Showing posts with label Global Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Learning. Show all posts

Monday, June 11, 2018

Beyond SAMR Ladders & Pools: A Framework for Teaching & Learning-- ISTE June 26, 2018



At ISTE in Chicago on Tuesday, June 26 from 4:15-5:15pm I'll be presenting Beyond SAMR Ladders & Pools: A Framework for Teaching & Learning with our Director of Teacher Development, Sara White. The day before I'll also be presenting a short teaser at ISTE Bytes, on Monday, June 25 from 8:30-9:30am. Here's more info:
You'd be hard pressed to find an educational technology leader unfamiliar with the SAMR scale. The concept of differing levels of technology integration with stages of use in education is not new. Over the past few decades, we've had various acronyms like ACOT, RAT, TPACK and more. With SAMR, we've seen analogies like ladders, coffee, pools, and wheels. One of the limitations with each of these is they really just focus on technology, sometimes pigeon holing a technology tool or app into a specific level, when instead the focus needs to be much more broad. For example, even though a green screen end product might look great, students might simply be at the basic level of learning. And looking beyond technology, what about the four C’s, authentic real world learning or global learning?

Four years ago in Minnetonka Public Schools we stopped referencing technology scales and acronyms and developed our own framework for teaching and learning. We found great benefit from reflecting on all areas of teaching and learning, too. Now conversations about technology not only include the levels of complexity, but also to what extent students are thinking critically, communicating, what they are creating, if their experiences were authentic, personalized, collaborative, and global. It all fits together as part of the conversation and bigger picture of instructional best practices.
The Minnetonka Framework for Teaching & Learning
Each of these other areas of instruction and learning have their own levels and stages, too. For example, you can say that your students are collaborating, but is it at the basic level of talking with a neighbor about their answer to a problem or a higher level of collaborative skills involved in negotiating and resolving decisions about what information is most important for a group presentation? Because of this, we developed a larger framework for instruction overall. There are eight dimensions on our framework, and each has its own levels of complexity (similar to SAMR levels). 

The Framework shows "how often modest adjustments to lesson design and learning environments can significantly elevate students’ opportunities to learn. It provides educators with a launching point for planning meaningful, engaging instruction for learners who already live in a complex information society in which the nature of work is rapidly changing. Teachers can create places of learning that engage students at high levels and lead to deeper understandings by intentionally planning learning experiences with these strands in mind." Framework Overview document

To develop this comprehensive framework Sara coordinated the work and efforts of teacher and administrator teams who worked to identify and compose the definitions and levels for each level of complexity on the Framework, as well as write an overview document and create guides of about 10-15 pages that detail each of the Framework's eight dimensions. (View the draft guide for Authentic & Real World Learning). Sara also scripted an overview video that we showed our staff  during back to school workshops a few years ago:


Our Framework now guides our curriculum writing with dimensions and levels being identified in our UbD units. It also is the focus of our staff development, including technology. Our instructional technology coaches meet with teachers and do trainings focusing on strands of the Framework. Teachers meet in roundtables to discuss how they are designing instruction around different dimensions of the Framework and how technology integrates with these other areas. They also discuss the progress they are making on their technology goal for the year which is tied in with another Framework dimension. These goals are shared with the instructional technology coaches and their building principals. 

The Minnetonka Framework for Teaching and Learning has helped us move beyond SAMR ladders and pools to designing student experiences for meaning, engagement, and deeper learning. In fact, our teachers haven’t even heard of SAMR. Come discover a way to design and implement a roadmap for teaching and learning alignment and move beyond simply focusing on technology implementation toward successfully creating more meaningful, deeper and engaging learning experiences for students. If you'll be at ISTE in a few weeks, please join me on Tuesday, June 26 from 4:15-5:15pm.

Learn more about Minnetonka Schools and Technology Integration:
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Monday, February 13, 2017

Over 40 More iPad Integration Ideas for Elementary, Middle, & High School

Last week I presented at the Ed Tech Teacher Innovation Summit in San Diego along with one of our middle school principals, Dr. Paula Hoff, and one of our high school instructional technology coaches and science teachers, Patricia Price. We presented another edition of "Tonka Teacher Talks." We showcased over 40 Minnetonka 1:1 iPad teachers' examples of iPad integration in a variety of elementary, middle & high school curricular areas. We explained how each example fit into our Minnetonka Framework for Teaching & Learning and moved beyond SAMR to create more meaningful, deeper, and engaging learning experiences for students. 

The presentation is a collection of over 40 great things happening in Minnetonka classrooms daily harnessing the power of iPads for teaching and learning. It has many links to examples of students' work as well as some links to videos. Elementary examples are on slides with a green background, middle school examples have a yellow background, and high school examples are on a blue background. We are fortunate in Minnetonka to have so many great teachers doing amazing things with their students. You can view the slideshow presentation below.  


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Monday, December 19, 2016

Beyond SAMR Ladders & Pools: A Framework for Teaching & Learning




Last week at the Minnesota state technology conference, TIES, I co-presented a session with our Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Eric Schneider, entitled "Beyond SAMR Ladders & Pools: A Framework for Teaching & Learning." The slide deck and a 4 minute video overview is below, as well as links to a draft Framework Overview document and the draft guide for Authentic & Real World Learning. For those of you who weren't there, here's a recap:

Although the SAMR scale has really gained popularity over the past few years, the concept of differing levels of technology integration and stages of use in education is not new. Back in 2003 when I first left the classroom and started in my instructional technology career, I referenced the ACOT Stages of Integration with teachers (Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Appropriation, Invention). By 2011 when we first started our 1:1 iPad program, we began using the RAT scale (Replacement, Amplification, Transformation). As SAMR gained in popularity, we stopped referencing the RAT scale, but we never really shifted to SAMR. In fact, I don't believe many teachers in Minnetonka are familiar with it. Here is why: 

What's Wrong with SAMR?


There are many iterations of SAMR, from ladders to coffee to wheels and pools. Creating a catchy analogy helps, but the focus of each of these variations still is on the technology. I asked the attendees and now you to think about what is wrong with SAMR. What is it missing? How does it fall short? 

Around 2014 we stopped referencing the RAT scale and began evaluating the benefits and results of using these various scales in our efforts to help teachers integrate technology more meaningfully into their teaching. Each of these scales was helpful, but also left some voids. Sometimes the delineation between the levels was hard to pin down (is that use Amplification or Modification?). As we worked with teachers on how to use technology in their teaching, we didn't want the focus to be on the technology itself. Instead we found great benefit from and a need to reflect on many other areas of teaching and learning, too. Talking about how students are thinking critically, communicating, what they are creating, if their experiences were authentic, personalized, collaborative, and global in nature is just as important as talking about technology. It all fits together as part of the conversation and bigger picture of instructional best practices.

Each of these other areas of instruction and learning have their own levels and stages, too. For example, you can say that your students are collaborating, but is it at the basic level of talking with a neighbor about their answer to a problem or a higher level of collaborative skills involved in negotiating and resolving decisions about what information is most important for a group presentation? Because of this, we developed a larger framework for instruction overall. There are eight dimensions on our framework, and each has its own levels of complexity (similar to SAMR levels). 

As stated in the Framework Overview document, the Framework shows "how often modest adjustments to lesson design and learning environments can significantly elevate students’ opportunities to learn. It provides educators with a launching point for planning meaningful, engaging instruction for learners who already live in a complex information society in which the nature of work is rapidly changing. Teachers can create places of learning that engage students at high levels and lead to deeper understandings by intentionally planning learning experiences with these strands in mind."

The Minnetonka Framework for Teaching & Learning

To develop this comprehensive framework, our Director of Teacher Development, Sara White, coordinated the work and efforts of teacher and administrator teams who worked to identify and compose the definitions and levels for each level of complexity on the Framework, as well as write an overview document and create guides of about 10-15 pages that detail each of the Framework's eight dimensions. (View the draft Framework Overview document and draft guide for Authentic & Real World Learning referenced in the presentation.) Sara also scripted an overview video that we showed our staff this past August during back to school workshops:

Our Framework now guides our curriculum writing with dimensions and levels being identified in our UbD units. It also is the focus of our staff development, including technology. Our instructional technology coaches meet with teachers and do trainings focusing on strands of the Framework. Teachers meet in roundtables to discuss how they are designing instruction around different dimensions of the Framework and how technology integrates with these other areas. They also discuss the progress they are making on their technology goal for the year which is tied in with another Framework dimension. These goals are shared with the instructional technology coaches and their building principals. The Minnetonka Framework for Teaching and Learning has helped us move beyond SAMR ladders and pools to designing student experiences for meaning, engagement, and deeper learning. 
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Monday, September 28, 2015

Chilean Exchange Students and Teachers in Minnetonka Public Schools

For the past two weeks, nine high school students and their Academic Vice-Rector from The Thomas Jefferson School in Concepcion, Chile, visited Minnetonka Public Schools. Each student lived with a Minnetonka host family with a high school student, attended classes with their Minnesota host brother/sister, went to school events such as a football game and homecoming dance, and toured the Lake Minnetonka and Twin Cities area, riding the Steamboat Minnehaha, going to a Twins Game, visiting the Mall of America, and many other things. 

Visiting Chilean high school students demonstrating a traditional dance
for Minnetonka Middle School East Spanish Immersion Students.
The students were actually part of a larger group of 46 people from their school who spent a week together in Washington D.C. before splitting up into smaller groups to spend two weeks immersed in high schools across the United States. Minnetonka High School was of the destinations. Our family hosted their Academic Vice-Rector who has been bringing students to the U.S. for the past ten years on their annual tenth grade trip. She and her husband have two children similar in ages to two of my own. It was a great experience for our family have a guest from Chile for two weeks. It was actually our second time hosting a Chilean guest. About three years ago we hosted a student teacher from Chile who taught at Minnetonka High School for a semester. 

I think my favorite part of the past two weeks was meal times, when all of us would sit around the table and we had 10 minutes of mandatory Spanish speaking. I've mentioned before that my three youngest children are in Minnetonka's Spanish Language Immersion program and are fluent. My high school daughter is taking Spanish, and my wife knows a lot of Spanish, too. I, however, have a major in German, but I still really enjoyed listening to their conversation, attempting to pick up parts of what was being discussed. When we were speaking English, I enjoyed hearing about life and school in Chile from our guest.

 We were so fortunate have this experience and broaden our horizons, making another connection with someone from another country. Chile looks like a beautiful place that we hope to visit someday (see the students' slideshow presentation below). Hopefully my own children will have exchange trips and experiences like this as well, perhaps in Minnetonka's International Studies Program. I would encourage you to be a host for a foreign student or visitor and take time to learn about another culture.

 I’m also thankful we have such easy ways through technology to stay in touch. Twenty years ago, I remember a college trip to Europe using a calling card and only having a few minutes to talk to my family because it was so expensive. Now the ability to Skype and FaceTime (among other tools) for free to stay connected to your family when away from home, even while on the other side of the world, still amazes me. 

 It will also be interesting to see how VR (virtual reality) tools develop, and whether or not they can come close to replacing travel, living with a host family, and immersing yourself in another culture.  I tend to think that this won’t happen anytime soon, but perhaps in my future grandchildren’s lifetime.

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