Teacher Risk-Taking and Changing Practice Through Writing as Making MOOC

• In Event: 66.070 - Connected Learning in Teacher Education

Abstract

Connected learning (CL) has potential to transform teacher professional development (PD) by positioning teachers as “designer[s]-in-context” (Garcia, 2014, p. 5) who collaboratively co-design classroom instruction and their own professional learning (Smith, West-Puckett, Cantrill, & Zamora, 2016, p. 1). While traditional PD is often fragmented and superficial (Borko, 2004), PD grounded in CL provides relevant, collaborative, and customized learning (Phillips, 2014).

Using CL principles, we designed a six-week Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) about digital writing for K-12 teachers. Digital writing has been defined as composing with and for networked technologies (DeVoss et al., 2010). This definition focuses primarily on product – using digital tools to create compositions. In our MOOC, we framed digital writing as “writing-as-making,” inviting participants to create, share, and remix compositions within a community of writer-makers. Writing-as-making strongly resonates with CL; they are both production-centered, interest-driven, and peer-supported (Baker-Doyle, 2017; Ito et al, 2013). In designing wmMOOC, we incorporated CL design principles, inviting participants to follow their own professional and personal interests, and explore through play and embracing failure.

We used a design-based research approach (Design-Based Research Collective, 2003), to design and iterate wmMOOC. We created a conjecture map (Sandoval, 2014) that connected the CL principles embedded within the design to intended outcomes and theoretical conjectures about how the design would lead to those outcomes. The research questions were:
How did the MOOC design facilitate risk-taking among participants (intended outcome #1)?
How did the MOOC design encourage participants to adopt writing-as-making in their classrooms (intended outcome #2)?

Data sources from the first iteration of wmMOOC, which ran in Winter 2018, included demographic information, participants’ portfolios, and data created through MOOC activities, including discussion postings and Twitter posts. Thirty-five teachers participated in the MOOC; data from 13 participants were analyzed for this study using Qualitative Content Analysis (Schreier, 2012).

Our findings reveal that all participants indicated that the MOOC’s design encouraged them to take risks and try new things. They used unfamiliar technologies, composed genres--such as memes--that were new to them, and engaged in new ways of composing, including remixing, hacking, and collaborative writing. Many participants found some aspects of digital composing challenging, but these challenges were not overly frustrating. Instead, facing challenges helped them understand their students’ experiences, and overcoming challenges promoted their confidence and competence as digital writer-makers. As one said, “I decided to be brave and go for it!” The MOOC also influenced participants’ thinking about classroom practice. Although only two participants implemented digital writing-making in their classrooms during the MOOC, all participants generated ideas about how to use the technologies, genres, and ways of composing they experienced in the MOOC with their own students. Most participants also indicated they intended to use these technologies, genres, and ways of composing in their classrooms. These findings provide evidence that MOOCs designed through CL principles can promote important aspects of teacher learning such as risk-taking and envisioning changes to classroom practices.

Authors

• Vicki McQuitty, Towson University

• Sarah C. Lohnes Watulak, Middlebury College

• Joe Runciman