Pedagogy & ICL (R-Z)

Reading and Speaking Fluency

Use a voice recording app to have students speak/read and then listen to their reading and/or speaking fluency. A rubric that lists what is being measured can definitely help students listen, reflect and record what they learn from hearing themselves speak. Saving sound files into one's eFolio while writing reflections and setting goals is an excellent way to help students see their progress over time. See the Audio Recording section of this site for more information.


Sketchnoting (Visual Note-Taking)

Our students live in a media rich world. They think in images, video, and sound while constantly making neural connections. The creation apps on phones, tablets and computers offer students pathways to draw, audio record, insert images/video and embed hyperlinks to information sources all in a very personalized way. This is where visual note-taking comes in. We can expand note-taking choices beyond just text recording by guiding students to use mind maps, colors, shapes, images, digital grouping by dragging and dropping objects, and using connecting lines to record their thinking. Talk about individualizing and personalizing student learning! Here are a few resources to help paint the picture of visual note-taking.

Supporting sites:


Structured Research with Noodle Tools

The NoodleTools online platform provides the structure to guide our students through the research process. From the formulation of questions, to citing sources, taking notes and outlining, our students can work individually or in teams with 24/7 access to their work. NoodleTools also connects to Google Drive enabling our students easy access to the their developing reports through the drafting process while also giving teachers access to their work. Read a blog post about how one teacher used NoodleTools and Google Docs to support blended learning for her students. NoodleTools is an excellent example of how technology provides our students a personal research system that can be used along with books and online resources to support inquiry.


Student Co-Designers

We talk about developing authentic learning opportunities for our students. How about asking for their input as we design learning activities and assessments? In many cases your students can share ideas on where to find digital information and what tools they can use to communicate their understanding. As you look to give students choice in making their thinking visible, brainstorm the possibilities as you draw on their information, media and technology literacies. As students think as designers, they also can collaborate to create rubrics for their projects by drawing from our Multimedia Rubric.


Timelines

Having students create timelines involves many skills that can be transformational when accomplished with digital tools. Adding in digital images, video, voice files, etc. expands the research and creation processes. Understanding goes deeper and reaches more learning styles when students are empowered to move beyond the limited nature of paper and pencil timelines. There are several timeline creation tools whether web-based or device specific. Using timelines built by others is an effective way to demonstrate what multimedia versions look like while also providing content for lessons. One example is the Chromozoom site built by a couple universities supported by Microsoft and another is Sutori.


Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides (as mentioned in the iPad Uses section of this site) a framework to help support differentiation for our students. Your librarian and instructional technologist as well as other learning specialists can be excellent partners in the design process to find ways to use multiple means of representation of content, multiple ways for your students to represent their understanding and to create a variety of ways they can be engaged in the learning process. The provided videos offer introductions to UDL. Also look to review all the assistive technology resources provided at Edutopia. Students can use Google Docs Voice to Text to share their thinking as well as use Natural Reader in how they take in information with audio and highlighted text. Another resource are the Ed Tech Co-Op podcast episodes Universal Design for Learners and UDL to Support All Learners.

Videography

An entire section of this site is dedicated to the power of video creation.


WebQuests

We can provide very structured and guided inquiry projects called WebQuests to support inquiry and students being independent and active learners. WebQuests are online research expeditions built by teachers that put the students, often working in teams, into roles to find information from selected sites and other resources as they attempt to solve a real problem. The students working in teams analyze, curate and then use the information to create a learning product to demonstrate their understanding. WebQuests are NOT internet scavenger hunts with students just going through a list of links. True WebQuests have the students performing in the authentic roles of historians, economists, mathematicians, etc. The culminating project is usually a performance task in which the students present their findings while playing their roles or apply the learning to produce a product.

Supporting examples:

Developing the several web pages that comprise a WebQuest takes some time up front, but the results can be impressive as students become very engaged as they really do “own” their learning. WebQuests can be used year after year with new classes of students, sequencing important instruction online instead of onto photocopies. WebQuests can also be the mechanism to deliver a full unit of study.


Writing

Many of the instructional activities listed here genuinely support the writing process. Technology gives students opportunities to collaborate (through Google Docs, for example;), quickly getting ideas into text (voice to text apps), doing authentic tasks (scripts for videos), using media to make their writing visual (multimedia essays), practicing components of writing (grammar apps and websites) and reaching a larger audience (blogs and podcasts). Blogging is terrific for students to keep a digital journal where they reflect about their learning, set goals, develop their learner profile, etc. Teachers monitor the writing and leave digital comments via the comment tool. Students can also use their eFolios to post learning artifacts and write about their learning.

Younger students really enjoy engaging their creativity through the writing process in story creation sites like Storybird. Another avenue for writing is to use Google Forms with students to guide them through the process of developing stories through the Choose Your Own Adventure process.


Image Sources: Chronozoom | Noodle Tools | Writing |

UDL Video | Visual Note-taking | Visual Note-taking 3 Things