Powerful Learning, Powerful Leadership (Part 2)

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

According to the video with Dan Pink, Extrinsic motivation can be a hindrance to creativity. The video is good, but the other day I had a conversation with a friend about this topic. I was complaining about how my students lack intrinsic motivation and my friend Ryan told me that intrinsic motivation does not exist (R. Wellhoefer, personal communication, October 16, 2019). He is a licensed professional counselor. He boiled it to that everyone is motivated by different things and the behavior we give is shaped by extrinsic factors. I linked a OSU study at the bottom which gives more details about this. Pink did give a great example about Wikipedia beating out Encarta, but many of us remember how unreliable old Wikipedia use to be with anyone able to edit it. Example: When Stephen Colbert constantly had his fans changed Wikipedia to mess with the site. Now people are motivated by different things and as a technology leader, we need to leverage the students who want to explore technology. We want to share technology in the education system, no matter the source of the motivation.

Free time

Outside the debate if intrinsic motivation is real, free time being a catalyst for creativity is truly real. Pink described how the Australian company and Google give free time to their employees which produced new ways of solving issues at work. Applying this with students can lead to two things. Since the kids are required to be at school by law, if you give them the option to do whatever they want, some will go out and get high or just have sex. Some students will use that time to broaden their horizons. The reason why this free time works with employees is because they are hired for a job. Google still fires people. As a technology coach I would push to give teachers more planning time. At first this time would be used just for planning, but this would give them more free time in the long run. At my previous school I had two planning periods. I was a lot more adventurous with trying new technology in the classroom because I had the time to create and explore new topics and apps. If we give our staff the time, educators can be more creative in their lessons which will lead to better classrooms as a whole. We must keep in mind that less is more as Couros states in his book. Sometimes too much choice can be overwhelming. But that freedom to explore is important and allows for creativity to stir in the minds of our educators. Less is more can be applied to students also. They need to learn the basics and giving students too many options can be overwhelming for them also.

Examples: 

• If you give a menu of items for students to create, give them a few choices instead of a lot. Just like restaurants, the smaller the menu the better the product tends to be.
• Give teachers free time and some new technology to explore, but don't throw the entire web 2.0 at them at once. Exploration and time is the key, with some good tutorials and lessons on how things work.

References

Couros, G. (2015). The innovator’s mindset: empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.

Ohio State University. (2005, May 8). Intrinsic Motivation Doesn't Exist, Researcher Says. Retrieved October 19, 2019, from https://news.osu.edu/intrinsic-motivation-doesnt-exist-researcher-says/.

Pink, D. [TED]. (2009, August 25). The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

6.2 Powerful Learning, Powerful Leadership, Part 1

6.2 Powerful Learning, Powerful Leadership, Part 1

1. How have you modeled and explored new opportunities for learning during your practicum?  Provide examples. 

At this point of the school year, I have struggled to be a model for a technology facilitator and maintain being a classroom teacher. I been posting on Twitter some of the activities I do in the classroom, but none of the other teachers on the team wish to try these tech activities. In their defense, we get so little time to plan that they don't get a chance to have the activities explained to them. I can barely planned my lessons more than a week out, sometimes just two days now. One example I can use for modeling, the other day I was reviewing with my students using Gimkit, and a learning walk came into my room. A learning walk is a time where other teachers can come in and see what is going on in others classroom. The teachers were amazed at the review game and they all sat down to watch other students work the game. They even asked me to show them what I can see on the teacher side of the program. I have been posting the activities I do in class to the classroom Twitter, so others can see how the students use technology to shift the way they can learn.

1. Provide an example of ways in which you provide informational learning, exploration, and "play" with new technologies in your practicum. 

Due to the lack technology provided by the school, I needed to design technology lessons which utilized the BYOD & BYOT policy of the district. I have played around a lot with flipgrid in the classroom this year. After a few trial and errors using a whole slew of different devices and app updates, the students learned to use some functions on the app. The students had to role play either a patriot or a loyalists during the road to revolution, and react to either a British Act or a colonial reaction. Link to flipgrid videos. Since the students knew the basics of how to record, they got a chance to use notes from class to explore the rest of the flipgrid app options, and play with the technology.

1. How are you moving from standardization to personalization within your educational setting? 

After much debate with my team, I got them to agree to having a menu option for a project out of the class so the students can create to show mastery. The district is very much a student assessment and data analyzation machine. The district loves their exams and data from said exams. In order to show that moving away from just testing can still yield results I have been educating kids in digital tools such as flipgrid, canvas, google apps. Once the kids become fluent in these apps use, and they start to perform better than peers who do not use them, I can proof that non exam based assessments are a good way to go. After that step, going for more personalized project-based learning will be the way to proceed. My principal is open to these new ideas, but my mentor and team are hesitant to risk different types of lessons.

Previous year student comic book