Teaching and Instruction by Design

When I was growing up we had a playroom. In fact we had several playrooms - one upstairs, one downstairs, and the entire world outside of our house. We explored night and day and created.  Creating things is a vital part of learning and growing. The ability to create should be a seamless part of the educational experience.  I am very fortunate. In my role as the Digital Learning Facilitator, my classroom space is the media center. Prior to my arrival, this space functioned as a library. Students checked out books, used the computer lab, listened to instruction - the standard operating procedure for many libraries. I spent my first year (last year) observing how things worked and getting control of the basics needs of a functioning library.  I took over a corner where student books were stacked on tables and floors. This became a collaboration zone with chrome cast TVs and seating. Added a little technology and provided a great place for students to work together on...

This post is in response to a Quest in 3D Gamelab. I had to spin two "wheels" to receive a material and a task. I got toilet paper as the material with the task to build a bridge. There are so many things I could say about a toilet paper bridge to delve into the depths of the human soul. Fortunately, this post is not about the frailties in life, but with technology/tools and implications in the classroom. TPACK is all about matching the technology, pedagogy, and content in the most effective way possible.  Sounds easy, but sometimes it just isn’t. We must think out of the box and look at our tools in new ways. Just as toilet paper was used to build a bridge, my eReaders could be used for augmented reality apps. Maybe use an infographic tool such as Piktochart to create a collaborative platform for students to build a story. There are really endless possibilities - just be on the lookout. Back to the title - is toilet paper really the best choice for a bridge? Probab...

In our current political landscape this activity in deciding whether something is Real or Fake takes on a whole new meaning. I felt pretty confident in the strategies I used.  I looked for several of the ideas shared in the blog. But this exercise moves beyond this activity to issues that are currently very relevant. Rarely before had I ever given tremendous thought about whether or not my favorite news channel was forthright in the information they shared. But now the need to check general validity has spread from a TV channel to a global and broad spectrum of information sources. When can you believe Pinterest or Facebook or Twitter or the myriad of other resources we use on a daily basis to share and receive information?  https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174 But should this really be the main concern or is the bigger problem that people should have been questioning and debating and reflecting all along.  The blog activity went...

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP is the ethical and appropriate use of technology.  As Spiderman ( ? ) would say, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” Today, people have accessibility to an amazing wealth of information, literally at their fingertips.  This is quite often very difficult for our youth. It is so easy to act and react online, the deed (and possibly damage) is done before they even realize what happened. The growing expanse of our social networking capabilities makes digital citizenship more important than ever. The very people responsible for setting examples of appropriate behavior online are failing society and our youth. So the question is “ In what ways is digital citizenship similar to and different from the traditional view of citizenship in the world beyond our devices”? The similarities from digital to the real world exist with doing what you know is right. There is no difference in a hurtful comment in person or online. Honestly, online is even worse ...