As was mentioned in the Overview, I threw out my plans for the course approximately two weeks before the beginning of the semester. I decided I would allow the class to brainstorm the issues they wanted to study and then set up the course from there. At that point in my own learning, I was ready to step in and provide them with the "right" answers if they didn't come up with the topics I had already identified. I should have trusted in the concepts of team learning. I found that after completing the brainstorming session, the students had not only identified the topics I had found, but they had also come up with a number of other, very valid, issues that needed to be studied.
As you can see by the list of topics found in Other Issues, we identified a wide variety of topics. Unfortuntely, there were too many issues to study in one semester so we used Weighted Voting to decide on three key issues to study in detail.
The following is a general description of the flow of the class and the methods I used along the way. Overall, it was a unique learning experience for me. I found that I had great difficulty in not lecturing (although I did speak without interuption for some long times every once in a while - old habits die hard). Also, I found it difficult not to "be in control of the class." I guess even when we think we are being innovative we often fall back to old ways, or should I say, to old mental models.
Prior to the first day of class, I was able to identify the majority of my students through the University's computer system. Along with the student's names, I was able to get their e-mail addresses. Using these addresses, I sent an e-mail message to let them know what would be happening in the class and to get a little information from them.
After sending the message, and receiving their responses, I rewrote the syllabus I had prepared as well as the class schedule. As you can see from the class schedule, I really only had two days pre-planned for the course - the first day and the final. The out-of-class activity you will note, was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so I thought I better have something planned for that.
As a first day activity, I started by giving each student a flip-chart sized piece of paper and colored pens. I then asked them to tell us about themselves, but without using words. They were to provide at least the following information: teaching/professional experience, a little bit of personal information (hobbies, pets, etc.), expertise (either in-school or out), and interests or passions.
The students were given 15 minutes to draw and then we displayed the drawings on the wall. They were encouraged to look at each other's drawings and see if they could tell anything about the person. We then each told the class about ourselves through by explaining our drawings.
Next, I handed out the syllabus and the class schedule. I pointed out that this class might be a little different than others they had taken as, at this time there was no set schedule, no readings, no tests, and no due dates.
I then asked who had seen the e-mail message? We talked about my philosophy and about my decision to redesign the course. I then stated that we had three Tasks that needed to be decided that would let us set up the rest of the course.
To end the first day, we did an exercise called Plusses and Deltas. I wanted to introduce this as a method of monitoring class progress as well as determining what the class thought of things after this initial introduction. We did the exercise again after the second class. Unfortunately, I did not keep this up through the remainder of the course. The next Plusses and Deltas was done at the final.
Our first task was to decide what we wanted to study. We needed to look at what we already knew about the issues in implementing technology and then decide what we wanted to study further. To help us identify the areas to study, we used an Affinity exercise to brainstorm the issues related to implementing technology. As I said earlier, I was ready at this point to step in and provide my "expertise" concerning the topics. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut and the students developed an excellent list of topics.
After the Affinity exercise, we used Weighted Voting to identify the top five issues. If I had done a little simple math, I would have realized that, with six students working in teams of two, I should have done the top three. No matter, we decided we would look at the three topics identified on the main page. Once the three topics were identified, the students divided into two person teams based on interest.
Our next task was to determine how we would study the topics we had identified. After group discussion, the class decided to use textual references as well as materials located on the Web to study the issues. The exact nature of what we studied and how we studied it continued to evolve over the course of the class.
Our final task was to determine how the students wanted to be assessed. I had two areas on which I wished to assess them. The first was class participation and the second was on the writing of a journal. However, I wanted them to develop the exact method we would use to evaluate these two areas. As a class activity, we developed rubrics for (participation and journal writing)
Prior to class
First Week of Class (we met for two and a half hours one day a week)
Opening activity
Course Overview
Plusses and Deltas
Second Week
| A note about Weighted Voting |
|---|
| As I learn more about systems thinking, I become less convinced that using Weighted Multivoting is such a good idea. The purpose of the exercise is to help the group rate the relative importance of the issues. However, we have been trained for so long to rank things that it becomes an exercise in ranking issues to find the one or two issues that are most "important." We then focus on those issues, and only those issues. We tend to forget the other issues identified and, more importantly, the relationships between the issues. As I pointed out, we moved fairly quickly from identifying three issues to study to deciding how we wanted to study them. It was not until several weeks later that we began to see that we could not study or talk about one issue without talking about the others as they were all closely inter-related. While this was an important learning experience, I will plan for more time in the future to discuss the relationships between issues before deciding which ones to study. I will still use an Affinity exercise to identify issues. However, I will replace the weighted voting with other tools from systems (such as causal loops) to explore the relationships between the issues. |
We had just spent two weeks developing a very nice laundry list of issues in implementing technology. However, in the discussions the students were pointing out that many of the issues we were talking about were interrelated.
For the third class then, I invited Ms. Pam Hopkins from Desert View High School to visit the class and give us an overview of systems thinking. I have been working with Pam for several years and she had been helping me in my own learning in this area. She provide a presentation on the basic concepts of systems and I supplemented this with readings from Senge's Fifth Discipline and Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.
During the fourth class, Mr. Michael Ray, of the Office of Continuous Organizational Renewal, gave us an excellent overview of the skills of Inquiry and Advocacy.. (see Senge's Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for a good explanation of these two skills).
The remainder of the class revolved around the development of the final project. As the student's researched their topics we discussed a number of ways we could synthesize the information and present it to others. One point I stressed was that, whatever the final form was, it needed to be useful to the students. If others found it useful, that would be nice, but the project needed to be something they could use once the class was over. As the project developed, the group decided that a web-based document would be the best way to represent the information we found.
The majority of the classes were then spent as work sessions for the students. The students used the Internet connections in HumCAT to conduct research. Also, for many of the students, class time was the only time the teams could get together to discuss what they had found. There were also a number of excellent discussions between the groups. From observing these discussions, I was able to use the participation rubric to assess the students' on how well they participated.
While I have been very pleased with the students' participation and with the final project, the journal writing part of class just didn't work out. I gave the students a handout on the importance of journaling and some steps on how to write a journal at the beginning of class. Unfortunately, I did not follow-up with the students until several weeks into the class to if see if they were doing the journaling -- many weren't.
The next time I do this class, I will place a stronger emphasis on writing journals as I think it is a useful exercise to help focus thinking. However, I think to make the exercise successful, I will need to assign class time to journal writing. In talking with my students, they agreed that the journal writing was at least, an OK thing to do, but by the time they got home, had dinner, and talked to their kids or significant other, journal writing was the farthest thing from their mind. By providing class time, I'll be able to stress the importance I place on this activity.
I have greatly enjoyed this class and hopefully the students have as well. This page of the document is being written before our final class so make sure you see the section on students' thoughts on the course structure to see what they thought of it.
While I have had some apprehensive moments in dealing with my need to feel in control of the class, I much prefer the open ended nature of this course. I feel that there has been more significant learning for the students and for myself.
