Fuzzy Thinking

INTRO

What was lost, found, I looked up and there it was in the distance, about 30 meters away. Not my missing phone case, it was in my car the whole time. This..

WHEN SETTLING ISN'T MAKING DO

I was out flying out flying my Parrot Bebop 2 drone yesterday. I used to think it was one hot drone. Then I flew a DJI Phantom 4. Then I saw a demo of the new DJI Mavic Pro drone and took the Phantom back and pre-ordered a Mavic. Which is why I was out flying. I fly drones, not for the flying so much. That's scary. Drones are expensive. I've lost one and crashed several. I fly drones for the photos. The DJI camera gimbal and cameras are much better than what my Bebop 2 has.

But the Mavic Pro isn't likely to arrive for a while. So Bebop and me were out in the Arizona desert west of Phoenix flying and taking pictures. At the very end, packed up and about to drive off, I looked to the right and there it was: a frowning cactus. A few days from Halloween sighting it was timely. It made me think of a Jack-o-Lantern, this Jack-o-Cactus.

Photos other drone pilots post on social media show wondrous things: cathedrals and estates, lush green or craggy snow covered mountains, cruise ships and barges on the sea or rivers, basically a whole lot of amazing places. Around these parts, in the slice of Arizona I call home, all there is is scrub and cactus.

But finding and photographing Jack-o-Cactus made me think that since I got it I should use it.

OUTRO

I wish my Mavic Pro would get here already. It's 4K camera would have taken a much sharper Jack photo. Oh well. Soon. Soon.

 

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Experience It

PROLOGUE

Bored, the boy took off his watch and began fiddling with it whilst the teacher droned on about predicates. Turning his head he gazed out the window at the concrete playground. Lost in a daydream playing ball with his friends his watch, somehow, found its way into the cuff of his uniform pants. "Five more minutes. Please God make the time go faster." the boy prayed as he stared at the clock high up on the wall. "My watch! Where did it go?" he thought as he sat up suddenly, his face worried. His right arm shot up, hand waving frantically trying to gain the teacher's attention.

LEARNERS EXPERIENCE LOSS EVERY DAY

This actually happened. A few days after Christmas Break in 1969 I lost my watch. The sister, at Our Lady of Guadalupe School teachers were nuns of the Incarnate Word Order, when she noticed my raised hand smiled. Maybe she thought I was going to ask a question predicated on predicates? Sadly, we'll never know. What I do know, much to my embarrassment, was what happened next. After I told her I'd lost my watch she asked the class to help look for it. Before anyone could start Peter, sitting at his desk in the row next to mine said "He stuffed it into his pants cuff a few minutes go." What do you think happened next?

I learned lots of stuff in school. Reflecting on my experience now, so many years later, it surprises me that I did. I mean so much of the time in class I was daydreaming.

Fast forward to now: I finished watching George Saunders: On Story. My takeaway from his talk, I watched it several times, is that story is experience boxed up. Opening the story exposes someone to wonder. Being individuals we appreciate the story based on our experience. So I reflected on this a little more and connected some dots.

What if an online learning experience was more about story than facts? I'm taking HumanMOOC at the moment. I'm learning how to make online learning experiences a bit more learner friendly and engaging. The course is presented in two modalities that I don't completely understand. One is instructor directed whilst the other, I think, is learner directed. As usual in school the subject matter is chunked into lessons or modules the thought of which makes me shudder. They're artificial structures designed to make it easier for.. sorry, I'm going off on a tangent that has nothing to do with my story.

Except that it does. When a student is engaged in her learner experience hours can seem to pass in a blink. In this MOOC I'm put off by the structure of the first modality and confused by the second. The dissonance I feel makes me seek a third learning mode: rhizomatic learning. It's where I come up with a question and go in search of stuff. Sometimes I find answers. Most of the time what I find is more questions.

This is where the magic happens. Rather than poring over media the course designer and/or instructor thinks will provide learning I go on my own way. I don't believe it's serendipitous. It's purpose driven. It's my purpose that motivates me to go out and learn based on my own needs via my own resources.

EPILOGUE

My face, I'm told, flushed the deep red associated with life-threatening embarrassment as sister bent down to retrieve the watch from my pants-cuff. Geez that memory comes back so clearly despite the passing of almost 50 years. How might we leverage story to build life-lasting knowledge and skill? Might it encourage learners to open a door and, curious, go out into the night and experience it?

 

 

Where The Teachers Are

INTRO

I spent Saturday October 24 with a roomful of ELA (English Language Art) teachers at the Arizona K12 Center. We learned about educational technology tools, including how to leverage them to support teaching to Arizona’s college and career ready standards. Disclosure: I’m not a teacher. I do instructional design.

IMPROVISATIONAL PD: FAILING TO GET IT RIGHT

Me not being a teacher is a good thing. I don’t know enough to keep quiet when something was introduced during the workshop. It’s all new to me. Except that it’s not. I learn a lot about K-12 strategies and educational technology at the EdCamps I participate in. Through some applied improvisation later on I figure out how to apply it with the adult learners I support.

I get asked sometimes why participate in so many EdCamps? I think I’m up to 30 so far: EdCamps in Texas, Arizona, California and Washington, DC. It’s because I like the improv. Hearing about something cool I want to try it right away, or as soon as possible, before it gets stale. I view doing something that I just learned from teachers as improv because I’m flying without a net. I don’t know what the cues are. Not being a teacher means I’m not sure about context. So I give it a try and add or drop stuff as seems to make sense.

OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING INSIDE OF A BREAKOUT EDU BOX

I hear now and then how we instructional designers need to be more innovative and creative. A lot of times the ideas that come back from “How?” involve advanced educational technology. Since EdCamp I prefer simpler more natural and humanistic approaches.

At CUEROCKSTAR Las VegasI learned about this Breakout EDU thing. The way it works is you get a box. But not just an ordinary box. Noooo. You get one with a sturdy hasp. About that hasp, it’s an electricians lockout hasp. There can be as many as six locks on this hasp.

The teacher, or in my case instructional designer, crafts an engaging story. This is what teacher and author Dave Burgess calls “A Hook”. My name for it, after watching Jack Black in Goosebumps, is “The Twist.” Anyway, the learner or learners, once engaged, work to solve puzzles. The puzzles and their solutions are grounded in what the learner is being taught or trained on.

EVENT WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK IT WORKS OUT

At AZTEA’s P3: Problems, Projects, and Possibilities conference I presented a session on designing interactive presentations. One of the things I demonstrated was the Breakout EDU box. There were “technical difficulties”, however, and I had to do some improvisation to get over the bump.

Here’s how it was supposed to go. First there was the trailer. Then the backstory. Lastly was the vital clue. Anyway, given technical difficulties I had to play all the parts live. I got to feel the learning. It was pretty cool. I have a whole new perspective on how to do it next time. I’ll definitely have some backup stuff, too.

SCORE ANOTHER ONE FOR THE ZOMBIE (LEARNER) APOCALYPSE

One thing I need to work on, what teacher Chris Long calls Self-Development is the BOOS (Butts-Out-Of-Seats).

I think, and some research studies suggests, learning efficacy can be deepened when learners are actively engaged and moving around doing learning activities.

THATS WHERE THE TEACHERS ARE

To review, why do I get most of my PD (Professional Development) from EdCamp & CUE? Because that’s where the teachers are.

 

Sit n Get

INTRO

My K-12 experience spanned from 1961 through 1974. My butt polished a lot of chairs in that time.

SIT

I can't recall many times, outside of PE class, where I wasn't sitting down in school. Sure, there were those terrifying moments working problems on the blackboard. But this activity wasn't something a kid looked forward to.

The classrooms I knew had rows of chairs. Desktop collaboration was difficult. Aside from the floor flat surfaces to spread out and collaborate on were few. I cannot recall a time when we used the floor.

@ErikWahl and @KidsDeserveIt if you want to move education forward then your delivery needs to get students' bodies moving.

GET

I design learning experiences for adults. In the almost two years that I've been participating in EdCamp I have learned many ways to teach kids. I have been able to use some of these techniques and strategies and tools with the learners I support. The best of them involve movement.

Devices and technology give students reach: to information and each other. The information stores, libraries, that I encountered in the 1960s were places to borrow books. The Internet of the day, card catalogues, were slow and cumbersome and in the end useful only insofar as the library was able to keep the resource: book, periodical, or map. Accessing the resource required that I go to the library. Today the information comes to students through browsers and apps.

Students need to be set in motion. In a Twitter chat some time ago I heard about Heutagogy. In a nutshell I think its about going after learning. Students, whether adults or children know what they need. It's arguable that maybe adults have a more definite idea of their needs than children. I'm not so sure.

OUTRO

If we're serious about growing flexible, curious, and creative people we have to set them free to go after what interests them. It's our job as educators to design learning experiences that facilitate that chase. Set our students free. My granddaughter Carly is counting on you.

 

 

TGIF

What am I thankful for? Carly's moving in.

 

 

Social Earning

PROLOGUE

Good news bad news: learning in collaboration with others via social media can be amazing when learners(and their organizations) engage.

SOCIAL

Learning in the company of others offers learners a significant benefit. Individually they learn from gaining and applying their own knowledge. In groups learners benefit from insights triggered by others sharing their perspectives.

A traditional classroom's capacity may constrain group learning. Environmental issues might hinder social learning as well.

EARNING

Learning via social media removes some of the constraints. One, with walls gone you can share knowledge with as many others as you can network with. You can leverage technology to share perspectives across a variety of media: writing, videos, podcasts to name a few.

To benefit from social media learners have to invest themselves in it. Thinking about learning as earnings they have to work at it.

Social media can be a thorny issue for some organizations. Some I have produced learning experiences for have strict policies in place on how social media can be used. Others may prohibit it completely. There are cultural constraints as well. Things people share online via social media is visible. It takes a lot of trust for this exchange to happen.

EPILOGUE

Trust is the currency of learning with social media. When the trust is there learners are motivated to share. My job is designing training that leverages story, what some might call case studies, to hook learners interests and empathy. I keep advocating for it, designing it in where I can. We're getting there.

 

Hiddenest Selfs

PROLOGUE

"Our own truths can be the hiddenest of all." -- Me

HIDDENEST

Day 11, AprilBlogaDay: It dawned on me a moment ago that it's a challenge. We're being dared to keep at it ever day, all month long. That's 30 days of month days.

Today's suggested topic: What are you reading professionally or personally, and why? My holistic take is everything I read has application in my craft and is fun to one degree or another.

I am always on the prowl for instructional strategies. The other day my gaze fell upon this gem: Simpson's Grammar.

I tend to read during quiet times. It's been a while since I read with other readers nearby for more than a few minutes.

SELFS

I start lots of books. Mostly they're on my iPad's Kindle app. I like science fiction. Some cool ideas have come from the genre.

Many books come recommended by people I know from EdCamps or Twitter chats. The thing they have in common include making the learning visible, doing what it takes to engage curiosity, and setting high and achievable expectations.

A couple-three years ago my professional self noticed many learners were disenchanted by what and how they were learning. I'm mostly talking about the training we get through our employers.

The people I interviewed gave a lot of reasons why it turned them off. It all got down to b-o-r-I-n-g. But not in the dull mind-numbing sense that probably popped into your mind first. The learning experiences they were being subjected to were superficial: Designers didn't develop learning that grabbed attention, that drilled down into what people wanted and needed to really learn and apply to improve their job performance.

EPILOGUE

Maybe we do a better job going our own way, seeking out learning that clicks for us. Or not. One thing I learned a while back that really touched me deeply: When Mrs needs help I should jump. She needs help putting the new leaf blower together. What makes you jump?

 

Tuna Piano

PROLOGUE

It’s a mystery. "Show them something to ask about..” sung to the tune of Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to talk about."

TUNA

Somehow I made it to Day 8 of #AprilBlogaDay. No one’s more surprised than me. Okay. Maybe that’s not true. But it could be.

I have lots of stories to tell. Some true. Some not. Like the time on Diego Garcia when.. a story tangent best left for another day, methinks.

So Day 8’s suggested topic is “How do we (educators) get students (them) asking then seeking rather than asking then getting?" In other words, "Why would a student want to find answers for themselves rather than being handed them?”

Consider for a moment the title of REO Speedwagon’s 1978 album.

Nonsense or sense making? Anyway, the first time I heard the album’s name I did a double-take. And that was way before the Internet. Imagine where a little crazy could take your students?

PIANO

Seriously. I used to watch a lot of TV. Okay, I still watch a lot of TV but that’s not important right now. What is important is this: The Paper Chase. I didn’t really like watching it much though. The part about it that hurt had to do with the lecture hall.

Hundreds of students learning law from a Sage On The Stage. Maybe if you can find and watch an episode or two you’ll see what I mean. Then again, maybe there’s a gem in there that, had I stayed and kept watching would have enlightened and entertained. I may never know. But you might.

EPILOGUE

I think about learner engagement a lot. I think the way to get it, so they get it, is to arouse their curiosity. If you can factor in an emotion, laughter or empathy for example, better. I’d stay away from clever. It’s easy to spot and can be a major turn-off. Authentic, that’s the way to be.