Activity Six
After talking to my peers about my plan they gave the following feedback:
· I should be careful about how much I try to do at once. It is important that I plan the implementations of my strategies well.
· Create a timeline of what is needed for each strategy so that I can make sure I have what is needed in advance. E.g. When I am videoing classes make sure that I have a video camera and tripod organised.
· It is possible to integrate some assessment across courses. Can we create an integrated assessment event between the Internet course and the Computer Essentials course through the use of Google Docs. How would this work?
· I need to consider the goals of using the journal. What are my expectations of the students. Am I only assessing the reflection contained within the journal or am I assessing the quality of the journal entries. Once again could this be a combined assessment with the Professional Practice course with both the reflection and the quality of the journal record being assessed.
· When considering using models to teach learning I need to balance the practicality of different options with the learning that is taking place. I have to make sure I don’t get carried away with the “coolness” of the learning event when there might be another option that is easier for both myself and the learners, which still promotes just as much learning.
When thinking about the strengths of my plan, I realise that I am not “reinventing the wheel” but I am taking concepts and ideas that have been formulating in my head for a while. The advantage of taking the time to discuss the ideas with my peers is that I can get opinions from their experiences as well. The plan is taking good development that has happened in the past and further improving. I am therefore able to take lessons from past successes and build upon them.
One of the gaps that exist is that I have not directly talked much about the factors that have stimulated change. I have indirectly referenced them but it would be better to more clearly identify them. Apart from that the plan is advancing along nicely.
My goals is more about finding some time to actually get what I have done so far onto a blog as I am running out of time.
Hamish this is a good description about the feedback you have received on your draft plan. It looks like a good way to organise things by having "a timeline of what is needed for each strategy". Another good thing to do is to reflect afterwards on how the strategy worked for you and for the students, and to think about the changes you might make next time you do it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, you do need to be clear about the goal of the journal. Is it to be assessed as is or will students be able to present specific parts of it for assessment. My doctorate research indicates that the use of a framework to scaffold reflection can be useful in deepening the reflection.
I am not sure what you mean when you say "assessing the reflection contained within the journal or am I assessing the quality of the journal entries."
You will need to provide clear criteria to the students to guide the type of journal entries you expect.
This can include: 1. the content you expect to see (and will demonstrate the quality of their understanding and learning about specific topics, I expect), and 2. the depth of reflection and reflective learning. I guess it depends on whether one of the learning outcomes is to see evidence of reflective practice.
You may wish to use the Three-Step Reflective Framework I developed during my Doctorate. You can modify the prompts to suit your students, providing you give me attribution. I can send the word processed document on request. See: Three-Step Reflective Framework.
I am happy to give advice on the reflection component.