FRIT 7739 Week 2

FRIT 7739 Week 2

No surprise. So far this week, the email promises of getting back with me have not happened. I am not shy, so I emailed them my thoughts, suggestions, and offers to help. Still, it is Friday and no replies. I hate having to depend on someone else for this.... Se la vie.

In the meantime, I was able to interview the director of my division about a project that Dr. Downs agreed upon. So, next week, I will upgrade the five computers in our Simulation Factory by installing and configuring solid state hard drives. I will then update the software packages in those machines. After getting those users updated, I will train the staff on the updated software - staff professional development.

Here at the end of week two I feel I am getting further behind. I am in the planning stages of the staff professional development project, but that too is dependent upon other people with their own agendas.

Hoping for the best -

FRIT 7739 Week 1

Week one of FRIT 7739 involved a lot of guesswork for me. I was chasing anyone within the company who might help with site supervisor interviews, asking about alternatives at local schools, sending lots of emails hoping that I could get some traction on a path for site evaluation, face to face interviews, and eventual staff professional training. It seems the lions share of our work for these first weeks is getting someone else to make time for our priorities. I know that my need for projects to complete this practicum is not a priority of someone in a managerial position. I guess that is part of the frustration: having to count on someone who does not have a stake in this.

Here is hoping that they come through with more than just email replies.

FRIT 7234 ending

Well, I finished the work. It was far from easy for a guy coming into the program from an educational background that is NOT education anyway. Be that as it may, my advice for students starting the program - look ahead. Look at the last assignment first. The instructor warns you early about preparing for it, but I am not the instructor, I am a student. Let ME warn you.

The rest of the assignment weeks took a lot of time, but that last one - PHEW! I spent far too much time trying to create a work based project that I could use in my program area... WRONG IDEA. My projects would have taken at least a week to complete.

With the 11th hour closing in quickly, I took a pragmatic look at the assignment requirements and built MINI lessons based on those. I do not think that I covered everything I wanted to, but, in two days, I finished and had three one hour lessons I could use in my class. All three were on Information literacy and ethics, but we can all use those lessons in our 21st century instruction.

There is my advice. Be prepared to cover a LOT of ground, and spend a lot of time on the classes, but DO try to work ahead.

Cheers!

Richardson_J - Week 5 inquiry learning - preview mini lesson

     Since I do not have a certification content area, I hope to make this a real and usable assignment. To that end, I ask for critique on the front.

     The community I serve in is not exciting for the teenagers in my classes. More than once per semester I hear how "boring" the small town is. Students lament over the lack of entertainment opportunities in the city or in the county. Add to that the student body I serve is over 60% economically challenged, so the entertainment options are, therefore, limited to local options. I work in Gordon County, in Northwest Georgia. The county is situated about 60 miles south of Chattanooga Tennessee, and 70 miles North of Atlanta. These two cities are what my students cite most as places they would rather be. Most of them have preconceived notions and seem to feel that their parents force them to live where they do because they are sadistic monsters - almost like living in the county was/is some sort of premeditated punishment.
 
     Why Gordon County? This assignment will/may include multiple parts - still working through details. My idea is to have the students research cultural, natural, and man made resources that might attract visitors to the county. There are worse places to live, and my students should find out what the county offers for themselves. This will be a Graphic Design project where the students will post to a Schoology blog site. The students will be divided into groups of 5 students/group, which should give a fairly diverse and geographically dispersed group. As part of the assignment, the students can develop a website to "showcase" the attractions. The research will offer authenticity to their design project in that they get to control the layout, the content, and the reach/scope of the research within the parameters of the assignment.
     The second part of the assignment is a group competition to see who can visit all of the sites from their research. This will require that the student groups have located a set number of attractions (10 is my first inclination), and that groups/group members venture outside of the city limits. All of my students live outside of the city proper, so this should be a non-issue - still working through details... The students must document their visit via photos using their hand-held device(s) and posting said pictures to twitter/instagram/facebook etc. and include some means of identifying the location (landmark/sign) and have the student(s) in the picture (selfie). The students will then give a brief "documentary"report on the site.
     The last part of the assignment is to use their data to develop a flyer/map/infographic/brochure that local businesses (hotels/restaurants/Chamber of Commerce) can use and display. The design lab offers professional quality printers so that the students can have a tactile and presentable final product. All work must be cited. All research must come from peer reviewed sources, first hand interviews, or personal and verifiable visits.

     This lesson offers an authentic(1) look at alternative entertainment opportunities in the county, and a deeper understanding(2) of the history and development of the county and city of Calhoun. The differing parts of the assignment will allow multiple opportunities for assessment(3). The research will require students to search geographical and historical information, learn to utilize Web 2.0 tools to interact with group members via social media(4). The success of the project will be determined by student interaction and reflection(5). I hope to include (invite) members of the Chamber of Commerce to speak with the classes as both guidance and information(6) to make the project significant and real.

I do not live in the county where I work. The lesson will prove a learning exercise for me as well as for the students. I know a bit about the rich history of the indigenous peoples of the county and it's significance to them. I know the county is headquarters for some of the largest flooring manufacturing companies on earth. I also know that the county has a river, access to Carters Lake, as well as a few hiking trails. It is my hope that the students develop an appreciation for the county, an understanding of why they live there, and a hope for a future there.

Now, how to put this all together as a mini-lesson...

Please respond, critique, and share your input.

Cheers, Jeff

Richardson_J - Letting go

Reading the Teachthought blog (www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/great-teaching-means-letting-go/) and watching the video at https://educatorinnovator.org/webinars/chris-lehmann-inquiry-the-very-first-step-in-the-process-of-learning/, really got me thinking about the way I "do" my class. I teach Graphic Design at the High School level. We end every semester with tests that are little more than a benchmark over what I believe to be the most interesting assignment/chapter work covered in that 17 week period. I try to make my tests simple since my class is an elective. I make study guides and give the students plenty of warning. The study guides sometime become the tests even, and I still have students that do not do well. I have looked for reasons, blamed apathy, reading skills, busy lives, and solar flares. I am still puzzled.

After watching the google hangout and reading the philos about letting go so that 'athletes can learn to adapt to situations not practiced for', I thought about my testing practice. After hearing the comments on being "agents of change", and how outdated methods are "hurting our kids" made me think deeper about the end of semester tests. What purpose do those tests really serve? When I looked from that vantage and in light of SLA's methodology, I saw some things that concerned me. Who benefits from the end of semester tests? How do the students taking the test view the testing itself? What might I do that would better serve my students as they go out into society?

What purpose do the tests serve? I was empathetic with the librarian who was berated in the video for the school systems' poor internet coverage. I thought, "What can she do about the systems policies?" My school system, at least as far as I know, mandates end of semester tests for students who either fail to carry a 'B' average, or miss more than three days over the course of the semester for any reason. I do not enjoy the extra work involved with final exams. Even the name sounds so terminal. There is very little instructional use in these "last day" tests (see? creepy). Many standardized tests allow students to take them multiple times, so taking those tests over and again teaches students how to take the test. Finals because you missed too many days or lost interest seems more like a punishment than an exercise in useful course instruction.

This leads me to how the students taking the test might view the testing. Some may see it as a chance to bring up a grade. Maybe they procrastinated through the semester and let their grades slip by missing a deadline? I can speculate about several reasons, but none seem legitimate. So I ask you, is the final a sort of punishment for missing days or not keeping your grades up? Is the practice outdated? Should I reconsider my methods so that students can be more self-directed graphic designers? Am I critical of myself? Do you like my hair like this? It can't be my deodorant because I don't wear any. Seriously, I need to be critical of my curriculum. I adjust it every semester, but I end up falling into what is easier. I use a textbook that the students hate. It is the same textbook I used at the college level and it gives projects that give the students what they need to pass a standardized Adobe certification exam. The images are static and the students do not relate to them because they are someone else's photos. As a plus, the students have to read.... my how they love that - NOT!

This brings me to my third thought; What might I do that would better serve my students as they go out into society? I teach in a county that is dominated by the carpet industry. My subject matter is divided into three sections that are called a 'pathway'. The last (advanced) class ends with a 'End of Pathway' exam. This is a high-stakes test and the kids rightly stress over it. Before my tenure began, the former regime used the 'Work Force Ready' test for the end of pathway. I had never heard of that program. My background was as a Customer Service manager for a CAD/CAM software company that serviced the carpet industry. My customers were artists that worked in color and pattern design. I knew the Adobe software suite as the market share leader for graphic design, and that is the software that my lab already employed. It made sense to me to teach toward the Adobe certification as something that local industry would recognize. So, I proposed that we use that certification exam as the End-of-Pathway (EOP). In my mind at the time it seemed like a grand prize trophy to be won for finishing the pathway. The kids do not see it that way, and less than one per semester get their certification.

Most of the kids taking my courses think they want to become game designers. I'm not talking about simple games, I'm talking about the immersive multiverse gaming experience kind of games. The ones where when you get hit, cut, shot or blown to bits it actually leaves bruises. My lab is not set up for that kind of development. I do not have the needed experience to help much beyond the creation of 3D characters and masks. The school system would have to invest in different software. And, lastly, would giving the students opportunity to delve into that level of creation, software development, Alpha, Beta, Real time testing, product launching, and probable failure be good for them? How do we justify the expense? What would those same students do for a living after?  Athletes who never get the opportunity to play at the highest levels never know for sure if they were really good enough. I do not want my program to be the place that designers dreams got crushed under a boring textbook whilst being driven toward an undesired certification. I suppose I need to let go and let them research what they need to get to that level of design. Maybe there are open source packages that are powerful enough that the kids can get some attention.

Let me know your thoughts
Cheers! J

Post 5 - Adjustments to learning goals.

In week one my goals were pretty much based on keeping my head above water in the coursework. Since then, I am becoming more familiar with an underwater view. Therefore, at this point, I have had a change in perspective.

In week 1, my lens was on the coursework I currently teach - HS Graphic Design. I was not considering what I might later be tasked with in instructional design. That said, after reading this week's articles, I especially relate to the research done by Miller and Bartlett (‘Digital fluency’: towards young people’s critical use of the internet - 2012. Journal of Information Literacy). The UK findings showing such trust in the easily obtained information presented leads me to question my own fact checking; my own filtered bubble feed.

Specifically, this weeks readings enforce my observations of my students in that some are energetic and involved while others lose interest and, in the extreme, just quit trying. Perhaps involving them in inquiry would help their interest level. I still do not see how to construct this inquiry model into a course that is so technical - learning what design tools do which functions and how to combine them to create... yet. (There is that myopia again.) Whilst I still struggle with forming a research topic based on learning tool functionality, I do agree that the formation of essential questions can lead to deeper understanding of later projects. Getting to those students with likely fixed mindsets should rise to a priority in my personal learning goals.

So - for changing my learning goals (post teaching Graphic Design):

I think I should build more fact check challenge into my research topics. Beyond requiring source integrity, I should seek out opposing viewpoints and articles and list those so that students consider them. I should ask them to form rebuttals defending their findings on all topics where appropriate. Since my number one goal is education, I think it would be healthy for them to think about differing viewpoints, the validity of those differing points of reference, their own biases, as well as possible reasons why. From that vantage point, the student is better equipped to judge fact from fiction, truth from propaganda, authentic from staged.
Some skepticism can be healthy in the age of digital information. Call it caution.

What do you think?

Cheers!

Richardson, Jeff - Reflective Searching

Remember that I got a zero score on the Google Challenge pop culture segment.
Thinking through my obvious prowess (super power) as a researcher, and seeing how my peers (i.e. teenage students) evaluate information, led  me to a few revelations. Much like the teens purported by their teachers in the "How Teens Do Research in the Digital World" article, I too quickly settle on what I believe the article called "quick and close enough". Most of my searches deal with subjects that I already know about - or at least I think I know. So, finding an answer that agrees with what I think I know is good enough.

As a searcher, my patience is directly related to my interest in the subject. If you looked at the sites currently open on my iPad, you would see that I spend a lot of time consulting many different resources attempting to corroborate the best methods of dealing with a small hive beetle infestation in my bee hives. You would see one instance of my Infinite Campus portal and even one instance of my Schoology page. You would not see "best teaching practices" sites open - but you may find one in my history. The Bible states it this way; Forwhere your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34 - NIV). Thinking like my students, how excited should I expect them to get about Graphic Design, color, print processes, or what goes into designing fonts and why they are not really free? 

Regretfully, I cannot speak for everyone about being part of the Google Generation. I have embraced the convenience of Google. I rarely use the phrase "look it up", I say "Google it". Worse, I no longer memorize phone number sequences, addresses, or even locations. If I can remember enough to do a google search on my handheld device, why should I tax my meager faculties with such trivial things? At this point in my life, I wish Google had a method of reminding me of peoples names when I needed them. Siri has trouble with that one too. It is embarrassing when I ask her who I am talking to and she doesn't understand the question.... My wife and children seem upset but they rarely call me by my name either. That said, maybe we are part of the Google generation - even Siri.

Seriously, I learned a good deal about my inefficiencies. I learned how to tell if Wikipedia sources are credible, how to search using images and color descriptions, how to eliminate words to filter search results, and how to use quotation marks to search for exact word phrases. I have bookmarked these resources and will practice their use to work toward proficiency. While ignorance may not be bliss, the readings have made me think that there are other valuable tools that I could have been utilizing had I known about them. I see a paradox in that I have wasted time with less than effective search methods using a tool that saves time. I learned that I am not alone in my worries about the addiction of technology and its consequential results on the literacy of today's teens. Most of my students live with economic hardship. A high percent of them either cannot read, or find it "too boring". I have resorted to recording myself reading my textbook to them while doing the exercises just so they will turn in something. Like the presentation "Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future" said; "They seem to go online to keep from reading in the traditional sense".