Empty Trash Cans and Renewable Assignments

"...renewable assignments result in meaningful, valuable artifacts that enable future meaningful, valuable work." - David Wiley

My personalized learning routine involves skimming through a few dozen blog posts first thing in the morning. I slammed on the brakes, and adjusted my reading glasses when I came across David Wiley's discussion of disposable versus renewable assignments in higher education. What do these terms mean, what are the differences, and why should educators care about the fate of their assignments?

According to Dr. Wiley, disposable assignments are those that end up in a garbage can shortly after the instructor has graded it. This signals the learning, if there was any, has now ended. An assignment at the bottom of a garbage can adds no additional value to the world. My friend Shawn McCusker dislikes the thought of student work ending up in piles. He says, "If we want to increase the importance and validity of student work we need to extend it’s life cycle and allow individual learning to be shared, with the class, the school and the community." Students see little cause to invest in work that will likely end up in a landfill.

In a previous post, I discussed how digital contribution trumps digital citizenship. This argument is supported by Dr. Wiley's concept of renewable assignments. Renewable assignments provide opportunities for learners to create meaningful, valuable artifacts that contribute to the learning of others. These artifacts can be reviewed, revised, and renewed to perpetuate learning. Wiley goes on to suggest there is a significant amount of student production capacity that could be used to scale production of OERs (open educational resources).

Several weeks ago, at the conclusion of the school year, our own children emptied their backpacks creating a pile of paper that overflowed our recycle bin. I asked them, "Isn't there anything here worth saving?"

"Nope.", they answered in unison.

"This looks like a lot of work. What did you learn from doing all of this?", I asked.

"Nothing.", again almost in unison.

Disappointed by the waste of time and paper, I invited the kids to show me their learning in their most usual way, by playing Minecraft and Clash of Clans. The boys willingly read books, watch videos, and chat with other players to improve their skill at these games. They are also studying how to create their own videos to teach others to improve their gaming skills. Those of you with children who are gamers know they will spend hours on end working to level up, studying their craft, and sharing their knowledge and skill with other players. Disposable or renewable?

"If learning communities, both formal ones such as school, and informal ones such as community center classes, want to take advantage of and leverage all available resources, then they would embrace a culture where educators teach learners, educators teach other educators, learners teach learners, and learners teach educators." - Dr. Jackie Gerstein

Educators, are you providing meaningful, renewable learning assignments, or do your assignments go straight into the trash after they're graded? If your trash cans are empty, what advice would you offer teachers wanting to extend learning, and the life of student work?

Self-Directed vs. Self-Determined Learning; What's the Difference?

"We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves." - Stephen Downes In this age of abundance of information, shifting classroom pedagogy isn't nearly enough to make learning in school more relevant and authentic for the learner. Self-directed learning ( andragogy ), and self-determined learning ( heutagogy ) are the ideals necessary in making students " future ready " to live and learn in a web-connected world. While original research applied these concepts to mature learners, it has become apparent that even young children have an abundant capacity for recognizing and directing their learning. Anyone who has observed toddlers learning how to walk and talk understand the motivation and skill development that quickly develops during these processes. Considered by some to be on a learning continuum, self-directed learning, and self-determined

Board Games in the School Library: 3 Reasons Why It's a Winning Play

"Play is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein “Play is the work of the child.” – Maria Montessori In our recently remodeled school media center, we have a space dedicated to active engagement in fun learning activities. Part maker space, part literacy lounge, board games are being incorporated to promote a culture of joyful learning. Whether it's a game of Rummy , Yahtzee , or Scrabble , family game night serves as a communication elixir and solidifies our domestic climate of togetherness. Shouldn't similar opportunities for interaction, challenge, and fun exist somewhere in our schools? Broken families, cultural fragmentation, and poverty are impacting opportunities for children to play. As we unpacked and tagged our new media center games, I was more disappointed than shocked by the number of students who had never played Monopoly , Boggle , or Sorry . One skeptical teacher commented, "Oh great, now we're letting students pl

The Classroom Experiment - Strategies to Promote Engagement and Learning

Dylan Wiliam is a prominent educator in the United Kingdom. His ideas and strategies are consistently mentioned in education reform circles. On an uncharacteristically quiet evening at home, I stumbled across these BBC videos, The Classroom Experiment . Although it took nearly two hours to get through the videos, I came away thinking that the teacher is certainly the most important factor in student learning, and that student learning can be improved with persistence and a willingness to become better at failure. For those folks that feel that teachers can be replaced by technology, these videos suggest otherwise. The Classroom Experiment - part 1 (58:00) The Classroom Experiment - part 2 (59:00) Dylan Wiliam at The Schools Network Conference (38:00) Here is a summary of the strategies and changes that Dylan Wiliam instituted to increase student engagement and advance student learning. No raising of hands - use Popsicle sticks, or some other mechanism to randomize th

Nocking the Arrow

Search This Blog