It's Not Just About Ideas

When I first started out in the ADL program, I thought it was going to be like any other program where they tell us exactly what we needed to create. The day I found out that I had ownership of my choices was the day I had my first meeting. I was all hyped up and ready to take it head on because I thought the assignment instructions would tell me exactly what I would need to do. When Dr. Harapnuik explained out first assignment and said we could have ownership of what we could create, my first reaction to it was me being scared because I realized that this was going to be much harder than I thought. I was not ready at all for this new style of learning and I felt like that reflected in my work for that class. My first ever assignment in the program was my Innovation Proposal which I believed was so hard and I stressed so much until I found out we had to do a Literature review which was really hard for me because I am not a huge fan of research. Overall I feel like the assignment where I made the work my own the most was my Impact of a Growth Mindset Plan. I made that post my own work and I am proud of it.

When I realized I had to adjust to this style of learning, I found out that I needed to use my imagination to create the best assignments for the ADL program. Back when I first started to adjust, I figured I could look at examples of assignments so I could get an idea of what my assignment could look like. With My Innovation Plan post, I did reference someone else’s work but I did make it my own and came out with an assignment I thought was great but in reality I only got a B For it. Looking back now, the thing I would do differently is I would genuinely make it my own work and style so it was truly authentic and maybe I would have gotten an A for it. I have gotten A’s now in most of my classes because I realized I needed to make my work my own but it did take me a while to figure out how I could do so.

It was pretty difficult for me in the beginning when I found out that I needed to control my voice through my organization since they are my audience. I feel like it took me too long to realize that and affected some of my assignments. I feel like one of the first posts after I realized that was my 4DX strategy. With that strategy I felt like I needed to make a great post where I can share it with my organization where they can understand my goals better so I made that assignment my own and I feel like it turned out amazing.

I feel like my attitude has definitely improved toward leading change in my organization throughout my time in the ADL program. The first time I realized that I really want to make a difference in my organization was My Learning Philosophy post. For the assignment I had to explain my beliefs about learning and in that post I explain how I interact with a whole lot of students since I don’t have a classroom which led me to realize that I wanted to make a difference in my students lives and I feel like that is where I started to buckle down and take the ADL program more seriously.

At first, for my Innovation Plan, I feel like I was just going through the motions to get a good grade on my assignments. Now looking back I realize that somewhere along the way, I figured out that I really want to implement my Innovation Plan and I started developing the website where I am going to implement it. In 5318, that’s where I started working on the online platform where I wanted to help students with college applications. My Usability Test assignment is where I really buckled down and created an online course for the students to be able to access.

The COVA approach and Creating Significant Learning Environments aligns with my learning philosophy because I believe that the high school students should have control over their learning choices when it comes to college. Students won’t ever learn how to develop a growth mindset with ownership of their choices if we don’t ever give them the chance to learn things on their own. My perspective on learning changed when I started in the ADL program. I did not have the growth mindset at first but once I learned what it was and how it impacted me, I started to adopt that perspective and now I am planning on implementing it into my everyday life.

Now that I know about the COVA approach I plan on using it in my organization. With my coworkers and my supervisor, I plan on doing a presentation about the COVA approach where I can present to them the benefits of having ownership of their choices. I want to show them examples of where it helped me and how it can help them in the future as well. A lot of my coworkers are also pursuing higher education like I have been and I want to be able to share this approach with them so they can apply to their studies and hopefully be able to come up with something unique that showcases their own voice. I am planning on showing them my Growth/Learners Mindset page to show how it can benefit them.

I will be giving my learners choice, ownership and voice through authentic assignments by creating real lessons that teach the students how to create their own unique creations so they can have control and ownership of their learning. In the case of my online platform, I will have everything optional for students to explore and I will have courses that the students can take at their own pace and are able to take control of their own learning through the COVA approach that I am going to teach them. By giving students the control over their own learning, they will be able to solve real world issues in their future and grow up to become successful.

As an admissions counselor and a leader, I think that by demonstrating the principles of COVA and CSLE, the learners in high school and my colleagues will see that they have choice, voice, ownership and authentic learning opportunities. I can introduce my students to self paced learning by letting them control the pace of the online courses that they take. In one of the courses I will be teaching the blended learning approach and how it can make a difference in our every day lives and the classroom. With my coworkers, I will definitely share my experience with the ADL program and how it has changed my mind for the better. I can show them my assignments such as my blended learning course design that I created to help the students.

I feel like some challenges that I will face when it comes to the COVA and CLSE approaches will be resistance to change. A lot of students and some of my coworkers are stuck in a fixed mindset where they believe that change is not a good thing and they are focused on one specific vision instead of opening their mind to change. A lot of students are dependent on a more traditional structure of classroom where the instructions are handed to them and they aren’t able to apply to the real world because they don’t have ownership of their learning.

Overall there are many benefits of adopting the COVA approach. I plan on doing everything I can to get my coworkers and students to see how their life will change when they start taking ownership of their learning and realize that they have a voice to speak out their opinions.