EDUC 578 Digital Reflection

Rhizomatic Learning

Rhizomatic Learning what is it?

As I listened to Dave Cormier and the Blackboard collaborate EC&I session taken on October 25,2011 it became clearer. Cormier is the manager of web communications and innovations at University of Prince Edward Island and is also part of edtechtalk, an open collaborative webcasting community. his focus is on the structure and why of education. In the collaborate session we spoke towards the concept of Rhizomatic learning: Why do we educate our systems? What is the purpose schools set out for?

The timeline of school system structure initially brought up fits in with Dan Pink's a whole new mind and the right brained society instead of the past industrial society. Cormier stated that

He thinks there are three different outcomes for the education system
- workers,soldiers and nomads metaphors

1. The worker
This was the original goal of public education system.This is about creating a workforce who will show up on time,accept tasks and complete them. School is to create citizens who will understand and obey the system. Very industrial.

2.Soldiers
These people figure out what people need to know. They are defenders of the status quo, experts inside the system on how it works. Good SAT scores, gets you into a good college, etc..

3. Nomad
A nomad is a creative thinker that carves his/her own path.They do not follow status quo but learn things because they need them.

Cormier brings up a great question"Should we be encouraging nomads?
Some of the students of the EC&I class stated: :they frighten me, we can try and encourage it, we will need to prepare them for the hardships of being a nomad. I however think we should encourage nomads with restrictions. As Cormier explains

     Rhizomatic learning comes from rhizomes:japanese weeds that spreads and is difficult to contain and follow.  To promote nomads we need to create restrictions or a garden for these rhizomes so they become structured. As educators I agree with Cormier that we should become gardeners who are "creativity tenders." Allow learning to be a process of inquiry from the student and allow the moments of becoming to happen. Project based learning has started this rhizomatic learning and I can not wait to see what happens in the future.

Paul Ecke Central Visit

On Monday I visited Paul Ecke Central Elementary in Encinitas to see how a classroom is integrating technology. What I observed was astonishing.The lesson observed was taught by Mrs. Perrazini's student teacher about the spaceshuttle. The students scanned a QR code, watched a video, and then wrote a summary of the video, organized by a template on the board, using pages. A screenshot was taken of the completed document and uploaded on the classes science Edmodo page.The iPad allowed children to stay on task, work with others with an educational focus, brought excitement to learning and created what it seemed like to be an intrinsic motivation to do science.This was very unique to me because science can be complex and boring to children. What was nice was that each child has his/her own iPad provided by the school and they felt completely comfortable with it.

Not only do the students use the iPad for science but other subjects as well. IXL is used in math to help differentiate and scaffold instruction for various math levels. This site provides great computation practice and allows students to work on math independently.It also creates a data chart and allows the teacher to see how well or poorly a student is doing on a specific subject. "IXL allows me to become an active learner in my learning process," explained one girl about using this online program and the iPad. Along with independence, the iPad engages students in this class to become better readers. Mrs. Perrazini's class also uses MYon to read from. This program allows the children to pick out books in their Lexile range to read. The cool feature about it was that books can be read in english and spanish and for ELL the books can be read to them. The quote I liked best from one girl in the class about the iPad integration was,"I like the iPAd because I don't have to run out of lined paper or pencils, you never run out of document space." So if iPad is the answer, the question I believe is How can we, as educators, bring material to life and motivate our students to learn? This technology observation opened my eyes to all the pluses of integrating technology, especially the iPad, into the classroom. It is not only a tool for games and surfing the web, but more so to help educate and be a tool for active learning to occur.Students in Mrs. Perrazini's class become experts in their own learning and teach others through their Explain Everything videos. It is not just the teacher instruction but more student centered. :)I ho[pe to integrate more technology into my classroom very soon because I loved what I saw.It seemed very effective,helpful and interesting to the students.

Educational Chat

Today I joined a educational chat for the first time. It happened to be on an aspect of literature called emotional nuance. The chat was called yalitchat and I gained a lot of new knowledge about literature. Although I was not an english major, or even teach literacy, I believe it is still important to be able to know some of the writing techniques writers use in their books. I found the chat to be awkward at first because I was not sure if I should speak my mind or not. however, i started feeling more comfortable with more and more examples from others in the chat and was able to participate a lot, not just be a lurker. I learned a new element of literature and the other twitter users in he chat helped become online residents who have expanded my knowledge depth about literature. Below is a brief storify of the yalitchat.

20 Percent project completion

Over the past few weeks, I have taken an interest of mine,sign language, and started to learn it more in depth. More importantly, some of these words,phrases,numbers and letters may be used in a classroom to help with communication. I have had fun learning sign language and have found it at times difficult. It is not an easy language to learn but I can now say I can speak three languages:English, Spanish and ASL( not fluently though). The Marlee Signs app for my Ipad is what I used mostly. This app became very helpful because it allowed me to see the signs in mini videos in which I could put on slow motion. I also found Pinterest very helpful because it gave me a plethora of resources to look and and help me. The ASL online dictionary provided a way for me to type in any word and see how it is signed. The hardest part about learning sign language was the  the amount of time i spent trying to learn how to sign different words. There are so many different and gestures which altered in the smallest way can mean a whole new word. I also found it awkward at first to video myself because I was not sure which way to face my hand so that the viewer would best be able to see my signs. All in all, learning sign language is very fun and will become useful in my teaching. I have already taught my class the numbers, the sign for drink,bathroom and help me. We use these signs all the time as a way of communicating without being disruptive or calling out. I am planning on continuing to learn more sign language and continue with this new found passion of mine :)I hope you like the videos!

Here is the link to the youtube channel in which I put my videos up on. At the end is my final 20 Percent ASL video.

Youtube Channel