Sensemaking: The Ideas of Konrad Glogowski

This post is an example of engaging in sense-making, weaving ideas from one source into existing ideas and engaging in critical inquiry and analysis.

Sources: (drawing from Tony Bates’ academic blogging format)

Konrad Glogowski’s Blog of Proximal Development

Glenn Groulx’s Overview of Academic Blogging

Konrad Glogowski worked with grade eight learners, and used blogging to encourage critical thinking. His blog is an example of how one practitioner has used his blog for his own action research, as he summarized his own reflections and insights for himself, as well as others.

I am interested in this blog because his ideas about assessment are close to how I have conceptualized (just in theory) how to use blogs for adult literacy learners. In particular, the challenge is to identify how blogging can aid fundamental level literacy learners (at about grades 6-8). I have been looking for ideas on effective assessment tools for this specific group of learners.

Here is a link to a personal progress chart (shown below) for grade eight learners as a form of assessment of their blogging. Interestingly, it draws on some of the ideas from Heimstra on individualized instruction, particularly learner contracts.

In particular, Glogowski uses a form that asks learners to reflect on goal-setting, identifying their own exemplars of practice, resources “tapped into”, other peers’ blogs they have been reading, next steps, mapping own progress on a timeline, and a elaborate meta-cognitive exercise describing past, present, and future learning.

blogging-assessment-glogowski

 

How could I apply it to academic blogging, in the context of AU Landing? How could I apply this to my research with adult literacy learners?

The form above could be re-purposed as a blog post form, so that I provide a template that students can use when posting a reflective post as part of their assessment.

For example, “entries I am really proud of”, is similar to piling, in which the learner selects posts that showcase best work, and uses a tag called exemplar.

“Resources I have tapped into” is similar to path-finding, where students identify the resources used to develop their ideas.

“Classmates whose work I have been reading” is similar to the steps awareness/articulation in which learners identify and describe the resources available to them within the learning group.

“What I need/plan to do next” is similar to self-efficacy (goal-setting) and self-judgement (looking back, looking forward).

The use of the timeline requires learners to self-monitor their progress. Something like that for student bloggers as they are progressing through their blogging activities would be amazing, so students could see where they are on their learning roadmap, and make adjustments as required.

I think that the rubric introduced by Glogowski is excellent for encouraing learners to engage in self-judgement and self-observation, providing them with essential meta-cognitive skills required for identity construction and self-regulation as learners.

Scanned Work-Notes for Faculty PD?

As a tool, Glogowski uses a scanned image of a student’s notes, and adds his own comments to the chart. This is an amazing way for instructors to track progress of learners. The actual work-notes would be likely behind a LMS rather than public, though. These types of artefacts are really useful for faculty PD when educators can sit down together as a team and go over students’ notes and their own comments to them.

In addition, I want to review Glogowski’s self assessment sheet 

“Evidence of Data-Gathering” is very similar to Berry-Picking, Self-Reaction, and Self-Judgement, in that it asks learners to consider their sources of data, and evaluate if the factual data is sufficient. In addition, they need to identify gaps, and select and formaulate strategies for overcoming the gaps. I think that requiring student bloggers to assess their data-gathering result, and reflect on the stratgies they have used, are worthwhile activities.

“Evidence of Understanding” is similar to sense-making, but seems quite nebulous. In this case, the evidence seems to be the act of praphrasing, summarizing, describe, explain, and outline others’ ideas. This is probably the greatest are for potential development for educators to provide the required scaffolding for successful student blogging.

“Evidence of Reflection/Analysis” is similar to weaving, sense-making, and to some extent, self-presentation. Glogowski explains that evidence of reflection/analysis consists of judging, critiquing, evaluating, and comparing, among others. My tentative theory just now is that the act of critical analysis is an extremely complex mega-skill, involving a host of smaller processes that work together. While blogging about a topic of interest, for example, you are motivated to re-examine, and build on, ideas, just as I am doing, drawing other ideas into my mental schema of the moment, and comparing and contrasting the two sets of ideas side by side, seeing if there are connections, and seeing where the ideas diverge and contradict one another.

This, for me, is the greatest challenge, and greatest potential, for using the blogging tool: for learning how to engage in mature critical inquiry. I realize, though, that a new blogging process taxonomy needs to emerge before the tool will be used in its own right as a tool for learning.

Some Thoughts about Assessing EduBlogs

How should educators approach assessment for edublogs?

I would say that it depends on many factors, but one crucial question to ask is whether you plan to assess learners in terms of process or product. It also depends on the learning space you design for learners.

Some intial thoughts:

For a private blog, in which you are invited by a learner as an observer, assessment might take the form of a couple of pause-points throughout the course, in which you ask a series of guiding questions to prompt learners to engage in their own self-assessment.

For an autonomous blog, a learner might be assessed based on a combination of checklists (identifying tasks accomplished within the learner’s sandbox, for example). It might involve a self-reflective post, based on a rubric, or it could involve peer review, in which the learner chooses the peer to review/critique their work. In some cases, such bloggers might choose to be assessed by the instructor, and enter into a dialogue prior to the assessment about what will be in fact evaluated.)

For anonymous blogging activities, one assessment activity could be to involve learners in a peer discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the process, the nature of the individual learners’ interactions, and follow this up with a self-assessment, evaluating one’s own, as well as the group’s, participation.

For therapeutic, or transformational blogging, one might argue the assessment by others might not be appropriate. perhaps giving learners choices in how they want to be evaluated, could make it more meaningful for them. Contributions could be self-assessed in terms of a rubric. Learners could engage in pause-points, or participate in focus groups to discuss their overall experiences. In such blogging spaces, item-based evaluation might seem picky and counter-productive. Frequency of posts, length, type of content, etc., might be a consideration, if only the learner chooses to apply it in their evaluation schemes, but do so in consultation with their instructor.

These are some preliminary ideas on assessment. I would appreciate any feedback on these ideas.

Reflections on Assessing Blogging Activity

The extent to which one can successfully weave personally meaningful content into one’s own posts can be best assessed by an individual blogger using what I would refer to as the “tether test”.

The tether test idea was inspired while I was addressing a question at an ETUG workshop about how relevant an online archive was to the students several semesters later, or to the writers, years after they had participated in the discussions, graduated from the program, and had moved on. I suggested that the truest test of the significance of the post archive to individual learners was how well these posts retained relevance and significance to those who composed them, how well the posts were created by their owners to capture sufficient detail so that the owner (as well as others) could re-capture the essence of the content and re-start or continue the sense-making activity despite the intervening months or years the post lay dormant. 

 

Oftentimes, I look back at the posts I have written, and wonder where I can follow up again on the links I refer to in this post, or get back to the sources that I visited before. I lack the signposts and notice the gaps and the missing details that might have aided me to continue on with my learning. I am thus sometimes frustrated at having forgotten or having neglected to add more clues to my way-making activity. I wonder also to what extent I could now (some time after I first posted) make further updates to the post with more context to help me re-trace my steps. Regrettably, these posts stand alone, isolated, disconnected forever from the concerns I had when I first composed the post. There are too many holes in the personal memory to gather he threads together to make the post more coherent. Instead, I am left to wonder what led me to be inspired at that moment, what other ideas and resources were connected to this post. It leads me to try to re-double my efforts not to leave posts un-tethered, no longer tied to the personal context that brought them into being. A post written months or years before that is limited in usefulness in the present moment provides me great lessons for self-improvement.  

 

Blogging that involves weaving and texturing requires bloggers to actively play a number of roles for multiple audiences at once: one needs to blog as a chronicler, recorder, scribe, and biographer for the self in the moment, for the future selves, and for other selves. Seldom are we aware of this need to consider the potential significance of effective weaving and texturing. One needs to involve oneself fully in the decision-making processes, and this self-aware sharing can be intended for a pause-point one can turn back and review to monitor and track progress; however, it can also aid others to follow one’s own past thinking and struggles. These posts act as time capsules, or compositions, which  summarize, evaluate, or paraphrase content, embed links from various sources, and add quotes, footnotes, and citations from one’s own and others’ posts, articles, web sites, podcasts, presentations, photos, files, videos, comments, and other multi-media content.

Fundamental Shift: Assessment for Learning

I think the bigger picture involves a fundamental shift from treating students as objects to be measured or evaluated or changed or filled or improved or assimiliated, to treating students as legitimate co-participants.

I have chosen blogging for advocacy to address the needs of my adult literacy learners, most of whom of First Nations descent, who sometimes may feel that they have limited opportunity to express themselves using academic prose.

Students are often bewildered by how they are assessed, and the open confusion is etched on their faces as they struggle to cope within a classroom. They are required to work independently, ask questions, and take tests within set timeframes.

Many of these learners have either had their fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles placed in residential schools, or were there themselves. Many of these learners who return decades later are strongly opposed to control. As children and young adults, they were told what to wear, what to eat, when to wake, and when to sleep, and their songs, their chatter in their own language was punished, so they were forced to speak English only. So after decades, they return to turn over a new leaf. And the system again evaluates them as not making the grade.

Their written language is so often judged as undeveloped, and quickly evaluated based on standards not of their choosing, and found as inadequate, as unpolished, and thus, their messages are considered amateur and immature.

When I sit down across the table from these learners, share food and coffee, laugh with them, and then ask them to start the process of talking through their ideas, they open up more, become more alive, more spontaneous, more expressive. I use idea wheels and scrapbooking and a variety of other strategies to encourage them to tell the stories in their own words, and then ask them to sit down and write. Inspired by the discussion, by the pictures they have created, the urge to write emerges.

And then the system requires us as instructors to evaluate and measure these beginnings of self-expression so minutely, that for some learners, it is too much to bear given their experiences, and the beginnings of the journey towards self-experience is extinguished, squeezed out of existence.

Did you know that some cultures, such as the First Nations cultures, require a conservation of resources, so that people just don’t try to do something till they are felt to be ready to do it well? Just that cultural assumption wrecks havoc with the assumed methods for assessing and evaluating and measuring learners widely practised in Western culture.

Did you know that the adult literacy learners have completely different measures for success than their instructors, and that for most of them, grades don’t matter? What matters is that they can read to their children, they can help their children with their homework, they can strengthen their family bonds, and meet new friends. 

Many of the learners evaluate their classroom experience on the basis of how well Ba is fostered – a lack of Ba, or unity, of common purpose, leads to demotivation and disengagement. Learners judge the classroom, the instructor, the experience, as a failure, and opt out.

Credentialism, elitism, and the academy are all ideas outside the experience of these learners. The wild autodidact, or rogue node, is the opposite side of the coin, and also outside the experience of the adult literacy learners I work with. They want relationships, companionship, and seek mentors, learning partners, and instructors that accept their uniqueness, and sit down at the table with them to meet them halfway, or even more than halfway, if need be. They seek to work with learning companions, instructors or mentors willing to be present, listen actively and openly, and be genuinely interested in negotiating meaning. The conversation is a give-and-take between the co-participants, where the mentor/student roles blur, and the exchange of ideas and their negotiation provide the primary motivation. This means that the instructor and student readily hand back and forth the task of instruction.

EduBlogging for Indigenous Learners

The living tree is a metaphor for the cyclical process of lifelong learning. There are four parts: sources and domains of knowledge (roots), individual learning cycle (rings), individual personal development (branches) and community well-being (leaves).

Roots:
Learners draw upon a rich heritage of values, beliefs, traditions and practices that balance and harmonize relations between members (living and deceased) of community, promote family relations and aboriginal language learning, and preserve cultural traditions.

Edu-blogging activities:

1. Write a letter acknowledging our teachers, mentors, learning companions, and Elders;

2. Explain your personal learning webs as they existed five years ago, as they exist today, and as they might possibly exist five years from now;

3. Describe how our reciprocal relationships to others are important to personal happiness, and the happiness of others;

Rings:
Both aboriginal and Western ways of knowing are complementary. There are 4 dimensions of personal development: spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental (intellectual). Learning is an integrative process, incorporating both formal and informal learning experiences.

A goal of education is facilitating transmission of intergenerational knowledge to individual learners from family members, community members, and Elders. Each new generation is taught to assume responsibility for survival of future generations, seven generations into the future.

Edu-blogging activities:

4. Ask a family member to tell a story of challenge and success; record this story, requesting your story-teller to give feedback;

5. Recount a story of your own involving a family or community member that led to a positive result;

6. Interview an expert about any topic about the future, and listen to what this person has to say, and try to describe it in this person’s words as closely as possible;

Branches:
Individuals learn to balance spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of their being. Emotional: self-esteem, ability to acknowledge personal gifts; Mental: critical thinking, visioning and dreaming, storytelling, use of heritage language

Edu-blogging activities:

7. Introduce others to vocabulary of your heritage language;

8. Explain something about your culture;

9. Describe a vision, or dream, which has had an impact on you;

10. Reflect on an event you found uncomfortable, recount as much detail as possible, then switch your role, and have a conversation with your younger self, providing reassurance and support.

Leaves: clusters into four branches of collective well-being – cultural, social, political, and economic. Rejuvenation, replenishment, reformation, relationships are the core components for nurturing and maintaining community well-being.

Individual and the community are part of interconnected web of life. Interdependence and reciprocal relations based on trust and shared values are crucial to maintaining cycle of learning for individual tree (learner) in a forest of trees (community).

11. Ask for an interview with an Elder or member of the community about their challenges as a lifelong learner, and share this story with others; reflect on your own impressions to their life-story.

12. Prepare a “time capsule” using images, videos, music, and poems or other forms of writing, for archiving for future generations;