A New Culture of Learning

A new culture of learning brings many new ideas to enhance student learning. Thomas and Brown state that students naturally learn through play. Therefore, learning through play is the best way to engage them in learning.

Children use play and imagination as the primary mechanism for making sense of their new, rapidly evolving world. As they become accustomed to the world, the perceived need for play diminishes. Therefore, designing learning environments where students can embrace what they don’t know through play can become a strategy for embracing new learning.

It is easy to see this in young kids. As a volunteer in my son’s kindergarten dual-language class a few years ago, I witnessed how students were able to pick up a second language effortlessly, through playing games while learning. Additionally, the same students once reaching first and second grade, were able to have a broader vocabulary in both English and Spanish by linking common word roots and meaning.

Just as young learners, older students and adults require educators to design learning environments in which digital media provide access to a rich source of information and play (Thomas& Brown, 2001). Environments where students embrace what they don’t know and continue asking questions in order to learn more and more. Environments that give them a chance to develop their passion and imagination, and in which they can see themselves as a resource for personal and collective growth. Teachers and educators need to redefine the way they look at learning. They need to move from a more traditional role where they are the main resource of information to a mentor role, which provides a sense of structured guide learning, where students can discover a voice, a calling, or a passion.

Grant Wiggins (2013), in his video Understanding by Design, gave an interesting analogy. He compares designing a course to designing a video game, where you have to keep the player interested in every frame, at every level, through the entire game. If you don’t, he loses interest, leading him to stop playing. As teachers, we have to incentivize every lesson, every activity, every day, every unit, every course. That is our job.

Application to an E-Portfolio

Implementing an E-portfolio will help create a collective environment where peers can engage and learn from each other. The student as an individual will show who he is and what he can do. As part of a collective, he will constantly re-imagine his own identity by adding and considering thoughts and resources that other students bring to his work. He will be able to see his work from other people’s perspectives. This experience will help each student develop creative and critical thinking giving them the ability to assess themselves.

Adjustments to the E-portfolio Implementation Plan

The idea for students to develop a virtual portfolio during the architecture program that reflects their work through their process of becoming architects is an innovative idea for the architecture department. Portfolios have been seen as a platform to showcase their projects to future clients when they are ready to look for work but not as part of the curriculum.

The need to reorganize course work and assignments could arise as a challenge between instructors and administrations. Strategies to counter this resistance may include explaining to teachers the benefits of using an electronic portfolio, and researching what is being done in other schools around the world. It will also be important to learn together about CSLE + COVA and the importance to design authentic learning opportunities where students can be involved in meaningful, real-life projects, and where they can have choice, ownership, and voice. To understand that a portfolio is not a placeholder for all or random student work. Instructors will need to be aware of what needs to be included and its purpose, in order to guide students accordingly. The implementation work should consider training instructors and academics on the benefits of implementing an E-portfolio as part of the entire academic program, researching and analyzing what has been done in other architecture schools around the world and what results they have obtained through their implementation. It will also be important to learn together about CSLE + COVA and the importance to design authentic learning opportunities where students can be involved in meaningful, real-life projects, and where they can have choice, ownership, and voice. To understand that a portfolio is not a placeholder for all or random student work. Instructors will need to be aware of what needs to be included and its purpose, in order to guide students accordingly.

Students benefit from rich and stimulating environments, and well design activities. It is our job to create a supportive learning environment where students can apply their knowledge,

References

Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 8). Creating significant learning environments. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4

Meyer, B. & Lathan, N. (2008, February 13). Implementing Electronic Portfolios: Benefits, Challenges, and Suggestions. EDUCAUSE Review. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles

Tedx Talks. (2012, September 12). A new culture of learning:

Douglas Thomas at tedxufm. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/lM80GXlyX0U

Thomas, D., & Brown J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the imagination

for a world of constant change. (Vol 219) Lexington, KY: CreateSpace

Wiggins, G., (2013, February 28). Understanding by Design (1 and 2). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4isSHf3SBuQ