Evolution5/1/2018 Share any thinking, new design steps, progress, challenges, and/or successes you have experienced during this course. How have you evolved as an innovative thinker?
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Prototype thinking4/16/2018 Share any thinking and design steps, progress, challenges, and/or success in creating your prototype.
I am sad to report that most of my thinking in creating my prototype is in the challenge stage. Despite my appreciation and frequent recitation of some of the sense-making's central tenets and full agreement with the concepts in the TPACK video, which fall in line with the Daniel Pink book I am reading, I am having a difficult time synthesizing all sources of information in a manner that helps me identify the content and context of my prototype. On some level I think I have become overly saturated with information which is all related in some way or another, but my own thinking tends to get in the way, not to mention my initial research topic was too broad - maybe I am more left-brained than I realized (I test fairly in the middle). Looking to avoid a full on panic attack, I went ahead and looked at some of the capstone projects in the link provided and it all seemed doable. I say all this having yet to sketch out my prototype as I couldn't wrap my brain around it. All in all, I have not made much progress in advancing my Capstone project, but have faith that I will ultimately make sense of it all Linking cont.4/4/2018 Continue building a bridge between your practice, your action research and what you are learning. Muse about anything that inspires you, observations, reflections, experiences, connections, dilemmas....what’s innovative about what you’re planning to do this semester? How are you thinking “outside the box”?
Connection with learning: The greatest and most immediate connection between my action research, practice and what I am learning is the Why How Ladder. I tend to gravitate towards structures that are simple in form, yet complex enough to solicit valuable information. During my first go round with an MA, which I dropped 3 chapters into my thesis, I was applying Peters' and Waterman's 8 core principles from In Search of Excellence to a my educational setting. What attracted me were the ideas of "simple form, lean staff," "stick to the knitting," etc. These ideas were not rigid or predetermined, but grounded in an idea that could be applied regardless of a context. The Why How Ladder reminds me of just that, a structure aimed at arriving at a solution that is not bound by the mechanism's context. This is probably not making much sense, but it does to me....kind of. Anyway Innovative?: I cannot claim innovation given that much of what I am doing has been done before in different form. Furthermore, I was advised by Dr. Hawley Miller last semester to do one thing so that I can know if that one thing is having an impact. To that end I am reminded of my one on one session with her when she cited a book titled Tinkering with Utopia which essentially chastises educators and education for doing too much at any given time and thus failing to know the true impact of a single change - this is what was communicated to me and not based on my reading. I will get to it though........maybe. Although skeptical at first, I see this happening on a daily basis and am even guilty of it myself. I think it is the desire to do good and better by children and thus the intrinsic need to do more given they are not lab rats. Outside the Box?: Here is where I may be able to claim some minor unconventionality. Intervention is not new, Math Mindset is not new, balanced grading is not new, nor is professional collaboration; however, the combination of these factors to elicit greater academic benefit just might be. I do feel guilty however, as I have already said and blogged about this before. Am I running out of things to say? Am I not thinking deep enough our beyond what I currently see? Probably. Linking3/20/2018 Continue building a bridge between your practice, your action research and what you are learning. Share what inspires you, observations, reflections, experiences, connections, dilemmas.
Although potentially confessing the limits of my intellectual capacity or a mere byproduct of the times and my age, I feel as if I am operating counter to what I have always been told when being counseled about pursuing advanced degrees. "You will know more and more about less and less the further you go in your education," I was told, yet my current experience is the exact opposite, i.e., a feeling of knowing less and less about more and more. I fully acknowledge that I fall victim to my own biases and crippling over-analysis on particular topics and need to embrace greater risk given the nature of our innovative learnings. That said, it's hard. In looking for the silver lining, when I find a practice, idea, or strategy that fits within my personal and professional construct, I latch on to it like a nursing baby to an engorged teat. An example being, I find myself continually reciting some of the central ideas within the Dervin sense making article. That said, it goes beyond my previously mentioned constructs, to me it has greater utility and it is here where I struggle. Utility is bound by what is perceived to be needed. My entire action research was based on a need my school had which I fulfilled through additional research, meaning the need came before the practice. Maybe overthinking again, but am I incapable of true innovation? I sit in countless meetings where my filter is, what do I need to do - this is probably not a good collaborative practice. Okay, enough rambling. To synthesize the question although I feel my learning is supporting my action research, I still find myself quickly filtering out technology, practices and ideas to which I do not attribute great utility. Baggio, Clark, & Dervin3/6/2018
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