Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
a. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness
While teaching at a small school for students with special learning needs, I sometimes struggled to find ways for children with autism to participate in my computer science curriculum. Learning the basics of programming requires communication of concepts, and I needed a way to work through the elements of computational thinking with a particular student that had very low verbal communication skill. Planning with teachers of other subjects helped, as I learned he was fascinated by Goethe’s Dr. Faustus. I was able to capture his attention and lead him toward creating a version of a scene from the play using Scratch, in which we worked together to voice the parts, and solved real problems with the staging using the basic variables and loops that are used to build programs. Approaching the problem of communication and motivation from an unexpected but very personal direction was the key.
While serving in the Peace Corps at a school in Kazakhstan, I was tasked with organizing a summer camp for cross-curricular English practice involving members of the local staff and about 100 students. Working with a group of representative students and faculty, I identified a real world project to work toward, a garden in the works outside the school. Using a combination of online and offline research, synthesis, and presentation tools, the students investigated different aspects of the garden project such as climate appropriate plants, engineering a greenhouse, and water and soil pollution testing.
b. Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
In a health class I taught in New York, I tasked the students with improving the diet of their classmates. Most of the students went out for lunch at the local delis and pizza shops, and did not eat healthy lunches. We first researched online and discussed changes in diet recommendations by the USDA as in this assignment to post to the students' blogs. Then we tracked the dietary statistics of the class by entering data gathered from food labels into the USDA food tracker app. These were compiled into a poster presentation which recommended the best places in the neighborhood to eat and what things to avoid.
Anki is a spaced repetition flash-card app which can be used offline, via web app or mobile, and synced to a personal account. This tracks vocabulary retention and helps motivate learners by self-evaluating their progress. I introduced my ESL students to the app after having good success with it myself in learning foreign languages. When a student in my Intro to Japanese course needed to enter kana text into the app using an English keyboard, we had a great teachable moment that was outside the course curriculum but very useful, as she investigated and solved the problem for the class using a new character set and keyboard layover.
c. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
Students using collaborative tools and participating in writing projects with an authentic audience tend to take the work more seriously and reflect more on their process and finished writing. Having a peer group judge the quality or interest of the work is a great motivator, as in the Blog Exchange Project. While examining their own creative process and comparing it to that of their peers, students are able to deconstruct their own reasoning and communication methods to improve them systematically.
One very illustrative instance of group writing process evaluation happened when I did a classroom experiment with collaborative note-taking. During health class we watched a film and I tasked the students with taking notes on a shared Google doc as we watched. I was also logged in and posed some general topic themes to get us started, but then I let the group dynamically create their own process. After a few issues with overwriting and duplication arose, we paused to set a few ground rules. It was great for these rules to be based on real issues rather than abstract concepts, and in the end, the set of conditions for productive contribution fit our class perfectly as it was created to suit our unique learning environment. This also tied in to my curricular goals on digital citizenship as the students learned to make connections between behavior online and offline.
d. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments
Discussing user experience(UX) as a formative assessment in the Usability Test from Intermediate Web Development models real world collaboration using an asynchronous working environment. As a project is developed from planning to implementation, much back and forth needs to happen between designers and users. This communication is facilitated by a structured review process and agreement on the principles of UX.
While training English teachers in Kazakhstan, I invited them to participate in volunteer ESL instruction in a free online MOOC in Second Life. Working with teachers through their avatars in the virtual world, we participated in group discussions around randomly generated topics around a virtual campfire. The fantastic environment where the teachers used their real voices but could design their avatars with any appearance they wanted was a fun way to motivate them to participate. The always-on virtual school and interactions with students from around the world allowed the teachers to practice leading discussions any time of the day, for example practicing after work at home. They also built up a set of skills for interacting with new students, which is valuable practice as it only occurs once a year in real-life school, but every day in the virtual space where students are free to come and go at any time.