Dear Hildy,
Thanks a lot for making time and responding in such detail. I
really appreciate it
As I can see you had lots of flexibility at college. We don't
have this here, our time and budget is a lot more constrained. I
still like the idea of treating learners individually. I think
your approach is what my learners would like to experience. What I
have been asking myself is - what if students have bad reading
skills (which in my case is often the case - millennials are not
used to reading a lot, in general - there are always exceptions,
of course), should we ignore this and serve them audio or
video-based information because we want them to understand the
materials?
I think this is my fundamental question - what skills should we
teach/build/develop in students to best prepare them for their
future (job) life. Is it relevant if they cannot read so well? Is
it relevant if their writing skills are not that good because they
might not need writing skills in their future job? What society
are we creating through our education?
Hm... not sure if my questions make sense to you; they are
fundamental questions, I think. I am struggling a bit because here
we need to grade people on their
writing/reading/listening/speaking skills in a balanced way. So if
you have weaker reading skills you can compensate that with
stronger speaking skills and still get a good enough grade.
However, many students do not see the point in having to read or
write. They say they will need speaking skills most in their
future job and our curriculum is not up to date. If it's about
their intention to learn, we should serve them the materials they
can digest. Because what I observe is that students get
frustrating when they have to read articles or papers and think
they understand but when you really test their comprehension
skills they get low scores.
Hm... I realise I still do not have an answer or solution.
Regards from Vienna,
Christina
Am 24.03.2020 um 01:50 schrieb Hildy
Gottlieb:
Christina:
Sorry about the delay in responding. It's hard to keep up with
all that is going on these days, and I am just now looking
through the emails from this group. I will attempt to answer
your questions in this email format, and will confess up front
that it's not a straight-line answer, because we humans are
not straight lines.
You asked how many people would take part in a
class: When I taught in a college setting, we had
approximately 20 students in the class. In our own classes at
Creating the Future, we have had as few as 6 and as many as
75.
As to your questions re: assignments, I hope the
following is helpful:
First, there is the assignment to absorb the content (in
a college setting, usually reading). Many people absorb
information better when they hear it vs. see it on a page.
Others absorb information better when they are applying it,
talking it through with others. Some think best in words,
others think best in numbers. Everyone's brain works a little
differently.
And so first, we have always used a flipped
classroom, where people can absorb the information at their
own pace before the class. Content is always provided both in
video (which can be pre-recorded for re-use over and over) and
in text, usually in a workbook format (not just a script of
the video, but explained as one would write a book). Pretty
much the same info is provided in both formats, and students
are assigned BOTH. What that means is that they will read AND
watch, and whichever sticks best for them sticks best. There
is some info in one and not the other, but mostly it is the
same content, presented in two different formats.
Then handouts include question prompts to help
people reframe what they have read / watched in their own
words (for those who do best when talking things through).
Classroom time is for discussion of the material -
what stood out to you? What did you notice? What questions
arose? If they think best by drawing, they can either talk us
through something they are holding up to the screen, or use
Zoom's tools to do so. During the class, they are encouraged
to share their reflections from the handouts. We have often
asked students what would help them learn the material. That
simple step has always been enlightening, as we
learn how to help them learn.
Assignments between classes: Online
interaction... When teaching entirely online
classes at the university level, the requirement to engage
between classes is often ludicrous. People are often graded on
whether they wrote 3 sentences, 3 times per week. Which really
is coming at it from the POV of what people do vs. how they
learn.
And so we would start the class by having an
asynchronous conversation about what that engagement would
make possible for the students. In those text-based
conversations, they would discuss how participation between
classes could help them learn. We asked them what that would
look like, which led to them designing the structure for
participation that they would then abide by. We asked them how
they wanted us to grade that participation (their answers
would not surprise seasoned teachers - they were FAR more
strict than we ever would have been). But it also made clear
that the HOW for them was about however they best
communicated. For some it was numbers, for others audio or
video, for others art with a few words of explanation, etc.
I am recalling a time when the between-class
conversations via BlackBoard became so engaged, with so many
people sharing different types of examples (many of them
drawings or charts - some people think best in numbers and
columns), that we actually crashed BlackBoard for the whole
university! That was over a decade ago, and I still love the
image of people feeling they could express themselves as made
sense to them, and doing that so excitedly that they
overwhelmed the whole system.
As for assignments to be graded, that
would not include our classes at Creating the Future, just our
college experience. All those assignments were in writing.
BUT, that being said, if people were not great at writing, and
their papers might have gotten a C because of that, we invited
them to a phone call, giving them the opportunity to show
verbally that they actually understood. It was a bit more
work, but our goal has always been that people learn. If
someone is dyslexic but totally understands the material, do
we want to penalize them because they can't write? So if we
had to have 4 phone calls for a class of 20 students, and that
led to those 4 students showing us that yes, they did
understand the material, then we saw that as part of the job.
The bottom line is that none of this starts from
the doing, but from the intention. If the intention is that
students learn, then I've always seen it as my job as an
instructor to create the conditions for them to do so. What
that requires is understanding that not everyone is going to
learn in the way I happen to want to teach them, and that that
requires meeting people where they are, and not where I think
they should be.
I'm not sure I've answered your questions fully.
Like I said, it's not a simple answer, because we are talking
about humans, and we humans are certainly not simple
creatures!
Many thanks for your interest. And please let me
know if this has not answered your questions, and I'll do my
best to do so.
Hildy
Hildy
Gottlieb (she/her/hers)
Creating
the Future
Change the Questions, Change the World!
1-520-349-7061
cell
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Creating the Future is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt
organization
On 3/20/2020 9:55 AM, Christina Merl
wrote:
Hildy -
I very much enjoy the idea of encouraging everyone to express
themselves as makes sense to them. I am struggling a bit with
picturing what this looks like in the context of a class. How
many individuals would take part in this, how would you make
meaning, are all assignments (whatever the definition of an
assignment may be, I am just using this word to express the
idea of a shared task) suited to serve the needs of these
individuals? Or would assignments have to be tailored to their
needs, etc.
I would love to understand better what you are describing as
I find your ideas really fascinating. So if you have a moment,
I would very much appreciate it if you could give an example
(of a topic being dealt with in such mode).
Thanks!
Christina
Am 19.03.2020 um 16:50 schrieb
Hildy Gottlieb:
Christina, Bill, et al,
When we have taught online at the college
level, as well as in our own courses, we have encouraged
people to express themselves as makes sense to them. If
people are more comfortable recording their response in
video, awesome. If they could provide a YouTube link AND
summarize it briefly in writing, also awesome. Slide-share
is also a great way to capture essence, and then video
and/or text to explain more deeply.
Whether IRL or online, the key for us has
always been to present people with as many options as
possible for the different ways that people learn. Online
almost helps do that even better than F2F. And as Nancy
pointed out, context is key - things will be different if
this is a one-time meeting, an ongoing meeting, a class
(and depending there on whether it is a college class, an
ongoing learning class, etc.).
The important thing is to let the context and
purpose guide the decision re: tools, rather than focusing
on the tools. When we move online, we have a tendency to
look at all the tools and wonder which to use / how to use
them. Having purpose guide that decision helps immensely.
I hope that's helpful.
Hildy
Hildy
Gottlieb (she/her/hers)
Creating
the Future
Change the Questions, Change the World!
1-520-349-7061
cell
*
Creating the Future is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt
organization
On 3/19/2020 8:40 AM, Christina
Merl wrote:
Dear Bill -
Very much to the point - the length of our traditional
writing. Especially the younger generations cannot handle
that. With discussion forums and threads we are
transferring this challenge online. Any thoughts on how to
solve this, anyone?
Regards from 22¡ãC spring-like, blue-skies Vienna and
everyone should stay indoors...
Christina
Am 19.03.2020 um 15:26 schrieb
Bill Withers:
I love the idea of adding
asynchronous content, maybe even in the middle of a
live session. In the best f2f settings, we add time to
reflect. We are trained somewhat to use online tools
to quickly jump, file, delete, forward, share, and
keep moving. Getting everyone to take a breath and
think and return to the conversation at some set time
is golden.
?
I¡¯ll admit that when I saw the
length of the exchange below, I thought, ¡°I gotta go.
There¡¯s no time for this.¡± So glad that I slowed down
for all of 2 minutes to read and think about this.
?
Many thanks ¨C Bill
?
Bill
Withers
Breakthrough Coach
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Dear Nancy,
Thank you for writing this. I find it refreshing and
a positive sign in all the current "covid-19 mania". I
get the impression that "everyone" is literally trying
to redesign f2f settings and be online to not miss out
on anything or anyone. It's paradox - while the virus
forces us to slow down and shut everything down, the
craziness continues online. We transform our
structures and patterns to a virtual world.
So I appreciate your thoughts very much. Mixing
asynchronous and synchronous as well as using
different media sounds like a very effective plan.
I am hosting a group of students this coming
Saturday. We would have met f2f. The university is
open-minded and encourages teachers to make the most
of the situation and continue with their sessions,
either via distance learning or live online.
So I have decided to do a blended format. I am
currently designing the agenda and I have realised
that all the tech craziness and the lack of crisis
management in some organisations prevent me (I can
only talk about myself here) from thinking creatively.
I need to really get rid of all the noise and
distraction created online and focus on my group's
needs, their learning goals, my goals, the topics we
are dealing with etc. While tech savviness is super
important - which is why I am so thankful that you
initiated this exchange and that so many people share
webinars, links, etc. - all of this is so absolutely
helpful and provides so much support right now - I
think the overall challenge for everyone, for society,
is to focus on what we really need and want (to
change).? I think that's the challenge for society, no
matter where.
So I'd be happy to learn along here with you. As
said, I am currently designing my agenda for my group
of students and I will use zoom for their
presentations, I have designed some quiz material with
moodle, and I have set up some materials that I find
helpful for them, plus some prompts that they need to
work out asynchronously but in collaborative teams.
For this, we use google docs, mentimeter, and probably
some 365 video presentations.
I deliberately want to keep it simple technology-wise
but make it complex challenge-wise. And I am curious
to get students' feedback. They are currently also
under pressure as everything has changed. BTW, in that
case these students all have a job, they are learning
workers.
Regards from Vienna,
Christina
Am 19.03.2020 um 14:48 schrieb
Nancy White:
This post is part "thinking out loud" and part
action/question. So if you are interested in both,
please read till the end.
One of the things that is showing up for me is
people writing/calling/texting asking "how do I
convert this F2F meeting to online?" (More on that
in a separate message.)?
Well, last night I made the mistake of looking at FB
before bed so I slept very poorly AND I had a lot of
ideas swirling around in my head. One was a
flashback of the online events many of us designed
and hosted back in the "olden days" when most online
events were primarily text based and asynchronous.
There would be discussion threads rolled out over a
period of days and people would generally have a
24-48 time period to read, post, and respond to
others before we moved on to the next "agenda item."
When we got really fancy we would add periodic
telephone conference calls (yes, telephone!) and
things really broke open when we could start to
embed media like visuals, audio and video.?
The ideas behind this work was that we could include
many more people than could fly to a meeting, and
when we had to support access to local connectivity,
it was very often FAR FAR FAR more economical than
bringing people to a physical gathering. While those
who were used to F2F meetings pooh-poohed us, those
who never got to go to those meetings were deeply
engaged, appreciative and brilliant contributors.?
Arrival to March 19 (it is March 19th, isn't it? How
many days have we been quarantined in each of our
corners of the world??) After 10-14 days of super
intense Zoom meetings, my brain and body was not
happy. The intensity (yes, of course, jacked up by
the pandemic) was showing on our faces as we stared
into our cameras, still wearing the same sweatshirt
from ... how many days ago?
It hit me, we DO HAVE the ability to use
asynchronous tools with our lovely synchronous
tools. Many of us do it every day (yes, email,
basecamp, trello, teams, slack) but those uses have
been for tasking, small message exchange, and not
really deeper conversation. (Yes, JonL - the ?conversation!)
Set up a discussion board, parse out the things that
can go slower, that don't need video, that focus on
information exchange or slower, calmer (and deeper)
conversations. Let people figure out how to take
care of the kids and work by making some of the
meeting time a slower, asynchronous time.?
Today I have two calls about meeting design and I
wondered, how would I convert those meetings? What
are some of those great approaches and techniques
that worked so well 15-20 years ago??
So what I'd love to discuss - yes asynchronously for
now on this email list - is our ideas for rethinking
F2F longer form meetings (3 day strategic planning,
2 day training, 5 day intense team consultation)
into synch/asynch online meetings. How do we rethink
of time (believe me, we aren't going to sustain all
day online meetings and raise the kids etc, folks.
Get real quick!) What rhythm works well? How does
this enhance cross time zone work.?
I have a lot of ideas, but they are all a-jumble.
Please join in this thread and think with me. I'd
like to bring together our best thinking over 3-5
days and then write it up (we can do that
collaboratively too if folks are interested.)
AND THEN, I propose we do a series of
redesign-shops where one org brings their old
meeting agenda, and we offer redesign ideas. What do
you think?
Chime in!
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