Hamsters and Guinea Pigs

Before the Easter break this past week, I asked my students what self directed learning means to them, and the Learning Tree I made up from their concept ideas is something inspiring. I can certainly take a leaf (or a few) from this! It shouldn't surprise me anymore that even though as their lecturer I know exactly what I want from my students, as a student myself I make the same missteps and neglect the full circle - what is the topic and what are the criteria? My 'consciousness' knows what to do, I have a 'direction', yet my 'preparation' does not always see me making sure I have actually covered all of the ground needed for the next class as I found out pretty quickly for the Special Topic class on March 19th. Certainly I have an 'interest',and most definitely a 'goal', so that's all right then.

I thought I was well prepared, I had my wordle in the shape of this hand below all ready, and had printed off my last blog to share with everyone. So far so good, right? Well, yes, but for two small factors:

1. I didn't specifically share what my actual topic would be
2. I didn't make clear how I felt about my learning journey up till then 

Sort of the whole point, which I didn't quite twig, until Linda's feedback asking me exactly those 2 points. Felt a bit sheepish and kind of clicked that I had sort of felt that but liking what I had written, left it as it was. Hmm.

Lesson learned? I hope so! Instructions are there to help as I am so good at letting my own students know - why do we revert to exactly that as students ourselves?

Another contemporary issue worth exploring I think?

But I AM going to stick to my original thoughts and so here is my Special Topic Question after some input form Linda and my own process of deciding what the question will be:

How can students be encouraged to engage in deep learning during a more compressed time frame?

I am keeping the compression as that is the whole point - yes deep learning is important, and we will get that  - but HOW do we get earlier and sustain it,when the Certificate and Diploma programme I deliver is now finished  within 4 trimesters, not 4 semesters? This is a 5 month difference overall, and that will show somehow, I would say. 

I've also got my Research question:

Why is reflective writing helpful in a practical course?

Actually, I think the two are clearly linked but I wont go into that, there will be a time for that at a later stage I think. I'm really pleased that I left the class 2 weeks ago feeling much more clear about how to find the questions and formulate them more clearly, and was even more pleased to feel I had got a much better grasp on what the terminology means. Ontology, epistemology, methodology and paradigm now actually have meaning and don't confuse me so much. I spent 5 hours critically reading a 700 page book in Research in Education, (thanks to Mona from MIT Student Support who taught my class how to read effectively - it works!!) and I could actually understand it!!! Progress has been made!
Today I set up my assessment work and tidied up my research notes - what a mess! but now it all makes sense and I can get down to the business of more reading (about 6 books to go through for both courses) and getting my introductions written.
Another useful day under my belt, so feeling ok about things again!

Getting back to my learning journey so far, I want to acknowledge my classmates and Linda too, for their feedback on my presentations. I was blown away by the recognition from a lot of people about my scattered thinking and the need to find my focus - the footprints resonated well here, starting off alone and expecting that soon more would join me on the learning journey.
I did not realise how powerful the image of the hand with words would be let alone the impact of the colours - high five, hands on, heaps to carry with me...
I felt inspired, uplifted, humbled and really touched by how peer feedback has the power to set you thinking even further on what you have just shared - so I did that while we were giving each other feedback.
I found the act of giving feedback on everyone else's summaries very powerful as well, as it helped me to see the variety of interest among 8 people, and hopefully I can take some of that with me to enrich my own journey. Just looking at the hand and reflecting on the words there actually helps me to focus on what they mean both singly and collectively to me at this stage. The hand is not trying to be confrontational, but to invite you to 'stop' and 'think' about what the words themselves mean to you. The colours were also meant to 'pop' and stand out, the dark background helps with that I think- we can find light by learning.
The blog I am happy with, I love the staircase representing my learning journey, and the fade into the distance gives me the same feeling as the footprints - this was the beginning, and there is so much out there!

Goals this week:

• Read the books and get the relevant extracts
• Start on the introductions for my essays and put my subject matter into context
• SAVE the blog as I write - I nearly lost it all, thank goodness for the history button! Google Drive is great, but teaches me VERY BAD HABITS! 

Hamsters - saving up my thoughts and words to share them on my blog for further perusal
Guinea Pigs - finding out how I want to continue is always somewhat experimental - as long as I keep the goal in mind it will be all right