Integrated Communication

Leveraging technology to provide clear, effective and relevant communication with all the stakeholders in education, from students to parents to fellow educators and administration, is an essential skill that I am actively developing and continue to hone. From communicating vision and proposals with administration and school stakeholders, to developing multimedia digital storytelling techniques, to finding ways to leveraging the interconnectedness of the web to enhance education, I have chosen the artifacts below as examples showcasing how I have integrated communication with technology in ways that enhance meaning.

Proposal Brief - Design Lab Manager

Introduction: The office of Innovation and Collaboration and Science Department at my school aim to empower and motivate students and teachers to embrace design thinking in and outside of their classes by creating a new faculty position to ensure that all students and teachers have the access, knowledge, skills and curricular integration support to productively use design thinking and the design spaces on our campus because intrinsically-driven students develop resilience and confidence to solve real-world problems when they are enabled to manifest their ideas into real-world solutions that can be tested and adapted in ways that impact our ever-changing planet.

Goal: The primary goal of this proposal is to establish a new, part- or full-time lab manager position for the Idea Lab and Engineering Lab, ensuring the school offers equitable access to cutting-edge technologies and provides training and support for their effective integration into the curriculum and culture of the school.

Background: The school’s design lab spaces currently consist of the Idea Lab, an open space with a flexible floorplan, and the Engineering Lab, an access-controlled space with a mix of woodshop, metal shop, rapid prototyping 3D printers, a laser cutter, electronics and soldering equipment, hand tools and more. These spaces have existed for years and have the ingredients to become innovation and design hubs on campus. However, they are currently underutilized and unfamiliar to the general student and faculty population. This is a clear manifestation of Larry Cuban’s assertion that technology integration in schools is not a natural or automatic process. It requires deliberate thought and careful planning to ensure that technology is effectively integrated into a school’s curriculum and culture.

Problem: The underutilization of these spaces is due to many factors, including an unintuitive layout of equipment, lack of signage, lack of formal orientation program or training on the use of the equipment, and absence of any dedicated faculty support the use of these spaces. All these factors make the spaces uninviting and non-intuitive for potential new users. Students and teachers who do seek out these spaces often lack the support, direction, design engineering background or technical skills to effectively use the equipment in these spaces. Finally, while faculty who do use these spaces make an effort to maintain the equipment they use, the space as a whole is unmanaged and therefore the functionality of equipment on any given day is unpredictable. Formal management and branding of these spaces, combined with outreach and support to develop a community of design-thinkers amongst our students and faculty has the potential to turn these underutilized spaces into hubs of collaborative design that showcase and celebrate the innovation and entrepreneurship of our students.

Proposed Solution: The proposed solution is to create a new position of Design Lab Manager under the supervision of the Director of Innovation and Collaboration and/or Director of the Science Department. In this position, the Design Lab Manager will collaborate with educators to create integrated co-curricular opportunities for hand-on design projects, build a community of design thinkers by hosting collaborative challenges, provide orientation, training and support for teachers and students to learn how to use equipment and apply those skills, support student organizations and clubs (robotics, makerspace, etc.) regularly using design spaces, and manage the maintenance of equipment and inventory of supplies needed to support these design spaces. The creation of this position will enable improvements to accessibility, branding, curricular integration, and management of design thinking spaces on campus, and are necessary for our school to keep pace with our mission to develop resilient, confident women who are educated and inspired to lead lives of purpose and impact. 

Circus SEL (Social Emotional Learning) Stories Design Document

Designer:

           Mackenzie Miller

Audience:

The primary audience for my story will be elementary to high school-aged students from a variety of cultural, educational, and economic backgrounds who are experiencing an SEL field trip to the Circus Center. Some students may have prior experience viewing circus acts or practicing circus arts, but for most, I expect the context of circus arts to be unfamiliar. As I plan my script and images, I will need to incorporate background to explain the novel context of circus arts, introduce SEL skills (which may also be a new concept), and explicitly relate the SEL skills in these stories to a familiar context for the students. My intent is to use technology available at the Circus Center to display these SEL stories either on TV monitors or on tablets during SEL field trip events to the Circus Center. If using TV monitors, the videos can be paused for partner sharing and discussion among students at various points. One advantage of using tablets is that I could take advantage of interactive technology, allowing students to respond to mid-story text or video prompts and relate their own thoughts or experiences regarding the SEL skills being presented.

A secondary audience will be the broader stakeholders in potential SEL field trip experiences. This could include school administrators and teachers, parents, and Circus Center staff involved in booking or providing the SEL field trip programming. Having engaging and concise media content that demonstrates how circus arts and SEL skills align will be essential to building community buy-in for events like SEL field trips.

Story Topic and Personal Connection:

My story topic idea is to make a series of short videos highlighting the SEL skills that the circus artists I coach use to overcome obstacles in their training and relating those SEL skills to everyday applications for elementary to high school-aged students.

I discovered circus arts at age 30. As someone working a full-time desk job as an engineer, it was completely foreign and outside my comfort zone. However, as I began to engage in the community, overcome my fears, and take classes to develop flying trapeze skills, my confidence blossomed. I loved the combination of physical and mental challenges! When I turned in my two-week’s notice at my engineering job to run away with the circus, I’m sure more than a few people thought I was crazy. But I have never once regretted that decision. As I’m nearing 40 now, I’ve discovered that my true purpose and motivation in circus is not to be the one in the spotlight performing; it’s to be a guide, coach, mentor and teacher who can pass along the gifts that engaging in the circus arts has brought to my life: emotional awareness, confidence, perseverance, identity, strength, community-building, teamwork and so many more. From first-time participants to seasoned professionals, I believe an explicit understanding of how we develop and use our social and emotional skills can benefit us in circus arts and far beyond.

Purpose: 

My purpose in telling these stories is to promote SEL skills in a fun, engaging and effective way by sharing stories of how circus artists train, struggle and overcome obstacles. My hope is that students will take away new awareness of SEL skills they can apply in their own lives to overcome everyday obstacles that they face!

Storyboard Development – Interview Process

Questions for Interview with Jordan Goldstein on 6/17/23:

1.       Please introduce yourself.

2.       Where did you grow up?

3.       What are a couple interests you have that our SEL kids might relate to?

4.       Why did you start doing circus?

5.       Describe your apparatus.

6.       What did you feel the first time you tried?

7.       What do you love about it?

8.       What do you hate about it?

9.       Describe a time you really struggled.

10.   What did you feel like when you were struggling?

11.   Walk us through a typical practice while you were struggling.

12.   Were there things you tried that didn’t help?

13.   Can you describe a particular incident or vivid moment where you felt like you hit bottom / were most frustrated?

14.   How did you start to change your trajectory?

15.   What actions did you or others take that started to help?

16.   How did you feel when things started to improve?

17.   What (non-apparatus-related) life skills did you build trying to overcome this struggle?

18.   What advice would you give to someone else who is going through similar struggles?

19.   Do you still use the skills you developed in overcoming this struggle now? If so, how?

           Raw Video Footage of Interview (20 min): https://youtu.be/AzEVUXoLrC0

           Transcript of Interview: Digital Storytelling - Transcript of Interview with Jordan.docx

Many thanks to Jordan, and here's a full list of credits.

Notes on Digital Media Compilation:

• Canva – used to create intro, transition, take-away and credits slides in video.

  • Link to my SEL Stories folder in Canva: https://www.canva.com/folder/FAFngQFH0qA

• Google Drive – used to collect and store photos and videos take on my iPhone for story.        

  • Link to my SEL Stores Folder in my Google Drive: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rWJcTq6kLv1Rm7i89

Credits:

• Photos and videos courtesy of Dallas Circus Center.

• Music: “Simple is Good” by Matthew Compton, open-source license via iMovie.

• Avatar graphics created in Bitmoji.

• Background shapes and fonts courtesy of Canva and iMovie.

Syllabus for Online Mini-Course: Introduction to AI for Educators

Course Title: Introduction to AI for Educators

Course Architect: Mackenzie Miller

Course Description: This mini-course aims to introduce teachers to the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can be effectively incorporated into educational practices. Educators will gain an understanding of the potential benefits and challenges of AI in the classroom, explore various AI tools and applications, and learn strategies for integrating AI into their teaching methodologies.

Course Format: Online

Course Duration: 4 weeks

Week 1: Understanding AI and its Role in Education

• Introduction to AI and its applications in education

• Benefits and challenges of using AI in the classroom

• Ethical considerations in AI for educators

Week 2: AI Tools for Enhancing Learning

• Introduction to AI-based tools for educators

• Personalized learning with AI

• AI tools for assessment and feedback

Week 3: Integrating AI into Curriculum and Instruction

• Designing lessons and activities with AI productivity tools

• Addressing concerns and drawbacks to using AI

• Consider the implementation of AI in education and the impact on teachers

Week 4: Future Trends and Implications of AI in Education

• Exploring emerging trends in AI for education

• Designing AI-infused lessons and activities

• Collaboration and communication with AI-based tools

Link to Online Course hosted on PBWorks wiki page: Online Mini-Course: Introduction to AI for Educators

Reflections on Designing for Online Learing

I used to think that online learning couldn't fit my definition of "learning" because I define learning to be an active, collaborative, explorative, participatory process where student interactions and contributions are essential and, to me, online learning was something like MOOC's where content / videos are posted and students are expected to consume and regurgitate content in a vacuum. Information is transferred, much like in a traditional lecture hall. But, in my mind, this limited vision of what online classrooms had to look like wasn't capable of fulfilling my expectations for a learning environment.

Now I think that online learning is a diverse and open platform. Advances are being made daily that facilitate collaboration and exploration in online platforms. Teachers have the capability of designing and implementing their vision of a course in a variety of hybrid, synchronous or asynchronous structures and pulling from a bottomless ocean of distributed cognition that is available across the internet. Students also have options to participate, not only within their online classes, but as contributors to the broader online consciousness of distributed learning. (Yes, we don't need Master's students basing their theses on the web blog of a high school student.) But, look at how this high school student was able to participate as a content creator in the field of educational technology. While we should certainly vet her ideas, at least they are being heard and empowering her by lifting her voice to a broader audience. 

Now I also think that online education is on the cusp of changing drastically with the proliferation of artificial intelligence. Just over the course of the summer I've seen the landscape explode (both in and outside of education) with new, easily accessible AI tools -- some with guidelines on best-use practices and warning about their limitations and potential for bias and some without. While smaller companies are working to saturate the market with quick releases, bigger giants like Microsoft and Google are soon to come out with their own integrated AI. We will all be using these resources shortly, and I'm very curious to see the effects of these new resources have on the world of education. 

Educational Technology Blog

The link below contains my blog posts related to educational technology. By sharing these with classmates and professors I have been able to develop ideas and receive feedback. Several of the embedded YouTube videos in my blog posts even began circulating more broadly amongst Makerspace enthusiasts who were curious about how to replicate some of my Arduino projects. I included a few highlights from my most popular blog posts below.

https://mackenziebmiller.blogspot.com/

Reflections on Blogging and Vlogging

One example of how blogging could enhance instruction is by creating online lab notebooks within a blogging platform. This would be a substitution for physical lab notebooks. Students would have access to write and share data and analysis in real time. Teacher and other classmates could provide feedback, and resources such as hyperlinks could be utilized to draw connections to related research or additional data. A platform I've used to create online shared notebooks in the past has been Microsoft OneNote for Classrooms. As a teacher, I was able to create lab templates and share resources within the platform. Students were able to collect lab data and collaborate on their analyses. Both peer and teacher feedback can been given within OneNote. 

Another example of how blogging could transform learning is creating platforms for students to post their own vlogs (or video blogs). Since my students' security and privacy is a high priority for me. I would likely use a site such as Flipgrid which allows me to create private class groups only accessible to my students. In one project, I asked students to conduct at-home egg drop tests, and video and report on the results. Students were then able to watch, comment on and discuss each other's designs. Eventually, we voted on our top designs and tested them with a high drop from the top of the science building.

Blogs are valuable tools for sharing insights and provided timely and interactive feedback, especially peer feedback. Blogs can be easily shared to provide examples of better or poorer quality work. In the context of younger-student education, I believe privacy is a major drawback to using public blogs. Technology resources that allow private or controlled-access blogging or vlogging (such as Flipgrid or OneNote) could be better solutions. Some schools have LMS capability that allow for student or teacher blogging within the protected system, however some do not. I think this is my most pressing concern in adopting blogging as a teaching technology within my curriculum.