Tag Archives: OntarioExtend

Feb 27 2020
(11) 5332, Uncategorized

EDTECH IS MORE THAN KAHOOT

In this post for #UWINDIG2020, I will dive into the Technologist Module by Ontario Extend. This resource is a form of open education, which allows us to interact with Professional Learning Networks (PLN’s) and gain knowledge from free, collective resources made by educators, for educators, around the world. By writing this blog post, I hope to contribute something valuable to this PLN, and learn how to be intentional with my technological choices in the classroom.

I chose to develop a Twitter Essay for my offering, which was a surprisingly difficult process. As an avid twitter user in my youth, I thought it would be easier to formulate coherent tweets in 280 characters or less, with appropriate visual additions. It’s safe to say I was wrong. However, I had fun with it, and found myself laughing while picking from the culturally-relevant GIF’s.

The Design Thinking process was easy to follow, and is a good addition to the SAMR framework proposed in class. Design Thinking focuses on being learner-centered and receiving feedback along the way, while ensuring that learning outcomes are still being met. Thus, the new, carefully-curated technological offering, is likely to be a Modification or Redefinition of a previous task. The point that stood out for me here was empathizing – responding to the real needs of students.

Most of my classmates (and teachers) have heard me express my own frustrations with educators and administrators failing to listen to the needs of students. Frivolous projects that students did not ask for (cough, Math Proficiency Test), are unfortunately prevalent in our Education system. That’s why I was so glad to see Ontario Extend thoroughly involve learners in the design process. This can be accomplished by completing an empathy map, which is often used by entrepreneurs for new business ventures. I completed one of these in a Creative Entrepreneurship class that I took, but have never thought about their affordances in education before!

An Empathy Map from Solutions IQ that’s a little cuter than the one in the Module (because I’m Type A).

Defining a learner challenge requires educators to admit that there may be better way of doing things. This may be the hardest part for most educators, as many remain stuck in their ways. They also may not see a need to change their format if content is getting covered.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

To me, the first indication that change is needed is that students are bored, unmotivated or restless in a class. The students in my first practicum class (Grade 11 Chemistry) seemed disengaged from their learning, but I felt hopeless about how to meaningfully integrate technology. If only I had this module sooner!

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Ideating using mind maps is important, but (hopefully) most educators have been using this concept for the duration of their career. How else would I get through this multimedia reflection?

The real task is picking an EdTech tool that works for your learner challenge. In class, we discussed considering the affordances and implications of different platforms. The tool should also be appropriate to the task at hand. Dr. Tony Bates describes criteria to consider in a concise way in his SECTIONS model below.

Next, educators develop a Prototype of their technological offering, and Share it with students. Again, I love that students are centered at every point in the design process since they know best what’s right for them.

The Module ends by directing educators to set a clear path for students to navigate the technological tool, and relating the activity back to the curriculum. At least for me, this part seems the most straightforward, as I’ve frequently practiced giving clear directions and detailing curriculum expectations in my lesson plans.

Overall, I definitely learned something about education, but I mainly realized the major links between digital pedagogy and digital entrepreneurship. Creative offerings for businesses require the same basic processes – maybe the Faculty of Education should start teaching business classes!

If you want to see more of my tweets, you can find them here.

Thanks for reading,

Megan Elliott

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Feb 19 2020
3 Comments
(10) 5332

Trendy or Evidence-Based Teaching Practice? How to Determine if Your Selection of Digital Technology Effectively Meets the Needs of Learners

While many trendy technology-based educational resources appear to be “groundbreaking” and “revolutionary” in meeting the needs of students, they do not always follow the appropriate steps to effectively “support, facilitate, and enrich” learning experiences. When you are seeking technological resources to meet the needs of students, you must be grounded in the appropriate information and tools to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these resources. Do not fall victim to the persuasive businessperson, who has not stepped inside of a classroom in years, claiming that their technological resource will transform the learning experiences in your classroom.

Making money is sometimes more of a priority for educational technology designers and marketers instead of meeting the needs of learners.

Thankfully there is a module, hosted by Ontario Extend, that can assist you in evaluating the effectiveness of these technological resources.

The module details a Design Think Process that can assist educators in evaluating the digital technology they introduce to their classroom

Extend’s technologist module is designed to assist educators in incorporating technological tools into their classrooms effectively to address specific challenges in learning. The module discusses four learning objectives for educators that apply to their selection, use, and integration of technological tools in the classroom in promotion of evidence-based practice. These steps must be considered before introducing technology into the classroom to address a specific need. Educators should  reflect on the digital literacies they have used for teaching, explore ways integrating technology in classrooms can address learner-centered challenges, use the SECTIONS framework to determine if a technological tool is effective for teaching and learning, and use a design-thinking approach to create a learning activity involving technology.

I have created an infographic that elaborates on the objectives of this module:

Infographic created on Canva

This infographic could be useful as a reference in many educational settings. Educators who plan to introduce new technological resources to their classrooms could review this infographic and verify that their process and product is aligned with the steps of effectively supporting the needs in classes through the use of their digital technology.

Consider the SECTIONS framework when selecting technology and media for your classroom

As a high school music teacher candidate, I have already applied these steps to evaluating the technological resources I have encountered in my own lesson planning. I have already collected some new technological tools for potential future lessons because they aligned with the learner-centered steps outlined by the module. For example, recording softwares and applications Audacity, GarageBand, and Voice Memo have the potential of enhancing learning experiences, as they include all elements of the SECTIONS framework. They provide multiple methods of differentiation and do not require personal data to be used at no cost. Specific collaborative assignments can encourage face-to-face networking in classrooms for students using these programs. The learning experiences involving these programs can be tailored to the needs of most students.

There are numerous considerations to be made when introducing technology to your classroom. Follow the appropriate steps and you will likely avoid excluding learners from enriching experiences in your classroom.

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