SHOULD EVERY STUDENT HAVE AN ONLINE PORTFOLIO?

In my professional context, I often work with youth who are making the transition from school to work.  I find portfolios are a powerful tool for building in competency awareness.  Portfolios are also wonderful, tangible products that can help others to see the value in a student for a job or work placement.  Even more importantly, the portfolio development process cultivates self confidence and preparedness for speaking positively about one's self.

I was reading an article in the Huffington Post about the many different online portfolios.  I took a course in my undergrad in Portfolio writing and I put it into an electronic format which, at the time, was a novel idea.  (No age comments, please!)

There are so many formats now, Huffington post mentioned:

Google Drive Portfolio
Linked In
Educlipper
Three Ring
Pathbrite
See Saw
Exibi
Go Ennounce

Has anyone used any of these before with success?  

Do you are with the article that argued that everyone student should have an online portfolio?

Now, the historical perspective... 

What have been the key student privacy issues that have shaped modern educational policy?  Why?

SOURCE:
Van Ark, T. (2016).  Every student should have an online portfolio.  Huffington Post.  

DEFINING LEARNING: WE'RE LEARNED SO MUCH SO FAR!

I'm adding my final mind-map just to be complete.
Why is defining teaching was more difficult than defining learning?

In my own learning, I  have  noticed that I often struggle the most when trying to define something I know very well.  It is like all the thoughts in my head are getting tangled up as my mind runs off in a million directions.  Yet when I have something that I have a lesser body of knowledge, I don't find my self so frozen.

Complexity is like one question door that leads to another, then another.

Does anyone have a theory on the reason why?

More importantly, any mental strategies that help with not getting bogged own in detail?

DEFINING TEACHING: TEACHER APPROVED IDEAS!

Ok.  This seriously gets harder and harder....
Again, using the same process, I set out to get the key ideas in a dashboard from which I could then zero in on the ideas missing from my definition.

I couldn't help but notice the many comments made by my fellow students about how difficult it was to articulate.  It seems the more entrenched one becomes in an activity, the harder it is to take a surface approach.  No surprise, but comforting to know that we all struggle to describe our life's work, our daily joys and struggles.... maybe even our obsession with the continuous improvement in the art an science of teaching.

Beyond the searching for the impossible- an all-encompassing definition, we settle for inspired ideas that contribute to better understanding and practical .  After all... that is what teaching is about- why shouldn't we allow ourselves that?

So, a new definition jumped off the page and onto the paper.

TEACHING IS....
A continuous improvement cycle of purpose-driven, holistic and culturally relevant collaboration or exchange, built on human relationship factors, to engage motivation, attention and goal setting in order to extract knowledge, skill or other value from a “hands on” and/or “minds on” experience or opportunity.

DEFINING CREATIVITY.... WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!

Creativity.  We all know what it is.  We all have our own brand.   We know this.... and yet, why so hard to define?

Maybe because there are so many important factors to creativity.  How it's made, where it comes from, what it produces.   It was all very jumbled and confusing, but using the same process as I did for innovation (see last post), I was able to note themes I had neglected, ideas not fully explored until reading my fellow students' posts.  There are some brilliant minds in this GDPI811 and, of course, I am mining their golden ideas!!!!

The final verdict?

CREATIVITY IS....

Creativity:

A complex neurological change in brain activity that engages diffused imagination and leads to a highly personal experience, often propelled by intrinsic motivation, that is untethered to certainty, expectation, limitations and feelings of risk to result in a product, process or perspective that is unique and worthy of non-judgmental consideration.

INNOVATION DEFINITION- NEW AND IMPROVED THANKS TO CLASSMATES!

This was my process for learning from other students in my class.
I was surprised and amazing by the breadth and depth of ideas that came forward from the same base question- What is the definition of Innovation.

 After reading and considering each post, I jotted down idea that wasn't included (or fully explored) in my own definition.  This strategy stopped me from the going into the task of "word-smithing" to a deeper level discovery:  what are the important elements of innovation?  Then, after seeing all the ideas, I was able to pull out those ideas that I felt were the most important- the essential ingredients of innovation so that I could then weave the ideas into a definition.

My definition was still crazy-long, but at least at the end, I felt it was complete (see below).

My final product... a more thorough definition of innovation... thank you fellow students for getting game there!

Innovation:

Ideas, of either good or evil origin, that are conceived of need, reconsidered, adapted, further developed or intersected with other ideas so they can be applied as a solution to a pervasive problem, issue or concern.

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN: A SUGGESTED RESOURCE

This resource is one I wish to explore, shared by

Sherry Pielsticker Wedig of GDPI811.

Thanks, Sherry for your personal favs!!!!

Oakley, Barbara, Dr, and Terrence Sejnowski, Dr. "Learning How to Learn"  

Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects."

    https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/info,

    Coursera, www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/lecture/9miFQ/

    no-need-for-genius-envy. Accessed 22 Jan. 2017.

HEY... TEACH.... WHAT'S YOUR FAV RESOURCE?

Confession of a GDPI student...

I thought I would have significant difficulty getting into the PME or GDPI program because I don't have a teaching undergrad degree.  I mean, I teach, but it is not in the traditional sense of having a class and delivering curriculum.  I teach through career planning and job search classes and work placements.  In this way, I consider my closest example to align with the traditional co-op teacher.
But, I build the bridge while I am walking on it.  Note the theme of my entire life!

This brings me to an important poll question.

If I had the best of the best teachers as mentors, I would most want to ask them which books, articles, training or concepts most influenced them to be great.  I have a great deal of respect for my fellow students, who are clearly thoughtful and effective educators, so I put this shout out:

What is the one essential resource or tool that has been the greatest influence to you as an educator?

SIMPLE DEFINITIONS- MADE COMPLICATED BY THINKING!

This week's assignment was to research, then define four well used words:

• Learning
• Teaching
• Creativity
• Innovation

Easy-peasy, right?  Wrong!  

When you start drilling down to how steeped in meaning these words are, it is very difficult to then narrow down the thoughts into a short explanation.

It is also interesting to me how much the lens through which you look matters.  For example, learning can mean something very different in the animal kingdom, versus learning in humans.  Or the fact that innovation in looks very different in engineering than it does in accounting.  I also find it fascinating how liberally the idea sharing, or borrowing as some would call it, from one industry to another can inspire innovation and creative though.

As usual, one question door leads to another and leaves me wondering.....

To what extent is creativity an essential skill in the modern world?

What historical benchmarks have their been in terms of the teaching innovation timeline?

What does history tell, or predict, for the future of innovation in teaching?

GDPI 811-MODULE 5: MY INQUIRY

I was really wrestling over which inquiry I should explore in this course, when I came to a moment of clarity in one of my readings.  This thought lead me to a professional inquiry that is topical in my professional life.

THE QUESTION:

What innovations and adaptations to traditional delivery methods will be helpful for Career Educators to use in helping students to navigate career development, despite the presence of current economic and labour market uncertainty?

The reading was from:

• Mueller, J.S., Melwai, S., & Goncalo, J.A. (2012). The bias against creativity: Why people desire but reject creative ideas. Psychological Science, 23(1), 13–17. doi: 10.1177/0956797611421018

What I realized is that I see apathy in my students as they attempt to plan careers and engage in employment and yet they are full of potential.  They have novel ideas and often an abundance of creativity, but fail to put them into practical application beyond the classroom and into the real world.  And so, they live in the status quo.  But why?  It doesn't make sense.

In this reading it became clear.  There is too much uncertainty.  Even for those who value creativity, they won't apply it because their need to reduce uncertainty is blocking them from seeing, let alone from exploring, creative solutions.   I believe that the apathy, particularly in today's youth, stems from the overwhelming uncertainty that they face.

Consult the "Magic 8-Ball" and it gives the same response, repeatedly:

Will I get a job if I go to university....it is uncertain

Will the job I want allow me to have the lifestyle I wish.... it is uncertain

Will my career be obsolete in the next decade... it is uncertain

Are there interests that I have that could point in the right direction... it is uncertain

I plan to look into this, as well as the questions of my classmates, in order to have a greater sense of certainty that my efforts in helping others with career development will incorporate useful historical and philosophical perspectives.

MY BELOVED TED TALKS ARE LIES? WHHHHAAAAT?

• Frank, T. (2013, October 13). Ted talks are lying to you. Salon. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com

What is the article about?
This was a punchy, entertaining rant about how modern creativity isn't really creative at all.  Instead it is self-congratulatory crap that has been validated by experts, perhaps looking at from the perspective of a different industry, who has the managerial clout to declare it as "creative".

What I want to remember:

My take away points are best summed up in the direct quotations below of the final two paragraphs:

“Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” (1996), in which Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi acknowledges that, far from being an act of individual inspiration, what we call creativity is simply an expression of professional consensus. Using Vincent van Gogh as an example, the author declares that the artist’s “creativity came into being when a sufficient number of art experts felt that his paintings had something important to contribute to the domain of art.” Innovation, that is, exists only when the correctly credentialed hivemind agrees that it does. And “without such a response,” the author continues, “van Gogh would have remained what he was, a disturbed man who painted strange canvases.” What determines “creativity,” in other words, is the very faction it’s supposedly rebelling against: established expertise.

"Consider, then, the narrative daisy chain that makes up the literature of creativity. It is the story of brilliant people, often in the arts or humanities, who are studied by other brilliant people, often in the sciences, finance, or marketing. The readership is made up of us — members of the professional-managerial class — each of whom harbors a powerful suspicion that he or she is pretty brilliant as well. What your correspondent realized, relaxing there in his tub one day, was that the real subject of this literature was the professional-managerial audience itself, whose members hear clear, sweet reason when they listen to NPR and think they’re in the presence of something profound when they watch some billionaire give a TED talk. And what this complacent literature purrs into their ears is that creativity is their property, their competitive advantage, their class virtue. Creativity is what they bring to the national economic effort, these books reassure them — and it’s also the benevolent doctrine under which they rightly rule the world" (Frank).

Ironically, this doesn't really offer solutions to the creativity deficit, except what to stop doing.

CREATIVITY AND UNCERTAINTY

• Mueller, J.S., Melwai, S., & Goncalo, J.A. (2012). The bias against creativity: Why people desire but reject creative ideas. Psychological Science, 23(1), 13–17. doi: 10.1177/0956797611421018

If I had to explain this article to a friend, I would say....

This article was about two experiments that explored novelty versus practicality

Experiment 1 

-included implicit and explicit test of attitudes that had bias against creativity, using response that were timed to measure certainty.  Pairings of words were used to identify bias toward practicality or creativity.

Experiment 2:  

-measured tolerance for uncertainty

Outcome:

-people hold ambivalence attitudes about creativity unless they was motivation to reduce uncertainty by creating a practical, single best option

-showed that uncertainty limited the ability to recognize creative ideas- referred to as a deep irony... the high need for certainty is when creativity is needed most 

Things I want to remember:

*Definition of creative ideas- ideas that are novel and useful

*Definition of uncertainty- an aversive state that people feel as strong motivation to diminish and avoid

*The reason that creativity was explicitly valued by often rejected is that people want to reduce or avoid uncertainty.  

*The greater the need for certainty, the more bias, whether it was a personal trait or circumstance of the person.  

*Uncertainty creates a blinding effect toward creativity.  In uncertainty, how can we see creativity?

*The deep irony... in times of uncertainty, is the time when creativity is most!!!!!!

CREATIVITY

• Hennessey, B.A., & Amabile, T.M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 569 – 598. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100416

In my own words:

Two experiments were compared.  Creativity was measured on collages.  Technical skills were evaluated differently than creativity.   Participants were asked about reactions like motivation.  

First, had participants work in small groups, the others worked alone. 

Second, had participants who were being watched, which lead to thoughts that they were being evaluated.  

Outcome: Working in groups had no effect, surveillance had a negative effect and those expecting evaluation had negative effects.

Ideas I would like to remember:

This scientific study supports:

*Simple (algorithmic) tasks were better performed with others- increasing speed and accuracy.  

*Interest/enjoyment produced more creative outcome

*Complex tasks were performed better alone when they had the freedom to take risks and explore new cognitive pathways without directly related to solution mentality 

GDPI811: WEEK 2

GDPI811- Week 2:  Reading Week

This week my task seems simple enough:

Do 2 of the required readings and;

Post a question:

**Identify questions relating to your now professional context of personal interest or that you would like to probe in depth.

The readings are easy.  It is just about applying focus, time and effort.  

The question is not as easy and has me thinking about my thoughts and attitudes about learning.  It think that curiosity was not something I used to value because I felt that professors and teachers knew what was important for me to learn on my journey.  I think that is why I used to jump in the backseat and engage in the thought process of others, rather than my own.  

I am connecting the dots of learning that our natural curiosity stimulates the intrinsic motivation we need to innovate and so I am approaching this task differently than I might have, before I began GDPI.  Allowing my curiosity to take the wheel.  Hang on... this is going to be an interesting ride.

GDPI811- THE WORLD OF INNOVATION!

GDPI811

First week of the course was off to a flying start!
Introductions in the course makes me feel like I have a network of future friends all over the world.
I wonder if any have sofas in need of overnight guests... I am suddenly feeling the urge to travel!

CLOUD APPLICATIONS

After trying some cloud applications, I have found that the clouds don't recognize the Powerpoint format OR they appear to load, do so for a few hours then say the file is too big.

Hmmmm...

PART 2 OF 2

Not Yet..... but getting closer?

Through my trouble shooting efforts, I have found that you can reduce the size of a file by turning it into a movie.  So, after playing the 90 minute video to include narrations, I started to upload it and found the file was still quite big.  So, I split it into two parts for posting.

Then I discovered that the movie did not maintain the audio as my research said it would.

Back to the drawing board.

Now, it's personal- lol!

MY FINAL PROJECT

I am sorry to have to delay the process of uploading my final project.

Because it is in PowerPoint format, rather than video format, I cannot upload to this blog.

As identified in my Next Steps part of the course reflection, I will be able to overcome this snag by having the presentation in a different format.

REFLECTIONS ON SRL DURING PROFESSIONAL INQUIRY

SRL Learning Outcomes From Professional Inquiry:

Giving and Receiving Feedback:

The rubric presented earlier in the course pointed out to me two learning blind-spot, of which I was previously unaware: Collaboration and Feedback.  Perhaps these SRL techniques have been neglected as I have developed other SRL strengths like self motivation and self control, as a result of learning experience in years of distance learning. 

I brought these areas for development into my SRL project so that I could explore the potential benefits as part of my inquiry.   In planning and implementing my SRL project, I came to realize that the deepest learning came from the critique from my colleagues at work, who agreed to assist me with my project by providing constructive feedback.  Through the collaboration with these learning partners, I was able to widen view beyond the limits of my own self-focus and the project became a better process and product because of their questions and ideas about the professional inquiry topic.

Most Challenging Aspects of the Professional Inquiry:

Looking back over my blog was helpful in taking me back to challenges I had experienced in my professional inquiry.  The images and words I chose revealled that juggling learning from the course, the process of developing the blog and managing the workload of the distal goal of creating a workshop for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, was my greatest challenge. 

In the midst of this chaos, I experienced  a high service peak at work and a bout of strep throat for my daughters, then later for me.  Managing balance of life, work and study did threaten my usual self-efficacy for the task at times during this course.  I think the only thing that saved me from not achieving my professional inquiry goal was my SRL strategy of self motivation promoting and early start of sub-goals.   This, along with abandoning perfectionism was the key to my completion of my project within the required timeframe.

Learning Transfer Beyond the Course:

I didn’t expect that there would be so many common concepts between my professional inquiry and SRL and so the learning transfer cross-pollinated across both SRL and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.   Some of the common ideas that I hav noticed, and therefor allow for deeper learning transfer beyond the course are:

·      Best results come from engaging the individual’s motivation at a deep and personal level

·      Goal setting and visualization of a preferred outcome can direct the client’s behaviour to support the learning goal

·      Building on strengths to create the self-efficacy to address areas of need

·      Questions, in the form of collaboration and feedback can support positive steps toward change

Next Steps:

In consultation with my Manager, it was thought that PowerPoint was the ideal form of the project, so that it could be shared with others easily.  While it is true that the ease of sharing of the project is in the current form, I am not satisfied that PowerPoint allowed for the workshop to be as easily shared as if it was in YouTube or Prezi format.  My colleagues and I will take this discussion further, as we have, together, developed a new distal goal of sharing this workshop with the our Ontario College Employment Sector network throughout the province.  In doing so, we will be able to share the research I completed with hundreds of counsellors, rather than our staff group of 15 people in a free, completely accessible workshop format.  I don’t know that I would have considered doing so without the encouragement and vision from my collaboration with my trusted colleagues.  It also made the process so much more fun and rewarding!

Well, I spent most of my weekend working on my powerpoint for my professional inquiry and it is finally completed.  I had no idea how difficult it is to add audio messages so that the workshop can be presented without requiring a presenter to be in the same room.

After takes and retakes of my verbal messages, I now have a product that is worthy of submitting for the project.  I will be meeting this week with two of my colleagues who will be providing me feedback and suggestions for changes that I hope will make it even better for my intended audience.

I was talking about this professional inquiry with the leader of my division, and I think it can be used to provide a free training option for other agencies like mine in our network.  More editing will be required to make it less academic in focus, and more user friendly, but I think that it is a very good start and I learned so much in completing of the project about the subject of SFBT.  

They say that if you want to learn something yourself you sound try and explain it (teach it) to someone else.   This is so true in the case of this project.

REFLECTIONS ON FINAL PROJECT

My final project is now well underway and I am ready to start building my PowerPoint presentation.  The research materials have been outstanding and I find myself wanting to read and research more and more, but I am beginning to feel a sense of urgency to get beyond the cognitive stage of thinking about my chosen subject (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy) and on the more behavioural tasks of mapping out timelines and getting the ideas into the proper format.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I can tend to get stuck in perfectionistic design mode and I find myself struggling with this again.  Before, it was about building a blog that had the right look and structure and now again with PowerPoint.  Sometimes I wish someone would tell me, with grand authority, that I must use "this presentation theme only", so that I could better accept the choice and move on to working with what I have got.  Since that isn't going to happen, I think I am going to have to set a time limit for myself, and the best option during that time is the winner.  I am aware that self adjustment and correction are good SRL strategies, but so are setting timelines for the overarching goals.

I mentioned in a discussion in D2L earlier, that I am beginning to see SRL themes jumping out at me in everyday life.  In D2L, I used the example of my FitBit dashboard, which is helping me to learn about healthy lifestyles.   I know that deeper learning has occurred when what I notice and how I think about issues, problems and solutions are effected by what I am studying.  I am glad that SRL is such a practical and impactful study subject that I can use beyond the classroom and into my everyday life.  Life is learning.

Juggling Priorities

Module 4 is definitely proving to be the most challenging workload yet.  The kids have come down with the flu and work is at the highest peak of the year.  Yikes!

I definitely can not wing it.  I need a plan to be able to accomplish all of the goals for meeting in a small group, researching tracking and eval methods and doing the reflection on the project.

Once I have the group meeting, I can map out the rest of the work for the weekend.
I think the challenge would be to get the project laid out in terms of structure of the information first, then decide on citations and use of clips.  I have to remember to work within the time I have in order to ensure the project is not left incomplete.  Perhaps I will have to provide more of an overview and go into less depth.  I will see how the compiling of the research goes this weekend.

Scholarly Articles and YouTube Video Research NOW COMPLETE!

Over the past few days I have completed my research including:

Burtwell, R., & Chen, C. P. (2006). Applying the principles and techniques of solution-focused therapy to career counselling. (U. o. Toronto, Ed.) Counselling Psychology Quarterly , 19 (2), 189-203.

as well as all of the YouTube videos.

What I want to remember:

• This article mentioned "excavating" and digging into the client's past as unnecessary in the process of SFBT.  This gave me the idea for the presentation to be based on an analogy of building a structure... the building plans, the foundation, corner stones, building blocks etc.