This week I have had the ‘opportunity’ to experience the professional development through digital learning in ways I never thought I would ever experience. Taylor & Maruneau (2016) share theory-based research around experiential learning of the adult learners that is timely and applicable to my (indeed, OUR) current reality as an educator. “An essential premise of adult learning is that it begins with and proceeds from experience” (p. 248).
March 2020 will go down as a historic time for educators and learners regarding rapid professional development for educators and policymakers as we experience a pause in the educational settings we have come to know like the back of our hands. I currently am bombarded with digital tools, suggestions, and videos; it is hard to not get lost in the plethora of tools. Using the learning needs of my audience as my professional compass, as well as my ability to practice intentional self-inquiry has grounded my practice this week. “A quarter-century ago, John Heron, from England, and David Kolb, from the United States, authored theories of experiential learning still widely used in the field… The most educative experiences involve a person’s substantive interpretations of subsequent experiences, and transactional exchanges between individual and environment” (Taylor, Maruneau, 2016 p. 252).
Kolb’s Learning Cycle illustrates how we naturally learn from experiences in our environments.
“Reflection serves as a bridge from reflexive, unconscious thinking to reflective consciousness.” (Taylor, Maruneau, 2016 p. 248). I have written about reflexivity before; my mental reflexive muscle is ‘toned’, but I must pause before I ‘flex’.
“The most educative experiences involve a person’s substantive interpretations of subsequent experiences, and transactional exchanges between individual and environment” (Taylor, Maruneau, 2016 p. 248). I am pausing within this experience to anchor myself in sound pedagogy to support the decisions I have been asked to make regarding the professional development that I am responsible for delivering to my team.
ISTE Standard 4.b states that professional development should intentionally “Design, develop, and implement technology-rich professional learning programs that model principles of adult learning and promote digital age best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment.” Within this opportunity to experience and learn from our experiences of rapid informal professional learnings, how do we press the pause button and ensure that we select the best tool for our learning goal?
SAMR as modeled by Puentedura (2015), affirms my professional practice to stop and think about the professional development I am providing before I facilitate the learning. The responsibility to support my team is one I do not take lightly. Currently, I am seeing our practice fall into the Augmentation (Enhancement Phase). Interestingly enough, conversations are already starting to focus on Modification and Redefinition (Transformational Phase) regarding future professional practice; our experiential learning is shaping a concrete experience because we are in a state of active experiment.
In working with my team this week I have been able to practice what I have shared in multiple blog posts, I am listening to my audience about the learning goals and developing a session for advisors to meet with high school students via our campus-endorsed web conferencing tool, Zoom. It was natural for some to worry about the tool: How can we meet our advising objectives while learning a new digital tool ourselves? How do we know if our students are using cell phones, laptops, or tablets to digitally connect? How do we get past the logistics to meet the target objective? How can the digital tools empower the advisor to do the job they do with their hearts each and every day? Thinking about these questions takes me full circle to what is highlighted as ‘good teaching’ — Listening to the learners, focusing on the learning objective, and providing real-life opportunities to experience the situation. By intentionally facilitating professional development this week, using experiential learning theory, reflexivity, SAMR, and good old fashion patience and listening, I have learned more from the third week of March 2020 than I could have ever hoped for. As I take a moment to breathe and reflect on my week I am already making notes for my next steps and taking my team’s needs into consideration.
Reference:
ISTE Standards for Coaches | ISTE. (n.d.). Retrieved Autumn 3, 2020, from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-coaches
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kolb, D.A. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Puentedura, R (2015, April) SAMR-model.jpg [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.emergingedtech.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SAMR-model.jpg
Taylor, K., & Marienau, C. (2016). Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind: A Conceptual and Practical Guide (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
