“The ultimate engagement is to put the learner in charge of learning. Create a rich learning environment and a motivation to learn, and the students do all the hard work of learning, while the teacher merely facilitates. It sounds so easy.” writes Ben Johnson in his blog post (2012). My evolution of addressing student engagement began with Inquiry, travelled to a blended classroom and is now nearing a project-based learning approach. I certainly would not describe the journey towards teacher facilitation as an easy one! Along this journey, my use of web 2.0 tools has increased every year. My story of using an emerging technology in my teaching directly relates to my efforts to increase student engagement in my photography course. The introduction of ePortfolios using Weebly last year stretched the boundaries of my comfort zone using technology, but proved to be a key factor for motivating and engaging my students.
Three years ago I moved from a teacher-directed classroom to an inquiry-based student-directed classroom. While this proved to be a successful teaching practice and one I continue to incorporate, I still had to face how to tackle the enormous amount of frontloading of information needed in the beginning of a photography course without losing student motivation and engagement. How could I motivate students to learn the key concepts in photography without lecturing, viewing videos as a class or presenting class demonstrations which invariably students missed if absent from school? My answer came in the form of building an online photography course that students could access anytime and with the introduction of student websites (ePortfolios) to house all their learning throughout the course.
Introducing an emerging technology to a large number of high school students (two blocks of photography with 60 students) seemed like a daunting task to undertake. Even though I was familiar with using Weebly, I knew guiding two full classes through each step of building the website could take up a full week or more of class time. Also, logistically speaking, one instructor per 30 students was not the ideal ratio for learning new technology. The solution was to provide an outside environment with one-on-one instruction with student teachers at Vancouver Island University. Not only did this provide an excellent learning opportunity for all involved, it also created a much valued mentorship for my students that lasted all term. The student teachers validated the use and importance of ePortfolios in education by sharing that each and every one had created their own ePortfolio at the university level. My students were excited and motivated not only to create their own website, but to continue to improve their photography skills and showcase the best of their work online. Implementing the use of Weebly as a student website was successful due to: expert guidance and mentorship, individualized attention, real world applications, student autonomy for design and the ability to achieve “professional” quality results. The only barrier for success using Weebly was the issues students had with the time it took to upload images on the school’s server. This is more of a district bandwidth issue than with the actual web 2.0 tool itself.
Dunleavy and Milton (2009) give examples of what students stated they would imagine in their schools to be fully engaged in learning:
· Solve real problems.
· Engage with knowledge that matters.
· Make a difference in the world.
· Be respected.
· See how subjects are interconnected.
· Learn from and with each other and people in their community.
· Connect with experts and expertise.
· Have more opportunities for dialogue and conversation
Without the whole class setup of websites with individualized and personal attention from the student teachers, the introduction and implementation of Weebly for student ePortfolios would not have been as successful. My students were engaged with knowledge that mattered, they were shown respect and valued learning from the expertise of university students and they were given many opportunities for dialogue and conversation.
This year my journey to facilitate learning and increase student engagement will once again begin with implementing ePortfolios using Weebly. The Vancouver Island University student teachers will be mentoring my students and providing the much needed expert connections. Expanding on new ways to engage my students, a mentor teacher from Saskatoon will be guiding my students through her process of learning a skill online with an introduction to project-based learning. As stated in, “What Did you Learn in School Today? (2009), “goals for intellectual engagement” (2009) will contain instructional choices that:
· Promote students’ sense of ownership and responsibility for their own learning.
· Invite students to be co-designers of their learning in classrooms that support student voice and autonomy.
· Foster collaboration and community building for learning.
· Bridge students’ experience of learning in and outside of school by exposing them to digital technologies in knowledge-building environments.
· Engage students in becoming literate with technologies as social-networking, knowledge-building tools.
My goal as a teacher/facilitator is to provide my students with learning opportunities that will meet the goals for “intellectual engagement” (2009). Once again I am moving out of my comfort zone to experience project-based learning with my students and showcase that learning on both a community and global scale.
References
Johnson, Ben. ( 2012, March 1) How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged?. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-definition-ben-johnson
Dunleavy ,J.& Milton, P. (2009, May). What did you do in school today? Retrieved from http://www.cea-ace.ca/sites/cea-ace.ca/files/cea-2009-wdydist-concept.pdf