Week #2 Blog

Teaching In the Digital Age

Image Source: GVU Center at Georgia Tech

      The Digital Age generates significantly more information through computers, mobile devices, etc. This information also originates from less regulated sources such as social media. Therefore, there is greater importance for students to learn how to analyze and interpret digital data. (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009). Traditional teaching focused on repetition and written text, but there is diversity in how teachers strive to incorporate digital literacy. As Daley indicated, some of those visual cues seen in film act as adverbs, adjectives and metaphors in classical text formats (Daley, 2003).  I really liked this description because it reaffirms that what we do for fun with social media tools has potential for deeper educational value if presented in the right context.  For example, some friends and I created a photobook for someone using his Facebook pictures (see page excerpts below).  Some of his observations and themes have potential for some type of civics or art project if framed correctly academic merit from the context of urban development, community building or art. High school students would welcome the creative flexibility.

Source: www.shutterfly.com/home/myshutterflysfly

             I am not a traditional teacher but I in my professional career as an auditor, consultant, mentor, career coach and youth development volunteer I had a responsibility to ensure that individuals and groups I worked with or mentored learned new concepts efficiently. Therefore, developing a system to identify learning needs was important.  The “teacher as designer” concept resonates with me. The structure requires that one thinks about using the right people and tools to meet the learning objectives (Hodell, 2011). But I could have benefited from leveraging interactive techniques.

             For example, I designed several courses for accounting and financial management professionals not familiar with government processes of a major city. To make the information more digestible in a one hour lecture-based course, I used a variety of Visio flow charts and organization charts. Even though these courses were positively highly favorable in formal evaluations, and the training minimized text, my informal scan of the room was that folks occasionally looked like this:

Image Source: giphy.com

Most instructors hope that their audience look like this:

Image Source: giphy.com

             I contrast this experience with a mentoring opportunity where I taught teenagers about public speaking. I designed the session completely differently because I felt the best way to learn public speaking was through practice and constructive criticism. We essentially role-played, and I adjusted the depth of my feedback based on the student’s strengths and weaknesses. As the teens became more comfortable with the critiquing aspect, they started giving each other constructive criticism before the adults. I think this is another important aspect of 21^st curricula.  The social, collaborative learning mentioned by Knobel and Lankshear can embolden students and give them confidence (Knobel and Lankshear 2010).

        I’m pleased that my training experiences involved defining the learning objectives. I also co-develop courses with other Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and we collected evaluations. These steps are included in the Analyze and Design elements of the A.D.D.I.E Model (Hodell, 2011, pg. 25-26).  My training experiences could have benefited from a greater awareness of some of the additional steps noted in the Implementation element such as evaluating changes in Behavior.

             Since I am not a teacher, but I want to work as a program coordinator or project manager with nonprofits in the education sector, I already follow a number of Twitter accounts that focus on education policy, teaching methods, nonprofits that promote digital literacy. They include:

•         Edutopia
•         ISTE (International Society of Technology Education)
•         Shelly Sanchez
•         TechGirlz
•         Vicki Davis
•         US Dept of Ed – Office of Ed Tech

I am designing a unit where students will use qualitative and quantitative research methods and digital tools to explore a civic, environmental or historical issue impacting their community. They can work in groups and they will be assigned peer review teams that give them feedback throughout the course. My community search was a little frustrating at times, and I welcome feedback. The community that I initially joined the Google Expeditions, but I thought leveraging and sharing the curricula would be dependent on purchasing the Expeditions kit.

I decided to review communities that would include SMEs with experience in community education, historical tours, association of children’s museums, urban history, student-directed learning, etc.  I did find some communities, but in a lot of cases the most recent post was 2+ years ago.  Frankly some of the other communities like social studies lesson plans or history lesson plans intimidated me because they were sharing actual lesson plans and inquiring about lessons learned.  My strength is in collaborating on designing courses based on the SME’s needs. I eventually settled on a community called Digital Leadership because I can use more help in identifying and using multimedia. However, I am wondering if I should join ISTE EdTech Coaches PLN.

Daley, E. (2003). Expanding the concept of literacy . EDUCAUSE (March/April), 33-40.

Hodell, Chuck. (2011). Chapter 3: Instructional systems development and the

             ADDIE model. In ISD From the Ground Up: A No-Nonsense Approach to Instructional

             Design (3 rd ed.). American Society for Training and Development: Alexandria, VA.

Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2010). DIY Media: Creating, Sharing and Learning with

             New Technologies . Peter Lang: New York, NY.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009). Curriculum and Instruction: A 21^st  Century Skills

             Implementation Guide.