Randy Bass, Georgetown University 1. the Problem of Learning 11/7/2011. E-Portfolios and the Problem of Learning in Liberal Education

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1 E-Portfolios and the Problem of in Liberal Education University Assessment Institute October 31, 2011 Chance favors the connected mind. Connecting through eportfolio Academic Student Across Semesters Chance favors the connected mind. Steven Johnson Faculty & Staff External Audiences Integrative thinking socially networked Across Disciplines Student Lived the Problem of Chance favors the connected mind. Steven Johnson Integrative thinking socially networked At the same time as we are getting serious about being accountable for what students are learning our understanding of learning is expanding in ways that are at least partially incompatible with our structures. a tension intrinsic to the learning paradigm University 1

2 Core Questions What are the conditions for the most meaningful learning inside and outside the formal curriculum? How do we make it possible to see and capture evidence of meaningful learning in new ways? (moving target) Can we keep the evidence of learning agenda open in an age of metrics and accountability? the problem of learning and the connected mind Intermediate learning eportfolios Integrative thinking Social learning Development over time & across experiences The Post-Course Era The Post-Course Era The course as a useful way of managing time, staff resources, equivalencies A collection of courses as way of telling the story of the discipline or profession Coursework and the formal curriculum as the center of the educational experience the places where the most significant learning takes place. The Post-Course Era End of the era of the self-contained course as the center of the curriculum The fragmentation of the curriculum into a collection of independently owned courses is itself an impediment to student accomplishment, because the different courses students take, even on the same campus, are not expected to engage or build on one another. (AAC&U, 2004) Post-Course: Smaller and Bigger the intermediate (capturing intermediate thinking ) & the integrative (making meaning across courses, experiences and time) University 2

3 High Impact Practices (National Survey of Student Engagement--NSSE) First-year seminars and experiences communities Writing intensive courses Collaborative assignments Undergraduate research Global learning/ study abroad Internships Capstone courses and projects George Kuh, High Impact Practices: What are they, who has access to them, and why they matter. (AAC&U, 2008) Outcomes associated with High impact Practices Experiences that help students Attend to underlying meaning Integrate and synthesize Discern patterns Apply knowledge in diverse situations View issues from multiple perspectives Acquire gains in skills, knowledge, practical competence, personal and social development George Kuh, High Impact Practices: What are they, who has access to them, and why they matter. (AAC&U, 2008) High Impact Practices: First-year seminars and experiences communities Writing intensive courses Collaborative assignments Undergraduate research Global learning/ study abroad Internships Capstone courses and projects High Impact Activities and Outcomes Outcomes associated with High impact practices Attend to underlying meaning Integrate and synthesize Discern patterns Apply knowledge in diverse situations View issues from multiple perspectives Gains in Skills, knowledge, practical competence, personal and social development So, if high impact practices are largely in the extracurriculum (or co-curriculum), then where are the lowimpact practices? Low-impact practices: Formally known as the curriculum? If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact experiences are then what are the options? University 3

4 Making courses more like high-impact practices courses designed as inquiry-based & participatory If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact experiences are then what are the options? Virtual Labs Constructivist social tools: wikis & blogs 1. Make courses higher impact Leveraging the crowd as a way of teaching 1. Design for greater fluidity and connection between the formal and experiential curriculum << e-portfolios >> General Education First year experience Communities Majors and degree programs Internships What are the shared and salient features of participatory cultures in Web-based environments? wikipedia Video gaming communities fan sites Advising ( life plans ) Writing programs grass roots organizations Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (MacArthur Foundation 2006) Participatory Culture of the Web Features of participatory culture Low barriers to entry Strong support for sharing one s contributions Informal mentorship, experienced to novice Members feel a sense of connection to each other Students feel a sense of ownership of what is being created Strong collective sense that something is at stake Informal Participatory culture The Formal High impact practices Experiential Co-curriculum Jenkins, et. al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (MacArthur Foundation, 2006) University 4

5 Informal Participatory culture The Formal High impact practices Experiential Co-curriculum Can we continue to operate on the assumption that the formal curriculum is the center of the undergraduate experience? Informal Participatory culture The Formal Intermediate Integrative Social Developmental High impact practices Experiential Co-curriculum John Seely Brown: Practice to Content conten t Informal Participatory culture The Formal High impact practices Experiential Co-curriculum practic e From John Seely Brown, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and 2.0 Where and how does one learn-to-be, inside and outside the formal curriculum? Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice NOVICE MIRACLE EXPERT product product NOVICE EXPERT product practice University 5

6 Connecting Intermediate Processes to Our learning environments Practice are rapidly expanding the ways we can make the intermediate visible NOVICE EXPERT practice She has to speak from a position of authority. How can we better understand these intermediate? How might we design to foster and capture them? She has to speak from a position of authority. Threshold Concepts (Meyer and Land) Ways of knowing, acting, and speaking, and sometimes identity Instructional Bottlenecks (David Pace) Understanding where students get stuck based on disciplinary thinking She has to speak from a position of authority. She has to speak from a position of authority. She has to see importance of context to quotations of credentialing her evidence. She has to have a way of expressing complex causality. Critical thinking? Inquiry and Analysis? Oral Communication? Written Communication? Integrative? Lifelong? Where do we find evidence of someone learning to speak from a position of authority? University 6

7 Making Intermediate Thinking Visible Collaborative editing in a wiki space: work in progress (First-year writing course) Collaborative Editing Mark Sample, George Mason University Mark Sample, GMU Mark Sample, George Mason University University 7

8 Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College Using Wiki s to teach history Students work in collaborative teams to write history wiki-texts on subjects that interest them in historical context Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College Different views of student activity (individual and collective, single moment and over time) Derek Bruff, Vanderbilt University derekbruff.com Derek Bruff (Vanderbilt University) derekbruff.com Bruff s remapping of Cliff Atkinson s uses of Backchannel: Note taking Sharing Resources Commenting Amplifying Asking Questions Helping One Another Offering Suggestions Building community Opening the Classroom University 8

9 Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice Social media and intermediate thinking Connecting Intermediate Processes to Expert Practice The places we can look for captures of learning are expanding rapidly NOVICE How can we better understand these intermediate? Note taking Sharing Resources Commenting Amplifying Asking Questions Helping One Another Offering Suggestions Building community Opening the Classroom EXPERT practice How do these serve as a bridge from novice to expert practice? NOVICE How can we better understand these intermediate? How do you capture the relationship between intermediate engagement and intellectual development? EXPERT practice How might we design to foster and capture them? Informal Participatory culture The Formal Intermediate Integrative Social Developmental High impact practices Experiential Co-curriculum eportfolios as tools and practices for integrating Connect to (FIPSE) What difference does the e in eportfolios make? Connect to (FIPSE) Allow students to make connections Communicate in multimodal ways Engage in continuous reflection Understand learning as social Mark development and progress over time at the heart of eporfolio practice University 9

10 Second Wave of the Paradigm eportfolios as tools and practices for integrating and reflecting is a process not a product. Trent Batson Active : Theory/ knowing Experience / doing Integrative Theory/ knowing Experience/ doing Reflecting / connecting University 10

11 Prior (Experience & Theory) Prior (Experience & Theory) Making Meaning Integration Dewey s Criteria for as Systematic & Disciplined Carol Rodgers has summarized Dewey s criteria for effective reflection into these four statements: as connection as systematic and disciplined as social pedagogy and personal growth as systematic, disciplined and iterative inquiry In search of effective practices of reflection Prior (Experience & Theory) Making Meaning Integration Three Rivers Community College as professional development: iterative program level design N101 N102 N201 N203 N205 Description of experience Focus on goals & outcomes Self evaluation Increasingly comparative Social at all stages University 11

12 Queensborough Community College Boston University Cornerstone Program Student Wiki Interdisciplinary Groups (SWIG) Video reflection, multimodal communication Virginia Tech Carol Rodgers on : Deepening Developmental Cycle SERVE program (service learning & capstone synthesis) eportfolios and the problem of learning eportfolios and the problem of learning: four challenges Informal Participatory culture The Formal Intermediate Integrative Social Developmental High impact practices Experiential Co-curriculum 1. eportfolios depend on the recentered relationship between the formal curriculum and the experiential co-curriculum 2. Develop the role of reflection with depth and rigor 3. Develop eportfolios as social pedagogies 4. Keep an open inquiry stance Intermediate Integrative University 12

13 "Clay lends itself to making mess upon mess until something emerges. When people praise me for achievements, I think of the mistakes I'm willing to make-- " Joan Lederman, Ceramics artist Woods Hole, MA "The way I work forces me to develop habits of mind that are useful for managing chaos and complex thought with increasing effectiveness. I'd say my success rate has improved from about 30% in 1997 to about 87% in I'm measuring success by what people agree is beautiful. Joan Lederman, Gaia s Glazes: Mysteries of Sea Mud Revealed bassr@georgetown.edu Thanks to: Ali Erkan and Michael Smith, Ithaca College John Seely Brown Mark Sample, GMU Derek Bruff, Vanderbilt Bret Eynon and Judit Torok and the Connect to Team at LGCC Trent Batson (AAEEBEL, Connect to ) Three Rivers CC Virginia Tech eportfolio and SERVE team Boston University Queensborough CC The Teagle Foundation Heidi Elmendorf, Georgetown My colleagues at the Center for New Designs in and Scholarship cndls.georgetown.edu Adaptive Integrative Interactive Embodied Recursive Collaborative eportfolio as Social Pedagogy University 13