Photo by Anya Akbari on Unsplash

I was intrigued by the concepts in the film Most Likely to Succeed discussed in class today. I agree with the film’s main criticism of traditional education being outdated and limiting, and that we should be supporting opportunities for students to apply knowledge through hands-on learning. However, as someone who enjoys structure in an educational setting, I found myself questioning how one could create a balance between the two types of learning environments.

I historically have found this style of open-ended learning somewhat challenging because of decision paralysis and perfectionism, which had me wondering how I would have responded in this type of educational environment. If I had the opportunity to attend a school like High-Tech High in my early education, would I be more comfortable in a less structured environment? 

The discussions encouraged my thinking towards incorporating project-based and inquiry-based learning into my teaching practice while still maintaining a healthy amount of structure. I love the idea of closed choice as it can provide enough structure that students like me can feel supported, but still enough freedom that they maintain autonomy over their learning.

I have attached an OER from the Smithsonian Learning Lab that supports my free inquiry project below. It is a lesson plan around photography and image manipulation that inquires about why might someone alter, change, or edit a photograph? I have chosen to re-explore a topic I had been interested in previously but had only scratched the surface in exploring: abstraction in photography.

OER Resource: Wilding, Allie. “Smithsonian Learning Lab Collection: Photography and Image Manipulation.” Smithsonian Learning Lab, Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, 9 Aug. 2017, https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/zEYkG2xDFCRRm5c3