Sylvia Riessner

You suggest posting additional resources here - so here's a few I found as I was procrastinating this week

A somewhat dated set of Powerpoint slides but it's a really interesting experiment in applying metacognition concepts in a ASTRO101 course at UBC - I found the slides that detailed the strategies they tried very useful - see what you think - The Role of Metacognition in Learning and Strategies for Developing Student Metacognition (downloads a pdf)

Teaching Metacognition to Improve Student Learning, Mary Ellen Weimer (the Teaching Professor) - she cites a useful research article by Kimberly Tanner, 2012 Promoting Student Metacognition but the link in the article is incorrect. If you want to follow up - pdf download Promoting Student Metacognition

Two amazing UK resources (focused on children)

• -BOLD - blog on learning and development - a post about metacognition - Thinking about thinkg: what is metacognition and how can it help students learn?
• EEF Education Endowment Foundation - Metacognition and self-regulation  (several other reports, ideas - just do a search)
  

Looking Back...what was particularly useful / interesting to me?

I'm still playing catch-up on the posted activities but I find the diversity of the participants and the topics they teach or design/develop gave me fascinating glimpses of different work realities and an admiration for the commitment and care each person took to communicate honestly and openly and to offer helpful suggestions whenever possible (wheww...I think that's a run-on sentence ;-)

I always find the resources and readings are a treasure trove and I plan to contribute a few nuggets tomorrow as I believe everyone will still have access hereafter?

How can I share with colleagues...well, I'm still thinking of ways to motivate busy working adults (especially those who are not involved in higher education and aren't as aware of learning research or the value of metacognition) to pay serious attention to allowing room for some of these self-awareness, self-regulation, reflection, etc.  Some of them are just going to ask me "is there an app for that?" or they'll throw up their hands and say "how am I supposed to do that when no one shows up consistently or they're on their phones most of the time."

But, maybe if I think of it in the same way I think of trying to add vegetables to the kids' snacks (without being obvious about it) or getting my partner to race me to the top of escalators instead of reviewing Facebook as he rides the right hand side of the metal staircase? Incremental metacognition - fit it in where they won't notice they are reflecting or thinking out loud or whatever?

As to improving the micro-course, I can't really see how it could have been more smoothly and skillfully facilitated. Leonne and Vivianna are an impressive team - thanks ladies. It's been a pleasure. The structure seems solid - easy to understand. Didn't have to fumble around for information or what to do. Plus the atmosphere created by L&V and the other participants made it easy for everyone to share their questions, their ideas, and develop their understanding. I appreciate the opportunity to join in - just wish I could have found a way to participate as much as I intended at the beginning of the week!

So, that's the only way I can think to improve the micro-course - you need a watch that freezes time (an idea from a very old John D. MacDonald novel) so that everyone could complete each Activity and take time to review and enjoy all the other contributions. 

Have a good weekend. Hope to see you online in the future.

Apologies for lateness - I've prepared a brief outline my plan to help learner plan and monitor. See My Plan

I generally teach / facilitate shorter courses or linked workshops. So my focus is on providing a structure for my learners that they can apply to any assignment. I take time to have learners work individually to identify their personal goals / intended outcomes for an assignment (nice to have something concrete to learn) - this gets them thinking not only about what they want to do but what is required or expected. Then I split them into small groups or pairs to set priorities and identify some steps they need to take to get the ball rolling. The final preparation step is to make their intentions visible (to themselves and peers or instructor) - they actually map and schedule their plan (when I can I have them do this on a board (if online I've used Padlet, Linoit or ZohoShow (and for those who have privacy concerns - Draw.io - open source and can save to your desktop) and linked it into the online course space.

In the past I've encouraged learners to explore the Pomodoro technique as it's easy to grasp and implement for productive learning sessions. But, it's not for everyone. I'd appreciate some suggestions as to different ways to help students monitor their progress - visibly. I also think I need to build in more group debriefings (hard when the time I have with learners is short !) to help them stay on track or see where they might be avoiding parts of their planning that is uncomfortable or difficult.

Thanks!

Sounds a bit like a funky new dance move eh?

Mmmmm.... Why and What-What?

I chose this micro-course cuz I'm curious and want to expand what I know (or think I know) about metacognition plus I've always enjoyed any FLO activity I've been involved in.

What do I know - I know that metacognition is essentially "thinking about thinking" or "thinking about learning." I know that it involves reflection, active engagement with observation and some kind of feedback, and it's often about developing strategies and self-regulation. And more of course.

I think about metacognition as a fancy term for what the little person (kind of like a homunculus or femunculus) inside my brain does when I'm trying to learn something. She looks around inside my brain and says, "What do you already know about this?" "What do you need or want to know?" "How much time, money and effort will it take?" etc. And when I get lazy she pokes me and when I succeed at some part of the learning she is the one cheering in the background. She notices gaps in my understanding, helps me notice and form new connections between ideas...

What do I expect or hope to learn from this session? Lots, plus I'll enjoy reconnecting with other facilitators and sharing ideas, concerns, strategies, practical applications.

Thanks Leonne and Vivianna!

I've been wanting an opportunity to use this activity in an online course for years! It's been tucked away in my (One day I will... file).

Here's a rough draft - any suggestions for improvement would be appreciated!

Sharing Stories - Building Community

Intended purpose: to initiate (build) a sense of community among participants who are all pursuing courses within a shared program; this activity would be offered during the initial introductory foundation course that they all take. After this course, they may all take different courses, fully online or blended offerings, at different times over a two year period. My hope is that they would have fun and get to know each other enough to make them want to stay connected in other ways that are offered during the program.

What?  I chose to use Cogdog (Alan Levine's) Five Card Flickr open licensed activity. I selected the ds106 option. This is a digital "gamified" version of an activity you may have seen done in face-to-face workshops or conferences. Participants are offered a pre-selected number of images (or they have a chance to select a certain number within a limited time). Their challenge is to imagine a story that connects the often disparate images. Sharing their stories helps to build their understanding of each other (often through laughter!)

Things to consider:  Suitable for an online or blended course offering. For the online activity, learners would have to be comfortable with basic web browser skills, and have a fairly good internet connection and relatively recent computer and web browser. If any learner found the online activity too challenging, the trainer could easily create an alternate assignment and share as a downloadable document or even send via snail-mail. Learners could be encouraged to be creative in how they told their story - as long as whatever story they told could be shared with their peers.

Alternate option:  Use the Five Card Flickr search to perform a random sort and then download several selected sets to produce different documents.  The images could be resized, grouped and added to a Word or editable PDF document so participants could complete as they choose. 

Disclaimer:  This is a new try for me (haven't had an opportunity to test it on my intended victims (oops, I mean audience ;-)

Tasks: (what I need to do before offering)

• Find a 'hook' or way to awaken creative instincts - make it fun. Share some funny, poignant examples. Roll a virtual dice to determine who gets to try first (if I'm able to get them started in a synchronous online session?)
• Provide a checklist that includes a direct link "Are you ready to play Five Card Flickr" and sets a timeframe and explains how to submit to a shared space.
  
  • If they're comfortable sharing their story in the open, they can submit to the Five Card Flickr site and share a link back into the course discussion forum.
  • If they're not, they can save the images to their desktop and build the story there or in an online page you provide that can be shared with other members of the course.
• Set a date for final storytelling submission - allow a few days thereafter and encourage them to read each others and share comments. You may want to provide some simple guidelines for comments.
• Provide a summary or share highlights along the way - this helps to keep learners thinking about the activity - even if they're not actually logged into the course site.
• Encourage learners to share what they enjoyed (or might change) about the activity for future classes.