The difference a day can make...

The deadline to post our 'aha's', our culminating thoughts and what we're taking away from the experience was Friday. Exhausted by Thursday night from more goings on than I can even share, my premature snoozing at the keyboard forced me to call it a night before my thoughts were in a blog format. Up at 5AM to see the family off on another college campus visit adventure, I added my favorite coffee blends to the filter creating the perfect brewing aroma while I began to tell all in my blog.

By the time I finished my second cup of java, I'd synthesized thoughts on blog related to significant points during the past twelve week learning experience. I felt good about my accomplishments and my enlightened perspective. What I didn't realized was that the next day was when I would have even more significant learning experiences and want to revisit this very blog to capture the additional impacts of this learning. So needless to say, I'll add a few more thoughts on some learning take-aways from the past twelve weeks.

Ability to Generalize

This is with regard to the big picture and not only as a result of this class but rather of all the course work completed during the past few years. As I made the familiar Saturday morning drive from home to school, engaged in a soliloquise type conversations with myself, above my favorites tunes spewing from the FM, the picture was so clear. Not only could I see how my interests and studies were related, I saw a future. I imagined my career path in progression, moving forward and encompassing my areas of passion. And not only could I visualize it, I could articulate it. I could say the words that were for so long just stuck inside my brain, and they made sense. I felt a sense of freedom from the divergent thoughts that many times remained skewed in my head.

Sometimes the ability to be linear helps with articulation.

Start with the end in mind.

Wow, backwards design is so not the only application of the principles of this methodology. As I though through the framework for backwards design and how it applies to instructional design, I began thinking about other areas where I might apply the framework. What I realized is that I could apply the principles to almost any planned situation personal or professional.
Whether it's Raising kids, creating a technology tool, building a car, grocery shopping, creating a training program -- backwards design is applicable. What outcomes do I want to achieve as final deliverables. Backwards Design is a way of thinking about 'things'.

The application of principles could have a significant impact on leaning and living.

Ready for learning.

It was ironic and evident to me that I needed the final day of classes to become one with the content. I don't know why I had those aha's Saturday morning, but I think it was because I needed to have more time to think in order to get to that place where I was ready to process the generalizations.

Flexibility in deadlines may be significant to the learning and to the process; handle it with care.

"Now I Understand".....

The student said, "and the projects are like manila folders. See, I need a picture in order to get it."

Moments of understanding cannot be hurried and are tough to replicate. Having executed both lessons I created for Ped II to the identified groups, I've had the chance to apply many concepts we've explored to real world experience. A few things I'm walking away with that I believe will help me as I continue on in my career.

Learning can't be rushed.
Instructors are facilitators to learning. As an instructor, I can present concepts and employ a variety of instructional strategies and methods, but I can't make the student learn. As Tomlinson and McTighe indicate in the Student Variance for Learning Chart on pg 17 of our text, many intersecting factors, weighted at various strengths, can each impact student learning.
Readiness to learn is critical to the learning process.


Impact of the culture of the learning environment.
The realization that in some environments little value is placed on learning, even on necessary learning, is tough to digest. And with the constraints of many business environments, coupled with a sometimes myopic focus on productivity and profitability, the value placed on the outcomes of learning can easily be overlooked.
Creating an ROI of proposed investment in educating or training may be a key variable to shifting the perception of the value of learning.

Understanding terminology.
Being able to think in terms of Instructional Strategies and Methods is so empowering. Finding resources that I can continue to use to develop and validate my instructional choices as I continue in my career is of great value to me.
My framework of understanding cognitive processing has expanded.

Planning takes time.
Although I came to the course having an understanding of the time involved in creating lessons, training programs, etc. the time investment to lesson planning really left an impression on my during this course. And I don't think it was just because we were studying the process.
Time to develop or implement instructional tools that effectivley support the method is significant.

I could go on with my meta analysis but will close here by saying I feel more confident in my understanding of learning and instructional design as a result of the experirnces that I've had during the past twelve weeks. This course has closed gaps for me with regard to instruction and has wet my appetite to continue to study cognitive processing.

Ready or Not, Here it Comes....

Information, content, experiences and stimuli of all sorts bombard us everyday. Thousands of bits of data intersect with our cognitive processing, whether we realize it or not. Our ability to internalize any portion of these bits is what we'll focus on for a few moments.

Here's the scenario...
I'm in a conversation and someone mentions the company's balance sheets. I immediately visualize the type of documents to which they are referring and the type of info that is contained on them. The conversation continues regarding the state of the balance sheets.

Reflection....

Two years ago, if someone had mentioned the word balance sheets, a question would have been my brains response as I tried to understand what balance sheets were and the type of information they contained. Any conversation that followed on the topic of balance sheets would have been skewed and not fully understood because of the question that I had on balance sheets. The cognitive focus was trying to decipher what a balance sheet was not on the purpose of the balance sheet and the related organizational impacts.

How does this apply to my learning....

It has become so clear to me the impact that the timing of content delivery has on the learners ability to understand a topic and be able to confidently move forward onto learning a new topic. When questions arise related to a topic, I've learned that if I'm unable to either recognize or articulate my questions, then my learning is stalled. My cognitive processing then responds like a skipping record stuck on a point in time and in need a nudge to move forward back onto the track where the music will continue to play.

I've also learned that although I may think I understand a concept, and maybe I'm just slow taking in new content, it takes several intersections with the content before I can fully understand and can actually recall the content. And sometimes it's not until I go forward to learn other content that I'm able to then revisit previous content which will then be more meaningful to me.

Applying this to UbD....

What are the learning objectives and the instructional methods that are most effective for new content integration and student understanding to take place. And will variances and combinations alter the level of understanding students are able to achieve? I'd say definitely. To me this is where teaching and learning gets complicated and perhaps where a classroom teacher has benefits I've not experienced to realize its possible. I can absolutely understand the value of differentiated instruction.

Using myself as an example, I know that there are a few methods that help me to understand content better than others. How does a classroom teacher keep track of the most effective methods of learning for each student and then implement those methods to meet the individual learning needs of students within the course of a school day?

Summarizing...

Although students may be responding to assessment with indicators pointing to a basic understanding of content, time and exposure to related subject matter may facilitate deeper understanding. Delivering content using several methods of instruction may aid in greater student learning because they are designed with the student in mind. UbD and DI may help to move the learner to a higher level of content acquisition on Bloom's Taxonomy.