Engaging Learners in through Blended Virtual Learning Spaces (Draft 1)
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A brief and early overview about some of the great work we've been doing at Willow Park School (an Arts-Centered Learning School) about learner engagement, student voice, and student choice.
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Engaging Learners in through Blended Virtual Learning Spaces (Draft 1)
- 1. Learner Engagement in the Virtual Learning Commons Empowering learners to discover and to create using autonomy supportive digital technologies Cloutier, David (Mount Royal University) Ursenbach, Lynne (Calgary Board of Education) Munroe, Karena (Calgary Board of Education) Robertson, Dr. Leslie (Calgary Board of Education) Vaughan, Dr. Norm (Mount Royal University)
- 2. Defining the Virtual Learning Commons Virtual Learning Commons • Not just one website, not static, but dynamic • Facilitated and built by students and teachers • Bringing together a schools or classrooms digital resources in a meaningful way Pegler, Karen (Calgary Board of Education)
- 3. Distinguishing Technology use from Technology Integration • What does simply using technology in the classroom look like? • More time spent learning how to use technology • Information delivery • Learners/teachers working alone • Examples: D2L (in and of itself); SMART board as projector; TeacherBytes, 2013 (http://teachbytes.com/2013/03/29/whats-the-difference-between-using-technology-and-technology-integration/ )
- 4. Distinguishing Technology use from Technology Integration • What does integrating technology into the classroom look like? • Facilitates new thinking processes through inquiry • Supports curricular goals • Construction and building of knowledge • Mostly being used by learners • Students engaged with content TeacherBytes, 2013 (http://teachbytes.com/2013/03/29/whats-the-difference-between-using-technology-and-technology- integration/)
- 5. 6-1 at Willow Park: Setting the Scene Setting the Scene First Day of Research
- 7. Reflective Practice • Capturing student feedback along the learning journey, and integrating it into the roadmap • What we learned? • How we learned? • Why is it important?
- 8. Learner Autonomy • Inquiry happens with autonomy • Flipping the approach to instructional design: • Build context • Empower learners to pursue their passions or interests • Connect to curriculum • Celebrate achievement (Pointing at Sky Science SLAs on wall) “We just finished the curriculum” -Jaidyn M.
- 9. Learning Technologies Case-Study Case-Study• Google Apps for Education: • Docs: Students build on each others work, students work anywhere anytime, everyone is a part of the process from start to finish • Forms: Collect data, share and explore class-sourced resources • Instagrok: • Followed and supported inquiry process, synthesis of new ideas • Organize information and ideas • Mapping thinking (visible thought process) • WordPress and Wiki: • Capture, share, celebrate, discuss
- 11. Technology and the Arts • Access an entire new realm of the arts • Building off the work of others • Experience and be inspired by others • Celebrate and reflect by capturing and sharing “It can help you with an any project, not just arts.” “[I] think that it adds to the arts because it will helps to get inspired"
- 12. Technology and the Arts
- 13. Student-Perceived Challenges • Technology as distraction? – Digital citizenship • Physical health? – is technology taking away from wellness? • Infrastructure as interference to learning
- 14. Student-Perceived Benefits • Sharing: Capacity to collaborate, and building together • Supporting: Filling gaps in the environment; • Discovering: Exploration beyond the classroom • Organizing: Connecting information and mapping thinking “It helped when we had to move because we didn't [have] much supplies.” “using websites that make you feel like [you’re] really there…” “[without technology] we couldn't have been able to go this far in our learning” “on google docs we added on to each others work and that made our presentations better…”
- 15. Questions for Thought • How are you using vs. integrating technology in your teaching practice? • How are you assessing process, including thought? • What are some of the challenges you face in integrating technology? How might these be negated? • How can we use technology integration to support and enhance the arts? • Where can technology integration take your students beyond what is possible in the classroom? How does integrating technology as seen in this work with these grade 6 students, support/build upon Willow Park’s beliefs/work on assessment?
Editor's Notes
- Early snapshot of the research we’re doing with 6-1. Supporting student autonomy in a hybrid virtual and physical learning community. Student-Voice – Student-Driven
- The Virtual Learning Commons is communities of learning that happen using educational technologies, brought together in a meaningful way – important here is that it’s building a virtual learning community AS PART OF a physical classroom community
- Let’s talk about USING technology vs INTEGRATING technology: Technology USING/USE: -Time is spent mostly learning how to use technology -Not building off each other -One-way – used to deliver content or information
- Flipside – integrating: -Supports inquiry -Demonstrating critical thinking -Building on to what is possible in the classroom -Synthesizing new ways of thinking about something When students are coming to tell you when they’re using something at home, beyond what was expected – great sign! (Google Doc, Instagrok)
- First day of researching: Never seen a grade 6 class more engaged in their work – researching their own questions I spent 3 mornings a week with 6-1, but the learning around this work didn’t stop there… (organic growth powered by students)
- Quote: A pillar in all of our work – more than sky science. Science, English, deeper meaning: -The STUDENTS made it something more (e.g. Painting, Ashley) -“Achieving your dreams“ (Sydney)
- As part of our work on Formative Assessment, Making learning meaningful by: -Long term planning (themes/units); -NOT day-by-day in advance, why? -Reflective practice: Direct feedback from students (in conversation, blogs, etc.) – Key questions: -What we learned (more than “Facts”) -HOW we learned - Why it worked or didn’t -Why was it important? Recognition of meaningfulness (Circle back) -How would you improve for next time, or future students -This feedback gave us an authentic perspective on where students were
- In some ways we really “let go” - but our students still learned! Instead of curriculum -> project design: Defined context (Sky Science/Space – Cross curricular with “Separating Science from Science Fiction”) -> Students design questions/project -> THEN connect to curriculum Bring things together and make it MEANINGFUL by ultimately letting them share and celebrate their work (Symposium) Other: CBE Results: Citizenship, Character, Personal Development Alberta Inspiring Education: Three E’s – Ethical Citizen, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Engaged Thinker
- A number of tools made this possible, and for sharing they really went beyond all of these, but a few to look at are: -GAFE: Allowing students to create and build on the work of others – (designing our wiki pages, doing research, etc.) -Allowing us to collect this data, but by the same means for students to collect and pool data or resources (crowd-sourcing for classrooms) -Instagrok: Drove technology side of inquiry process, insight into PROCESS, not just start/finish -WordPress: A mechanism to share, capture, celebrate, and discuss our work – legacy, giving it meaning and purpose
- Drawing on student creativity– beyond what I could imagine
- Quote: -Students recognizing that technology is universal -Students recognizing we can use technology to support and learn from each other -Most obvious: New realm of arts not possible before technology became so mainstream – using these with -Building off the work of others (Standing on the shoulders of Giants - Newton) – using it as inspiration (why reinvent?) -Share (audience), celebrate (feedback), and reflect (not necessarily through arts, but can be)
- Despite that quantitative data is pretty black and white, we did see a positive change in students’ perceptions that technology can positively benefit the arts and learning through the arts
- Some of the very interesting notes: -Number of students commenting on technology possibly being a distraction – but from observation, digital citizenship has been great and our students aren’t abusing it, but recognizing it as a possibility (shout out to Karena!) -Health (2 students): (Physical activity) But… if used properly it shouldn’t be consuming more time than traditional learning – possibly they were thinking about technology at home (games, etc.) -Infrastructure: The students see this too! Challenge of instruction and of learning when network or equipment can’t support capacity for learning activities -& Network Blocks (3 comments) (which I know we are working on!)
- -SHARING: New dimension to working together without conventional constraints – including others (incl. teacher) -SUPPORTING: Using technology to supplement physical environment disabilities (BUT… more) -DISCOVERING: Importance is going beyond the traditional limits -“Opening the door” -> (Lynne’s analogy) “Blows out the walls” -ORGANIZING: Not just about start and finish - but PROCESS. Mapping THINKING. (Instagrok) -Share quotes
- -Thanks for support -Questions or feedback?