At this point, it is 11/3/14. I didn’t get a chance to do this because I was preparing and went to the DevLearn 2014 Conference. It was a great event. Here are a few notes from sessions that I attended:
We started with the opening keynote by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He started by making the claim that we are all born scientists but parents and society take it away from us. It is done by placing rules like at the table. Why not allow children to investigate the world by making a mess? I have personally been so glad that I have a liberal arts education. Even though my degree is in math, I have been exposed to many other subjects which allows for different thought. Neil was a big proponent of LA education. Neil spoke strongly against the education of the 1950’s. I tend to agree that although we appeared to be making progress there is so much that is exclusive and wrong. He mentioned the essays by Isaac Asimov called The Relativity of Wrong. Neil talked about this in relation to how we assess students. I always felt like there were some answers that showed more understanding than others. I tended to give move partial credit to an answer that showed more understanding. Great talk.
I got a chance to attend a session by an instructor of one of my former bosses. Allison Rossett is a retired instructor from San Diego State. During the session I found myself going down memory lane by search on web quests. Allison talked about instructional design. I found myself wondering why behaviorism was considered a possible learning theory. I’m not disagreeing that it exists. It doesn’t apply to what I’m doing. I liked when she talked about designing activities so that students have success but are also stretched a bit. This reminds me of game development. She also talked about motivation and its role in teaching and learning. One of the things that I noticed during this session is the number of people who got up and left the session. It was a good session, and I wondered why so many felt like it was okay to do this. I’m not saying that this doesn’t and shouldn’t happen. It just seemed like someone had given people permission to do this as they pleased.
One of the more entertaining sessions that I attended was Meme-ing the Future of Learning by Cammy Bean, Chad Udell, David Kelly, Jane Bozarth, and Jennette Campos. I found what Chad Udell had to say resonating the most with me. He had alot to say about making sure that we don’t just think of putting everything we have on mobile. Instead we should think about what fits best in the mobile environment.
My favorite session of the conference was by Beau Lotto. He talked about humans and their tendency to be delusional. It was a large group but very interactive. He had us to exercises to test our perception. I hadn’t thought about how much perception affects learning. I walked away wondering how human really know anything. There were several important points that he made. 1) Be aware that we have assumptions (biases). Learning really begins with humility. 2) Learn your assumptions (biases). This is difficult since these biases are often hidden from us. 3) Question your assumptions. This is difficult because we hate uncertainty. We can do this by working in groups. If we listen to other members we can find our biases and learn to work with them. Another way to fight our dilemma is to play. Play is evolution’s answer to uncertainty. It encourages diversity. Beau referred to it as play with intention. Another item that Beau brought up is that efficiency is valued over creativity. We need to learn to balance this.
Another session that I really like was by Sharon Boller. She talked about remembering. We have this big debate about organic memory and e-memory. Many say that we don’t need to memorize anymore. She was able to bring up reasons why we should improve our remembering. She also talked about a few strategies to improve memory. 1) Spaced intervals – every 8 days revisiting material. 2) Repetition – this means doing exercises that are similar in nature not exactly the same. 3) Timely feedback and require to fix mistakes. 4) Use stories since they improve memory by evoking emotion.
I had a great time and learned alot. On the way home, I had a claustrophobic episode. I think that I need to talk to my doctor about this. I also slept around 4-5 hours a day which I’m sure didn’t help. It’s difficult to do a conference because I don’t want things to slip back at work. I’m thankful for my colleagues who helped this not to happen. I need to figure out a way to fix this in myself.
