Jeffery Heil / February 9, 2014 (This was originally posted on my old website. I wanted to keep it for posterity)
I have been thinking that I should reconsider the 20% project. I mean, if my greatest inspiration, Google, seems to be going away from 20 percent time, then I should too. We have traditions for a reason, right? One attends school to be told how to think and what is important to learn. All a student really needs to know is “Will this be on the test?” Getting in the way of this centuries-old practice borders on educational blasphemy. I am the teacher. I hold the keys to learning and should begin to act accordingly. This is especially true in college, where students pay a lot of money to have their learning journey prescribed for them, and they have the right to write about this learning in 20-page essays, double-spaced, academic font,utilizing the proper APA citation. Isn’t this the reason you all want to be teachers, to be able to prescribe learning experiences for your students? Perhaps it was too much to ask my students to personalize their learning, especially at an institution of higher learning. I mean, how can you be expected to fit another learning experience into your already overloaded lives? Nobody has time for that. . .
I get it. This whole 20% project, and the course for that matter, seems strange, non-traditional and annoying. What’s up with all of these stupid tech tools? I don’t want a PLN. I hate Twitter and using it hurts my soul. Google+ sucks. Choice book. . .yet another decision that taxes my brain. Where’s my checklist? How am I supposed to keep up with all of this information? I can’t even remember my passwords! You have every right to feel all of these emotions and more. However, unless you are one who believes that education in its current state is the best of all possible models to foster student learning, creativity, and intrinsic motivation, something has to change. I pick you! We need to reinvent the way we do school. Our kids deserve better. Kids can and do learn most of what they know outside of school. And every kid, contrary to what some may say or believe, knows a lot. This should offer undeniable evidence that all kids are capable of learning. Yet, kids “fail to learn” in our schools in large numbers. Maybe the problem with learning in schools is not the kids, but the way we are teaching? Learning doesn’t have to be a struggle. Learning should be fun!
I offer the picture in this post as proof. Last Fourth of July, my daughters and a group of about five of their friends decided that they wanted to create festive shorts for the occasion. The standard Old Navy flag t-shirts they traditionally received from their mothers lacked the necessary cache for their newly-acquired teenage status (although my youngest, Lily was only 11 at the time). They collectively decided that they wanted something you couldn’t find on a retail shelf. They wanted something more unique. It was time for action. This entailed using the Internet to research ways to do just this. What? This smells like learning? Yes, they had chosen to “learn” during their summer break, although I doubt any of them actually considered this activity learning. They had to make decisions collaboratively, based on all of the possible designs they discovered, as to which one they would use. They had to obtain the necessary materials (which entailed enticing their mothers to go thrift store shopping and purchase paint and brushes from Michael’s). They cut their jeans, painted their flags, used techniques for creating a “weathered” look, and helped each other along the way. The entire process took two days, so they had to have the patience needed to follow through on their task. And they did all of this without the guidance of a “teacher!” Well, this is not entirely true. They had teachers, but their “teachers” were not a group of educators “certified” to teach, they were a group of teenage girls who chronicled their own creation of something novel and new, which they shared on YouTube for my daughters and their friends (and the world) to discover. In a sense they joined a community of other people dedicated to customizing clothing. Ironically, my oldest daughter Zoe chose not to wear the shorts to the Fourth of July Party we attended because too many of her friends would be wearing them. That is an issue for another blog post.
This is what I want for you. I want you to learn something that doesn’t feel like learning. I want you to learn something that you would traditionally learn outside of school. And I would like you to use technology as the primary means to acquire this new knowledge. Most importantly, I want you to have fun. Along the way, you will document this “learning,” on your blog/website and share this learning with your peers and the world. You will also archive or curate your research using technology tools (and all of these tools take time and authentic practice to master, or even understand. . .this is normal). In terms of sharing, I am modeling multiple ways for you to share (Twitter, Google+, my website, etc.). Again, remember that these are only the tools. . .the point of the project is the learning. While you are reflecting on your learning, you should notice that it might be qualitatively different from the traditional learning that occurs in school (although many people try to replicate the traditional school learning pattern out of habit). Ideally, you will discover ways that you might be able to transform your practice (teaching) to make learning fun for your students. . .Which is what we will focus on in the second half of the semester.
The last issue I want to address is that you truly will have more than 20% of your class time to work on this. I see tweets and posts from people who feel like this is “yet another extra activity to usurp your precious time.” Actually, it is not. This project is taking the place of the traditional 20-page paper and required reading by allowing you to personalize this course for you. This small shift in mindset might actually make you enjoy the process. . .or not. Besides, if you really hate the 20% project, you are welcome to write a 20-page paper on the history of learning theory and its impact on modern educational practice. . . (Hashtag sarcasm)
jeff
P.S. The alledged demise of Google’s 20% Time has been grossly exaggerated.
I have been thinking that I should reconsider the 20% project. I mean, if my greatest inspiration, Google, seems to be going away from 20 percent time, then I should too. We have traditions for a reason, right? One attends school to be told how to think and what is important to learn. All a student really needs to know is “Will this be on the test?” Getting in the way of this centuries-old practice borders on educational blasphemy. I am the teacher. I hold the keys to learning and should begin to act accordingly. This is especially true in college, where students pay a lot of money to have their learning journey prescribed for them, and they have the right to write about this learning in 20-page essays, double-spaced, academic font,utilizing the proper APA citation. Isn’t this the reason you all want to be teachers, to be able to prescribe learning experiences for your students? Perhaps it was too much to ask my students to personalize their learning, especially at an institution of higher learning. I mean, how can you be expected to fit another learning experience into your already overloaded lives? Nobody has time for that. . .
I get it. This whole 20% project, and the course for that matter, seems strange, non-traditional and annoying. What’s up with all of these stupid tech tools? I don’t want a PLN. I hate Twitter and using it hurts my soul. Google+ sucks. Choice book. . .yet another decision that taxes my brain. Where’s my checklist? How am I supposed to keep up with all of this information? I can’t even remember my passwords! You have every right to feel all of these emotions and more. However, unless you are one who believes that education in its current state is the best of all possible models to foster student learning, creativity, and intrinsic motivation, something has to change. I pick you! We need to reinvent the way we do school. Our kids deserve better. Kids can and do learn most of what they know outside of school. And every kid, contrary to what some may say or believe, knows a lot. This should offer undeniable evidence that all kids are capable of learning. Yet, kids “fail to learn” in our schools in large numbers. Maybe the problem with learning in schools is not the kids, but the way we are teaching? Learning doesn’t have to be a struggle. Learning should be fun!
I offer the picture in this post as proof. Last Fourth of July, my daughters and a group of about five of their friends decided that they wanted to create festive shorts for the occasion. The standard Old Navy flag t-shirts they traditionally received from their mothers lacked the necessary cache for their newly-acquired teenage status (although my youngest, Lily was only 11 at the time). They collectively decided that they wanted something you couldn’t find on a retail shelf. They wanted something more unique. It was time for action. This entailed using the Internet to research ways to do just this. What? This smells like learning? Yes, they had chosen to “learn” during their summer break, although I doubt any of them actually considered this activity learning. They had to make decisions collaboratively, based on all of the possible designs they discovered, as to which one they would use. They had to obtain the necessary materials (which entailed enticing their mothers to go thrift store shopping and purchase paint and brushes from Michael’s). They cut their jeans, painted their flags, used techniques for creating a “weathered” look, and helped each other along the way. The entire process took two days, so they had to have the patience needed to follow through on their task. And they did all of this without the guidance of a “teacher!” Well, this is not entirely true. They had teachers, but their “teachers” were not a group of educators “certified” to teach, they were a group of teenage girls who chronicled their own creation of something novel and new, which they shared on YouTube for my daughters and their friends (and the world) to discover. In a sense they joined a community of other people dedicated to customizing clothing. Ironically, my oldest daughter Zoe chose not to wear the shorts to the Fourth of July Party we attended because too many of her friends would be wearing them. That is an issue for another blog post.
This is what I want for you. I want you to learn something that doesn’t feel like learning. I want you to learn something that you would traditionally learn outside of school. And I would like you to use technology as the primary means to acquire this new knowledge. Most importantly, I want you to have fun. Along the way, you will document this “learning,” on your blog/website and share this learning with your peers and the world. You will also archive or curate your research using technology tools (and all of these tools take time and authentic practice to master, or even understand. . .this is normal). In terms of sharing, I am modeling multiple ways for you to share (Twitter, Google+, my website, etc.). Again, remember that these are only the tools. . .the point of the project is the learning. While you are reflecting on your learning, you should notice that it might be qualitatively different from the traditional learning that occurs in school (although many people try to replicate the traditional school learning pattern out of habit). Ideally, you will discover ways that you might be able to transform your practice (teaching) to make learning fun for your students. . .Which is what we will focus on in the second half of the semester.
The last issue I want to address is that you truly will have more than 20% of your class time to work on this. I see tweets and posts from people who feel like this is “yet another extra activity to usurp your precious time.” Actually, it is not. This project is taking the place of the traditional 20-page paper and required reading by allowing you to personalize this course for you. This small shift in mindset might actually make you enjoy the process. . .or not. Besides, if you really hate the 20% project, you are welcome to write a 20-page paper on the history of learning theory and its impact on modern educational practice. . . (Hashtag sarcasm)
jeff
P.S. The alledged demise of Google’s 20% Time has been grossly exaggerated.
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