Become an Expert without the degree (or cost)

 I have recently come across and article shared by my colleague which talks about how we have so much access to new learning opportunities via the internet. I for one have always pushed this with my kids because that is exactly how I have managed to build up my content knowledge in a range of areas that were needed at my school.

My university education underpins this though and without my actual qualification I would probably not be in the position I am in. Along with this I have to admit being a teacher does give rise to the opportunity to learn the basics of a range of new skills due to having to give your students the opportunity to learn these.

An example of this is me taking over the robotics programme for my school. I had no training in robotics or STEM education before I was given the opportunity to run  a whole programme around this area. I had done some basic coding back in College but let's be honest it was more about playing Counterstrike with the boys on the school server than actually learning to code. My recollection of how code work was also abysmally small at this stage as I hadn't even though about it for around 10 years.

Being thrown in the deep end did push me however to access a range of resources in order to up my content knowledge on this topic, also this was before the digital curriculum had been forced into schools so I had very little guidance from ministry resources.

My go to in this situation was to pick a tool I would use to teach and then smash through about 4 hours of Youtube tutorials based around hands on practical applications. I started with SCRATCH.mit.edu

I found this to be actually quite fun and from my basic lessons I began to gain deeper understanding of how coding works and how it is applied in the real world. From here I upped the anti looking at making cooler games based around areas of my interest (think dragon ball Z side scroller games) then I found appinventor.mit

Another awesome tool that helped me find the link between app creation/coding/design without having to be super good at coding. I created a few basic apps that ran on my Android phone, which not only gives you an actual tool at the end of the process but was so hands on I still recommend this to students and teachers. Unlike scratch which can only be used inside the webapp  Appinventor left you  with a long lasting tool on your phone.

All of this creation and learning however would not have been possible without the greatest teacher of all.... Youtube.com

I literally found all tutorials on here for free and just followed the instructions, rewinding the videos over and over until I managed to get what I needed.

This is an integral process to learning and I believe that students these days no matter the age should be pointed towards Youtube as a tool for learning and be shown and modelled to how it can be used. Teachers often think Youtube is a distraction, but if harnessed with the right intent can spark a new pathway for individuals who would previously have had to fork out hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to experience such learning. Since this time I have learnt the following skills from Youtube and continue to learn daily about new content or areas of interest

Premier pro movie editing software

Jazz Guitar chords/structures

HTML coding

Google ad creation

3D printing/ CAD design

Rocketry basics/collecting data

Drumming techniques patterns and practise basics

Fixing/changing oil etc on a car

Learing to speak & write Thai 


Imagine if we gave our kids the structures needed to be able to do this sort of learning by themselves! Imagine what they could do if they started learning a skill from a young age!

Comments

  1. Dorothy BurtFebruary 18, 2021 at 9:59 AM

    Awesome post Jacob. I love your Mindset demonstrated here. How do you set your kids up for learning like this in class AND during our successive learning from home seasons? Are you going to share a progressive inquiry related to this during 2021? Please :)

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    Replies
    1. Mr WalkerMarch 8, 2021 at 9:33 PM

      Thanks for your comment Dorothy, I certainly will be adding this to my inquiry focus for the year along with T-shaped literacy practices. My main aim for setting up students for success is always to promote learning as something that can happen at your own pace and that although the school system expects deadlines; that this has no real relation to individual progress. I provide the age old multi modal approach to learning whereby I give access to a greater range of tools and sources that cater to individual strengths and styles of learning. Trying to tap into interests and skills that provide experience towards an industry or skill set, of some sort, that is practical and can be used in the real world. Whether it be hands on or abstract, the process is always the most important aspect of new learning and I find setting my kids up to understand failure as part of this process helps build that growth mindset. (I also model failure and what it looks like to move through it...I will not say this is by choice a fair amount of the time :) ). Keep posted for more !

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