For this assessment, I decided to investigate Chris Friend and Amy Collier’s podcast, Questioning Learning. This podcast centers around the fact that teachers are the heart of learning. There are online courses being taught in the schools today and the teachers are being forgotten about. These online courses are designed for specific answers and does not encourage the students to think beyond the norm. The pod casts discusses how both the teacher and students need to take risks to accomplish new learning experiences. They talk about how the teacher needs to incorporate risk, uncertainty, discomfort and unpredictability in their teaching methods as well as encourage the students to apply these assets in their own learning experiences. I demonstrated these ideals with a sketchnote.
Student-Teacher Relationship
The main focal point of my sketchnote refers to the main idea of the podcast; teacher-student relationships are the heart of teaching and that’s what it is really about. I decided to draw a teacher and student inside a heart to represent this and made it the largest image on the page. I also used more color in this image than the others because I wanted it to immediately draw your eyes to the heart then the image inside. Amy Collier mentions that this is truly the whole point of education and at it’s most basic fundamental level, is what education is about. You need a teacher’s guidance and knowledge to help a student reach for new ideas and push themselves beyond their own expectations.
There is a line of child’s blocks leading to the next image. The blocks spell out canned courses since this is another one of the main topics. I drew and outlined a can to get the point across that all cans are basically all the same shape. Outlining the can and the picture of the laptop to represent the idea of online courses, I followed it up with a few key points mentioned. Amy Collier mentions that online courses have very predictable outcome and only go from point A to point B. There is very little room for the instructor to make the course engaging or to keep students thinking. The course is already done and essentially all the teacher is expected to do is grade the incoming assignments, in which all the answers are expected to be the same. Where is the fun and learning in that?
The blocks leading to the next picture spells educational technology. I colored in the laptop since I wanted that part of the image to stand out and have the teacher fade into the background a little more. This way your eye finds the teacher after the laptop and students staring at it. Amy Collier mentioned that there is a huge push for learner centered teaching which is of course what we all want, but there has also been talk about technology replacing teachers. This hurts the educational system at the core, since that relationship between student-teacher is fundamental to advance learning.
Following the building blocks, there is, taking risks leading to a car with learning outcomes on it and having a sign that catches your eye. The car takes the risk and has two possible outcomes, one of which could lead to entirely new learning experiences. A great teacher will encourage the student to try new ideas and concepts and be there for guidance and support. The teacher and students need to take risks together in learning, since the learning process is entirely risky in itself. By taking these learning risks it could lead to great and exciting discoveries but there is possibility it could lead to nothing at all. But with both the teacher and student working together and taking chances there is a chance for many amazing possibilities.
The next block chain reads chance reward which is a huge aspect of teaching. When you, as an educator take a chance in teaching the rewards can be great. The chalkboard with the four main words that Amy Collier used to explain the qualities a teacher should feel stand out with joy and discovery being the next thing your eye follows as those are the possible outcomes from teaching with a certain level of risk, uncertainty, discomfort, and unpredictability. A teacher needs to put themselves out there and push their students to strive for more. This might result in teaching lessons outside your comfort zone but when you relate to the students and teach them not only context but lessons you yourself have learnt, the rewards can be great. You need to also push the students beyond their comfort zones as well, because when you strive for more, the possibilities are endless.