Month: November 2023

Big Picture Thinking in CTE

What makes a great employee? Ask any employer, and the list includes showing up, following directions, and having the technical skills to do a task safely and accurately. These skills will make a worker a good employee, but what makes an employee great? Then, the list grows with behaviors such as taking initiative, identifying work to be done without being told, not wasting materials, and calling attention to minor problems before they become serious problems. These behaviors make great employees and can be labeled Big Picture Thinking. Within CTE instruction, teachers need to develop technical skills, work habits, and elements of Big Picture Thinking.

Big-picture thinking is a thinking strategy that focuses on the entirety of a concept or idea instead of on each individual detail. This thinking helps prepare for the future and envision the opportunities ahead. Big-picture thinking is the ability to envision broader, high-level concepts and patterns to see beyond the immediate and create a broader plan for the long term. Big-picture thinking also allows you to see improvement opportunities and reinforces the real reason for the activities you do daily.

Trade workers need big-picture thinking. They must see the overall project and understand how their work fits the larger picture. They must be able to anticipate potential issues and plan accordingly. Big-picture thinking is essential for trade workers to ensure their work is done correctly and safely and meets the project’s needs.

Here are some real-world examples of trade workers who have demonstrated big-picture thinking in their projects:

  • A construction worker noticed that the building design did not consider the local climate and suggested changes to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs in the long term.
  • A plumber identified a potential issue with the water supply system and suggested changes to prevent future problems.
  • An electrician suggested changes to the electrical system to improve safety and reduce the risk of power outages.
  • A carpenter suggested changes to the building design to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.
  • An HVAC technician suggested changes to the heating and cooling system to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs in the long term.

These examples demonstrate how trade workers can use their expertise and knowledge to think beyond the immediate task and contribute to the project’s success as a whole, and ensure that it meets the needs of the client and the community.

Here are some strategies to encourage big-picture thinking in the CTE program:

  • Encourage brainstorming sessions where students can share their ideas and perspectives on the project as a whole.
  • Provide training on the overall project and how each student’s role fits into the larger picture.
  • Encourage students to ask questions and seek clarification on the project’s goals and objectives.
  • Foster a culture of collaboration and communication among students to ensure everyone achieves the same goal.
  • Provide opportunities for students to take on leadership roles and make decisions that impact the project as a whole.
  • Ask students to think beyond the immediate task at hand and consider how their work will impact the project in the long term. This can be done by asking them to reflect on the purpose of the task and how it fits into the larger picture.
  • Encourage students to think creatively and outside the box. This can help them develop innovative solutions to problems and think beyond the immediate task.

By implementing these strategies, students can develop their big-picture thinking skills and contribute to the project’s success as a whole. It is important to remember that big-picture thinking is a skill that can be honed and developed over time. Everyone can benefit from thinking beyond the immediate and considering the long-term impact of their work

I have drafted a few sample Big Picture Rubrics to use with students.

Embracing AI in Writing: Overcoming Apprehension Towards Technology

I have always explored new technology, trying to understand it and think about ways it might make my work more productive and efficient. Recently, like many people, I have thought a lot about AI Large Language tools that have burst onto the scene.  I write to convey to others my perspective on learning, and I teach a course for educators on writing a Literature Review as part of an Ed.D dissertation.  

Writing is hard, and it takes focus to transfer thoughts to clear writing. I appreciate tools that make the job less time-consuming.  Re-writing has always seemed a boring task, I admire professional editors, but that is a job I do not aspire to. Spell and grammar checkers do make the editing process almost fun to keep score to reduce my errors. Even more important than fixing my writing, I appreciate the prompt feedback I get. 

Search tools help me recall a book reference or famous quote that is a foggy memory in my brain. Now, comes along Large Language Generative AI that can produce written scripts about any topic. This could be a bigger breakthrough to make my writing more efficient. My writing personal blogs are one thing, but I worry about my graduate students and the ethical questions of what constitutes original writing in a dissertation. I remind these doctoral candidates that their dissertations will become their first major scholarly work published and available online for anyone to search for perpetuity. It is critical that they ethically write their publication and cite any reference that is not their thoughts. But, why not use the best technology to support your thinking and writing? The goal is to create a quality dissertation, not necessarily a rating of their writing skills.  

I have been using the app Grammarly for about two years now, and it is a regular part of my writing process. I don’t always agree with its rewrite suggestions, but it does a great job of finding errors and helping improve my work. I also have experimented with a couple of AI tools, ChatGPT and Perplexity. It is fun to experiment with what the tools can write based on prompts. Brainstorming with one of these tools is almost like chatting among a team of peers searching for ideas. 

Grammarly Go is a new AI-based subscription service offered by Grammarly. It helps writers begin the writing process, brainstorm ideas, develop a research plan, and create a potential outline,  Users can improve their writing with various advanced features, such as a check for plagiarism checker, vocabulary enhancement suggestions, and a tone detector that can analyze the tone of their writing and provide feedback and suggestions to improve it. Grammarly Go is an impressive tool for anyone looking to improve their writing skills and take their writing to the next level.

Information on Grammrly Go can be reviewed in this recent. Blog on Grammarly Go   Also, this recent webinar Making the Generative AI Leap demonstrates using Grammarly Go and includes a thoughtful higher education discussion by Univ. of Florida professor Sidney Dobrin author of  AI and Writing. 

I plan to continue to use and learn about Grammarly Go to improve my writing and produce more ideas in written form. I will share this with my graduate students as well. Discussing this openly is the best way to avoid them thinking this is a shortcut to creating a Literature Review or making it easier to obscure plagiarism. Discussing this with students helps to avoid those unethical behaviors.  Their goal is still to develop their thinking to create a comprehensive research document. There is always some reluctance to embrace new technology, and somehow, in the back of our minds, that technology will diminish real learning from the “good ole days.”  I plan to embrace AI tools just like I enjoy Internet searches over thumbing through a library card catalog.