Giving Learners a Voice

This week I have set myself to bolster my online course offerings. I am hoping to engage students from diverse distances and backgrounds so that they participate and complete the learning activities needed to be successful on certification exams or enter college programs.

Thus far, I have imported entry test questions into the question bank to create entry tests that will identify for students what lessons they need to study to be successful so they can build a study plan. The plan is to personalize their learning and increase the focus on filling in gaps. Of the students who have taken the study plan approach, 2 to date, they both have completed, with one successfully reporting back a pass back on the official certification exam. Certainly, those students engaged participating in the study plan were more active, asking questions and attending virtual workshops. To further engage, I have created custom badges for successful completion of key activities to show progress: the indication of which de-stresses students when they can see clearly what they have done and what they need to do. And who doesn't like a badge.

Over the last few days, I have found even more inspiration learning about new engagement strategies.

At the English Language Arts Conference, I attended Valerie McClement's practical session on using Twitter and Google+ student projects to engage students in literature. While reading Shakespeare, students were asked to complete profiles for minor characters on the play, complete with descriptions, photos, events and posts. For the assignment, they were asked to respond after every scene from the point of view of the minor character. Students were asked to respond to posts and share with other minor characters. As Valerie relayed, students were talking about English in math class for the first time. She noted that students were doing research about their characters and the time period, largely unprompted, to make their profiles come alive. With Twitter, the students were asked to tweet open-ended questions to an assigned hashtag after each reading, these questions becoming the source of discussion in class the next day. When asked, Valerie explained that sometimes the discussions based on these questions could take up most of the class, as she found that the questions often provided ample opportunity to cover what was required, with guidance. This assignment was requested by students who had participated in Google+ projects in the previous grade. The uptake matched because students had chosen this option. The key piece out of both of these strategies was that students were empowered to create their own "voice" as Valerie indicated. They were engaged by being allowed a voice. As an instructor, she was meeting her students where they already were.

More importantly, I was able to connect with instructors from a variety of locations and contexts making English Language Arts learning possible.

I met one gentleman from a northern community school. As he conversed, he described the challenges and the importance of the work being done. The turnover is high. He declared himself a veteran having been there two years. He was hopeful of moving forward as they had the largest amount of returning staff. His school had reached a population high of about 240 students: the challenge remaining that about 150 might be at the school on any given day. He relayed that on one occasion whale hunters had returned with their catch. The school closed as they all went to learn about what the hunters did to strip down the whale for use in the village. As for native languages, very few students from this generation knew or spoke the languages. Continuity being a problem, he explained that they could not hold assemblies. No one had been there long enough to show the students how. For parents, the primary question was "Is my child safe and are you treating him well" as opposed to a pressing concern for marks. From his remarks, you could tell that his work was important. He was working to help them find their voice.

Equally, I was fortunate to meet an instructor from a colony school. She explained how challenging was to instruct in this context. She explained how two instructors came to teach Alberta Education curriculum in the one-room school house. When needed, counselors from the district came to provide additional supports. Televisions were banned. The colonists and the students speak a older German in a similarly old script not easily connected with modern German causing further isolation. She explained with great conviction the need to work with these students to keep us all connected. She was meeting them where they were and trying to engage them in an authentic way.

Next, I was able to attend the BlendEd conference. I learned much about various perspectives on blended learning from the sessions and the people with which I connected.

At the session on blended learning and communities of inquiry, Laurel Beaton discussed how the community of inquiry model developed at the University of Athabasca was being applied to professional development for teachers. As a result, teachers were being called to change their work and their roles. They were being called upon to complete applied research in their fields. They were being expected to acquire strategies and best practices to attend to the cognitive and social presences of learners in their work. This framework provides a clear structure to engaging students and giving them a voice.

Later, I attended Neela Bell's session on using gamification to personalize learning. I was quickly impressed on her use of Moodle to show learner progress and provide badges. She offered gamification tips that made creating this engagement strategy simple. In particular, she showed how to add a narrative structure to a course to make the course more engaging connecting to memory and learning. Talking to her afterwards, I learned about the parallel work she was doing with at-risk students at the Argyll Centre using these techniques to engage them in learning activities. Her students want to learn because she knows them as they want to be known in an authentic and not ingratiating manner.

Oustide of the session, I connected with an instructor and administrator from a rural Alberta school. They had come to the conference to learn more about blended learning as they were formulating a solution to engage their learners. Believing in the value of what they do, they wanted to attract and connect with students. They had created online resources and content to offer students in their regular classrooms. Now, they were looking on how to achieve further blended learning. They wanted to meet the students where they already are.

After these events, I am grateful for the people I have met and the opportunities to learn that I have been given. In response, I will be turning to my own practices. I will be working on strategies to personalize learning for my students. I will create learner pathways to allow students to progress according to interest, ability and commitment. I will be incorporating badges and gaming elements. To do so, I will be calling on my new connections to collaborate and push forward.  I will add social media elements to give students peer-to-peer connections to boost learning outside the teacher-learner context. Currently, I am reading Teaching in Blended Learning Environments: Creating and Sustaining Communities of Inquiry by Norman Vaughn et al. from AU Press. I will be sure to post a review as I work to incorporate this framework into course design and professional practice.

With these people and resources, student engagement now seems possible. It now is imperative.