Resources For Digital Environments

Course Compilation Post and Publication Article Final Submission

December 8, 2024

Reflection:

EDLD 5317 has created the opportunity for me to synthesize an authentic document and activities that has allowed me to develop as a self-directed learner and gain additional skills to help my students become self-directed learners themselves.

When I began the ADL program at Lamar University, I was focused on the idea that I could turn my classroom into a Blended Learning Community in which high school juniors and seniors would find a way to be more self-directed learners on their way to college, trade school, the military or the world of work. I quickly realized that taking one or two classes with me would not be enough to help change the small percentage of students who pass through the hallways of my school. Throughout EDLD 5304 and EDLD 5317, I need and can expand my focus to include the entire staff and most courses taught in the high school. Then I began to focus on systemic changes in the education of all students in my district. In doing so, this will have to cause a change in the structure of my Innovation Plan. As a staff, we truly need to change our focus from teaching to collaborating and mentoring and change the young people in our school from students to self-directed learners.

There are two elements that I want to clarify from my introduction. First, I wrote that most courses could convert to a Blended Learning classroom approach. As a comprehensive high school in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we house both academic and Career and Technology programs on our campus. Having written curriculum for academic courses throughout my career, I believe that a transition to blended learning can be accomplished fairly easily on the academic side. I am unsure what this would look like from the CTE perspective, but would certainly like to take on the challenge. The other element I want to clarify is that we do not use the term learner to indicate the young people in our charge. I feel we need to transition to blended learning to effectively use that term. As a staff, we need to turn the tide of educational apathy our students are swimming in. As I developed my Publication Outline into my Rough draft and used the reflections and comments of my Learning group and the Podcast we developed, it all led to my Publication Article. My article discusses the need to ameliorate student apathy. The proposal is that we can use the blended learning structure to engage our students, help reduce if not eliminate the academic and educational indifference students hold on to so stringently, and make them the lifelong learners society needs for education and informed learners. My district’s mission statement is to “Prepare every student by name for success at every level.” How can we prepare them if they are indifferent to learning and learning how to learn?

As a teacher who wishes to be an academic mentor and coach, I believe that the most important elements that I need to focus on from Roger Shank’s (2024) article “Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools” are Experimentation, Value, Judgment, and Teamwork. In a blended learning environment, students must be allowed to experiment and fail. It is in the failure that a student can make judgments about what will work for them and what will not. Students will hopefully, then begin to see the value in their learning- creating, adjusting, destroying (if necessary), re-creating, and building the skills, processes, and artifacts that show what they have learned. Not all of this can be done in a bubble though, It will require the use of teambuilding and teamwork skills. Very few professionals today work in isolation. Law firms work in teams to fight for their clients’ best interests. Doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators work to provide the best quality care for their patients.

These elements also lead us to the idea of ‘invisible learning.” As we grow, our minds form new pathways with each new experience. The experiences are linked to others like it or to situations that can very likely fall into the same set of standards. It is through invisible learning that we learn many of the dos and don’ts of life. It is through the development of invisible learning that we can master the skills that Schank highlights in “Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools.”

References:

Education Futures. (2011, September 15). Roger Schank on Invisible Learning. https://educationfutures.com/blog/post/

roger-schank-invisible-learning.

Schank, Roger. (2024). Teaching minds: How cognitive science can save our schools.

https://www.rogerschank.com/teaching-minds-how-cognitive-science-can-save-our-schools.

Article Final Submission

Contributions to My Learning and My Learning Community

December 1, 2024

My Contribution to My Learning and Learning Community

EDLD 5304 Grade 95/100

EDLD 5317 Grade 95/100

Through completing the coursework in this most recent installment of the Applied Digital Learning program, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the influences for Leading Organizational Change and creating Resources for Educational Environments. These concepts are imperative if I want my innovation plan to succeed. Many of my students seem to carry this apathy for education as a remnant of the COVID-19 pandemic and the way we were inadequately prepared to handle on-line teaching and learning both as teachers and students. It is my hope that in utilizing the skills learned thus far, I can help my learners be more focused and through my Innovation Plan I can get them to love learning again and be more self-directed individuals.

By exploring the different ways to publish articles online and then prepare my article Final Draft for publication was an experience that will help me achieve my goals.

I would like to thank my EDLD 5317 group members:

Patty Hamilton, Leah Griggs, Melissa Richards, and Whitney Davis for their support, guidance, patience, and insights during this term. They have been a true tour de force and I am honored to have worked with them.

1. What has worked and what can be done better?

In working with my Learning Community I have seen that constant communication and reflection as well as shared Publication Rubric and Drafts and Podcast Outline have allowed for much of the work to be done asynchronously while reviewing and commenting on each others’ work. Using Zoom to record our Media Project and having scheduled and held organizational meetings beforehand was an important step to what worked well.

I have also found that receiving feedback from not only my Learning Group, but others in my classes (EDLD 5304) such as Thaddues Komorowski, Terri Helaire, Paige Shaw, and Steven Munoz for providing feedback and insight during our discussion posts and on my Why? and Influencer Strategy Another element that worked well was the continuing use of the GroupMe app for quick questions and to send links of our work for consistent feedback from anyone in either EDLD 5304 or EDLD 5317.

One of the things that I continue to struggle with is the balance of work/ school/ family during this program. I have been given increased responsibilities on the PBIS, UDL, and Cultural Proficiency Programs in my school and district. I then have to manage the time that is left between family and the ADL program makes me a very busy person with what seems less time each day.

2. Contributed to, helped build, and provided feedback to your core collaboration group and revised all assignments and reflected on revisions in this contribution to a learning activity.

In my Core collaboration group for EDLD 5317, I took the lead in organizing the group of Patty Hamilton, Leah Griggs, Melissa Richards, Whitney Davis and me. I used some AI tools to help develop our Media Project Rubric, set the agendas for our collaboration meetings, and the draft outline for the podcast. I evaluated my peers’ articles via the rubric and made the changes they suggested in their evaluation of mine.

3. Completed ALL of the course readings, videos, and supporting resources.

I assigned myself a 95/100 for my overall grade for EDLD 5317 and 5304 because I honestly did not complete all of the readings that were assigned.Text book assignments were completed, but not all article posts were. I did watch all of the videos in order to understand the needed information for the group discussion posts.

4. Met the various course activity deadlines indicated in the calendar.

I assigned myself a 95/100 for EDLD 5317 and EDLD 5304 because I met the deadline for all but one collaborative post. Although I received good feedback on my ideas, I was late on the post. I do feel accomplished in the fact that I did attend and contributed to all scheduled class meetings on Tuesday evening at 7 pm and 8 pm EST. I often received the clarity I needed for assignments in these class meetings and found a bond with my fellow cohort members.

I also believe that a rating of 95/100 for both courses is accurate because I

Took leadership responsibility in my base group and the course.
Contributed to my learning and the learning of my colleagues by participating in ALL activities.
Actively contributed in the various course forums.
Most of my posts were timely fashion so others can respond to my posting.
My postings reflect breadth and depth of thinking with research to support my thinking and are cited using APA.
Additional postings were made that did not require research but were rather to contribute to the learning.

I continue to develop a growth mindset throughout the ADL program and look forward to implementing my Innovation Plan in order to help my students become the learners they need to be in the future.

My Media Project

November 24, 2024

For this assignment, Whitney Davis, Leah Griggs, Patty Hamilton, Melissa Richards, and I formed a group to help each other with our publication outlines and drafts of our articles. After reviewing and commenting on the outlines and drafts, we were able to create complete a podcast as a way to share our topics and research. Since we all were writing about Blended Learning, I feel we were able to meld much of our work into a fairly cohesive discussion to promote our publications. In the course of the discussion we covered the following topics:

Transforming Education: How Technology Enhances Blended Learning
Blended Learning in Action
How Blended Learning Enhances Student Success
The State of Apathy Among Students in Education (my article)
Enhancing Blended Learning in Elementary Education through e Portfolios.

Chapters: