My Journey
It is a
new learning curve for me to go back to school in my early 50's with my keen
mind to understand how adult learning feels like, and what methodologies
are used now-a-days in adult learning so that I can enhance my professional
skills with the changing trends and prepare myself to go back to teaching after
a 10 year gap. I used Google search to explore which course will be
best suited for me. I saw a link of Vancouver Career College, School
of Instructor website and their Facebook page, and my curious mind forced me to click those links spontaneously to get some idea if there is something which matches
my desires, if there is something for me or not, who takes these courses, and
where this course will take me? The Facebook cover photo and the profile
picture was very inviting which says "Keep Educating Yourself".
https://www.facebook.com/VCCSchoolOfInstructorEducation
So, I
got interested to enroll myself in Provincial Instructor Diploma Program, in
the fall with Vancouver Career College, PIDP 3100 online course, which is my first online course that I have ever taken. Initially, I was
nervous but my friend eased me out and said "this is very common trend
these days to study online while you are working full time or part-time, it
saves time and it is very interesting to learn new
stuff". http://instructordiploma.com/Months went by and my friend sent me this video yesterday checking how I am doing with my course. She didn't ask me if I have any challenges or if I am enjoying it; she asked me to watch this video. She didn't know that I was struggling with my blog as I learned to make a blog for the first time and I took help from a student whom I supervise at University of the Fraser Valley. It was tough for me to understand how the technicalities of blogs work, how to create links and resource pages etc. At the same time, I was building some thoughts about the role of educators to keep the adult students engaged and motivated; but I clicked on this video leaving aside my assignment for a moment:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152648229018853&set=vb.519003852&type=2&theater
(This video is in Hindi with English subtitles)
I got
motivated again after watching this video and now I am energized enough to
start my new journey. I am ready to explore new learning theories for adult
learners how educators play a role in increasing motivation; and how the
students' engagement can be improved in newly emerging trends of
teaching and learning.
I am a life-long learner, and I like to experience life
through self-empowerment, by sharing knowledge and skills with others.
1. Web
Conference experience with learning partner
Our Instructor Glenn Galy paired me
with Tammie L' Ecluse as my study partner and I was nervous to
connect with her especially when we had never met before and both of us live in
different communities. For me, online course is a new trend when all my
life, I have studied in a traditional classroom, and even for my Ph.D., I used
to meet with my professor and peers face-to-face.
Tammie and I met first time on Skype in
October this year, It was an interesting experience to discuss our
topic on Skype and work in partnership on-line. In fact, I was so excited to talk to her on Skype that for the first
time I downloaded Skype App. on my i-phone and used it with Tammie. We got to
know each other so fast, it was easy! She said she is a Certified Dental
Assistant for 14 years and works part time as an instructor in the same school
from where she got her training. She says, she likes excitement in her life so
she is enrolled in Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP), the same
course which I am pursuing for my professional development. We mutually
decided to work on the topic of Students' Engagements, because we felt that
keeping students motivated and engaged in learning is one of the biggest
challenge around the world and in all disciplines of study, when
students face many challenges and distractions and the number of drop-outs
is increasing, yet they want to attain some professional equity to sustain
their moral and financial accomplishments.
We talked again on Skype on November 25th and further discussed this
topic on a much deeper level reflecting on how the educators can play a
positive role to keep the students engaged and motivated in their learning and
how strongly the educators can become role models and mentors for the students,
that they do their best in achieving their personal goals. We also
discussed the emerging trends in teaching and learning and how the modern ways
of teaching can be incorporated effectively that the students feel more
interested in learning the desired topics and feel excited about their goals of
life.
I was really impressed with Tammie's insight
about the role of instructors when she mentioned that it is very important for
an instructor to keep the passion alive in students by respecting their
choice to pursue this profession by using multiple strategies, respecting
multiple barriers of students and accepting who enters the class-room. As
Tammie mentioned during our brief introduction that she is a Certified Dental
Assistant and instructor in the same discipline from where she got her
training in Kelowna, she emphasized, keeping our knowledge current and updated
helps! She said that sometimes she shares with her students what she worked
during the day and she says "incorporating my case
studies into my class-room teaching and using them in group discussions
really invokes curiosity and keep the students engaged". Tammie
and I both agreed that relationship building is a keyword in students' engagement.
We also
discussed that fast growing technology is a boom, especially in the
post-secondary teaching industry, whether it is classroom teaching or distant
learning through on-line courses. Profoundly, both of us shared the same vision
that it has become very important to use technology in teaching methodology,
for example you-tube videos, blogs, tweets, posts and even Instagram selfies. We shared our vision for 10 years from now (while looking back what was
happening 10, 20 or 30 years ago), work is getting more and more computerized
as Tammie said, "the medical and dental offices are becoming paper-less.
After completing and coming out of their training; the students
are expected to know how to work in this fast growing, modern computerized environment, and similar teaching tools are
needed to make them familiarized, but keeping a balance between
traditional teaching and use of technology". Finally we agreed that it is
important to know our audience and go with the flow of changing trends of
learning and teaching.
In our Skype discussion Tammie mentioned about Flipped-teaching which
I found very fascinating and I got curious to look at her
citation article, "How technology trends have influenced the
classroom".
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/03/how-real-world-technology-use-has-inflitrated-change-classrooms/
http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/
2. My Reflections on Role
of Educators in keeping the students engaged
https://plus.google.com/photos/106363557231127475775/albums/5432686008996297121
My dream come true, 5 years later, after finishing my M.Sc., I got an opportunity to work as a Teacher Assistant, and then promoted to faculty after one year, in a Medical & Dental School in India. For one year when I was TA, I observed the classes of different professors. To my surprise, the student reviews gave highest rating to one of my colleagues who talked more with the students in the form of discussions and used minimal black-board writing in comparison to others who were presenting their lectures on the power-point as so-called "dispensers of knowledge" in a dark, and closed door room. My colleague was also more popular among the students because he had created small learning/ discussion groups of the peers and used to give clinical problems to discuss (problem-based learning). He also accompanied students on their field trips, and used to organize discussion cafe' outside class-room in the college cafeteria. My dream to teach became stronger after seeing the motivation of students, and then I taught for 25 years in that college.
Recently when I was exploring the role of adult educators to enhance students’ engagement, it brought back my memory of my teaching experience and revived my insights. I came across these two article
1. 10 Ways to Promote Student Engagement
My dream come true, 5 years later, after finishing my M.Sc., I got an opportunity to work as a Teacher Assistant, and then promoted to faculty after one year, in a Medical & Dental School in India. For one year when I was TA, I observed the classes of different professors. To my surprise, the student reviews gave highest rating to one of my colleagues who talked more with the students in the form of discussions and used minimal black-board writing in comparison to others who were presenting their lectures on the power-point as so-called "dispensers of knowledge" in a dark, and closed door room. My colleague was also more popular among the students because he had created small learning/ discussion groups of the peers and used to give clinical problems to discuss (problem-based learning). He also accompanied students on their field trips, and used to organize discussion cafe' outside class-room in the college cafeteria. My dream to teach became stronger after seeing the motivation of students, and then I taught for 25 years in that college.
Recently when I was exploring the role of adult educators to enhance students’ engagement, it brought back my memory of my teaching experience and revived my insights. I came across these two article
1. 10 Ways to Promote Student Engagement
Here author proposes definition broad enough to include more specific descriptions. For example: engagement is “students’ involvement with activities and conditions likely to generate high-quality learning.” (p. 168).
1. Enhance students’ self-belief
2. Enable students to work autonomously, enjoy
learning relationships with others, and feel they are competent to achieve their
own objectives
3. Recognize that teaching and teachers are central
to engagement
4. Create learning that is active, collaborative,
and fosters learning relationships
5. Create educational experiences for students that
are challenging and enriching and that extend their academic abilities
6. Ensure that institutional cultures are
welcoming to students from diverse backgrounds
7. Invest in a variety of support services
8. Adapt to changing student expectations
9. Enable students to become active citizens
10. Enable students to develop their social and
cultural capital
Both Tammie and I agreed to the above said ways
instantaneously because both of us have been using some of these principles in
our teaching and also we experienced it when we were students.
Even now, when I am currently supervising few undergraduate students on a history research project, I have experimented various ways of empowering my students and enabling them to work autonomously, and giving them the freedom to enjoy learning relationships with me and among them. It holds a great value when we are more like a team than a traditional hierarchic of student-teacher relationships. We often meet outside campus in a more casual way at community events, as you must have noticed in my photos, field trips and/or study tours are one of my favorite ways of engaging students in discussions relevant to our learning topics.
2. Reflecting on the Importance of Student Engagement
This diagrammatic definition shows student engagement is the
student’s active participation in academic and co-curricular or school-related
activities and commitment to educational goals and learning (Christenson,
Stout, & Pohl, 2012). We all know engaged students when we see them.
They’re the students arriving to class on time, prepared to learn, who
participate in class, complete their schoolwork, and earn good grades.
https://attendengageinvest.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/reflecting-on-the-importance-of-student-engagement/
https://attendengageinvest.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/reflecting-on-the-importance-of-student-engagement/
Student Engagement diagram
3. My
Reflections on Changing Trends in Student Engagement
2015 Horizon Report published this year predicts that there is increasing
use of Hybrid Learning Designs. Education paradigms are shifting to
include more online learning, blended, and hybrid learning, and collaborative
models. Students already spend much of their free time on the Internet,
learning and exchanging new information. Institutions that embrace
face-to-face, online, and hybrid learning models have the potential to leverage
the online skills learners have already developed independent of academia.
http://horizon.wiki.nmc.org/Trends
Whether it is medical science, engineering, business or humanities and
criminology; there has to be a proper balance between humanizing interactions
face-to-face or online and personalizing learning behavior, as my learning
partner, Tammie mentioned in her blog.
The author of "Three Social Trends That Will Influence
Education in 2014" describes here that there are patterns within the
changing trend. There is strong, evidence that behavior patterns of students,
educators, employees and professionals are moving towards the use of social
tools for learning, working and teaching. Collaborating seamlessly face-to-face
and at a distance, bringing the human element to virtual interactions, and
personalized learning will prevail in the near future, each facilitated by
technology.
But it’s not going to be about the technology, it will be about
making connections by voice and/or visual, contributing to new knowledge,
and learning with and from others — all mediated through social media. It will be
the behaviors of students, lifelong learners and educators—their use of
technology, specifically social media applications that will influence
education in the upcoming years. No matter how much technology is used in
teaching but human element, eye contact and relationship building has still not
lost its value. Tools used for synchronous chat and video
conversations are Google+ Hangouts, FaceTime,WhatsApp, and Skype to name a few. It seems that students seek not only
a connection with faculty and peers, but want a humanized experience,
including personal feedback, especially in online learning.
https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/three-social-trends-that-will-influence-education-in-2014/
As
Tammie has mentioned in her blog about my supervisory work, I am
currently supervising undergraduate research students for a Sikh History
Project. We are quite aligned with the use of modern technology in our
research. The students use their hand held devices to record oral histories
either with their cell phones or recorders and then transcribe audio voices
into a computer. The artifacts related to the interviewees' life are either
photographed or scanned and stored into a master file in the computer. We also use
virtual meetings on phone, through e-mail or using text messages. Our work will
also create a digital story in addition to the written story. We are very
excited about our work because it involves lots of new learning which involves
both face-to-face group learning which captures immense humanizing experience, as well as, personalized learning while transcribing and listening to the
audios. I am glad to see the students fully engaged in the work as it involves a
lots of emotional absorbency and interest created into the topic, getting to know the history of
immigration of their own ancestors. And moreover, it is a mutual learning
within our team, by sharing our technological, cultural and language
abilities to get excellent results in our narratives.
Summary:
Though we cannot predict and make an educated guess
if the changing trends in adult learning by embedding technology is alone a perfect tool to motivate the students or a collaboration
of social media with face-to-face humanizing the learning experience and
supported by personalized learning will work better? Educator's role is to
keep a balance between the traditional and online tools so that students stay
engaged and motivated to participate in their learning throughout their life.
At the end of the day, all learning experiences have to be self-rewarding and
beneficial for self and for the community. Learning is celebrating life through
experience! As I said, I am a life-long learner through experience and empowerment!
