The past few weeks we, Jenn, Jodi and I, lead our cohort group in a discussion based reflection of the the instructional values we derived at the beginning of the program. As we are nearing the end of the program it was an opportune time to connect our values to our experiences, studies and designs. With each value we challenged cohort members to share how they designed learning environments that demonstrated that particular value. The discussions involved reflection and synthesis of our learnings over the past two years.
As I reflected on our instructional values I was struck by the fact that all the values we discussed fall naturally in place if we keep the learner at the center of our instruction. By keeping the learner at the center we will analyze (via dialog, shadowing, surveying…) where are learners in their current understanding of a topic. What is their need for what is being learned? In what context have they experienced this (topic) before? What analogous contexts or situations might apply to the learner? How will the learner be active in the learning process? What are the social needs of the learner? It seems simple when looking at instruction this way. I know reality intrudes. We can all get side tracked on “the project,” or “the assessment.” But, as a unifying and guiding principle keeping the learner at the center of any instructional design is grounding. It keeps your focus on what really matters; the learners and learner outcomes, learners able to move from their own experiences, to grow in their understanding and development.
There were some well thought out contributions from our cohort group. I appreciate the individuals who shared how they connect their values into their practice.
Design and Implementation Thoughts:
I wish we had Joni’s blog post (A three prong approach to discussion for online learning) before we designed the project. If we had included a final short reflection post it would have increased the purposefulness of the discussions and provided another opportunity to make the reflective process “stick.” I also came to a greater appreciation of VoiceThread (VT)as a tool. I love the video and audio components. They add a lot in an eLearning environment. VT makes it very easy to integrate audio and video commenting. I noticed that almost all classmates posted written comments (not voice or video), this despite our modeling each commenting format available on each VT. I wondered if cohorts used text because we are accustomed to text only in ecollege, or if it was because text is easier to edit?
My final thought…what great teammates I had in Jodi and Jenn. I hope our own learning discussions can continue.