NOTE-TAKING

Contextualisation

My experience with note taking thus far has involved a few strategies and has evolved a bit over the progression of this course. I initially began by trying to take notes on every key point in an article, then I synthesized and resynthesized into new categories. I found this to be an interesting experience and a valuable way to manage information gathered and could see this being a big takeaway in the future. However, as the weeks went on, I narrowed in more on my notetaking and began to take less notes, and began to write brief summaries of relevant information for the research topic along with some point form notes, which I had only done previously. I also began to get more critical of the notes and information I was notating, not only to save time, but to prevent myself from being distracted.

In terms of the notetaking method I have used thus far, I typically prefer handwritten notes, since I find I learn and retain more from this method, however, for this course I found digital notes to make more sense, specifically for the sake of ease when synthesizing these notes for our activities, as well as an easier way to share my notes for being assessed. I chose not to use any form of app, but instead to build them directly into my ISTE portfolio website pages for each week as I continued through the course.

I found the “Fact Checking” note taking method to be interesting and beneficial, as it led to me confirming the accuracy of some of my work, and in some cases, it forced me to revise some of my work before submission, simply because I couldn’t verify claims I was making in the activity. This will also be an interesting takeaway from this course.

Evidence

I have collected all my notes from the first 5 weeks of this course in this page. 

However, if you choose, you may also see how I embedded my notes within the work from each week by viewing the original pages at the following links:

Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 

TOPICS & TRENDS

Contextualisation

Over the past 5 weeks I have advocated, modelled, and innovated when it comes to technology integration in my school system. In week 1 I wrote a memo to share with administrators that I could use to share how to integrate more technology in the Visual Arts department in my school. This was based in research and cited the research in the sources section at the end.

In week 2, I developed a presentation for my whole school where I discuss an action plan to integrate Zoom into our daily lives.

In week 3, I developed and presented a professional development plan that integrated face-to-face, online, and video, and hybrid scenarios to accommodate my entire district of 800 faculty and staff members.

In week 4, I produced a journal article based on research on why students cheat, including some prevention strategies for solving this issue in education.

And in week 5, I created a detailed lesson plan, using ISTE Standards for Students, that taught students proper online ethical behaviours and copyright laws, as well as allowed them to put their learning into practice by creating a digital artefact for a social media campaign in a social justice topic of their choice.

Please view all content, linked below.

Evidence

Week 1 Task - Memo: Integrating Digital Tools Into the Visual Arts

Week 2 Task - To Zoom or Not To Zoom (Presentation)

Week 3 Task - PD Facilitation Plan Memo

Week 4 Task - Journal Article on Student Cheating 

Week 5 Task - Copyright/Social Justice Campaign Creation

ACCOUNTABLE TALK

Contextualisation

I greatly value connecting with fellow educators and communicating ideas to move the education industry forward and the experience of posting and sharing feedback and ideas with other educators, I feel, is as important as sharing effective feedback with students. 

It's occasionally difficult to give feedback directly through text in a way where it doesn't sound negative, so that's something that's always on my mind when writing and sharing these kinds of ideas. As a result, I always try to keep it light, and I always try to highlight some positives, while asking a question that continues the discussion and makes them think.

Please browse the attached pictures of feedback / comments I have shared with my colleagues below.

Evidence

Below you'll find screen-captures of comments I have left on my colleague's shared work. With each image you'll see a brief example of how I used Accountable Talk. Each image is clickable to enlarge for a closer look.

STUDENT APPLICATION

When considering integration of technology, I always utilise the SAMR Model, and think about how this technology affects my practice. Is it simply just making my life easier, or is it transforming, augmenting, and changing how my students create and learn? Ideally, technology should do all of the above, however, this is not always the case.

When considering topics and activities in this course, I have found a variety of ways that I can apply my learning from the past 8 weeks to my teaching practice, some of which are things I have literally already begun to incorporate. Below I will talk about the 5 main topics discussed in this course and share how I will/am using the knowledge gained from these topics to grow as an educator.

After all this, within each theme I re-synthesised this initial synthesis of notes by recolouring and grouping them by "pros" and "cons" for my topic. At times, this seemed extreme, however, upon reflecting on that experience, I did learn that the knowledge gained from those detailed notes, and the syntheses of these notes, led to a deeper understanding of the topic. This would be the main takeaway I would try to instil in my students. 

Considering the deeper understanding gained on the topic from that level of note-taking and syntheses, I was able to more adeptly discuss/write about the topic, as well as more concisely and confidently support my argument for the topic. Conversely, (as I've mentioned in previous reflections), if I had only searched for specific content, or skimmed research articles to suit the narrative I was attempting to argue, I would have a more narrow view of the topic, I would not be well-researched on important considerations relating to the topic, and I would be less prepared to be an authority on the topic when discussing it, educating others on the topic, or sharing with administrators or other stakeholders in my organisation.

Applying synthesis, and a deeper level of note-taking will be something I will work towards helping my students learn to do for a deeper level of understanding.

Personally, having gone through this practice over the duration of this course, this has become second nature. So much to the point where I don't feel I need to fill out the template anymore, and I'm instantly questioning the validity of what I'm reading by checking when it was published, who wrote it, why they wrote it, its relevance to my topic, and how accurate it may be. I can imagine the more I ensure my students practice this, as well as if I encourage others in my department to do this with their students, the more it will be second nature for them, in the same way it has become for me.

Admittedly, the accuracy is one of the more challenging aspects to certify when simply browsing a website, which is why I also taught my students to use scholarly, peer reviewed articles, especially ones found at the ERIC Institute of Education Sciences website. Browse the pictures above to see evidence of me sharing the CRAAP Test template with students and the ERIC website. 

In addition to these web search habits, I have found it interesting to learn about how one can improve their search results by adding specific boolean search terms, which could easily be introduced to students to improve their ability to research a topic. And the concept of "fact checking" their work with additional research is definitely something that would be beneficial learning for the classroom as well.

Being surrounded by students who are considered to be "digital natives" I have found the opposite of what this label implies. On a regular basis I have found my students less savvy than I assumed they would be and feel that learning how to improve their searching strategies online would be beneficial to them. As I continue with research projects with my students, these will be additional scaffolded searching processes that I'll incorporate into my units.

Topics & Trends

The topic covered in class were all relevant, interesting, timely, and most important of all, learning about them did not feel like busy work. While going through these topics and practicing to become better at research, it occurred to me that, yes, the course is about research, as well as being better at research. And yes, these topics are basically a vehicle to improve our ability to research. However, if they were on topics that were irrelevant to the purpose of the course, they would simply feel like busy work and lose engagement from students in the program. Which would therefore make them less effective vehicles to help students improve their researching skills.

Therefore, when I reflect on how I can use what I've learned from this course and the topics discussed with students, I can look at the course as a whole and consider that the most important part of going through these topics was the relevancy. Applying the concept of "making it relevant" to how I teach my students will be one of the larger takeaways from this course. This course has prompted me to ask myself:  

• If I want my students to learn a specific skill, can I find a way to make it applicable to them while they are doing it? 

• How can I design the learning tasks in a way that will be the most engaging and relevant so they get the most of the task?

In terms of the creation tasks and information covered, it was interesting and beneficial practice writing memos, a journal article, making presentations and lesson plans for hybrid learning environments. These are all activities that I need to do in my practice, as I am in a role where I am often either sharing or creating content with or for students, as well as working with admin in my full school leadership role which involves similar activities. 

Accountable Talk

I really appreciated this part of the course, as it's something I try to do with my students informally in my classes already, and learning some of these more formal strategies will be very helpful in my practice. Especially having the provided frameworks: 

• SAY - Say something constructive, Ask a question, Yay-give praise

• SAFE - Say, Ask, Feedback, Empathize

• THINK - True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, King

• TAG - Tell something you learned, Ask a question, Give a compliment

• RISE - Reflect, Inquire, Suggest, Elevate

It seems some of these may be more complex than others, especially for students who may not be used to using these types of guidelines, or used to speaking to others in a constructive manner. the SAY, and TAG seem to be the easiest to implement. Which all spark further conversation in a constructive manner. 

The SAFE framework also seems like a safe place to start with students (pun intended) and the THINK, and RISE seem like they are for more advanced Accountable Talk practice. Given that we are (hopefully!) on the tail-end of the pandemic, these would be great tools to use with students, since our students have lost so many opportunities for social growth in the past 18 months. Teaching students these strategies to students is more important now more than ever before.

Impact on Instructional Practice

I think by now it’s safe to say that, as a result of the pandemic, the teaching industry will never be the same. Furthermore, I think it's also safe to say that the pandemic has inspired innovation, but also forced teachers who may have been holding onto their 20th century jobs in the 21st century to either adapt, or move aside and make room for someone else.

I have mixed feelings about this new adoption of technology. With technological growth moving faster than ever, I partly feel it is a disservice to our students not to prepare them for this new reality. However, I acknowledge this may be because I teach in the International School industry in Asia, where tech is so common, that my personal vision might be biassed or skewed. 

So the big question is how do we address these new trends and apply them in education and how we teach our students? Even though I mentioned above that I feel not teaching students how to be tech-savvy in our tech-rich future would be a disservice to them, I also feel they’ll “get it” eventually, simply because they’ll be surrounded by it. Which leads me to focus on things that I think they won’t “get” as a result of our new normal: emotional support, practice building soft-skills, social skills development, and mental health awareness

As important as I feel the tech will be for our students, these non-tech related areas will be some big areas that I feel will be the biggest areas of consideration.