I finally did it. I finished reading
A Guide to Documenting Learning: Making Things Visible, Meaningful, Shareable, and Amplified by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano and Janet A. Hale. I vowed to start it in
October 2018 and made it through Chapter One
that same month, but stalled a bit. I chose to make this book one of my key resources for my Kindergarten Additional Qualification course's Independent Learning Project and that forced me to read it all. It took about a month and during both periods, I tweeted my progress. I actually turned some of these tweet threads into JPGs using my Snip tool because of something Tolisano and Hale said. (I'll get to that in a bit.)
Last week, I mentioned that my mind was abuzz with comparisons between
A Guide to Documenting Learning and scrapbooking. So then I pondered - what would be the best way to organize this post that would make my learning meaningful to others? Arrange my reflections by chapter? By themes or ahas? (Or as it says in the infographic on page 11, "How can my thinking be best captured, articulated, and conveyed?") I'll play around a bit and see what I decide.
Chapters 1-2
Overview / Main Idea
- documenting OF / FOR / AS learning, explaining differences
- 4 aspects (visible, meaningful, shareable, amplified)
- 8 thinking moves (pages 16-17)
- NOW literacies (basic, media, digital citizenship [10 characteristics], global [9 characteristics], information [4 abilities, 9 characteristics], network)
Favourite Quotes or Thoughts
- "the act of documenting aids in the learning itself" (page 16) = so true for me with blogging; how can I make it so for students?
- "How could I make learning and thinking visible? How can I capture a potential absence in learning?" (and other good questions, page 29)
Concepts or Portions I Struggled With
- photographs on their own do not provide actual evidence of learning (page 17) = ouch!
Thinking Shared over Social Media
Chapters 3-4
Overview / Main Idea
- difference between pedagogical documentation and heutagogical documentation
- heutagogical = self-directed, motivation due to autonomy, mastery and purpose (urging, desiring, yearning)
- difference between display and document (and ways to turn it from display into documenting artifact)
- primary vs secondary learner
- 4 documenting learning layers focused on primary learner
Favourite Quotes or Thoughts
- word curator (page 49) made me think of Lisa Noble
- word transmedia documentation (page 51) made me think of Alanna King
Concepts or Portions I Struggled With
- "it is important that teachers as professional learners have safe-place opportunities to ponder and grow in their understanding of what evidence of learning looks and feels like when engaged in the documenting process" (page 59) = yes, agreed, but if it's more powerful when shared and amplified, where do you carve out the safe spaces?
- (see tweet) the text heavy tables used to describe these layers made it too dense to easily digest
Thinking Shared over Social Media
Chapters 5-6
Overview / Main Idea
- sharing vs amplifying
- degrees of amplification (in your head / write or draw / share with people F2F / share strategically online / share globally online)
- documentation phases (pre, during, post)
- choosing applications for platforms and media (pages 92-93)
- 9 steps in post-documentation phase (unpack, filter-select, organize, reflect, connect, edit, create, share, amplify)
Favourite Quotes or Thoughts
- "When sharing takes place with a purposeful extending the reach to an ever-widening audience, amplification increases" (page 74) = I discovered this when I first started posting my blog link to Twitter and to Facebook. I also saw it when Doug Peterson decides to share my blog on his blog review and the Doug/Stephen radio show, TWIOE.
- "How will you recognize learning when it is happening in real time?" (page 89) = sometimes great things can be happening right under our noses and we are too busy or distracted to see
- "Documenting OF learning turns into documenting FOR or AS learning when the learners do something with or to the artifacts captured in the during-document phase." (page 101) = I forgot to include this in my AQ ILP paper
- "How does a series of artifacts demonstrate my learning growth over time?" (page 105) = one of my favourite questions
Concepts or Portions I Struggled with
- Teacher-candidates seems to be discouraged from sharing online (see my student-teacher reflection from February 2020) so how do we make them less scared when there's so much evidence of the benefits? Also, "How will you remind yourself to look and capture learning as you are teaching, facilitating, and multitasking in the during-documentation phase?" (page 90) = my TC found this hard to do and sometimes I do as well (I compensate by scribbling cryptic notes on the board or grabbing my cell phone)
- sharing thinking globally is beneficial for "becoming aware and acknowledging your own cultural bias regarding learning and teaching" (page 79) = this is hard especially when bridging culture/language divides. Alanna King has done this well with her friendship with Walquieria Salinas but how might I?
- "the act of transforming artifacts cannot be outsourced" (page 102) = hooray and dang! That's where the rich thinking happens but I need to be patient with how long it takes
Thinking Shared over Social Media
Interlude - Connection to Scrapbooking
A project I was initially going to undertake was to revise all of my parents' photo albums. They had their collection in albums of all shapes and sizes, with storage that ranged from safe to damaging for the photographs contained inside. My brother had the idea of choosing special albums that looked the same on the outside and could replace the encyclopedias we've had in my parents house from the 1980s. (Even though they never use these encyclopedias anymore and the information is woefully out of date, my father is reluctant to part with them. I think he likes the look of them on the shelf, and it's a tangible reminder of how he spent good money to supplement and support the education of his children.) I was willing to tackle this huge project, but I had some questions: how would I organize these photos? What categories would I use? To help my parents (one of whom has severe memory loss due to dementia), I thought I would annotate the photos, labeling them with helpful captions explaining who was who, and when this was taken, and why this was an important photo.
Two things stopped me. One was the thought of dismantling the oldest photo albums, some of which hold images older than my parents. The albums themselves deserved to be preserved (and to be honest, they kept the photos in better condition than the photographs from the albums from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s). Who was I to destroy it? I decided, even though it would be costly, that I would scan and replicate key photos and place them in themed albums, such as "weddings".
The second thing that stopped me was my brother's insistence that all original photos be used and none be tossed aside. I took a photo of the collection of albums, and as you can see, my over-exuberance in taking copious quantities of photos meant that the grandchildren are over-represented. (In my defense, this was partly during the days of developing film, so I'd order 3 sets of copies; one for us, one for my parents and one for my husband's parents. Thank goodness we only had two kids!)
The documenting would be pointless if I had to include every image, including blurred shots and multiple angles of the same moment. I have to try and forgive him; he's not a scrapbooker. People who scrapbook search for the right image for the message they are trying to convey or the moment they are trying to conserve. It connects well to ideas in Tolisano and Hale's book. What's the most meaningful photo? What's the purpose of preserving and sharing this memory? If there isn't some sort of documentation (like a caption, or date, or remark) attached, then how will the photo do the job of preserving a moment in time that lasts longer than the people seen in the photo, or their memories of the event? This is even more important when you realize that it isn't just you looking at a scrapbook; others will need context or explanation for the photo to be meaningful and shareable. (So much of my actions lately have to do with preserving memories, and I realize that it is my reaction to what I called "that demon Dementia" in a recent Twitter rant.)
Chapters 7-8
Overview / Main Idea
- 5 learning-flow routine steps (look, capture, reflect, share, amplify)
- difference between schoolware and worldware (page 123) = for me, Minecraft is worldware turned into schoolware, and that move made me sad
- various text and visual platforms and tools (e.g. text and backchannel documentation [Twitter, Today's Meet, Google Docs], image and photograph documentation [6 strategies: annotexting, screenshooting, sketchnoting, comic strips, infographics-visual quote cards, collages])
Favourite Quotes or Thoughts
- "To ensure that a physical or mental action becomes routine, it must first become a habit" (page 111) = I wrote in the margins, "ain't that the truth!"
- (see tweet) "orbit of ability"
- (page 116) list of 5 questions to go deeper as introspective learners = it's like the second phase of pedagogical documentation, interpretation
- Everything from pages 133-144 was game-changing for me! It fit my AQ ILP like a glove and gave me concrete ways to improve my own documentation practices (since photo-taking was already an established habit for me)
Concepts or Portions I Struggled with
- delegate and assign tasks to collaborators (e.g. photographer, videographer, microblogger, backchanneler) to multi-capture the evidence of learning (page 115) = kindergarten teacher Diana Lung does this well; she trusted her students to film the "egg drop" experiments in her class (that I was lucky to get to see). I need to trust my students more, that they will capture it - during the egg drop, I caught myself worrying that the students weren't getting the right angle or not pressing "record" soon enough, but this didn't seem to bother Ms. Lung.
Thinking Shared over Social Media
Chapters 9-10
Overview / Main Idea
- Audio documentation and video documentation (ideas include video scavenger hunts, notecard confession videos, bite-size learning, interviews, documentaries, screencasting, metacognition mission, tutorials)
- Blogging and hyperlinked writing (isolation, information, illustration, curation, connection)
- Unpacking blog posts, Twitter feeds, conference hashtag feeds, backchannels, infographics, sketchnotes
Favourite Quotes or Thoughts
- "application of two higher-level thinking skills-based purpose and intended message: removing ... remixing" (page 148) = it IS a lot more complex than it seems
- "visible thinking routine to consider when filming ... I see, I think, I wonder" (page 153) = love this, and saw it as a recommendation for growing critical thinking skills in students and as pedagogical documentation protocol
- "tweets rarely stand on their own" (page 178) = this is why I took Snip JPGs of some of the Twitter threads, because if I just embed it, readers miss the back and forth in a Twitter conversation
Concepts or Portions I Struggled with
- "Blogs allow learners to tag and categorize posts based on content" (page 164) = although there's lots of good things I do (e.g. my Forest of Reading non-fiction chats use questions like "what did you already know that was in the book?" "what was brand-new information to you that was in the book?" [page 154] or the linktribution that shows connection and evidence of my learning over time when I link to my old blog posts [page 169] but the one thing I never do is create tags or categories. I need to change that but I'm lazy because I have 10 years of blogs to do and when I do a search using Blogger, I can usually find what I want.
- "tasked with unpacking the transcript to create an artifact" (page 183) = I"m kicking myself because my principal asked me after the Google Meet was done to see a copy of the backchannel, which I was moderating. I didn't save it, but if we had, it would have been an excellent artifact for seeing who was in attendance, the questions people still had, the understanding of the main messages, and more. Dang! I also realize that I don't unpack nearly enough as I could; it seems like I do it best when I go to conferences,
Thinking Shared over Social Media
Chapters 11, 12, 13
Overview / Main Idea
- Sample of the 5 learning flow steps in action
- Encourage reader to provide an authentic opportunity to document learning focus and goals through now literacies, learning flow, and pre-, during-, and post-documentation
- Branding as institutional memory, brand is image, promise, result
- 5 strategic considerations in using documentation for branding
- 6 strategies for establishing/expanding an educational brand-identity: memes, challenges, selfies/USies, throwbacks, crowdsourcing, visual quotes (amplification degrees include emotional reaction, re-disseminating content, leaving comment, creating artifacts/sharing perspective)
Favourite Quotes or Thoughts
- "What do you think would be the best media selections to aid you in providing evidence of your learning...?" (page 201) = leads to thoughtful use of choices
- (pages 212-213) I do the "What I Really Do" meme activity with my Part 2 & 3 Librarianship AQ candidates and it is very powerful, and my school did a challenge for our STEAM night
- "What do we cut? What do we keep? What do we create?" (page 224) = great steps, like Stop Start Continue
Concepts or Portions I Struggled with
- book bucket challenge (page 213) = what's that? I need to investigate
Thinking Shared over Social Media
Interlude - Connection to Face Masks
I need projects to keep me busy while we are safe/stuck at home and I decided that I wanted to sew some face masks. There are tons and tons of patterns and designs online. I also thought that this would be a good way to make my learning visible (including the mis-steps), meaningful (with a concrete goal of creating face masks), shareable (through my social media) and amplified (by crowdsourcing for help). I searched around and found a picture step-by-step tutorial. The creator merely asked that when using their pattern to cite the hashtag #buttoncountermask, so I did.
Here's the absolutely incredible part. I actually had to start writing down a list because of the huge outpouring from my contacts. The response was wonderful and I do not want to take anyone's contribution for granted. Apologies for the big list but I thought it'd be a way to appreciate those who reached out by mentioning names and types of assistance. (I've categorized it in terms of how it was [a like, a RT, a reply] and what it was [
advice or
encouragement].) This list is in no particular order.
Sarah Wheatley @ksarahwheatley = reply,
ENC
Roland Acheampong @OriginalRoland = like, reply,
ENC
Margie Keats @ms_keats = like, reply, DM,
ADV
Nadine Osborne @nadine1osborne = like, reply,
ENC,
ADV
Kate Johnson-McGregor @TL_Kate = like
Candy Hoang @ms_candy_hoang = like, reply (with photo/link),
ENC,
ADV
Beth Lyons @mrslyonslibrary = like, reply (with photos/link),
ENC,
ADV
Nancy Clow @NancyClow = reply, like,
ENC ADV
Barbara Zielonka @bar_zie = like, reply,
ENC
? @BramaleaDD = like, reply, RT,
ENC
Melissa Bogaert @bogiemomof2 = reply, like,
ENC
Lisa Noble @nobleknits2 = like, reply
ENC ADV
Ab Velasco @ab81 = reply,
ENC
Lisa Corbett @LisaCorbett0261 = reply,
ADV
Martha Martin @ = reply,
ENC
Pam Taylor @tayloredinquiry = like, reply, (with photo), like
ENC
Rachel Harnett @HarnettRachel = like, reply (with video)
ADV
Moyah Walker = reply (with video)
ADV ENC (via text message)
Lisa Sarbadhikar @LLSarbadhikari = like
Janis Castle Jones @jjecx = like
Timothy Molina @TimothyCMolina = like
Zoe Branigan-Pipe @zbpipe = like
Andrew Li @harakichat = like
SR Lu @mslutdsb = like
Sara Furnival @sarafurnival = like
Patti Walker @pattimarathon = like
Rabia Khokhar @Rabia_Khokhar1 = like
Rebecca Chahine @MrsChahine = like
Mark Zochowski @MarkZochowski = like
Wendee Mullikin @MullikinWendee = like
Carlo Fusco @mrfusco = like
Ashley Clarke @Ms_Clarke7 = like
Diana Hale @dianahalezoux = like
Adrienne Britten @MsBritten1 = like
Rita Gill @rgill_tdsb = like
Tina Zita @tina_zita = like
? @oconnorLLC_tdsb = like
Natasha Khakoo @mskhakoo = like
Christine Booker @CABooker22 = like
Gail deVos @woden7 = like
Ruth Dawson @Ruth_Daws = like
Kim Davidson @KDavidson_TDSB = DM (with video, link)
ENC,
ADV
I thought I'd also give a try and annotext a few of my tweets to show how I tried to maximize the sharing.
This was so much more rich and deep a learning experience than just Googling ways to make a face mask. The contributors (42 people!) come from all over Canada and the US. I have so many options now and people cheering me on. I can't disappoint them by giving up on making face masks (even if I use two rubber bands and a scarf like some videos recommended!). Thank you EVERYONE (especially Silvia Tolisano and Janet Hale) for helping me learn and helping me show that learning.
