Relationships are the foundation of learning. When students feel connected to their teacher and their peers, they’re more likely to thrive. How can teachers forge these connections within a remote learning environment?

For education consultant Lainie Rowell ^[1], that’s the central question facing educators as they’ve moved instruction entirely online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Cultivating a community of learners is critical,” says Rowell, an author and international speaker who facilitates professional learning for the Orange County, Calif., Department of Education’s Institute for Leadership Development.

Related content: Here’s the biggest mistake educators are making with remote learning ^[2]

Building community has always been important for educators. In an online learning environment, where teachers and students aren’t face to face every day, it’s even more critical for success. If students don’t feel like a valued and important member of a community of learners, then they aren’t as likely to engage in lessons remotely.

Rowell hosts a podcast called “Lemonade Learning ^[3]” with fellow educator and consultant Brianna Hodges ^[4]. Based on ideas they discussed in their podcast and that Rowell shared in an interview, here are five effective strategies for building a community of learners online.

Engage students in norm-setting.

Just like they would in a face-to-face setting, teachers have to establish ground rules for acceptable behavior in learning online. Involving students in this process helps build a sense of community.

“When students help us develop those norms, they’re going to feel so much ownership [of the rules] that they’re going to be more likely not only to follow those norms but actually help you enforce them,” Rowell says.

Use get-to-know activities.

“I actually believe there’s a potential to get to know your learners better through a blended and online model than through a traditional face-to-face model of instruction,” Rowell says. “Just being in the room with someone doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting to know them.”

The key to building community in an online setting is to be “super-intentional about it,” she observes. For instance, teachers can use an app like Flipgrid to have students create short videos introducing themselves to the class. Doing this in an asynchronous format gives students the space to be creative, without putting them on the spot.

Provide frequent opportunities for discussion, sharing, and collaboration.

Use discussion boards, chats, breakout rooms, and other online forums to facilitate class discussions online. Teachers might find that students who are hesitant to contribute to a class discussion in a traditional classroom are more inclined to participate online. Have students use Google Docs, blogs, or video to share their work with the class, and ask them to comment on each others’ work. Have them use digital collaboration tools (Google Apps, Microsoft Teams, or any number of applications) to work together on projects.

“Whenever kids get to work together to create new things, that’s really where the magic happens,” Hodges says.

Be generous with your teacher presence.

Students need to feel supported, Rowell says. They need to feel like a teacher is present with them throughout their learning journey. “We don’t want them in this asynchronous abyss, where they feel the teacher’s presence on Zoom and then the rest of the time they feel completely alone,” she explains.

Aside from sending frequent emails and calling students who might need intervention, teachers can establish this presence asynchronously by creating short, daily videos to welcome students or introduce a topic. “Videos can be endearing, allowing kids to feel like you’re there with them,” Rowell says. “They can watch the videos over and over again; maybe they’re having a rough day and they need to feel like you’re there.”

Videos don’t have to be a big production. “If I was waiting in line at the coffee shop, I would take out my phone and record a quick little video, saying: ‘Here are the things due this week, let me know if you have any questions,’” Hodges says. “It doesn’t have to be perfect.” The point is to help students feel your presence when you can’t see them in person every day.

Encourage peer-to-peer support.

Another way to build online community is to have students answer each others’ questions. For instance, teachers might create a discussion thread or a Google Doc where students can post their class questions and help each other. “When we build and maintain community, students will often answer each other’s questions before the teacher even has a chance,” Rowell says.

Encouraging peer-to-peer support has a number of benefits that go beyond establishing a sense of community, she notes: It helps students feel empowered, which is an effective motivator. And it frees teachers from having to answer students’ process-related questions, so they can focus on delivering more effective instruction.

“Try not to rescue all the time,” she advises. “Put a post-it note near your screen that says something to the effect of: ‘Could someone else do this?’ In other words, could a peer explain it as well or better? Could someone create a video tutorial to explain to those who are struggling?”

Rowell concludes: “Across the board, teachers find that when they foster a collaborative online environment, students are learning from each other and they — the teacher — are responding to fewer questions and emails. In my experience, I find that teachers who enjoy online teaching the most focus their time on building community, guiding learning, and providing high-quality feedback.”

The discussion about the importance of class size has been ongoing for decades. While some still argue that class size doesn’t make a noticeable difference in the quality of education, research has shown that is not the case. Understanding the connection between class size and student achievement, as well as teacher retentions, is critical to the future of our educational system.

The Link Between Class Size and Achievement

Research into the impact of class size on student achievement has been ongoing for decades. According to an article in the Seattle Times ^[5], the effects “have been hard to isolate and measure,” which has led to disagreements over the results. The article suggested the disagreement may have more to do with benefits outweighing the costs as opposed to actual effectiveness. In fact, The National Center for Education Statistics points out that after the 2008 recession ^[6], pupil-teacher ratio increased.

Even with some disagreement about the cost effectiveness of chasing the benefits of small class size, most researches agree that it does have a positive impact, particularly on students in younger grades.

Perhaps one of the most famous studies to come to this conclusion was the Tennessee Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project in the 1980s. The STAR project randomly assigned students to either small classes (13 to 17 students per teacher) or large classes (22 to 25 students per teacher). In the kindergarten years ^[7] alone, the study found a “definite advantage for small classes in achievement.”

In 2011, the Brookings Institution reviewed the study and confirmed its findings that the 32% reduction in class size increased student achievement ^[8], giving those students an achievement advantage equivalent to an additional three months of education after four years.

Twenty years after the STAR project was completed, the National Education Association (NEA) published a policy brief ^[9] concerning class size. The NEA examined the research on STAR students and focused on the long-term results from the follow-up studies. Some of the long-term results of the students who were in the smaller classes include:

• Higher student achievement levels in grade seven language, reading, science, math, and social studies classes
• More positivity reported about participating in learning
• High school transcripts indicated that STAR students who were in smaller classes for a minimum of three years were substantially more likely to graduate from high school

These outcomes aren’t insignificant, suggesting there are many benefits to smaller class sizes. Let’s look at some in more detail.

The Benefits of Small Class Sizes

As mentioned above, smaller class sizes offer positive results. Small class sizes give both teachers and students several benefits that result in higher student achievement. Some benefits of a small class size include the following:

Better Teacher/Student Relationships

For a student, individual attention can make the difference between effectively developing skills and just coasting along. Generally, in smaller classes, students can establish stronger relationships with their instructors.

Tyrone Howard, a professor of education who writes about research into students’ relationships ^[10] with their teachers, said “I think schools in many ways have put the cart before the horse. What they’ve done is they want to jump right into academics and really dismiss or minimize the importance of relationships.”

Those relationships matter to students and teachers and can lead to better outcomes for both.

More Customized Instruction

Teachers need to identify the specific problems that each student may have to be effective. In large classes, this may be a challenge for educators, not because their instruction is wrong, but because they don’t have the resources to do so.

In an article in The Edvocate, Matthew Lynch, professor of education and author, stated:

Small class sizes work because they give teachers an opportunity to offer students more personalized instruction ^[11], which is probably the reason that academic achievement goes up. Teachers don’t necessarily change what they are doing, they are just able to increase their efficacy.

Teachers who can spend more time with each student is able to tailor their teaching to specific students’ needs and, in turn, learning outcomes improve.

Classrooms Become More Collaborative

In large classes, students tend to interact with people they know. It’s easy for some students to become outsiders or for cliques to form. In smaller classes, students will engage with each other and form relationships. The effect is a cohesive group of students who support and learn from one another.

When students feel more comfortable with all their peers and their teacher, they’ll likely feel more relaxed engaging and asking questions. This can make it less likely for a student to fall behind and encourage them to become more engaged in their learning.

Topics are Explored In-Depth

Small class sizes let teachers reduce time spent on discipline and organization, meaning they spend more time with instruction. With fewer students in the classroom, teachers can explore topics in-depth and expand on themes that students show interest in.

According to a statement ^[12] from the National Council of Teachers of English, “In smaller classes students spend less time off-task or disengaged from the work of the class.”

When teachers have more time to engage all their students consistently, students will likely get a deeper education on more topics. When their questions and interests can guide how a teacher dives into a topic, they’re likely to be more receptive to the lessons, as well.

Teachers Stick Around

Small class sizes make it easier to manage the learning environment and give educators a sense of pride in the classroom. Teachers are happier and feel more fulfilled when they can provide quality instruction. This means they will stick around longer, giving every school or university the benefit of expert instructors.

Class size is a frequently cited ^[13] reason teachers leave their jobs, with 10% of teachers who had left the profession or moved to another school stating that class sizes were the motive for making their move.

Reducing teacher attrition is an important goal as the teacher shortage looms. Smaller class sizes are a step toward the goal of keeping experienced teachers in the profession.

Lead the Way to Better Class Sizes

Tomorrow’s teachers will undoubtedly need to take leadership roles in ensuring that education meets their student’s needs. Bethel University is ahead of the curve with small class sizes that have a positive impact on student achievement.

Our online master’s degree in educational leadership ^[14] program features a curriculum designed around the needs of working educators and builds on your current knowledge to help you advance your career. You’ll study topics like community relations, ethics, meeting the needs of diverse learners, budgeting, research, and more.  With accelerated seven-week courses and six start dates per year, you’ll be able to begin, pause, or expedite your learning at any time. Plus, our full-time program can be completed in as little as one year.

BARCO SOLUTION

• wePresent

KEY BENEFITS

• Improves student learning & drives engagement
• Ease of use for teachers & stimulates interactive teaching
• Supports different BYOD operating systems & perfectly integrates in the network

The Richardson Independent School District in Texas, USA, was not looking for just any wireless solution. They wanted one that would accommodate all users. This is a must in an age when Bring Your Own Device practices reign supreme and every classroom is inhabited by a mix of Google, Apple, Android and Microsoft devices. For Technology Project Manager, Terry Balch, finding such a solution was far more difficult than it should have been:

“We looked at five presentation solutions. Some were specific to one operating system. Or they didn’t work with our enterprise environment. They either couldn’t set up proxies or they wouldn’t work with our other layered security.”

It gives teachers more flexibility and students more opportunity for engagement.Terry Balch, Technology Project
Manager at the Richardson
Independent School District – Texas, USA

Balch found the solution he was looking for in Barco wePresent. It is designed to allow up to four people to simultaneously share content, no matter what devices they are using and no matter whether they are broadcasting to a projector or a television screen. There is no longer a question of which system is the right system; wePresent allows teachers to put the focus on helping their students to learn.

“Students are more engaged during presentations, which, of course, increases classroom conversation and ultimately improves learning,” says Balch. “It gives teachers more flexibility and students more opportunity for engagement.”

This flexibility is evident in the array of classroom subjects that wePresent has been used for. As well as career and technical education classes, the Richardson ISD has used it to help teach about everything from billing to basic medical procedures like taking blood pressure.

The success is all too clear. While Barco representatives initially installed wePresent in administrative offices and one classroom, but Balch is looking to introduce it to classrooms in all 54 campuses of the school district.

“Not only is wePresent a cost savings over the traditional route of using a matrix AV router with wiring,” Balch explains, “it offers a great deal of flexibility and ease of use for the teacher.”

Barco Education offers solutions designed specifically for the educational market to enhance teaching and learning experiences within and beyond the classroom

Ready to discover how technology can enable you to flip the classroom and help you achieve better learning outcomes?

Join our webinar

What you will learn:

The flipped classroom is an active learning approach in which the learning is student-centred rather than teacher-centred. During this webinar, a Barco Representative will share with you his in-field expertise they have built up during his extensive discussions with deans and head of new learning on how to start with technology enhanced learning: what are their challenges, how they overcome them and how technology is enabling them to flip the classroom.

Save your spot at: https://www.barco.com/en/page/wepresent-webinar ^[15]

My hometown of Gastonia is a quiet place. Scant traffic. Nice neighbors. Folks still offer you a sweet tea when you visit. By most accounts it’s a sleepy southern town, with roots in textiles and major manufacturers producing Wix air filters and Freightliner trucks. Just what you’d expect from a small town in the South. It’s my idea of heaven, but according to Wikipedia ^[16], its biggest claim to fame is that it is the second largest satellite city in the Charlotte metropolitan area.

But get ready. Gastonia, though small and unimpressive to fancy outsiders like Wikipedia, is poised to take advantage of one of the greatest sea changes taking place in education in the last 200 years. Don’t let the headlines and the small-town charm fool you. Gastonia has potential!

Even with all our new technology and the amazing strides we have made in the science of learning, our sons’ classrooms in Gastonia look a lot like my classroom did–and an awful lot like my father’s, who was born in 1923. My father attended classes for 11 years (there was no fourth year of high school then and no kindergarten), but even so, his classes were separated by grade levels and students were assessed by letter grades. Every student was required to learn the same things during the same chronological period. With no technology except a chalkboard, my father graduated high school as a very literate person who was highly proficient in mathematics and knew Latin and Greek.

He was well-equipped for the world he entered, and went on to become a successful optometrist after fighting in WWII. In his day, life was very local. It was expected that after school a person might work the remainder of his life in one role for one company. Local communities were comprised of interlocking parts and ran very much like Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand Theory–each individual worked for his own self-interest and played his part in the economy of individual communities. They didn’t need a “Buy Local” campaign to encourage commerce; they simply didn’t have a choice.

How Much the World has Changed!

Technology has transformed us. Many of the jobs that existed in my father’s world have disappeared. Many of the jobs that exist now in my world will be gone by the time our sons and their peers are running things. School used to be about gaining a shared body of knowledge. To a large degree, what constituted an educated person was agreed upon. To be educated, everyone learned the same things at the same time. If you were clever, paid attention, had good memorization skills and could afford it, you could even progress to college and possibly to graduate school, where your agreed-upon knowledge would qualify you for a profession.

I am the product of a liberal arts education. I know a little about a lot of things. Languages. Poets. Writers. Mathematics. Psychology. History. Sociology. Thank goodness I don’t have to go out and find a real job. I have no verifiable job skills. No provable competencies. I am darn near unemployable. If I were to graduate college today, I might be one of the millions of kids who go back to live with their parents. Or worse, If I were to graduate with my un-provable skill set fifteen years from now, I would be wholly unprepared to make a living and take care of myself.

Here’s the Sea Change: Open Badges

Passing time in school no longer matters. Okay, you made it through high school. What did you learn? Now prove it. Or, you may spend 12 years in college, complete 300 credit hours of study, and know a lot about a lot of things. But unless you obtained degrees along the way, your 12 years are meaningless to employers. You have no way to prove what you know.

Today, learning needs to be quantified. Not by time, but by skills and specific experience. And it needs to be verifiable. We also need the ability to display and share those skills, combine them and show how they are applicable to multiple industries. They need to be meaningful and transferable.

The technology now exists to power the education system of the future. It is already in use, but in the next 15 years it will completely dwarf our current system of assessment.

That’s amazingly quick in education-speak. Think about it. Education is an institution with two primary functions–to educate our children and to serve and maintain the institution itself. Because of the second function, education has been painfully slow to change. But the times they are a-changing.

With these coming changes, there are several terms you should know. Credentialing. Micro-Credentialing. Badging. But the one you should get very familiar with is Open Badges.

When I first met Wayne Skipper ^[17] five or six years ago, he was already talking about badges and how they fit into the future of education. At that time, the education world was beginning to have some serious discussions about moving towards a competency-based model. The college presidents I knew were all talking about it. A few school districts were playing with it. But no one was successfully making the leap between education and industry, and no one had the vision to create a system for obtaining and displaying competencies that was sharable and open. There were some tech companies in the space that were talking about cornering the market in credentialing–they were intent on getting rich by owning the rights to credentialing or badging–and making everyone pay them to house and distribute credentials.

My friend Wayne had a different idea. He wanted to make the whole thing open. And FREE.

Fast forward a few years

To date, nearly 15 million Open Badges have been issued in the US alone. Open Badges is a technology standard that allows the user to take any learning achievement, whether formal or informal, and recognize it with a portable micro-credential. Open Standards allow everyone to put all these types of learning activities on the same playing field and describe them in the same language. That means everything is interoperable. Businesses, schools, associations and learners, everyone can share information–everything works together. Verifiable skills are transferable from one job to another, even between completely different industries. It is the piece of the puzzle that makes everything possible.

Wayne’s company, Concentric Sky ^[18], developed the Open Badges 2.0 specifications. The company wrote the developer’s tools, the developer’s guide and the open source badge validation tools. The MacArthur Foundation’s spinoff, Collective Shift, approached them in 2015 to take over stewardship of the Badge Alliance, which they held till 2017 before handing it to IMS Global Learning Consortium ^[19], a member-driven global standards body.

That Sets the Stage for What’s Coming Next

Business is becoming increasingly global. Future workers will be hired globally and work remotely. Most workers will be independent contractors, working for multiple businesses–sometimes at the same time. Think gigs, not jobs. That’s our future economy, and the way that our students, sons and daughters will make their living.

The Internet has changed everything, but everything is going to change even more. The ability for our children to gain, display and distribute their credentials will be the way they find employment. A business’s ability to find and contract with skilled workers will be the difference between the success and failure of that business.

The world is changing. Technology has democratized opportunity. The future is global. Fancy cities like Charlotte and Nashville are giving way to towns like Gastonia, with its scant traffic, nice neighbors and skilled workforce.

And now, my fellow Gastonians have real options. Our middle son Stone is 15, and wants to be a radiologist. Many of the competencies he needs will be obtained online. He can also practice medicine online. His patients will come from all over the world. I’m reasonably sure the technology used to obtain his medical credentials will be some version of the Open Pathways technology, created by my friend Wayne Skipper.

It’s really a small world to be so global. Of course, our youngest son Aidan still wants to be a professional motorcycle racer.

I’m not sure they have an app for that.

In more than 60 percent of all two-parent households ^[20], both parents work, and in nearly all of these households, at least one parent is employed. This means that the vast majority of parents in our country experience regular and prolonged periods of time away from their children. Since parental involvement is one of the most influential factors in students’ academic success, the question then becomes how to help working parents stay abreast of what their child does when they are apart.

As a lead teacher at a YMCA Early Childhood Center, I believe children of all ages benefit from having their parents and teachers on the same page with their growth, health, and education on a regular basis. We offer care for more than 3,500 children (from infants through preschoolers) every year.

Being a YMCA facility, we teach kids to make healthy choices, as well as teaching them the ABCs, and other important life skills, like good sportsmanship and how to be themselves. We know that the values and skills children learn early on become the building blocks for their future lives.

Good Habits Start Early

If you eat healthily as a child, you become more used to those kinds of food than unhealthy foods. For example, I myself didn’t grow up eating very healthy food—eating out was easier since both of my parents worked two jobs. Now that I am an adult, I don’t always make the best eating choices. On the other hand, when my sister was growing up, my mom was able to stay at home and give her home-cooked meals every day, and as a result she is fit and eats healthy foods all the time.

At the Early Childhood Center, I encourage healthy eating habits by encouraging them to eat (or at least try) the food we provide, and modeling healthy eating and drinking habits while I am in the classroom. I also try to instill healthy habits by taking the children outside at least 60 minutes a day and doing small physical activities inside like yoga and GoNoodle ^[21] throughout the day.

Using Smartphones to Engage Parents

Because our working parents only see their children a few hours a day, we want to keep them updated about all the fun things their children are doing during the day, and we also like to send home helpful information about health and wellness.

For a long time, we communicated with parents using daily sheets we would type on the computer, print, and then make copies of. We used up a lot of paper this way. We also sent out a monthly newsletter featuring upcoming events and lessons. Personally, I prefer to communicate on a daily basis (both at drop-off and pick-up) so we can know anything that would be beneficial during the day and we can give parents an update of what happened each day.

(Next page: Streamlining processes, better connecting parents and children)

This whole process became a lot more streamlined when we began using the parent-teacher communication app Bloomz ^[22], which we started using as part of a pilot program through the Ohio American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) ^[23] in early 2017. With the pilot, we were able to share information about a wide range of topics, including how to reduce sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), constructive disciplining, screen-time management, and reading to children, directly to parents’ smartphones.

Paperless communication allows us so much more flexibility and speed when it comes to contacting parents and families. We now encourage parents to message us electronically, so we get a notification on our classroom app and can get back to them in a timely manner. We post the children’s artwork and writing from around the classroom on a daily basis, as well as pictures of the kids.

We can also collect all of these materials into a portfolio for each child. Parents now get reminders on their phones the night before extra activities such as gym, art, and music. I think the parents are happy to have a specific place where they can view pictures of their children doing activities throughout the day, and like and comment on posts in the same they do on Facebook.

Connecting Parents and Children

Since the switch to paperless communication, I’ve noticed an interesting difference in behavioral issues with my children at pick-up. I think it is because, instead of a parent reading what we did that day as they pick up their child, they come in the classroom already knowing what we did from reading the posts, and this makes the child feel more connected with their parents.

I also had a student who was out sick when we cut open a pumpkin and cleaned it out. The child came back to school the next day and told us his mom showed him the pictures we had posted and she then went out and got a pumpkin and did the activity as a family that night.

It’s become common to hear our children ask, “Are you going to post that?” after we take a picture of them. After all, every kid wants their parents to pay attention to them. (“Watch me, mom!”) And every parent wants to know what their child is doing during the day. Parents and children are the most important people in each other’s lives, so it’s vital to keep them connected, especially in the early years.

We live in a world full of new technology that can keep parents and children more connected than they’ve ever been, so why wouldn’t we take advantage of every opportunity?

The Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN) and Empirical Education Inc. recently released the Guidelines for Conducting and Reporting EdTech Impact research in U.S. K-12 Schools. ^[24] These guidelines help clarify how research is conducted and how information is presented to users of edtech products based on the changes brought by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In “Measuring Edtech Impact in the ESSA Era ^[25],” experts delved into the details of the guidelines.

The updated guidelines take into account nearly all edtech products today in the cloud, providing more access to teacher and student usage data. They also account for the timeline for compressed development of edtech products, and standards of evidence having changed to a more developmental scale with ESSA replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Districts are more frequently asking for their own student and teacher product usage data to perform their own studies. The structure and definitions provided by these new guidelines are useful in helping them obtain what they need and figure out how to do their evaluations.

The 4 Main Sections

The guidelines are divided into four main sections: Getting Started, Designing the Research, Implementing the Design, and Reporting the Results.

When getting started, using a logic model from the product provider is helpful in developing a model for how the product works. Logic models can show the factors that correlate with different outcomes.

When moving on to designing the research, look at the four levels of evidence defined by ESSA. The first step is to use a logic model. Then, look at a correlational study, run a comparison study, and run a randomized experiment. It’s common to run comparison studies, since randomized experiments can often be time consuming and expensive.

It is important to use caution when handling confidential information while implementing the design. With more personally identifiable student information available from both the school district and edtech products, privacy of edtech usage data has become a higher concern.

Lastly, when reporting the results, keep in mind all findings from edtech product evaluations should be made available. For example, publishing the best evaluation out of five that were conducted will not help the market learn. A report should also have enough detail to know if results apply to a particular context. These details tell schools if a product will work for them, and not just the general average.

For more details, download the full guidelines here ^[24].

About the Presenters

Denis Newman, lead author of ETIN’s guidelines for research on edtech impact, is the CEO of Empirical Education Inc., a research organization that conducts dozens of RCTs and other evaluations of school programs. He has 35 years of experience improving student-teacher learning processes and instructional technologies and is a pioneer in applying internet to student learning, professional development, and school administration. His Ph.D. in developmental psychology is from The City University of New York.

Andrew Coulson, Chief Data Science Officer, oversees the development of expansion strategies, product-to-market operations and leads a team of data analysts to conduct evaluation of MIND’s activities. Prior to this position, he led MIND’s Education Division for 12 years, helping to devise and execute strategies and programs to scale the organization’s reach to now support student learning in 45 states across the country. Before joining MIND, Coulson was a program officer for a major Orange County foundation, specializing in education. He also worked for 17 years in upper management as a STEM professional in high-tech manufacturing engineering, acquiring experience in operations, process engineering, reliability and technology transfer.

Bridget Foster has worked in all areas of the education market—from classroom teacher, to state level and industry leadership. As EVP & Managing Director of ETIN, she helps companies better understand the education market, so that they can grow their brands worldwide. She holds credentials in English, science, mathematics and school administration.

Join the Community

EdFocus: The EdMarketing Community ^[26] is a free professional learning community that will help you connect with colleagues in the education industry to share information and resources, raise questions, and get advice.

This broadcast was co-hosted by edWeb.net ^[27] and MCH Strategic Data ^[28].

The recording of the edWebinar can be viewed by anyone here ^[25].

[Editor’s note: This piece is original content produced by edWeb.net. View more edWeb.net events here ^[29].]

In Charlotte County Public Schools (CCPS), all 10 of our elementary schools have a STEM lab. As early as kindergarten, students begin engaging in hands-on learning and exploring STEM careers. Yet, even with regular visits to the STEM lab throughout elementary school, our fifth graders struggled on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment. Another challenge was that our teachers didn’t have a defined STEM curriculum that was uniformly applied to all elementary STEM labs.

To turn things around, we applied for a Mathematics and Science Partnership ^[30] (MSP) grant from the Florida Department of Education. We were awarded the grant in 2015-16 to fund our “STEM Education Enhancement (SEE) for Student Success!” project.

Train-the-Trainer Model

As part of the project, the STEM lab teacher from each elementary school participated in a train-the-trainer model of professional development (PD), which consisted of nine full days of training throughout the school year. In addition, we provided all 10 teachers with the STEMscopes™ ^[31] online, comprehensive STEM curriculum and hands-on exploration kits.

Through the MSP grant project, our teachers improved their instructional capabilities and their confidence in STEM, which has really paid off in our STEM labs and classrooms.

Following are four lessons we learned that helped us—and could help other schools—enhance the content knowledge and teaching skills of STEM teachers.

1. Give teachers a say.
Teachers often lack a voice and a choice in professional development. One of the first lessons we learned is that teachers should have a say in what they learn and they should feel comfortable enough to have a candid conversation about what they need or what they don’t know.

Toward that end, in each of the nine PD sessions, teachers discussed and decided which science standards they thought should be included in their next training. Including teachers in the planning and decision-making helped them feel more empowered, which helped them embrace the training. It also resulted in PD tailored to their most pressing needs, and it helped them “own” the curriculum and strategies discussed in each session.

2. Facilitate collaboration.

Having nine days of on-site PD helped our STEM lab teachers develop a very strong sense of community. Throughout the training, the level of interaction and the sharing of ideas and materials were incredible, and that collaboration continued online between the sessions. As a result, teachers left each session energized and excited to return to their schools and train their peers on the knowledge and skills they learned.

(Next page: 2 more tips for STEM PD)

3. Dig deeper into the standards.

One of our goals for the grant project was to help teachers develop a deeper understanding of the Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS) for Science. So, within each PD session, the trainer led teachers in a frank discussion of the standards being covered, which helped them uncover their own misconceptions.

For each standard, the trainer helped the teachers identify the most important part of the standard (e.g. what exactly students need to know) at each grade level. She also demonstrated how the standards are interrelated and vertically aligned throughout each grade level. The trainer then led the teachers through a lesson from the online, standards-based curriculum so they could see first-hand how to engage students and effectively teach the standard.

Next, the teachers would return to their schools, try out the lesson with their students, and report back in the following PD session about what went well and what didn’t, and discuss how to improve.

4. Model key instructional strategies.

In addition to increasing teachers’ content knowledge, we wanted to expand their use of inquiry-based instructional strategies. So, throughout the PD, the trainer modeled the 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) inquiry model, which is what we expect teachers to implement with their students. Experiencing the 5E model first-hand gave teachers new insights into how effective and engaging this model is for students, and it helped them become much more comfortable with this approach in their own labs.

Improving Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement

An evaluation of our MSP project conducted by Dr. Laura Frost of Florida Gulf Coast University found that teachers felt that their knowledge and skills in STEM improved by participating in the SEE Student Success project. Results from a self-efficacy survey called the “Science Teacher Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI )” reflected positive changes due to the training.

In addition, teacher buy-in and excitement were evidenced in a variety of ways during and after the training—from the presentations teachers made to their colleagues at faculty meetings to their increased usage of the online STEM curriculum and exploration kits.

We also examined student achievement based on the fifth grade results from the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, which measures student achievement of the NGSSS. In 2014-15, the year before our MSP grant project began, our fifth graders’ proficiency rate was 50 percent. In 2016-17, it was 53 percent. In contrast, from 2015 to 2017, the average proficiency rate for the state of Florida dropped from 53 percent to 51 percent.

Thanks to the MSP grant, the training, and the use of the online curriculum, our teachers now feel like experts in standards-based learning in STEM. They have a deeper knowledge of the content and the standards as well as inquiry-based instructional strategies, which will have a long-lasting impact on their effectiveness with students.

For us, the training and curriculum were the missing pieces that helped teachers make sense of the standards and that allowed students to experience the science reflected by the standards. Even better, students enjoy learning STEM and they look forward to going to the STEM lab because they’re actually doing STEM.

[Editor’s note: This post is the third in a new column for eSchool News. In her column on ‘Personal Development’, eSchool News Columnist Jennifer Abrams focuses on tangible takeaways, tools and teachings that all those working in schools can use to develop their leadership. Read more about the column and browse future content here ^[32].]

“When you listen to someone, it’s the most profound act of human respect.” -William Ury

I remember when I began my work as a professional developer and coach. It was the first time in my daily work where students were not my immediate focus. My interactions on a daily basis were with adults, and I realized that I wasn’t as prepared for this type of communication given my credentialing and my graduate studies.

I had a credential in how to teach students the subject of English, and what became increasingly clear was that I didn’t have a credential in how to work effectively with adults; and certainly didn’t have a background or an intentionally developed skillset on how to be an effective group member.

Listening as a Learned Skill

I worked on the skill of being an effective group member and continue to do so. Many of my consulting colleagues, within their work on coaching, collaborating and teaching focus on listening as a key skill to know inside and outside the classroom.

At the Thinking Collaborative ^[33] professional developers assist educators daily and intentionally in building this skillset. They speak to a number of collaborative skills that make a group member effective. [More on other skills in future columns.] This column will focus on one of those skill sets, listening.

Much has been written about listening.  Listening is discussed and explained in books, in TED talks, on YouTube, and in countless articles in education, business and in health care. Why so many citations? Because we have a tendency to not do it well.

It is a pivotal part of the skill building that we hope students learn. In fact, I have often stated that the Common Core State Standards on Speaking and Listening, such as 11-12 B and C ^[34] “Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed;” and, “Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives,” actually aren’t lived out in staff meetings that I participate in or witness in the schools in which I work.

3 Types of Listening 

Given that the work on active listening could take pages and pages to review, I will mention only the briefest yet, what I feel is one of the most powerful piece of advice on listening that I have received: In order to be more ‘other focused,’ pay attention to your listening ‘set asides.’

Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman (www.miravia.com ^[35]) speak to the idea of ‘setting aside’ certain stances we often take in communication.  Instead of truly being present and hearing the person intently we don’t set aside our needs and these needs get in the way of our communication. Our set asides include

• Autobiographical listening: The minute we hear something that connects with our life, we share. We say, “Me too. I remember when…” or “That has happened to me!  In fact, just the other day…” When we share these ‘me too’ moments we might believe we are connecting and offering solace, but actually it might just be us taking the focus away from what the person was saying and putting the spotlight on us.
• ‘Dishing the dirt’ listening: The other person comments on something and you add in a few more tidbits of information. “Did you know she was…” or “That isn’t the first time I have heard that. Joanne says…” There is a time to share background information that will serve the conversation. There is also just ‘dishing’ and that isn’t always a useful piece of information to share.
• Solution-oriented listening: “You know what you need to do about that?” is something we immediately offer as a response if we are in the space of solution oriented listening. “You need to do this…” or “Have you tried…?”  Solutions can be very helpful in some situations but most of the time solutions aren’t empowering, nor do they show the person you are talking to that you feel they’ve ‘got this’ and can handle their own challenges. I am all for solutions and most of the time ask myself if a suggestion might be a better way to offer an idea. The key is to ask yourself, “What are my reasons for saying this? And “Does this serve my colleague to hear this?”

There are so many other listening skills to develop as well, including:

• how to paraphrase
• how to craft a clarifying question
• how to pay attention to your non-verbals
• how to add your perspective.

All of these listening skills are valid and critical to effective collaboration.

Building up our listening ability can assist us in achieving at high levels in our schools. (See Hattie’s research on collective efficacy ^[36]).

Setting up a structure for fundraising to support your students who want to travel is crucial regardless of their family income. Educational travel can be made attainable for all students if you create a plan and stick with it.

Carrie A. Olson, PhD, researcher and teacher at West Leadership Academy, Denver Public Schools, presented with Carylann Assante, CAE, executive director of SYTA and the SYTA Youth Foundation, in “How We Helped 800 Students Participate in Educational Travel: Proven Tools and Tips ^[37].” The experts shared tips on planning for educational travel to make it accessible for all students.

1. Look beyond base prices. When planning a trip for your students, start by figuring out how much money you will need and determine your deadlines. Travel companies may provide base prices, but this doesn’t include things like insurance, tip money, optional excursions, and more. Plan backwards with your money: This is how much money is needed, how much time is there until it’s due?

2. Create checkpoints. Creating checkpoints along the way leading up to the trip also helps keep everyone involved on track. Mentors—such as members of the community or a child’s favorite teacher—can help the students with their fundraising and check in with them if there are any issues.

3. Hold meetings for families. Holding regular monthly meetings, and providing that schedule to families at the beginning of the year, keeps everyone in the know. During the meetings at Olson’s school, teachers would introduce families to each other. Fostering these community connections encouraged families to fundraise together.

4. Provide “exit tickets.” They also created an information packet to review at the very first meeting, explaining all the details of educational travel. At the end of the packet, the families were asked the fill out an “exit ticket.” If anyone had to leave the meeting early, or wanted to be contacted privately, they could say so on this form.

5. Create fundraisers that are good for your school. Be creative, have a variety of fundraisers for families to get involved in, and research what sells well at your school. Examples of fundraisers include working school dances, selling concessions at school, home-cooked food to school staff, holiday grams, and wristbands for a pass to go without the school uniform for a day. Olson’s school hosted breakfasts and “happy hours” for potential donors, where students could ask for donations by explaining to people why they wanted to travel. The best piece of fundraising advice Olson received from a parent’s perspective was to hold a gathering for family and friends to ask how they can help fundraise for the student who wanted to participate in educational travel.

6. Consider focus groups. Before starting a fundraiser, you’ll need to find out details like any approved vendors you need to go through, contracts that need to be signed, and if other fundraisers are going on at the school so you can plan around them. It could also help to create a focus group to provide a place for families to contribute fundraising ideas outside of regularly scheduled meetings. Last, have one person in charge of each fundraiser, so that person can be responsible for checking in with families.

“If you (make the effort) with your very-beginning trips, and you think through a lot of this, the future trips are much, much easier,” Olson added. By working through the smallest details, educational travel can be made attainable for all your students.

About the Presenters

Carrie A. Olson, PhD, teaches grades 6-12 at West Leadership Academy in Denver Public Schools where she has taught since 1985. She teaches social studies in Spanish and English classes to recent immigrants and an AP seminar class. Her PhD is in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from the University of Denver. She received her BA from Wartburg College and her master’s in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in language, literacy, and culture from the University of Colorado at Denver. Dr. Olson is a National Board Certified Teacher since 1999. She is also a Museum Teacher Fellow for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She has traveled with over 800 students to Washington, DC since 1993 and to Europe since 2003, and is passionate about providing equity in educational travel for students.

A seasoned tourism and association executive with more than 30 years of experience in the industry, Carylann Assante, CAE serves as the Executive Director of the Student & Youth Travel Association, the international association that promotes student and youth travel worldwide. Carylann is also the Executive Director of the SYTA Youth Foundation, the philanthropic arm that provides scholarships and education experiences for students and youth who are unable to travel due to financial and personal hardship.

Join the Community

Teach & Travel ^[38] is a free professional learning community, and an educator’s resource for all things student travel, the educational benefits of student travel, and how to successfully initiate, organize, and conduct tours for their student groups.

This broadcast was hosted by edWeb.net ^[27] and sponsored by SYTA – The Student & Youth Travel Association ^[39].

The recording of the edWebinar can be viewed by anyone here ^[37].

[Editor’s note: This piece is original content produced by edWeb.net. View more edWeb.net events here ^[29].]

As schools depart from traditional instructional methods and environments, some education leaders are discovering how a combination of blended learning and reimagined physical learning spaces can lead to better student engagement and achievement.

Redesigning physical learning spaces can lead to brain-friendly learning ^[40] and encourage students to become more engaged.

And when learning spaces are flexible, they provide more modern learning experiences and meet various needs, such as small-group collaboration, large-group instruction, and individual study or review.

A whitepaper ^[41] from Evergreen Education Group and Fuel Education explores how three schools’ blended learning programs have redesigned their learning spaces to encourage student and teacher success.

(Next page: How each school uses learning space to its advantage)

Researchers found three common characteristics among all the schools’ programs:

• The leaders and teachers at these schools are not afraid to rethink what school should look like and what practices will work best for their students.
• The three schools use online curriculum, which frees teachers from being the main source of instruction and allows them to try more alternative teaching methods like team teaching, block scheduling, personalized learning, project-based learning and more.
• Each of the schools embraces the change and realizes it is a process. By adopting a growth mindset, which they hope students will also adopt, the schools and their leadership were able to overcome any initial issues and are now reaping the rewards of blended learning.

Poudre School District Global Academy focused on creative use of the school day schedule, and made face-to-face interactions with teachers and students a mandatory part of the school year after data revealed that students who had such interactions performed better in online courses. High school, middle school and elementary school students alternate on-campus days along with at-home days. The school reported it outperformed the average PARCC end-of-year assessment scores in math and English Language Arts in almost every grade level, and the elementary and middle school students surpassed the average typical growth in math and reading on the 2015 NWEA Measure of Academic Progress Assessments.

“I really think that what we’re doing here is the best of both worlds,” said Cheryl Fenlason, the interim principal of Poudre School District Global Academy. “It’s an opportunity for students to be independent and develop some of those life skills they’ll need for success after high school.”

Fenlason said teachers are more enthusiastic and have time to prepare, use data in their instruction, and be intentional about their plans and collaboration.

Springs Studio for Academic Excellence is featured for creative use of space and its combination of online, blended and project-based learning. The school purchased a single-story warehouse building and turned it into a modular setting teachers and students can easily reconfigure for large- and small-group needs, along with an art studio, science labs, and areas for independent study. More than 80 percent of students re-enroll for the next year, and almost every grade level has outperformed state averages in English Language Arts, according to the school.

“When you’re comfortable, there’s something to be said for that,” said Jodi Fletcher, Springs Studio for Academic Excellence principal. “The environment does lend itself really well to kids wanting to succeed. It lends itself to building relationships, and that’s what is innovative, relevant and personalized. We’re building relationships with students who are here for a reason.”

Bend-La Pine Schools’ Summit High School is featured for its transformation from a traditional school into an innovative blended learning program by implementing small, but impactful changes. Educators are encouraged to reconfigure their spaces to offer areas for larger flex labs and smaller spaces for small group instruction. Students have the choice of working on in-class instruction or using online courses, which has improved students’ interest in the topic being covered and given them time management skills they may not have gained otherwise.

“A couple of years ago, we wondered if all students needed to be in all classrooms all of the time. We said no, so in our comprehensive school, what could that look like?” said Dr. Alice DeWittie, Summit High School principal. “We turned it over to the teachers. If they have an instructional reason for kids not to be in the classroom, they should go for it. It’s based on teacher instructional needs.”

“Teachers are entirely empowered to use space and time in any way that serves them instructionally,” DeWittie said. “As long as they can instructionally defend it, then I’m all in and I can defend it.”

In education, there are always a host of programs and policies clamoring for funding. But of all the options policymakers could invest in, the most worthwhile may very well be universal preschool.

Recently ^[42], Nobel laureate James Heckman and his colleagues published a report ^[43] that makes this point loud and clear. Their research analyzes the long-term benefits of a high-quality early-childhood program in North Carolina targeted at serving disadvantaged children and their families.

According to the researchers’ estimates, the long-term financial impact of the program—from labor incomes of participants, improved health and the quality of life, crime, education, and the labor income of the mothers of the participants through subsidizing their childcare—amounts to roughly a 13 percent annual rate of return.

Heckman and his colleagues show that investing in preschool makes strong financial sense. But that fact alone doesn’t provide states with the funding needed to foot the bill.

Online Preschools Save Money

Preschool is still expensive. The programs examined in the report cost around $18,514 per student per year. Currently, states with preschool programs spend ^[44] between roughly $1,700 and $16,400 per student per year. Those sticker prices are a big barrier for policymakers, who must weigh preschool against a wide array of other potential government programs while also trying to minimize or reduce taxes and government spending.

 

Innovation creates new options.

Since 2008, Utah has given its families an alternative to preschool called Upstart ^[45]. Developed and administered through a state contract with the Waterford Institute, the Upstart program provides four-year-olds with in-home online curriculum.

(Next page: Online preschool students show strong learning gains)

For just 15 minutes per day, five days per week, students log into the curriculum to engage in adaptive lessons, digital books, songs ^[46], and activities designed to develop their knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science.

All participating students and their caregivers receive training at the beginning of the program and support throughout the program from a personal care representative who monitors the child’s progress and contacts the child’s family if the child’s usage falls below guidelines.

Waterford also gives parents support resources, technical assistance and, if needed, a computer and internet connectivity for accessing the online software.

Great Student Gains

In the six years since it launched, Upstart’s results ^[47] have shown students in the program to demonstrate strong gains in early literacy that significantly exceed those of students in matched control groups.

As these cohorts of Upstart students progress through their first few years of school, they continue to outperform their peers on state exams. Most noteworthy is the fact that special education students, low-income students and English learners have the largest gains relative to their comparable peer groups.

Given that Upstart costs just $725 per student ^[48], it is a more-than-sensible solution in states where universal preschool does not exist.

A Help for Parents

Online preschool programs such as Upstart are remarkable examples of how low-cost technology can expand the frontier of educational opportunities. Few parents have the professional training to know how to teach their children early literacy and numeracy. But online learning can fill in where parents’ knowledge and skills reach their limits.

Meanwhile, parents offer something that software cannot provide: the supervision, support, encouragement and praise that young children need in order to feel that learning is important and that they can learn successfully

While parents take care of students’ physical, social and emotional needs, the software takes care of delivering high-quality instruction so that students can start school on a strong footing.

Upstart isn’t available to parents outside of Utah and a few other states that are piloting the software. But there are a number of other online preschool programs—such as ABCmouse.com ^[49], online preschool lessons ^[50] by Time4Learning and Embark ^[51] by K12 Inc.—that give parents affordable options for developing their children’s early academic skills.

The app stores for popular mobile devices also have a host of early learning apps—including Endless Alphabet and Endless Numbers by Originator ^[52] and apps by PBS Kids ^[53]—that can help young children learn to recognize letters and numbers and develop an appreciation for reading, math, science, social studies and creative problem solving.

Not Perfect

Granted, none of these programs are perfect substitutes for traditional preschool where children learn with their peers from an expert in early childhood education. Clearly, in-home online preschool does not help children learn how to interact socially outside of their home environments.

And research ^[54] suggests that preschool quality depends a great deal on the training and experience of the teacher. But for parents who cannot afford private preschool and who do not live in a region with state-funded preschool options, these programs offer valuable access to early learning opportunities.

[Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on the Hechinger Report ^[55].]

This article is no longer available. 

Today’s society is mobile and global. Laptops, tablets and smartphones connect users with information in less than a second, and because mobility has increased our connectivity, we’ve increased our connections with all parts of the world.

These advancements mean students have to be ready to learn and work on a global scale. And luckily, with a mobile device and the internet, it’s fairly simple to help students get on the road to developing a global mindset.

Whether your goal is to help students connect with other students from different countries and backgrounds, or if your aim is to broaden their knowledge of worldwide issues, technology can help.

Here are 7 tools to get you started on your global mission:

iEARN ^[56]: iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 140 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies. Over 2,000,000 students each day are engaged in collaborative project work worldwide.

(Next page: Six more global learning tools)

TinyBop’s HOMES ^[57]: This app shows students how other children around the world live. They can explore rooms inside different homes, look outside, and investigate differences. Interactive labels help students learn common words in different languages.

Generation Global ^[58]: Using this videoconferencing tool and online platform, students will work with other students from different backgrounds and cultures in order to build global empathy and understanding.

NASA’s GLOBE Program ^[59]: The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program is an international science and education program that provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process, and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment.

TakingITGlobal ^[60]: TakingITGlobal is a network of young people learning about, engaging with, and working towards tackling global challenges. Youth around the world are actively engaged and connected in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world.

Being Global ^[61]: An interactive, multi-media, and trilingual app kit for parents and educators to teach children about the goodness in exploring, appreciating, and respecting other children’s traditions, religions, and values the world over. Discover what it means to be global in this whimsically-drawn and thoughtfully-told animated and interactive story that also includes game play.

TWICE ^[62]: TWICE provides a matching service for point-to-point video conferences between schools. Teacher matching is done based on your registration information. Participating schools are responsible for making the connections work successfully.

Assessments are more than just measuring how well students are doing in particular subjects in school, and they can actually improve student learning. In fact, frequent assessments can have a positive impact on a student’s education from kindergarten through college. While this may make some educators cringe, the reality is that test-enhanced learning, or testing as an aid to learning, has evidence of effectiveness dating back nearly 100 years (Roediger III, McDaniel, & McDermott, 2006 ^[63]).

Testing can help students better retain and recall what they studied, not only for the final exam, but as part of their overall educational development. This is the “testing effect,” or the phenomenon where taking a quiz can enhance later retention of studied materials, and its effectiveness has been demonstrated many times over. Students who take quizzes shortly after they study show better performance on a final test relative to students who only study without taking a practice quiz, even when no feedback is given on the quiz (Roediger III, McDaniel, & McDermott, 2006 ^[63]).

The testing effect, also known as retrieval practice, practice testing, or test-enhanced learning, needs a place in today’s modern learning. It can be implemented in modern learning management system (LMS) and assessment management system (AMS) technologies, like Gauge ^[64], to help improve student learning, from their first day in kindergarten to their last day of earning a university degree.

The Testing Effect and LMS Technology

Researchers from the University of Delaware tested the impact of enabling quizzes through LMSs in a series of university-level courses. The university used Canvas ^[65], an LMS in the K12 and higher education space, in an effort to enhance student learning by simultaneously decreasing their anxiety and increasing retention of important material. Testing the use of Canvas quizzes in seven online courses and five hybrid courses, the researchers designed quizzes for each student and for each quiz attempt.

Through this study, the researchers found that students who used the quizzes on Canvas:

1. Improved their metacognitive accuracy though multiple quiz attempts and earned higher scores on subsequent attempts
2.  Invested additional time between quiz attempts to better master the assigned materials
3. Reduced test anxiety and stress by being able to choose the place and time of taking the quiz

As this study shows, LMS platforms, combined with quizzes, can help students achieve. Though the positive impacts of quizzing have already been established over decades of research, the benefits can be even further improved with the enabling features and settings of modern educational technology.

Quizzing in LMS’ to Improve Student Learning

Though quizzing using available edtech platforms clearly gives students an advantage, there are specific ways to deliver quizzes that can better optimize the experience.

Timing

The longer the delay after learning a subject, the worse students will perform on quizzes. Giving a quiz immediately after learning new materials can halt the forgetting process and improve comprehension, which ultimately boosts final test performance (Spitzer, 1939 ^[66], Roediger III & Karpick, 2006 ^[67]; Agarwal, Karpicke, Kang, Roediger, & McDermott, 2008 ^[68]; Chan, McDermott, & Roediger, 2006 ^[69]). With LMS platforms set up for immediate administration of quizzes, students can have quizzes available to them directly after they consume course content.

Quizzes in Reading Materials

Compelling research shows that following up text reading with quiz questions improves comprehension, retention and final test performance, more so than questions that appear in advance of materials or interspersed throughout the materials (Chan, McDermott, & Roediger, 2006 ^[69]). Educators can require students to access material and then take  short comprehension check quizzes on the LMS of choice.

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

Students who answer fill-in-the-blank or short answer questions instead of multiple choice scantrons are better able to retain materials over the long-term and master topics come final test time (Glover, 1989 ^[70]; Kang, McDermott, & Roediger, 2007 ^[71]). Instead of creating simple bubble quizzes, educators can design short-answer quiz questions. Using their LMS, they can also be notified when students complete a quiz and require feedback on answers.

Frequency 

Giving even one quiz in class can produce significant gains relative to giving no quizzes at all. Administering frequent short quizzes only improves learning more (Bangert-Drowns, Kulik & Kulik, 1991 ^[72]). Educators can make in-class quizzes easier by allowing students to use their mobile device or laptop to access the LMS platform to quickly complete quizzes.

There are many advantages to leveraging educational technology, and educators can particularly use it to enhance the quizzing experience for their students. By augmenting the “testing effect,” learning can not only be assessed, but improved in the K-12 and higher education spaces.

Educators today are trying harder than ever to diversify their teaching practices, using a variety of tools and materials, incorporating different learning styles, and also allowing students to have a voice in their learning. At the David C. Barrow Elementary School, we have a project which takes all these things into account.

As the media specialist, I created the annual “Barrow Peace Prize” project in collaboration with the 2^nd grade classroom teachers and art teacher, where students from across all the second-grade sections pick six nominees from civil rights history and decide what attributes the winner must embody. I give research instruction utilizing many educational tech tools that the students incorporate into the project to develop a nominee that may win the Barrow Peace Prize. This recognition not only reaches the David C. Barrow student body, but the entries are voted on by people from all over the world, and the nominee with the most votes (and the students who researched them) is awarded the Barrow Peace Prize.

Here are three tools we use to make the Barrow Peace Prize project a reality.

PebbleGo ^[73] is one of the databases our students use for research. It is designed for students in the grades K–2. It offers a quality base of facts about a variety of topics, which are broken down into manageable sections under each heading, making it easy for young researchers to find the information they’re looking for. PebbleGo also has a read-aloud feature, so every student can follow along, regardless of their reading ability.

Flipgrid ^[74] is the video discussion platform that students use to record a video of themselves reading their persuasive essay. As each student records, their video is uploaded to a grid with videos from all of the other 2^nd-grade students researching that same person. People from across the country—and the world—then vote on a winner. Some students are more introverted and don’t like sharing in front of the whole class, but by using a tool like Flipgrid, students are able to speak to just the iPad. This allows their voice to be heard in a way that it might not be heard in the classroom.

Tinkercad ^[75] is the 3D design and printing app we use to design the peace prize. A small group of students is selected to design the prize that each student who researched the winning nominee will receive. I show them how to use the program and sit with them while they design to offer troubleshooting tips.

All these tools aid in the development of a project that gives students a global voice to showcase their individual strengths.

Some students are talented writers, so they shine in the persuasive writing. Some students are natural public speakers, so their talent lies in the presentation of their nominee. Other students love researching details and then enjoy sharing what they have researched.

Every student has a voice in the project, no matter if they are in general education, special education, gifted, English as a second language, or early-intervention programs. And those voices reach the world.

[Editor’s note: This post is the first in a new column for eSchool News. In her column on ‘Personal Development’, eSchool News Columnist Jennifer Abrams focuses on tangible takeaways, tools and teachings that all those working in schools can use to develop their leadership. Read more about the column and browse future content here ^[32].]

Moving from the classroom into the role of a teacher leader and a coach was a transition, to say the least. I recognized I was credentialed in teaching students English language arts, but didn’t have a credential in communicating effectively with adults. I took workshops and courses on facilitation and coaching, but the idea of being a professional in a learning community who was an effective group member as well as a leader continues to be something I am growing into everyday.

The Use of Voice

The use of voice in collaboration, coaching, facilitation and leadership is something I focus on in my consulting work and is a piece of what each leader and teacher does daily. If we are lucky to be in schools and offices where we have time to learn in community, we spend that time learning more about our content and pedagogy. That’s understandable, since classroom practice and student growth are our primary foci.

However, if we don’t spend enough time learning the skills, dispositions and mindsets of becoming and being a professional learner in a community, it can hurt us and our students.

Collective Efficacy

Collective efficacy, the “collective self-perception that teachers in a given school make an educational difference to their students over and above the educational impact of their homes and communities,” (Tschannen-Moran & Barr, 2004, p. 190) presupposes that teachers collectively can make an educational difference. And collectively means together.

At the 2016 Visible Learning Conference, John Hattie revealed that collective efficacy is the number one factor influencing student achievement, more than other important factors such as student expectations, feedback, or teacher-student relationships. (Read more here ^[76]) The bottom line: this is essential. The faculty must work together to make this difference, and communication at the level of impact implies a sense of trust and belief in the competence of the others who work with you.

How do we create this climate of trust?  Many authors from Peter DeWitt ^[77] to Anthony Muhammad ^[78] speak to school climate and culture and, like psychologist and author of The Dance of Connection ^[79], Harriet Lerner, I believe that how you use your voice determines the quality of our relationships, who we are in the world and what that world can be and might become. Clearly, a lot is at stake here.

So, a few ways to use your voice to create quality relationships:

• Don’t use your voice. Use your ears and listen more.
• Consider how you respond once you do share your voice. Do you go ‘autobiographical’ and talk all about you?  Do you immediately ‘go to solution’ and not allow the person to find his or her own solutions? Or do you listen, paraphrase and let your colleague come to his or her own decisions?
• Watch your tone. Some mothers suggest this when communicating and they aren’t wrong.  Being too cold or coming off as judgmental with tone can hurt relationships.  Many relationship experts agree.
• Consider how you ask questions when you do ask one wait for the person to respond. We often are more generous with our students regarding wait time, and that is wonderful, yet our colleagues need us to hold the same container for them as they think and respond.

Becoming a learning culture in which student growth is the focus requires the adults to spend time thinking about how they are using their voices when communicating with each other.  Because a lot is at stake.

Personalized learning, competency-based learning and dynamic organizational design have shown promising results in school districts across the nation, according to a new report from Education Elements.

The third annual Impact Report, Building Capacity for Personalized Learning and More ^[80],” shares data from specific school districts and highlights the progress each district has made in several areas, with a special emphasis on those districts that have been implementing personalized learning for several years.

“As personalized learning grows in popularity, additional voices have emerged that point to the risks associated with it,” said Anthony Kim, Founder and CEO of Education Elements. “We are pleased to report that districts who are thoughtful about their implementations and focus on the needs of their communities see a positive impact year-after-year on not only student test scores, but also student engagement, teacher satisfaction, and overall district effectiveness.”

This year’s analysis reveals the cumulative benefits of shifting to student-centered learning environments. According to the report, on the NWEA MAP assessment, given 2-3 times per year, 36,000 students from five districts showed an average growth of 130 percent in reading and 122 percent in math, compared to national MAP growth targets. In one district, the number of students on target to be college and career ready as measured by the ACT Aspire exam more than doubled.

(Next page: Amazing growth from three districts)

The report shares data from specific districts, highlighting the significant gains each has made, with a special focus on districts that have been implementing personalized learning for several years.

In Middletown City School District, N.Y., 65 percent of all Middletown K-8 students hit their reading growth targets–an increase of 21 percent since 2013-2014; 67 percent hit their math growth targets–an increase of 23 percent.

In Horry County Schools, S.C. 57 percent of 6-8 students hit reading growth targets, an increase of 7 percent since 2013-2014; 64 percent hit math growth targets, an increase of 17 percent.

In Piedmont City School District, Ala., 72 percent of students in grades 3-8 tested on target in reading on the ACT compared to 28 percent in 2014-2015, and 55 percent tested on target in math compared to 35 percent in 2014-2015.

The report also measures the impact of personalized learning on districts across qualitative measures:

• 92 percent of district leaders say that teachers are more effective
• 90 percent of district leaders say that students are more engaged in their learning
• 70 percent of teachers say they are confident that personalized learning has a positive effect on teaching and learning
• 68 percent of teachers say that they feel more effective since they started personalized learning and 67 percent of teachers say that students are more engaged since they started personalized learning

The complete report, “Building Capacity for Personalized Learning and More,” provides additional information on other districts including Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (Ind.), Loudoun County Public Schools (Va.), Fairbanks North Star Borough School District (Alaska), Charleston County School District (S.C.), School District 197 (Minn.), Central Valley School District (N.Y.), Uinta County School District #1 (Wyo.), Racine Unified School District (Wis.), Fulton County Schools (Ga.), D.C. Public Schools (D.C.), Dundee Central Schools (N.Y.), Yuma Elementary School District One (Ariz.), Rochester School Department (N.H.), St. Louis Public School District (Mo.), Wake County Public School System (N.C.), and Greeley-Evans School District #6 (Colo.).

The report also profiles 12 teacher and leader “superheroes” from nine districts.

Material from a press release was used in this report.

Video technologies’ continue to have a profound impact on K-12 and higher-ed classrooms as educators and students report increases in achievement, engagement and active content creation, according to a new survey from Kaltura.

Ninety-nine percent of institutions report they have teachers regularly incorporating video technologies in their curriculum. More than half are using video for student assignments, with 21 percent reporting that more than half of their students actively create video (up from 10 percent in 2016). Seventy-three percent of higher education institutions use video technologies for remote teaching and learning.

The survey ^[81] gathered responses from more than 1,000 educators, administrators, students, IT and media staff, and instructional designers.

(Next page: How many educators believe video technologies improve students’ learning experiences?)

Ninety-three percent of respondents said they believe video increases students’ satisfaction with their learning experience, and 85 percent said it increases student achievement. Seventy percent said they think video increases the sense of affiliation of alumni with the institution and 78 percent said it makes the on-boarding of new employees smoother.

Institutions use video for:

• Classroom showings (70 percent)
• Supplementary course material (63 percent)
• Lecture capture (59 percent)
• Student assignments (59 percent)
• Recording students practicing in class (54 percent)
• Flipped classrooms (53 percent)

Twenty-six percent of educators who responded to the survey said more than half of the educators in their institutions use video in their classes.

Active use of video by students (that is, creating or re-purposing video as part of their coursework as opposed to merely watching it passively) is still at an earlier stage. Twenty-one percent of respondents (13 percent of educators) report more than 50 percent of their students are actively using video.

Forty-six percent of respondents said their institution uses a video solution integrated into their LMS, while 15 percent use built-in video tools in the LMS. Ten percent do not currently use a video solution inside their LMS but said they are considering it, and 6 percent do not use video in their LMS and are not considering it.

While the majority of institutions report that students have at least some access to most of the tools needed to create and manage video, the rates are lower than for those of educators: 81 percent, compared to 93 percent of educators. Only 10 percent of respondents believe students at their institution have full access to dedicated training on video technologies.

A majority of Americans would like to see technology companies take a more active role in improving U.S. education by creating apprenticeship programs and providing more technology resources, according to new data.

The new poll from OZY and SurveyMonkey ^[82] tracks how technology is impacting post-secondary education and the workforce in the U.S. It also gauges how survey participants feel about free public higher education, online learning, classroom teachers, and more.

Here are some of the results:

What role, if any, would you like to see technology companies play in improving U.S. high schools?

• Creating apprenticeship programs (57 percent)\
• Providing technology resources in the classroom (50 percent)
• Supporting teachers’ technology use in the classroom (42 percent)
• Sponsoring charter schools in low-income areas (30 percent)

(Next page: How many would strongly support free post-secondary education and tax increases to cover the cost?)

Forty-two percent of those surveyed said they would strongly support the federal government providing free post-secondary education to everyone in the U.S., and 27 percent said they would somewhat support it. Seventeen percent would strongly oppose such a move, and 11 percent would somewhat oppose it.

Among those who would support free post-secondary education, 57 percent would be willing to pay increased taxes to cover the cost, and 42 percent would not.

It seems support for classroom teachers is strong, because 92 percent of survey participants said they agreed more with the idea that “teachers cannot be replaced by robots because students need human interaction to learning,” versus the idea that “robots would be a good replacement for humans as teachers because they are cheaper, unbiased and efficient.” Just 6 percent of survey participants agreed with the latter idea.

Survey participants were split on the purpose of higher education. Forty-nine percent said higher education’s purpose is to teach people how to think, and 49 percent said its purpose is to prepare people for a specific job.

Support for online learning is growing, though it trails traditional campus programs–75 percent of those surveyed said there are benefits to traditional, on-campus learning beyond a degree, while 23 percent said online learning is just as good, if not better than, a traditional campus-based program.

Fifty-six percent of participants said in the future, most people will need a college degree to be successful in science and technology, while 42 percent said a person’s success in science and technology in the future will not be determined by having a college degree.

Nearly half of those surveyed (48 percent) said they believe computer science and engineering majors best prepare students for the workforce of the future, followed by social sciences (15 percent) and hard sciences such as biology or chemistry (14 percent).

Survey participants’ also rated the aspect of their post-high school education that has been the most valuable to their career:

• Learning a tangible skill or trade (23 percent)
• In class learning; classes that helped develop a broader understanding of the way the world works (22 percent)
• Professional network and connections (17 percent)
• In class learning; classes related to a specific degree (11 percent)
• Learning to live independently (10 percent)
• Personal relationships for friendships (6 percent)

The online poll was conducted from Aug. 7–9 of 3,350 adults across the country–including 631 millennials (ages 18 to 34)–randomly selected from those who take polls on SurveyMonkey’s platform. The responses are weighted for age, race, sex, education and geography using census data to reflect the demographic composition of the US. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points. For more on SurveyMonkey’s methodology, click here.

When it comes to schools’ and districts’ ability to implement new technology tools and programs, cost and shrinking budgets are consistently identified as top barriers to implementation.

And while budget woes won’t improve overnight, schools and districts can boost their available funds with grants that are targeted to different areas of need.

Want to shrink the digital gap for low-income students? Do you need more funding to support youth-led community service programs? Or maybe you want to recognize excellence in education innovation.

Look no further. We’ve got 6 grants to meet various levels of funding needs.

(Next page: 6 grants for schools, educators and districts)

1. The 2018 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education ^[83] recognizes outstanding individuals who have made a difference in education innovation. Each winner receives a gift of $50,000 and a bronze sculpture designed by students from Arizona State University. The Prize will recognize individuals and their efforts to elevate human potential in education in three categories: Pre-K-12, Higher Education, and – new for this year – a Learning Science Research category. Deadline: November 17, 2017

2. The Fuel Up to Play 60 ^[84] program invites educators to apply for a chance to receive up to $4,000 to support healthy eating and physical activity improvements in their schools. Fuel Up to Play 60 grants are supported by a for-youth, with-youth program empowering students to create healthy changes nationwide. The largest in-school wellness program was created by the National Dairy Council and National Football League in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Deadline: November 1, 2017

3. The MLK Day of Service Impact Grant ^[85] supports K-12 schools around the world that are creating a culture of service school-wide or district-wide where students develop and use 21st Century skills to apply their learning to address the worlds challenges. Deadline: November 10, 2017

4. The Library Awareness Program ^[86], from the Penguin Random House Foundation, recognizes public libraries creating innovative community-based programs, which encourage citizens to participate and support reading initiatives that connect libraries with their community. School libraries serving the capacity of public libraries are also welcome to submit an application. Deadline: April 15, 2018

5. Through the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards ^[87], creative teens in grades 7-12 are invited to submit work in any of twenty-eight categories of art and writing, including film and animation, video game design, sculpture, photography, fashion design, poetry, journalism, humor, dramatic script, and science fiction. Deadlines for submission vary by region throughout the winter months. Deadline: December 14, 2017

6. The 1Million Project ^[88] provides free devices and wireless service to schools to connect 1 million low-income high school students (over a period of four years) who don’t have home internet access. The project will help level the playing field so that disadvantaged high school students will have access to the technology they need to succeed in school, participate in the digital world and ultimately reach their full potential. Deadline: March 1, 2018