Learning - Not Just For All Ages, But Also All Minds

One of my favorite parts of our class this semester has been the focus on Universal Design for Learning. I happen to be a more traditional learner in that I easily comprehend concepts that are spoken about or that I write down, but there have been times in my classes where I simply don’t understand what is put in front of me until I have tried several different methods of thinking about it. It reminds me of finding my way through routes I traveled in my childhood – I didn’t know to pay attention to the names of roads or buildings we traveled by, and I would be hard-pressed to find my way solely through those names now. But I have very vivid memories of what the route looked like, where we turned, and how long it took to get there. So for traveling, I use spatial and visual learning. Imagining what would happen if I had to take that very clear mental map and write a set of directions using only street names, and for a grade, makes me sympathetic towards students who have a hard time translating a lecture into solid ideas.

The Common Core Standard #5 in Speaking and Listening - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations – most succinctly states the need for UDL principles and the ways in which digital media can help accomplish them. Despite the tendency to fall back on PowerPoint slides and lectures, there are as many ways to express information as there are children to learn it, and varying those ways of expression is the best way to ensure all the students in a class can follow your lesson. Even more, the various tools available can help students organize and present their own ideas in a way that makes sense to them. Using tools like Popplet to make intricate concept maps or Scoop.it to collect their resources can encourage students who have a fear of the blank sheet of paper to be confident in what they are planning. I was especially excited to see all the games and animations that were presented, because there are many people who learn by doing things and taking ideas apart to see how they work. To a first-grader who is very tactile and would rather be playing with LEGOs, the idea that you can make an animation in Scratch by moving around colored blocks of text is revolutionary. And getting up to move around and film things with Videolicious successfully captures the attention of children with ADHD and kinesthetic learners.

Overall, I have enjoyed the many and various tools I learned about in this class. I am not likely to go into education any time soon, but everybody winds up in the role of teacher or student at some point, and I often end up teaching the use of technology to various people at the public library where I work. When I do, I keep in mind the principles of UDL and try to teach the person in a way they can understand. I hope to take these ideas through the rest of my career.

On Creativity and Technology

It never struck me before the last few classes just how much opportunity technology gives for students to be creative. I’ve only seen a few sets of standards that encourage creativity as NETS for students does (1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology) – since creativity is by definition different for each student, it is difficult to regulate and grade, and creates more work for teachers already overloaded with hundreds of assignments to grade. So many teachers assign simple papers or skits or construction-paper projects because those are tried-and-true outlets for student creativity. But what about those whose worst nightmares consist of performing something before the class? What about those who can picture everything they want to convey in their heads but can’t find the words to say it?

Brenda’s comments about using VoiceThread to tell a story were fascinating. I had never considered using the technology in that way. But it occurs to me that storytelling is the perfect way to introduce quite a number of subjects using technology. A presentation, after all, is just a story with a purpose and a defined audience – you still have to figure out the most effective way to convey your information to your audience, and how to do it so that they will be interested. Starting out with storytelling as a frame may help students understand that what they do with their chosen medium (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.) must enhance the story, not overshadow it. (This goes along with the Communication standard as well: Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.)

More than that, I highly support the idea of using animation to tell stories. A behavior I’ve noticed among my classmates and younger children is using GIFs to express their reaction or feelings about a particular subject; this is not just because pictures tell an eloquent story in a small space, but because movement catches people’s attention and makes the opinion feel more interactive. As we saw during class when we created our own projects using Scratch, animation fascinates people and allows for a lot of creativity. Those whose talents tend towards visual expression might take to animation a lot more readily than writing.

And storytelling is not solely about creative expression, either; many staples of English classes can be covered when doing a creative project. Storytelling requires you to plan out what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it, defining a beginning, middle, and end. You must make the story believable: how are you going to present your argument so that people are interested? Depending on the story, some research may also be involved. Minor details like what historical events the character might be reading about in the newspaper can be starting grounds for enthusiastic searches. Students tend to be more willing to complete a task if it is something they have a personal stake in.

Overall, I believe that using technology to support student creativity is a wonderful idea, and one that may still be in line with course goals.

Diversity and Collaboration

One of the issues I encounter most frequently in standards for learning - whether in AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners, Common Core State Standards, or NETS for Students - is the issue of collaboration. "Collaboration" crops up constantly everywhere from research studies to corporate meetings, and it can be considered one of the buzzwords of the 21st century. But people seem to be vague about what it actually means. Is it assigning each student in the team separate tasks and piecing together the result? Is it asking your neighbor how she/he solved the problem and why they did it that way? Is it incorporating multiple ideas from students into the finished product?

The aim of enforcing standards about collaboration seems to be not only to teach social skills about cooperation and compromise, but to encourage students to consider the viewpoints and opinions of others. AASL spells it out in Learning Standard 2.1.5: "Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems." But collaboration can become limited by those you collaborate with. In situations where a small number of students are frequently grouped together - such as ESL students or Advanced Placement students - the students come to know each other fairly well, to the point where they may become able to predict how a discussion or project is going to go as soon as they are grouped together. Another concern is the general makeup of the student population. I attended very liberal schools growing up, and it was difficult to even find a conservative or Republican student to provide another point of view, let alone someone who was well-informed and willing to debate. My cousins grew up in a small town in Michigan that had very few minority students to provide alternate viewpoints, and the political landscape was again very one-sided. What happens when the very act of collaboration does not achieve part of its purpose - to "solicit and respect diverse perspectives" (Standard 3.3.1)?

This is where educational technology can shine. By connecting students with others across the country and the world, online collaboration is uniquely suited to introduce students to perspectives they would never encounter in their daily lives. Sites like ProCon.org offer a range of well-researched stances about current issues for students to consider, and others like Scitable put students in contact with others who may have different takes on what they are learning. People in general tend to only search for information that supports their views, and that is what collaboration is intended to combat in these standards. Technology is invaluable to this cause, giving students firsthand experience with defending their ideas or considering others that may be radically different.

Killer Gas

The fast, thick cloud of CO2 killed quickly and silently. It displaced all the ordinary air and remained in the village for hours. People first became drowsy and disoriented, then passed out and finally died as their brains were starved for oxygen. Animals were also killed, from large animals like cattle to small animals like insects. Unlike other disasters that scour the landscape and wreck infrastuctures, the only damage Lake Nyos suffered was a swath of vegetation right near the north side, where the forceful expulsion created an 80-foot wave. The rest of the plants lived, creating the eerie and upsetting sight of roads, fields, and houses still standing, but everyone in the villages dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEPNYRD09es

Lake Nyos Disaster

The Lake Nyos disaster occurred on August 21st, 1986, at 9:30 PM. This particular lake is more than deep enough to hold a great amount of CO2 – a crater lake on the flank of an extinct stratovolcano, it is 208 meters (682 feet) deep. No one knows the exact cause of the CO2 expulsion, but the main theories are disturbance from the bottom (unusual heat or small explosion from magma, rockslide, etc.) or disturbance from the top (lake overturn). Over 1.6 million tons of CO2 rose from the lake bottom. Since CO2 is heavier than air, it spilled over the northern edge of the crater and flowed downhill the same way that a river might. As the cloud headed towards the three villages of Nyos, Cha, and Subum, it picked up more speed, eventually going 100 kph (62 mph).

Limnic eruptions typically occur in volcanic lakes, which are able to hold a great quantity of dissolved CO2 gas due to the heavy pressure in their deep bottoms. Veins of magma release heat and gasses into the water from underneath. There may be as many as 5 liters of CO2 for every liter of water, and it all comes up when something disturbs the delicate balance of layers. The disturbance could be anything – an underwater rock slide, a change in temperature, sinking surface waters – but all lead to the gas-heavy water rising and the CO2 exsolving from the water. As the water and gas rise, there is less pressure, so more and more gas is released. The other gas-heavy water follows in the wake of the first, releasing its gas as well. Eventually, the whole lake undergoes lake overturn and all the deep water is now at the surface.

Playa Espadilla Sur

The beach was a place of beauty, with sparkling sun, amazing sunsets, and stunning night skies. Some of the happiest memories from my trip are here. It's still a special place for me.