Dear Future Me,

I am sure that as you read this you will be thinking how foolish this all seems. Remember when we used to carry change so that we could use the pay phone? Or how stylish we looked with our pagers? Teaching without technology is much like the pay phone of the past, what’s the point everyone has “communicators” now. But here we are, stuck in the ancient days where retro is retro. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of a few things. Things that I am sure you already know but here it goes.

Point one. Good lessons don’t just happen they are planned. Understanding by Design is a great framework to keep the important things, always at the forefront of your planning. By starting with the “end in mind” it allows you the opportunity to create highly interactive and creative lessons that have an important purpose in mind not just the fun activity. This also helps you know when you have obtained your goals and answered your essential questions. 

Point two. Technology must be used to enhance your pedagogy. Technology without a purpose is just a flashy new toy that will eventually be left for the next flashy new toy. There must be a purpose for the technology. Fullan in his book Stratosphere outlines how pedagogy and technology must work together to enhance learning. Use TPACK as a way of looking at the content and pedagogy then evaluate a technology that best supports your pedagogy. Even if it is a low tech option sometimes that is the best choice of technology for the pedagogy and content. So that brings me to what type of pedagogy should we choose? 

Point three. Choose a pedagogy that works. When you are designing your units you will need to pick a pedagogy to use before you pick the technology that will enhance it. Pick what works. “Know thy impact” is a quote from  John Hattie. The idea is to know what methods provide the best outcomes for student learning. When you develop your lesson plans consider which you will use to get the most impact from your instruction.

Point four. How are you going to use the technology? Think about what role you are going to give to technology. Using the SAMR model, are you just substituting a previous technology for a new and improved one ie. paper assignment versus electronic Word document? Or, are you using the technology to create a learning experience that was not previously possible? 

Point five. Stay flexible. Sometimes, even after we have put all this work into the previous four points, lessons will still fail. Stay flexible and know that if something isn’t working that this is just an opportunity to learn and ask questions. Value the students perspective as they know more than we tend to give them credit for. Following an unplanned rabbit trail may provide some of the best learning experiences, be willing to go there.

Keep learning, never be satisfied with the status quo.

I want to make sure my students have the materials and experiences they need to succeed, so I just created a request for my classroom at DonorsChoose.org: Digital Fitness Trackers For Health and Wellness Classes. (https://www.donorschoose.org/project/digital-fitness-trackers-for-health-and/3992367/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=sendFriend&utm_campaign=tpc_complete_mailto&utm_term=teacher_6315937&rf=sendFriend-dc-2019-03-tpc_complete_mailto-teacher_6315937&challengeid=21365185).

Give to my classroom by March 17 and your donation will be doubled thanks to DonorsChoose.org. Just enter the code LIFTOFF on the payment page and you’ll be matched dollar for dollar (up to $50).

If you chip in to help my students, you’ll get awesome photos and our heartfelt thanks.

Thanks so much,
Steve

P.S. If you know anyone who may want to help my classroom, please pass this along!

I am planning on taking my students on a virtual field trip called “Discover Your Happy”. It fits within the topic of mental/emotional health which is part of the health curriculum. I am excited to bring this interactive virtual field trip into my classroom because so many students struggle with mental and emotional health issues. This field trip provides practical ways to improve your mental health through the six essential skills of Mindfulness, Human Connection, Gratitude, Positive Outlook, Purpose, and Generosity. 

I am excited to try this virtual field trip but even more exciting is the list of other virtual resources that Discovery Education offers. There are many websites offering virtual field trips but Discovery Education includes great teacher resources that support each field trip. Google also provides a virtual field trip experience with their Expeditions app which provides Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality field trips. This type of learning experience is truly unique. Student who may never get an opportunity to travel can now easily take a virtual field trip anywhere in the world. Exploring ancient ruins or newly emerging islands around the globe is not only possible it’s even free. 

Great resource for virtual field trips: https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/virtual-field-trip-apps-and-websites

The fitness movement has lead to the development of several devices that monitor biometrics. Heart rate and blood pressure monitors used to be found only in the most expensive fitness machines. Today, these types of data points are collected easily from cheap wearable devices. The Health classroom is a perfect place to utilize these new types of wearable technologies. 

The cheapest wrist monitor that I was able to find on Amazon ran about $9.00. I would love to see a school wide initiative where each student could get a personal fitness tracker however, it just seems cost prohibitive at this point. In a perfect world students could use these devices to monitor their activity levels from steps per day and heart rate to Calories burned. This would make the Nutrition and Fitness units so much more interactive by allowing students to self monitor and set realistic goals for activity levels. 

In the nutrition unit, I ask students to calculate the number of calories they consume each day. If students had a fitness monitor they could calculate the number of calories consumed each day and then compare that with the calories they burned each day based on their current activity levels. Students could use this information to realistically set person goals that they could monitor and report on. 

I found a great resource for the wearable technologies at:  https://medium.com/@timhart0421/wearable-devices-and-the-impact-they-have-on-classrooms-students-afbc010b3889 

The In-Class-Flip

I had heard about flipped classrooms before, one of my good friends https://justmsu.wordpress.com/  even tried it for a year. However, I never really thought that I would want to use it in my own classroom. When my friend tried teaching with the flipped classroom model an area of concern that she kept running into was that students never watched the videos at home. Because of this, the students were using class time to watch the videos and were not able to finish the practice problems in class. There didn’t seem to be an advantage to making the videos if the students weren’t going to watch them. As I read the article from https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/2015/articles/In-Class-Flip I realized that using a highbred model of an “in-class-flip” may resolve some of those concerns. What if I planned for students to watch the videos in class and then provided time to go deeper with the remaining class time. I think this could be a better alternative to the traditional flipped classroom. I like the concept of students being able to rewatch instructional videos at their own pace and frequency. I believe this is the true benefit to the flipped classroom. Students and parents will have access to these videos and will be able to support their learning at home. Class time will be divided into short mini-lessons for instruction with time for projects that deepen their understanding of the topic. I think it is worth the effort to try it. I may even like it! 

I am seeing a trend with students at my school that is very disturbing. Students will enter my classroom with their district provided iPad and sit down and without looking at anyone in the room, open the iPad and start playing a game. The bell rings and these same students will continue to play their games. Quietly, without distracting other students they play. iPads are new to our school, we are only in our second year of the 1 to 1 iPad initiative. With little forethought on how we would use these devices within the classroom, our district provided the resource, but did not provide any additional support to the teachers. Left to their own devices the result is students playing games, surfing the web, and listening to music or emailing other students during class. Why should this surprise me? They are just doing what they know. As Digital Natives they see these devices mostly as a tool to connect and consume content. 

How our students use their devises is just as important as whether they have these devices.

“Traditionally, the digital divide in education referred to schools and communities in which access to devices and Internet connectivity were either unavailable or unaffordable. Although there is still much work to be done, great progress has been made providing connectivity and device access. …While essential, closing the digital divide alone will not transform learning. We must also close the digital use divide by ensuring all students understand how to use technology as a tool to engage in creative, productive, life-long learning rather than simply consuming passive content.” (EDNETP16 http://tech.ed.gov)

This idea of a Digital Use Divide is an essential problem in my school. If students are using the iPad as a way of passively consuming content or at best using it as a digital replacement to the worksheet what is the point of having the device?

“On its own, access to connectivity and devices does not guarantee access to engaging educational experiences or a quality education. Without thoughtful intervention and attention to the way technology is used for learning, the digital use divide could grow even as access to technology in schools increases.” (EDNETP16 http://tech.ed.gov)

This is the crucial component to creating engaging educational experiences that use educational technologies. We as teachers must give thoughtful attention to how we will use the tech in our classrooms. There are several models that come to mind (SAMR-vs-TPACK) that help us evaluate how we are using these technologies but as the instructor of the course we must actually plan for this. Answering the question “How will students be actively involved with the technology to create or explore the content in a new way?” Most likely there will be a balance, students will consume and create using the given technology. However, without proper planning and professional development educators will be less likely to take these risks pedagogically. The result is a growing Digital Use Divide from those students who have teachers that create lessons that engage the learner in an active role with their learning and those that are more passive. 

I created my first TED-Ed lesson on Social Health you can link to it below.

https://ed.ted.com/on/50yJPFVd

I hope to use this with my students this week as we study the Health Triangle and the three components of Health.

UDL or Universal Design for Learning is a methodology that teachers can use to create a classroom environment that supports all learners. UDL uses a framework or guideline that supports teachers in designing their classrooms to engage every learner. The guidelines are divided into three specific principles of focus Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression. In the video below you will see an explanation of how to use the UDL Guidelines.

UDL is new to me, I am learning how to create lessons and structures that would support a UDL framework within my classroom. I hope to use this framework over the next two weeks within my classroom as a way of experimenting with these concepts. I am excited to try some of these Engagement strategies that will create an environment where every student feels safe and is able to access the curriculum in multiple ways by Providing individual choice, Optimizing relevance and value, and Minimizing perceived threats and distractions.

More information can be found at: CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Although I have been using these standards in my classroom for the last two years I have not written about them on my blog. The International Society for Technology in Education or ISTE got its start in 1979 by a group of educators from the University of Oregon. Today, they work to promote the effective use of technology in the classroom by promoting technology as a pedagogical tool. Below you will find the ISTE standards for students and a short description of the standard as defined by ISTE.

Empowered Learner

Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

Digital Citizen

Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

Knowledge Constructor

Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

Innovative Designer

Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

Computational Thinker

Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

Creative Communicator

Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

Global Collaborator

Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

I use these standards within my classroom to help plan instruction and provide methods of deepening student engagement. I want students to explore the content area in ways that also take advantage of the technology they have available. I haven’t been successful in every standard but I am learning.

The SAMR Model is one method of evaluating the effectiveness of the technology we use as educators. Teachers may start out at the Substitution level by replacing the current activity with one that can be easily replicated online. An example of this may be a test or quiz. What a teacher in the past would have created on paper can now be moved to an online assessment that can be graded and feedback can be given as the student takes the tests. This is an improvement from the paper pencil exams but does not change the teaching practice in any way. These practices enhance student learning but are not transforming their learning into something they could never have achieved without the use of the technology. The goal of the SAMR Model is to move up the ladder towards the Modification Redefinition levels. As the activities become more Transformative the student is using technology in ways that were previously impossible.

TPACK is another model that teachers have used to evaluate technology in the classroom. The T stands for Technology, and represents the knowledge the teacher has about technology in the classroom. This is limited by the what the teacher knows. The P stands for Pedagogical knowledge,  this represents the methods a teacher uses to present a lesson to the students. The Last area of TPACK is C for Content knowledge. This is the content the teacher is trying to get the student to learn or understand. Where TPACK is helpful is where Technology, Pedagogy, and Content intersect in the Venn diagram. This area is according to the model the best use of technology because it combines the knowledge of content and pedagogy.

A major concern that I have with TPACK is if my technological knowledge is limited how would I know I am reaching the full potential of the learning through the technology? What makes me say these Scantron tests should be updated? SAMR is constantly looking to improve or Transform the learning by pushing teachers to reach above the line with their use of technology in the classroom.

I think both models are important but I feel that using the SAMR model in my daily practice is more beneficial to me. I also like the PIC-RAT model when used with SAMR and Blooms Digital Taxonomy. Check out my blog post on those other models here: https://mrbtechblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/samr-vs-picrat-vs-blooms/