Nocking the Arrow

"Autonomy is what distinguishes between personal learning, which we do for ourselves, and personalized learning, which is done for us." - Stephen Downes Why is feedback critical to learning processes? Why should the learner be at the center of the feedback process? Where within Schoology can personal feedback be shared and leveraged by learners? What do paper airplanes have to do with personal learning and feedback? Premise On the second day of the SchoologyNEXT-19 conference, more than 100 adult learners gathered to build paper airplanes and discuss these questions. Here’s what we learned. Those who’ve attended my sessions know I subtly push the envelope, taking some risk, in the hopes of the transfer of the unique experience to professional learning activities and classroom adventures. If we don't want passive "sit-n-git" in our classrooms, then we should design conference sessions and staff meetings to model the active learning we...

"Students who are encouraged to think about grades, stickers, or other “goodies” become less inclined to explore ideas, think creatively, and take chances." - Alfie Kohn Earlier this year, after reading Scott McLeod's alert , I wrote about Gallup's report indicating students become less engaged in school as they advance through their program. David Perkins says this decline in student engagement is the result of a relevancy gap , a difference between our prescribed curriculum and learning experiences that offer a significant " life-worthy " return for students. Later, I asked David White if guiding students towards greater digital residency , in other words, providing more opportunities for interactive digital learning, would increase student engagement.  David said, " There is ongoing research based on this premise, but any conclusions should include sound pedagogical practice. " As someone who always enjoys learning, and usually enjoye...

Attending school open house events always leaves me emotionally conflicted because there are many times when I can't, or don't want to, believe what I'm hearing. I have trouble understanding many of the rules that some teachers include in their syllabus. I feel the need to challenge published grading policies and procedures that are clearly unfair to students. But I keep my parent hat on and keep my educator card in my pocket as I search for more understanding. Maybe I'm just getting old and losing perspective about classroom management and student evaluation. Regardless if you are a teacher, student, or parent, you can help me with the writing of a more balanced and informed post by sharing your thoughts in the following five-question survey. The policies and procedures included in this short form are from documents distributed to parents during last month's open house season. Loading... I will share results and comments in a follow-up post. Th...