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My key take away at this moment -- aside from reflecting on the deeply amazing humans I met and spent time with -- is that some of the significant
organizational changes that have been bubbling up throughout higher education
surfaced in different ways this year. This is good! I felt that the presentations this year
were topical and compelling. In short, there was discomfort and debate -- more so than in previous years. This too is good! Some presentations even delved into subjects
that have become indiscussable at some institutions. And that, to me, is a
significant moment in the process of organizational change.
According to Argyris (1999), when individuals in an organization are confronted with change they
find themselves forced to deal with topics or issues that challenge their
traditions. These traditions are
governed by mental models, which are undetectable, yet salient, conditions that
inform how a person thinks and acts.
When a mental model that guides a tradition in an
organization is challenged, a person will behave in one of two ways. Most
commonly, a person will exhibit defensive behavior. Defensive actions may include exhibiting
signs of frustration or simply avoiding the topic all together. For example,
"That's not how we do things here" or "That wouldn't work because..."
These behaviors build upon each other and after enough repetition, the members
of an organization become familiar with the expected response and stop raising the
topic. The questions (that is, the new ideas, the innovations, the curiosity) stop being introduced into the organization and the status quo is reinforced. The topic, therefore, becomes indiscussable and
the tradition, whatever it may be (even if we all dislike it) remains intact. We all have seen this right? Think about when a new person in your organization is hired and asks that uncomfortable question that nobody else asks anymore because everyone else has learned the answer.
If defensiveness can be overcome when a person becomes aware of his/her mental model, however, the mental model can be seen in a new light. A person can
begin to think critically about why and how it became so powerful and start to
have a deep conversation about alternative actions. This is when an
organization begins to become a learning organization. This is when awakening can lead to meaningful changes. And it starts with conversations about difficult topics.
Reclaiming Learning
Groom's keynote to me, illustrates, the model of
organizational learning I described above. Groom's talk took the audience
through a historical look at web culture when geocities offered users the
opportunities to easily cultivate their own web presence and connect with
others. This open, communal experience
was contrasted with the LMS, higher education's "go to" learning
landscape.
It is as if we don't even think beyond what's outside the
LMS today in higher education. It is as if we think we're teaching online but
we aren't -- we're teaching inside a walled garden. And how does learning inside an LMS prepare a
student for live in our digital, mobile society? These were some of Groom's
points.
The LMS has become our tradition. The open-web has become
the uncomfortable change -- the flood waters that the administrators of our
institutions try to keep out. This is the indiscussable topic that Groom took
hold of in his keynote.
Throughout the past several years, I have worked with many
faculty who have shared with me that they want
to teach with this tool or that tool to promote more engaging, collaborative
learning for their online students but their institutions will not allow them
to because of this or that.
Or they immediately pause and become filled with caution and concern at
the thought of integrating a tool into their students' learning that is not
included within the LMS.
I realize my words may be stirring up emotions within you as
you read this and I am fully aware there are topics to discuss and learning
that needs to happen in order for us to facilitate learning with web-based
tools (which is the crux of my book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging
Technologies). The point is that we can
work through these topics together, as a community of online educators, if our
top priority is our students' learning,
as opposed to maintaining and controlling them.
Groom's points dug deep. If we teach inside an LMS and only
inside an LMS, are we truly teaching "online"? If our students only experience interactions within the controlled, secure walls of
an LMS, are they truly experiencing what it means to be online? Are we, as educators, leveraging the educational benefits
of the internet if our learners do not engage in activities outside the walled
garden of an LMS? Are we as a system of
higher education embracing even a small percentage of the power of this
"learning revolution" we appear to be occurring around us? How is learning online improving students'
abilities to think critically about media? To create original media and share
it for re-use in a digital, mobile society? To locate, evaluate, and re-use
media effectively?
And as we, more and more, strive to design
"learner-centered" online learning environments, the LMS is designed
to lock students out from their own learning contributions after a term has
ended. As Groom so eloquently put it,
when students learn in an LMS, they learn in an environment that has no
relevancy to life after college.
As I reflect on my own teaching, the more I have ventured
outside the LMS to designed an online
learning environment for my class that incorporates a tapestry of
student-centered media projects with web-based tools the more inspired,
relevant,
and active my students'
learning has become. And that topic has been the premise of this very blog,
my book, and my other related work.
In
fact, I became so passionate about this topic that it led me in 2009 to leave
my safe, tenured position as a full-time faculty member and eventually begin my
life that same year as a free-lancer. In many ways, teaching outside the LMS
led me to a life as an academic outside the academy. Hmm. Interesting connection.
The LMS is a helpful tool for providing a secure place for
having students authenticate as registered students. That is a function I rely
upon it for. The LMS is also a valuable tool for communicating grades to
students, which must be done securely to comply with FERPA. I also use my LMS to deploy periodic
traditional assessments for learners, because they provide students with
automated feedback from me, as well as opportunities to learn from their
mistakes when assessments are allowed to be taken multiple times.
I have much more processing to do about Jim Groom's talk. But, for now, I'd like to thank him for taking us to this level of learning.
Mess in Online Education
 |
| Image by Cy Twombly |
The plenary presentation at #ET4Online,
Mess in OnlineEducation: How It Is, How It Should Be,
was delivered by Jen Ross
@jar and Amy Collier
@amcollier.
Their presentation reframed the culturally
derogatory term "mess" into a positive vision for online
education.
Yes, your teaching should be
messy.
Why?
As the presenters reminded us, learning is
messy.
If we could visualize how each of
us learns, we would be able to see that each of us learns in an entirely
different way. I was reminded of a Cy Twombly drawing while listening to this
presentation. Some may see it as a mess; some see it as beautiful. Either way,
it's art.
But mess is more than supporting learning differences. Mess involves designing for and allowing for
learners to experiences the challenges, stumbles, and failures involved with
the real world, as well as building in flexibility to allow life to intervene.
Right now, my online students are embarking upon a project that involves
locating a practicing art photographer (anywhere in the world), interviewing
him/her about his/her work, and creating a VoiceThread about the photographer's
work. I have this project chunked out
into three steps, each with a deliverable, clear criteria, and a due date, to
keep students on task. The experience is
different for each student. For example, some students identify a photographer
quickly, others reach out to several before they make contact with one who is
available to be interviewed, and I have had two students (over two years) who
have needed my help finding a photographer. Most students relish in how
incredible it felt to be in touch with a "real" photographer and
learn about his/her experiences. Some have maintained connections with them and
even been sent prints from the photographer after the project's completion. One
photographer asked my student's permission to share her VoiceThread on his blog
(nice turn of the tables!) and another student received an email from a photographer
letting her know that her project had "validated his career."
The project is messy. I never know how it's going to turn
out or what problems we are going to encounter. The important thing is that my
students know I'm in it with them and I'm there for them -- and that they
remain in communication with me. I have had semesters where I've thought,
"Maybe I should end this." But after listening to Amy and Jennifer's
presentation, I feel empowered to continue this project. It truly is real-world learning that will
foster skills for life, more so than any multiple-choice test, discussion
forum, or assigned blog post. Learning
outside the LMS is real world learning. And that is why we need to embrace it.
In the presentation, Collier and Ross also noted one recent
trend in edtech that is discouraging mess in online learning -- the
proliferation of technologies that simplify the teaching and learning
process.
In their presentation, they
included many screenshots from promotions and writings about products that
promote their ability to save teachers time, to minimize assessment challenges,
etc.
While I agree that the focus on lifting
the teacher from the student experience has been overly celebrated in the MOOC
heyday -- and I shared early reservations of employing MOOCs widespread in community colleges
here
-- I hope the presentation does not throw cold water on the many innovations
surfacing in educational technology today that will continue to improve upon
the sterile, tidy LMS-driven experiences Groom critiqued in his presentation.
As I already noted, it were not for the emergence of web
2.0, I would never have ventured outside my LMS. I would still be teaching my visually-centric
art history courses using text-based discussion forums (ouch). I enjoy not only the opportunity to continue
to explore new tools emerging on the edtech horizon, but working directly with
entrepreneurs who want to learn how to improve education. I support more dialogue between higher
education and edtech startups -- not less.
Entrepreneurs need to learn from online educators --. and those who will
survive are those who are willing to learn.
Questions for reflection:
- "How is your online class preparing your
students for success in the 21st century?"
- "How does the design of your online class
generate opportunities for students each go different ways, encounter unique
challenges, and identify their own solutions?"
Thinking Ahead to 2015
Next year, I will be conference chair for the 2015 Sloan-C-MERLOT
ET4Online Symposium. The event will be
in Dallas once again on April 22-24, 2015. Send me your ideas and your suggestions so it
can continue to be an engaging, thought-provoking experience and advance the
conversation about the role of emerging technologies in online learning.
References:
Argyris, C. (1999). On organizational learning. Malden, MA: Blackwell Business.
