the four elements 4 the future_by ajs

Four Elements 4 the FutureEngagement • Collaboration

Technology • Sustainability

An SBBC Faculty In-Service Event

Facilitator: A.J. Schuermann

Ventura Campus July 12, 2013

• Why are we here at this In Service?

• To better understand four key themes emerging as defining elements of 21st century education.

• To get some practical direction in our professional development as educators.

• To put down on paper, after focused group discussions and activities, a plan to explain how this campus will understand and incorporate these elements into what we are doing as educators as part of our processes.


• Also, because we know we can do better in the standard listing of our “Teaching Strategies” as “Lecture, class discussions, assignments, examinations, group activities, and project(s).”


• Based on the future trends and outlooks, a more relevant and standardized listing of our “Learning Strategies” might read something like…


• “Facilitation of computer-supported collaborative and self-directed activities, adaptive testing of local and distance learning outcomes, blog writing, and service-based labs and projects.”

• How effective we are as educators will be based on how psychologically invested our students are in showing up and participating in the learning experiences we offer in our classrooms.

The Elements 1. Engagement

• There are plenty of “tips” we’ve heard before on how to better engage our students, particularly addressing the adult learners in our classrooms. Here’s a few…


• Active Learning

• Leave No One Behind

• Something “other than the usual.”

• Relevance


• We’ve also become familiar with the preferred “learning styles” of our students…


• Visual Learners

• Kinesthetic Learners

• Auditory Learners

• Haptic/Tactile Learners


• These are all strategies and understandings for instructors to utilize in making connections with students, livening up their classrooms, and creating enjoyable learning environments that are welcoming and, for the lack of a better word, “engaging.”


• HOWEVER…those examples do not explain what is essential to ensure the psychological investment we want our students and ourselves to have in what we are doing now and in the future.


• Engagement is not just about a bag of teaching tricks.


• It is about creating an environment that motivates all of us to become psychologically invested in what we are doing...


• This means faculty and students, for starters.

• It really means everyone we interact with as part of our processes.



• We recognize what motivates students to enroll:

• Seeking a positive change in their lives.

• Wanting a better life for their children.

• Need to re-enter the workforce with new skills.


• We recognize what motivates a potential faculty member to apply and accept a teaching assignment:

• Personal and professional growth outside of their day jobs or life responsibilities.


• We recognize what motivates a potential faculty member to apply and accept a teaching assignment:

• It’s work they desire, need, and/or are able to do.


• The big questions that need to be answered are:

• What makes all of us want to stay and do our best?



• Do all of us actually want to stay and do our best?



• Is there anything or anyone preventing us from fully engaging in an opportunity to become invested in what we are doing?

• Consider the motivating forces of autonomy, mastery, and purpose as it relates to what we are doing and what our students are doing with the time and effort invested in our shared experience...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

• Consider the following…

The Elements 2. Collaboration

• If “engagement” is primarily about bringing the student to the class and the class to the student…then “collaboration” is about bringing the community to the campus and the campus to the community...and “the community” is expanded and re-defined as playing a bigger part in our processes and outcomes.


• Levels of collaboration can transcend the individual and the classroom and engage (psychologically invest) a broader scope of participants in the learning experience.

• It appeals to the idea of Social Goals and Social Motivation as a driving force for students to enroll and stay in school.


• “Collaborative Learning” aims to locate knowledge through the community.

• Brings students and instructors together for mutual learning and self-development in the classroom.


• Allows students to share their beliefs, views, opinions, prior experiences, and knowledge they currently possess.

• Empowers students with the responsibility of their own learning in the class, and their accountability to classmates.


• While the jury is out on this type of learning as the best way to educate students, it is progressive in its revision of the traditional classroom environment and expectations of the participants.


• It is “engaging” in the sense that it psychologically invests the group in the process of showing up and participating, and taking ownership together to become better problem solvers and communicators.


• The teachers become facilitators and the students become active participants, while it is still the responsibility of the facilitators to take the lead in making a “collaborative learning” experience happen in their classes.


• This can cause some “anxiety” for the teachers who don’t want to surrender control, and for some of the students who do not want to be problem solvers or contributors.

• Attendance may become a matter of peer pressure, not just a policy.


• Being able to “collaborate” means being able to network, cooperate, to be a team member, to be a leader, to be accountable and responsible, and develop relevant skills necessary to be successful in the workplace.


• A collaborative approach in a classroom setting or activity is designed to wake up contemporary students from being passive learners and making them show up and participate with purpose, in order to have some control over their lives.


• This is an innovative approach to address shortcomings in traditional education environments that are not preparing students with what they need to succeed.


• Have you ever thought or said something like, “I’m not responsible for the failures of the public education system. What am I supposed to do with these students?”


• If we think that the students in class today have challenges, just imagine how our students of tomorrow will feel…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U




The Elements 3. Technology

• It’s here and it’s not going away, in case you have doubts.

• It’s going to keep changing and we must acquire it and manage it effectively.

• Should support the goals and objectives of the curriculum.

• Should provide a platform for engagement and collaboration, plus have an appeal of real world relevance.


• Learning and working with interactive technology tools allows students to be intellectually challenged while providing them with a realistic snapshot of what the modern office looks like.


• Students acquire and refine their analysis and problem-solving skills as they work individually and in teams to find, process, and synthesize information they've found online.


• We live in a mobile world with distance learning.

• Very few of us today will be even close to being as technologically sophisticated and integrated as the adult learners of tomorrow.


• The vulnerability of reliance on technology as the hub of value and the sole platform of knowledge transference.

• Parables about escalators, staircases, PowerPoint and Portal.


• Regarding the future of technology, we will have to wait and see how wonderful or how terrible it will be for education.


• It reminds me of a parable…


• On his 14th birthday, a boy in the village gets a horse...and everybody in the village says, “How wonderful. The boy got a horse.”


• And the wise man of the village says, “We'll see.”


• Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, “How terrible.”


• Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight...except the boy can't go because his leg is all messed up. Everybody in the village says, “How wonderful.”


• And on and on and on it goes...



• The pros and cons of changes and updates in technology will depend on how well we can sustain relevance with what we have and what we don’t have...

• Sustainability as an element or theme of the future of 21st century education has practical applications related to the acquisition and disposal of technology.

The Elements 4. Sustainability

• It also addresses the consumption of resources and “green” choices regarding facilities and materials used to “sustain” classroom and business operations.



• We may view the other three elements as necessary for us to incorporate as part of what we do effectively, in order to “sustain” our enrollment goals, retention goals, and placement goals.

• The best plan we can come up with for the future sustainability of our success will include an outlook that addresses and embraces and invests in becoming an educational institution of quality processes and outcomes.

Engagement • Collaboration


• Engagement: We must seek the highest level of psychological buy in, on the part of our students, our faculty, our extern sites, and our network of connections.





• Collaboration: We must seek the highest level of cooperation in our curriculum and processes, bringing together our students, our faculty, our extern sites, and our network of connections for gainful employment and community outreach.



• Technology: We must utilize technology to help facilitate the aims of Engagement and Collaboration, and to improve the teaching and learning networks for our students, our faculty, and our community.



• Sustainability: We must sustain ourselves and our relevance by preparing for the future.

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