After listening to the podcast Questioning Learning from Hybrid Pedagogy, so many answers to questions about education throughout my life started to pop into my head, it was an epidemic of epiphanies. Before I share some of those questions, and some answers to them, let me first tell you about this podcast that cleared up the kerfuffles in my mind. For starters, the woman of the hour, Amy Collier, was interviewed by Chris Friend about many exciting and interesting topics including learnification, “not-yetness”, learning outcomes and many more crucial topics about our education system. Amy started to talk about what learning outcomes are in the education system today compared to what she thought they can evolve into. Outcomes nowadays try to measure our “understanding” of academics by making us spew our memorized knowledge about something onto a piece of paper, then getting judged on how much “stuff” we regurgitate. If the tone isn’t clear enough, I’m not a huge fan of this type of learning outcome. However, Amy talked about a new way to think about understanding and learning outcomes by asking questions like ” What would cause me to be amazed at what my students can do?” This is where outcomes can become more inspirational and creative.
Going back to my own education, I have suffered too long under boring and monotonous teachers that don’t challenge the students understanding. Where the class structure is always the same – lecture, homework, lecture homework. In my own experience, this destroys the ability to create an innovative classroom environment where students ask the questions “why does that happen?” and “Is there another way?” I know many others have been through the same gauntlet and I hope that one day, me and other educators, can change how students are taught.
When trying to come up with a visual to portray my thoughts, I had some serious issues. I didn’t know how to use any artsy program online and there was no way I was going to draw, at least something remotely recognizable. That’s when I came across a huge box full of stickers, markers, paper, and any other type of scrap booking essential in my house that I had no idea I owned (thanks to my wife). Thus, started my adventure through arts and crafts heaven. Et Voila! Perfection!
