Digital Age Learning Environments
Evidence of Mastery for Standard III Indicators
Below are the indicators that guide this ISTE standard and evidence supporting my mastery of these indicators. In creating digital environments, technology coaches should:
Model effective classroom management and collaborative learning strategies…access to technology-rich learning environments. In the post, “Culturally Relevant Learning Environments,” I explore what it takes to build community online. The online classroom should be either an extension of the physical classroom, or may replace the physical classroom altogether. To make students feel comfortable in an online environment, students need to feel as if they are respected and their values are reflected into the space. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) helps to build that deeper rapport among all individuals in the classroom as it incorporates present cultures in the learning strategies. CRP creates socially-just spaces and helps students identify aspects of themselves into the manner in which they are taught.
Because CRP is individualized to a specific classroom setting, I was finding it difficult to understand how it could be implemented in nutrition and began investigating examples. The main idea behind CRP is to look at a general concept through the the lens of that student. I realized that the question, “what is a healthy diet?” could take on many meaning depending on where students are from and what they’ve been exposed to. In applying CRP, having students validate their backgrounds and understand that there isn’t a right or wrong way to eat respects their backgrounds and helps them better understanding the nutrition principles.
Maintain and manage a variety of digital tools and resources for teacher and student use in technology-rich learning environments. While there are several reasons to use educational technology in the classroom, using the technology for the right reason is important in overall effectiveness. As part of the “Developing Evaluation Criteria for EdTech Tools,” post I learned that the tool chosen should increase student engagement, support the current pedagogy, and include good support to contribute to troubleshoot skills. Along with the Triple E framework and SAMR models, testing tech tools against the criteria set above helps ensure that the right tool is used for the educator’s teaching style and purpose.
I used these standards while evaluating tools for content curation to help students build information fluency in the “Effective Tech Tools in Content Curation for Research,” post. In an effort to make it easier for my students to collect and synthesize research, I searched for tech tools which contain curation libraries. Since there were several options that appeared after a Google search, I created a criteria checklist in which to compare the apps. From there I compared the top choices against the Triple E framework and ultimately narrowed down the options to two potential apps. I made my final decision based on cost, other functionality of the app, and user interface.
Coach teachers in and model use of online and blended learning, digital content, and collaborative learning networks to support and…expand opportunities and choices for online professional development for teachers and administrators. In one of our Masters classes, we were challenged to create a continuing education lesson plan to submit to a conference of our choosing. I chose to focus my lesson plan on collaborative tech tools for nutrition education. I had been learning about the new initiative on nutrition informatics and its uses in practice. I wanted to share what I had learned in the digital education program to other dietitians to show that social media can be used as more than just information dissemination and promotion. I developed the lesson plan with the goal of introducing ways to incorporate digital tools into existing lesson plans in mind. More details about the lesson plan is available in this post. I had the opportunity to present this plan at an annual nutrition conference. Details on the event is presented in ISTE coaching standard 2B).
Select, evaluate, and facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive technologies to support student learning. As part of the lesson plan created in indicator 3C), I created a website which hosts three videos describing the steps in the “Backwards Design” model to incorporate edtech into existing lesson plans. It was important to incorporate captions as part of assistive technology to support all students. The video was created with screen-capturing software, TechSmith Relay, and later uploaded and captioned using YouTube’s captioning functionality.
Through this process, I finally understood the importance of assistive technology. Great effort was put into each video to ensure that all students can use and learn according to their abilities. After this experience, I now always take the extra steps to add captions or use alternative text to all graphics I upload into my digital environments.
Troubleshoot basic software, hardware, and connectivity problems common in digital learning environments. Troubleshooting is just another word for problem-solving. It is a complex, high-order thinking skill. Yet, in this post about digital competence, I learn that we are short-changing students by giving them all of the answers, creating a culture of “learned helplessness”. Instead, we should be encouraging and supporting troubleshooting. Since writing the post, I have attempted to model, encourage, and develop troubleshooting skills in my students. Rather than giving them the answers to questions, I encourage them to find the solution for themselves. For example, if they have an issue with a software program used in class, I send them the tutorial and/or FAQs to figure out the issue on their own. My students were not very welcoming of this approach when I first adopted it in my classes. However, I am beginning to see the fruits of my efforts with my graduating seniors. One of my research groups was experiencing difficulty running a statistical test on a software program they’ve chosen. They consulted with me to help them troubleshoot some potential reasons why their test continually generated an error message. All I did was describe the elements needed for a successful test and without prompt, my students thanked me and told me that they could look up a tutorial about how to run the test themselves. This is just one example of how these students have gained the ability to problem-solve on their own.
Collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and evaluate digital tools and resources that enhance teaching and learning and are compatible with the school technology infrastructure. In this last quarter of the Masters program, I embarked on a project to look a future classroom models guided by feedback from the Classroom Technology Survey, data inputs from the classroom technology itself, and stakeholders. This project allowed several opportunities to collaborate with faculty and various departments on campus. Though the discussions have only just begun, the stakeholders seemed very optimistic about the direction of education technology for our university. More information about the project and its outcomes are found here.
Use digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community. I experienced firsthand technology’s ability to connect students with the outside world. In my “LifeCycle Nutrition” course, students learn about the needs of childhood nutrition and some issues that can arise with malnutrition. One of the major issues concerning childhood now is childhood obesity. Students have the opportunity to learn about the effects of obesity from their texts then watch a movie called “Weight of the Nation” where they see firsthand the implications of obesity socially, physically, economically. Upon reflection students have some strong unresolved emotions that they never got to express. For the global collaboration project, I wanted to give my students an opportunity to be part of the solution. We used Flipgrid to create videos with instructions on a simple solution for the obesity problem a 7th grader could implement. We then sent the videos to a 7th grade PE class in a school district about one hour away. Though students were not able to see the 7th graders responses, they did learn how they can collaborate with others on a more global level. More detailed information about the experience is provided in the full report: Nutrition Action Challenge
