EDPB530 FINISHED ON DEC 10TH. HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY!

HANDLING SELF-DIRECTED QUESTS

Up to 300 XP

Once you have completed the Core Quests, you have quite a bit of latitude for how to obtain XP for this course. The Self-Directed Quests include several choices and are submitted in ByteDeck.

This page is about how you can handle the self-directed quests.

A. What to include in your submission

Find a Topic and Engage

Once you have selected a topic from one of the self-directed quests pages (or have come up with your own ed-tech topic), you can engage in the provided content.

Questions to Process Thinking

Second, If it makes sense for your quest, consider some questions below when handling your topic.

(These questions are not required; they are simply here to guide your thinking if you wish to use them.):

What are your initial thoughts?
What are your experiences?
What have you observed (your life, classrooms...)
What would your Novi say?
What would your Yesvi say?
What are your thoughts on how this challenge/concept fits with your credo (Frame of Reference)?
What do you want to say about this challenge/concept which has not been brought up in these questions?

Process

Consider how you will represent your learning/thinking. Scroll down the page to the "2. How to Represent Your Learning and Processing" section for thoughts on this.

Submit

Use the Self-Directed Repeating Quest in BYTEDECK.

Please remember to NOT submit any work which does not conform to these givens:

All instructions followed carefully and completely.
Time on Task: Engagement in the quest is substantial enough to warrant the XP for the quest. A 60 XP quest has what looks like approximately 60 - 70 minutes of work completed.
Engagement is thoughtful and meaningful: Obvious attempts have been made to engage in the content of the quest in a way that is meaningful to the person completing the quest. View Exemplars which demonstrate this Given (Critical Reflection Exemplars are a good starting point)
Undergraduate Level Engagement: Evidence of fairly deep handling of the topic; references made to assigned reading|viewing; connections made between assigned reading|viewing and other referenced material; concepts fully explained; opinions fully backed up… View Exemplars which demonstrate this Given (Critical Reflection Exemplars are a good starting point)
It is the responsibility of the student to note when a quest has been returned or when there is an instructor comment on a quest.

B. How to Represent Your Learning and Processing

This is a copy of the Learning Representation Recipe included here for your convenience

(Blog, poetry, painting, poster, model, Website, scrapbook, presentation, debate, report, gameshow, video, map, visual representation, Prezi, cube, flipbook, exhibit, game, newsletter, newscast, magazine, mash-up, role-play…)

Avi made the mistake of asking his brothers about what they thought you should do when processing and representing learning in quests. We have included the conversation Novi, Yesvi, and Avi had in designing this section, as it reveals... well, it reveals... well, we're not sure what it reveals, but it is sometimes entertaining to listen in.

Novi

No question about it. How to process and represent quests? Essays! Minimum 1000 words. Lots of Essays! APA.

Yesvi

That's way too much... and it's too restricting. They'll get bored with essays. Essays are only one way of representing. We should have tonnes of variety; in fact, they should just do whatever they want. That would be cool.

Novi

What!? Do whatever they want! What about standards! If they get to do whatever they want, then all hell will break loose. This is an undergraduate program, Yesvi!

Yesvi

I know, I know. But can't we at least give them SOME choices? Not all essays, surely.

Avi

I agree with Yesvi. Let's give them choices... but I also agree with Novi about having standards, so we'll have a strict criteria for accepting work. We will only approve work that is at a certain level of proficiency or intellectual engagement. Novi is right in that this IS an undergraduate program.

Novi

Did you hear that? I'm right. Even mister moderation said so.

Avi

But.

Novi

Dang. I knew it was too good to be true.

Avi

Although there will be a strict criteria for acceptance of work, folks will claim points (XP) for what they do based on how much time they put in. The actual credit that folks get will be determined by the time spent on the process. Some folks take longer to do things, like write a blog post or comment on a Spaces post. Let's give them credit for the time spent, not just the product. Minutes will equal XP. XP will equate to grades.

Novi

That's ridiculous! Who determines how much time is spent.

Yesvi

THEY will, of course. I love it. Avi, you have made me happy.

Novi

You love it! Terrific. You loving things means bubkes. You love Barbra Streisand. You walk around the house singing "The Way We Were" for gosh sakes. And anyway... why would they tell the truth about how much time stuff takes them?

Yesvi

What is your issue with Barbara! You listen to William Shatner, for goodness sakes. What does he do? Does he really sing? It's sort of like talking with music in the background. He should have just stuck to "Phasers on stun."

But you know what, Novi, you're right.... these guys will probably not claim enough XP. Avi, you've had experience with a negotiated system like this before... will the students abuse it?

Avi

The problem is NOT usually one where too much credit is claimed, but where not enough credit is claimed. I am not sure what it is, but 90+% of the students do not give themselves as much as they deserve.

Novi

I don't have a problem with that.

Yesvi

I do!

Avi

Well, there's not much we can do about that. We can only ask them to claim the XP that they deserve. Relating XP to time is a way to honour some of the substantive time that students can put into their work. Sometimes, a student will delve deeply into a topic, far beyond the original intent, because they become intrigued or is learning to do something that fascinates. You can tell the student was in Flow. Then they hand that work in along with students who do an excellent job, but have not delved as deeply or as intensely. The assignment or project is usually worth a certain percentage of the course and that's that. A student who has put in three times the work still gets the same credit as others. Equating time to credit allows the student who has put in the extra time to actually get the extra credit.

Also, a student who has had to struggle to produce something that was easy for others (due to language or unfamiliarity with a technology...) gets credit for their determination, persistence, and grit.

Just recently, I had a Grade 9 Humanities student who would finish everything at the speed of light. His thing was just to get done. The quality of the work was substandard and every project or assignment required the same conversations.

"I'm done."

"Well, no. Actually you have made a good start, but..."

Same. thing. Every. time.

It took a while to transform his thinking when I would respond with: "Great. That was 20 minutes. Go ahead and claim your 10 points. Actually. Wait. You didn't quite follow all the directions here. Sorry. No points. Let me know when... blah... blah..."

Very effective.

But the only way to really do this is to allow students to claim XP, and negotiate from there.

Novi

I seem to get a student like that every year. Does the minimum. So let me get this straight. They claim how much XP they should get.

Avi

Yup.

Novi

Based on how much time they put in.

Avi

Yup

Novi

And where do they claim it. What? They send you an email every time they are claiming XP? I'm not afraid of a little work, but that would be ludicrous.

Yesvi

You're not afraid of a little work! Hah! Double hah!

Avi

Ok, Ok. Relax. Each quest will have an XP value that is awarded automatically. The XP will be based on an estimated time for completion of the quest. If the quest takes longer than the estimated time, folks can claim additional XP in the submission form in BYTEDECK. They tell us what they did and how much XP they feel they should get. Then we decide if the work

Fits our criteria for acceptance, and/or
Warrants any additional XP claimed, or
Does not fit our assessment criteria and is returned for additional work.

Novi

I like that last part. So if the work is not good enough to match the criteria, it doesn't get a C- or something... it just gets sent back. I say we always send the first ten attempts back.

Yesvi

What!?

Novi

Set the standards high. Make them sweat for every point. Well, maybe sending ten back is a bit much, but I am willing to negotiate.

Yesvi

Negotiate!?

Novi

Here's what we'll do: We agree to send the first three attempts back no matter how good the work is. That'll set the standards really high. By the time they send something in for the fourth time they'll be so twitchy it is guaranteed to be good work. What do you say?

Yesvi

Avi! Don't just roll your eyes. Say something.

Novi

I know, I know. We'll break it up. We'll choose somebody at random and send back all of their quests until they know who's boss...

Yesvi

Aaaaaavvvvvvvvviiiiiiii!!!

Always entertaining to listen in on conversations between the three brothers. You should see what a weekend BBQ sounds like. Yesvi brings his own BBQ because he wants to make sure that the BBQ he uses has never made contact with any form of meat. Novi loves to throw an occasional rib onto Yesvi's BBQ to make him go out and buy a new one. You get the picture.

Let's move on to discussing some of the choices Yesvi was so excited about. The nice thing about moving on from the core quests is that it becomes very much a personalized experience. There is a lot of choice. There are some quests that are highly recommended, but you get to follow your interests.

Build Your Own Recipe

When to Use Your Personal Recipe?

You can utilize your recipe when:

There is no an assigned means to process or represent learning/thinking in the quest,
There is an assigned means to process or represent learning/thinking in quest, but you want to do it your own way and there is nothing that anybody can do to stop you.

Some options:

PLEASE: Do not see this as a limitation of options. If you have another way you wish to process or represent your engagement in a quest, just state whatever it is in the comment of the quest submission. You can mix and match options as you wish.

Add to your ePortfolio:
- Make changes to your Credo
- Add to your Classroom Management Page
- Add to your Assessment Page
- Write a Blog post
- Add a Visual Representation of your thinking (concept map, drawing,...)
You can use the Technology/Issue/Pedagogy Chart (for anything that has to do with an emerging issue or technology or pedagogy. Here is an example of an over-the-top entry by Avi.
Select a Visual Representation Tool (VRT), which can be added to as you progress throughout the quests.
Develop and/or engage in a Spaces community conversation. This is a bit risky, in that you are relying on your cohort members to engage in the conversation with you. Make sure you "draw folks in" to the conversation with topics and questions that will pull their attention. For example: Let's say that you just did a quest on Social Media and have decided to provide a story from your experience. You decide to draw folks in by asking the big question: "Should you accept an invitation by a student to connect via social media?" You provide some information from an article you found, some stats, and then ask folks to converse. You would then also monitor the conversation, responding to some comments, ensuring people feel they have been heard. The fringe benefit to this activity is that you also get to claim Social Learning XP. Whoah. Life is good.
Have a discussion group. Why not arrange for three people to do the quest together and have a discussion on the topic as means of processing and representing.
Something totally different. Want to write a song? Want to represent with a piece of art? Want to make a video? If you are not sure about a choice you would like to make, email Avi.

Remember: You build your own "recipe".

You might decide to use the Chart provided to process Power Quests and use Prezi to represent your thoughts on Power Plus Quests. You might develop a page or set of pages in your ePortfolio that represent your Elemental Quests. Perhaps Credo is best for a blog.

Whatever you decide, it is recommended that you find a recipe that works for you and stick to it. This way, you don't have to come up with something new each time. If you experience a quest that has you delve into your Credo, then you can simply do what you normally do for Credo.

Submission

Use the SELF-DIRECTED REPEATING QUEST IN BYTEDECK.

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