Facilitator Pathway

No matter what the grade level is in which you ultimately work, your students will likely access content for your class through a course learning management system (LMS). This connects with 6a) “Foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings.”

According to Wikipedia, an LMS can be described as “a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs.”

And, according to their active list of LMSs, there are nearly four dozen options that are available. Also, a new, slightly different form of “online course platforms” have emerged in recent years, specializing in delivering brief video content with related discussion forums and quizzes that are designed for mobile delivery.

For this pathway task, you will explore a “shell” for your imagined teaching context, whether that is a K-12 classroom, a corporate training environment, or an online course that you are creating to market your own content. Please complete the following:

• Begin reading and gain some insights on what LMSs are, as well as some key terms. Also, view Willie Thomas’ “Top 5 LMS Must Haves” (13:00). He discusses 1) user interface, 2) app and cloud integration, 3) parent, student, and teacher communication, 4) student information system (SIS) integration, and 5) administrative capabilities. For this assignment, we will look at #1, 2, and 3 (because you, individually will have little control over #4 and 5).

• Choose two of the following tools to explore. Create an account (as a teacher), login, look at the FAQs and tutorials, and discover what you can about the two tools to complete the table below. You may also return to Common Sense’s Reviews, and ISTE’s Ed Tech Advisor for insights on the tools. You may choose from any of the following tools, or another one that you share with me first:

  • SeeSaw

  • Edmodo

  • Schoology

  • Google Classroom

  • Moodle

  • Blackboard Coursesites

  • Canvas

In the form of a table like the one below, write a brief summary of your progress, 200-250 words total. Include a screenshot of your two LMSs that you explore. No APA citations are required, but please be sure to create a table that compares and contrasts the following features:

• User interface for LMS 1 and 2: How would you describe the overall ease-of-use and aesthetic design of the LMS? In other words, how would you (and your students) feel about using it?

• App and cloud integration for LMS 1 and 2: What services work with this LMS? How do you feel you might use these services in conjunction with this LMS?

• Parent, student, and teacher communication for LMS 1 and 2: What tools are available in the LMS? In what ways do these tools foster effective three-way communication between the parents, students, and teacher?

• Finally, make a choice. Which LMS is best for you and your students? Why?

Creativity is difficult to define, yet this two-page poster from Copy Blogger’s Demian Farnworth offers a variety of examples to get you thinking.

Depending on exactly what your disciplinary focus is, as well as the grade level that you choose to teach, how you define creativity -- and how you complete this task -- will vary significantly. The goal here is that you are working toward sub-standard 6d) “Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.” Here, I invite you to use a piece of software to create a project that would service as a model for students to use as they create their own work.

First, explore CAST’s (Center for Applied Special Technology) UDL Guidelines, and view their recent post, “Key Questions to Consider When Planning Lessons.” You might also find this blog post, “UDL vs DI: The Dinner Party Analogy,” helpful. As you read these posts and view the videos embedded in them, take notes about the following, so you can respond to them in your summary.

• How would you define UDL?

• In what ways have you tried to incorporate UDL principles in the past?

• With your new insights on UDL, what are the two most important elements in the Guidelines that you think are most useful (e.g., “Activate or supply background knowledge”).

Next, by using The Differentiator, create a learning objective. Play around with it a bit, and make sure that you are seeing the ways in which the learning objective can be altered.

Then, get creative!

For instance:

• If you are a history teacher, you may make a timeline, story map or a photo essay.

• If you are an English teacher, you may take a text available in the public domain and turn it into a word cloud for your students to analyze.

• If you are teaching current events, you may have students do a media analysis of articles from different political perspectives.

• If you are teaching math, you may have students represent an equation and record a screencast that describes what happens when they change variables.

• If you are teaching science or geography, you may have students look at changes in the earth over time and describe what they see, or create a ThingLink as a virtual tour of a place and time.

In short, your goal is to take an underutilized ed tech resource and let your imagination run wild with it. If none of the ideas that I provided up above are helpful, return to Common Sense Media’s list of Ed Tech Reviews.

Then, write a brief summary of your progress, apx 400-500 words total. Include a link to what you created, or a screenshot.

Answer the above questions about UDL, describe the learning objective you have in mind (connect to content standards), and be sure to elaborate on why you feel the particular tool you have chosen -- as well as the example you have made -- demonstrates creativity. Also, clearly describe how you are addressing issues of Universal Design for Learning.

Design Thinking and Computational Thinking are two very different frameworks, but each provide a roadmap for EdTech instruction. Design Thinking is often used to introduce students to a process for designing something in a Maker Space for example. Computational Thinking is often the pedagogy taught to students as a part of Coding, Programming, or Robotics. This pathway task invites you to explore 6c) “Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.” As you move through, prepare to share a lesson idea where you can introduce either DT or CT pedagogy.

Part 1: Explore Design Thinking

The five-stage Design Thinking model was proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school). d.school is the leading university when it comes to teaching Design Thinking. According to d.school, the five stages are: Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

After exploring the five stages, spend about 15 minutes reviewing these resources and begin thinking about how you might create your own lesson. Take some screenshots to document your journey and include them in your reflection:

• What should educators know about teaching Design Thinking? Explore the DEFINE, CONNECT, and APPLY of 21things4educator's Thing 16 - Design Thinking.

• Explore the six Quests found in the 21things4students - Thing 15 "Design Thinking".

• Read at least two ISTE blog entries on applying Design Thinking in the classroom.

• Visit nationally renowned expert Sylvia Martinez's web site to find some amazing projects, ideas, and resources.

• Explore MakerSpaces and Maker Space For Education

• Check out Michigan's REMC Classroom Maker project and their Maker Task Cards to gather ideas on how you might use Design Thinking with Maker projects.

Part 2: Explore Computational Thinking

The K12 Computer Science Standards include several references to the importance of Computational Thinking. Computational thinking -- often represented through the exploration of coding -- has been a key topic in ed tech in the past decade, represented in the Facilitator standard and ISTE’s Standards for Computer Science Educators, the ISTE Computational Thinking Competencies, and beyond.

Get started with your exploration of Computational Thinking by spending about 15 minutes reviewing or engaging in these resources. Take some screenshots to document your journey and include them in your reflection:

• What should educators know about teaching Design Thinking? Explore the DEFINE, CONNECT, and APPLY of 21things4educator's Thing 17 - Computational Thinking.

• Check out the six Quests found in 21things4students - Thing 21 - "Computational Thinking".

• Read at least two entries from ISTE’s blog on computational thinking or coding.

• Explore the “Hour of Code” as one initiative that promotes computer science or choose a coding activity from tools such as Code.org, Scratch, and Hopscotch. Engage with the activity for at least 10 - 20 minutes. If you finish it, choose a second activity so you are trying out some basic coding for about 10-20 minutes.

Part 3: Reflect and Share

Share your reflections on Design Thinking and Computational Thinking. Then, choose either the Design Thinking or Computational Thinking pedagogy and reflect on how you might introduce the framework in one of your own lessons. What might students know, understand, or be able to do during the lesson or experience as it relates to the pedagogy? 200-250 words. No APA required.

In the Learner Pathway, you may have begun a program offered by Google (Google for Education Certification), Microsoft (Microsoft Certified Educators), and Apple (Apple Teacher).

For this pathway task, you will continue to work on your certification. However, this task will require you to make a brief presentation to a colleague (or colleagues), outlining one specific skill you have learned. In short, you are going to facilitate your colleague's learning!

For this option, you will summarize your experience by creating a brief 5 minute screencast. In lieu of writing a summary, you will:

• Quickly describe what the overall certification entails in terms of time commitment, costs, and benefits (1-2 minutes).

  • Describe the skills that you will learn.

  • Describe the intangible benefits, too, such as access to networks of educators.

  • State the specific costs.

  • As best you can, estimate the time it would take to go through all levels of certification.

• Share at least one unique tip about a specific app/feature that your colleague likely would not know (2-3 minutes). For instance, hone in and talk about something as specific as "setting up a repeating event" in Google Calendar or "creating a podcast" in Apple's Garageband. Tie this tip to your teaching, and:

  • Describe why this particular app/feature was unique or surprising to you

  • Demonstrate the use of the technology/skill in the context of teaching and learning. What would this look like in your classroom management and lesson planning, actual instruction (synchronous or asynchronous), or when providing feedback to students.

• Close by offering a link to an additional (outside) blog post, podcast, or other supporting materials from at least one other educator to give your peers additional insight on this tip/tool (1 minute). For instance, a tip on Google Calendar might be followed up with a link to Kasey Bell's Shake Up Learning, or a tip on Garageband would go to this guide from NPR. You do not need to write a post, record a podcast, or make anything else. Instead, you are pointing your colleague to another resource created by an educator.

  • Cite that source and provide your viewer with a bit.ly, tinyURL, or other short link.

In your final document, include a link to your video in the assignment. No additional written summary is required.

Overview of the Task

For this essay, you will consider the ISTE Facilitator sub-standards to create and share your policies and procedures for online interactions in a creative and innovative way:

• 6a) Foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings.

• 6b) Manage the use of technology and student learning strategies in digital platforms, virtual environments, hands-on makerspaces or in the field.

• 6d) Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.

Learn and Create

Using an infographic program like Canva, Piktochart, Venngage, Creately, a Hyperdoc, or Publisher template to create an online poster that you can share. If you have something else in your toolbox, feel free to use that - but do take a few minutes to explore each of these great tools to create visual representations.

Choose one of the following topics and create an interactive poster for students to use for classroom management and onboarding:

• Guidelines for goal setting for courses and assignments, progress monitoring, and personal reflection throughout the school year

• Expectations for online interactions with Accountable Talk and positive talk stems

• Device care and maintenance

• Guidelines for working in collaborative teams and spaces where we focus on positive interactions and individual accountability

• Expectations for breakout room, chat, and/or online behavior

• Steps for technology troubleshooting

• Onboarding into your LMS

• Lab protocols and procedures

• **Wildcard** - choose your own topic

Reflection Prompt

Briefly describe the tool you choose, your learning experience, and the innovative and creative ways you shared information about the topic. Share the reflection in 200-250 words. Include the link to your digital artifact or infographic. No APA citations required.

Many of you are interested in Maker Education, and your goal here is to “make” a brief rationale for why Maker education is important.

• Explore at least one of the following:

  • View the Edutopia video, “Maker Education: Reaching All Learners.”

  • Read the ISTE article, “The maker movement: A learning revolution”

  • Read the USC’s Rossier School’s “An Introduction to Maker Education.”

  • Or, read another blog post from Edutopia’s Maker collection and/or ISTE’s blog on makerspaces.

  • Visit nationally renowned expert Sylvia Martinez's web site to find some amazing projects, ideas, and resources.

  • Explore MakerSpaces and Maker Space For Education

  • Check out Michigan's REMC Classroom Maker project and their Maker Task Cards to gather ideas on how you might use Design Thinking with Maker projects.

• Once you have this background in place, explore three lessons from MakerEd’s collection of resources. Choose one lesson to focus on for your analysis.

• Write a brief summary of that lesson and describe the lesson would address each of the four myths in “Moving Beyond the 4 Myths of Maker Education.” That is, how would this lesson help:

  • Address a local vision for maker education

  • Build connections and community

  • Support 21st century skills

  • Encourage equity

• Or, you could look at some of the questions from 23 Maker Learning Reflection Questions For Students, and respond to those.

• Finally, “make” a model of something that corresponds with your lesson that represents your idea and would serve as a “cover image” and “caption” for something you might post on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media site. For instance, here is my “make” from an event last year and how I annotated it.

Write a brief summary of your progress, 200-250 words total, replying to the four myths.

Include a screenshot of your “make,” like this one that I did shown at the very bottom of this page, and — if you don’t want to post to social media — you can use one of these GSlides templates for Twitter or Instagram. No APA citations are required.