My response to Sarah’s blog:  I THINK I MIGHT LEARN TO LIKE YOU, RESEARCH!

Sarah's original post: 

https://reflectwemust.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/bring-it-on-research/

At the time that you wrote this post, I don’t think I was quite ready to make the same statement, but I am getting there.  I actually really enjoyed working on the article critique, which led me to reading a lot of different material as I was looking for specific information or trying to cross-reference a concept.  I didn’t end up using most of what I read, but I enjoyed the research process.  The idea of a project the magnitude of a research paper or thesis still seems a little daunting, but I am already much more comfortable with smaller projects than I was 6 weeks ago. 

Thank you for reminding me of the “whose shoulders are you standing on?” analogy and for sharing your incredible graphic renditions!

Lori

My response to Jody’s blog:  More on Reading

Jody's original post:  

https://cjbarber.edublogs.org/2015/08/12/more-on-reading/

I enjoyed reading your post about how reading has changed for you.  It’s true that a mere 5 ½ weeks ago I too found the readings somewhat intimidating and although some of the articles that I have recently come across are challenging to read, I am much more comfortable and am reading much more in terms of volume. I have found that both the reading and writing that we have done have contributed to an increase in my comfort level when writing, too.  I think that the reading required for our last article critique has had a particular impact on my learning to read deeper. I could see a transition from focusing on the meaning of words to the meaning of each paragraph and the article as a whole.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts on reading!

Lori

My response to Mark’s blog:  My Role as An Educator in the Digital Age 

Mark's original post:  

https://edtechhacker.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/my-role-as-an-educator-in-the-digital-age/

You make some very good points here, Mark.  I agree that many teachers feel the challenge of keeping up with the skills to support students in learning technologies, and the question of willingness is a good one.Some teachers feel so taxed with demands already and are intimidated by the idea of having to do more, which is a common perception when we are faced with doing things differently. We were exposed to these perceptions in some of the conversations with some of the MAELM students during residency. There are many teachers that are resistant to technology for one reason or another.  Maybe as advocates of learning and technology we can inspire others to make the move, one manageable step at a time. 

Lori

P.S. the visuals in your blog are great!

Open Minded and Skeptical Curious

I am not comfortable with the word skeptical.  I came across it recently as I was reading articles about critical thinking, in preparation for writing my article critique for LRNT502. I am not a skeptical person. In fact, I consider myself to be optimistic and trusting.  If someone tells me something is true, I generally give them the benefit of the doubt. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not gullible, but I generally believe people have the best of intentions.

In Becoming a Critical Thinker, Robert Todd (2004) states that “The most distinctive features of the critical thinker’s attitude are open-mindedness and skepticism” (p. 4).  He points out that these can be considered opposite to one another. “Sometimes what looks like open-mindedness is simply gullibility and what looks like skepticism is really closed-mindedness” (Todd, 2004, p.4).

I do consider myself to be pretty open-minded (not gullible), so I can live with being an open-minded critical thinker, but not an open-minded skeptical thinker. This actually had me feeling somewhat concerned as I embarked on the article critique, thinking I had to approach it through a skeptical lens. Of course this wasn’t the only reading that I did on critical thinking, and I was able to find many other articles and tips that resonated better with me.  Words such as evaluate, reflect, analyze, assess and particularly CURIOSITY are words the rest well with me. 

As I approached the article critique through a lens of curiosity, I was pleasantly surprised that I did not find it as difficult to evaluate as I had anticipated. As I read through the article (again), I captured the essence of each paragraph in the margins.  Focusing on summarizing each paragraph forced me to consider what made sense and to question it when there was something that I didn’t understand. My copy of the article became quite annotated. As I continued to work through the article and compared it with other readings, I was reading deeper and noticing details that I hadn’t noticed previously.  

Photo by Lori Kemp

I spent time reviewing the articles from the author’s reference list, reading what the cited authors wrote and comparing it with how the author presented the information in the article that I was working on. I was surprised and a little miffed that the very first reference that I checked did not even address the concept that my author had cited it for.  I felt like the author had tried to pull the wool over my eyes. It was hard to believe that could happen in a peer reviewed, published article.  By the time I was finished evaluating the article I was actually gaining confidence in my own research and writing abilities!

Writing the article critique was not as difficult as I thought it might be. It was interesting to compare the perspectives of different authors and even to observe how the subject had evolved through the years of articles. This process has emphasized for me the importance of gathering research from multiple sources and to consider the validity of the sources and of the information. 

Now that I reflect on skepticism versus curiosity, skepticism suggests negativity, before even determining if there is a problem. It seems to me that a skeptical thought is an opinion that something is wrong, but with no substance to back it up. I agree with Todd's (2004) suggestion that it has the potential for being associated with being closed-minded.

Curiosity on the other hand, implies questioning with a purpose, without bias. One question leads to another in the search for answers, with evidence to back up the information that emerges. The idea of being open minded and curious feels not only comfortable, but exciting and full of potential for discovery. 

Reference

Todd, R. (2004). Becoming a critical thinker, (pp.1-27). Retrieved fromhttp://www.skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons/ch1.pdf

What is this Space?

Retrieved from http://usenetreviewz.com/wp-content/uploads/cloud-storage1.jpg

In this world of social  technology that we live in, many of us have a presence in multiple spaces. Personally, I have a Facebook page, an Instagram page, a Linked In profile, a Twitter account, a Pinterest board and now my own blog.  Different parts of my identity are revealed in different spaces. For example, my Facebook is personal and is shared with family and friends. LinkedIn serves a professional purpose and my twitter account is mostly professional, with some filtered aspects of my personal thoughts and experiences. 

This blogging space is relatively new to me, and I am still getting a feel for how it fits and what part of my identity is comfortable here. It has the potential for serving as a journal, but it is open to the public, so that makes me want to filter it and make it a little more formal. I haven’t gone out of my way to publicize this blog. Right now I imagine that my blog is guarded by the parameters of this course, although I realize that this is not the case. Many people post links to their blogs on twitter or Facebook, but for now, that is too far outside of my comfort zone.

There are many different views on academic blogging. Estes (2012) describes blogging as a space to think about things and to invite informal conversation. Asselin (2011) identifies blogging as a way to augment communications and effectively network.  I hadn’t previously considered blogging as a way to have a conversation. I see it as a way to share thoughts and information in a more transmissive way. People can comment on your blog, but I had never thought of the process as a conversation, as the interaction seems limited. I view it more as a series of one way conversations. 

Although blog styles and purposes are as unique as the people that write them, there are some critical views of blogging. In the article Blogging in the Academy, Nackerud and Scaletta (2008) share examples of critics, who express frustration with the perceived poor quality of informal writing in some blogs. 

I have enjoyed discovering other people’s blog spaces, with entries relevant (and sometimes not) to our studies. Previously, the blogs that I have sporadically followed have been predominantly from the other side of my career. As you can imagine, there is a marked difference between fashion blogs and academic blogs (although I find inspiration in both). From our own cohort blogs I have found inspiration, comfort and humour.

I still don’t know exactly what this space will become for me. I do intend to continue using it throughout the MALAT program. In our discussions during residency, we talked about journaling as an effective way to track our thinking, especially in regards to research. I don’t think that my blog will be the place where I capture all those thoughts, but I can see sharing versions of my journal entries along the way. Who knows?  - maybe as I continue to gain confidence as a budding academic, I will be  apt to publicize my blog more widely. For now, I am happy to be sharing with my residency cohort. 

References

Aselin, K. (2011). Blogging: The remediation of academic and business communications.  Ann Arbor, Michigan:ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. 

Estes, H. (2012). Blogging and academic identity. Literature Compass, 9(12), 974-982. doi:10.1111/lic3.12017

Nackerud, S., & Scaletta, K. (2008). Blogging in the academy. New Directions for Student Services (124), 71-87. doi:10.1002/ss.296

My name is Lori and I am an Experiential Cognitivist

Retrieved from  http://theawakenedstate.tumblr.com/post/49441933014/can-we-control-our-thoughts-why-do-thoughts-pop

In our Learning Theories class, we have explored the meaning of education, perspectives on knowledge and perspectives on learning.  We have had in depth discussions around epistemologies (which I can now pronounce), learning theories as well as learning strategies and styles.  A recurring theme throughout these discussions has been that our epistemologies, or views on knowing, are at the core of how we learn, teach and with how we approach research.

In my final paper for Learning Theories, I have described myself as an experiential cognitivist.  Now I know what some of you might be thinking…you might be thinking that experiential belongs with constructivism, not cognitivism.  According to many theorists and researchers, you are right….experiential learning is often discussed in conjunction to constructivism. Linda Harasim (2012) described experiential learning in the context of constructivism as learning through experience and interactions with others.  However, my personal identification with experiential learning has a cognitivist twist. 

In both cognitivism and constructivism, the learner is active.  In cognitivism however, knowledge is acquired and built on a foundation through individual reflection and evaluation of experiences, as opposed to being created through social interaction, as per constructivist learning. 

As I have reflected on my assumptions about knowledge, learning and teaching and connected it with readings on those subjects, I have come to recognize some of my personal values regarding knowledge.  I value individual reflection and find that I require the time to think about things and make connections internally, before I feel like I can effectively engage with others on a subject. I value process, structure and organization. To deepen my comprehension on a subject, I need to experience it in some way. This may entail making connections through trial and error (and reflecting on the experience), organizing information, which often involves color coding, or creating a visual doodles that can help me connect with my prior knowledge.   

My position as an experiential cognitivist truly is at the core of how I work and learn.  It also influences how I teach, however, there is a time and place for everything and I recognize that different subjects and different students require different approaches.  My tendency as a teacher is to shift along the cognitivist-constructivist spectrum, towards constructivism.  I encourage interaction and collaboration in the classroom between me and the students and amongst the students themselves.  As students progress in the program, my teaching objectives evolve from strategies for students to acquire foundational knowledge, to applying and creating new knowledge.

“As an experiential cognitivist, I understand knowledge as a series of internal connections that are made through experience” (Kemp, 2015, p.8 ).  I can relate my way of knowing to previous and current experiences of learning and of teaching.  Through this research and reflection I have also developed an understanding of various other epistemologies, learning theories and strategies and have had stimulating discussions with my cohort about where some of these concepts fit and how they are related with one another.   

Harasim, L. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kemp, L. (2015). My personal epistemological position. Royal Roads LRNT501

Trust the Process

Retrieved from:  https://www.pinterest.com/croleyeyecare/vision-quotes/

Last week, while we were in our residency bubble, I sent a message to a colleague who had gone through the MAELM program a few years ago and had been in residency at RRU twice. I told her that as I was experiencing residency, I was thinking about her.  I also mentioned that I thought my brain might explode….  Her response was reassuring as she remarked on the intensity, but also on how amazing and awesome the experience was.  She wished me luck, encouraged me to “hang in there,” and left me with “trust the process.”

Trust the process...

I am grateful for her words, as I have thought about them often, since then.  There have been a number of new concepts that we have been exposed to that I have found difficult to comprehend. To add to the challenge, we usually had to apply the concepts to an assignment right away. How was I going to complete an assignment when I didn’t completely understand the idea behind what I was to do?

There are a few examples of this from the past few weeks.  One example was in Introduction to Learning Theories when we were asked to start the writing process for a paper, outlining our own epistemological assumptions.  At that point I was barely able to pronounce the word "EPISTEMOLOGY" and was only beginning to understand the meaning (after reading and writing and re-reading multiple definitions). I only had a slight grasp on the general idea, let alone what my own epistemology was. Through reflection and further readings, I gained some clarity and, through a windy road, found my way to be able to articulate my epistemology.

Trust the process…

Our last assignment while we were in residency was a team project that entailed summarizing scholarly communities of journal articles, including cultures of inquiry and theoretical frameworks. - Scholarly communities? - Theoretical frameworks?  Theoretical framework, in particular was difficult for me to comprehend.  In his you tube video Francois Desjardin defines theoretical framework as “a logically structured representation of the concepts, variables and relationships involved in a scientific study with the purpose of clearly identifying what will be explored, examined, measured or described.”  We discussed it in class and I continued to look for more information, but it still seemed abstract to me.   Regardless, I needed to do the readings and start working on the assignment.  As I looked for meaning and key words, I began to see some patterns and clues.  As I continued to research and we worked together as a team, it started to make sense and I remembered to trust the process. I feel like there is a lot left to understand about theoretical frameworks and scholarly communities, but then again, we are only 5 weeks into our program.

Trust the process…

I’m working on our last assignment for Introduction to Research.  It involves writing an annotated bibliography, an article summary and an article critique, all of which are new to me. I have some questions, I have found some answers and then there are some more questions. I will continue to work on it and, as with the other assignments, I will trust the process and by the time I am finished, the picture will be much more clear than when I began.   

Desjardins, F (2010). Theoretical Framework. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcnufgQzMjc&spfreload=10

A Research Topic Area Already?

What?  - I’m supposed to be thinking about my final research paper already?  But isn’t that over a year away?  I thought I had lots of time to figure that out. 

Prior to our discussions about thesis vs research paper, I was already leaning towards the research paper.  For one thing, the extra courses that are part of the research paper route appear interesting.  Secondly, the research paper seems to be more structured and less daunting.

The only other previous assumption that I had was that my research question will be related to my work and will benefit the Fashion Institute in one way or another.  This assumption still rings true and will require conversations with various stakeholders. I realize that a consideration that is probably more significant than being practical to my workplace is that it needs to be something that I am deeply interested in. The investment of time and energy required for this project will be significant.  If I choose a subject that I am less than passionate about, it will be difficult to maintain motivation and to give myself to the project to the degree that will be needed to ensure a success. 

I’m sure that my ideas will expand, and I expect to eventually have a wall of sticky note ideas, but as I consider where my interests and curiosities are presently, I have been thinking about how many characteristics of  today’s student have changes from previous years (this is making me sound old). 

Recently, our work team hosted a national conference for fashion educators.  One of the sessions was entitled ‘What is up with the New Generation,’ presented by Maureen Towns http://maureentowns.com/.  Maureen asked us to call out words to describe the generation, as she captured them on a flip chart.  It actually felt quite judgmental.  Some of the recorded words were: irresponsible, unaccountable, poor work ethic, non-committal, unable to prioritize, tech savy.  After Maureen finished collecting input, she invited her niece to come to the front.  Her niece wasn’t being defensive, but she did share her perspective.  She was a university student who was struggling to make both grades and make ends meet.  Although I can’t recall all the details of her day that she described, I was impacted by how much she had on her plate.  She explained that sometimes she had to miss a class, not because she wanted to, but because she need to take a shift at work to pay her bills so she could stay in school.  She then had to try to catch up on her own and was often caught in this cycle that might appear as though she wasn’t being responsible, but in actuality she was making decisions based on immediate priorities.  I could see some of our own students in this young lady and it made me wonder if there was a way we could help them differently.

Photo by Lori Kemp

It seems to me that young people have different complexities in their lives.  For that matter, I think society in general has different complexities and responsibilities.  All of this has made me think about the potential of FLEXIBLE learning in our apparel technology program. Years ago, my reaction to such a consideration would have been that it wasn’t possible to teach our skill based courses in any kind of an online environment, but today I am intrigued and curious about a flexible program model that would support student success in apparel technology. 

Our Own Lens

"We don't see things the way that they are; we see them as we are,"  is a quote that caught my attention about 7 years ago, at an exhibit at the Telus Spark Centre.  Interestingly enough, shortly after seeing that quote, I came across a school project that I had done when I was about 11 years old that included that same quote.  I realized it was something that resonated with me not just in that moment, but at my core. 

As we have reflected on our epistemological positions, this thought has resurfaced again.  I hope that as I grow as a researcher, I will be able to see things objectively, as they are.  That being said, as we have discussed in our MALAT courses, who we are and how we think does influence how we see things.  Understanding how we validate knowledge leads us to research that is complimented by our epistemological positions.  For example, someone that has an objectivist epistemology will likely be more drawn to research that studies quantitative data, whereas someone that views knowledge from a constructivist or cognitive view may prefer research that is grounded in qualitative data or mixed methods. Also, being aware of our epistemological position also allows us to consider our own biases. Being aware of our biases may lead us to approach the research in a way that will balance out our biases. Recognizing that we all view things differently, also allows us to be open to other perspectives and consider them as valid knowledge.

In research, we may not actually see things the way we are, but the way we see things is influenced by who we are and needs to be balanced with providing evidence.  The fundamental question of “how do we know that?” needs to be answered. It is relevant,however, in the  sense that we see things through our own lens, which is based on who we are and how we view knowledge.