Ep. 14b – Vicki Brannock and Kimberly Greene speak on 21st century learning (part two)

In this second part of a two-part podcast, Vicki Brannock, senior director of programing for Brandman University School of Extended Education, talks with Dr. Kimberly Greene, associate professor in the Brandman School of Education, about the paper Brannock asked Greene to write about teaching the 21st century learner. That topic is the focus of a certificate program designed by Greene for the School of Extended Education. The first half of the podcast can be found here or on iTunes. To get a copy of "The 21st Century Learning Landscape for Elementary and Secondary Students in the United States: The Current State of Blended and Online Learning Opportunity" upon publication, email brannock@brandman.edu. Transcript Welcome back Brandman Speaks and the discussion between Vicki Brannock of the School of Extended Education and Kimberly Greene from the School of Education. This is the second of a two-part podcast looking at 21st century learners. We'll pick up with a discussion about deep learning and project-based education. Vicki Brannock: [00:00:25] What is deep learning? I know that I have an idea about what that what that would look like. And it's, I believe that we've been teaching to tests and we've been doing a lot of other things in the schools, and because that was that was the directive and so it wasn't that anyone was doing anything wrong it's that's what they were that was the marching orders. But now we're getting down to, we're hearing things about deep learning and Common Core as a tool and some other types of things. Could you tell me is that deep learning? What is deep learning? Kimberly Greene: [00:00:55] Deep learning is taking the idea of metacognitive skills and really putting that into practice for the individual. Now when I say metacognitive, what I'm talking about is understanding how to learn. It's being aware, if you want to pull in some pop culture terminology, it's mindfulness in the learning process. And for a very long time, again it tended to be kind of pat pat pat on the head, oh hippie dippy, isn't that lovely. But what we're finding, again thanks to neuroscience as well as educational research, is that when an individual is aware that learning is the focus, not just memorizing my vocabulary words but what is it that I can do to really make these words have meaning for me, and I can use them outside of the environment where I've learned them, and I can apply them in creative ways to do different kinds of communication -- that awareness adds a layer of complexity for the individual that not only gives them a stronger neurological pathway structure of whatever that concept is but it empowers them to then build other bridges of understanding, where that learning is now tied to multiple ways of expression and multiple actions and multiple other scaffolds. So it's more translatable and transferable into real world action without having to be conscious about it. A beautiful way of kind of helping people get a sense of this is, I ask my students to clasp their hands and then interweave their fingers. And look at your thumbs which thumb is on top? All right, be aware of that. Now open your hands, clasp them again, and purposefully put the other thumb on top. It sounds so silly. But it feels so weird because you're so aware of it. When you initially are thinking about trying to build a new habit or do something different, you tend to be soon so aware of it that it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel normal and you're self-conscious about applying it or trying it out in the real world. Whereas with deep learning, because it is not just the individual skill or the individual piece of content that you're working on but you recognize it's all part of your learning in your growth process, you're not so uncomfortable by that awareness. You know that awareness. It's a good thing. That means you're stretching yourself,