Showcase: A Westerville Teacher Discusses Blended Learning

Blended Learning and Personalized Learning are two of the more recent ways of visualizing instructional practices that meet the needs of all learners. While the theory behind these concepts - that all students should have content and activities that meet their needs available to them - is an easy one to grasp, the practice of setting up a classroom to differentiate for all students can be more than a little daunting. Heather Griffith, a 4th grade teacher at Fouse Elementary has been using Blended and Personalized learning techniques along with flexible seating to better meet the needs of her students. In this Showcase Video you will hear about:

- A typical day in the classroom

- How 2:1 Technology makes a difference

- Why set a class up this way? 

- How flexible seating helps these strategies

- Struggles and successes

- Recommended starting points for teachers looking to shift their teaching style

It is worth your time to watch the whole video, but if you are pressed for time you can skip to the points that most interest you by looking for the orange question bubbles in the video. 

Additionally, example materials are included below that were used to help organize the classroom and guide students in their activities. 

Daily plan for students to schedule their independent work time

Schedule from teacher perspective

Schoology and Google Classroom continue to move closer together with what they are capable of. Schoology has added Classroom-like functionality this year. For more on anything you saw, contact your ed-tech coach!

5 Ways to Make Your Course More Clickable

You have probably run into at least one social media article that includes a ridiculous question like the one below:

Incidentally, Stop Clickbait is doing an important service…

These headlines and articles are written in ways that draw our attention because they (sometimes) pose an unbelievable or compelling question that we need an answer for. One of the hallmarks of media and advertising, particularly online is to capture attention through clear, attractive design, and giving viewers a compelling reason to engage with the content. For example, consider which of the advertisements below catches your eye:

Option 1:

Buy

Coke.

Option 2:

The second option is much more likely to catch your eye with varied fonts, pictures, color, and other features that set it apart from the rest of the writing on this page. The fact that the bottles are collectible adds to the cultural appeal. So what does this have to do with the content that you put online?

Websites, apps, and other media are built along the same principles. As teachers begin to move their course content to online systems like Schoology, it is important to remember that design is an important aspect of the online experience. Strong design can help students in their learning, while poor design can increase the barriers that they may have to work through to learn. Here are some best practices that you can use to make sure that your courses are providing students with a good user experience.

1. Establish the goal of your course- is it just to serve as a place to hold assignments for students to access? A fully differentiated and built out course? Depended on the focus, your goals and organization will be different
2. How can you help your students accomplish the goal? What will make it worth their time to interact with your content?
• Pictures?
• Video?
• Color and varied font?
• How the content is split up (folder and assignment design)
3. What can explain to students where they are, what the goal is, and why they should care?
• About this course section?
• Introduction page?
• Course Overview page?
• Breakdown of standards?
4. What is the compelling reason for them to click on folders, links, and other content? Do the clicks further the goal of the course or an assignment? How can you reduce the number of clicks while still presenting content in a manageable way?
• Make each page, link, and folder intentional in its design and contents. Can content be presented within an assignment or does it need to be a separate page?
• Do links need to be included separately or can they be embedded within the text?
5. Use common layouts. Schoology is somewhat limited in the layout options that you have and Google classroom is even more limited, but even so, there are options that you can take advantage of to make sure that navigation is easy for students.
• Pick a method of organizing content, assessments, and assignments and stick to it throughout the year.
• Break text into sections so that eyes have a break between reading (look at different websites to see how this happens without you even noticing!
• Video, photos, and other media can be a great way to do this.

If you are looking to spice up your Schoology Course, and want some more ideas, contact your Ed-Tech Coach for help!