Category: Blended Learning
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EdTech Tools and Trends
08/27/2023 – Current trends encompass providing tools in educational technology to impact learning; however, technology needs to be a tool to enhance – not the end all and be all for instruction. Currently, educators need guidance and support, or technology tends to be misused or used and dropped because of the learning pit without the…
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Contributions to My Learning and the Learning Community
7/22/23 – Here is my rationale for scores of a 98 in 5313 and 5389 as I reflect on my participation in the learning communities as a part of these courses. First, I was able to share my learning in both courses’ through in-person discussions and online discussions. The work I was doing in 5313…
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Brain Plasticity
7/13/2023 – The science of brain plasticity and the creating of new neuron pathways that is a part of the research with Growth Mindset is fascinating to me. This is something that you can concretely teach to students and help them understand that getting the wrong answer triggers brain activity that getting the right answer…
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The Risks in Collaborative Discussion
7/12/2023 -In order to take risks in life and in learning, one has to be willing to move out of “the comfort zone,” and thus, willing to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. It is a part of growth mindset and the risk-taking that goes along with it (Dweck, 2006). If we want to be catalysts…
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Transition in Instruction
7/9/23 – The transition from 20th century to 21st century instruction seems to be the hardest (or the most uncomfortable) for the veteran teacher (career starting in the 80’s and 90’s) who has not received or sought out strong professional learning to build the technology skills needed for the 21st century work force. Going from the…
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“Connecting the Dots” in Learning
06/2/23 – As an EB educator, I have a strong belief in “connecting the dots” with learning, because it is key for EB learners to make connections to prior learning and build background to incorporate new learning into their schema. This is not only good practice for EB learners but for every learner (Harapnuik, 2015). Initially,…
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Thoughts on Presentation Structure
6/13/23 – The Five Rules for Presentations from Duarte along with Sinek’s thoughts on how to have a great presentation are excellent guidance on what things will set your presentation apart from others (Duarte, 2010; Sinek, 2018). One needs to take the time to add these details and put these directions into practice. Freytag’s Dramatic…
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Active Learning Thoughts
6/12/23 – An active learning article stated, “Therefore, active learning as designed and implemented by typical college biology instructors may superficially resemble active learning used by education researchers, but lacks the constructivist elements necessary for improving learning” because “constructivist theory argues that we can expect students to retain serious misconceptions if instruction is not specifically…
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Revolution vs. Reformation
6/8/23 – Sir Robinson shares that we need to look at a revolution in education and not a reformation because the education model widely used today is broken. Thus, we cannot “remodel it” or “reform it” but need to “transform it” (Robinson, 2010). That philosophy resonates with me. When I think of fixing something, I do not usually think…
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Crafting Effective PL
6/4/23 – It is not surprising that “research tells us that teachers learn much the same way that students do,” because I felt that as a teacher and realized it early as an Instructional Coach (Gulamhussein, 2013). If anything, teachers may need more time and support to learn new practices than their students since adults tend…
Wings and a Wand 