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Instructional Technology - International Education - Wellness

Category: Literacies (page 1 of 5)

Preparing Students for Personalized Learning, Effective Technology Use and Advisory

Personalized learning is the current buzzword for self-directed learning. I am using it to title this post asking how we are preparing students to have more control over their learning time, place, content, creation, and communication, especially when using technology.

Jeff and I spoke many times on the Shifting Our Schools (SOS) podcast about the process of “schooling” that can, on occasion, lessen the curiosity, joy, and natural inclination to learn from our students, especially as they move from elementary through middle school. The elementary model of learning stations and teachers facilitating small table groups sometimes morphs into rows of passive receivers of information as students move on from ES. Passivity grows, and less personalization occurs as the attitude of “just tell me what is on the test” is sometimes the norm for the full range of students, including those in the high-pressure pathway to IB and AP courses.

Now with a shift towards “student-centered learning” and advances in web-based instructional tools and modular learning along with inquiry and project-based learning being more prevalent, what are ways schools starting in elementary expand on their life skills curriculum to help students learn the Habits of Mind and gain the needed dispositions so that they can direct their learning, especially when using technology and multiple information sources? The shift is wonderful. Let’s make sure our students are in the groove to handle it. 🙂

And as we see more and more high school hybrid programs of students designing some of their classes (see podcast interviews 1 and 2 with Sophia Pink) to include taking classes online and at the community college. In that case, students need the personal responsibility, know-how, drive, and skill set to manage their learning experiences.

So thinking with the end in mind, I am guessing that there are elementary and middle schools where instructional technologists, librarians, classroom teachers, and other interested educators are partnering with the guidance counselor to construct and teach a curriculum that incorporates ICL, citizenship, life skills and various dispositions that help grow our students into being further self-directed and skilled in managing their learning especially when it comes to interacting with technology and digital information sources. 

Growth in self-management (regulation) is central to students’ natural development. Technology used effectively can enhance learning and become a tool for distraction while also becoming a barrier to students interacting face to face. Giving them a device without helping them understand and learn how it can affect their lives negatively and positively is unacceptable. And I am talking much more than digital citizenship here.

I see many students before school, at lunch, and during breaks with their faces glued to devices instead of being present with one another. An additional thought for this program development is that some schools are bringing parents into the development process and offering parenting classes in the digital age to carry the curriculum into home life.

I see the counselor leading out in the development of this curriculum. We must remember that instructional technologists and librarians help students learn how to use technology and information sources. The counselor partners with teachers to provide learning opportunities for social, emotional, and general life skills growth.

Besides a robust guidance program of counselors as teachers in the classroom, another avenue to structure and implement this curriculum is through advisory/morning meetings. Advisory from ES through HS can be an excellent home base for students and a learning place with carefully articulated lessons guiding students to command their learning journey.

I won’t go further here, but a lot comes to mind regarding components in what might be called a “personalized life learning curriculum” or some variation. Just as teachers start the year with discussions around expectations, rules, and goals, this curriculum should incorporate lessons on class and whole school culture wrapped around core beliefs laid out in a mission statement. This process of pulling from the Habits of Mind, various dispositions, mindsets, character strengths, and other life skill collections is a part of my belief that we should help students construct their personal learning system by the time they leave elementary school. And the more that the personalized life learning curriculum is entirely constructed and on the “digital shelf” for teachers to pull from, the better.

One last thought. If schools are looking at historical personalized learning models, read Audrey Watter’s post on The Histories of Personalized Learning. Seeing her point out that Montessori has always been about personalized learning is nice. It definitely can be a model to apply. I plan to write a few posts about one local Middle School Montessori team of teachers using an Information and Communication Literacies (ICL)approach to support their program.

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Habits

Winning of the Truth

truth

Hopefully, between the fake news and targeted commercial and political ads in one’s social network feeds, folks are running across articles from established and valid sources about how we might, as a society, find ways to make the truth shine through all the info that is coming at us. What it means to be a citizen is changing. Voting, supporting our communities, and standing up for our beliefs is not enough. 

Being a responsible citizen now also means holding oneself accountable to find the truth and not spread false information. Our children need this modeling as we continue to help them become better equipped to be citizens themselves.

I am listening to podcasts and reading articles like In Today’s World; the Truth is Losing, where one approach is to find ways for social media providers to police information and possibly filter or label it with levels of truthfulness- quite the task. As an educator, one definitive pathway is to follow in dealing with information. We continue to engage our students in our Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) curriculum using the AASL and ISTE standards to guide us.

Instructional technologists and librarians collaborate with faculty and administrators to develop lessons and units of study that involve research putting students in charge of finding, analyzing, and curating information. Students further develop their information and media literacies to the point of fluency the more they are called upon to use inquiry in their learning. Hopefully, administrators are hearing society’s call for the need to skill our students, which means more support for the work of our librarians and instructional technologists. 🙂

But now, more than ever, we need to do more. My challenge to school leaders is bringing students, teachers, administrators, and parents together to brainstorm and develop programs that make “winning of the truth” an integral part of our school learning communities.

One example might be to start a school “truth finder” game/competition in which teams of students search for false news that they then connect to the facts citing their sources and explaining their reasoning. Learning Management Systems, Google Forms, Docs, Padlet, etc., could be used to curate and share what the teams find.

Your “Winning of the Truth” committee will develop terrific programs. Badging, student-produced videos, public service announcements, a “winning of the truth” segment for a morning news show, etc., are just a few other ideas. A possible extension is to develop an initiative that helps students understand the oversimplification of issues and how they can use their ICL skills to discover complexities in building deep understanding. One can draw from the Thinking Routines supported by technology to further this effort.

We know that disruptions often lead to change. So let’s find ways to stop this trend of sharing falsities by further developing our students’ information and citizenship skills. Let’s find ways for the truth to win.

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The Virtual Packaging and Modulation of Learning Activities- Part 1

packaging

Crazy title for a blog post, right? Let’s unpack it!

Teachers are all about organizing and delivering the curriculum to their students. In a world of personalized and blended learning, how are we shifting to a virtual packaging of learning activities in easily accessible modules?

One way is through the Learning Management System (LMS) that many schools and districts purchase. Teachers have various other options, including using a class blog, website creation tools, free LMS providers like Google Classroom, etc.

OK, so more and more folks are providing course info and resources for 24/7 access to their students. Next step. How are we organizing our learning activities? Of course, single assignments are just posted to our virtual communication system. But how about activities that take place over several days to fully developed units?

I believe in giving students access to my course materials down to the lesson level. This gives them access during class and when they continue learning outside class. Along these same lines, it makes sense to do the same for multi-day and total units of study. In other words, we can virtually package our learning activities into easily accessible modules for one-stop access and learning. 🙂 A WebQuest is an excellent example of this virtual packaging and modulation approach. They have been around a long time but are well-worth revisiting. I will write more about them in a follow-up post.

Virtual packaging and modulation might be old news for some, but it is a topic I want to paint the picture of with some examples. I am fortunate to share ideas and learn with a very talented teacher librarian who is going through her graduate work. She recently put together a pathfinder that we call a virtual learning module that is one heck of a pathfinder.

Please meet Lauren Olson; look to follow this rising star. Here is a screencast video that Lauren put together about a pathfinder she created for one of her grad classes. It is an excellent exemplar for graduate students to follow and for folks wanting to learn more about the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Information and Communication Literacies (ICL). Here is a direct link to the pathfinder.

When Lauren starts working as a librarian, I see her building an incredible “learning hub” Web site for her new school to support blended to entirely virtual and personalized learning. She is already getting started by creating online tutorials. Here are two on one of my favorite ICL supportive tools.

Noodle Tools 1

Noodle Tools 2

Next post: More examples of virtual learning modules.

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Tech Titans: Gumshoe- Research and Information Fluency

gumshoeThe following information comes from the FCPS page listing information about Gumshoe, the Tech Titan, who represents the NETS Research and Information Fluency standard. My comments are at the end of each passage.

Unique Traits

Gumshoe is like a hound dog when searching for information.  She sniffs out imposters and selects only those websites that provide accurate information. She moves quickly through the World Wide Web by being an efficient and effective researcher.

My Take: Love the name of this character- so appropriate along with the image of a hound dog. What a terrific hook for our learners! I would expand the powers of Gumshoe to include a broader array of information sources to also list media and to break media down into examples especially for our young learners.

Special Skills

Gumshoe uses reading strategies, plans for research using a research model such as the Big 3, 6, or 12, and identifies the best sources of information to use for a given task.  She is skilled at organizing information, identifying patterns and relationships, and systematically analyzing collected data.

My Take: Again nicely written for our students to help them build their understanding. I would add the term of inquiry and include some information about curiosity leading us to find information to then as stated analyze it using the term “curation” for organizing information. The mention of one’s Personal Learning System (PLS) connects to the digital tool section below.

Digital Tools

Gumshoe uses online library databases, advanced searching techniques, and online collaboration tools such as documents, spreadsheets, and graphic organizers to help collect and visualize information.  She uses citation makers to give credit to her sources.

My Take: Love the listing of library databases and online collaboration tools. As I review these characters/standards, I am finding myself thinking of ways to provide connectors showing how each character supports the other. In this case a line or two about going from curation to creation and communication of one’s ideas might be helpful.

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Personal Learning System (PLS)

Toolbox

Students (and teachers) who use technology to access information while using digital tools to create and communicate develop a personalized set of resources for learning – a “go-to” technology and information toolbox – a Personal Learning System (PLS). They work to maximize their “learning flow” (think about workflow for those in the work world). 

Finding and using active, organized, and collaborative tools are critical to managing individual and group learning projects. Self-directed students use devices, apps, web tools, and information sources, putting themselves in charge of their learning. Students also need to be project managers who engage their PLS as they plan for long-term assignments while often working as team members. 

Active and independent students in command on the bridge of their learning ship are ready for blended to full-out virtual learning opportunities. Engaging with the school Learning Management System (LMS) and other platforms for collaboration and creation furthers our students to trek into expanded learning beyond the school and regular hours of learning.

Personal Learning System (PLS) can include supportive tools in a variety of categories. The following are a handful of options among many. 

  • Creation- Learners are shifting away from generative software that ties their creativity to a device. While there are many cloud-sharing services, it is making more and more sense to use web-based creation tools for 24/7 access and collaboration with partners and teachers. The list is long for these style creation tools, with several noted bloggers constantly writing about new options for web-based creation tools and tools that support all the PLS categories listed here. Here are a few bloggers to follow. Kathy Schrock | Larry Ferlazzo | Richard Byrne. There are several curated lists of tools to keep an eye on. 101 Web Tools | 21st Century Tools | Top 100 Tools for Learning
  • Communication– We use e-mail, phones, and social networks to connect with others. Examples: Gmail, Hangouts, texting, phone calls, Skype
  • Collaboration– Communicating to share ideas, work on projects and innovate draws upon and develops skills for 21st-century learning and the workplace. Technology facilitates the process of developing, organizing, and sharing those ideas. Examples: Google Apps, Moodle (LMS), MindMeister
  • Curation of Information– Personal Learning Systems are more effective with a place to store, organize, and share the digital information we consume and create. Examples: Google Drive and KeepScoop. it! along with a Scoop.it! collection of PLS tools, DropboxDiigoPocket,
  • Documentation of Information– We need places and modalities (ex., voice-to-text) to record and responsibly cite the ideas we gather from others and make our thinking visible. Examples: Noodle ToolsEvernoteNotabilityMindMeister, SiriGoogle NowPaperPort Notes, Google Docs for typing and voice recording to text, Audioboo
  • Project Planning– Planning for projects that involve creating a learning product engages students in using many tools in their learning system. Watching students use their Information & Communication Literacies (ICL) and their PLS tools can be a fascinating aspect of teaching. Scaffolding does need to be in place to support students, whether working individually or in teams, as they manage their time and resources to be efficient and productive. What can support this process is to provide students with a project planning template with guiding questions and supportive ideas to have them create their plans. Regarding ICL, the plan could be called the ICL Project Plan. This blog post offers a few ideas about guiding students to create an ICL Project Plan
  • Reference and General Information Gathering– Remember when we had a dictionary, thesaurus, calculator, and an encyclopedia within easy reach of our workspace? Today we have online versions of each and various apps on our devices. Examples: English dictionary/thesaurus apps, Spanish dictionary apps, French dictionary apps, language translators, BritannicaiTunes for Podcasts, Chrome Browser with Extensions, and one’s school library Web site with its list of databases. Adaptive technologies like the Rewordify Web site help students simplify text above their reading level to make it more understandable. The growing Open Educational Resources (OER) is another area for students to connect to for information. 
  • Task and Time Management– The paper planner and calendar do not provide all the services offered by a web-based event and task management calendar. We can now easily access our time management systems across our computing platforms and integrate appointments and tasks into our e-mail. We can often share our appointments and timelines with team members to support collaboration. Examples: Google Calendar, TodoistWunderlist
  • Tutorials and Courses– Developing lifelong learners who know how to learn independently is one of our primary goals. Knowing where to go to not only gather information but also learn specific skills via online tutorials is so essential. Examples: iTalki and Duolingo for languages, Vimeo Education and Khan Academy for across-the-board tutorials, Knewton for individualized tutorials, and iTunes University.

This post originates from the Personal Learning System page of the Web Resources for Learning Web site. Also, check out the Edtech Co-Op podcast, where a couple of years ago, Mark and I talked about the announcement from Apple for iBooks and our thoughts on how students could personalize them. The show offers our initial thinking about personal learning systems.

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Effective Use of Technology and Citizenship Talking Points

As a part of our ICL citizenship curriculum, I visit our homeroom morning meetings having discussions with students about how they use technology in and outside of school. One of our Grade 5 teachers asked for specific talking points so that he could keep the discussion going in his classroom. Hopefully, the following response can be helpful to others. 

Effective Use of Technology and Citizenship Talking Points

Discussion Starters: Let’s look at how you use technology in and outside school. We will “look” through several lenses to drive our discussion. There is some overlap with the categories the lenses cover. (Possibly jump right into the categories below or brainstorm with the students by asking, “When we use technology, what are some factors we need to consider?” Maybe prime the discussion with an example by offering one of the categories below.)

In School:

Efficiency Lens– How are you using technology to be more efficient in how you learn?

Follow-Up – Introduce the term “workflow” and then ask the students how they use technology to manage their tasks, be organized, and communicate with one another and teachers. Exs. Calendars, digital reminder notes, Goo Docs to develop an action plan, email, etc. 

Next step- Ask how students need to be more efficient when using technology in school.

Productivity Lens– How are you using technology to be creative, to make your thinking visible, and to communicate your thinking to others?

Explain the difference between efficiency and productivity. 

Follow Up- Back to being efficient, ask the students how they plan their projects to be most economical with their time. Introduce the term “storyboarding.” Possibly for homework, share a blog post on creating a plan of action when creating a multimedia project. Ask the students to write down their reactions, maybe use a thinking routine or even have them use the comment tool on the blog to share their responses. The following day should be ripe for sharing how they can be better planners for their project completion efforts. 

Next step- Ask what are ways that students are not being productive when they use technology in school.

Smart and Safe Lens– How are you making wise and safe decisions when using technology in school? What are ways that you share information in school? What guidelines should you follow when you share and RESPOND to one another? Put a list together. 

Follow-Up – How could you create and communicate to a broader audience outside the school? Ask what we mean by the term “digital footprint”? Brainstorm ways that they are leaving digital footprints on the Web. Why should you be concerned about your digital footprint? Guide them to consider getting summer jobs, applying to college, and eventually, full-time employment. Paint a picture of them walking into an interview, whether for college or a job, where they are wearing a poster with their photos, emails, Facebook posts, Tweets, etc. Cover the negative consequences but then move into the positive, constructive ways students can build positive digital footprints. Share the term “branding themselves” by what they do online. What do they want their brand to communicate?

Action- Look to develop some online sharing guidelines into a “Community Integrity and Etiquette Contract.” 

Next step- You should have covered this, but ask the students why they are not making intelligent and safe decisions with technology in school. Look to see if the students understand what “cyberbullying” means and how it affects students.

 

Outside of School:

Go through the same steps and discussions from an outside-school perspective.

 

Further Discussion:

Develop and discuss other lenses/categories that the students come up with.

PYP-ICL Exemplar and Personalized Higher Edu

PYP Teachers

PYP teachers tell their story of a inquiry, collaboration and ICL integration. Look to watch the video.

Check out an excellent Washington Post article on MOOCs and personalized higher edu. The timing of our Ed Tech Co-Op podcast team could not be better. We will soon be posting another episode with Jeff Nugent, Director of Academic Technologies at Colgate University as we speak to his work with edX.

Don’t Be A Tool Jumper :)

tools

Are you a tool jumper with your students? I ask this question as it came up in the Ed Tech Co-Op Episode 67: TPACK in the Elementary School. We try to bring practical and real school experiences into our shows, with Episode 67 being all about technology effectively replacing analog activities to amplify and transform learning. The show had many lessons from classroom experiences.

Mark always brings up so many terrific observations during the shows. He shared some wisdom connected to my work this past week. He spoke about the importance of giving students ongoing experience in using one tool at a time so that they move from basic literacy to becoming fluent in using the new technology. This is so important not only for the students but also for teachers. We know that sometimes the first time we use technology with students, there can be difficulties logging in (if needed), using the functions, saving files, etc.

The second and third times of use lead to students overcoming these obstacles to leverage the tools to find new creative ways and communicate their understanding. Teachers find comfort in seeing their students be independent and self-directed. They are also more apt to support technology use when they don’t have to constantly deal with the initial difficulties of trying something new.

There are better ways to infuse technology into the curriculum than jumping from one tool to another without building in the opportunity for deeper learning. A recent experience reinforced this for me. We were planning an Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) series of lessons to support a grade-level unit of inquiry. A new tool was proposed for students to share their understanding drawing from their research. Just a month ago, the students used Explain Everything for the first time. This past week they also used it to record short videos in response to questions in a pre-assessment. The number of students needing support and struggling with uploading videos to their Drives was lower.

We determined that one more time using Explain Everything would move the students toward fluency. We also realized that it was the right tool for the task as a new tool we were thinking about was better for analyzing images than sharing research findings. The teachers will be ready for the next tool when it fits their needs.

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Critical Thinking, Info Literacies, Analytical…Skills Gap in College Students

WSJ

“Four in 10 U.S. college students graduate without the complex reasoning skills to manage white-collar work, according to the results of a test of nearly 32,000 students,” according to Douglas Belkin, the author of an article in the WSJ, which also speaks to our high school preparation for college and the work world efforts.

In our world of standardized testing, which mainly measures content knowledge and memorization skills, it is eye-opening to read that we are trying to measure how well our students reason, analyze, make connections, and draw conclusions.

This short article looks at how well our colleges and universities are helping their first-year students grow in their thinking skills over their time in higher ed. The author cites the results of the College Learning Assessment Plus exam while also pointing to an upcoming survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities that “found that nine out of 10 employers judge recent college graduates as poorly prepared for the workforce in such areas as critical thinking, communication and problem solving”.

This data supports the need to further and fully integrate Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) into our K-12 schools.

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ICL Learning Outcomes: Strand 7 – Using Technology Hardware and Software to Access Information and Communicate

 

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