Dan's+Self-Reflection

EDC 655 Learning Activity Self-Reflection
Dan Wood 3/22/09

Working on the Learning Activity project with the Furious Five team was an exceptional way to learn the Understanding by Design process through application. Our team focused on following the design methodology laid out in the book by beginning with the "Big Idea" for our learners in the form of an established learning goal, creating several Essential Questions, exploring the desired understandings that participants should gain, and what participants would know and be able to accomplish as a result of the learning activity. From here we developed our high-level assessment plans prior to moving into the design of the activity itself. We focused our overarching learning outcome and Essential Questions toward the idea that this learning activity would be part of a larger curriculum. Here are the broad learning outcome and the EQs we identified:

The broad learning outcome to which the activity is aligned is: Students will demonstrate an understanding of conversational Spanish. The following essential questions will be pursued in support of this outcome:


 * What is the value of learning a foreign language?
 * How is my life similar and/or different than that of someone in Spain?
 * How can current technology enhance the language learning experience?

While we strove to complete the processes in true UbD order, there was some overlap in developing the activity in parallel with the assessment part of the design. Our team did a good job of staying close through the process and had established our basic topic and identified some potential technology solutions prior to meeting up in Orlando. The time in Orlando helped us to lock in our overall design and establish a shared vision for the project so that we could continue to maximize our asynchronous development time. By meeting regularly and having clear roles in the process we were able to meet our design deadline and be one of the first teams to present our Learning Activity to the cadre.

After assisting in the foundational work of deciding on the "Big Idea" and key Essential Questions, one of my main areas of focus for the Learning Activity was the creation of the Executive Summary. I enjoyed working on the Executive Summary and our team all contributed to the content through their various areas of focus. Colby did an amazing job of creating a robust web presence to house our project with the idea in mind that it could be expanded over time to encompass the larger curriculum design and serve as an actual resource for foreign language teachers.

One of the most challenging parts of the project was deciding on and building the actual steps of the Learning Activity. Our goal was to create an opportunity for new language learners to practice social knowledge building of their language, in an immersive learning environment created and supported by technology tools. Our approach was based on what we learned through our first trimester in how individuals learn with others, both synchronously and asynchronously, and by creating and interacting with learning artifacts. We had seen that this process can be greatly enhanced through the application of appropriate technology and were fortunate that Dijlah found a great online language learning resource that included opportunities for real-time interaction with native language speakers. This tool, busuu.com, also included a wealth of language learning tools including vocabulary lessons, and other tools for new language learners. We also added several other online tools and resources, and created a discussion forum for learners to interact in responding to the Essential Questions as they worked through the activity.

As our learning activity took shape our refinement of the assessment piece also became clearer. We had begun with a rubric for judging the successful development of understanding by our participants and decided break our assessment into two pieces. Donna and Mici worked to shape this part of the process, with Mici engaging one of her colleagues at her school, the Spanish Language teacher to assist with the final review of the submitted work. As we worked through this part of the project I was reminded that it is challenging to make sure that the focus stays on identifying the way you will evaluate the key understandings prior to creating the activity itself. This is an area I have to continue to focus on as it is easy for me to get excited about what I think would be fun and engaging for a group in terms of an activity without stopping to reason through how the learning will be measured and ensuring that the activity is best suited to reach the desired outcome. I felt that our team did a great job of creating a learning activity that had enough structure to guide participants, yet left them plenty of room to explore and go as far as they would like with the project.

The communication and execution of our learning activity did not go as smoothly as our team had envisioned. Donna created a nice mailer for the cadre and we also sent out two additional email notifications to signify the start of the activity. I believe there was confusion based on the posted schedule in the wiki as to whether our activity was to be completed before our TappedIn session, or to start after the session. Whatever the reason, the participation in the activity was very low until the weekend before our TI session and, based on the survey results, individuals wished they had more time to work on the project. Once participants did begin engaging in the activity it seems that for some the context was unclear as a few individuals expressed a concern that we were hoping they would gain an understanding of conversational Spanish through this one learning activity, when that objective was intended for a broad curriculum design geared toward new language learners in an introduction to conversational Spanish class at a community college. There were a few feedback comments in our post survey that indicated this sentiment, "The timeline, no one can learn a language and write 2-3 paragraphs in that language in 1 week."

Our TappedIn session after the completion of the learning activity was a bit frustrating as I believe our team was hoping to receive direct feedback pertaining to the extent to which UbD was, or was not, reflected in our learning activity. Unfortunately, and possibly due to some of the misunderstandings of purpose and context, the feedback tended to be focused on issues with the length of the project. There was a great deal of positive feedback and indications that many wished they had started sooner, or had more time in general to devote to the activity, but overall the feedback and discussion did not get to the core of reinforcing how we reflected UbD in the design and helpful guidance and suggestions for how that design could be improved. There may be many reasons for the feedback not getting to the level we had desired, such as the relative shortness of time many had to complete the activity, the brief time in TI to reflect, or the structuring of the questions asked in reflection of the cadre. As I think about it now, even though the feedback may not have been what we had hoped or expected, it is highly valuable nonetheless and does help me understand some of the pitfalls associated with the execution portion of a learning activity.

In reflection, having a small framing comment at the beginning of our learning activity, or in the communications about the activity may have alleviated some of the concern over the scope of our learning activity and possibly cleared up confusion over when to complete the activity. I do not find either of these areas to have overly impacted the success of our design and implementation and take all the feedback and input as great opportunities to learn and grow as an instructional designer using the UbD process. I am excited that my place of work may begin exploring this approach to designing our content as well. It is not that we are that far off with our current design methodology, but using the UbD process is a wonderful way to ensure that the overall learning goal is clear, that there are EQs to prompt learners to reflect and grow throughout the process, that the measurement of successful learning is considered, and that the structure of the activities falls in line to support a cohesive learning experience.

Our team will be posting our learning activity survey results to the design wiki as well as our echolurn.com website for others to read the responses and see the results of our post-activity survey. The feedback was largely positive with comments such as, "Just a well organized SLA and I certainly appreciated that!", "Fantastic job! Well thought out!" and, "Very well put together! Your website and your directions are awesome! You are very organized. Great work and I really appreciate the time that you invested."

I am thankful to have been a part of the talented Furious Five team and enjoyed the blending of our various passions, talents, and skills into the creation of a great learning activity housed within a custom learning website. Each member of the team worked well both during our face-to-face, Skype, and wiki-based development processes. While we had areas of focus, each member contributed to to the overall design concept and provided their input and feedback on each aspect of the project. We used technology in an expert manner to support our group communication needs and were able to turn out a quality design, based on the UbD methodology without an enormous amount of last-minute effort. From my perspective that is a sign of great planning and a solid team! I find I am a little sad that we will not be continuing on with the overall curriculum design aspect of the project as I enjoyed working with this team and was looking forward to the next step with them.