Many of us are faced with professional problems, such as not getting along with a colleague, feeling micromanaged, or struggling to stay engaged with a current project. For me, as an educator with minimal teaching experience, I face many problems of practice. But I have one potential problem that I hope to address in the near future - the utilization of technology by my students so that the resources aid in their learning and retention of content. The current student generation most commonly seen in the veterinary nursing program is Generation Z. They’ve been raised with technology allowing them to access endless information with just a click of a button. But with so many technological opportunities come distractions and effortless content retrieval. These students tend to have short attention spans and are all about convenience.
So, how can I keep students engaged in their resources and subsequently improve their learning? First, I need to step into an educational experience they may encounter and take some time to better understand their perspective. To help solve my professional problem I’ve started down the journey of design. The Design Thinking Model from Stanford Design School suggests five modes that are key players in design thinking. The first mode is empathy. This learning experience is for my students, not for me. Suggested by Stanford Design School, to empathize one must observe, engage, and immerse. This week I engaged and immersed myself and several colleagues in an educational experience.
Before turning to my students I wanted to approach my issue using my colleagues as a substitute. Using Flipgrid I created three tasks, all of which involved viewing the same how-to video. But, with each new task came a new component that I asked my colleagues (and myself) to complete. By the end, the video had been watched (potentially three times or more), notes had been taken, and a Flipgrid video was created explaining the recipe and cooking instructions for creme brulee. Then, opinions and conclusions were drawn from those who participated.
From personal experience I didn’t learn much from task one - simply viewing the video. There were multiple steps, and after quickly feeling overwhelmed, I became distracted and began using my phone to check text messages. I only remember the witty comments made by the chef after watching the video the first time through. I retained the most information during step two, when I could pause the video to take hand-written notes. Step three, creating a video, helped with information recall, requiring me to reread the written content and remember the information in a sequential order. One colleague said she much preferred taking notes and pausing while watching. This forced her to pay attention to details in the recipe. The second also preferred task two. But she mentioned that while task three, filming a video, was the most uncomfortable, it was certainly the most memorable. She remembered the parts she may have forgotten or messed up on, and because of that believes that the information will stay with her, especially the hiccups she encountered while filming.
It’s easy to complete a single task such as watching a video, skimming through an article linked to a course’s online learning platform, or uploading an educator’s presentation that can be reread later. Minimal effort is made to retrieve and retain the information. Memorizing highlighted points from a lecture or viewing a video once, because it’s all that’s required, often creates a false sense of mastery. As stated by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel, “. . . even the most diligent students are often hobbled by two liabilities: a failure to know the areas where their learning is weak- that is, where they need to do more work to bring up their knowledge- and a preference for study methods that create a false sense of mastery” (Brown et al., 2014, p. 17). New content may be learned through methods that are convenient and comfortable. Or, we can create meaningful and lasting experiences through alternative learning methods that may be uncomfortable, impactful, and help foster true connections.
The Flipgrid learning experience was very effective, but I wonder if I would have designed this experience differently, if my issue would still be supported? I could have limited each colleague to performing one task and verbally sharing the recipe with me. Would there be an obvious difference in their abilities to retrieve the recipe and cooking instructions with ease? I’ll turn next to my students, where I can continue to empathize through questions and active listening.
References:
Design Thinking Bootleg by Scott Doorley, Sarah Holcomb, Perry Klebahn, Kathryn Segovia, and Jeremy Utley is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Brown, P. C, Roediger III, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
K., R. (2015). Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/creme-brulee-burnt-cream-895359/
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