Conceptual Framework for Student Self-Evaluation

According to Piaget, learning occurs when the brain is challenged in some way. Educators want students to be aware of this process, grow from it, and essentially control it for themselves.  In other words, we expect students to become metacognitive of their learning. I used to hear colleagues preaching to students for them to "own your behavior; own your learning" as if stating the expectation would enable students to make it so. I was delighted when I opened my Kindle app this morning on my iPad to discover Chapter 6, Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Author John Hattie agrees with both Piaget and the idea that students should be metacognitive. However, Hattie quickly adds that student metacognition is a "growing ability" and that teachers must encourage students by playing a direct role, by encouraging, modeling and explicitly teaching students how to engage with one another and with themselves. Teachers need to provide multiple opportunities where students are discovering, asking questions, collaborating with peers, and testing theories, but the essential role for the teacher is to intervene, to moderate, to be aware of what students are processing and at what levels.

If we really want our students to 'own their learning' and be motivated and self-directed learners, we need to be mindful to design instruction using a proven process while continually thinking from the perspective of the learner.  Wiggins and McTighe's backward design process helps teachers frame learning in such a way where beginning with the end in mind is second nature. Teachers decide learning outcomes and then work backwards, creating rubrics for measuring acceptable evidence of student learning. Clearly communicating expectations to students, helps learners create and set goals for their own learning. Students must be explicitly taught to set goals and to self-regulate as they work to meet their goals. They must be given opportunities to choose strategies that work best in specific situations and use strategies to monitor goals they've set for themselves. Most of all, students need practice, practice, practice in a safe environment.  

Since learning is a continual process, self-evaluation needs to take place frequently. Teachers should help students develop learning strategies and also realize when a particular strategy is not meeting their needs or goals. Often a student will see that his learning requires more effort and practice to meet his goals. Learning should be rigorus and challenging with multiple opportunities to practice, engage, debate, and synthesize learning, forcing knowledge to deepen, all while encouraging students that they 'can' learn and that you will not give up on them. Using appropriate feedback is a sure way to develop mindsets in students where growth, success and learning are synonymous. 

Flipping Flipped Learning

I have heard teachers using the words "flipping my classroom" to describe videos they are creating and posting, to engage, to motivate, to teach skills to learners. The phrase has morphed into a cliché for a new teaching style that is really 20th century teaching in disguise. Teacher-centered instruction, whether delivered in a classroom or at home via the Internet, does little to engage learners to think critically, to experiment and discover, to scratch the surface and provide deep learning.

As I am constantly learning how to be a better educator, myself, I am repeatedly reminded that making mistakes, learning from mistakes and reflecting on learning is the only way I will change how I teach and how others will learn from me. I am an instructional technologist whose job it is to design and deliver professional development that advances and refines educators' integration skills, not only to integrate technology use but to transform the profession so that student learning is the focus and is maximized beyond the expected, beyond a student "doing his best" (Hattie, John) but rather to exceed the status quo and help students grow into skillful learners and problem solvers regardless of their situation. So while tech integration is a focus for the work that I do, it is not the driving force behind what motivates me to want to improve the teacher effect on student learning and achievement.

While flipping the classroom sounds like a fantastic way to motivate the digital learners of today, true engagement and deep levels of learning requires so much more. For students to feel like the classroom environment is a safe place to experiment and challenge their own skills and make mistakes, the teacher needs to establish a relationship with students as individuals and foster the relationship between peers. Students need to provide and receive feedback in order to self-reflect and improve their own skills and learning. Students can not merely learn a set of strategies; they need to practice using strategies (and be able to choose the strategy most appropriate) in the authentic learning environment under the guidance of the educator and in the social arena of peers who can help improve their thinking.

Students need to view learning through the eyes of the teacher in much the same way that teachers need to view learning through the eyes of their students. This is where flipping flipped learning can play a role in transforming good teaching into mastery level teaching and surface learning into deep, mastery, conceptual learning.

Instead of teachers creating lecture-based, teacher centered instruction to be viewed by learners at home, teachers need to facilitate students as teachers. The teacher who already has deep content knowledge should facilitate challenging learning as students create teaching videos filled with new understanding based on opportunities for discovery, inquiring and deep and shared learning. Teachers learn alongside students, strengthen skills by appropriately pushing students to exceed the expected learning achievements. Provide students with feedback, expect them to ask questions and guide them as they seek answers. Model peer evaluation; require peers to provide one another feedback. Teaching students to teach, reflect and improve will help exceed teaching achievements and develop intrinsically motivated life-long learners. Flip notions of flipped learning by stepping outside the 20th century model of teacher and create students whose learning is explicit, appropriately challenging and includes opportunities for providing respectful peer and educator feedback by way of social commentary.

"...the greatest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers" (Hattie, John).

Not Just for Syncing Anymore!

MacBooks in WCPSS

not just for syncing anymore!

Many Wake County Public Schools have received Bretford syncing carts filled with thirty iPads, an iPad for teacher use, an LCD projector with HDMI capabilities, plus some model of MacBook as part of a STEM and Global grant rollout -- over the past two years. Additionally, the district's refresh program recently alloted for individual schools to purchase iOS technology although OSX and iOS are considered 'non standard' equipment in this Windows-rich environment and therefore not supported by the IT department. 

The focus in the Academics Instructional Technology realm has been on using iPads instructionally, to make global connections, access Common Core and other content, creativity, STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math), inquiry and project-based learning. No one has offered professional development around how the MacBooks, most commonly used for syncing the devices, offer learners opportunities to integrate iOS with OSX, mash student-created content to make polished and creative products worthy of publishing and sharing, and a deeper understanding of multiple platforms.  With the launch of the newest OSXs, Lion and Mountain Lion, Mac users can now purchase (free) an iBooks Authoring app from the Mac App store. This app allows students, classes, teachers, curriculum writers, technical writers, and everyone to create their own iBook and publish that iBook in iTunes -- easily! See Apple Education's iBooks Author Gallery.

As I design professional development around facilitating educators to pull together student-authored content, I will begin by taking this journey myself, documenting the process along the way, while offering short-cuts and other tips for those new to using Macintosh technology. My colleague, Mike Tally, recently took a trip to the Amazaon, capturing videos and images of rare and unusual animals, insects and plants. His camera was rolling as pink dolphins put on a show that rivals Sea World's trained animals. Together, we will document our process as we create, publish and share an iBook with you, educational leaders and innovators throughout Wake County. 

Changing My Title

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Background information:

For the past two years I have worked as an Instructional Technologist in the Curriculum and Instruction Department of a very large school district. There have been as many as six of us at one time, funded by a federal grant and our foci split between elementary, middle and high school grade levels. The initial intentions by those who hired us was for the six Instructional Technologists to sit in our respective offices and work on populating a Curriculum Management tool that our district designed and maintains. We could also collaborate or assist the Curriculum Specialists for each content area as they hired and managed writers to populate the management tool. As you can imagine very little collaboration took place; we were more of an add-on in a time when public educational institutions were shifting pedagogical practices from the 20th Century standard of stand and deliver to the 21st Century active engagement and inquiry learning model.  Our title, in my opinion, contributed to the many misconceptions held by a wide array of people working in the curriculum department of our school system.


Our saving grace: 

We piloted the Information and Technology Essential Standards in five of our district's more than 165 schools during the 2010-2011 school year and actually implemented them during the 2011-2012 school year. The Instructional Technology team joined the conversation late for many reasons, including that no one at the decision-making level felt it necessary to include any of us as stakeholders. Without going into great detail, I will just say that chance, timing, and luck played a huge roll in allowing one of us, me, to join the team that works with the state to unpack the Common Core and Essential Standards to be implemented during the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. Since the Information and Technology Essential Standards are part of this current school year's expectations, the (now four person) instructional technology team has had a voice in planning professional development, writing curriculum, and providing in-depth training.

Why I am changing my title:

When my colleagues hear or say "Instructional Technology," they often only hear "Technology" and assume I am a gadget geek. Don't get me wrong; I love technology gadgets and my iOS devices. Unfortunately, my colleagues often assume I know how to use any piece of equipment that plugs in or has a battery -- to the level where I can instruct others how to use it. I have been introduced as the "technology guru" and "gadget geek" to a room filled with educators. I have actually had to access the presenter's projected computer to show teachers that I support the Information and Technology Essential Standards, with an emphasis on Information! I usually pull up the matrix I have created, displaying the ITES vertically aligned K-12. As a former English Language Arts teacher, I prefer to focus my attention on the verbs used to describe our teaching standards!  This is why I am changing my title. I am calling myself a Digital Learning Specialist to try to steer the focus away from the nouns, the technology equipment and to steer the attention toward to verbs, the learning and the way students access the online resources. 

The Course Design Process

As an Instructional Technologist in the K12 setting, I begin instructional planning by brainstorming the essential skills I want participants to walk away having a firm grasp on.  My focus is student learning, student engagement, and teacher facilitation.  The European Association of Distance Teaching recommends establishing a need for the course and then designing the framework, and I agree these elements are foundational to good design.

"The course design process should demonstrate a rational progression from establishing the need for the course within the overall curriculum, through the design of a conceptual framework to the detailed development and production of course materials....The development of each course should provide a clear documented course specification which sets out the relationship between learning outcomes and their assessment."

(European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, http://www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellenceQS/files/members/E-xcellenceManualGrey/Introduction.html)

Very few in education understand the pedagogical shift that needs to take place in the classroom.  Technology hardware is often confused with instructional technology practices.  Alternative assessments are considered outside the realm of 'legitimate data' to use as formative assessment to guide instruction or to determine level of mastery by assigning a grade.  So while Instructional Technologists work diligently to integrate student activities into curriculum, such activities are often regarded as fluff, not pertinent to learning skills or the content in a course.  

The following video demonstrates a NEED for teaching students (and all learners) how to sift through information, analyze its reliability while considering biases and author's point of view, communicate and collaborate with others to gain depth and insight, and publish and share what they have discovered.

Learning Objects

I have to admit when I first read the title for this week's learning model, I thought it read Learning Objectives.  I interpret the idea of  'Learning Objects' to mean Learning Resources.  I can see why Kevin wanted to touch on this topic.  I think we all use various Learning Objects every day with our students if we can.  It can be anything from an information delivery system to simulations or even interactive Web 2.0 tools.  So yes, I think Learning Objects are important and very useful -- especially in education.

Not only is there a need for distance education because of the demand and the cost savings to both the institution and the learner, but there is a greater need for students to connect, collaborate, innovate and publish online. Reducing the objects into searchable and reusable bites by tagging them, makes it easy for students to find and mash objects together to create and customize one's own content. In the multimedia playground, I could see this being movies that contain video, images, comics, vokis, and other learning objects and bits all mashed together to explain, describe, and demonstrate learning, critical thinking and innovation.

Merrill points out that knowledge objects should be used in instruction because they can precisely represent information, processes, and instructional design principles.  If he is looking at Gagne's learning outcomes as his targeted learning outcome, he must provide the learners with equitable access to prior knowledge.  That is where Learning Objects play an important role, filling in gaps, providing real-time experiences, and even making learning purposeful and fun.

Since we are taking learning objects out of their context, creativity would be the largest challenge to overcome.  Students are not used to creating stories or content around seemingly random objects.  The teacher can facilitate by demonstrating expectations around using Learning Objects.  One could also show previous students' work to provide learners with a clear understanding for where their learning should be focused.

Tagging objects is a wonderful way to search for them later.  Many of the free website building tools available today allow one to tag items in pages.  Social bookmarking sites like delicious and Evernote both allow for tagging as well.

eBooks like the Nook or Kindle are great!  Students can touch a word and it is defined for them, allowing fluency to continue without stalling learning.  Also, students can annotate right there in the eBook without searching for a pen and paper.  Everything is at the reader's fingertips.

I also LOVE tagged, online content resources like:

• Gapminder
• Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
• TED
• National Geographic's Interactive US Map
• Discovery Channel
• Math World
• American Memory Historical Collection
• International Schools Cyberfair
• Thinkquest
• Visualizing Science
• Teachinghistory.org (US Dept. of Ed.)
• AwesomeStories
• The National Archives: Digital Vaults

Image-sharing sites, video-sharing sites (especially those that fall under the creative commons license - where students are allowed to mash and use items shared as long as it is NOT for profit) that may help one post and share objects are growing in number daily.  A good place to start looking is on the Creative Commons site and do a search!

Cognitive Flexibility Theory

Students are using flexible knowledge that is applied in many different ways.  The way it is stored in the learner’s brain helps determine how that knowledge is retrieved for specific situations.  My first reaction to this theory is we are combining:

innovation + problem-based learning = cognitive flexibility knowledge

Like constructivism it builds on what students already know.  Spero’s theory has both advantages and disadvantages.  I can see where teachers would oversimplify the concepts they are embedding into the inquiry.  Also, Spero suggests we make these lessons case-based as well.  He is throwing so many theories into one agenda, it would be very time-consuming to build these cases for the K12 learning environment.  I can see where they are ideal for medical training or some other high-risk environment, where all the learners will have the opportunity to test their knowledge without the loss of human life as an outcome.

This theory could be toned down to use in the secondary English/Language Arts classroom, especially when role-playing using historical events and key people who played a hand in those events.  I can imagine using this to integrate English, History and research and the role-playing or writing parodies would be the flexible knowledge piece of the lesson.  An example of this would be the Simpsons television cartoon – the writers often create parodies that mimic historical people and events but put a modern twist on it using their knowledge of human adaptability and transforming the setting from a distant time period to a current state.

Web-based tools that I would leverage into the activities I build into this model include but are not limited to:

Collaborative writing

• http://ietherpad.com/
• http://writewith.com/
• https://www.zoho.com/

Interactive video, slideshow, mash-up or story creating

• http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/create/
• http://www.bitstrips.com/create/comic/
• http://www.capzles.com/
• http://docsteach.org/
• http://embedit.in/
• http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/guest.php
• http://www.kerpoof.com/
• http://www.historypin.com/
• http://museumbox.e2bn.org/