This post is a response to the What’s In It For Me? activity in the Ontario Extend Teacher for Learning Module.
Brainstorm a list of WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) from a student perspective.
If you can’t think of more than “because you should know it,” then you need to talk to your students and get a better sense of where they are in their learning and where they are going.
So I will WIIFM from the perspective of someone who might be thinking of starting (or continuing) through the Extend modules, in what I think is screenplay form:
(YTQE – You, the Questioning Extender; OEP- Ontario Extend, personified)
Two figures enter stage right, dressed to the nines and looking quite dashing.
YTQE: Why should I do this Ontario Extend thing?
OEP: Well, since it’s an open and shared experience, you have the opportunity to expand your professional learning network.
YTQE: Hmm, that’s nice. What else?
OEP: You get to be a part of investing in and growing a bank of teaching and learning activities that anyone can use. Including you, obviously.
YTQE: And then?
OEP: Also, there’s the benefit of working with a whole bunch of tools and technologies, like running your own domain, hopefully expanding your own personal “toolkit”.
YTQE: Please give me more.
OEP: Well, no matter how much time and effort (or lack thereof) you put in to it, we still consider you a part of the community so… membership in a community like the East Cohort, for example.
YTQE: More.
OEP: The opportunity to have some simple fun by interacting with your new professional learning network by trying out the short and sweet Daily Extend activities on a semi-regular basis.
YTQE: I’m gonna need more than that.
OEP: Well, to go back to the basics, we’ve posted the six modules with an open licence (CC-BY-NC-SA) so you can take them and use them in your own conext in your own institution if you’d like.
YTQE: Cool, cool. You got anything else?
OEP: Umm… Oh! If you do all the activities in the module, we can give you a badge! And if you do them all, you get the Super Extend badge!
YTQE: Okay yes, these are all cool. But what about socks?
OEP: (mumbles) The socks are all gone.
One figure exits stage left, the other reaches out as the lights dim.
image credit: “Theater” flickr photo by Hitchster https://flickr.com/photos/hitchster/8754280878 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license