Unleashing the True Potential of Video for Learning

The best job on the planet is that of a parent.  I can’t begin to explain how awesome it has been over the years watching my kids grow up and being actively engaged in their lives.  Sure, there are some lows along the way, but the highs are what bring so much joy and purpose into our own lives.  If you are a parent, you know exactly what I am talking about.  I had always envisioned the types of activities my kids would participate in with sports being one of them. However, I never thought that parenthood would bestow the official role of “cheer dad” upon me in the case of my daughter, but I am so glad that it did.

For starters, I never realized the sheer athleticism that is needed to excel in competitive cheerleading.  My daughter does all of these elaborate flips and stunts, often referred to as tumbling in the cheerleading world, that leave me in a state of awe every time I watch her.  I know for a fact that if I attempted any of these moves, I would severely hurt myself.  Equally as impressive are the team aspects of cheer. In a short period, she progressed numerous levels regarding the specific skills she could perform thanks to the dedication on her part and some phenomenal coaches. The coordination, agility, and strength that it takes to perform difficult routines that combine stunts, flips and dance are incredible.  Loud and annoying music aside, competitive cheerleading has to be one of the most difficult and demanding sports out there.

My wife and I try to support our daughter the best we can as she loves this sport with a passion.  One day when I was traveling, my wife purchased a contraption called an air track. It is a tumbling mat that simulates a bouncing floor similar to what the girls cheer on at the gym and competitions. We have it in a shed outside where my daughter and her friends can set it up and practice anytime they want.  Here is where the learning aspect comes into play.  Routinely my daughter will set up her iPhone on the fence to record herself as she tumbles away. She then watches the video to self-critique her form and reflect on what can be done to improve.  The best part is that she is doing this all on her own thanks to intrinsic motivation.  On many occasions, she will then take the video clips to her coach for feedback.

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As impressed as I am with my daughter on her use of video in support of learning and mastering cheer skills, I am equally impressed with her coach.  During private lessons, he will use his iPad to video and then review my daughter’s technique and what she has to do to improve.  At the end of the lesson, he will then come up to me and go through various video clips showing where she started during the session and where she eventually ended up focusing on growth.  He does the same during team practice.  Video, captured either through a smartphone or tablet, has become an essential coaching tool to assist the girls with learning their routine.  

The above story lays out how video can effectively be utilized to support learning.  Various research studies have revealed how video can serve as a highly effective learning tool (Allen & Smith, 2012; Kay, 2012; Lloyd & Robertson, 2012; Rackaway, 2012; Hsin & Cigas, 2013). Cynthia Brame from Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching looked at these and many other studies as they worked to outline the following elements to consider to ensure effective implementation. 

1. Cognitive load
2. Non-cognitive factors that impact engagement
3. Features that promote active learning

For more details on the three elements listed above, please check out the entire article.  I want to focus on number three, as the goal of video shouldn’t just be consumption and knowledge acquisition, but transfer and application through active learning.  Cynthia Brame shares this:

"To help students get the most out of an educational video, it’s essential to provide tools to help them process the information and to monitor their understanding. There are multiple ways to do this effectively such as guiding questions, using interactive features that give students control, and integrating questions into the video. The critical thing to keep in mind is that watching a video can be a passive experience, much as reading can be. To make the most of video, we need to help students do the processing and self-evaluation that will lead to the learning we want to see."

I couldn’t agree more with the synopsis above, which is also supported by a comprehensive research review conducted by the University of Queensland.  Just showing a video in class doesn’t cut it and is dismissive of the potential it can have as an educational tool. For video to really impact learning and outcomes, active use should be the goal. What is even more important is how learners are empowered to use their own devices to capture video as a means to showcase what they have learned (see an example here from one of my former students), reflect, and set actionable goals for growth.  When aligned with knowledge taxonomy ask yourself how video is being used by kids to apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.  

In the case of my daughter, I can say without a doubt that she uses it to support her learning and growth in cheer.  Imagine then the possibilities for learners in our classrooms. 

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Chase Growth, Not Perfection

Perfection is something many people chase after. Educators are no different, but more on this later. In sports, there are only defined scenarios when perfection can be achieved. A pitcher can deliver a perfect game if he or she gives up no hits or walks and the fielders commit no errors. In bowling, a 300-game consisting of all strikes is also a sign of perfection.  Outside of sports, it becomes even harder to meet stringent criteria to achieve this.  For those of us that are married, we all strive to provide our spouse with a “perfect” diamond. The closest you can get to this designation is a “D” color, which is often referred to as a flawless and has no visible imperfections at 10X magnification.  As great as our intentions might be this can prove to way out of our budgets.  

For the most part, perfection is a fallacy. It is based more on set opinions and perception as opposed to established criteria such as the examples I provided at the beginning of this post. The fact of the matter is in the context of education there is no perfect lesson, teacher, administrator, school, program, curriculum, district, or organization. If we constantly chase or strive for perfection, then more often than not disappointment will follow. This is not to say that we shouldn’t attempt to be our best for those who we serve, most notably our learners. However, trying to accomplish the impossible day in and day out is not only unrealistic but also not a wise use of time and resources. 

You can be good or great, but both of these distinctions are really in the eye of the beholder. A mindset shift is in order that requires us all to reevaluate how we approach professional practice. It is as simple as it is effective. Chase growth, not perfection. By consistently reflecting on where we are steps can be made to grow in an effort to get to where we want, and our learners need us to be. Chasing growth is attainable and leads to daily rewards that are more intrinsically motivated than extrinsic.  The fact of the matter is that there is and always be room for improvement no matter your role in education or how well your school achieves.  

Don’t put immense pressure on yourself to be perfect. You don't have to be. Instead, we should continuously strive to be the best iteration of ourselves. 

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Student Agency is More Than Voice and Choice

Educators and schools across the globe have embraced the concept of student agency.  It is a relatively simple concept in theory, but much more difficult to implement in practice.  The underlying premise is to move learners from a state of engagement to empowerment so that they exert more ownership over their learning.  For many schools, this flies in the face of a traditional schooling mindset that was more geared to learners having to buy-in to a one-size-fits-all system where success was determined by how well everyone did under the same conditions more or less. Oh, wait…. this is still the case in many schools. I digress. A culture that embraces student agency promotes risk-taking while working to remove the fear of failure helps students develop a growth mindset, and has students applying what they have learned in real-world contexts as opposed to just in the classroom.

Student agency is all about improving the learning experience for kids. The most common strategy that is embraced in schools is empowering learners through voice and choice.  This could come in the form of kids selecting the right tool for the right task to demonstrate conceptual mastery or choosing where to sit in a classroom with flexible seating.  It might be facilitated by posing questions and then having students respond under cover of anonymity using mobile devices.  Or maybe it is combining both elements of voice and choice through pedagogically sound blended learning activities. Learning in and out of the classroom should always be at the forefront when it comes to agency. However, we must not lose sight of the third element that comprises this concept, and that is advocacy.

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While voice and choice are more aligned with ownership of learning in the classroom, advocacy aligns with improving the school or district culture.  Learners should be in a position to advocate for ideas, strategies, resources, and other elements that will help them succeed. This is not a new concept in any sense.  Adam Fletcher writes:

Student advocacy has a long history going back to at least the 1930s when a youth-led group called the American Youth Congress presented a list of grievances to the US Congress including public education. Through the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s to the free expression movement of the 1960s to the resurgence in student voice in the 2000s, student education advocacy is alive in the US today. 

Meaningful student involvement engages students as education advocates to work within the education system and throughout the community to change schools. Many students participate in committees, on unique panels, and in functions that help raise awareness or interest in education issues.

How would you rate the level of learner advocacy in your school or district?  This was one of my main focus areas as a principal.  Every month I convened all elected members of student government and engaged them in a conversation as to how they wanted to improve their school. The discussion was relatively broad, focusing on anything related to academic, social, and emotional ideas for growth and improvement. My only request was that each idea or suggestion was accompanied with practical strategies for implementation. After each meeting, I emailed detailed minutes and provided regular updates on where some of their well-articulated suggestions stood. The best part for these students was when my admin team and I implemented some of their excellent ideas.  There is no point in student advocacy if no action results.  Schools with vibrant learning cultures recognize this fact.  Below are some other ideas to think about when it comes to empowering student advocacy, the majority of which were implemented in my former school.

• When hiring new teachers and administrators include students on the panel for the first round of interviews.
• If you make a move to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or 1:1 elicit input from students when crafting policies and expectations.
• To start the school year, allow students to co-create classroom rules.
• When looking to improve divisive topics such as grading and homework allow students to weigh in and offer suggestions.
• Empower students to use social media and the school newspaper or magazine to engage in respectful dialogue about how to improve culture.
• As you either create or refine your makerspace, gather student input on what themes, tools, and technology they would like to have
• Ensure there is a student representative to the local Board of Education (BOE) and Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)

Student agency can be a powerful force in education.  It can increase the degree of autonomy and self-determination amongst our learners while also engaging them in activities which aim to influence decisions in a school or district. How are or will you integrate more opportunities for advocacy to create a learning culture that prioritizes all elements of student agency?

Below is my video reflection on this topic.

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Relevance is the Fuel of Learning

In a previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of focusing on the why as it relates to learning.  Here is a piece of my thinking that I shared:

The why matters more than ever in the context of schools and education.  What all one must do is step into the shoes of a student.  If he or she does not truly understand why they are learning what is being taught, the chances of improving outcomes and success diminish significantly.  Each lesson should squarely address the why.  What and how we assess carries little to no weight in the eyes of our students if they don’t understand and appreciate the value of the learning experience.

The paragraph above represents the importance of making the educational experience relevant.  In a nutshell, relevance is the purpose of learning. If it is absent from any activity or lesson, many, if not all, students are less motivated to learn and ultimately achieve.  Research on the underlying elements that drive student motivation validates how essential it is to establish relevant contexts. Kember et al. (2008) conducted a study where 36 students were interviewed about aspects of the teaching and learning environment that motivated or demotivated their learning. They found the following:

"One of the most important means of motivating student learning was to establish relevance. It was a critical factor in providing a learning context in which students construct their understanding of the course material. The interviewees found that teaching abstract theory alone was demotivating. Relevance could be established through showing how theory can be applied in practice, creating relevance to local cases, relating the material to everyday applications, or finding applications in current newsworthy issues."

Getting kids to think is excellent, but if they don’t truly understand how this thinking will help them, do they value learning?  The obvious answer is no. However, not much legwork is needed to add meaning to any lesson, project, or assignment.  Relevance begins with students acquiring knowledge and applying it to multiple disciplines to see how it connects to the bigger picture.  It becomes even more embedded in the learning process when students apply what has been learned to real-world predictable and ultimately unpredictable situations, resulting in the construction of new knowledge.  Thus, a relevant lesson or task empowers learners to use their knowledge to tackle real-world problems that have more than one solution.  

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Diverse Learners respond well to relevant and contextual learning. This improves memory, both short-term, and long-term, which is all backed by science. Sara Briggs sums it up nicely:

"Research shows that relevant learning means effective learning and that alone should be enough to get us rethinking our lesson plans (and school culture for that matter). The old drill-and-kill method is neurologically useless, as it turns out. Relevant, meaningful activities that both engage students emotionally and connect with what they already know are what help build neural connections and long-term memory storage."

In the words of Will Durant based on Aristotle’s work,” “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  The point here is that consistent efforts must be made to integrate interdisciplinary connections and authentic contexts to impart value to our learners. Relevance must be student based: the student’s life, the student’s family, and friends, the student’s community, the world today, current events, etc. 

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When it is all said and done, if a lesson or project is relevant students will be able to tell you:

1. What they learned
2. Why they learned it
3. How they will use it

Without relevance, learning many concepts don’t make sense to students.  The many benefits speak for themselves, which compels all of us to ensure that this becomes a mainstay in daily pedagogy. 

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The Pulse of a Learning Culture

What makes a great and successful learning culture?  If you were to ask the majority of stakeholders, they would typically say that a school or district that has high levels of achievement in the form of standardized test scores represents success.  Many parents will choose to move to an area and raise their kids there for this reason alone.  All one has to do is look at all the hoopla surrounding national and state rankings to see that this indeed is the case.  Parents and community members observe these scores as they have the power to positively or negatively impact real estate values.  No matter where your school or district lands in these rankings, there are always disgruntled people, unless you are number one.

Achievement is often viewed as the single most important outcome of a thriving learning culture that is preparing students for the demands of their next stage in life, whether it is grade level promotion or moving onward to college or a career.  However, those of us who work in education know that this is the furthest thing from the truth.  The playing field is not equal in many parts of the world.  Privilege is bestowed upon many by the zip code they live in or whether or not a privately funded education can be afforded.  Thus, in many cases achievement is directly tied to income. Even so, it can still be debated whether this equates to a thriving and prosperous learning culture. 

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It doesn’t matter how successful the adults think a learning culture is. Quite frankly, it’s not about us.  Educators don’t work for administrators, central office, superintendents, heads of school, boards of education, or parents.  We work for kids!  Thus, the best way to get an accurate pulse of a particular learning culture is to engage students as to what they think about the educational experience they receive in school and then see how this compares with traditional metrics such as achievement and other forms of data.  I am not saying achievement doesn’t matter.  What I am saying is that the experiences that shape our learners and help them discover their true potential matter more.  Some of the best learning that any of us ever experienced wasn’t given a mark, score, or grade.  It was our ability to work through cognitive struggle, construct new knowledge, and authentically apply what we learned creatively that helped us develop a genuine appreciation for learning.

The bottom line is we need to cultivate competent learners in the digital age while putting them in a position to see the value of their education.  Engaging the number one stakeholder group – our students – in critical conversations about the education they are receiving provides us with an accurate pulse of a learning culture.  Just because a student achieves doesn’t automatically infer that he or she appreciates or values the educational experience or will be able to use what has been learned authentically.  With all this being said three guiding questions can be asked of students to determine where your learning culture is:

• Why are you learning what you are learning?
• How will you use what you are learning?
• What is missing from your learning experience?

It is vital to continually put a critical lens to our work and look beyond what the majority of stakeholders see as the leading indicator for district or school success.  Powerful qualities such as leadership, empathy, integrity, resilience, humility, creativity, and persistence can’t be measured per se, but are so crucial to future success.  A thriving learning culture blends these elements to not only support the achievement of all learners but also to prepare them for their future.  

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The Value of School

For all intents and purposes I had a great K-12 education.  I got relatively good grades, stayed out of trouble, and participated in a wide range of sports and extracurricular activities.  Best of all though were some of the amazing teachers and administrators I had during those years who consistently showed they cared.  In the end I was deemed college ready and was accepted to almost all of the schools to which I had applied. I was so excited to attend Salisbury University in Maryland and study Marine Biology as I was so intrigued by this area of study.  I was again surrounded by some great educators and went on my way to further study in the sciences, eventually finding my way to the field of education.

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As I think back many years later, I have now realized that I was good at school. The system worked the way it was designed. It worked for me, or so I thought. Never was there any question about what I was learning or even why. It was just accepted that this was how school was supposed to be.  Conformity and compliance were well ingrained into the culture of school. As I continue to reflect, I now ponder whether or not I would be successful in a K-12 system today.  Things have really changed as a result of advances in technology.  The process of going through the motions of doing school the way I did it would have been a monumental challenge in my opinion. Do students value school today? With exponential changes to technology and the ubiquitous access to information will students of the future value it?

What really got me thinking about the value of school was the video below.  I am not saying that I agree with everything in it, but there are many points that really resonated with me. 

Now try to think back to when you were a student and what you learned. How much of what you learned do you actually use today?  Even though progress is being made and innovative practices are being implemented in schools across the globe, we still must look at the big picture of education. There should be inherent value in what students learn today as they need to have the skills, mindset, and confidence to succeed in the new world of work.  If anything in the above video resonates with you, then engage your students in a conversation about the value of school.  

Engaging kids in a conversation about the value of school can and will pave the way to a brighter future. We need to listen, then act.

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10 Tips to Make Learning REAL

Another Christmas has passed and I am continually amazed by the technologies that kids now have access to. For example, my son received a drone from my mother-in-law and has been playing with it non-stop for days now. At first, he was focused on just the basics of flying the device. After having mastered take off, landing, and balance, his focus now is on using the camera to take photos and video.  It is awesome to see how engaged he is with the drone, but that he is also learning in the process.   Technology for him, like most kids today, has become an embedded component of their lives. They have grown up in a world where they have become accustomed to the fast-paced evolution of everything digital. 

The world as we know it has fundamentally changed our learners.  It is not that they are learning differently per say, but the environment in which they learn has dramatically changed.  The challenge for educators and schools today is to make learning REAL (relevant, engaging, authentic, and lasting) for all students and aligning it more with their world.  A great deal of emphasis has been placed on personalized opportunities for students. Whereas there are many benefits with this approach, the reliance on technology platform and human interaction can take away from intended outcomes. REAL learning places a greater emphasis on making learning personal for students. 

Below are some quick tips that can make learning more REAL (relevant, engaging, authentic, and lasting):

1. Provide students access to real-world tools to do real-world work (i.e. makerspaces).
2. Allow students to select the best tool to complete a learning task while moving away from a one-size-product-fits-all approach.
3. Provide meaningful feedback in a timely fashion.
4. Connect standards and learning outcomes to their interests and passions.
5. Implement Academy programs (school within a school).
6. Offer virtual course options and innovative self-paced learning opportunities in lieu of traditional independent study programs (i.e. IOCS).
7. Transform outdoor spaces into flexible classrooms and stimulating learning environments.
8. Broaden student horizons by bringing in experts both face-to-face and virtually who work in emerging fields of work. Take kids on field trips through virtual reality technology.
9. Move away from traditional grading and homework practices.
10. Clearly articulate the “why” all the time so that students understand how what they are learning impacts them now and in the future.

REAL learning should be a reality for all of our students.  What would you add to the list I have started above? 

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