#becomingeducational The Assignments Post

Here in #becomingeducational we have encouraged you to follow this blog to revise the course and gather fresh insights. We have asked you to ‘write to learn’ in your own blogs – and to share those blogs with each other. We have wanted the various blog spaces to encourage learning dialogues between us and you – between you and us - and between you and each other.

Blog it: In this final run in to the end of the course – we want to use this blog rather than emails to answer out-of-class questions about assignments. More importantly – we want you all to start answering each others’ questions rather than relying on us.

You are Becoming Educationalists – and we are becoming obsolescent!

So here are our notes on the report; the logs; the essay… if you want more, we will be covering the writing in class – and you can help each other here in this blog.

The Report

The Report part of your Research Project is where you report your findings – you discuss what the raw data might mean – you draw conclusions as to their relevance to *this* context (for you were analysing an aspect of HE study) – and where applicable you make Recommendation for Practice, that is, suggestions for how to improve the learning for University students, based on your analysis of your research data. This is the formal structure required:

Findings

Discussion

Conclusions

Recommendations for Practice

Bibliography

Tip: stop worrying about this as ACADEMIC WRITING; stop worrying about this as an ASSESSMENT: think about it as having something to SAY to REAL PEOPLE.

Of your RESEARCH PROPOSAL readers would have been asking:

So what are you going to investigate? - INTRODUCTION

Why are you interested in that topic? – BACKGROUND/CONTEXT

What have other academics already discovered about that topic? – LITERATURE REVIEW

How will you carry out your own research? - METHOD

Why have you chosen to carry out the research in that way? - METHOD

Of your RESEARCH REPORT readers will be asking:

So what happened when you conducted your research? What are the key highlights? – FINDINGS

What do your findings mean? – DISCUSSION

What overall conclusions do you draw about University teaching/learning? – CONCLUSION

What should we do differently because of what you have found out? – RECOMMENDATIONS

In a 1000 words – be concise and analytical.

TIPS:

• Talk to other people in the class: what is baffling when we are alone with our worries becomes sensible and do-able when we work with other people!!
• Read and Model: read the free online journal: Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education covers exactly the sort of research that you are doing – and will offer excellent models for how you should write up your work: http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/index.php?journal=jldhe

The Learning Logs

The Learning Logs are worth 30% of the overall mark for the course as a whole – so STOP – THINK: what do you think you will have to do to get those marks? What do you think a great reflective log will have to look like?

Three half pages of notes won’t do it will they?

Show you know

The point of the learning log and the blog is to improve the quantity and quality of your learning by making the learning conscious. You do this by engaging in reflection and what we call meta-cognition: realising what we know – how we know it – and how we might apply it and so forth.

Good reviews should indicate an awareness both of the ‘point’ of a lesson – and the ‘point’ of the review process itself. Reflections should be crisp and clear – but relevant and useful. Some of you have already shown some brilliant, detailed and most important of all ENGAGED blog posts, submit those! For those of you who are less certain about what to do – at the very least your reflections should follow a trajectory like this:

What: what are all the different things that we did this week?

Why: for each activity - WHY did we do that – what was the purpose?

Reaction: how did engaging in those activities make me feel? Why did I react in that way? How can I harness my positive reactions? How can I harness my negative reactions?

Illustration: how would I illustrate this week’s learning to make it more memorable?

Learned: what have I learned or gained or become aware of – through ALL of the different activities that we did? How might I apply this learning in my practice now as a student? How might I apply this in the future in my professional practice as an educationalist?

Next steps: what reading, writing or other follow up activities will I do in the light of al these reflections? Then – evidence that you did do some of that follow up work…

Appendices: given that you will be submitting three pertinent log/blog extracts for assessment, add Appendices – where you demonstrate the application of the learning and the follow up activities that you did.

Tips: Appendices might contain notes of further reading that you did, pictures of further collages that you made, links to artefacts that you produced to illustrate your learning, short free write extracts …

The Essay

We have covered the essay generally and this essay in particular over several weeks already – check out http://becomingeducational.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/w22-becomingeducational-the-essay-our-essay/

Things to think about:

What is an educationalist? What is an inspiring and empowering educationalist? What sort of educationalist do you want to become?

Why have we designed the module the way that we did? Think about the module contents – and also the teaching and learning style – the different things we have wanted you to think about and do… the ways that we have wanted to you to act and interact… What was the point of all that?

Tip: Check out our Conference presentation – delivered in class in W26 – and delivered at the ALDinHE Conference over Easter – MOST IMPORTANTLY read our summary of how Etienne Wenger-Trayner describes education as becoming: http://lastrefugelmu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aldinhe-conference-2014-learning.html

What THREE things are you going to write about?

• Did you enjoy the interactivity – all those discussions and presentations?
• The research project – from participant observation to digital artefact?
• What about the Developing Digital Me project – where we asked you to engage in #ds106 or a MOOC as part of your ‘reading’?
• Were you engaged by the Visual practices (collage, drawing, illustrated notes) or the  role playing and simulation or that we wanted students in charge (peer mentoring, conference workshop, student workshops)?
• Were you surprised by the free writing or the topic mediated dialogue?
• Was the Music or the Dance workshop the thing that made a difference?
• Was there anything that you thought was interesting – or well designed – or powerful – or effective…?

Tips: Do not DESCRIBE, ANALYSE; refer to the LITERATURE to justify your arguments; think about these questions: what was the point of that? Did it work? How and why did it work? How might you use yourself in the future?   

Help each other

From now on, we really do not want to be answering individual email queries about the assignments. We have designed all the assignments to promote active learning – they are assessment as and for learning – not just of learning (though do enjoy the opportunity to show what you have learned). We will be covering the assignments as part of our active learning in class over the last few weeks of the course.

BUT – if you have queries, comments, suggestions and examples – POST THEM HERE – so that your class mates could answer – and so that if we answer, that answer is going to every body in the class and not just one person!

All the best – enjoy these last few weeks – and enjoy helping each other in class and here in cyber space.

#artmooc week 2: Fantastic Art... and the classroom

This week we explored Fantastic Art – Bosch, Rousseau, Chagall, Chirico, Man Ray, Duchamp, Arp, Ernst, Miro and Dali. After reading about them and observing videos upon them (this is more of an xMOOC (content-driven) than a cMOOC (connectivist)), we had to choose a topic and an influence and produce an art work of our own. We had to justify our process and our product – and the intended impact upon our audience. I chose to produce a collage – channelling the unconscious to see what would appear. Here's my picture-making - and then some thoughts on how we might use this in teaching. 

My picture-making process:

My approach was to weave the Surreal and the DaDa together – to explore a deep emotion through chance and a lack of control – to create a picture with rhythm perhaps – but not in a controlled way.

I drew on the Surreal because I wanted to channel the unconscious – I wanted to see what would emerge when I explored a deep emotion, when I let my unconscious out.

I chimed with DaDa because of the destructiveness and chaos of their art; their reaction to the World War. There could be no beauty in a time of such horror – no controlled and controlling art to soothe the senses - for this would be a lie. Their anti-art was designed to confound and challenge the immensity of total war. I wanted to explore the immensity of betrayal; when it happens this is a personal atrocity. I was heavily influenced by Miro and the automatic – the sense of bringing forth deep emotion to see how it would look when it revealed itself. I wanted to harness something like Arp’s approach to collage – that if you do not control the process too much, the picture will reveal itself. Like Duchamp, I wanted to ‘find’ the picture in the newspapers that I chose randomly – and the random words and pictures that I cut out. And like the Hannah Hoch example we saw, I was using dull newspaper and newsprint, not the shiny glamorous material that is the magazine picture. This was partly because the newspaper was to hand – and mostly to reject the shiny shiny happy of magazine paper.

The pictures below show final draft - first draft - sketching the first draft - building on to plywood - adding paint details... 

 How we might use in practice:

# 3: We can model reflection to develop voice and power

How many times have you seen a reflective assignment – and how many times do you see students not energised but deadened by the process? With our task – we had to reflect on what we had learned – apply that to a new challenge – and then we had to discuss what we had done and why. This seems a more challenging way to tackle reflection. Specifically we had to consider:

1.  Explain your process (medium and technique).  How was it made?  Which art materials and approaches did you use and why?

2.  Describe the idea behind your artwork.  What story or message does it get across?  What does it mean to you?

3.  Why did you create it?  What are your reasons for creating that specific art piece?  What do you want your audience to feel and think while observing it?

Even as I copy and paste these instructions here, I think you can see how applicable they can be to an academic context. How different these words are to the implicit instructions behind so many of our assignments: shut up, I’m not interested in what you have to say or in what you think and feel. I want to know whether you have understood the importance of what I have told you – and whether you can cough it back up to me in a way that shows me you are a good and proper student.

I love that these #artmooc instructions assume that the student has something to say – and that they can engage with theoretical ideas and concepts – and be trusted to bring all this together in a meaningful task. I definitely want to use instructions like these in my teaching in future – something like:

‘Okay – we’ve looked at [insert ideas theories or concepts relevant to your subject] – now design an art work or teaching/learning resource to bring one or all of these concepts alive to another group of people:

1.  Explain your art or teaching/learning process.  How was the resource made?  Which activities, materials and approaches did you use and why?

2.  Describe the idea behind your resource.  What story or message does it get across?  What does it mean to you?

3.  Why did you create it?  What are your reasons for creating that specific resource?  What do you want your audience to feel and think while observing it or engaging with it?’

Here the student is both in the task and over the task – their voice is heard – not in empty reflective gestures – but in a way that invites them to powerfully engage.

If not art – think poetry and prose

In a recent Jiscmail exchange (www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ldhen) I was talking about an early exercise I used to do with students to introduce them to academia – its processes, practices and genres. Each week we would read and analyse poetry and prose – interesting and engaging poetry and prose (!) – and then I would ask them to write about something that they wanted to write about – using the genre or style that we had just explored. At the end of the course, I collected and published their work.

We modelled good academic practice as we discussed, criticised and argued our case - and each time they wrote they mastered a new genre – as later they would have to master the essay, report and presentation. But most importantly, they were interested and engaged – and when they wrote, I respected that they would have something of value to say. 

#4: Use collage

I found the production of my own collage intensely absorbing – it was hard work – but oh was I engaged with it. When I wrote the reflection I managed to tease out many more ideas – and to craft an argument together about what I had done and why. More reflection on the piece that I had produced, generated further insights… and this really was writing to learn. I am looking forward to bringing collage into my practice. A colleague and friend, Pauline Ridley, recommends the use of collage to get students more engaged with potential dissertations and projects – see her website for many ways to get the visual into teaching and learning: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/visuallearning/.

With project planning, she suggests that we get resources and students together – and invite them to channel their feelings about a course as they create their collages. Once they have produced the collage – they can step back and analyse it – and choose an engaging topic to explore – instead of researching something because it vaguely seems like a good idea.

I also want to use collage to give students more power and control over their learning. My plan is to insert a collage day about week six of a long course. At the beginning of the course I will herald this as a day of fun and excitement – and ask students to prepare for it by cutting words and pictures out of newspapers and magazines. On the day itself, I might divide the class in two – one half to use the words and pictures to reflect back on the learning that has already occurred – to summarise this highlighting the ideas, theories and concepts of most interest and significance to them. The other half could be invited to refer to their Handbooks and speculate on the learning to come – or to think about the learning that had occurred and how it can be used in the assignment. 

I am exploring here – so this will evolve before the session itself... Meanwhile some resources and tips for those who want to try this for themselves.

Collage resources

White glue & glue spreaders

Words and pictures cut from newspapers and magazines

Scissors

Card or large paper

Possibly acrylic paint or ink to add detail

Paint brushes – large, small and minuscule

Rollers

Cloths

Approaches

My approach was to weave the Surreal and the Da Da together – to explore an idea through chance and a lack of control – to create a picture with rhythm perhaps – but not in a controlled way.

I would suggest that you introduce notions of the Surreal – allow students to see what emerges when conscious control is let go. Show some images from Chagall, Arps, Duchamp and Miro to loosen them up. Students may not be aware of all they are engaging with and learning and the complexity of the whole University experience; Surreal collage allows some of this out for further consideration.

Possibly introduce elements of DaDa. Dadaism was a reaction to the destructiveness of World War. There could be no beauty in a time of such horror – no controlled and controlling art to soothe the senses Their anti-art was designed to confound and challenge the immensity of total war. Students may be reacting against academia and its control – and may need to explore that.

Random poetry generator

On the way to making my collage I became fascinated by the words that I cut out from the newspaper and put them in a clear plastic folder to see what you could read from them when they moved about kaleidoscopically within the bag. You could get your students to do the same to see how this sparks thoughts about the course and their learning to harness when producing their collages.

Tips

I did not over-think the laying out of the pieces – I sat down and very quickly chose pictures from my collection of small to medium pictures and lay them together, initially on a towel on the floor. I moved them till they looked good. I picked small pictures that I liked and placed them …

When the first rush was over – I saw that I needed some framing pieces. I got my large pictures and squeezed some under the top of the picture; some I cut up and used to frame the bottom.

I sketched this rough draft to get a sense of the overall shape and placing of pictures – but I was not going to stick to it rigidly – if different placings emerged as I made the next draft – then that would be okay.

I then started trimming the newspaper pictures and placing them on plywood (I did not have paper or card large enough) …spreading the glue and placing the pictures – sometimes rolling them flat – sometimes padding them flat.

Encourage this process in your students – allow it to be fun. Encourage them to be absorbed and work in silence if that suits them - or encourage them to explain what they were doing, the pictures they had chosen and why… as they are gluing the final pieces down.

When the students have finished producing their collages, they can present them to the class – using the reflective questions if you wish:

Describe the idea behind your artwork.  What story or message does it get across?  What does it mean to you?

Why did you create it?  What are your reasons for creating that specific art piece?  What do you want your audience to feel and think while observing it?

But notice

What might have happened as they produced their works, is that conversations about the course were taking place. The collaborative process here provides an hermeneutic or reflective space in which learning can happen – within themselves and between each other. At the end of the session not only have you modelled interactive and connectivist and collaborative learning – and good notemaking – and positive reflection … you should have some wonderful pictures to put up – or to photograph and place in your VLE – and your students should have a new energy and enthusiasm about each other – and about the course itself.

Your turn...

Write, share re-write

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some of the short writing tasks that we have built into our modules – including into seminar time – in order to promote ‘write to learn’ approaches at our university. Recently I asked a colleague from Plymouth to share some of the activities that she has used in her brilliant and engaging conference workshops (ALDinHE and WDHE). She has graciously shared them with me – and I am sharing them with you:

“Like a good magpie, most of the ideas are of course stolen gems, based mostly on the work of Bronwyn Davies (her book Doing Collective Biography is really practical and inspiring), and Jane Speedy's collaborative writing toolbox which she is currently developing for ESCalate.

Basically, the point is to write and share and then rewrite.

Imposing limits seems to focus the writing better, and some of the tricks are to insist that the participants write in sentences of no more than three words, or write( their life?) in no more (and no less than) 50 words.

Alternatively they can be asked to write a short piece (in a set time) around a particular theme (ie mis/recognition, fear, school, etc.) with the express aim of attempting to capture and evoke (in an embodied sense) a particular moment in time.

The emphasis in this kind of workshop is not just on the writing, but also on the audience. Therefore the listeners should be aware that they have a responsibility to critique and comment (positively) on the writing with the aim of helping the writer edit out all superfluous information. Bronwyn maintains that even if you are listening intently, your mind will begin to wander the minute the writing rings untrue or irrelevant. This is the moment when the writer needs to be made aware that they have 'lost' their audience.

I have to say, the writing I produced in her workshop was the most intense and emotionally dense I have ever done… “

Write to learn, weekly writing tasks +/- VLEs

Someone on the LDHEN jiscmail just asked about short tasks for putting in our VLEs that are designed to promote student learning. Personally I am not keen on multiple choice or drag and drop tests. I think they lead to convergent thinking and the notion that there Is, ONE right answer to every problem... and so forth (do see Ken Robinson's animated talk: Education - a paradigm shift:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U).


To promote active learning with 'my' students, I've become increasingly keen on short weekly writing exercises that can happen either live in class - or be given as an on-line task that is set and submitted via the VLE. These can be semi-structured, along the lines of: 'Summarise what you have learned from today's session and discuss how you will make use of that in your final assignment...' to really quite shaped and formulated writing exercises. If anyone in the blogoshphere is interested, I can send you a module seminar handbook that has a range of different weekly writing tasks that we used with a second year group - though this formulation tends to work at every level.

We found that students who participated in the tasks got the best marks they'd ever received for their final pieces of academic writing, that they felt they had more knowledge about the course content, that they'd felt able to be more creative on the course - and that they finally understood why they were reading.

If doing this with small groups, it would be possible to give feedback on the writing submitted. With larger groups some form of peer review could be facilitated...

To increase participation, you always have the option to incentivise by awarding marks for submission (1 mark per submission up to a maximum of ten, say) - or even allowing the submission of a revised formulation of the written submissions as a patchwork text for the final assignment.