5313 Post #4: Embracing Change

Published on 15 November 2023 at 11:15

Discussion Topic:

In this assignment, you are to view the following three videos (Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner, Re-Imagining Learning in the 21st Century, and What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills), then participate in a discussion with your colleagues.

This discussion will give you the opportunity to better understand the importance of focusing on outcomes in the learning design and verify or vet the ideas that you plan to use in this module's written assignment.

Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner

https://youtu.be/c0xa98cy-Rw

21st Century Education vs. 20th Century Education

https://youtu.be/HiD1UqLPrOg 

What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills

https://youtu.be/UZEZTyxSl3g 

Instructions

Participate in a class discussion in which you begin by addressing the following issues/questions:

  • How do you prepare learners to have curiosity and a questioning disposition?  

  • Digital learning isn't a native or intrinsic activity - it needs to be inspired by someone. How do you become that someone?  

  • Why is it important to coordinate or connect formal learning to informal learning?  

  • Compare and contrast 20th to 21st-century learning.  

  • Dewey warned us that if we "teach today's students as we taught yesterday’s we rob them of tomorrow". A hundred years ago Dewey asked us to focus on the learning - consider how you are being asked to focus on the learning in this course and how you can transfer this to your learning environments.  

  • What are the primary lessons learned from visiting 60 schools?

Please remember the list of questions is for your benefit and is intended to help you focus your thinking. We are not asking nor expecting you to answer each question in your discussion--rather you should use these questions to help focus on how the insights gained through this discussion will help you to add another component to your innovation plan.


My reply:

Engaging learner curiosity is key to inspiring questioning and an inquisitive mindset. I try to structure lessons and activities around problems or mysteries that capture student interest and provoke their natural curiosity. Providing open-ended challenges with multiple potential solutions encourages them to ask questions and think critically.

As a teacher in the digital age, my role is to curate engaging content, experiences, and opportunities that motivate self-driven learning. I aim to spark curiosity, model questioning, and guide discovery as a mentor rather than solely imparting information. My passion for game design is contagious when I share real-world examples, tell stories, and invite students to create.

Additionally, I emphasize embracing change as game design tools rapidly evolve. We regularly learn new software and hardware platforms. I teach students agility - how to adapt their knowledge and skills as technology progresses. They understand that learning how to learn is more valuable than memorizing tools. We celebrate innovations and look forward to what’s next.

Connecting formal and informal learning is crucial for a well-rounded education. Formal learning in the classroom provides important foundations in game design principles and skills. But allowing students to organically explore their interests through games, experimentation, and peer sharing reinforces and builds upon that formal instruction. I collaborate with students to connect our work to their informal learning.

Twenty-first century learning is more open, flexible, personalized, and driven by students. Content is freely accessible online, so educators focus less on delivering information and more on developing critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. Students have more autonomy to follow their passions while teachers curate diverse learning experiences.

Dewey's wisdom still holds true today. Rote memorization of facts is less relevant than teaching students how to think, solve problems, work with others, and tap into their passions to guide their own lifelong learning. My course focuses more on the process of learning game design, with projects and growth mentality, rather than just the content knowledge.

The 60 schools study reinforced that effective modern learning values collaboration, real-world relevance, technology integration, and cultivation of the whole child. I aim to create an engaging classroom culture that mirrors this approach. My students learn actively through collaborative projects, with lessons tied to real game design principles. Integrating technology, I provide choice and personalization while guiding students to take ownership of their learning. These insights will shape my instructional design and innovation plan.

Add comment

Comments

There are no comments yet.