Using technology and coping with the fast-moving pace of information in today's world can be extremely overwhelming. As an educator, I remember when and how I first decided to open the floodgates, as it were, and let mobile devices be used in my classroom (though with a very firm set of guidelines and limitations).
Perhaps the chief factor in making this decision was recognizing that resisting technology and the use of mobile devices was an extremely inefficient use of my time and energy. Enacting a no-internet policy in a classroom fully equipped with Wifi and a student body totally plugged in to their devices and social media profiles was nothing but an uphill battle. The more I resisted the use of technology in my classroom, the more I had to fight to keep it on lockdown.
It was, and is, an outmoded approach. There's no use teaching grammar points of a foreign language from a 10-year old textbook with faded pictures, rudimentary graphic design, and tedious subject matter. While we may always have to learn from or focus our courses around some piece of text, teaching a foreign language or foreign literature to young students is never going to have an educational appeal without a link to the world outside. In other words, refusing technology and internet in the classroom is resigning yourself to the same old, same old in teaching--hardly innovative, hardly interesting, and hardly appealing to the student that is already aware and completely immersed in an active virtual world.
As such, I folded. I started scouring online video sites, educational resources, and extra exercises and practices for engaging real-world applications of language. I began relaxing and letting my students use the types of technology they had learned in other classes, or on their own-- the types of programs, apps, and websites that interested them, or had platforms they easily understood and were good at manipulating. I began integrating technology-based options into assignments, mini-presentations, and projects--and then I sat back and observed as my students became more engaged, and more prolific. I learned at least half a dozen new programs and technologies that were out there for users to access and create things with.
This has led me to what I feel is a very important conclusion in my professional development: A teacher needs to be prepared to integrate and use technology in his or her classroom.
That being said, using technology and mobile devices in a classroom isn't a catch-all. What follows are some principles I've created for myself when integrating technology in my classroom:
1. Utilize information wisely.
Information and resources available through the internet or digital apps shouldn't replace teaching, or what you are doing in the classroom. Rather, the availability of this information is a priceless tool you as an educator can use to guide your students to new ideas and ways of understanding material. In an ESL classroom, access to this kind of information provides an endless source of authentic English material, and can link important skills and concepts from lessons and curriculum to real-world applications.
A good way I've found to "dip" students into using online resources in my classroom is by getting them as involved as possible on a Learning Management System platform. There are hundreds of such platforms out there, but what my school is using currently has an appeal to class/course design, and not just a virtual quiz-maker and gradebook. When I created my courses this year, I did it with using this system to create an online enclave for my classes in mind. Since then, I've been able to link to my lesson materials, link to additional resources that reinforce the lesson materials, create assignments and monitor submissions, and also create class discussions as quick assessments of lesson material. Encouraging students to communicate with me and each other in a safe online space is a potentially great springboard for teaching responsible online behavior, as well.
2. Make mobile learning activities relevant & meaningful.
The power that you have a teacher to access and utilize this information is great, and with it comes great responsibility. Information should be relevant, useful, and appropriate for the classroom, not a source of empty entertainment or pop-culture fluff that will keep students interested, no doubt, but not exactly demonstrate a teaching point accurately.
When using online content, or using specific apps or online tools for lessons and learning outcomes, you always have to know what you are doing. Is the online tool/content/app appropriate for the activity--is it a good fit?
For example, I plan to give students the option of using an online infographic creation tool for an upcoming assignment to create and present a poster with interesting facts about a World City. IN order to do this, I have to locate and provide a list of resources they can use to complete the activity--resources with free, user-friendly tools, not subscription-based or designed for advanced users. I also have to decide how to guide student decision towards using this resource--is it convenient for use on a tablet? Across Mac/Windows platforms? Will it be easy and cost-efficient to export and print for display purposes? And, I expect I will always have to explain why they can't create such materials using their smart phones.
These are all very important considerations for the success of the activity.
3. Make activities measurable.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in using technology and mobile devices regularly in your classroom is that you have to put some time and effort in to re-think your assessment scheme. How cna you measure the student's use of their devices, or the technological tool you have guided them toward? How can you account for a digital divide in classrooms where technology is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)--is it a group ro partner-based activity? How can you assessment all group members' involvement?
As we connect our classrooms to online worlds, extensions, and applications, we also have to be able to connect them back to the classroom. It isn't enough to create an online set of Vocabulary flashcards and then say to students, "OK, go do this." The measurement of a student's ability to access the flashcards and complete the exercise has to come back to a hands-on application of skills in some way.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Reflection on Cognitive Flow
It's safe to say that I have experienced cognitive flow before. Prior to recent, more targeted studies of what cognitive flow, I've always chalked this concept up to being "In the Zone"--but of course, I've never thought about the Hows or the Whys. Usually, I feel as thought it's just been a really great day or I'm in the right mood. Sometimes these factor dictates whether or not this flow can happen.
That has changed somewhat after taking a closer look at what cognitive flow actually means. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly shared several quotes from people attempting to quantify, in language at least, what this flow is to them--and he routinely cycles back to this idea of "ecstasy"--a sort of uncontrolled departure from reality wherein we achieve exactly our best in the throes of this kind of flow. This is a state human beings can reach which is controlled, which is automatic, and not always flailing and spontaneous.
I've chosen to examine a time when cognitive flow happened to me by describing my experience as a piano player.
I have been an avid piano player for many years. Granted, when I was younger and slogging through Bach and scale exercises and always getting things technically wrong or playing them too fast, I found the challenges of playing the instrument frustrating and not really personally rewarding. But as I grew older, my knowledge and training of this instrument opened doors for me to begin playing many other instruments, always with frustrations and challenges, but now with a framework of fundamental skills that had been hammered into me and had begun manifesting themselves as something more like musical resonance.
Though I never developed my musical skills as much as I would have liked, being able to play and learn new pieces on my own has been a very rewarding pursuit of my adult life. All that complaining about practicing the same thing over and over when I was younger has now given me an outlet for personal achievement that I very highly value. I now refer to my piano as 'my therapist,' and the biggest challenge I face in playing piano now is simply having one at my disposal. (And understanding that at this point, I'm probably not going to just spontaneously churn out Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2)
So how does cognitive flow happen when I engage in this activity? As an example I'd like to describe how I learned to play my absolute favorite piece of piano, "Au Clair de Lune."
For one, it took a long time. I plodded through an intense key change, tried my best interpret a strange time signature, but mostly I relied on "my ear"--that is, I listened to the song being played hundreds of times, sometimes while reading the music and imagining what my hands had to do to successfully play whatever passage. Eventually, I got to a workable rendition of it, but it was still a difficult piece to memorize--to famously quote Amadeus, it had "too many notes."
But I began to notice this--I actually had the piece memorized, physically. I was worried about playing it consciously, and if I ever actually tried to consciously remember what exact notes came next, I'd lose track and the playing would break down. When I sat down to play it, and not think about it--these are the times when I realized that I knew what to do, and at times I could execute the more difficult passages of the piece without much trouble.
That may seem like a strange explanation, but I think it fits the realm of cognitive flow. As Benjamin Zander said in his TED talk I have examined earlier, an important breakthrough in learning relies on knowing where the "impulses" are. A beginner will create impulses for every single change in motion, key, or chord--to help themselves learn that motion. But, true mastery comes when you remove those impulses, or rather start looking at the bigger picture and prioritizing the impulses, operating on more sense, skill, and trust.
I have, for all intents and purposes, learned how to play "Au Clair de Lune." But, some days if I'm tired or worried or don't have a good level of focus, I won't play it to my liking. Others, when I'm more relaxed and able to ease into the practice, I can play a piece of music that is instantly gratifying -- as Csikszentmihaly said-- I get that "feedback" immediately and it is wonderfully soothing--I could play it several times in a row and not be bothered one bit.
It's those days that I think true flow is actually reached, calling to mind this visual presented by Csikszentmihaly:
The act of practicing piano in itself requires the right amount of challenge and skill, for me--but it's when I have relaxation, control, and arousal that I find myself producing the most interesting music. While this remains a largely solitary exercise, I find it interesting the links between music, education and learning--at the moment, my PLN doesn't have many resources in this area, but it's definitely something I would wish to explore in the future.
Sources:
1. Flow, the Secret to Happiness [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks
2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Motivating People to Learn [2002, Feb] Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org
3. The Transformative Power of Classical Music [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks
That has changed somewhat after taking a closer look at what cognitive flow actually means. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly shared several quotes from people attempting to quantify, in language at least, what this flow is to them--and he routinely cycles back to this idea of "ecstasy"--a sort of uncontrolled departure from reality wherein we achieve exactly our best in the throes of this kind of flow. This is a state human beings can reach which is controlled, which is automatic, and not always flailing and spontaneous.
I've chosen to examine a time when cognitive flow happened to me by describing my experience as a piano player.
I have been an avid piano player for many years. Granted, when I was younger and slogging through Bach and scale exercises and always getting things technically wrong or playing them too fast, I found the challenges of playing the instrument frustrating and not really personally rewarding. But as I grew older, my knowledge and training of this instrument opened doors for me to begin playing many other instruments, always with frustrations and challenges, but now with a framework of fundamental skills that had been hammered into me and had begun manifesting themselves as something more like musical resonance.
Though I never developed my musical skills as much as I would have liked, being able to play and learn new pieces on my own has been a very rewarding pursuit of my adult life. All that complaining about practicing the same thing over and over when I was younger has now given me an outlet for personal achievement that I very highly value. I now refer to my piano as 'my therapist,' and the biggest challenge I face in playing piano now is simply having one at my disposal. (And understanding that at this point, I'm probably not going to just spontaneously churn out Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2)
So how does cognitive flow happen when I engage in this activity? As an example I'd like to describe how I learned to play my absolute favorite piece of piano, "Au Clair de Lune."
For one, it took a long time. I plodded through an intense key change, tried my best interpret a strange time signature, but mostly I relied on "my ear"--that is, I listened to the song being played hundreds of times, sometimes while reading the music and imagining what my hands had to do to successfully play whatever passage. Eventually, I got to a workable rendition of it, but it was still a difficult piece to memorize--to famously quote Amadeus, it had "too many notes."
But I began to notice this--I actually had the piece memorized, physically. I was worried about playing it consciously, and if I ever actually tried to consciously remember what exact notes came next, I'd lose track and the playing would break down. When I sat down to play it, and not think about it--these are the times when I realized that I knew what to do, and at times I could execute the more difficult passages of the piece without much trouble.
That may seem like a strange explanation, but I think it fits the realm of cognitive flow. As Benjamin Zander said in his TED talk I have examined earlier, an important breakthrough in learning relies on knowing where the "impulses" are. A beginner will create impulses for every single change in motion, key, or chord--to help themselves learn that motion. But, true mastery comes when you remove those impulses, or rather start looking at the bigger picture and prioritizing the impulses, operating on more sense, skill, and trust.
I have, for all intents and purposes, learned how to play "Au Clair de Lune." But, some days if I'm tired or worried or don't have a good level of focus, I won't play it to my liking. Others, when I'm more relaxed and able to ease into the practice, I can play a piece of music that is instantly gratifying -- as Csikszentmihaly said-- I get that "feedback" immediately and it is wonderfully soothing--I could play it several times in a row and not be bothered one bit.
It's those days that I think true flow is actually reached, calling to mind this visual presented by Csikszentmihaly:
 |
| Source: Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi On Flow |
The act of practicing piano in itself requires the right amount of challenge and skill, for me--but it's when I have relaxation, control, and arousal that I find myself producing the most interesting music. While this remains a largely solitary exercise, I find it interesting the links between music, education and learning--at the moment, my PLN doesn't have many resources in this area, but it's definitely something I would wish to explore in the future.
Sources:
1. Flow, the Secret to Happiness [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks
2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Motivating People to Learn [2002, Feb] Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org
3. The Transformative Power of Classical Music [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks
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