Casey O'Leary

I like the prompt "If I were to ask you to do _________, what is the one thing you would not know how to do?" It's evocative and gets them thinking about what they would need to actually do it, before I just spoon feed it to them. It also allows me to recognize beginner mind in things I have decades of experience doing. It can be hard to remember what you don't know when you're first starting out. 

I learned about WebQuests. This is a new-to-me tool that I will explore for my online classes.

I learned that Gen Y & Z students can lack critical thinking and problem solving skills. I will work to give them more opportunities to practice those skills in my classes. 

Honestly here my biggest takeaway is that Gen Y is afraid of being "out of contact." I had never thought about this before. I have a no cell use policy in my classes (unless we're explicitly using them for something...I haven't thought about how that might feel to them). 

In reading about the different learning preferences of the generations, I can see how biased I am toward my own generation's preferences. I need to be sure I'm accommodating my Gen Y & Gen Z students as much as possible. 

It's good to refresh about the differences. It's odd that this module doesn't mention the anxiety that Gen Zers feel about climate change. It is one of the most frequent topics brought up by students in my classes. 

A lot of this felt like common sense, but it was really useful to see it spelled out. I will absolutely be posting Knowles' principles in my office so I can remember them as I'm designing content, preparing to teach, and assessing and providing feedback to students. 

This information is repeated from previous modules. But the basic takeaway is always to differentiate your activities, ways of presenting content, and assessment to better serve students with different learning styles/preferences. 

Language and literacy are interdependent, and each student deserves opportunities to increase their competency in all aspects of both. 

I am very committed to this work. I learned some new tips for using more inclusive language. I would like to see this module address the concerns I've heard that increasing the diversity of perspectives of the content we deliver causes "white" students to be marginalized.