Learning Portfolio EAD 860

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Learning PortfolioEAD 860

• Kim Luzius
• Fall Semester 2003

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DATA

• What I did..
• What caught my attention

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What I did

• 1. Read Growing up Digital by Don Tapscott
• 2. Read Seven Principles for Cultivating
  Communities of Practice by E. Wenger, R.
  McDermott, and W.M. Snyder

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What I did

• 3. Read Create the Learning Organization by
  Lynn Szostek
• 4. Completed library search assignment

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What I did

• 5. Completed 3 lessons
• 6. Began collecting and reviewing information
  for road rally project

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What caught my attention

• While reading Growing up Digital
• My concern that poor children, which translates
  into African-American children will be left
  behind.

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What caught my attention (cont)

• With little income it is difficult to afford a
  computer in the home.
• These students typically attend schools with few
  financial resources.
• If the schools are equipped with computers the
  ratio of computers to students is probably low
  meaning students spend little time using the
  computer.

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What caught my attention

• Softbots, knowbots, or bots
• Auburn University subscribes to Ingenta, which is
  a database. The user saves qualifiers pertaining
  to an information search and the database carries
  out the search sending the results to the users
  email address on a monthly basis.

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Associations and Feelings

• What worked?
• What energized me?
• What frustrated me?

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What worked My feelings

• Reading the assigned articles on learning
  organizations and communities of practice because
  they allowed me to relate some of the information
  presented in this class to my work experience

• Because I work as a union representative rather
  than directly with students I felt the Tapscott
  book failed to apply to me.
• Because my daughter is not an N-Gener, I felt the
  Tapscott book failed to apply to me.

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What worked (cont)

• The articles put into perspective my current
  employers lack of ability to adapt and change to
  a changing work force.

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What worked (cont)

• This leaves me with two options
• 1. Work to make what changes I can in my current
  organization such as cultivating a community of
  practice
• 2. Find a job with a company that fosters a
  learning organization

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What energized me

• The library search assignment
• It made me think about the process I use when
  searching for information using the library as a
  resource and question the productivity of those
  methods.
• Questioning my methods hopefully will lead to
  improvement in search techniques which will mean
  more useful information and little time wasted.

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What energized me

• While sitting at a school board meeting I
  connected a comment made by the superintendent to
  this class. He said the system hopes to
  eventually minimize the use of paper by placing
  all personnel data from the time a person is
  hired to the time they retire in an electronic
  format.They also hope to use real time
  accountability of finances for all schools
  ensuring an instant update of transactions as
  they occur.
• Tapscott (1998, p. 24) mentioned the fact that
  technology will change all aspects of life as it
  becomes central to commerce and the economy.

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What energized me

• The road rally assignment
• It stirred an interest in me that I failed to
  recognize a desire to teach, not only to teach
  but to teach an online course.

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What energized me

• While reading an article called A New
  Technology-first Framework for the Future Design
  of Online Learning by Douglas Harvey (2002) for
  the road rally project I became very interested
  in the contents and wondered how to use the
  information.

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What energized me (cont)

• The article described the need to tailor online
  learning to the technology allowing software
  developers to experiment with different designs
  making online learning more than just a virtual
  classroom. I was so excited to connect this
  information to something, anything. I thought
  This is good stuff.

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What energized me (cont)

• Hey, look at me! Im learning for the sake of
  learning!

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What energized me (cont)

• The article stated that every person involved
  in the online course has a valid and somewhat
  unique knowledge base. Therefore, a designer
  would seek not to transmit information but to
  devise ways to share each of these knowledge
  bases in search of learner understanding.

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What energized me (cont)

• I began to connect this information to the adult
  learning class that I took my first semester in
  the program where I discovered that combining
  past experiences into the lesson helps adults to
  understand the material.

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What frustrated me

• While frantically working to turn in an
  assignment the morning of the due date, I
  encountered computer problems. I could hear Dr.
  Daviss voice (or at least what I imagined was
  her voice)
• I encourage you not to wait until the last
  minute on Wednesday as technology and other
  priorities often create challenges

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What frustrated me

• My husband was still asleep. As soon as he awoke
  I asked for assistance (more like demanded).
• It turns out that our home page was somehow
  switched to some sort of advertisement that
  prohibited me from closing the window.

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What frustrated me

• Apparently some pop-up ads trick users into
  setting that advertisement as the home page
• A click on the yes box indicating closure of the
  pop-up window also indicates a change of the home
  page to that of the pop-up ad. How clever!!

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Reflections
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Reflections

• Significant learnings
• Connections
• Effect of learnings

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Significant learnings

• Societal forces that are shaping the emerging
  Knowledge Age and the vision for continuous
  learning include the following
• N-Geners

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N-Geners (cont)

• Because they are growing up in a digital society
  they differ in all aspects of life..
• They learn differently
• They shop differently
• They play differently
• As adults they will hold different expectations
  for employers (Tapscott, 1998).

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Societal forces (cont)

• Most items from cars, to cameras, to video games,
  to phones are becoming computerized

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Significant Learnings

• The role of technology as a partner in the
  learning process and in extending intelligence
• Technology provides yet another avenue for people
  to learn. It allows learning to take place
  anywhere making it convenient for those with
  access to it and those willing to use it.

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The role of technology (cont)

• The use of Softbots to search the Internet for
  information based on a particular individuals
  interests (Tapscott, 1998, p. 32).

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Significant learnings

• Emerging issues in a learning society
• The N-Gen will cause a rethinking of
  managements attitude toward its people. Senior
  management will have to treat people as if they
  are the enterprises most valuable resource,
  because increasingly in a knowledge economy they
  are (Tapscott, 1998, p. 10).

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Emerging issues in a learning society (cont)

• Despite the lack of face to face contact that
  computer use dictates, community building must
  continue to take place through relationship
  building (Tapscott, 1998, p.61).

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Community Building (cont)

• communities are much more than their calendar
  of events. The heart of a community is the web
  of relationships among community members, and
  much of the day-to-day occurs in one-on-one
  exchanges (Wenger, McDermott, Snyder, 2002).

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Emerging issues in a learning society (cont)

• Institutions that hire employees are moving from
  businesses to learning organizations.
• In a learning organization people come together
  for a common cause.
• The environment is proactive because employees
  constantly challenge themselves and each other to
  do better (Szostek, 2001).

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Emerging issues in a learning society (cont)

• Whether or not an organization survives depends
  on its ability to learn and adapt. A true
  learning organization develops new capacities and
  fundamental shifts of mind (Bonebright, 2003).

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Significant Learnings

• The change that educational institutions must
  undergo to be of service in the knowledge age
• N-Geners the way in which they learn differs
  from students in previous generations
• Because of their experiences with computers, they
  yearn for interaction rather than passivity
  (Tapscott, 1998).

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Educational institutions (cont)

• New media tools offer great promise for a new
  model of learning one based on discovery and
  participation (Tapscott, 1998, p.127).

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Educational institutions (cont)

• Developed societies are moving away from the
  traditional model, where people complete their
  education at an early age and then dedicate
  themselves solely to making a living. Desktop
  computers now function as powerful multimedia
  interactive communication centers and these
  capabilities offer rich opportunities for
  distance education (Distance Learning,2003).

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Connecting the readings and assignments to
learning

• As a student in EAD 860 I felt largely
  responsible for my own learning. The instructors
  assigned only one book, one that failed to gain
  my full attention. My interests peaked when I
  read the assigned articles and the articles I
  researched for the road rally project.

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Connecting the readings and assignments to
learning (cont)

• I chose to read the assigned articles rather than
  limit myself to the book. The instructors left
  that decision up to each student. I chose the
  articles I wanted to research for the road rally
  project.
• These decisions gave me great power over my own
  learning.

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Effects of learning

• This class opened my eyes to changes I can expect
  in the future as a result of technology.

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Effects of learning (cont)

• Although I use the computer on a daily basis, I
  realize that I must continue to improve my skills
  by experimenting with areas outside of my comfort
  level, i.e., MSU library system, web development,
  the many possibilities inherent in PowerPoint.

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Effects of learning (cont)

• Technology drives society.
• My father serves as an example of why I need to
  keep up with technological advances. He
  continues to search for the any key!

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Impact

• How will I be different?
• What did I learn about
• Myself
• Others
• Time management

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How will I be different?

• Cognizant of the changes that technology is sure
  to bring in all areas of life.
• Cognizant of an organization that strives to
  build communities of learning

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What I learned about myself

• Despite my constant use of the computer (some
  days looking at it makes me scream!), I need to
  broaden my horizons in terms of the types of
  activities I complete via computer.

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What I learned about myself

• The articles I read for the road rally stirred an
  interest in me that I never knew existed, that of
  teaching or training adults via the Web.

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What I learned about others

• Very time consuming to read classmate comments.
  But found myself needing to read comments when I
  wasnt sure of a concept presented in the lesson
  questions.

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What I learned about time management

• I need help in this area!!
• An assignment due on a day other than the present
  day takes my focus away from school and moves it
  to work.
• I used a calendar and broke down activities into
  parts scheduling those parts for completion on
  varying days. Unfortunately, I failed to follow
  that schedule.
• My short attention span forces me to change
  activities approximately every 45 minutes.

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The End

• Thank you!

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References

• Bonebright, D.A. (2003). Built to learn The
  inside story of how rockwell collins became a
  true learning organization. T D, 57, 67-69.
  Retrieved October 20, 2003, from the Expanded
  Academic ASAP database.
• Distance learning programs revolutionizing
  education. (September, 2003). Retrieved October
  20, 2003, from http//www.enterprisenetworksandser
  vers.com/monthly/art.php/292.

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References

• Harvey, D. (2002). A new technology-first
  framework for the future design of online
  learning. The Quarterly Review of Distance
  Education, 3(1), 59-63. Retrieved October 21,
  2003, from the Academic Search elite database.
• Szostek, L. (2001). Create the learning
  organization. Retrieved October 13, 2003, from
  http//www.businessknowhow.com/manage/learningorg.
  htm.

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References

• Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing up digital The
  rise of the net generation. New York McGraw-Hill
• Wener, E., McDermott, R., Snyder, W.M. 92002).
  Seven principles for cultivating communities of
  practice. Retrieved on September 27, 2003, from
  http//hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id2
  855tknowledgesid0pid0