This is the photo that greeted me when I was trying to select the best Master’s in Education course that would be right for me. Red is one of my favorite colors and there was a part of me that was drawn to this course because of their use of red. Also, this photo of a professional woman holding a tablet gave me a visualization of how I would see myself at the conclusion of this course. I feel this course has made me a lot more professional and career oriented.

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In my first class for my master’s in education I realized that it was going to be an authentic learning when I was taught about the COVA model (Harapnuik, n.d.) of choice, ownership, voice, and authentic assignments. My first class was 5302 and we were required to take a self assessment. Is there a better way to start college than with a self-assessment? That’s when I knew it would have to look within myself to help me realize my potential. During this course, I was diagnosed with ADHD, a recognized disability that scientists have shown affects decision making. With the first assignment being a self-assessment I discovered I needed help in areas that involve organization and time management.

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This Lamar Digital Learning and Leading has been such a growth track for myself. I knew this education course was going to challenge me in ways I could not anticipate. Old me would not recognize the new me! I would have to make sacrifices to complete assignments. After a lot of consideration, I buckled down and gave up a lot of free time to get the assignments done. These authentic assignments required a more personal voice. I had to really personalize the assignment, strategize how the assignment would fit into my job, plan ahead my schedule, and do serious time management to understand what needed to be done. Some of the hardest projects to do were the innovation plan, the multiple literature reviews, creating videos, and posting to my personal website.

 

I had never heard of the COVA model before, but I am glad that I did. I realized I had choice, ownership, voice, and creating authentic assignments when when my original innovation plan was not immediately accepted. It took a lot of conversations with my professor Dr. Dwayne Harapnuik. When I first began, my original goal was to expand on the Blended Learning process started by Michael B Horn, Heather Staker, and Clayton M. Christianson (2012). Blended learning is happening in schools today regardless. That is why I moved on to a different course of study.

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My new innovation plan is coaching teachers to make videos. Students today love videos, teachers do not enjoy making them. According to the Kaltura Report The State of Video in Education (2017) video has become a major part of education, it is being forced upon educators externally from software vendors and student desires, from their survey of over 600 educators 99% of institutions report they have teachers regularly incorporating video in their curriculum, 85% believe it increases student achievements. 20% of respondents say the incorporation of video as a teaching aid is a well-established activity.

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I am glad that I was able to strategize with my professors about the direction of my research. There is a lot changing in education, and I want to make sure that I am studying something that impacts me, motivates my learning, and something that I can contribute to the wider educational community.

However, when I first began this course, my initial reaction to understanding that my assignments were going to be authentic, and I would have greater responsibility, gave me some anxiety because I have been conditioned in school not to have too much academic freedom.

 

After going back and rereading the comments from my past assignments, the big takeaway from Dr. Harapnuik in 5305 was how does video enhance learning?  My first innovation plan was about promoting blended learning to a larger audience. After the feedback from 5305, I have changed my innovation plan to coaching teachers to make videos for their classroom. Blended learning is a big 800 pound gorilla that is dominating education anyways. Current administrators across the nation are pumping millions of dollars in purchasing technology and software to help the learning process, but the problem is, they are sticking to the old way of teaching. Current schools are focusing on the drill-and-kill style of learning. They are more focused on what the student memorizes than what can be accomplished. Today’s world and tomorrow’s future are going to be more focused on the results of the person.

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Dr. Harapnuik says this Digital Learning and Leading course and my innovation plan should all be about the learning. He said that coaching teachers to make videos has a lot of hurdles. He identified the structure my innovation should take. He said I need to consider these questions, first, what is the point, second, how will it help, third, what will happen if I do not do it? At first, I was not sure if I could answer these questions from my professor. Now I know that these probing questions should be the foundation of any future teaching I do.

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One of the big areas of improvement for my innovation plan is not only how will the learning take place, but how will it be modeled. I got good marks for developing a clear process and feedback loop, but not anticipating how the training will go and what the teacher will look like after they have gone through my innovation plan

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I realized during the course of my education, that I was initially successfully checking boxes, but was not creating authentic assignments. That caused me to reevaluate myself and my goals, ultimately leading me to my current innovation plan. The recommendation says the more authentic I make my assignments, the better it will be for me, and it will come out in the work I do.

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My struggles with creating authentic assignments started with returning to school. Going back to school is a big adjustment no matter who you are and what classes you are taking. I had to adjust to this style of learning by doing a lot of research on my own, a lot of Googling, emailing classmates, texting classmates, and rewatching the Youtube video explaining the concept. The thing I would do most differently is require student to write one paper about the COVA model to see if they really understand it. Getting feedback, grades, and direction is part of the COVA process. We as students still need to be held to a higher level than just answering to a rubric. The course is taught by professionals with many years experience teaching, with doctorate degrees, and published authors. We are fortunate to have such quality caretakers looking after our work and correcting us.

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Another challenge I found was how difficult it was to take control of my own voice and focus on my organization as the audience of my work. As great as my work environment was encouraging me to go for an advanced degree, my company culture did not have an environment where they acted on unsolicited advice. I talked to my supervisor about implementing my innovation plan about coaching teachers to make their own videos, and she gave me a lot of advice about navigating the political atmosphere at my work. I submitted my innovation plan officially twice, and both times it was not accepted. One possible reason could have been because of my position as the video editor, and I had no teaching experience. It was a great lesson learned, and it taught me a lot about adequately preparing for meetings, debating the merits of my suggestion, and building a consensus before pitching ideas to the administration. I felt my voice was authentic through the whole process.

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Although I found my voice, I understood that some students do have mixed feelings toward promoting change in their organization. People are quick to say no, and it takes personal resolve to overcome challenges. My parents divorced when I was young, so I am quite familiar with asking until I get a yes. Promoting change in an organization is difficult because the people leading usually have their own ideas or agendas. I remember being a student and the teachers would have a very strict educational outline that we had to follow. It felt like there was little room for change. I had to work on my attitude first, so that I could be an agent for change.

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I have found, through being an agent of change, that my innovation plan feels very authentic now because I narrowed my plan from a generic concept of blended learning to the more specific concept of coaching teachers to make their own video. This switch was done to hopefully change the culture of my organization and the world. Education today and in the future will become more personalized. Most of the top earning and innovative companies did not even exist before the year 2000. Like the John Dewey quote, “If we teach our students today what we learned yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow.” (1915) I have no idea what industries and jobs will be popular in 10-20 years, but I do know education and technology will be relevant. That is why we must teach students to have a love of learning so they can have self growth and be passionate about what they want to do.

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Since I do not have teaching experience, I did not have a learning philosophy. When I first heard of the constructivist approach I thought it was too hands off. I think students need coaching and guidance to find their true self. But the constructivist approach really will prepare students the best for their future. It is our job to create a world where students become engaged about their learning. The three r’s will always be important (reading, writing, arithmetic) but we do not know the impact it will play on their lives. I see top business people who are better at negotiation than paperwork, and other people with good jobs who would rather focus on the paperwork and not deal with the inner workings of the business.

 

Every young student that comes into our lives will go on and live a unique life. We only have their time for a brief moment. My learning philosophy is all about the student and their success. I am very glad this class has brought this out of me and educated me on the different types of learning philosophies.

My learning philosophy has influenced my innovation plan by creating a solid foundation. I argue we need to challenge people, so they can learn. We can challenge people by teaching them good studying techniques. While reading the guide What Works, What Doesn’t (2013), I was so moved by their research but also by their use of visuals. That’s exactly how I learn, and how I probably ended up in video production. Looking at these learning strategies will help me. Strategies like self-testing, distributed practices, elaborative interrogation, self-explanation, and interleaved practice were eye-opening for me. The quote that stood out the best is our “students aren’t being taught the best strategies perhaps because teachers themselves are not schooled in them!” (Dunlosky et al., 2013)

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My learning philosophy through this course also allowed me to grow as a professional and prompted me to speak with my work colleagues about my school work. I was motivated to go back to school because I worked in an administration building at a school district and everyone else had their master’s degree. Even though I was not a teacher I saw a good future for myself if I applied myself in this program. Also, my two supervisors went to Lamar. They gave me good recommendations to pursue my passion for continuing education.  

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Knowing what I know about the COVA approach and implementing it in my future classroom, I will have to balance the requirements of the job, and the needs of my students. It has taken me a long time to feel more comfortable to accept the COVA approach. I have been around a lot of school administrators, and they say publicly that they put students at the center of learning, but I can tell they are more focused on classroom management and test scores. Things that a school is more obviously judged by. The COVA approach may not be the right solution for everyone. A teacher will need guidance about when is the best time to implement it.  

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Being student center is more than just saying it, it is implementing all of the important elements into the program, so the student will be successful. I helped a high school build their TV station. They started with 10 students and no equipment. They found a couple of grants, but they really did their research about how best to spend their money. The teacher is a speech and debate coach. He did not have experience running a student tv station much less starting one. He was a thoughtful and careful coach, and due to this, he was able to do a great job coaching the kids and guiding them to creating a significant learning environment.

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Although I have learned to love it, I will have to be careful about using the COVA approach. Too much freedom for my learners will allow them to walk all over me, but too little direction, and the students could get frustrated and give up. Furthermore, I need to do a lot of the work myself. I can not use the COVA approach and assume the students are passionate about learning and willing to sacrifice their time to work through their learning. I will use the COVA approach when appropriate, and it will always be the guide to my lesson planning.

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The COVA approach allows me to give my students choice, ownership, voice and through authentic assignments by bringing their life into the classroom, and the classroom to influence their home life. A lot of my learners will have diverse home lives. Some do not have home internet, some do not have home computers, some do not know when they will move next. After studying successful people. I have learned that struggles bring success. Watching how entrepreneurs operate, they see a problem and they work to find a solution. Then they get rewarded. That is how we need to instruct students. An authentic assignment will greatly impact the student’s life more than homework. I have learned that knowledge is a struggle. It takes a long time to get a concept and implement it.

 

A big influence through my master’s course is learning about and implementing the CSLE or creating significant learning environments. We can drill and kill educational concepts but by creating a CSLE, and it will help our learning philosophy to become fully flourished. I find that most teachers want to put the student at the center of learning. The CSLE model actually puts them there with support structures for incredible learning to happen.

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Furthermore, in order for me to successfully implement the CSLE, I will need to fully understand it better. The best way for that to happen is for me to implement it. The student should be at the center of what we do. My lessons and projects need to be didactic, reflective, transformative, and inventive. This is what will lead to love of learning for the student. By covering the student with these great tips of the CSLE, they will be in a much better position to succeed.

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Going forward, some of the challenges I will face in using the COVA approach and creating significant learning environments is getting the administration and students on board. We all have ideas we want implemented, but a lot of us do not know where to start and the steps to take along the way.

At first understanding COVA and CSLE was difficult, then explaining it was a challenge, I am realizing that implementing this will be the greatest challenge. The school system is built around conformity and structure. The COVA approach is a radical idea that will need to be tested. We should go slow to go fast before changing the entire school system.

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References

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Dewey, J. Dewey, E. (1915) Schools of to-morrow. University Press of the Pacific.

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Dunlosky, J. Rawson, K. Marsh, E. Willingham, N. and D. (2013) What works and what doesn’t. Retrieved from http://tguilfoyle.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view/What_works,_What_doesn't.pdf

Harapnuik, D. (n.d.) It’s about learning. CSLE+COVA. Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6991

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Retrieved from http://tguilfoyle.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view/What_works,_What_doesn't.pdf

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Master of Education in Digital Learning and Leading online. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://degree.lamar.edu/programs/master-of-education-in-digital-learning-and-leading.aspx

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Staker, H. Horn, M. (2012) Classifying K-12 blended learning. Retrieved from https://www.christenseninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Classifying-K-12-blended-learning.pdf

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The state of video in education (2017) Retrieved from https://corp.kaltura.com/sites/default/files/The_State_Of_Video_in_Education_2017.pdf

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