Madsen's Musings

I can’t help but think of Star Trek whenever I look at the title for this assignment. Admittedly I think of Star Trek a lot in general, but “future vision”- that is the domain of Gene Roddenberry. He had a vision for the future that contrasted with the normally dark science fiction that centred on conflict and destruction. Roddenberry was optimistic and believed that humans had tremendous potential. I guess that kinda mirrors my educational view for the future. I’m optimistic about the futures of my students and believe they have tremendous potential.

It’s up to us to “make it so.” 😉

Originally I had a vision for this project:

the 21st Century Classroom as realized through teamwork, technology and totally awesome projects 

I even like the alliteration. But the thing is, as I sat drafting ideas, I realized it’s too big in scope for this project. I tend to be like that: ambitious with no consideration for my timeframe, busy life and overall mental well-being. This gets me in over my head sometimes. Often, actually. So for this project I am consciously pumping the brakes a little so that I can give myself a vision that I can actually complete on time while allowing myself the luxury of sleeping now and again.

All along my vision for this inquiry project has been to have it mirror the professional journey I’m on both for pragmatic reasons, as I strive to find my way in a new role, and for intellectual reasons, because I know that the program I’m working in is innovative and a promising path for education. Consequently, I want my project to marry my current teacher life with my student life. So I plan on taking my course learning and explaining it and amplifying it with examples from what’s going on in PLP classrooms in my school. 

Part of the pleasant part of this learning journey for me has been how my UBC requirements are lining up with the work being asked of me in the school. At this point, my grade 8 learners are sharpening their technology skills as a means of expressing their learning by not only blogging (like me!), but learning how to use different tools to create different kinds of texts, such as using Keynote on their iPads to generate videos.  The students in grades nine through 12 are making more sophisticated digital work by incorporating different apps, and ultimately using iMovie. I myself, as their teacher, need to get more comfortable with these tools, so I am going to push myself to create a movie for my final project and learning the tools that my students are learning. Even though deep down I just want to write a paper!!! So that’s the how, the format. Imma make a video. 🤮 Now for the what, the content: What will my technology video include?

I would like to include screenshots to show some of the digital tools in action, and explain how they amplify good pedagogy. 

Also, asking the students what they envision would be an effective classroom in the 21st-century is a good strategy. According to John Spencer, the understanding stage of a project involves “authentic research,” anything we do to learn. And one of the things that we advise students that they should do to learn is ask an expert. Who is a better expert at what makes a good classroom than the people who spend six hours a day in one? And, after all, that is our why. They are why we are designing better schools. So I would love to include their perspective on what classrooms should look like as well as perhaps snippets of their work that demonstrate what can be done if we design good tech-infused programs.  

If I’m feeling brave, lol I might even ask students to help me get comfortable with the tools. One of the key aspects of a good 21st-century classroom is the use of feedback for growth, something that our students do a lot of and are quite comfortable at. I think it would be valuable and important to model this with them by seeking their feedback on my work, especially considering that some of them have a lot more experience with these digital tools than I do. I think they might rather find it fun to give me feedback on my fledgling movie work! 🤪

Another key aspect of my inquiry this semester has been to explore the power of mentorship and team in education. So I would also like to include the perspectives of the members of my team in this project. I hope to be able to interview them and include clips of what they say. I think it would be valuable to model my learning on the value of bringing in various perspectives  to strengthen a program.

Potential outline for my movie:

• The why: goals for the education system (“the educated citizen”) and skills in demand in the 21st century
• What can be done with tech:
  • Creativity
  • Collaboration
  • Expanded learning options
  • Adaptive advantages/different ways of showing learning
  • Not just learning curriculum, but learning tech skills
  • Authentic: we learn and communicate online
  • Problem-solving
• Concerns:
  • Helping kids with their executive function 
  • Inequity

This still seems like a LOT for a 3-5 minute video. So I will go into it with the understanding that I might have to narrow it even further. If that’s the case, I think my angle would be the role of technology in levelling the playing field for all kids. But we’ll see. Maybe I just won’t sleep!