Category: Goals

A New Culture of Learning, ADL Program, Advising, Collective, ePortfolios, Goals, Learner's Mindset, Learning, Learning Community, Professional, Reflecting

Authentic Ownership

The Advisor That Cares

Throughout the ADL Program, we have “unlimited agency” to explore our purpose and passion, which reignite imagination and creativity (Thomas & Brown, 2011). My desire to question and explore ways to bring advising innovation to life in genuinely significant ways taps into a form of play. Creating an authentic and significant learning environment extends the same learning opportunity to advisees as they follow their passions and imagine their futures. 

By illustrating how learners today engage with the world around them through acts of questioning, the use of play, peer-to-peer learning, and learning in interest-based “collectives,” Thomas and Brown (2011) argue the case for the modernization of education. As a learner who currently directly benefits from the fundamental elements (inquiry and play) these authors identify, this learner agrees that it is time for a complete evolution.

Finally, real-world applications of the ideas outlined throughout the book reveal what significant learning environments and learning look like when they happen in this world of unlimited access while creating meaningful and personal learning (Thomas & Brown, 2011).

So, how can a new culture of advising create a meaningful environment for adult graduate students to learn in accelerated online programs?

Personal experience in peer-to-learning collectives as an aspect of the ADL program has reignited a passion for tapping into the strengths and passions of various people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The wide variety of our assignments and interpretation of the material is fascinating. Bringing that same opportunity for collaboration and cohort identity into the advising environment will benefit student learning.

The advising role is much like the mentor relationship described by Thomas and Brown. My purpose is to empower students on how to find information so they can make informed decisions about their path. By guiding students through the “where” of information gathering to locate policies and departmental requirements, I hope to enrich their ability to think critically and search for the questions they need to ask and the resources they need to seek to find or confirm tips and information they need. Douglas Thomas (2012) inspires me to “help people connect their passions to the things they need to learn” (TEDx Talks, 2012). 

The ADL program and A New Culture of Learning have pushed me to continue peeling the layers of transparency as I refine and define my voice. The authors candidly explore ideas of public and private information and identities to address concerns over the melding of these two arenas (Thomas & Brown, 2011). For example, some institutions and advising units utilize social media to push information, resources, and literacy. After seeing how valuable these tools and the collective born from shared interests are, I cannot help but ponder how we can connect future counselors, innovators, and leaders with one another? How can keep them engaged with their passion for inspiring continued learning about their futures and the available information resource? 

References

TEDx Talks. (2012, September 13). A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change (1st ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

ADL Program, ePortfolios, Evolution, Goals, Growth, Innovation Plan, Learner's Mindset, Learning, Learning Community

Responding to the New Culture

The Advisor That Cares

Here we go again. Another semester of graduate school has begun and we all start the process of acclimating ourselves to our new learning environments.

I am really excited about the opportunity to create a significant learning environment since I still face daily struggles with students who do not review information. I keep thinking back to The Behavioral Science Guys and David Maxfield’s caution about how more information doesn’t create change or motivation (Crucial Learning, 2015). I have to find a way to help people change when they don’t want to. What are some influential questions I can incorporate into my ePortfolio? How do I create a significant learning environment that will allow them to “explore motivations they already have” as recommended by Joseph Grenny (Crucial Learning, 2015).

I have been reviewing the course content and announcements in preparation for our first big assignment for “Creating Significant Learning Environments” and what I have ascertained thus far is that we are going to be:

  • 1) Creating a response to the New Culture of Learning
  • 2) Outline how we will move toward creating a Significant Learning Environment

We will do this by

  • 1) Creating an argument for how a shift to a CSLE can enhance learning
  • 2) What problems the CSLE we create will address
  • 3) What influence this CSLE will have on our innovation

What are some of your thoughts about how you will create a significant learning environment? What are some questions you might ask yourself?

Crucial Learning. (2015, January 5). How to Change People Who Don’t Want to Change | The Behavioral Science Guys [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ACi-D5DI6A

ADL Program, Evolution, Goals, Growth, Growth Mindset, Growth Mindset Plan, Learner's Mindset, Learning

From Growth Mindset to a Learner’s Mindset

The Advisor That Cares

As I continue to invest in my Growth Mindset with a goal toward developing a Learner’s Mindset, I will continue to share my experience, reflections, and challenges.

ADL Program, Evolution, Goals, Growth, Growth Mindset, Learner's Mindset, Personal, Reflecting

Power of Growth Mindset

The Advisor That Cares

I am very excited to begin the third course of the ADL Program on the Growth mindset and look forward to the personal benefits of this pursuit.

I faced many learning challenges in early elementary, and as a result, I developed a fixed mindset about my intelligence and abilities. As I read chapters 1-4 of Carol Dweck’s Mindset book I could not help but wish that I was familiar with this concept back in my own grade school experience. The internal voice in my head matched all of the fixed mindset examples provided by Carol Dweck in her Mindset book and youtube video on The Power of Yet.

If only someone had instilled the power of yet in my learning, I could have saved myself years of low self-esteem and negative self-talk. Even as I did well in pursuing my undergraduate degree, I felt like a fraud who was just one step away from being the “dumb kid” again. I so readily accepted that identity as a result of early labels.

I wasted the first part of my life feeling slow, dumb, and below average. I surely was not going to be the first one raising my hand or offering to go to the board to complete a problem with excitement and enthusiasm, as described by Dr. Dweck when describing children equipped with a growth mindset.

Both Carol Dweck and Eduardo Briceno share knowledge and facts about our abilities to improve through repetition and practice. Grit and determination are the messages we need to share with our students and children and embrace that hard work obtains results.

I have started working process-related praise into how I tell my 19-year-old daughter that I am proud of her as she moves through early adulthood. I can see the fixed mindset in her and hope that as I understand more, I will be able to equip her with a growth mindset at her age instead of at mine. As Eduardo Briceno described praise through the mindset lens, I wished I learned what I’m learning now when she was just a little kid.

Taking the leap of faith to begin a graduate program was filled with self-doubt and an internal voice that worried I would embarrass myself. Hence my duplicitous excitement about the potentially painful process that may come from continuing to reshape my mindset.

I admit that I may have come to this program with a fixed mindset. I am done with the people-pleasing and approval-seeking ways of the past and instead move forward reprogramming myself to a growth mindset. The first two courses have already opened my mind to a different perspective on learning. Now I am trying to fully embrace a growth mindset so that I can work to instill that in others.

ADL Program, Goals

Big Hairy, what?

The Advisor That Cares

Chapter 4 Quote “When you add the notion of Collin’s (1994) Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to Finks table you provide your learner their destination in this stage of their learning journey. Fink’s ideas also align with the mapping analogy because he encourages us to think in terms of who the learner will be or where the learner will be at the end of the course. This type of thinking is analogous to the final destination in our map/travel discussion above but the BHAG perspective adds the affective factors that address why the learner will want to go there. Similarly, the learning outcomes are the stages or landmarks along the way.”

Good point for blog/reflection

ADL Program, Goals, Growth, Learner's Mindset

Accessibility

The Advisor That Cares

Accessibility is something that is very important to me. As I develop my ePortfolio I am really trying to learn and incorporate as many features and functions as possible to ensure that all my students and visitors are able to view my content. I will admit that I have a lot of work to do on this aspect of my online presence after feedback I received on my final project “An Invitation to Innovate Advising.”

Little did I know that citations for images looks very similar accessible descriptions. I’ve been lazily avoiding adding my descriptors for fear that I would also need to add accompanying image citations. However, as I take greater ownership of this

To begin familiarizing myself with how to best add descriptive captions to my images, I began doing some additional research into best practices.

ADL Program, Advising, ePortfolios, Goals, Growth, Learning, Professional, Reflecting

Feedforward

The Advisor That Cares

This morning I am reviewing some of my classmates in the ADL program‘s ePortfolios in hopes of actually providing helpful feedforward. I found myself inspired as I viewed tristandixson.com‘s recent blog post on feedforward and how a shift in focus could significantly impact the review process in professional environments.

I work at a state institution which means we have very structured review requirements. We are asked to evaluate ourselves and set professional goals for the next academic year. I have always dreaded these exercises because I would much rather have a constructive review of what is working and what could be better, as I am a solution-oriented employee. I find little benefit in the culture of who’s to blame or who is right. I really appreciate the focus on solutions. Solutions feed my soul; otherwise, it isn’t productive. Just grumbling and complaining. 

Thinking about my self-assessments, I never see the point of reflecting on “accomplishments” but instead, strive for new goals and ways to grow and assist with the continued improvement of the system. Implementing the feedforward concept into the review process would assess the current system’s efficiency and effectiveness, student and employee satisfaction, accurate and transparent communication, and what each member can contribute toward proposed solutions.

Advising, ePortfolios, Goals, Professional

Better late than never…

The Advisor That Cares

In December 2021, I attended a virtual professional development drive-in hosted by my professional organization, TEXAAN, titled Advising a life long profession: Proactively planning and investing in career growth and development. One of the sessions hosted during the webinar was titled Building your personalized advising portfolio by Sarah B. Sanche. Little did I realize, but less than a month later, I would finally take the leap of faith to embark upon my project-based learning graduate program and would be building my own ePortfolio.

I am finding her suggestions very valuable and inline with our goals here in the ADL program. She suggests the following (some paraphrased):

  • Find a notebook and pen of your choosing (or in our case create a wordpress blog)
  • Write down thoughts 3-4 times per week
  • Write about the day
  • After a month, go back and review previous writings
  • Continue with the routine for 6 months and evaluate the content of your writing
  • Connect with others
  • Stay dedicated to the reflection process…

In her presentation, Sarah Sanchez also sites a checklist from a NACADA article titled Advisor portfolio examples by Catherine Buyarski. In her article, Catherine Buyarski sites the following goals for an advising portfolio:

  1. To allow each advisor to document and accomplishments and contributions to students […] and the education profession;
  2. To define expectations for advisor performance and reinforce the priorities of [the institution and advising team];
  3. To encourage professional reflection and goal-setting; and
  4. To allow for assessment of advisor needs to provide input into [institutional] planning.

Buyarski, C. (2014). Advisor Portfolio Examples. NACADA | Clearinghouse of Academic   Advising. Retrieved from https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Advisor-Portfolio-Examples.aspx

Sanchez, S. B. (2021). Building your personalized advising portfolio.

Advising, Goals, Growth, Professional

Reading emails, a thing of the past?

The Advisor That Cares
On a background of a global map is a graphic of a laptop. There is a cell phone pictured to the right of the laptop. Both devices have black screens with lines to represent illegible text. Across the map are multiple yellow envelopes represent incoming email messages with an open envelope on top of the laptop screen.

Doesn’t anyone read emails anymore?

I am going to have to find a way to relay information to my students so that they actual take the time to read and absorb what they need to know. I am amazed by the number of students who enter graduate school without researching the requirements of their chosen program. I think that we all get so busy in our day to day lives that we take for granted the information that the recruiter gives to us when they are enticing us to begin a given program.

Since I can be quite long-winded in my emails, I would like to utilize my e-portfolio as a place to outline all of the requirements of which students need to be aware. Ideally, this information will be made more relevant or accessible through digital storytelling or other multimedia formats, since I’m really starting to feel that reading and attention to detail is becoming a thing of the past.

To help improve myself as a communicator, I decided to do a quick internet search for ways to get through to my students. Forbes writes in Why No One Reads Your Email And How To Fix That recommends that I make my email scannable by:

  1. Write two to three sentences that introduces the topic and what’s in it for the recipient to read the email.
  2. Chunk information into bulleted categories, ideally no more than three categories. You can always put sub bullets in each category.
  3. Close out the email with a sentence or two clearly requesting the action you want the participant to take next.

MacArthur, H. V. (2019, July 9). Why no one reads your emails and how to fix that. Forbes. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/hvmacarthur/2019/07/08/why-no-one-reads-your-emails-and-how-to-fix-that/

ADL Program, Evolution, Goals, Growth

What can I get from the ADL program…

The Advisor That Cares

The best way to succeed in the ADL program is to trust the process. I think that we all must accept that we will feel lost and confused for much of the program because that is where we will find the most learning and growth. I find it very helpful that we have been allowed to review the program map to try to grasp how our initial innovation proposal fits into the program as a whole. We will learn the most when presented with projects that are important to us. Our innovation proposal provided us with an authentic learning opportunity. Implementing it allows us to practice all the skills we will need to continue to be change agents within our organizations. Through our own uncomfortable experiences, we will better relate to and understand our learner’s experiences. The goal of our evolution will be to make better learning opportunities and experiences for our students.