5303 & 5305: Contributions to the Learning Environment

Posted on December 10, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

Grades:
5303: 94/100 (94%)
5305: 47/50 (94%)

I can’t believe that my first two grad school classes are almost complete. I am tired, but it’s that good kind of tired. My accomplishments are meaningful and my growth is measurable. When I look at my ePortfolio or Literature Review I think, “I did that.” I am proud of my accomplishments so far and look forward to what is coming next.

Key Contributions

Glows & Grows

As I reflect on my role in my own learning and the learning of others, I recognize that a lot of what I am learning is clicking! This is because I – like all humans – have a natural love of learning and I’m putting effort into my work. For starters, I love the look and feel of my ePortfolio. It is organized well for the ePortfolio course, the Disruptive Innovation course, and for coming courses. I also did a great job of creating all of my discussion posts for both classes as blog posts first. I love to use writing to connect ideas, so blogging is right up my alley!

There is always room for improvement. I like to turn opportunities for improvement into goals, so my goals throughout grad school and the implementation of this plan are to:

Build confidence: I can implement my plan innovatively! I know that I have the right pieces in place.
Increase flexibility: I am going to listen to feedforward regarding my innovation plan for the paperless office. It will keep me from getting stuck. I definitely have room for improvement here.

Collaboration

One of my greatest strengths is connection and collaboration; I learn best in groups. When I learned about Stephen’s “business world perspective,” I e•mailed him immediately. He connected with Kimberly. Kimberly set up the Group Me chat, and our “Adult Learning Focus Group” was born. We used our group chat to discuss specific assignments for Dr. H and to review formatting tips for Dr. Sue. To be honest, the three of us led equally, each with different strengths that we bring to the table.

Stephen brought a business perspective, insightful suggestions, and a thematic approach to our group.
Kim is highly detail-oriented, analytical, and you can count on her to be ten steps ahead.
I am the big picture thinker of the group, full of ideas and motivation, and I offer the ability to refocus on the “why” in each assignment.

We all grew constantly from our interactions with one another in both 5305 and 5303 simultaneously. We created our ePortfolios alongside our assignments for 5305.

Revisions

I made revisions constantly based on comparison and feedforward from my peers and from class, 1-on-1 meetings, and feedforward from Dr. H. Examples include:

I changed the color of the lettering on my ePortfolio from grey to black. After reflecting on Stephen’s theme I changed my ePortfolio to match the colors of my district logo.
I corrected the references in my Literature Review.
After reviewing Kim’s metaphor, I included more intentional phrasing on my front page.
After a meeting with Dr. H, I changed the focus of my proposal so that it is broader.
I changed a step in the implementation plan from “teach” to “empower.”
Finally, my drafts were continually changing with the support and feedforward of my group.

I completed as many of the course readings, videos, and supporting resources as I was able. My intention in grad school – and in life really – is to keep learning, reading, reflecting, and connecting as long as I can. I see this as a constant need for improvement. I met the various course deadlines, even when I was sick!

Supporting Contributions

Leadership Responsibility, Participation, and Communication

I was a leader among my base group, but also within my course. Within the course:

I assisted many individuals – including Jasmin, Kelvin, Andrea, Pedro, and Chastity – by fielding questions.
I responded to a number of posts within each discussion.
Jasmin, Kim, Danielle, Andre, and I met in a small group over Zoom to discuss the required readings. I devised a plan to split the readings, Jasmin created the group, and Kim and I both posted our notes on the 5305 Course Discussion Board.
I also participated in all of the discussions, communications, group chats, and live class discussions.
Finally, I made additional blog posts that weren’t required.
One area of growth – one of my posts was not submitted until toward the end of the course. If I could do it over again I would do all of the discussions earlier so that I could spend more time responding and reflecting with my peers.

In short, so many people from our crossover 5303/5305 group were supportive of one another.

I look forward to what the next courses hold.

The ePortfolio: Controlling Your Brand

Posted on December 8, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

We all have a brand. This is the “face” that we put on for the world, specifically on social media. I think about my brand often, specifically:

· What is the intention with a post or tweet?

· How does a picture or post fit into my long-term goals?

· Who is my audience for the picture or post, intentional or otherwise?

I don’t put as much thought into my “brand” as an influencer, movie star, or athlete might, but I am pretty intentional about what I share on social media. Whether other people realize it or not, they are too. It’s my opinion that everyone should put a little more cognizant thought into what they are posting and why. This gives you more control and direction over your personal and professional brand.

Why Sponsor Levi

I love how Levi has already mastered the idea of a brand. His video Eportfoio Video taps into his story and his humanity. I really liked the racing shots, and Levi’s narration alongside demonstrated his passion for his sport. By the end of his video, I wanted to sponsor Levi, too!

ePortfolio Observations

An ePortfolio is another medium for creating your brand. This medium is not like social media in the sense that you have a greater degree of ownership over it. It’s not a profile on a secondary site – it is YOUR SITE. My own website is karinstateler.com! My biggest takeaway after reviewing several of the ePortfolios is the transition from coursework to “real life.” Right now – while Dr. H says our ePortfolios are for us and that they are real – they still feel like an assignment. However, the ePortfolios I reviewed were not assignments. They were businesses, professional sites, resumés, and more.

I look forward to transitioning my website to a digital representation of my brand throughout the ADL courses. I know that I’ll “feel it” when it starts to happen.

References

Harapnuik, L., & YouTube (Directors). (2015). Eportfolio Video [Film]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfiebRB6rHI&t=5s

Riding the Wave: The New Rules of Innovation

Posted on November 13, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

I remember in middle school attending computer class in a computer lab. One of the programs I learned was an early Paint program, found here. I remember creating my own orange color and using it to make Hardee’s logo. It was a highly pixelated, low level of creation, but I made it myself and I was proud. I also spent a lot of time learning to type on computers in high school. The “same skills we’d always needed” were applied to computing. This was all prior to the internet. Computer classes were separate from classrooms, so learning about computers was about learning to use a computer… and nothing else. Computers were the innovation.

New rules and a different game

The rules for innovation have shifted. In his TED Talk Want to Innovate? Become a “now-ist,” Joi Ito states, “In this completely unpredictable world, the survivors were working with a different set of principles. Bottom-up innovation that is Democratic, chaotic, and hard to control, and the traditional rules don’t work anymore.” (2014) No matter what the innovation is, it no longer happens in a vacuum. Ideas are tested, iterated, and improved upon without permission and before they are fully formed. Innovation is more like intentional play with a general idea. It is no longer the serious work with a clear path that it used to be. This rings true in the classroom as well. Our students are the innovators – they don’t need teachers to obtain access to information. They need a device and access to the internet.

What is the educator’s role then?

How might innovation look in education? In her TED Talk Blended Learning and The Future of Education, Monique Markoff challenges teachers and the educational system to provide one-to-one teacher-to-student personalized learning environments where computers are but a learning tool. In this environment, students are learning from computers, not about them. Learning about computers happens as a result of course, but it’s not the main focus. We need to stop compartmentalizing student learning and give students the chance to innovate! What if teachers gave students a compass to their learning instead of a map? This looks like students engaging in PBL and an individualized, self-paced curriculum in a blended learning environment. How might this allow students to be the pilots in their own learning journey?

Now is the time

Why are people still delivering content the same old way instead of empowering our students to use devices as learning tools? Like my HS computer class – I was learning how to type because of course, I would use a computer for data entry! That’s not even a necessity now! Not much has changed since then. While COVID pushed schools further than they had ever been, education still relies too heavily on sit-and-get, standardized learning. This is a big reason that I started grad school in the first place. I’m excited to ride the wave of change that COVID forced. Because of this, I get to experiment, innovate, and iterate using my plan for a Paperless Office. This is what innovation looks like. I get to be a part of the future… RIGHT NOW.

References

Ito, J., & TED. (2014, March). Want to innovate? Become a “now-ist”. TED Ideas Worth Spreading. https://www.ted.com/talks/joi_ito_want_to_innovate_become_a_now_ist?language=en

Markoff, M., & TEDxIthacaCollege. (2014, May 6). Blended Learning and the Future of Education. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb2d8E1dZjY

ePortfolio Ownership: Making Connections through Meaningful Reflection

Posted on November 10, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

I consider myself easy to talk to and I try to be open-minded to new ideas, even if they don’t integrate with what I know to be true. However, to really convince me, I need to know WHY I should try a new idea, procedure, or suggestion. According to Simon Sinek, that’s pretty normal. In his famous “Golden Circle” Ted Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action (Sinek & TEDx Puget Sound, 2009), Mr. Sinek says, “People don’t by what you do, they buy why you do it.” Brain science supports this theory. Everything that passes through our brains filters through our older, limbic brain which is responsible for feelings before the logic of our prefrontal lobe sets in. In other words, understanding “Why” and “How” to do a task is the basis for changing minds and influencing others.

Who owns the ePortfolio?

In Dr. H’s article Who Owns the ePortfolio, “Even though the students are doing the work, more often than not they do not own the ideas and are not making meaningful connections, they are simply completing assignments and giving the instructor what they want.” (Harapnuik, 2021) The idea of ownership is an important tenant of constructivist learning theory. Ownership personalizes learning and provides students with a “Why.” Therefore, it is important to provide students with just enough structure to make the learning intentional, while providing choices within the learning context to create an authentic learning experience.

Lead by example:

My own ePortfolio is proving to be an amazing learning experience. I am especially proud of my blog posts. I document all of my discussion posts as blog posts first. They model how my thinking has changed through the ADL program. For example, my first idea for my project on training administrative assistants is outlined in Passionately Pursuing Nonconsumption: Disruptive Innovation as a Catalyst for Change. After meeting with Dr. H about my project, I sat in my cognitive dissonance for a bit. My post called Winds of Change recounts how I processed the information to form a more broad, big-picture plan for my innovation project. My Innovation Plan is the product of my reflection. Even my reflection on choosing WordPress over Wix in the article I Love You, I Hate You: The Story of WordPress shows how I’m forming meaningful connections.

Why is Ownership Important?

“Environments are not passive wrappings but active processes.” (Watters & Bright, 2015)

The question of ownership comes back to the purpose of technology. Are we using technology to teach the same way we’ve always taught? Or are we riding the wave of technology to create meaningful educational change personalized to each student? When we follow constructivist theory and create choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning experiences, we can use the new environment to empower students rather than apply the same ineffective methods in a different context.

“The real IT revolution in teaching and learning won’t happen until each student builds a personal cyberinfrastructure that is as thoughtfully, rigorously, and expressively composed as an excellent essay/ingenious experiment.” (Watters & Bright, 2015)

References

Harapnuik, D. (2021, August). Who Owns the ePortfolio. It’s About Learning. http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6050%20

Sinek, S., & TEDx Puget Sound. (2009, September). How Great Leaders Inspire Action. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

Watters, A., & Bright. (2015, July 15). The Web We Need To Give Students. Bright The Mag. https://medium.com/bright/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713

Show and Tell Grows Up

Posted on November 3, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

In my current job, I struggle with showing a “product” of my knowledge work. I end my day with a marked-out checklist, but not always much else. For example, I may research a help ticket for hours, but the only person who really knows that is me. Should I use my calendar, my daily checklist, or my solved help tickets as a reflection of my output? All of these paint an imperfect picture of my day-to-day accomplishments.

In Why Use an ePortfolio, I read several sources on the use of ePortfolios. Not only are they a fantastic way to show learning as a process. They are also a great way to capture thought work. They do this by 1) creating a context for learning, and 2) allowing for reflection and making the reflection visible to be tended to again and again.

Creating Context

The beauty of an ePortfolio is how effortlessly it can create a context for a learner through significant learning environments. In A New Culture of Learning – Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM, I was intrigued by the 2014 video’s question on the meaning of expertise. Students’ view of teachers is different than when I was a child. The experts in my childhood were teachers and encyclopedias. Today’s students, however, are inundated with information and must create meaning from a multitude of sources. To them, teachers are not the experts. Teachers can harness this information overload, however, by providing students with context around it all. To do this, teachers should engage passion and imagination and provide opportunities for, “challenging creativity in the face of obstacles.” The ePortfolio captures learning in a significant learning environment through reflection.

Making Meaningful Connections

Reflection is the search for connections. As Dewey said, “We learn not from the experience, but from the reflection on the experience.” This occurs because of the cycle between practice and metacognition. This cycle includes Reflection → Planning → Action → Observing, back to Reflection. Humans create stories from our observations. We can continue to test and refine these stories, thereby deepening our learning. As Donald Schön said, “When we get into the habit of recording our stories, we can look at them again, attending to the meanings we have built into them and attending, as well, to our strategies of narrative description.” (Why Reflect? – Reflection4Learning)

ePortfolios for Thought Work

The product of the ePortfolio is a great way to show the process of learning. Without an ePortfolio, it’s easy to focus on output and miss out on the hours of valuable knowledge work. You miss out on the heart and soul of the creation. Because of this, my goal is to add more of my work to my ePortfolio. I will then reflect on my processes through a blog. I won’t use this for proof alone. It will also be a record of my own learning in my career as well as a way to return to my work for continued reflection.

References

Harapnuik, D. (2021, 5). Why Use an ePortfolio. It’s About Learning. http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6063

Reflection4Learning, Barrett, H., & Richter, J. (n.d.). Why Reflect? Reflection4Learning. Retrieved 11 2, 2021, from https://sites.google.com/site/reflection4learning/why-reflect

TEDxUFM & Thomas, D. (n.d.). A New Culture of Learning [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved 11 2, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U

Growth Mindset: Useful Tool or Parlor Trick?

Posted on October 28, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

Failing? Just have a growth mindset! Depressed? Just have a growth mindset! The concept of a growth mindset is good in theory. In practice, a growth mindset has to be intentionally modeled alongside best practices and within a system or classroom that actively practices authenticity. Otherwise, it comes across as flippant and could be considered toxic positivity.

Is competition a useful strategy within a team, organization, or classroom?

I’ve never liked competition. Well, I DO like it… when I’m winning. If I’m not winning, I’m not playing. It’s truly my one fatal flaw. I felt validated when Dr. Heffernan started talking about the “Super Flock,” in her TedTalk titled Why it’s Time to Forget the Pecking Order at Work. She said, “Individually productive chickens only achieved their success by suppressing the productivity of the rest.” And they did this by pecking one another to death. It didn’t matter that the chickens were all individually superstar chickens. They couldn’t handle the competition. This applies to humans on teams in a similar way. When teams are in a system that encourages competition, powerful individualism, and favoritism, those teams don’t function well together. The end result is, “aggression, dysfunction, and waste.”

How can you build trust in a team?

This begs the question of how to create a system of authenticity and cooperation. Dr. Heffernan suggests that “Rivalry has to be replaced by social capital.” Social capital is, “the reliance and interdependence that builds trust.” In Charles Feltman’s book, The Thin Book of Trust, he defines trust as, “Choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.” So the opposite of an aggressive, dysfunctional, competitive environment is one full of vulnerability, trust, and cooperation. Feltman further suggests that “behaviors that are indicative of trust include: Cooperation, collaboration, conversation, dialog, listening, communication, support, sharing information, offering ideas, expecting the best, and being willing to examine [your] own actions.” It is that type of system in which teaching a growth mindset would allow classrooms and teams to flourish.

Now, how can a growth mindset be an asset in a well-arranged system/classroom?

Outside of an authentic, vulnerable system that encourages social capital, a growth mindset is but a parlor trick. But inside of a good system, the growth mindset is a useful tool. A growth mindset encourages people to think of skills and intelligence as malleable. For example, I am still struggling with WordPress. It is far more robust than any other website platform I’ve ever used. If I think about my skills with a fixed mindset, I might think, “I cannot create my website on this platform! It’s too hard! I’ll never learn it!” Using a growth mindset, I would flip the script. For example, “I cannot understand how to use WordPress, yet. I can google it though! And I know that one of my colleagues is using WordPress. I bet they could help me out when I get stuck.”

You can encourage a growth mindset in an authentic environment by:

Actively teaching people about the difference in growth and fixed mindset.
Reframing your praise to reflect stamina, grit, and the process a student/person uses rather than the product.
Modeling and coaching students/others to reframe their distorted thinking.

How can you restructure your classroom or team systems? How can you use the growth mindset as a tool within these systems?

I Love You, I Hate You: The Story of WordPress

Posted on October 28, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

I chose Wix first. It was easy. It was attractive. I set up my site. I wrote my first blog. I was ready.

Did I mention that Wix was easy?

And then I met you…

WordPress. You sly devil. You were deep and complex. I could create my own domain name. You were rich and profound and you called to me like a siren from a boulder being pelted by harsh waves in a stormy sea. Your voice floated to me from afar. You sang of safety, of freedom, and of a depth and complexity unmatched by others. I fell in head first, lured by Dr. Harapnuik’s treasure map, How to Create Your ePortfolio. The map is sincere and bold. It provides a clear outline. There is a quaint comparison. And there is… DATA.

I was caught, hook, line and sinker. And I paid the price. LITERALLY.

And then I got to know you…

Early in our relationship, you were soft. You were kind. I copied and pasted my blog from Wix. It was so easy! And then, you judged me. Your SEO score and Readability statistics didn’t seem like huge red flags at first. “You’re helping me become better!” I thought. How naïve of me! You became progressively more aggressive throughout our time together.

Next, I selected a theme and started to create pages.

But I COULDN’T EDIT THE THEME. You held me hostage, WordPress! You hid your theme editing in a separate menu from page editing. After I found the theme menu, I was so excited to be able to delete the phone number! But it was a small victory – I couldn’t figure out how to change the stock picture with the irrelevant menu that plagued my Homepage. Out, damned spot!

Back to the drawing board

Days passed. I added pages. I deleted pages. I changed the homepage menu that plagued me so! I tried to create a drop-down menu. I tried again… and again… and again. I posted about menus in the Student Lounge. A kind fellow named Pedro had fantastic instructions that I couldn’t follow.

But tonight… I got the better of you

I did it! I created that menu. My Learning is documented in one place that drops down, that I may add pages and pages galore. I have pages, a drop-down menu, and a blog. And yet I wonder…

How else might you challenge me?

ePortfolios: Create and Maintain Your Organic Learning Profile

Posted on October 21, 2021January 16, 2022 by karinst8ler

An eportfolio is exactly what I imagined it to be based on the title: It is a learner’s digital evidence of meaningful connections. (Minimalist Definition of an Eportfolio) As I think about how I will create and maintain my eportfolio, I was pulled toward two specific foci:

Creating an eportfolio that is a reflection of me.

In Dr. H’s ePortfolio, I noticed the specifics of why, what, how, and regarding the effects of eportfolios as a reflection of learning. I must have an onus of the eportfolio – and therefore of my learning. It is also important that I reflect on my learning to make meaningful connections. I will demonstrate my learning through that reflection.

Thinking about how I will create something that is a reflection of me and my learning, I like Dr. Helen Barrett’s definition of a working portfolio compared to a presentation portfolio. A working portfolio documents the learning process. A presentation portfolio is, “organized around a set of learning outcomes, goals, and standards for specific purposes and audiences.” For graduate school, our goals, purposes, and audience are our professors. However, I prefer to consider my portfolio a working portfolio as it will be a more organic reflection of who I am and what I am learning that I may continue to use it to further my career.

Maintaining an eportfolio throughout my career.

My biggest takeaway regarding maintaining a portfolio comes back to onus. If I own the learning and the work, I am more likely to maintain the portfolio well into my career. In Dr. H’s How to Create Your ePortfolio, I notice that Dr. H truly believes that WordPress is a superior eportfolio choice for this purpose. To be clear, he is not that he is saying our web choice will determine our grade! He is simply saying that WordPress is a more widely used and more sophisticated technology for a long-term portfolio. He also suggests the pay option simply to maintain ownership of your domain from the start.

I initially created my eportfolio in Wix. After reading this information, I purchased a membership to WordPress. It has a much larger learning curve, but since I’ve paid for it I am moving ahead in this direction.

What are your thoughts?

Do you prefer a working portfolio or a presentation portfolio? Do you think that will change throughout your career? Which web service do you intend to use?