#UWinDig

For my multimedia reflection assessment I chose to create a sketchnote summarizing the key points from the HybridPod- Questioning Learning podcast by Chris Friend and Amy Collier. I decided to draw the background of my sketchnote by hand.  I also printed out some cartoon images (to make up for my lack of artistic skills), which I then glued onto my sketchnote and coloured in. I used my sketchnote to outline the key ideas that I will further describe below.

Amy Collier starts the podcast off talking about the idea of “not-yetness”, an idea that I found very interesting. She talks about how its ok to not know all the answers, and how we should embrace not-knowing and not let it stop us from moving forward. She also talks about how “not-yetness” allows for a space of emergence to be created; where there is understanding and new ideas. Chris and Amy then discuss critical pedagogy and the importance of asking questions, which is the stage that I think I am currently in. In these first few weeks of class we have had a plethora of knowledge thrown at us. This surplus of knowledge has led me to asking a lot of questions on what is important, and what will help me develop my teaching philosophy.

Amy then talks about the idea of learnification, and how technology has really propelled it. I found it interesting that when there is too much learnification, there is actually less learning. Amy gave the example of online classrooms that focus too much on the content and completely forget about the teacher-student relationship. This is an issue that I have had with many online courses throughout my undergrad. There was such a large disconnect between the students and professor, that it took value away from the course. Along with learnification, Chris and Amy discuss the importance of embracing risk and uncertainty. They talk about how learning outcomes can be too restrictive and not allow for enough flexibility; without this flexibility, there is no room for risk and uncertainty. I think risk allows for change, so having that risk and uncertainty is very important for learning to adapt and improve.

Finally, Amy talks about the rhetoric of opportunity, an idea from Mike Caulfield. She mentions how Mike believes that the rhetoric of opportunity is better than the rhetoric of crisis, and how a rhetoric of opportunity allows improvements to move forward and keeps dis-improvements behind. I found this idea interesting, and especially liked Chris’ points about viewing students as people with potential instead of waiting for a student to misbehave. I think that this idea is a really important one, and that the rhetoric of opportunity is an incredibly valuable viewpoint for educators.

[This paragraph has been added after having someone asked me to further explain my design, I also posted this response in one of the comments below:

Finally to talk more about my design, I thought it would be fun to draw out a literal road to critical pedagogy that addressed the key points of the podcast. I started with that first square of not-yetness and the rocks that led to the lake of emergence. I wanted to show how not-yetness created the room for the emergence of new ideas and knowledge. The asking questions square is fairly self-explanatory, but I thought I would draw Amy asking some critical questions). I thought it would be fun to show embracing risk and uncertainty with Amy and Chris literally hugging the risk and uncertain-tree. Along with that, having those risk leafs fall and showing Mr. Learning-Outcome with his leaf-blower blowing away the risk. I used that image to show how rigid learning outcomes remove risk, and are not necessarily good. I drew the diverging path of learnification, to illustrate how in same cases technology can lead to negative learnification, steering us off of the path of critical pedagogy. Finally I ended with the square of the rhetoric of opportunity, with the Improvements Turtle, flying to the “finish line” and the Dis-improvement Rabbit, far behind. I wanted to show how in the road of critical pedagogy the rhetoric of opportunity allows the improvements to surpass the dis-improvements. I put the rainbow at the end, because the end of a rainbow is somewhat mythical, and I think that is the same for the road of critical pedagogy. I don’t think there is a concrete end to the road of critical pedagogy, we can always improve and grow, so the road keeps going. ]
References:

Questioning Learning

Not-yetness

Image Sources:

http://worldartsme.com/images/rainbow-outline-free-clipart-1.jpg

https://img.clipartxtras.com/1825f6b2f97475593f9ffd302d68fca1_lake-clipart-black-and-white-clipartxtras-lake-clipart-black-and-white_1024-768.jpeg

https://st3.depositphotos.com/11514374/18632/v/1600/depositphotos_186329928-stock-illustration-cartoon-of-businesswoman-or-woman.jpg

https://previews.123rf.com/images/alexeyzet/alexeyzet1701/alexeyzet170100007/70672983-lieu-de-bande-dessin%C3%A9e-avec-gar%C3%A7on-et-une-fille-a-touch%C3%A9-l-arbre-sur-le-fond-blanc.jpg

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/funny-cartoon-man-leaf-blower-illustration-68308205.jpg

https://img01.thedrum.com/s3fspublic/drum_kb_article/158038/main_images/TortoiseAndHare_0.jpg

Upon reading the article, Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom, by Ashley Hinck, a few concepts jumped out at me. So I decided to create a Sketchnote to show these topics. This Sketchnote began with the idea that students are losing creativity by wanting these templates and step by step technology methods, where they are not any different from others. I also included that I am a part of this group because I tend to enjoy having clear instructions, and this assignment was definitely outside of my comfort zone. However, as much as I am a part of this majority and am outside of my comfort zone, it is important to realize that some of my students may feel outside of their comfort zones in my subject areas. This is why I also included the need to try and encourage more creativity and diversity in our students because no matter what course you teach, there will always be students outside of their comfort zone. However, if we create a strong environment where this creativity is encouraged, students may feel that they are allowed to experiment and try new things, and may even learn that they have a new skill or passion through it. By doing this, there will probably also be a decline in these digital ghosts and an incline in creators and differences. I also believe that it will help create a more positive learning experience for all students involved.

I also really enjoyed building this Sketchnote, despite it being outside of my comfort zone for an assignment. It is also a user friendly source because you are creating it yourself. However, I did find it was difficult to show the meaningful connections to teaching through this source, and would potentially try a different source for future discussion posts.

During my time reading and listening to Hybridod Episode 10, featuring Amy Collier as the guest speaker, it was time that we would dive into the importance of critical pedagogy and a new theory known as ‘not-yetness’, a theory that is around the basis of feeling good about not knowing something. We go on our adventure together of understanding what it means to be uncertain and relating it to the technology we use in today’s society. I have an outline attached to the podcast information and my personal beliefs to Amy Collier’s discussion.   I will give a brief overview on how our journey will go. Get ready……… however you wish. Whether you would like to read it aloud to yourself, have some read I to you, or clicking the link to the actual podcast with the script attached is up to you. As Amy has told us and what you will discover yourself, life is not a simple A to B straight line. We all have different ways to reach a goal and have our own obstacles in our way before we can reach that path. We will discuss the importance of critical thinking and connecting it to technology and use education models to support our theory. Just to give you a snap shot of how sometimes questions that seem very straight forward, never are that easy. Enjoy this little presentation and remember “The world’s changing! Time we change to!” (Anyone get that reference? Sorry killed the mood.)

HybridPod, Ep. 10 — Questioning Learning

Script

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gi9yWH0xszyNppPs5-YjW6x1EpgDPxsA789_MDQwGOM/pub

Presentation

What education means today!

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!