Today I had the opportunity to talk about differentiating instruction with a group of educators using mobile technology as a part of ISTE’s Verizon Innovative Learning Schools virtual conference.

At the end of the end of this session (with no time left to respond), this great question came up:

“How do you all suggest differentiating when it comes to kids who don’t work well with technology in a technology based class?”

[wait time...in case you want to think or write about this yourself before I start thinking aloud ;]

Credit: rosipaw

Differentiation is all about accommodating different learning styles and empowering learners to guide their own learning. If some learners don’t work well with technology, don’t force it. Instead, help them find strategies that work for them.

(Side note: I think it’s probably worth some time to look with these learners at why they “don’t work well with technology.” Is it certain kinds of technology? Is it certain kinds of content or activities? Are there other factors in play? Do they use Facebook or play WOW? Saying that someone “doesn’t work well with technology” seems a little like saying someone doesn’t work well with paper. I’m not discounting the possibility, but just saying that it merits some exploration. It’s a big world, technology is.)

Depending on the age of the student, I would put equal onus on him/her to puzzle through this. Some exploration about how we learn and taking responsibility for our learning is a good thing for all of us.

Then, if you end up at the same place, accommodate! There are a million ways to learn that aren’t technology-based. When I taught, we had very little access to technology, and so I differentiated in many other ways that you’ve probably all used. I made up independent learning project folders that students could choose from and work on at their own pace. I encouraged individual reading and writing on topics of choice. I tried to avoid a lot of whole class work and to give students flexibility in pacing and had them track and monitor their own progress.

What would I do differently now (but with no technology)? More language support. More use of multiple resources. Less use of textbooks. (There are many non-technology options: magazines, trade books, video, mentors, hands on experiences, etc.) And always more acknowledgement of where students are starting from and working from there, rather than trying to fit a learner into a hole he/she just doesn’t fit in.

And of course, I’d probably try to find some alluring, atypical technology treats to dangle in front of these learners as well.

How about you? What ideas do you have?

I do a lot of work to help teachers and students differentiate and personalize learning. One thing I know about this is that you need A LOT of content to succeed in doing this. Also, mobile technology makes it a lot more feasible.

I also believe that you need a HOME BASE, that is, one central place for all that content to live. This “home base” should be the place where kids know to go everyday to find what they need. (I’ve also found that having this kind of “home base” will prompt students to go and explore areas that may not even be covered in class.) For most schools, this will be a cloud- or network-based place.

There are many options for where this “home base” might be hosted, ranging from something as simple as a foldering system (like Google Drive or even a network drive) to something more complex like a full content management system.

Two important variables in considering the options are:

• Cost  (and by cost, I mean not only whether it is free or how much you pay for it, but also by how easy it is for an individual teacher to use without necessarily having district IT help)
• Student data tracking capabilities (This means the degree to which you can see what students access, how long they spend on it, what assessment results they have, etc. This information is obviously very useful to teachers.)

Using those those two variables, I’ve made this graphic to list out some different options.

What do you think? Is this useful? Are there other big content hosting/organization tools or platforms that are missing?

I’ll be continuing to refine this so I appreciate any input.

I am a big fan of DS106, the digital storytelling MOOC (group? online course? community? it’s a mix, I guess), and especially of the Daily Create project there, which is a way to encourage myself to create something on a (not quite) daily basis.

As I’ve been thinking more about the maker movement and getting more involved in it, I’ve also been thinking more about how to encourage more learning activities centered on creativity.

For the last couple years, I’ve been helping to put on a local event for kids that is a part of a larger adult event focused on the cultural and natural heritage of our area. This year, I decided to do a short hands-on activity on digital photography, very roughly borrowing from the Daily Create.

Our group of kids for this was about 10 and included kids from age 4 to 14. Here was the overview we started with:

The kids especially liked making up stories to go with some of the photos we showed (slides 3-5). They were very creative, and I think this also helped them think about how photos can tell stories.

Then we gave kids little slips of paper with photo challenges on this. (This list was brainstormed with some of my Twitter friends. Thanks to all who contributed.)

Then we turned the kids loose with cameras to do the challenges. Not only did they *love* this activity, but they took some really great photos. Below are a few. (Note that we didn’t have access to computers for this activity, so all the focus was on the actual photography. Another dimension could be added with computers and editing activities.)

I was surprised how well this worked with very small preschool kids all the way up to high school kids. I think the kids took away all kinds of interested ideas and new ways of thinking. I hope this will lead them to thoughtful storytelling and creating in the future.

As always, feel free to borrow anything here for your own use if it’s helpful.

“Make a picture with a rock in it.” by 4 year old Emery:

[these pics to come pending approval]

“Make a picture with straight lines in it.” (by Arwen)

“Make a picture with curves in it.” (by Athena)

“Make a tower of rocks and take a picture of it.”

“Make a picture of someone who is sleeping.” (by Arwen)

Over the past year or so, I’ve been working with a consortium of four districts in New Mexico on a project to foster online and blended learning. It’s been a great experience that has benefited teachers and students and left me more convinced than ever of the power of technology to help differentiate instruction.

Here’s a short video that summarizes our work.

FreeReading is a great site for all kinds of early literacy resources. One of my favorite parts is the decodable reading passages.

Unfortunately, to date, these have only been available as pdf files. Pdfs are good for printing, but not much good for other uses, like putting on mobile devices, interacting with, making movies, etc.

The great thing about open-licensed content, though, is that you can remix it.

So this summer and fall, I’ve been working on taking these pdf files and remixing them into PowerPoint presentations, separate jpg art files, and interactive VoiceThreads (with audio and the ability for students to record their own audio).

original pdf:

ppt:

voicethread:

All of these resources for almost 80 stories are available  on Curriki, along with ideas for using them.

Thanks to FreeReading, the Hewlett Foundation, and Bon Education for inspiring the idea to do this and to Steve O. and David Wiley and his Educational Productivity Pledge (see P.S.) for the impetus to move ahead with it.

I have been working for the last few months on an exciting project that is launching today.

The P2PU School of Ed pilot opened sign-up today for seven free, online, open-licensed professional development courses for K-12 teachers.

This program is about peer learning, openness, and deeper learning. It’s hands-on learning driven by each educator’s particular needs and classroom situations. It’s about connecting, collaborating, and creating, not just reading or studying.

These courses are all open licensed under a CC BY license, which means anyone can repurpose the content for whatever purpose they like as long as they attribute the source.

Here are the courses now open for sign-up:

• Differentiating Instruction - description, sign-up open until Sept. 19 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Student Engagement - description, sign-up open until Sept. 12 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• OER in the K-12 Classroom - description, sign-up open until Sept. 19 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Teaching in Online and Blended Classrooms - description, sign-up open until Sept. 12 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Multimedia and Graphics to Facilitate Deeper Learning - description, sign-up open until Oct. 3 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Writing & Common Core: Deeper Learning for All - description, sign-up open until Sept. 26 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Encourage Deeper Learning - description, sign-up open until Sept 19 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)

We’ve been doing a lot of work here lately in online and blended learning, building courses and helping teachers think about how to use online learning as a tool to help differentiate instruction.

Blended learning is the way that many K-12 schools are getting into this area. Blended learning, of course, is when part of the instruction is face-to-face and part is online.

That spans a big continuum though, and I’ve found that while some teachers offer their students great flexibility in the online portion of their class, others are more traditional. In fact, some ideas of “blended” learning are not obviously different from regular technology integration. As an example, I would not consider whole class activities with a projector and a learning management system like Moodle to be “blended.” Yes, they may be very effective and great uses of technology, but they do not allow the students the benefits of learning anywhere, anytime, and in any way they like. That is the key to blended learning.

So to stretch the thinking of teachers who are new to blended learning, I researched how the experts define blended learning. Here is a compilation of the results.

The percentages of instruction that is done online is interesting, but more intriguing is the description of learning that is student-centered, active, and personalized. To me, that is what online and blended learning is all about.

Yesterday, I had an energetic discussion on FB with some friends prompted by this:

I know many gifted tchrs + admins (some right here on FB) who are in environments that do not represent an optimal model of learning + who are looking for something better. Couldn’t we all get together + start a new, better school? (Yes, I know about charter schools but there are also opportunities in public ed.) Am I naive or do we lack imagination or willpower or something else?

Part of the dialogue that ensued had to do with what authority such a new school might be founded under: public school, charter school, private school, online school, hybrid, or something else.

Here are things I think are incompatible with sound public education: corporations driven by quarterly profits, publicly-elected leadership boards, and unions and/or tenure. But I am a big believer in and supporter of public education.

I’ve written before about the opportunities for reform that I think online and blended learning present to public education. People in the know seem to think that public schools are not in the position to seize this opportunity. If you haven’t seen it, Pearson and others seem to be moving quickly to capitalize.

If there is a market for this for big publishers, there is surely a niche for small groups focused on higher quality.

One big question I have is how the two roles of facilitating learning and babysitting will be divided up in the new blended world. Much has been written about the role of schools as “holding tanks.” Even if consensus could be gained that babysitting should not be schools’ role, few parents have the ability or will to supervise their children all day while they attend online school.

So if we could devise a better school online, who is in a good position to deal with the “babysitting” problem? This is especially challenging in a decentralized environment with many isolated rural families. Some possible answers: corporate day care centers (especially ones that already have infrastructure in place…Sylvan, etc.), community organizations, co-ops of parents, existing public schools. Other than post offices, it is difficult to think of organizations with physical infrastructures that outstrip public schools.

I agree with my friend Sue who has said that this situation calls for some real out of the box thinking. What are your out of the box ideas?

[And for regular readers who might wonder what this has to do with mobile technology, this seems to me to be a given in any sort of curriculum-driven reform effort, as well as for online/blended learning.]

There is a lot of dissatisfaction about the current state of public education in America and as a result,  calls for reform. Many are unhappy with the amount and nature of testing and the general direction of industrial era curricula. Others have concerns about teacher effectiveness. Nearly everyone agrees that our kids are getting short-changed.

But what is being done about it? The feds seem to be steamrolling ahead with the same old same old. States are in crisis. Districts are busy covering their proverbial asses. Some of the best teachers are leaving education. Proponents of ed reform seem to be mostly engaged in hand wringing and name calling.

Charter schools and other fringe initiatives seem to have little chance to make a difference for the huge number of students moving through the K-12 system.

One opportunity for real reform is in online learning. There is broad consensus that online learning is going to be a dominant part of the educational experience for many students in the future.  Most states have significant online learning programs. Online learning helps address teacher shortages, which are projected to worsen in the next few years. Blended learning is being written into everyone’s plans. Schools are finding more flexible options necessary, and students are demanding it.

But online learning can take many appearances. It can be a transformative learning environment with an emphasis on deeper learning, collaboration, and 21st century thinking skills. Or it can be the same industrial model of content cramming coverage, dull textbooks, and (online) lecturing heads.

These choices are being made right now as online course structure is being designed.

Equally important are the decisions about what role public K-12 schools are going to have in online education. Will they embrace the challenge to develop and facilitate  enriching courses or will they cede that role to commercial providers in the way that has been done with textbooks?

To choose the latter path will mean lots of money being directed toward traditional, proprietary content that supports the status quo.

To choose the former will require plenty of creativity, energy, professional development, support, and more. But it just could be the path out of the current morass we’re in.

Engaging your students in creating standards-based projects is a great way to differentiate instruction.

But what to do when your students want to rip their favorite CDs to include music in their project? If you are posting the work online, this probably doesn’t fall under “fair use,” and it is important to model good copyright adherence with our students.

Creative Commons and open music to the rescue! There is now a wealth of open-licensed music that you and your students can use in your projects.

I love the sites ccMixter (contemporary; note that there is a small amount of music here with “adult language” but this site is not blocked in most schools) and MusOpen (classical) for this, but if you’d like to give students a little more limited selection of music to streamline the time they spend on it, we’ve set up this page with a limited selection of open-licensed music that you can use for free and legally for any student work.

Make sure to have your students attribute the source for any works they use, including music. For these music files, just right-click the mp3 file and view properties to see the source and license details.

Enjoy! And if there are any particular types of music you’d like to see added, let us know.