Alright, alright...it's been about 3 weeks since my last update - I'm prioritizing and blogging is not at the top. HOWEVER, I've kept excellent notes & can create this blog (and probably a few subsequent blogs) using just my dated notes on our various strands, projects, etc.
My CoP and Theorist projects have been popped-into the selected locations. I had an ABSOLUTE blast doing the CoP project. This project really pulled out the ideas about community learning for me. I'm still holding tight to my thought/belief that there *is* such thing as individual learning, and that rote learning is not only important but also imperative to education. However, I've started leaning WAY toward the idea of communities of practice, mainly because I see that THIS is the way the world is leaning. We must meet the student where the student stands. This generation and those to follow are multi-multi taskers (my own term, thank you ... I think I'll call it M-MT, and I've now blogged the term with a time stamp, so if anyone steals it....I'll know <wicked grin>). They are also students who do nearly everything in community, whether they realize it or not. Globalization.
I was/am deeply attached to my theorist - I enjoyed learning more about Dr. Montessori. I knew about the Montessori method prior to the project, but never to the depth I do now. And I didn't realize just how close to my OWN way of thinking her methods and theories are. A strong, informed and intelligent individual who's been allowed to develop personal strengths, has potential to be a strong link within a community and society on the whole.
My Lit Review is a bad subject. I don't want to go there right now. It's being revised (for the sixth time) - my OWN revisions, only because I know the quality of work expected (and the standards I hold) and nothing I've written comes close to that quality yet.
My AR - I've had to move quick on this - probably quicker than others who have the luxury of over-seeing and controlling their own classes (organization, position, etc.) throughout the entire school year. I don't. I've had to prioritize and it meant putting some of the class assignments behind, in order to stay on top of my AR.
If nothing else, at this point, the AR project has forced me to think quick, work quick, be EXTREMELY flexible, sleep far less than I already don't (not a typo), and to be frank, I've had to learn to ignore some demands knowing that those who are not close to my work, can't understand the predicament in which I stand. I've had to have a lot of faith in myself and in God -- faith that everything will turn out "okay" in the end, as long as I keep pushing forward and moving fast.
For my AR - I've chosen to concentrate on setting up a Framework for Building Scholarly/Professional CoP's Using ICT Tools. This also involves maintaining that framework once it's in place. I'm working within the ESL program and Missions program at Northwest Univ. I knew NOTHING about either program when I started but they were willing to work with me...unlike the departments where I typically work (History, Theology). I had to QUICKLY learn about ESL - I did an *immense* amount of journal reading about ESL in the past 20ish years and the different methods, theories, etc. I sat with two of the Missions profs and bothered them for a few hours about what is involved in learning "multi-cultural working" (what they prefer to call 'Mission Workers' b/c some of the workers won't be necessarily preaching, they will be building, giving med assistance, etc.).
I'm not a PART of each program and feel welcomed and at home in the classes. I've become a teaching assistant to many of the profs (this was a must, in order to work in the programs -- it added to my work load, but I need "an in" and that was it...so I'm an UNPAID T.A. - hmmm....).
There are about 20 students in the Missions program (some have other majors, and are doing Missions minors....Nursing, InterCultural Studies, etc.) and there are only TWO ESL/CELE students - there will be a total FIVE in the Jan. term. I suspect this will affect my data, with such a low number of students to observe, but it's a new program (the CELE part) and part of my goal is to actually have some sort of tool at work within the CELE website, reaching out (marketing?) to potential new students.
I have many notes from my time in the classes and have already started to present various tech tool to the profs - I had no choice but to start introducing them - the profs must have 'game plans' for the coming semester and we needed to try out a few tools before presenting them to the 'powers above.'
I purchased my own copy of VoiceThread (the personal use version) as this seems to be the way all profs involved would like to move. If it doesn't work, I'm only out $90 and I learned a new tool. I'll chalk it up to the few lunches and suppers I've missed while doing work and I'll eat less next month.
No big deal. (it's a joke)
I'll be posting a lot of my notes in the upcoming blogs - and these will eventually become my AR notes on my AR website. I'd like to at least get them online & organized and this blog area will be the place.
I'm not looking forward to my "first AR draft" since I've already had to put wheels in motion -- I'm sure it will piss off a couple of people that I've moved forward. As noted, I don't have the luxury of sitting back, researching, taking notes and coming up with a game plan in this semester.....something HAD TO BE presented or I was NOT going to be allowed to continue. The profs want to know how to plan their spring term and they could not/cannot plan without knowing what tools they may or may not be using. At least I managed to keep some space open for a tech tool in each area, in general. If that tool does not seem to be working, I can find something else that might. Again, it falls back on the impossible Lit Review. How to find scholarly writing on tech tools that are brand new? It's been nearly impossible. I've done plenty of reading and research on building professional/scholarly CoP's but I can't know how ICT tools fit in the equation if no one has written about it....it's a new field...
To be continued....
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