Ok, well, I had a super hard time dealing with this blog entry!  I was clear on the prompt but there are some extenuating circumstances so I’m just going to compose a direct response to the prompt from the class, and touch on my experience as best I can. 
The first part of the prompt is “How does thinking about feedback as a component of assessment related to/important for 21st-century learners and educators?” For me, that is clear.  Yet again I get to refer back to the GREAT John Seely Brown’s video on Motivating Learners (2013).  He talks about now 21st century learners have a gaming mentality and want feedback right away.  They want to advance to the next level, so they have a good understanding of where they’re at, and where they’re falling short.  This characteristic is something that has evolved in today’s learners and we’ve gotta be ready to keep them up to speed on their development/progress.  Larry Rosenstock, CEO and Principal of High Tech High (2008) explains how assessment happens incrementally throughout the learning experiences that happen in his program.  That exemplifies how we need to approach assessment with 21st Century Learners!  They want to know quickly and thoroughly how they are performing.  My partner back in 624 who’s MUVE entries I assessed said some great things about what she wanted to do in her classroom, but it wasn’t a MUVE; there was no mention of any sort of virtual environment.  She has since re-written the entry but at the time there was no MUVE, so I felt very uncomfortable giving her that feedback when I’m a peer student in this class.  But Dr. K coached me and I was able to pull it off in a way that was helpful and not insulting or arrogant.  On a side note, had she gotten feedback on her MUVE entries closer to when she had written them, she might have been better off as she moved through the rest of the work for that week.  She may have missed a level of understanding that might have hindered here elsewhere.  It also made things a little tricky for me. 
The second part of the prompt is “What are your feelings about the differences between assessment in a traditional classroom versus one that serves our 21st-century learners?  I feel like I’m glad the times, they are a changing!  Frankly, the change is long overdue and is not just essential for 21st century learners, but it’s better across the board!  Assessment that is formative in nature is so much more effective and valuable because when it’s good, it’s comprehensive, it seeks to ensure student is learning, it aids in engagement, it reduces chances of student frustration and it’s give a teacher much insight into the learner in question.  And even summative assessment becomes more valuable when it’s given after several formative assessments along the way.  I try in my practice to do as much formative assessment into play as much as possible and will continue that pursuit.

References:

Seely Brown, John (2013 March 6) John Seely Brown on Motivating Learners (Big Thinkers Series), [Website] Edutopia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41pNX9-yNu4

​No name, (2008 December 3) Transformed by Technology at High Tech High [Video] Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/high-tech-high-collaboration-age-video

​For week #8 of Eduu624, I’m going to be looking at traditionally-crafted teaching dispositions and how they are STILL applicable for teachers, like myself, who are focusing on creating a 21st century class room and curriculum and teaching therein.  So, the dispositions in question are Professional Demeanor & Responsibility, Commitment to Learning for ALL Students, Communication, Collaboration, Self-Reflection and Ethics.  In short, all of these things need to be in play for any teacher regardless that teacher’s approach to their craft, to their profession.  Unique to a 21st century setting, “professional demeanor & responsibility” is critical because one, a 21st century teacher is interacting with parents and representing not only themselves as an education professional, but the field of education in general as well as their school facility and district.  Secondly, I believe a professional demeanor and responsibility is important for students, especially 21st century students, because we’re playing the role of hosts/facilitators/guides etc., it’s important that we look and behave professionally.  “Commitment to learning for ALL students” is bigger than just 21st century teaching, but in a 21st century situation, is even more important.  So much of 21st century learning is about a student centered approach and students working with teacher/facilitators to plan and monitor their own learning experiences, teachers need to be equipped to facilitate each and every one of those experiences across the board, for ALL students!  “Collaboration” is also a core part of 21st century pedagogy but not only with peers as in COP’s and PLC’s but with their students.  Teachers must collaborate with their students to chart the educational course but also monitor progress and adapt it as needed and teachers need to be willing and able to learn with their students.  It’s not about teachers knowing everything!!!  “Self-reflection” both individually and within COP’s and PLC’s is critical because you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been!  If what you’re doing is causing your students to learn, great!  But you’ll only know that if you take the time to reflect and observe results.  Finally, we have “ethics.”  Ethics are important across the board as well, both professionally for the same reasons I pointed out when discussing “professional demeanor and responsibility” but also to make our students feel respected, honored and most of all, safe!  If they’re not feeling all three of those things, maximal learning cannot and will not happen.  A 21st century class room and curriculum is vibrant and rigorous, our learners need to feel comfortable to be successful.  All of these dispositions contribute directly and indirectly to the success of 21st century students.

Here's my ranking of myself:

I think I’m gonna go with netiquette/etiquette as perhaps the most important thing after having gone over the basic elements of online/blended/on site teaching and learning.  Netiquette/etiquette is important regardless the model because it deals with communication at its most basic level.  Speaking in all caps in an online platform is absolutely considered rude but yet, can be meant as enthusiastic.  Interrupting in a synchronous, onsite class situation is rude too, but can also come from enthusiasm.  Misunderstandings such as this can close the communication and prevent any significant learning from being facilitated or had.  Open, transparent communication is critical for participating in or facilitating a learning experience no matter the type, synchronous or asynchronous.  As in life beyond teaching and learning, healthy, mindful and thoughtful communication is key to any fruitful discourse.  So we’re talking about a behavioral component that can (and will if given the chance) impede or degrade a cognitive one.  If I’ve offended a learner by my netiquette or etiquette during the initial stages of a learning experience, they’re going to shut down, thank you for playing, no copy of the home game for me!  Even if my offense didn’t totally shut a learner down, it will impede our ability to communicate honestly because the learner will be in a defensive posture.  Not impossible to get through that as a facilitator, but awfully tough and often requires a long-haul approach; much time investment of time.  I just have to throw in some thoughts about cues in a distance learning model.  I have challenges on a daily basis with being on camera and staying on camera, and I’ve had some issues with plagiarism – a subject where you for sure don’t wanna cross me.  I’m super liberal about grading/due dates/revisions/do-overs and all that, the value for me is in the student doing the work not meeting a deadline, though I clearly understand that value as well.  If I catch you cheating, I will hunt you down like a dog and there will be a price to be paid.  That is the one area on which I’m totally inflexible and aggressive.  I definitely look for cues and clues.  I will gladly spend the extra time to actively research and track down evidence of plagiarism.  Plagiarized submissions are completely free of value in nearly every way and I nip that in the bud swiftly and aggressively.  Then I launch a campaign to understand what led that learner to cheat in the first place.  I then try very actively to reach that learner in a way that I hadn’t previously, to get through for real, to open the door to us being able to teach and learn together.

I’ve created a Pinterest board as requested, but I didn’t see the value of using the board to focus on blended or fully online learning.  Instead I’m interested in curating a resource for parents and teachers alike whether they’re dealing with a hybrid (blended) or virtual (fully online) learning situation.  Here’s the info:
 
Pinterest name: JCGafford
Pinterest board name: JC’s 21st Century Teaching & Learning Board
Pinterest URL: https://www.pinterest.com/jcgafford/jcs-21st-century-teaching-learning-board/
 
Although this Pinterest board is generated as part of an assignment, I’m pretty sure I’m interested in keeping it going beyond the assignment.  I’m an edunerd for sure so I really enjoy thinking and talking about teaching and learning.  This is why I’m very likely going to go ahead and pursue an Ed.D. degree….if I can do it with scholarships!
 
As for curation as a concept, I like it, hey Mikey!  (Sorry…just dated myself there!)  I can for sure recognize the value of curation not only for learners but for teachers as well!  In the case of learners the thing I like best about curation is that students can document and refer back to their learning.  It becomes a permanent artifact that can serve them in future learning.  I ask my students to grade themselves but they have to provide verifiable documentation of their learning.  That documentation can take nearly any form as long as it demonstrates the student’s learning.  A curated Pinterest or one of the other such sites would be a very genuine and effective way to do that documentation!  As far as Teachers are concerned, once they’ve curated a site, they can use it during subsequent quarters/semesters/years thus not having to recreate the wheel as it were.  This frees them up to take on other 21st Century teaching practices.  Also, teachers can curate a space that can be used by students who are struggling as extra instruction to support and foster improvement in understand and thus, greater mastery overall.

​www.dailyo.in/variety/teaching-teacher-training-education-in-india-new-education-policy/story/1/33674.html

Ok, so for real, this article is so in my wheelhouse right now!  Despite the author using 'she' to describe teachers in every instance but one, the points he makes are succinct, on the money, visionary (getting into AI and education!) and so well said.  This guy really gets it!  Bravo to him!  LOVE this article!

​So the tool I looked at was Padlet.  I really love that it affords students the opportunity to respond to a question or prompt confidentially. This will be useful when I’m asking about dramatic structure in a film etc.  Being able to answer confidentially could reduce stress levels experienced by some students when they are expected to participate in class discussions.  Even teach in a drama classroom, I still have students who do not wish to participate in class discussions; they don’t want to be wrong.  I also love that students can respond with an image or a gif.  That frees them to unleash their creativity but also to stay confidential.  You can also ask students to put their initials or id# for assessment tracking as needed.  Padlet is super easy to use, super easy to customize; I work a lot with imagery as well!  In terms of using Padlet in an authentic learning scenario, I think for one thing that multiple users from multiple groups can share results and/or seek feedback from peer students in a way that benefits all students since all students could have access to a Padlet.  In this current distance situation though, I might use it per group so that collaborators can share insights/feedback/ideas/problems real time, but also in a lasting way.  It would allow me as the facilitator to monitor what’s being posted to have an idea how students are progressing through the learning experience.  For example groups could share status or respond to a prompt incrementally throughout the life of the authentic learning activity.  The Padlets could be saved and reviewed again by students at a later date, when a new Padlet could be made to document, reflect upon and ultimately, share their learning!  What Padlet can bring to my practice that is different from I’d otherwise do is the opportunity give feedback in a way that it can benefit more than just themselves.  Normally I’d seek feedback through some sort of written assignment or worksheet or reflective document, but that would typically be only useful for them and myself.  Other students wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of their peer learners.  Again, their ability to make entries with pictures/videos/GIF’s enriches the experience all the more.  Imagery is a very powerful part of 21st Century learners and learning, so Padlet really allows them to be who they are anyway!

Oh ya!  Am I excited about SIG Central and what that's all about.  SO glad I jumped ahead and checked it out. This is gon' be awesome!

​My partner in this week’s blog activity shared some great ideas that once transitioned into Bloom’s Taxonomy and a true MUVE will be excellent and effective! Yum, I’m getting hungry already! My partner spoke of how her partner in last week’s Prezi activity used cooking to facilitate learning experiences for her 3rd grade students. I need to digress for one moment here and share that when I was a fulltime substitute teacher, all grades/all subjects in New York, 3rd grade was always my favorite gig! But now, back to blog at hand. My partner spoke in her MUVE wiki about how her favorite lesson among those she’d taught was one called “Jalapeno Bagels” which had to do with a “delightful story of two cultures coming together” and she shared how one of her students to whom the lesson was given, remembered it many years after and still favored jalapeno bagels. That story is inspiring! It reminds me that we can never really know how our work changes lives and how we should never, ever let ourselves forget that! We change lives every day! How fortunate are we that we can do that? I mean how many people can say that about their day gigs? But, again, I’ve digressed. I think my partner’s proclivity for using cooking to facilitate her student’s learning is strong and easily transferable to a MUVE setting. In Second Life for example, a virtual kitchen could be created and probably already exists. She stated that she would “teach measurement and volume.” I wonder if that could be converted into a discovery process where her students in their virtual Second Life kitchen could explore together to determine what the proper measurements and volumes should be for a given recipe. My partner could be present in the virtual kitchen herself and could offer feedback on student choices in real time. Students could further compare and contrast different ingredients to find just the right ones again with my partner giving feedback. So in short, my partner’s desire for a kitchen in her real life classroom could very effectively come to life in a MUVE setting. That said she referred in her A, B, C wiki that “students would create their own recipes and test them, constructivism at its best.” That feels more to me like constructivism because her students are building something, they’re creating an artifact; a cake or pie. Gees, I guess I’m in the mood for dessert! The constructivism would occur in the virtual kitchen when her students are discussing what measurements and volumes to use, not to mention which ingredients.  ConstructiVism (Vygotsky, verbal). I also noticed my partner shared in her blog post that she believes “our job is to share knowledge.” I would encourage her to consider that perhaps our job is not to “share knowledge” but to facilitate learning. I became a much better educator when I took the burden of knowing everything off my shoulders. When I accepted that it was ok and actually powerful to be a learner along with my students, we became a true coalition of learners. Hmm, maybe that needs to be added to Professional Learning Community and Communities of Practice! I was better for it and so were my students! That setting also puts me and my students on the same level – nobody has an upper hand in learning. That reduces stress across the board and opens the door for a flood of positive and meaningful growth both within the subject matter and as human animals; as part of society.

Reflect about your experience this week with your partner on the Prezi activity. Deconstruct it through the lens of one of the Social Learning Theories we discussed. Get granular! What connections can you make between the theory and your experience? What more could you have done/tried/accomplished had you consciously applied all that the theory afforded before you began?
 
Well, it’s back to NYU and Drama for Special Ed Populations with Professor Granet. This week’s Prezi Collaborative project was a practical walk through the social learning theories but in particular, Constructionism, Constructivism and certainly Activity Theory and Reflection in real time! We were tasked with creating a product, a tangible product in the form of a Prezi presentation about how to use Prezi. What’s more we were asked to approach this in a meta cognitive way.  At first I wasn’t clear about why we are making a Prezi in the grand scheme of things in this class. Now that I’ve begun the reflection process, I get it totally!  Like Professor Granet at NYU, Professor Greene has put us in the place of our students!  Brilliant stuff right there!  Part of our expectations was to communicate with our partners as we progressed through the activity.  In my case, Teresa and I communicated much!  We spent considerable time charting this course, perhaps even too much.  But in the end, I’m proud of our product and I’m proud of how Teresa and I collaborated so effectively. We were constructivist (v for verbal, v for Vygotsky!) in as much as we discussed, very deeply, our presentation before diving in. We also discussed much as we were working together to create the product. We discussed the perspective we’d take, we were able to bring to life a wonderful blend of what she had envisioned and what I had envisioned.  It’s funny, in the moment of doing the project I was definitely feeling tension as most people would when confronting a new technology. That was a very big part of where I was at and it’s in fact behind the theme of our Prezi. I served as the poster child, the one doing the learning of Prezi because Teresa, being a tech TOSA, knew and had used Prezi in the past. But I also experienced a transformation, I am comfortable using Prezi. I think I want to convert some of my existing PowerPoint presentations into Prezi and I’m thinking about using Prezi to make some upcoming presentations that I know I’ll need to make. Thinking about it after the fact, reflecting on it, my own experience with tension and transformation was powerful! I get it – I gained insight into the experience of my learners when I ask them to embrace something new. All in all I believe I absolutely got the learning experience Dr. K had intended and I’ve come away with not only new knowledge about Prezi, but new insights into my learners and how they cope with the learning experiences I design for them. Mission accomplished Dr. K! As for what more I could have done/tried/accomplished had I consciously applied all that the theory afforded before I began, I honestly feel like had I approached this project in that way, it would have diminished my experience.  I engaged with the expectation of the project in an honest way.  Had I approached it with the theories in the forefront, I’d have focused on those and not experiencing what the theories profess. I’d have lost the experience from a student’s point of view which I believe would have lessened the impact of the activity and associated learning on my practice.

The A, B, & C’s of motivation and social learning theory - what do you think are the positive real world applications of the various components of Social Learning Theory for the 21st century teacher? Where are the connections to motivation?
 
I think the most positive real world application of the various components of Social Learning Theory for the 21st century teacher is that literally now the sky is the limit!  The internet makes the entire world available to us and our net gen learners.  This is their time!  While the nature of the teaching we do now is radically changed from how it’s been, from how we were taught, we are able to give our students so much more, so much more meaningful learning experiences than we ever could have before.  For example instead of just telling my students about Noh theatre, they can access videos of Noh performances, Noh theaters and actors.  They can actually be in the orient of old taking part in a traditional Noh evening. They can research the answer to questions they’ve developed in their learning.  They can share their learning experience with peers in real time.  Ya Noh what I mean?  Hehe.  I also think that given that net gen learners seek to learn via hands on and through discovery, that we are now able to facilitate learning experiences that really cater to the nature of our leaners perhaps moreso than ever before.  Instead of lecturing to them, or assigning reading from a tired old text book, we can send them to the internet and ask them to visually represent a concept, or perform something in a given style that interests them or create design choices for a show and actually create a design!  It’s really very exciting when you think about it and how perfect for net gen students!  In terms of motivating them, really the process in and of itself can be a significant motivating factor.  Net gen learners aren’t missing the tired old text books, learning is becoming more dynamic and engaging AND they are more in control of their own learning than has ever happened before.  That alone is a motivating factor, but when you combine that with being able to learn in cohorts, with their friends, even better!  Net gen learners have a level up mentality.  They need to understand where they are so they want feedback and they also know where they want to be and they’re motivated to get there.  I loved when Dr. Brown spoke about his neighbor and his cohort of surfers.  How they’d access the internet to look at new moves, then run down to the water to try them out!  They get and give feedback from the other members of the cohort, then run down and try it again!  What a great example of how 21st Century learning can work and how effective it can be!
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