Designing Motivation

I think that any person who goes to school for long enough has to have some kind of motivation that is important to their learning, because at some point, these students will be forced to take some type of class that is part of their general education requirement, but it's not something they're interested in. If the motivation for most classes is that it has something to do with a student's future career, they are very interested in learning the material. Motivation in that instance kind of comes with the territory. However, when it comes to those non-major classes, a student has to switch their tactics for motivation, because they won't be able to buy the fact that they'll use it in their future. The greatest lesson I ever learned in undergrad was that I needed to find some new way to motivate myself for general ed classes. Thankfully, I had some good teachers who knew their classes were general ed, so they tried activities that would make the subject as interesting as possible, or they worked to create activities that were relevant in most people's lives, or they used as much multimedia as they could to to keep our attention. If I didn't have one of the good gen ed teachers, then I had to work on motivating myself. Usually, I could force myself to do about an hour of uninteresting work a day, so if I could make myself space the work out, I could maintain an effective level of motivation. I also tried making a game out of it, like I would see how fast I could finish a certain page number for reading. So, obviously, motivation comes into play along a long enough educational time line.

When it comes to what I tap into to motivate students, there is a lot that depends on my attitude and how I begin a lesson. I can't be too excited, as that always makes students suspicious. However, if I look uninterested, that will never turn out well. Even if I'm having a particularly bad day, I really have to turn on the Oscar performance. If I'm somewhere in the middle, but closer to excited, I can empathize with students by telling them that I understand that they may not be interested, or that they may think the material is too difficult. I can then give them some examples from my own life about how I motivated myself even though the work seemed uninteresting or difficult. I also try to be one of those good teachers that I had by trying to create activities as close to their real lives as possible, or to use a variety of media to teach information and assess their learning. This also helps with managing students as well. I won't have nearly as many discipline problems if I can just get the students to find some motivation somewhere. When I taught Shakespeare in Western Kansas, I especially ran into student motivation problems, whether it was related to disinterest or fear of difficulty. So, I tried to cheer them up with anecdotes about my own first fears of Shakespeare, and how easy they're going to have it compared to the teacher that I had for English classes. I also go over activities with them to practice how to get meaning out of text even when you don't know all of the words used. We also did activities during the reading where they had to adapt a scene or two into a more modern film version. And, of course, even though it broke the flow of the story, I would continuously stop the reading at regular intervals in order to check for understanding and to cheer them on.

I don't think it matters that a student's motivation is different from a teacher's, as long as they are going in the same direction. I'm sure a teacher is worried about how a given student will do on their assessments, and whether their competency is adequate enough, or whether their lesson is effectively reaching the greatest number of students. Students are wondering how lessons will help them get into the school they want, or how the lesson could possibly help them in their future careers. They are vaguely focused in the same direction, but they're coming at goals from different angles. It's only when the student isn't motivated enough toward the goal that causes problems. There are other factors that can cause a gap in learning between student and teacher, but I don't think it's the difference in motivation that's behind it, only the lack of motivation on the part of either the student or the teacher.

How to Make a Horror Film

Okay, I messed up and posted this assignment on the message board instead of putting it on my blog. Sorry about that...here goes.

The How-To guide that I picked for this activity was one for making a horror movie. I imagine that this was probably written by a younger person meant to give ideas for horror filmmaking to someone his age. There were two main problems that this author had with this guide: organization and lack of content in some areas. This guide was divided into 4 sections: Steps in the Process, Tips, Warnings, and Things You'll Need. Now, I'm not sure if the author got to choose the order of these topics, but it would seem a lot wiser from the start if you put the Things You'll Need Section first, as that would help the Process section make a lot more sense. Also, getting all of the necessary items together is actually the first step in the process, so it makes sense that it would be the first section. There doesn't also seem to be much of a plan when it comes to how to order the whole Process section. Some of the steps seem to be organized chronologically based on the actual filmmaking process, but other steps just seemed to be added out of sequence, as if the author remembered something and added right where he or she was in the writing process. There were also several things missing from the content and description of individual steps that led to some confusion (and more than a little laughter). First, the author does not go into detail at all about what type of camera would be good to use in this process (or even what features on a camera might be useful to use in making a horror movie). The author says that a filmmaker should use "scary or scratchy" music without explaining what they meant by such music, or they could at least provide some examples of what that type of music is. Although the author has some good ideas for tips, he or she doesn't explain them fully enough that someone who isn't as familiar with literature or film would understand. For example, the author points out that the filmmaker should make an ordinary object the center of the drama, which is a fantastic idea for a horror movie, but he or she doesn't go on to explain what this means, how it can be done, or give examples of this idea. Also, the author completely skips most of the actual plot process of the filmmaking, although he or she does state, "You don't really need a script." Now, I'm as cynical as the next film buff when it comes to the horrific state of horror movies these days, but no script at all? I would think that some writing, or at least a detailed outline, would have to be involved in a good horror film, even an amateur one. Why not take the time to do one when it's cheap to write one? Some of the funniest parts of the guide included the use of Robert DeNiro's Hide and Seek as a prime example of the scary horror movie. Out of all the scary movies out there, that's the one that comes to mind first? Also, in the Things You'll Need section, the author has included "chainsaw" with no explanation whatsoever. I hope this kid has good parents.

Designing Instruction is Like...

Designing instruction is like medical treatment. The first thing that doctors do is get a thorough analysis of the illness (problem), patient (audience), and situation (environment or context). This is done by talking to the patient about the symptoms (interview/survey are kind of a needs analysis), examining the patient (task and need analysis), and running tests (task and needs analysis). If the problem is particularly complicated or mysterious, the doctor may confer with experts, do online research, or confer with his or her peers (this is part of the goal development and the beginnings of the design phase). Then the doctors work with the patient to treat them (design and evaluation), and the treatment is followed by one to several checkups in the following days or weeks (evaluation). Another important part of this simile is the idea that this system does not work in a vacuum. There are many factors such as hospital administration and policies (state and local boards of education) that have a profound affect on each step of the process above. Also, just like in designing instruction, medical processes are also influenced by financial concerns such as insurance (school or business funding for instruction). These factors can change the process in beneficial and detrimental cases, or they could have no effect at all. Also important to remember is that there is no set process when it comes to medical procedures, even if the illnesses (problems) are the same. This is simply because no patient (audience member or student) is the same, so each needs to have their own individualized treatment. For example, while one patient may be cured with antibiotics, another may require a completely different treatment due to allergies to antibiotics. Some may have other conditions which must be remedied before treatment for the new illness can begin, just as some students need help from special services to help them catch back up to where learners at their current age level are at.