Back in September, I saw an email from Napa Learns that registration into the program was being extended to add more participants. So in one evening I decided to join and got the notice from Dr. Redmond the day of the first class. So, needless to say, I hadn’t put much thought into what I was embarking on. But I’ve always been interested in innovation in education and I thought that with our new reality it would be a good time to think deeper about what that might look like with distance learning. My first ideas about what to research came from there. I was watching my teachers struggle to fully reach students in virtual classrooms and I watched students become more dependent and less motivated to learn. I had been doing some small group reading instruction with 1st and 2nd graders on Zoom and it was so hard to determine what they were getting out of it or what progress they were making as readers.
I was also interested in Culturally Responsive teaching practices as a way to make sure that we weren’t lowering our expectations for students even in distance learning. So the first iterations of my driving question were all about teaching practices during distance learning. But through our work with instructional design, I realized that I need to be looking forward beyond our current situation. We need to think about how we can ensure that students are ready to take on the challenge of the rigorous expectations we’ll need to have once we’re back to “normal”. So my driving question has become all about how to help students gain back their independence and provide them with tools to direct their own learning. Or as I’ve been calling it, students need to “get their groove” back and see themselves as capable of not only learning but using their skills to act for themselves.
Even though I have made connections to the work of Dervin, Clarke, and others through this course and especially in terms of setting up what will ultimately be my research model, the source that has had the most impact for me is Baggio. So much of my work is centered around adult learning and It’s so important, especially now, to make the time we take to learn together meaningful and valuable for teachers. In the course of the semester as we’ve learned so many new tech tools, I have kept those visual connection reminders in mind and it’s really changed my practice. As I begin to launch my research, it will continue to help me be efficient and keep things simple for my end users. I’m anxious to start the action research part of my design and learn with and from the teachers who will potentially find ways to impact the lives of our students.