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If you have or had children who played with other children at their homes or in a other locations other than your own, the question “Would your mother let you do this at home?” is often used by the host or concerned parent as a gentle way to deter activities in children other than their own that they are uncomfortable with. For many of these parents who said this to the Harapnuik brothers their answer most often was…Yes!
The picture above is of the living room of our current home in North Vancouver and as you can see the traditional use of the living room has been supplanted by the Harapnuik brother’s bike repair shop. If you look beyond the obvious, these boys have too many expensive bikes (…and their road bikes aren’t in the picture), and try to understand who lives this way one might assume that this is just a bachelor pad and the boys are living by themselves or with other young males who have very different or unconventional priorities. No, my wife and I also live here.
You may then assume that this family and perhaps the parents don’t appreciate the finer things in life and are very tolerant of disorder. You would be wrong again because the picture below of our living room in our house in Texas clearly shows that we do have a taste for the finer things in life. Take a few minutes to view all the pictures of hour house in Texas and you will clearly see we do appreciate a fine home and that my wife is a wonderful decorator – Saddle Creek Estates house in Texas.
The picture of our boys using our living room as bike shop demonstrates just how committed their mother is in supporting their dreams and how much she believes in them. I often wax eloquently about creating significant learning environments but in this single act of allowing her boys to use a very special space in our/her home as their repair shop (we currently don’t have a garage) she is telling our sons that their dreams of becoming professional racers/riders are significant and that she will do what she can to help build the environment that will help them to achieve those dreams. For anyone who knows my wife Marilyn you know just how much she loves to have people over, so to give up this valuable meeting space is not something that she would do without significant motivation.
It is my hope that my boys appreciate the sacrifice and the commitment that their mother has made toward supporting them in their goals. It is also my hope that the modelling of support and commitment that a family needs to make is a value that my boys catch and bring to their own families in the future. My wife’s flexibility in our living space, her willingness to shuttle the boys and their friends up the mountain and then wait for them to ride down and then do this over and over again, and her modelling the commitment and sacrifice it takes to achieve very big dreams are key factors in being an intentional parent.
I have been writing about being an intentional father for the past several months and now I realize that without my wonderful wife’s commitment and support I would not be able to do what I do and I finally recognize I should be talking about becoming an intentional parent NOT just an intentional father. I have been talking the talk about being an intentional parent and my wife has been walking the walk or being an intentional parent. This is demonstrated so clearly by the answer to the question – Would your mom let you do this at home. My boys can answer – Yes she does and so much more.
I take Dewey’s admonition very seriously because in my role as a Instructional Designer I believe that it is my responsibility to ensure that we are creating the most effective learning environments for our students; environments that will prepare them for a future that we are unable to predict and that equips them with the necessary tools to address problems that don’t yet exist.
How do we do this?
By applying instructional design to blended and fully online learning we are able to help faculty create significant learning environments. Rather than allow the learning environment to come together inadvertently and respond reactively to the learning dynamics that arise I believe that effective instructional design allows us to be proactive and purposeful and think through and utilize all the components needed to create significant learning environment that inspire, foster and facilitate deeper learning.
This notion of a holistic design is not new. Just look at your iPhone, iPad or any other Apple device–Apple’s main selling point is design. They design the entire user experience and environment. When you buy into the IOS or OSX you also buy into Apples ecosystem– and for the most part it just works. But it is not just Apple that has good design.
We design information systems, smart buildings, ecological friendly communities; so many aspect of our society are purposefully designed but we unfortunately are not purposeful enough in applying this holistic approach to designing learning environments. Yes, there are wonderful examples of exceptionally designed learning environments but these are the exception and not the norm.
The purposeful design of learning must start with the learner. The learner or student-centred focus becomes the measuring stick. We must ask questions like–how will this course or learning management system (CMS/LMS) support the learner, how will this curriculum support the needs of the learner, how will this pedagogy enhance learning, and wlll our formative and summative assessment help the learner?
Purposeful and effective instructional design means that we ensure that the learning goals or outcomes are clearly identified and we use those goals to continually ensure that the course activities and assessments are weighed against those outcomes. We start with the learning and the ultimate goal of changing students lives.
But to do this in the 21st century we have to use 21st century tools.
Educational technology is NOT a learning outcome but a tool that enhances and empowers the learning outcome. We live in a digitally connected world – ubiquitous access – all the time and everywhere. This means
- Mobile, online, blended and all other forms digitally enhanced learning are the norm.
- The classroom is no longer the locus of control – the network is.
- AND the learner controls the network access.
- The problem of getting the information or the content to the learner has been solved.
This move into digitally connected world means we have actually moved away from the print information age into the digital information age but it is taking a long time for academia to make these adjustments. In the print information age the problem is getting access to information. In contrast in the digital information age the problems is assessing information. Millennial students get this shift to a digitally connected world and thrive in this fully connected multimedia environment. They expect to earn anywhere anytime – all the time and everywhere. They also need and demand flexibility. These are some of the most important situational factors that we have to take into account when we design our learning environments.
It is through effective instructional design that places a priority on student centred and outcome-based principles first and then uses technology as a tool to create a significant learning environment that we will be able to truly prepare our learners for the future.
I have to admit that I am an idealist and I do see the enormous potential that we have to radically improve learning through blended and online learning.
BUT the last couple of decades of teaching in a blended and online format and through helping many other faculty put their courses online I have also become a pragmatist. Just having faculty enter into the discussion of setting up a blended or fully online learning environment is still a huge win because once they go done this path and they recognize the potential of blended and online learning and consider the whole learning environment they will never be satisfied with the notion of just delivering content.
By having faculty think about the whole learning environment, which we can help them design and enhance through technology, the learner ultimate wins–and that is a good thing.
The talk dispels the common myth that you need to voice your goals to achieve them.
