The Summer Institute, “Learning Outside the Classroom/Learning 2.0” was held May 20-21. There was a tremendous amount of information shared, and that is still being processed. Here are some reflections from the participants to start things off:
Reflections at the end of Day One (Learning Outside the Classroom – Service Learning, Experiential Learning, Field Trips, Study Abroad):
Students can be their own best teachers
Involve students more, allow them to give more feedback – needs trust
Students committing time
It’s never perfect; desire to impart knowledge vs. giving more responsibility to students
Peer work with guidance and goals
Time for reflections with students who are doing service learning
Role of accidental learning – willingness to let go and trust that good learning can take place
Students doing service learning felt that they had support
Issue of students’ time availability
Students are often focused on the arrival, not the journey – how to inspire them?
Students can inspire each other
Recording effective work is useful to support service learning
Service-learning stretches boundaries – other realities are out there. We need to open those boundaries up in Berkshires, become more global for competition and life
Reflections at the end of Day 2 (Learning 2.0):
Mesmerized by and tempted to use techniques
I want more life to do all of it well
Walking into dark woods, scared, pandora’s box
Delighted, learned about web 2.0, will start blog
Wondering about assessment for service-learning, how to do that, important
Day 2 only: I liked it
Still playing catch up with technology
Good flow, want to cover more but don’t know what to ask
Synchronizing instructor tech literacy with students
So many ways to use tech to expand LOTC – tech’s overlap
Could fill up summer with this
Feel more confident in ability to pursue tech
Excellent acoutrements
Exciting to integrate into classes, show off how techie I am
New goal to excite service learning by integrating newly learned tech
Welcome to the future
Useful. Transparency of students’ work to other students – stuck with me
Constructive and innovative teaching and learning materials and methods to enhance active learning in the 21st century
Excellent intro to topics I have heard about; surprise to see how many are in similar boat; we’ll have to keep playing with it
Inspirational useful and reaffirming the fact that we need more balance in our workload
From tech nightmare to mini-nightmare
So many options, so little time
I learned a lot of action verbs that I experienced: blogged, wiki’d, facebooked, served, surveyed, blindfolded
Shifting the emphasis on the teacher, to community – need support group in September
Power of the group to learn
Besides learning and technology, chance to be among colleagues, very enriching
