Exploring Learning

The ‘create’ part of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is THE most important to me, both as an educator and as a learner. I like to think about the intention of the learning and how the learners might create something to show this. Then, via backwards-by-design planning, I craft stages that correspond with the taxonomy, working up from understanding to creation - although I see the taxonomy as cyclical rather than hierarchical (blog about this HERE ), so stages are often revisited along the way, and ultimately, the creation should assert the understanding. In terms of ‘creation’ and in allowing opportunities for creation, and in questioning how rich the curriculum is for my learners, I feel very lucky being a teacher of English Language Arts. Being skills based, I am free to develop the lessons and units as I wish, as long as I meet the required standards. For example, the skill to, “organise and present whole texts effectively, sequencing and structuring information, ideas and event...

Dipping my toes... For the first three months of 2013, I took part in my first MOOC, 'Designing a New Learning Environment' offered by Stanford University via an initiative called Venture Lab . I signed up because it ties in with my Octopus's Garden Project and also because I wanted to experience this Flat Classroom-global-type of learning for myself. The course required us to watch weekly lectures and complete readings; for assessment we had to submit five individual assignments, one final team assignment and five peer assessments of other final projects. We signed up for teams of our choice and developed an area within new learning environments; developing our final project design based on our findings, readings and experience. Leading & Contributing I became team leader late on in the project as the original one, the one who set up the actual topic, went quiet and dropped off the radar. Having 40000 people taking part in a course makes it hard to communicate wi...

In my post ' Evolution technology: Visual Digital Literacy ', a response to the MOOC 'Digital Cultures and E-learning' via  Coursera  and The University of Edinburgh, I explored the notion of how visual representations are considered less scholarly or rigorous than written exposition. I use, as an example, artist Ebon Heath, whose beautiful word sculptures expound my thinking that visual representation is just as valid as written explorations of thinking. His three dimensional poetry rebuts any criticism that we can only think and explain sufficiently in the written form. The final assignment of the course asked for a digital representation of an element of the course that had impacted on us, or that we wanted to explore more. I admit that I did find it difficult to express my learning of the course in a visual way, as I am, by default, a writer. However, I think that being taken out of my comfort zone actually made me think harder and really consider what it was I w...

"Educational institutions are established around a privilege of writing as the ultimate means of demonstrating understanding"; the question is, can digital technology and the creation of images "demonstrate competence, knowledge and understanding in a rigorous way?" As a life-long learner, I have recently been taking part in an  E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC  via Coursera (see posts Graveyards of Technology and The Machine is Us ) and the sources they offer for thought include a lot of visual sources. In conjunction with the fact that I have been trialling Flipped Classroom methods and just completed certification through Sophia.org , I have been thinking about the use of visual sources for teaching and their impact on engagement and learning. https://class.coursera.org/edc-001/wiki/view?page=Howtointerpretimages Part of the outcomes of the  E-learning and Digital Cultures  course is a consideration of "the extent to which visual representation...

Flipping the classroom is something I have been thinking about since I read Flip Your Classroom last summer. However, despite the book being really informative in both clearly explaining how Bergman and Sams' journey evolved as well as in consolidating my belief that flipping is a great method to differentiate, personalise and manage the diverse learners we find in our classrooms today, there were a distinct lack of good English class examples out there. I can clearly see the advantages for science and maths, but English has often already been flipped to some degree, in that we often ask for reading to be done preparation for a lesson, where discussions and writing are then supported. My explorations led me to Sophia.org , who offer a great free course on planning and thinking through rigorous and authentic flipped lessons. However I became stumped after the theory part and at the point where I had to actually start planning a flipped lesson that went beyond the 'norma...

We had our kick-off meeting last week on Tuesday 5 February 2013. I was able to connect using Blackboard Collaborate , something I had not used before, but unfortunately had to leave as I was at school. However, with it being Chinese New Year I have had an extended weekend, so was able to catch up and watch the full recorded version. I have also had a cold so have not felt up to tackling the mountain of marking, but have caught up on my reading for the next meeting, namely Chapters 1-3 of the book, ' Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds '; my Tweets about the most interesting salient points for me personally, can be found under @MrsHollyEnglish under #flatclass. Having reached the end of Chapter 3, I have come across my first 3 of the 15 Flat Classroom Challenges. Having taken part in the survey assessing my current connectivity, I feel confident that I am currently in a good position - I already have established a sound PLN that I build on when I can and have added s...