practice: Several of the OLTD courses provided guidance and practice in evaluating resources for best practice in online learning. In order to pursue change and growth in my teaching practice I need to be able to assess resources to use in that growth and change.
Discomfort, Growth and Innovation
Alyssa Tormala, in her Edutopia piece, “Discomfort, Growth and Innovation says that, according to Simon Sinek’s discussion of the Law of Diffusion of Innovation, “only 16 percent of any group actively pursues change”. The 16% of teachers who actively pursue change risk, learn, grow and innovate. They try new strategies, new ways of assessment, new technology, and they consider it a learning experience whether the risk they took succeeds or fails. They believe in continual growth and improvement in their practice, and they look for new and innovative ways to meet challenges.
During my 22 years teaching at North Island College, I have gone through phases. I first taught upgrading courses in west coast First Nations communities, then I was the Aboriginal Education Coordinator for three years. Next I had a 10 year period of very little change professionally, primarily, I think, because I was experiencing a lot of change in the rest of my life. Towards the end of this period I realized that I was experiencing no professional growth. I requested, and was granted a move into the English department. Each year since, I have taught at least one new course which has allowed me opportunities to take risks and to grow in my practice. Within the English department, I have felt, in a way, like a new teacher again.
However, I haven’t considered myself as being part of the 16%, despite the change I’ve experienced and sought and despite engaging in the learning in OLTD. Most of the teaching that occurs at my college is traditional. I believe it’s because that while some innovation is encouraged and the few innovators are celebrated, as Tormala describes in the piece, not much support is in place to create innovation, or in other words to assist the 84% of instructors to engage in change and growth.
One limiting factor in the public college system seems to be the course calendar. I proposed to my department chair to change one of my courses from f2f to a blended model for its next offering in fall 2017 and was told that it would have to wait for approval for fall 2018 because the calendar would alreading be advertising the course as f2f.
Tormala says that in order to move more instructors out of the status quo, empathy for their fears and concerns must be shown, modelling by innovative instructors must be shared and even the smallest changes and growths in practice must be shared and celebrated.
Here’s two small changes I made to courses I’m teaching this semester, and they were made possible by the learning I experienced in my OLTD courses this past fall. First, I’m including a couple of small online assignments in my f2f literature, thereby including some blended learning in my courses for the first time. And, secondly, I am adding an optional assignment using social media (Twitter) for the first time.
These are very small changes, indeed, but I will share them with my department colleagues and I will learn from them whether they succeed or failure. And, while they are not very original changes, they allow me to begin innovating my teaching approaches at a pace that presents what I consider to be acceptable risk and change, and which also seems to fit with the slow rate of change in the college system.
Reference
Tormala, A. (October 24, 2016). Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/discomfort-growth-and-innovation-alyssa-tormala
0 Comments
- Develop skills to optimize learning experiences through personalization
- Based on characteristics, needs, stages of development, current 21st Century personalized learning mandates, etc..
Context of the Evidence in relation to the Outcome: In OLTD 509, the learning was highly personalized in a structurally gamified environment, Significant choice in learning quests was provided so that students could explore their interests deeply. During OLTD 508 and 509, I reflected much on my own teaching practice.
Context of Outcome as it Relates to my Teaching Practice: In my reflections, I considered how much (or how little) I personalize the learning in my classes. I provide some choice to students in how they meet learning outcomes, but I do not structure my courses with a significant number of choices. The structure of OLTD 509 was gamified and full of personalized learning opportunities. I intend to build a literature course that will be structurally gamified using 3D GameLab. I want to enhance the personalization of learning in my courses.
Gamification: From a Novi to a Novice
I have never taken to video games so at the outset of OLTD 509, I was very skeptical as to whether gamification would be relevant to my teaching practice. But I like physical sports, board games and card games. In fact, I can get quite competitive while playing them, even to the point where I won't necessarily let a child win. That happened recently while playing Monopoly with my stepson. I won't get into Freudian explanations for father/son, father/step-son rivalries. I simply eliminated the 11 year-old from the game, and he didn't take it well. A week later, he legitimately beat us all in Clue, a game I enjoy much more than Monopoly - good for him. A friend of mine who designs card and board games says that, despite it's popularity, Monopoly is one of the most poorly designed games, because some players can lose very early on in the playing, while other players can continue playing for hours before a winner is decided. What do the eliminated players do in the meantime?
Certainly, this type of early elimination/eventual winner outcome would not work well for gamified learning. As an instructor, you'd want all the students to be engaged in the gamified learning for as long as the learning continues. I was surprised to discover during OLTD 509 how engaged I became in the gamified learning environment - surprised because the gamification was educational technology-based, which I previously associated with video games - a platform that I have not enjoyed ... yet.
The 2014 K-12 Edition of the NMC Horizon Report describes how "effectively designed games can stimulate large gains in engagement, productivity, creativity, and authentic learning. " I notice that when my stepson plays video games, he is motivated by achieving levels. I found in OLTD 509 that I was motivated not by badges or levels, certainly by points, because I wanted to achieve at least 80% in the course (I'm a product of that paradigm), and I was motivated by the narrative. This aspect surprised me the most. Since, like most people, I love a good story, and because I'm an English teacher, too, a strong narrative can be the key to engaging me. Our OLTD 509 instructor, Avi Luxemburg, introduced the narrative in the first simultaneous session. From my perspective, it was a narrative that modelled metacognitive reflection on teaching practice, and that aspect has been the main take-away for me. During the six weeks of this course, I have reflected on my teaching to date and opportunities for future teaching practice more than I have in the past ten years.
While the quality of the narrative is the motivating piece for me, the use of a gaming LMS is the most daunting aspect. I know that the preparation of the gamified LMS, sets the stage for personalized learning (also a highly motivating aspect), but I can see that using a LMS such as 3D GameLab requires learning the management system and then a tremendous amount of work setting up the gamified learning environment. At the beginning of OLTD 509, I was closed to the idea of gamification for my first year English courses because, first, I hadn't related the power of narrative to gamification, and I was overwhelmed whenever I thought of the possibility of setting up the LMS.
The experience was similar for Lee Bessette, first year composition instructor and regular blogger on "Inside Higher Ed", but she has recently become more open to the idea as she reflected on how a gamified learning environment lines up with her philosophy of teaching and learning:
"The challenges and problems students will be facing in college and beyond are open-ended and don’t have one right answer. Video games are much the same, educational or not. There are seemingly endless possibilities and variables, forcing players to improvise, strategize, and experiment. And, when you fail at a video game, your life doesn’t end and your financial aid isn’t revoked – you start again, with new lives and another chance to learn from your mistakes. These are all skills that I wish my students had more of" (Bessette, 2012).
Bessette described a specific learning unit within which she and her students read a piece about contemporary life in rural Haiti and then followed that up with a video game that required the students to provide the necessary sustenance for a Haitian family of five. The game is largely text-based, so it does not require the quick-trigger reflexes of most video games in order to succeed, and, again, the strong narrative is motivating for the students.
I think this example provides me with an opportunity to integrate gaming as deeper learning. I'll search out accessible games that are relevant to the topics I cover in my first year English courses and consider whether I can integrate them and whether they have captivating narratives and contribute to personalized learning. That I am even considering this possibility is an indication of the shift I've made during OLTD 509. While I am barely a novice in emerging pedagogies, I am no longer a confirmed Novi.
Works Cited
Games and Gamification - Time to Adopt: Two to Three Years. (2014). NMC Horizon Report: 2014 K-12 Edition. Retrieved from:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxvbHRkNTA5fGd4OjE4N2M2MGYwZmZmZjk3Mjc
Bessette, L. (March 11, 2012). Now You See It: Gamification of FYC? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/college-ready-writing/now-you-see-it-gamification-fyc
OLTD Learning Outcome:
- Critically assess and evaluate resources for best practice in online learning
Evidence: Evidence for this outcome is a learning quest in the form of a blog post about an Edutopia piece related to risk-taking in online teaching that leads to growth in teaching practice.
Context of Evidence related to the Outcome: As my knowledge, skill and confidence has grown through OLTD I have brought new strategies into my teaching practice. I have assessed my own readiness for the use of resources. Last semester, I brought a small amount of blending to one course through discussion posts in a f2f course, and I introduced the option of using Twitter for one of the assignments in another course.
Context of Outcome in Relation to my Practice: Several of the OLTD courses provided guidance and practice in evaluating resources for best practice in online learning. In order to pursue change and growth in my teaching practice I need to be able to assess resources to use in that growth and change.
Discomfort, Growth and Innovation
Alyssa Tormala, in her Edutopia piece, “Discomfort, Growth and Innovation says that, according to Simon Sinek’s discussion of the Law of Diffusion of Innovation, “only 16 percent of any group actively pursues change”. The 16% of teachers who actively pursue change risk, learn, grow and innovate. They try new strategies, new ways of assessment, new technology, and they consider it a learning experience whether the risk they took succeeds or fails. They believe in continual growth and improvement in their practice, and they look for new and innovative ways to meet challenges.
During my 22 years teaching at North Island College, I have gone through phases. I first taught upgrading courses in west coast First Nations communities, then I was the Aboriginal Education Coordinator for three years. Next I had a 10 year period of very little change professionally, primarily, I think, because I was experiencing a lot of change in the rest of my life. Towards the end of this period I realized that I was experiencing no professional growth. I requested, and was granted a move into the English department. Each year since, I have taught at least one new course which has allowed me opportunities to take risks and to grow in my practice. Within the English department, I have felt, in a way, like a new teacher again.
However, I haven’t considered myself as being part of the 16%, despite the change I’ve experienced and sought and despite engaging in the learning in OLTD. Most of the teaching that occurs at my college is traditional. I believe it’s because that while some innovation is encouraged and the few innovators are celebrated, as Tormala describes in the piece, not much support is in place to create innovation, or in other words to assist the 84% of instructors to engage in change and growth.
One limiting factor in the public college system seems to be the course calendar. I proposed to my department chair to change one of my courses from f2f to a blended model for its next offering in fall 2017 and was told that it would have to wait for approval for fall 2018 because the calendar would alreading be advertising the course as f2f.
Tormala says that in order to move more instructors out of the status quo, empathy for their fears and concerns must be shown, modelling by innovative instructors must be shared and even the smallest changes and growths in practice must be shared and celebrated.
Here’s two small changes I made to courses I’m teaching this semester, and they were made possible by the learning I experienced in my OLTD courses this past fall. First, I’m including a couple of small online assignments in my f2f literature, thereby including some blended learning in my courses for the first time. And, secondly, I am adding an optional assignment using social media (Twitter) for the first time.
These are very small changes, indeed, but I will share them with my department colleagues and I will learn from them whether they succeed or failure. And, while they are not very original changes, they allow me to begin innovating my teaching approaches at a pace that presents what I consider to be acceptable risk and change, and which also seems to fit with the slow rate of change in the college system.
Reference
Tormala, A. (October 24, 2016). Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/discomfort-growth-and-innovation-alyssa-tormala
0 Comments