emma bourassa

Karen, the prompt to: Creatively share (draw, paint, etc) your journey and share here in a picture format makes me think of how many questions might be generated from the participants to explain the choices of lines, symbols, colours, images or whatever they do. I would be intrigued by someone else's image and would love to figure out how they express ideas visually. What a fun idea. 

Thanks Jeff, I had the same experience and still do. In fact, I'm looking at others' detailed posts and am wondering if I totally missed something....ah well, if I did then here's the place to learn! 

For any kind of self reflective sharing, I agree that it is important to be present and empowering with folks, whatever they choose to offer. It's just a fact that communication styles differ and where one may be very able to express ideas with elaboration, someone else may be more inclined to brevity. 

The context for this question/prompt is facilitating educators in re-imagining how learning occurs and can occur. 

The intent for the instructor is to provide a positive start to the discussion of change, which can be difficult for some. The other is to focus on constructive ideas, rather than hash through what is not working. A redirection of sorts. This serves as a needs assessment for me as I look at how to support the participants within the course as they develop an aspect of a course/workshop. 

The intent for the participants is to provide a space to try on new ideas, with no evaluation (that will work/won't work) of those ideas. There is not an expected 'end point' as this is more of a process focusing on the 'do' aspect rather than the 'do not' angle.

I realize individuals prefer various stages of creating curriculum or aspects of teaching. This may be frustrating for some, so I am looking at starting with a choice of either sharing with others, sharing with me only, or holding it to themselves for a specific period of time to be able to mull. I welcome your ideas and impressions! 

The prompt: What do you want more of for the teaching and learning experiences? 

Woops, forgot to add a few items: 

The questions are personal and do not rely on more work, so I would be very prepared to participate. I especially like the last one because it digs deeper into the why and could help to build relationships between students for whom the online learning environment, or Canadian context, might be new. 

Hi Leonne, 

This looks like a comprehensive exploration and reflection for students to consider their learning process. They have some background knowledge and now the application is the next step. I like the variety of questions that starts with recall, then moves to reflection. As I read through the post, a few things came up and I am wondering about, from the learner perspective:

Most have had no experience with online learning- would it make sense as this is a first trial for you (correct me if I've misinterpreted) to have one video and one question, then later a second question with two questions, etc. This could provide scaffolding as students get used to the LMS. 

I'm not sure the level of language for the L2 students. How might you support them when the visual cues of face and body language aren't there. Perhaps this is part of a blended course where they practice in class then go online with the memory of the practice? 

I appreciate the reminder of the value of participating.