Week Three Reflection

Essential Question: Which emerging pedagogy appeals most to you, and might be most useful for your classroom and students? Why?

I was thrilled to see Genius Hour as a topic of choice for this weeks blog.  Two summers ago, my husband read about the concept of Genius Hour and brought it to my attention.  The idea intrigued me and I began digging in and finding as much information as I could about the topic.  As a culmination of my research, I created a very open, semester-long lesson that I called "20% Time".

So for those of you that are unfamiliar with Genius Hour or 20% Time, let me give you a quick introduction. "Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school" (What is Genius Hour, 2020).  The idea originates from Google's work policy which encourages their employees to spend 20% of their time on a pet project of their choice.  In essence, if people are enjoying what they're doing for work, then their productivity will increase.

Here is a short video that I have used to introduce the assignment to my students:


I feel that a huge part of high school is finding out who you are and who you want to be moving forward beyond school.  So has hard as it was to "give up" 20% of my already short amount of time with students, but the outcome was incredible.  Students spent every Friday in my class researching a topic of their choice with the end goal being a presentation of their project at the end of the semester to their class.  The students that got into it, got so much out of it! They looked forward to Fridays and did an amazing job presenting their findings to the class.

It wasn't perfect for every student and I had a few that wasted the time they were given, but I did my best to make sure everyone was working on something they were excited to explore. To help make sure they were on task, each week my students were required to answer the following questions:

1. What did you accomplish today?
2. What resources did you use today? (In APA format)
3. What do you plan to accomplish next time?
4. What do you envision your final project to look like?

In the end, I shared my year experience with my colleagues and helped get one teacher set up to do a similar project in his classes the following year.  I chose not to add it to my curriculum this year for lack of time, but I am already looking forward to getting back to it next year! 

Resource:
What is Genius Hour? (2020). Retrieved January 31, 2020, from http://geniushour.com/what-is-genius-hour/

Week Two Reflection

Essential question: What do you see as the promise of Open Learning as an emerging technology/pedagogy/philosophy?

Upon researching 'open learning', I found that much like 'emerging technologies' there is not a clear-cut definition.  Our text for this week states that, "Open learning is described as learning that occurs in a shared and transparent manner in which others can reuse, revise, remix, and/or redistribute the evidence of learning with others (Wiley, 2009). Open learning encourages collaboration, connections, networked learning, and interdependence between educators and learners" (Graham et al., p. 2).

Our world has shifted from a very local sense of community to a global connectedness. "What occurs in one facet of this connected world is no longer isolated to its local community; today social media amplifies and pushes communications and events to the entire world community." (Graham et al., p. 2). Open learning opportunities give students a chance to work beyond the walls of their classrooms and experience that global connectedness in regards to their education. "Open learning encourages students to use the digital tools and social networks they are already using outside the classroom. Experiencing the integration of social networks and tools into formal learning opportunities, students described deeper and more meaningful understanding because they interacted and engaged with more people and more digital content" (Roberts, 2013).

In 2015, I walked into my first science classroom and was given the task of developing curriculum for many different courses.  There were no textbooks for many of the classes and I didn't know where to start.  So like any millennial would, I went to the internet for my answers and I stumbled upon CK-12.org.  Little did I know then, but I had began building my Earth Science course with the help of Open Education Resources (OER).  OERs "are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license permitting their free use or re-purposing by others" (Graham et al., p. 6).  

The portion of open learning that I have little to no experience with is the idea that students develop goals and choose their own experiences.  They are "encouraged to create their own course content based on their own passions and become self-directed learners" (Roberts, 2013).  I have a difficult time seeing this truly occurring in public education because the management of making sure all students are learning each of the standards while they are choosing their own content seems like a nightmare. However, I love the idea of students being more invested in their learning and flipping the current system upside down. "Open learning promotes different roles for educators and students because when you learn in the open—you learn together" (Roberts, 2013).

Resources:
Graham, L., LaBonte, R., Roberts, V., O’Byrne, I., & Osterhout, C. (n.d.). Open Learning in K-12 Online and Blended Learning Environments, 1–26. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/10311797/Open_Learning_in_K-12_Online_and_Blended_Learning_Environments

Roberts, V. (2013). Open Learning and MOOCs in Canadian K-12 Online and Blended Learning Environments. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from https://k12sotn.ca/papers/open-learning-and-moocs-in-canadian-k-12-online-and-blended-learning-environments/

Week One Reflection

Essential Question: How do we define Emerging Technologies?

After reading this week's question and before doing some research, I was under the impression that "emerging technologies" were the new and exciting technological advances that are occurring in the education world.  It turns out I was on the right track, but not quite correct. According to George Veletsianos, "Emerging technologies are tools, concepts, innovations, and advancements utilized in diverse educational settings to serve varied education-related purposes" (Veletsianos, 2010, p. 3).  

George Veletsianos set out to define emerging technologies and generated this mind map of
ideas that he received from other researchers and practitioners (Veletsianos, 2010, p. 12)

Furthermore, Veletsianos states that emerging technologies share these four characteristics:

1. Emerging Technologies and Emerging Practices are Not Defined by Newness
2. Emerging Technologies and Emerging Practices Are Evolving Organisms that Exist in a State of “Coming into Being”
3. Emerging Technologies and Emerging Practices Are Not Yet Fully Understood or Researched
4. Emerging Technologies and Emerging Practices Have Promising But as Yet Unfulfilled Potential (Veletsianos, 2015).

So, to me, emerging technologies are a little risky and perhaps scary because there isn't a whole lot of research about the outcomes of using them in the classroom. However, they can also allow us to enhance educational practices and increase student engagement and ultimately learning. We should remain open to the idea that existing ways of teaching may not be best suited for the twenty-first century purposes of education and be willing to step out of our comfort zones in order to do better for our students.

Resources:
Veletsianos, G. (2010). Emerging Technologies in Distance Education. Athabasca University Press.

Veletsianos, G. (2015, April 14). The Defining Characteristics of Emerging Technologies and Emerging Practices in Online Education. Retrieved January 19, 2020, from https://www.veletsianos.com/2015/04/14/the-defining-characteristics-of-emerging-technologies-and-emerging-practices-in-online-education/