Learning Journals or: How I came to stop worrying and love mixed media

1. Learning Journals or: How I came to stop worrying and love mixed media

2. This SOQ just about sums it up!

3. A learning journal allows students to reflect, engage, plan, question, own or engage material on their own terms • Can be in paper or electronic (pros and cons to both) • Should be semi-permanent and open to revision and mistakes • Should use mixed media

4. A space where students can be messy without fear or punishment The Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Journals Journaling doesn’t expect to be “final draft”

5. If our aim is to help students internalize complex ideas or nuances that don’t fit neatly into simplistic black/white visions of the world, then why ask they to? Mixed media allow for ambiguous colors, spontaneity, unseen connections

6. Creating content forces students to reflect and engage course material The passive sort of consciousness through which one approaches television (and lectures) does not work in education.

7. Journaling can provide a “flipped classroom” experience where students take the lead and instructor acts as guide Journaling provided opportunity to: • Revisit old material • Informal conversation over course • Student sharing • Peer learning • Sense of ownership and community

8. Strategy for using learning journals • Introduce journals to get student “buy in” • Provide time/materials in class (clear timeline) • Start with useful prompts (include variety) • Journal with your students • Encourage students to “make meaning” • Provide some evaluation/accountability

9. Consider journaling a tool for accomplishing many of the goals that motivated us to be teachers We teach to light the same fire that burns within us

10. Resources thanks to Andrea Guillaume Case 16: The Use of Learning Journals in Assessment http://eprints.nuim.ie/690/1/QP-Farrell.pdf Improving Learning through Reflection—Part 1 by Karen Clegg https://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/researcher-development/students/resources/pgwt/reflectionpt1.pdf Journals and Reflective Practice (Resources) http://lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/lrrSecure/Sites/Web/13289/resources/journals.htm Learning Journals (written for students at University of Worcester) http://www.worc.ac.uk/studyskills/documents/Learning_Journals_2011.pdf Learning Journals for Online Learning http://www.audiencedialogue.net/journal.html Learning Journals: A Handbook for Reflective Practice and Professional Development [Paperback] Jennifer A. Moon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Journals-Reflective-Professional-Development/dp/0415403758/ref=pd_vtp_b_3 Learning Journals in the K-8 Classroom: Exploring Ideas and Information in the Content Areas http://books.google.com/books/about/Learning_Journals_in_the_K_8_Classroom.html?id=oULy12itBB4C (Can be read free online) Learning Journals and Logs, Reflective Dialogs http://www.deakin.edu.au/itl/assets/resources/pd/tl-modules/teaching-approach/group-assignments/learning-journals.pdf Using Reflective Journaling in the College Course (multi-authored article) http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/pse2011/vol1/32.%20Reflective%20Journaling.pdf Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice http://pdf.aminer.org/000/244/712/using_technology_to_enhance_creative_actions_in_decision_making.pdf Writing and Keeping Journals http://www.infed.org/research/keeping_a_journal.htm Writing Effective Learning Journals http://www.slideshare.net/ldubradford/writing-effective-learning-journals