I am working on an article with Mark looking at putting TPACK into practice working from the ICL perspective and not just technology. I did not share the article THE Journal published in August, where we share information on using TPACK in going 1:1.
Hopefully, the article provides some ideas as schools look to use TPACK and the curriculum collaboration process to support 1:1 initiatives. Here is the article.
What does Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) look like when supporting a unit of study? We just completed an ICL project after collaborating with our Second Grade teacher on the “Family History” unit—the learning goals centered on helping students better understand timelines, family history, heritage, and geography.
We designed three lessons to incorporate research using the Britannica online database. The students used a handout (see below) to record information about one or more of their ancestor’s home countries. As we are an international school, many of our families have roots all over the globe. The students used Inspiration to communicate their findings via a diagram.
Students used ICL skills of:
The project included extension activities for students who understood their ancestors more and could connect that knowledge to images. Thus students could add a voice file in their second language (Spanish or French), giving more background information about their ancestor(s). They could also search the Inspiration symbol (image) library for pictures connected to their ancestors’ backgrounds. It was interesting to see the abstract connection-making for students who knew, for example, that their relative was in the military, held a government position, was an author, was famous, etc.
__________________________________
Using the Britannica Online Database
Reading and Taking Notes for Your Family History Report
Your Name: __________________
Class: __________________
Ancestor’s Position in Your Family: (grandmother, father, uncle …) _____________________
___________________
Task: Read about your ancestor’s country in Britannica and write answers below. You can do two ancestors if you choose.
Country Name:
Capital City:
Language Spoken:
Population:
Go to “Articles & Media” to click “Full Article” to learn more about your ancestor’s country. Explore and read (listen). Use the space on the back of this paper to write any information that you find interesting.
____________________________
Second Lesson
Task: Inspiration
Looking at the map(s), find the following and answer below:
Country 1 Country 2
Names of Bordering Countries:
Nearby Bodies of Water:
Names of Bordering Countries:
Nearby Bodies of Water:
____________________________
Third Lesson
Task: Inspiration
Google Lit Trips is a wonderful instructional mechanism that combines inquiry, analysis, and geography to study literature and allows students to learn from and tell stories about various subjects. An excellent expansion beyond focusing on just literature is provided by Ira Bickoff and Boelle Kuipers on their Sail the Book Web site.
Ira and Boelle constructed an extensive site incorporating Google Earth to tell stories from maritime literature while connecting to art, history, and ocean literacy. They provide text, images, hyperlinks, and Google Earth KMZ files to guide the reader through historical stories. It is an incredible example of using digital resources to engage readers and excite teachers to follow their model. Boelle and Ira include learning activities accessed through Google Earth. They also provide helpful video tutorials to help use the site’s resources.
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We know that if done correctly, videography can support our students to support the multiple pedagogies of project-based, inquiry, student-centered, authentic, etc. learning. The combination of students working in teams to create documentaries leverages the learning possibilities of using video. It is one thing to hand a camera to a group of students and say, “Create a video.” It is another way to plan, scaffold and guide students through designing, shooting, editing, and publishing a documentary. The learning rewards are abundant and rich, but it is a challenging task to perform.
Just like our students, we need all the help that we can get to teach and manage the process of having our students create documentaries. Fortunately, two leaders in instructional technology and social studies will guide us through the process.
Kathy Swan of the University of Kentucky and Mark Hofer of the College of William & Mary drew on their experience and outstanding teaching ability to provide the A to Z practical guide for documentary creation in the K-12 classroom. Their book, Action: Directing Documentaries in the Social Studies Classroom, nails it with the nuts and bolts of “how to’s.” But more importantly, Kathy and Mark provide the “how to’s” of using the videography process to help students understand the concepts, themes, and significance of their subject matter.
Look to purchase the book for yourself, your student library, and your professional development library. It is a winner.
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We just wrapped up season 2 of the Ed Tech Co-Op podcast. It was a terrific year of learning and sharing with our resourceful and thoughtful guests. If you have yet to listen to any shows, look at the list of topics and themes we covered below. The season ended with three shows featuring leaders in the field of educational technology as we followed up on our mid-season shows with Peter Papas, Jeff Nugent, and Sara Dexter. So, if you also follow Jeff Utecht, Vinnie Vrotny, or Patty Carver, go to the Ed Tech blog or subscribe via iTunes.
Mark and I are excited to start season 3 in the fall. We will have an exciting announcement to share as we also will introduce a new theme to be covered during the upcoming year.
Here are topics that were covered, whether in individual or series of shows, during this past season:
Pre-service Teacher Preparation
Piloting a 1:1 Tablet Program and Writing Your Own Textbook
Using Evernote for Class Notetaking & Reflections from the Flipped Classroom Conference
Multimedia Essays in Language Arts
Universal Design for Learning
The ISTE Standards for Coaching
STEM
TPACK, Learning Activity Types & Curriculum Review
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme
Team-based Instructional Leadership for Concept-focused Math and Science Education
Blended to Virtual Learning in Secondary Schools and in Higher Education
Teaching for Constructivist Learning
Technology Literacy & Hardware Choices
Virtual learning is a topic we recently spoke to on the Edtech Co-Op podcast. The discussion reminded me of a talk many years ago with our high school instructional technologist at Hong Kong International School (HKIS). We discussed the computer programming course he taught. The context was a meeting of the instructional technologists from each of our four divisions about online learning as we had run a virtual school for a month in 2003 when SARS struck Hong Kong.
We were thinking about the power of the HKIS brand in Asia and our regional leadership for technology integration. The idea was to start offering fully online courses for HKIS students and interested students from around the region. While this idea was not implemented, it did bring us back to the computer science course and how it would be an excellent class to teach virtually. International schools used the Virtual High School, now called The VHS Collaborative, to provide courses when they needed more teachers or many students to run courses efficiently. It also would be easy to run a computer programming course in-house through our MyDragonnet learning management system.
Back to the present day, in recent chats with directors of technology from two leading independent schools in Washington, DC, we discussed where their respective schools are in offering online courses. There are many reasons for providing students access to virtual courses, but the question arose regarding how to offer them. Does one do them in-house or through a provider like The VHS Collaborative, K12, or the Online School for Girls? Several questions arose about how the courses would connect to the mission of the schools, who would teach the courses, whether virtual courses take the place of regular classes in the student’s schedule, etc. It was interesting for me as an instructional technologist to hear about the needs of the students and teachers to get me thinking about how to design the process of deciding how to offer virtual learning opportunities.
Connecting back to my experiences at HKIS, it became clear to me that one option for these schools would be to offer their technology and Information and Communication literacy (ICL) courses online instead of teaching them during the regular school day. The instructional technologists at each school have the skill set and content knowledge (i.e., TPACK) to design and deliver courses in either a hybrid or a fully online fashion. The schools could pilot this effort to meet not only the student’s learning needs but also a model for interested teachers how they might also provide virtual courses. It could be an easy first step towards providing virtual learning for each community.
Another thought is to build on the badge movement for virtual learning offerings. The instructional technologist, librarian, and other interested teachers could build mini-courses focused on specific skills. Examples could be learning how to use various apps on the iPad for student workflow and productivity, using apps for editing images and video, providing a mini course in sound design in presentations, etc. Students could earn badges to represent their certification in reaching the standards set for each mini-course. Instead of taking up time in their daily course schedule, the students could work independently through the schools’ learning management system and other online collaborative tools.
This line of thinking connects to what we are doing at Alexandria Country Day school, whereby the Fifth Grade provides “just in time” instruction with follow-up online tutorials for students to explore further how to use various apps and Web 2.0 tools. One of our science teachers, Sara Stein, looks to her students as learning partners when new apps are introduced to the class. The students use their ICL skills to find tutorials to self-teach and then provide guidance for other students during class meeting times.
This supports my belief that my job is to help each student build their ICL tool belt by the end of the Fourth Grade. While their ICL skills are far from complete, the students have the foundation skills and know how to find tutorials and experts among their co-learners to self-teach. This connects to constructing one’s personal learning system that empowers and skills students to use ICL to become more effective learners.
I was fortunate this past week to chat with my partner in podcasting, Mark Hofer, about his experiences working with pre-service and veteran teachers in using TPACK and the Learning Activity Types (LAT). Mark and Judi Harris of the College of William and Mary have written a series of articles around these two topics. They have articles that list helpful learning activities for most subject areas. If you are looking for efficient strategies for using technology and various literacies in your classroom, listen to this week’s Edtech Co-Op podcast. Thanks to Mark for his clear and helpful explanations.
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I often post here and report through the Edtech Co-Op podcast about my experiences working as a partner with teachers and administrators. A primary collaboration area is having one’s Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) team work with the classroom teachers, the learning support staff, and administrators to review the curriculum.
The ICL team at our school comprises the Tech Director, the Library Media Specialist, and the Instructional Technologist. Besides working to find ways for ICL to enhance student learning, we also look to precisely differentiate the content, process, and products of each unit of study we review. It is beneficial to work with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to designing the curriculum for special needs and all student learners.
With this collaborative approach to support learning, the logical next step is to have one’s ICL team join the Student Services Team as they meet to discuss individual student needs or give them access to the digital learning plans/IEPs. Just as the ICL team can access unit plans via one’s online curriculum mapping tools to add their ideas, they could also access individual learning plans (via the Student Information System) to list ways that technology and web resources can be utilized to support the learning needs of each student.
This approach also involves helping students develop their Personal Learning Systems (i.e., personal toolkit) of software, apps, websites, widgets, etc using Symbaloo, creating a Google Site with links to helpful websites, finding apps, and adding shortcuts to one’s mobile device, etc. are a few ways to create this personal learning system.
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Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times shared a short blog post with the following plank of the Texas Republican party platform which included their view on the teaching of HOTS. This will need some further review to check for understanding as, at face value, it seems like a step backward into the stone age. It leads to worry not only for the students of Texas but all the other states who buy their textbooks based upon the curriculum Texas outlines for the textbook creators. Do take a look at the comments in the post for additional insights.
We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
My wife and I have been very fortunate to work with outstanding art teachers in our schools. My current school is the same. As part of the Kindergarten curriculum, the students study the artistic styles of Miro, Picasso, and Pollock. The Kindergarten students just completed their Pollock interpretation, which provided some beautiful paintings. A minor technology connection is that the students used the Mr. Picassohead drawing site as a follow-up to their Picasso unit of study.
Here are some examples of their work, including a newly painted book cart for the library.
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