5303
Applying Educational Technology
Throughout this course I have been playing around with different features that I can add that will bring personalization to my page while increasing the depth of knowledge I can pass on to my readers in the most efficient way possible. Before this course most of my work was completed on Google docs and was just thrown into my website at the end of my 5302 course. I have since learned the art of creating an ePortfolio to be proud of and embraced it fully, not just as an after thought. For example, instead of having to rewrite all my ideas and summarize what I have done previously in order to build upon it, I can just mention my previous work and link it and then get on with my new information.
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Linking information and not having to explain it has allowed my creativity to flow and I am more able to THINK about everything that I am learning as I learn new topics and read more leading research. I am also able to focus of delving deeper into technology driven teaching strategies that are going to be most useful to my teaching style and to meet the needs of my students the best, which I have appreciated.
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The most important benefit of taking the time to thoughtfully create my ePortfolio is that as I implement my technological innovation in my classroom and my campus is that this will serve as a resource my fellow educators can use to help them understand the principles behind my plan. My ePortfolio will continually add more valuable information to my innovation plan and my year of work will be summarized in a way that my fellow educators can get a solid understanding within a few minute to a few hours of time. It will serve as a focal point as we all implement this innovation in our classrooms without losing sight of the whole point and COVA principles that drives the rotational blended learning units.
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To learn more about the changes I have made in my ePortfolio, see my blog post here.
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Reflecting on COVA
I would like to further add to the conversation of COVA as it is applied to personal experiences that Dr. Harapnuik began in the book COVA: Inspire Learning Through Choice, Ownership, Voice, and Authentic Learning. Dr. Harapnuik spoke about how his struggles in school during childhood and young adulthood lead to his development of owning his own learning while honing his inquisitiveness to create a hypothesis or guiding question, researching the topic, and then finding a final conclusion just to do it all over again to further his learning (Harapnuik & Thibodeaux, 2023). While I can't relate to Dr. Harapnuik's early childhood experiences fully, his story did strike a chord with my own experiences while I was pursuing my undergraduate degree. Throughout my K-12 career, I was considered a gifted learner because I was an avid reader with a high reading level and I could easily remember the seemingly random facts I was taught and retain them over long periods of time. I realized in college, however, that I was not able to focus on tasks and topics that required application of my knowledge and creativity if I was not interested in the topic itself. My ADHD was never diagnosed until this point and I struggled for a long time trying to figure out how to do well in courses that did not interest me and couldn't keep my focus long enough for me to complete the tasks needed to satisfactorily complete the assignments in my courses.
Dr. McGrath, my Biology I professor, completely changed the trajectory of my life because she exposed me to the concept of COVA before this term had ever taken root in the education community. She created a final project in which she gave her students choice by allowing us to choose any topic we were passionate about to research and relate to Biology in some way. We were empowered to take ownership of our learning because we were able to choose what final product we wanted to include with our annotated bibliography. We could write a longer research paper, create a poster to be presented at an academic conference, or even a slide show presentation to be presented at a campus event that semester. I took ownership of my learning as I researched Ebola virus and was able to expand my project over the next year to apply my knowledge to real world problems that were occurring in viral research at the time and ended up presenting at several academic conferences. Now that I have realized what COVA truly is I can honestly say that this course design approach is the reason I majored in science, completed my undergraduate degree, and eventually became the science teacher I am today. I guess my life is proof that the COVA approach outlined by Dr. Harapnuik and Dr. Thibodeaux when implemented correctly, can be life changing and highly successful in promoting student achievement. I talk about the COVA approach in greater detail in the blog posts above.
Checking In
ePortfolio Redesign Check-in
Throughout EDLD 5303 I have been tasked with exploring my ePortfolio platform and learning as much as possible about as many tools as I could. I started to blog more effectively and found my own voice as I continued to write about what I was learning and the information I was being exposed to throughout the course. Before I knew it I really started to see this ePortfolio as my own and stopped being overwhelmed and afraid of what I was doing. I just focus on the learning and exploring my own thoughts and voice without constant worry about if I am doing it "right" or what kind of grade I this is going to be. My grades are almost inconsequential now when I think about everything I have created or learned.
Growing my Idea of the Growth Mindset
In true growth mindset fashion my initial ideas on the growth mindset have begun to change. While I am still excited about the positive effect growth mindset lessons and modeling have had on my students' success, I now know that these effects will most likely not last after they leave my class this year. Unfortunately the growth mindset is not enough to completely turn a student around on their academic journey, especially students that struggle academically and have the most gaps in their learning. For these students, I fear that they will go on to high school and forget the growth mindset and let the challenges overcome their newfound sense of self-confident they have gained when they aren't exposed to this type of thinking daily. I think that I am going to have to rethink exactly how I will continue to implement this in my class in order to make the impact the growth mindset can have a little more strong and impactful to them. I need to work on building them up in believing in themselves and their ability to learn if they keep putting the effort in.
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In order to make the growth mindset more impactful I am going to have to build up grit in my students. I think that I will keep most of my original thoughts about growth mindset as it is a great framework for how I will now implement this and combine it with building grit to really bring learners to a point that they will actually internalize the message and essence of what growth mindset is. I think the first step is capturing the students passion and showing them how to start incorporating their passions into what they are learning in the classroom. While this will only start in my classroom, hopefully will be incorporated into their other classes and subject matter until they are passionate about learning. The power of yet I spoke of in my original growth mindset plan will be paired with open ended activities throughout the year that will challenge students to think outside of the box to create original things or solve real world problems in which there are no real wrong answers as long as there is thought and creativity behind the ideas. Through this students will build up stamina in their work habits and will start to see all their efforts in the classroom pay off in their pursuit of high school graduation and success in college or work beyond.
The key to success in the implementation of my rotational blended learning units will be to slow down and use backward design to create authentic learning projects that I can relate all class work and activities to so that no work feels pointless or like busy work. By using the 3-column charts and backward design methods I will be able to ensure real learning and not just active engagement with no mental involvement. There will be real value in a job well done and students will see that the feedback they receive on one assignment isn't just a set value in the gradebook, but a chance to improve and make the values in the gradebook higher. Grades will start to become a form of feedback in where they are at the moment and they will know that there is a chance to grow and improve and make the grade higher. With this system of feedback and improvement students will learn more and they will be less concerned with the grade and more invested in the learning process. Grades and self-worth will not be tied like they are now in most classrooms in our current education system models and I think that is going to be the key turning point in many students' lives and the way they think about their learning capabilities.