Final Demonstration

Keith Cozart commented on Group 1 and Group 4
Ray Harmon commented on Groups 1 and 4

VIDEO PRESENTATION CREATED WITH iMovie on a MacBook Pro (Apple laptop)
 
 

EDAC 635

Dr. Bo Chang

Keith Cozart, Ray Harmon, Bill Slonaker

Summary of Final Demonstration

The main topic of our project was physical memory, more specifically muscle memory, and how adults learn in this way. We chose to do a 4-week seminar combining social activity with learning how to play drums. We chose this topic because drum kit instruction involves a large amount of muscle memory.

Step one of the project was for us to do research on the main topic and present individual literature reviews based on our findings. We used academic research databases such as ERIC and Academic Search Premiere. We used search words such as muscle memory, physical learning and physical environment to acquire the results needed to accomplish this project.

Step two was to research the findings from step one and to create a syllabus design that would lay out how the seminar would run. This design included the desired objectives, the rationale, the format, the schedule and how the students would be assessed, for the seminar.

Once the syllabus was created we were tasked with asking two professional within the educational field to evaluate our syllabus and provide feedback. The two individuals we chose have extensive background in class and syllabus design. The feedback we received was very important and we learned some positive as well as negative items contained within our syllabus. The positive items included a great deal of detailed information was included and the syllabus was easy to understand. The negative feedback was mainly due to the lack of detail in the objectives and the assessment. We learned a valuable lesson through this feedback so we know what we should and should not do in future syllabus design.

The last step in the process is creating a multimedia presentation for the project demonstration. We created a video with an imbedded Power Point Presentation to demonstrate our project. Our goal was to make the presentation as dynamic as possible to keep viewers interest.

 When we reflect on the overall process of this project, all three team members agree that we have learned a great deal while working as a team to complete this project. We appreciated the positive and negative feedback on our syllabus design and will take those lessons with us in our further endeavors. The overall teamwork we had was a great experience as each of us had assigned tasks to complete to bring the project to fruition. Overall we learned a lot and are encouraged by how we can use this information in the future.

Group Reflection:

Highlights:

            Our Basic goals were:

1.     Simplicity- Make it approachable and easy to understand. We wanted to make this easy for everyone of adult age to jump in and learn.

2.     Make it fun and energetic. Make it something that may catch the eye of someone that maybe wasn’t looking to take a class, but peaked their interest and make them want to complete the class. Maybe allowing them to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing in a band or just being on stage.

3.     Interactive- Using physical/experiential learning to teach by doing.

4.     Promote future self-learning. Hopefully we can convince some to continue learning the drums with another instructor to learn more in-depth concepts of drumming.

We believe these goals were met completely. By keeping the sessions short with breaks built in, the learners are given plenty of time to reflect on the session before a new part is added. Also during the breaks gives the learners a chance to socialize, and talk about what they are learning. Not only are the learners learning from the instruction, they are learning from doing.

Cognitive Apprenticeship:

            “Cognitive apprenticeship is not a linear process occurring once during the teaching and learning process of a particular subject-area content, rather it is a recursive process.” (Orey, 2015) The process starts with the modeling phase where the instructor shows the activity to be accomplished. Then the learner does the activity with help from the instructor, this is called scaffolding/coaching. The learner now tries the activity alone, with the instructor observing and asking questions at critical points, the fading phase. Solo performance is when the activity is done solely by the learner with the instructor there only for assistance when asked by the learner. Then is the reflection/ exploration phase when the learner gets to reflect on the activity, and ask questions from the instructor.

1.     Modeling- Each session is started with the instructor demonstrating the activity

2.     Scaffolding/coaching- The learners do the activity with help from the instructor

3.     Fading- the learner does the activity with minimum help from the instructor.

4.     Solo performance- The learner does the activity alone. The instructor only offers help when asked.

5.     Reflection/exploration- The learner reflects on the activity with the instructor.

Highly skilled physical performance has five characteristics (MacKeracher, 2004)

1.     Fluency of movement-The actions are smooth and the performer moves from one activity to the next without interruption.

2.     Speed of performance-The performer responds very quickly without hesitation.

3.     Smoothly automated physical actions- The performer has perfected the actions and it appears to be easy due to their physical skill level.

4.     Ability to do several different physical actions simultaneously-The performer has the ability to do multiple things at the same time.

5.     Knowledge about actions-The performer know what actions to use when to achieve the best outcome.

Process:

            The process we used was collaboration. We held online brainstorming sessions, using Blackboard IM, as well as text messaging. We usually met on Blackboard IM, every Sunday evening, if only for a few minutes just to keep abreast of what each of we were doing. There was a problem with my computer locking up one week which hindered that week’s session. We used email to view and edit each other’s portions of the project. We divided the project up into parts, with each member being responsible for a portion. Then each member would view the other parts, then make changes or suggestions.

            Most of all we worked hard to keep this activity as simple as possible. Simplicity was one of the things mentioned by both of our evaluators, as being a strong point of or syllabus.

            From our evaluations we learned that we needed to have more detailed outcomes, with measurable assessments. As our learning objectives were rather vague as to the way to measure or grade the activity. We fix this by simply changing the wording a bit, and adding a desired concrete measureable outcome. This was an eye opening experience as there were things brought to our attention that we had not even considered.

            This has been a very constructive exercise, in that it gave us much needed insight into syllabus design. Having feedback given to allow for corrections before turning it in as a final assignment, was a tremendous help to our final product.

 

References:

Orey, M. (2015, July 21). Concluding Thoughts: Implications of the Cognitive Apprenticeship Model for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from Boundless.com: https://www.boundless.com/users/233409/textbooks/introduction-to-emerging-perspectives-on-learning-teaching-and-technology/tools-for-teaching-and-learning-changing-or-encouraging-human-behaviors-5/cognitive-apprenticeship-27/concluding-thoughts-implicatio

MacKeracher, D. (2004). Making sense of adult learning (2^nd ed). Toronto, Ontario: University

     of Toronto Press.