by Andrew K. Miller | Nov 5, 2012 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
Given the number of technology tools being used by educators and students, it’s no wonder that mobile technologies and mobile learning are being explored in various implementations. From data collection tools to mobile phones, students are learning at school and on their own.
Remember, however, that technology is a tool for learning, so we still need to focus on models that provide engaging uses for these tools. Project-based learning can pair well with tenets and best practices for mobile learning to create intention and flexible contexts for learning.
Here are some tips and ideas to consider if you want to try mobile learning with your next PBL project.
1. Backchannel Need To Know
Educators can use the “Need to Know” activity, and have students create a list of questions and “need to knows” to compete the project. This list is revisited often for revision, reflection and goal setting, and sometimes these questions and “need to knows” come up outside of the formal learning environment.
Use Twitter, or another related tool, with a hashtag to create a backchannel list of “need to knows.” Also, give students the flexibility and space to question and think outside of the formal classroom.
2. Field Work
PBL projects present a great opportunity to have students go out in the field. Perhaps students can interview experts in their area of study or ask witnesses of historical events to support a project.
Using mobile phones and apps like Evernote and Instagram, students can actively and quickly document the work. For example, they can record data on water quality or do video documentary work. The possibilities are endless, and PBL can create the intentional space for authentic real-world learning.
3. Limited Tools
It’s easy with mobile learning to get a little “technology happy,” overwhelming the classroom with Web 2.0 tools. Remember that even though many of our students are exposed to technology on a regular basis, we still must model their effective use.
This can require instructional time devoted to learning the tool. To curb this concern, limit the number of tools that students use in a PBL project and across multiple projects. Let them become experts with a finite set of great tools, allowing them to build their skills. Not only will this keep you sane as a teacher, it will also create college-ready students who have mastered several mobile tools.
4. Mobile Collaboration
Why limit when and where students collaborate with each other? I know my students text each other constantly to check in and set goals for work.
Allow students use this as evidence for collaboration. Not only can you use mobile tools to teach and assess collaboration, but you can also use them to document the assessment process. Model this practice for students and reward their collaborative work through text message logs and other mobile apps.
5. Celebration of Mobile Learning
It is important to honor collaborative mobile learning as a valuable component in the learning process. Therefore, have students not only share their work but also celebrate their work.
Perhaps you assign homework that involves a mobile device. If a student did extra work on a mobile device at home, acknowledge that student’s work publicly and have him or her share it to help teach others. An essential component of PBL is the public celebration of work. Do the same for mobile learning moments when they occur.
Because PBL provides voice and choice in how students use their time and how they explore, the flexibility in mobile learning can support a great PBL project. The key, as with any technology tool, is to be intentional in the choice. Know where the mobile technology fits within the PBL project.
Ultimately, we should move to a learning environment where technology is invisible. We can accomplish this by pairing PBL and mobile learning to create a space where technology is integral, and where the focus is on authentic, engaging and purposeful PBL projects.
by Andrew K. Miller | Nov 3, 2012 | Blog, Huffington Post
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post, an internet news and commentary website. The Education section features updated on college, teachers, and education reform, where I regularly contribute. View Original >
Virtual Schools Symposium has once again come to a close this year. There were many sessions, talks, and workshops on a variety of subjects including curriculum and instruction, virtual school models, and competency-based pathways. One of the overarching, as well as focused subject, was around this question: How do we prepare educators to teach effectively in the blended learning environment?
This is not a new question. There have been concurrent sessions at past conferences, and there were sessions on the same subject at this year’s conference. Yet, educators are still looking for answers. There are some things we already know about the role of the teacher in the blended classroom in terms of best practices. We know the teacher becomes the facilitator. No longer is the teacher the sage on the stage in the blended learning classroom, but the guide on the side. We know teachers need training on the technology tools as well and innovative ways to use them. We know that teachers need to know the content and standards to target for instruction and assessment. We know teachers will need to look at data to best meet the needs of their students. However, there is a better way to address all of these concerns, in more holistic and synthesized way.
We need to provide teachers with practical professional development in learning models. When we focus on the model, we focus on all the concerns and best practices articulated above. When we teach these best practices in “silos,” teachers may or may not see how all the best practices and tools work together. Consider Project-Based Learning as an example.
Project Based Learning is a model that provides teachers with practical strategies to engage students. Teachers who are doing PBL in the blended learning environment carefully pick the digital tools to use with their students because these serve a purpose within the PBL project. They use it for collaborative purposes or as performance assessments, rather than simply using the tool for engagement. They learn best practices in management of the classroom that support the PBL learning environment. They differentiate instruction based on the needs of the students within the project. When teachers learn PBL and use it, it ties all the best practices of blended learning “in a bow” (for lack of a better term). More importantly, PBL contextualizes how to teach with practical steps and strategies. All the work that the blended teacher does with students makes sense.
Of course, there are other practical learning models out there, from authentic learning to game-based learning. If we invest in professional development for teachers on these practical and engaging models, teachers will learn all the best practices needed to facilitate a blended classroom. Let’s create a practical context for teachers to be the best blended learning educators.
by Andrew K. Miller | Oct 17, 2012 | Blog
This post originally appeared on MindShift a site dedicated to replacing familiar classroom tools and changing the way we learn. MindShift explores the future of learning in all its dimensions – covering cultural and technology trends, groundbreaking research, education policy and more. View Original >
The online educational video game site iCivics, created in 2009 by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that features civics curriculum, has partnered with EverFi, an ed-tech company focused on K-12 and higher ed. And through the partnership comes a new initiative Commons – Digital Town Square, offered free to all K-12 schools.
The focus of Commons – Digital Town Square is to provide schools with standards-based educational gaming, aligned to the Common Core, with social components. Students who play iCivics games will be able to move along at their own pace, according to Kara Hedges-Sasse, Executive Vice President of Product Development at EverFi. “We intend to utilize adaptive-pathing techniques as well as evidence-based practices to help guide each student differently as they learn and ultimately change behaviors,” she said.
So how is Commons – Digital Town Square different from iCivics? In addition to having the adaptive feature, it will have a variety of media including simulations and animations as well as pre- and post-assessments and behavioral surveys that “measure changes in students’ attitudes and behaviors regarding a variety of civic matters.”
Of course, an implicit requirement of using this game is student access to computers. Students and teachers who have access to computers in school will be able to play the games, take assessments, and collaborate with other students virtually. Here’s how it works.
Social Components. One of the most interesting features of Commons – Digital Town Square is its social features. Students will be able to interact not only with each in their virtual classroom, but also with other classrooms across the country. Students will be able to create social circles where students can cluster themselves in areas of engagement. Students might work together on projects on the local level or even at the national level.
Badges and Avatars. Public badges will be displayed along with each student’s avatar. These badges will not only connect to achievements within the platform, such as passing an assessment, but will also be connected to “civic rewards and even mentorships from national and local civic heroes,” according to Hedges-Sasse. Here the social components try foster knowledge of civics, but more importantly civic engagement itself.
Emerging Standards. Commons – Digital Town Square will be leveraging many standards in its design of instruction and assessment, from existing state standards to Common Core. EverFi already maps their existing work to ELA Common Core standards and they plan to “proactively pursue meeting applicable English Language Arts standards.” In addition, many states are already requiring Civics education as part of the social studies curriculum, whether integrated in a general social studies course, or as a stand alone. Currently, 29 states require high school students to take a course in government or civics.
by Andrew K. Miller | Oct 15, 2012 | Blog
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
There are methods and models for implementing blended learning — from the flipped classroom, to the flex model. All of them are on the continuum of just how much time is spent online and in the online classroom. Blended Learning can provide a unique way of not only engaging students in collaborative work and projects, but also personalizing and individualizing instruction for students.
However, there is still one piece that is missing from a great blended learning environment: engagement! As an experienced online teacher of both K-12 and higher education students, I am familiar with the challenges of engaging students in virtual work. Luckily, the blended learning model still demands some in-person, brick-and-mortar learning, so there is a unique opportunity to use this structure to engage students.
#1 Leverage Virtual Class Meetings with Collaborative Work
One of the most prominent features of blended learning is the virtual meeting or synchronous class meeting. Sometimes teachers spend the entire class meeting in a virtual meeting room lecturing and presenting content. The irony is that this meeting is often recorded, and available for students to watch later (so students can watch the meeting on their own time). Instead, use the time that you have with the entire class to problem solve together, collaborate on projects, and use virtual break-out rooms for guided practice. If you want students to be engaged in the class meetings, it must be meaningful. Collaborative work can be meaningful when students problem-solve together, plan, and apply their learning in new contexts.
#2 Create the Need to Know
The key here is an engaging model of learning. Teachers can use project learning to create authentic projects where students see the relevance and need to do the work — whether that work is online in the physical classroom. The same is true for game-based learning. If students are engaged playing a serious game about viruses and bacteria, then teachers can use the game as a hook to learn content online or offline. Through metacognition, and the “need to know” activity, students “buy-in” to the learning — no matter when and where that learning occurs.
#3 Reflect and Set Goals
Related to the comment on metacognition above, students need to be aware of what they are learning as well as their progress towards meeting standards. Teachers need to build in frequent moments, both as a class and individual, to reflect on the learning, and set S.M.A.R.T. goals. Through these measurable and student-centered goals, students can become agents of learning, rather than passive recipients. Use reflecting and goal-setting both online and offline to create personal connection to the learning and personalized goals.
#4 Differentiate Instruction Through Online Work
In a blended learning classroom, there is often online work that needs to occur. This might be a module on specific content, formative assessments, and the like. However, students may or may not need to do all the work that is in a specific module. In an effort to individualize instruction, use the online work to meet individual students needs. Whether an extension of learning, or work to clarify a misconception, the work that occurs online can be more valuable to students when it is targeted. Students are no longer engaged in uninteresting busy work, but focused, individualized learning.
#5 Use Tools for Mobile Learning
Edutopia recently published the guide, Mobile Devices for Learning. The guide provides a variety of apps and tips, proposing teachers use mobile learning as part of the learning environment. The great thing is that blended learning can partner well with many strategies and apps. If you use the flipped classroom model, for example, apps like the Khan Academy, BrainPop, and YouTube are incredibly useful. Leverage the flexibility of where students can learn, having them learn outside the four classroom walls. Use scavenger hunts, Twitter, and back-channel chats to engage students in a variety of mobile-learning activities to support your blended-learning model.
Successful blended learning educators and schools are focusing on engagement as they work towards student achievement. We have the unique opportunity to not replicate a system that has not served all students. Instead, we need to look at flexible time and place to innovate through blended learning.
by Andrew K. Miller | Oct 5, 2012 | ASCD, Blog
This article originally appeared in Washington State’s ASCD journal, “Curriculum in Context.” Washington State ASCD in as an affiliate unit of ASCD, and has a membership comprised of over 2,000 educators in diverse positions throughout the state. View Original >
In Washington State, and in many states across the nation, the implementation of the Common Core is finally coming to fruition. Districts and Schools have invested in training their teachers to align curriculum and instruction to these Common Core standards. This has been a major challenge for some, while not as much for others. Washington has been working with standards based instruction for some time, and teachers are familiar with targeting standards. The transition to the common core is a transition to new standards, not necessarily the process of standards-based instruction. Where, then, do we need to focus our efforts to ensure that students are meeting these standards? What is the next step in professional development for teachers? What does the Common Core not address in terms of reform? One answer to this question is engagement. To truly ensure that students are meeting standards, we need to focus on creating engaging learning environments where the Common Core Standards are taught and assessed.
Continue reading the article on Page 18 of the Fall 2012 edition of “Curriculum In Context” by clicking here.
Recent Comments