Power-Up Publishing

 

Educators and administrators talk a lot about student voice, but are we using the tools within our reach to redesign what student-publishing looks like in classrooms in order to empower every voice? One of my biggest goals as a Digital Learning Coach is to shift thinking away from printing as a primary method of publishing student work, particularly in the elementary setting. Considering a more comprehensive shared-definition of publishing as the process of making content public through distribution, it’s about time we expand the ways we encourage our students to show what they know in more engaging and meaningful ways.

Get free from the fridge and beyond the bulletin boards to capture a schoolwide, townwide, or worldwide audience. Creators at every level are expanding their audiences and amplifying their voices to showcase creativity. Let’s rethink our productivity that is limited to classroom-bound books, one-off worksheets, and even the prettiest printed posters.

We have the capacity to create and distribute content like never before. Even better, students become empowered to make their thinking visible, and we can assess understanding while capturing creativity. The audience is no longer limited to the parent who receives the product, or the teacher who corrects it. Innovative tools in the hands of talented teachers and motivated learners upgrade traditional publishing tasks from transactional to transformational.

While it’s critical to capture and celebrate every voice, empowerment includes ensuring that those voices are heard, and that their ideas matter. When classroom teachers find ways to showcase their students’ learning and creativity “beyond the bulletin board,” new voices emerge, and learners rise to meet their audience. Every learner needs to know that their voice, their opinion, and their understanding matter- and that it matters to more than just their classroom teacher. 

The sample ideas below can be modified or adapted across content areas and grade levels. What they have in common is their purpose as digital learning ideas that are designed to capture and model process, showcase and archive products, share and spotlight performance, and explain and demonstrate practices.

These 15 lesson upgrades represent a shift in instructional design as much as they represent a shift in lesson objectives. Their success lies in the hands of skilled educators who can blend clear content objectives with innovative approaches to promote student content-creation and tools to showcase and share their products!

Capture Creativity

•Create a podcast or class blog to provide an audience for students. They create a space to share thoughts, opinions, and actual voices beyond the printed page. 

•Upgrade the traditional imagined interviews with historical characters with a modern twist. Ask students to design instagram or twitter posts from the characters, or create text-conversations to bring the voices, choices, and historical timeline elements to life in a new way.

•Promote digital storytelling for students. From a Scratchjr story frame with first-graders to a middle school graphic novel template, or all the way up to epub novels for high school, students can choose new tools to discover and amplify their written voice further than ever before.

Publish with Purpose

•Post/share QR codes to student-created book reviews, book-talks, or author studies in classrooms, libraries, or hallways displays.

•Solicit movie, book, restaurant recommendations through video (Flip/Clips), audio (podcasts/posts) or digital compilations (Slides, Book Creator) to apply persuasive writing to an authentic audience. 

•Create a year-end  “I survived” assignment for students to create content as a guide for next-year’s/semester’s class 

•Promote student-created commercials or public service announcements (PSA) to promote digital citizenship to lower grade as a school culture initiative or priority.

Beyond the Bulletin Board

•QR codes bring content to life through videos or attached content that demonstrates the creation of the items on the bulletin board, or extends learning by providing addition resources, instructions, or related information.

•Utilize building displays, hallway monitors, or even a laptop station to create publish/distribute student content in the forms of Slides, Infographics, digital billboards, or PSAs.

•Extend printed poetry to a virtual poets’ podcast or interactive Book Creator product that captures writing with accompanying audio or video performance.

•Amplify student art within a virtual gallery, with student-created tutorials and guided tours.

Promote Voice and Choice

•Design logos and infographics to integrate design thinking with content area response.

•Provide menus or choice boards to empower student choice and differentiate options.

•Host a blog/vlog/podcast to publish and promote student voice that is published and promoted across school channels or social media.

•Refresh traditional tri-fold assignments to integrate digital design, augment with recorded audio/video, and publish to families and communities in authentic real-life production tools like Adobe, Google Slides/Sites, PPT, BookCreator, even Seesaw.

Unpacking RISK

 Unpacking RISK

As a digital learning coach, my goal is to encourage educators to reach outside their comfort zone and innovate their instruction through the use of educational technology. it sounds good, but it’s a very tall order, particularly in our post-pandemic learning landscapes where “back to normal” has become a priority among families and administrators.

Let’s reframe the notion of risk vs. reward to instead consider risk creating reward. This shift requires a special set of circumstances if we are serious about asking teachers to reach beyond their current capacity, interest, or understanding.

Let’s unpack RISK as the intersection of Readiness, Intrinsic Motivation, Safety, and Knowledge.

Readiness

Just like anyone else, teachers require a particular comfort-level in order to reach beyond their comfort zone. A current challenge is that most educators have been well outside of their comfort zone for the past fews years, reporting that last year was the most challenging yet. Risk taking only works when educators feel prepared, motivated, supported, and ready to try something new. They can be made to deploy new approaches, or cover new curriculum, but that separates risk-taking from rule-following.

Intrinsic Motivation

When it matters to a teacher, the most amazing things can happen. Risk-taking increases when the goals, topics, or initiatives carry personal meaning or interest for a teacher. A teacher’s passion or personal motivation raises the stakes for instructional success, and carries emotional investment.

Safety

Educators will not take risks, make themselves vulnerable, or challenge the status quo if there isn’t a psychological safety net to support them, or if they feel as though it will jeopardize their job. The culture of the teaching and learning environment, and the support of leadership, set the tone that either encourages or discourages risk-taking. It’s not that complex, and it shouldn’t be surprising, and yet culture-driven initiatives or innovative messaging are often overshadowed by curriculum demands, ongoing assessment, and instructional time-constraints.  

Knowledge

Educators are used to being the experts, content-masters, and the disseminators of knowledge, but taking risks requires flexibility and adaptability if things don’t go as planned. Teachers need to rely upon their knowledge and craft as educators to maintain instructional objectives and keep their focus on student-learning without getting distracted by the application of innovative tools or products.

Now let’s unpack the Reward of RISK as Resilience, Investment, Support, and Know-how

Resilience 

Educators who find success through risk-taking increase their likelihood of continued risk taking and innovation, while modeling a pathway to inspire colleagues. Even those who may not achieve all of their objectives strengthen their resilience through reflection and evaluation of their process.

Investment

Risk-taking yields personal investment when interest or passion projects turn from ideas to action. Where the intrinsic motivation helps teachers take the plunge with zeal, the payoff is in the developing product that carries emotional attachment. 

Support 

Success yields repetition, and a district that recognizes instructional innovation or success automatically builds a support system that will encourage further risk-taking. 

Know-how

Aspiring teachers aren’t necessarily trained to take risks, embark on innovation, or “think outside the box.” When an educator takes a successful risk, and their efforts are recognized, they create a pathway for others to follow, clearing a runway for increased risk-taking as a priority within their instructional culture. 

 

Teachers can get caught in some deep ruts, but we need to acknowledge that while these ruts may sometimes work well, they can also reinforce inefficiency or even bad habits. Integrating new initiatives or innovation can threaten carefully crafted structures or long-standing traditions, and feel isolating enough that many choose not to drift outside the lines. There can be a vulnerability when straying from a prescribed lesson plan or unit of study to extend thinking, capitalize on an unexpected opportunity, or just try an innovative strategy discovered on Twitter, but successful risk-takers don't let that risk outweigh the reward.

When teachers combine readiness, intrinsic motivation, safety, and knowledge to embark upon meaningful risk, they build (in themselves and in their buildings) resilience, investment, support, and know-how.

Risk Creates Reward!

Domains of Digital Learning

 

 

As a digital learning coach, my primary goal has always been to support and enhance the instructional capacity of educators. As we begin the 2022-2023 school year, I’ve expanded my goal in context of our continued post-pandemic recovery. My role is most effective as a collaborative partner embedding digital learning practices to help educators reclaim their classrooms, reignite their passions, and reaffirm their purpose.

 

If we remember to stick to the ABCs- Always Build Capacity (thanks @jeantower), we can do a bit of reflective practice to flip that acronym and find out why. That brings us to CBA- Capacity Builds Agency. Yes, capacity builds agency, and that’s the struggle I see facing many classrooms as we look for restorative practices to “get back to normal.” 

 

Learning loss can be a toxic and triggering phrase, but the loss that the folks inside the school walls care most about is that loss of agency, both student and teacher agency, where leadership, autonomy, resilience, and flexibility are prioritized. My view of agency through the lens of digital learning as the intersection and application of three domains of digital learning: Wellness, Competency, and Creativity. 

 

 

Wellness describes who students are and will become through a digital citizenship and social-emotional lens. Competency describes what digital skills and behaviors students acquire to become empowered learners. Creativity describes how students acquire knowledge and demonstrate learning through integrated technology. Educators, schools, and districts working to advance digital learning at scale can usually compartmentalize their products, practices, goals and objectives within these three domains. Using the three domains to begin a branched framework, there are components within each domain that leaders can identify as areas for focus, goals, or growth. These sub-components are described in the following sections, and are categorized to help school teams or leaders identify lanes to work toward change, rather than trying to elevate all aspects of digital learning at once.

 

Wellness

Wellness in digital learning is more complex and comprehensive than an outdated coverage of digital citizenship. In fact, digital citizenship is often viewed by classroom teachers and families within a framework of internet safety and behavior. Wellness builds upon and expands digital citizenship while encompassing and including families, society, social emotional learning and mental health in a more holistic view of digital literacy. See the links at the end of this post to dig deeper into digital wellness components (physical, cognitive, emotional, community) through Kerry Gallagher’s Connect Safely blog. 

 

Schools looking to broaden their scope of wellness support for their learning community can begin by expanding from a limited digital citizenship perspective to incorporate technology that supports social-emotional learning and engages families and communities.

 

Competency

This domain spans the skills learners acquire and the opportunities we provide to measure their capacity and growth. In a competency approach, learning shifts to the application of concepts in intentional and meaningful modes. Competency in digital learning measures learners’ ability to accomplish tasks and apply authentic skills across content areas, rather than navigating a scope and sequence of technology-based tasks surrounding the operation of products and devices. 

Reminding ourselves to keep our instructional focus on student processes rather than vendors’ products, the competency domain addresses capacity building, skill development, and digital literacy as the priorities for effective digital learning, rather than limited technology operation.  

 

Creativity

If we want to empower a generation of content-creators, we need to prioritize digital design and creativity as critical classroom competencies. We need to update what it means for students to publish their work through methods like digital media, blogs, podcasts, and presentations. Shifting students from consuming to creating is a gradual process that has suffered a backslide returning from the pandemic. It is more important than ever to re engage all learners with effective tech integration. 

Future-ready learners require options and opportunities to ignite higher-order thinking. Creativity and flexibility promote engaged learning, collaborative problem-solving, and empowered learning.  The creative process requires an approach and an educator who believes that innovation is a culture shift, not a climate act, and that empowered student voice and choice through authentic digital literacy as an essential classroom competency.

 

When it comes to professional learning, it can be too much to expect every classroom teacher to manage the necessary work of rebuilding students’ connection to school and learning while reclaiming their own. Teachers have identified this past year as their hardest yet, and that leaves little room for professional growth beyond essentials. Conceptualizing digital learning across domains can lighten the load. Focusing individually on digital wellness, competency, or creativity domains reduces the cognitive load on educators and shifts the expectation to more targeted capacity-building efforts. 

 

Considering these three domains of wellness, competency, and creativity is also a way for administrators to focus their assessment on ways in which teachers engage students with technology. Let’s move past ideas for entry level tech-integration. We are integrated, whether through 1:1 devices, LMS platforms, or tech-enhanced lesson plans. Let’s broaden our interpretation of digital learning to have a richer and more meaningful understanding of technology integration that addresses student wellness, competency, and creativity.

 

Kerry Gallagher’s ConnectSafelyBlog Posts

• What is Digital Wellness? - ConnectSafely

• Physical Wellness  

• Cognitive Wellness

• Emotional Wellness 

Feedback and Loops

In a recent virtual meeting about the importance of instructional feedback, I noted how we often overlook the importance of timely, structured, and contextual feedback in the interest of professional development. Feedback can be powerful.  Feedback can’t be a receipt or takeaway note if the goal is collaboration, dialogue, or any sort of coaching, mentoring, or even observational communication. Feedback can also be problematic when it’s unsolicited or even unwelcome.  In our edusphere, and in my coaching role, it’s important to have a clear vision on effective feedback methods, and the concept of a feedback loop is powerful for meaningful collaboration and communication.

Feedback is often one-directional.  In-game coaching, course feedback forms, or even rubrics are examples of a one-directional feedback source.  A rubric isn’t feedback, at least if it’s delivered as an end-of-project receipt or scorecard.  I’ve never really seen a student pour over the squares in which their work has been scored in order to collect any new information.

A feedback loop is a different story.  A loop isn’t directional; it implies dialogue or conversation.  There’s input and output.  Interestingly, as a musician, it’s critical to avoid feedback loops at all costs, in which inputs and outputs become imbalanced.  That’s the danger zone where one source overwhelms the other.  There’s a clear lesson to be found for administrators, team-members, and instructional coaches!  A balanced, ongoing, and monitored exchange can create a meaningful model for learning and growth.

A loop is cyclical, which can be a good or a bad thing.  A positive loop spirals and strengthens, where a negative loop can reinforce bad habits and damage relationships. If you’ve been teaching long enough, you’ve likely seen or experienced either of these types of feedback loop. 

Whether it’s directional or in a loop, feedback should carry context for if the goal is growth.  Observations shouldn’t be able to be easily misinterpreted, and information and data should be actionable.  Feedback shouldn’t feel transactional.  It should feel informative, whether the news is good or bad.  Sometimes feedback is automatic.  In fact, some of the most immediate changes occur in response to negative feedback, whether it’s a microphone squeal, a dog’s snarl, or a spiraling student.

It’s our job to turn that information into action.  Coders take unsuccessful attempts in stride to debug their programs, musicians move their microphones or shift their levels, and skilled educators adjust their practice to respond and react to the formative feedback in front of them. Mechanisms like forms and surveys collect data or work as a dipstick to capture a moment for a classroom teacher or building administrator. In these instances, real-time feedback can provide real-time adjustment in the form of formative feedback.

Feedback in the form of performance assessments, reviews, or even course grades have big strings attached and are quite different from the types of feedback in formative meetings, brainstorming sessions, or peer observations.  Each type of feedback serves it’s specific purpose, but it’s critical that all parties understand the types of language, criteria, and evaluative measures in place if the feedback has any hope of being effectively applied to practice. 

Why Wordle?

Quick post for a quick game: Wordle

In the middle of a worldwide pandemic, this strange phenomenon has captured our attention.  If you're among the last to learn what the yellow and green graphic is all about, then you may just be in for a treat.  Wordle is a simple, quick, but complex little puzzle.  I think its popularity and success is due to exactly that: the blend of simplicity, speed, and complexity.

It takes a minute to learn, a few minutes to play, and you get only one!  At its simplest, it's hangman + Mastermind.  You have to solve a five letter mystery word by guessing letter, and your only help is instant feedback indicating correct letter or correct letter and place.

If you've read my blog, you already know my affinity for classic logic/strategy board games in the classroom, particularly those the employ computational thinking strategies. Games that require sequence, strategy, logical reasoning, or algorithmic thinking add context for students’ understanding of computational thinking beyond coding tasks.  Exploring and identifying how parts of a system, game, or program, relate, connect, and combine build foundational concepts for later computational thinking construction. The thinking skills that make Wordle challenging and fun intersect with CT in the same way as solitaire puzzles, Mastermind, or peg-board games.  Worlde is a funny combination of logic, pattern strategy with a vocab twist!

It's a curious strategy to only provide one puzzle per day, and perhaps some paid platform will emerge, but it's refreshing to complete (or not) one short puzzle and carry on with the rest of the day. There's no rabbit hole.

In terms of its popularity, I can't remember a simpler and more contagious digital game.  I'm not sure where I land on everyone sharing their results.  Is it obnoxious? I don't think so.  It's informative and  impermanent, and if I solved a puzzle in 2 or three steps, I'd probably shout about it, too. It's a fun and fleeting phenomenon, but I will admit to being impressed and curious at seeing how well others across social media tackled a particular puzzle.

The shared results are also interesting, as anyone who has played the game can instantly decode each others' game-play in a simple, single icon.  If you see their chart, you know their process.  In fact, I've found myself looking at others' early attempts at guessing the word to try to figure out their guesses.  Anyone else?  Maybe this is a clever classroom idea to try...

As an educator, I see immediate applications, and I imagine kicking off lessons with today's Wordle, designing Wordle races, or creating lessons for students to design their own wordle challenges for each other.  

What will you come up with?