Learners need support from peers and mentors to persist through setbacks and challenges.

Learning is irresistible and life-changing when it connects personal interests to meaningful relationships and real-world opportunity.

Groups that foster connected learning have shared culture and values, are welcoming to newcomers, and encourage sharing, feedback and learning among all participants.

Organizations and adults must meet youth where they are in order to foster connected learning.

college graduates found that a strong connection to a faculty member doubled the positive life outcomes of graduates.

interest helps us pay attention, make connections, persist and engage in deeper learning.

Based on her experiences writing online, Abigail decides she wants to become a professional writer.

organizations and caring adults can form partnerships, broker connections across settings, and share on openly networked platforms and portfolios.

earners need to feel a sense of belonging and be able to make meaningful contributions to a community in order to experience connected learning. Groups that foster connected learning have shared

hrough collaborative production, friendly competition, civic action, and joint research, youth and adults make things, have fun, learn, and make a difference together.

They do this by being sponsors of what youth are genuinely interested in — recognizing diverse interests and providing mentorship, space, and other resources.

Learning is irresistible and life-changing when it connects personal interests to meaningful relationships and real-world opportunity.

embraces the diverse backgrounds and interests of all young people.

They surpassed their more wealthier peers, growing up in Silicon Valley, in 21st-century competencies and digital media engagement.

students could utilize technology to network with students several states away to see how regional differences impact how others think about the Constitution.

a group of students might collaborate in a cloud-based workspace to propose a modern definition of equal protection under the law and solicit feedback on their proposals from classmates.

Returning to the Constitution example, a student might augment a presentation on, say, the 14th Amendment with a video clip of how equal protection under the law was enforced during school desegregation.

At this stage, technology is directly substituted for a more traditional one. It is a simple, bare-bones, direct replacement. For example, if you are teaching a government lesson on the Constitution, you might use an electronic or web-based version of the document instead of a hard copy. Students might also answer questions about the Constitution using a Microsoft Word instead of filling out a worksheet.

. Think of the difference between seasoning an old family recipe (Enhancement) and creating an entirely new, original dish (Transformation).

Now let’s weave all this technological, pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) together and enhance the activities of our original lesson plan. The ideas below are examples of activities that can be added to the original list. Remember, the goal is to be purposeful in applying each form of knowledge.

recognized how your content could be presented in more interactive and engaging digital mediums—e.g., video, class discussion, game, etc.—and you knew how to make that happen via your LMS, then you just leveled up to Technical Content Knowledge (TCK).

the point of TPACK is to understand how to use technology to teach concepts in a way that enhances student learning experiences.

the intersections of each are critical because they represent deeper levels of understanding.

When a group investigates a new topic, it can be very fun, and the group will take ownership of the topic and the presentation.

The content or reading assignment is a metaphor for a "puzzle" that students break into smaller pieces to learn.

 Technology provides us all with the ability to develop our own toolkit of flexible resources for use when needed.

Researchers have determined that technology integration typically moves through specific levels.

What is the new task? Will any portion of the original task be retained? How is the new task uniquely made possible by the new technology? How does it contribute to my design?

bout the expectation for each of us to achieve what we cannot achieve without new technology.

How is the original task being modified? Does this modification fundamentally depend upon the new technology? How does this modification contribute to my design?

Have I added an improvement to the task process that could not be accomplished with the older technology at a fundamental level? How does this feature contribute to my design?

What will I gain by replacing the older technology with the new technology?

eachers in the substitution and augmentation phase can use technology to accomplish traditional tasks,  but the real learning gains result from engaging students in learning experiences that could not be accomplished without technology. At the Modification and Redefinition level, the task changes and extends the walls of the classroom.

AMR is a model of tech integration designed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D. that is simple, easy to gauge, and offers all educators something to strive for.

Apple’s use of the SAMR model as a framework for tech integration presents a consistent, clear and powerful message that is spreading!

By better describing the types of knowledge teachers need (in the form of content, pedagogy, technology, contexts and their interactions), educators are in a better position to understand the variance in levels of technology integration occurring.

Teaching with technology is a difficult thing to do well. The TPACK framework suggests that content, pedagogy, technology, and teaching/learning contexts have roles to play individually and together. Teaching successfully with technology requires continually creating, maintaining, and re-establishing a dynamic equilibrium among all components. It is worth noting that a range of factors influences how this equilibrium is reached.

By simultaneously integrating knowledge of technology, pedagogy and content, expert teachers bring TPACK into play any time they teach. Each situation presented to teachers is a unique combination of these three factors, and accordingly, there is no single technological solution that applies for every teacher, every course, or every view of teaching. Rather, solutions lie in the ability of a teacher to flexibly navigate the spaces defined by the three elements of content, pedagogy, and technology and the complex interactions among these elements in specific contexts.

An understanding of the affordances of technology and how they can be leveraged differently according to changes in context and purposes is an important part of understanding TPK.

ny definition of technology knowledge is in danger of becoming outdated by the time this text has been published.

teacher interprets the subject matter, finds multiple ways to represent it, and adapts and tailors the instructional materials to alternative conceptions and students’ prior knowledge.

Pedagogical knowledge (PK) is teachers’ deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning.

Content knowledge (CK) is teachers’ knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught.

three knowledge bases (content, pedagogy, and technology) form the core of the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework.

Teachers often have inadequate (or inappropriate) experience with using digital technologies for teaching and learning. Many teachers earned degrees at a time when educational technology was at a very different stage of development than it is today. It is, thus, not surprising that they do not consider themselves sufficiently prepared to use technology in the classroom and often do not appreciate its value or relevance to teaching and learning.

Digital technologies—such as computers, handheld devices, and software applications—by contrast, are protean (usable in many different ways; Papert, 1980); unstable (rapidly changing); and opaque (the inner workings are hidden from users;

Connected learning is realized when a young person is able to pursue a personal interest or passion with the support of friends and caring adults, and is in turn able to link this learning and interest to academic achievement, career success or civic engagement.

Group size: It’s a simple fix, but the size of the groups can help establish the right dynamics. Generally, smaller groups are better because students can’t get away with hiding while the work is completed by others.

Making Sure Everyone Participates “How many times have we put students in groups only to watch them interact with their laptops instead of each other? Or complain about a lazy teammate?”

In this conversation, we're going to have-- I'm going to have you guys write down the questions, and then talk to each other about the conversation, about the book, and I'm going to sort of step back and take notes. And I'll do a little bit of guiding, but you guys are going to talk to each other. And there's three particular roles that students will fill. One is the scribe role, where one student is taking notes on the conversation, so that all the other students can be fully engaged in the conversation that's happening. Another role is a little map where one student is monitoring who's speaking when and they draw these sort of diagrams so that there's a visual map of how the conversation is going. The other thing I just want to point out since I'm showing these to you is, would you say this is a good conversation? Yes.

connected learning -- learning that is socially connected, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational opportunity. 

The UbD framework promotes not only acquisition, but also the student’s ability to know why the knowl-edge and skills are important, and how to apply or transfer them in meaningful, professional, and socially important ways

. Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content knowl-edge, skill, or activity. They focus on ensuring that learning happens, not just teaching

The UbD framework helps focus curriculum and teaching on the develop-ment and deepening of student understanding and transfer of learning (i.e., the ability to effectively use content knowledge and skill).

• Can explain concepts, principles, and processes by putting it their own words, teaching it to others, justifying their answers, and showing their reasoning

FIGURE 1—SAMPLE TRANSFER GOALS

Learning priorities are established by long-term performance goals—what it is we want students, in the end, to be able to do with what they have learned.

The point of school is not to simply excel in each class, but to be able to use one’s learning in other settings.

Effective curriculum is planned backward from long-term, desired results through a three-stage design process (Desired Results, Evidence, and Learning Plan). This process helps avoid the common problems of treating the textbook as the curriculum rather than a resource, and activity-oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.

Six facets of under-standing—the capacity to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empa-thize, and self-assess—can serve as indicators of understanding.

Stage 3—Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

Stage 2—Determine Assessment Evidence

Stage 1—Identify Desired Results

eachers must have access to high-quality UbD curriculum materials. Weak or flawed examples convey the wrong idea of what UbD curriculum should look like, and teachers who use imperfect resourc

his, too, is false. Indeed, the data from released national tests show conclusively that the students have the most difficulty with those items that require understanding and transfer, not recall or recognition.

This perceived incompatibility is based on a flawed assumption that the only way to raise test scores is to cover those things that are tested and practice the test format.

earning you seek—the learning results (Stage 1

numerous opportunities to draw inferences and make generaliza-tions for themselves (with teacher sup-port).

isplay empathy by perceiving sensitively and walking in someone else’s shoes.

Can explain concepts, principles, and processes by putting it their own words, teaching it to others, justifying their answers, and showing their reasoning

s to recognize that factual knowledge and skills are not taught for their own sake, but as a means to larger ends

ong-term performance goals—what it is we want students, in the end, to be able to do with what they have learned

is planned backward from long-term, desired results through a three-stage design process (Desired Results, Evidence, a

ix facets of under-standing—the capacity to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empa-thize, and self-assess—can serve as indicators of understanding

focus on teaching and assessing for understanding and learning transfer, and 2) design curriculum “backward” fro

Making sense of different terminology and conventions used within online communities. Participating in both synchronous (communicating in real time) and asynchronous (time lag in communication exchanges) discussions. Discovering information and resources by asking people within social networks.

we need to provide people with open access to the skills and know-how needed to use the web to improve their lives, careers, and organizations.

reach and meet the growing number of diverse audiences using the web.

Problem-solving

If creativity, communication, problem-solving, and collaboration are core to leadership development, practicing these skills in an online environment is the “webby” or web-based experiences of these non-cognitive skills.

the latest version of Mozilla’s Web Literacy Map that includes 21C skills, leadership skills and competencieswritten in language that is approachable and accessible to more people, and connected to curriculum to make it applicable for learning and teaching web literacy skills.

21C leadership Skills (i.e. critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, creativity, communication)

the 4th basic foundational skill next to the three Rs—reading, writing, and arithmetic

Approachable and accessible to diverse audiences and their needs. The map needs to be written in a language that is easy to understand, and relevant—why do web literacy skills matter to them. Applicable to interest and/or expertise. The map needs to connect to curriculum, credentials, professional development, and other resources to teach people the skills they need to engage online and offline.

They can evaluate web content, and identify what is useful and trustworthy.

Group Contributions

why do web literacy skills matter to them.

web

Understanding basic principles, purpose, and applications of coding and programming languages.

Good online readers know the tools and strategies that can be used to search for and locate people, resources, and information. They then know how to judge the credibility of these sources.

Using and revising keywords to make web searches to find information more efficiently

To help people become good citizens of the web, Mozilla focuses on the following goals: 1) develop more educators, advocates, and community leaders who can leverage and advance the web as an open and public resource, and 2) impact policies and practices to ensure the web remains a healthy open and public resource for all.

When we encourage students to use technology, do we remind them of the risks of placing their information online and give them choices of how much personal information to reveal?

We should not be throwing students into the public domain to discuss sensitive topics without having conversations with them on what they might face and which of these risks they are willing to take, how they would handle it, and how they might support each other.

digital literacy would include in-depth questions

For example, teaching digital skills would include showing students how to download images from the Internet and insert them into PowerPoint slides or webpages. Digital literacy would focus on helping students choose appropriate images, recognize copyright licensing, and cite or get permissions,

Digital literacy is not about the skills of using technologies, but how we use our judgment to maintain awareness of what we are reading and writing, why we are doing it, and whom we are addressing.

We should not be throwing students into the public domain to discuss sensitive topics without having conversations with them on what they might face and which of these risks they are willing to take, how they would handle it, and how they might support each other.

Instead of teaching how to use a hashtag and how to tweet and retweet, I give my students meaningful tasks to help their learning.

Digital literacy is not about the skills of using technologies, but how we use our judgment to maintain awareness of what we are reading and writing, why we are doing it, and whom we are addressing.

After students have the skill to use multiple platforms, I allow them the choice of which platform to use for the support they need, but I make sure they ask questions. When is it best to do a Google search versus ask a question on Twitter? Why would students tweet to a particular hashtag or person versus another? When they tweet to people from another country in another time zone, what kind of context do they need to consider? What should they add, remove, or modify in order to communicate better?

in addition to reminding students to use alternative text for images to support those with visual disabilities.

Unfortunately, many focus on skills rather than literacies

Digital skills focus on what and how. Digital literacy focuses on why, when, who, and for whom.

Digital skills focus on what and how. Digital literacy focuses on why, when, who, and for whom.

Garth

he World Wide Web has become this generation’s defining technology for literacy

commentary

commentary

Simply stated, students are often not provided with opportunities in school to practice the web literacies necessary to read, write, and participate on the web

These efforts seek not to simply understand the web but to empower adolescents to help build a better open web.

The World Wide Web has become this generation’s defining technology for literacy. This technology facilitates access to an unlimited amount of online information in a participatory learning space.

formative and/or summative assessments, and journaling as a good opportunity for implementing one form of formative assessment.

, and LinkedIn.

As you work through the information literacy skills with your students, remember that these skills are not the types of skills you can teach once and assume students will learn. They require very advanced thinking and organizing skills and therefore need multiple lessons and practice sessions. In my opinion, students are always on a scale of improvement with these skills; it is not a situation in which students either have them or don't. There are several skills on the list that I need to improve upon myself!

6. Communicate information and evaluate results (Application and Evaluation):

5. Use information effectively to address the problem or task (Synthesis):

4. Organize the information (Application):

3. Analyze the information found (Analysis and Evaluation):

2. Find and identify information needed (Comprehension/Analysis):

1. Know when there is a need for information (Comprehension):

such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning)

Using backward design to plan learning units and courses helps teachers and designers to reflect on what is really important for students to learn. Establishing objectives first enables them to prioritize learning activities so that students can successfully master learning goals.

Once we know what students need to be able to know and do, what needs to happen in the classroom to support that goal?

“how do we know whether or not students have achieved our learning objectives?”

The first step involves reflecting on the standards and curriculum map to identify the key concepts that students should know and be able to understand at the end of the unit. 

If the teacher has explicitly defined the learning goals of the course, then they have a better idea of what they want the students to get out of learning activities.

Wiggins and McTighe argue that backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding

Explore Mozilla’s new Web Literacy Map ≫

A digital footprint is all of the information a person passively leaves and actively shares about themselves online, especially on social media sites. Text, images, multimedia, cookies, browsing histories, IP addresses, passwords, and even Internet service providers all make up a person’s digital footprint.

Evaluate Information Found Online

Virtual Collaboration

Digital databases are the new library. They're infinite, everywhere, and welcome visitors at all hours.

“You look through the 3D glasses, and you can basically walk through the structure, peeling apart parts so you can look at exactly what you want to,” said Dr. Anthony Azakie, one of the surgeons who separated the twins. He said the high-resolution visualization “helped minimize the number of surprises that we were potentially dealing with.”

X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans can now be turned into high-resolution 3D images in under a minute, said Sergio Agirre, chief technology officer of EchoPixel, a Mountain View, California firm whose visualization software is being used in hospitals across the U.S. “Twenty years ago, it would probably take them a week to be able to do that.”

psychologists have found VR to be good for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Construction asks our students and teachers to focus on the power and patience employed during work process…and not just the final resultant work product.

It may be a small designation to make, but I see a great deal of difference between the act of creation, and the sustained, informed, evaluative elements embedded in construction. Related posts:

Creation can be viewed simply as the act of producing, or causing to exist.  Construction is the building or assembling of an infrastructure. Construction is equal parts inspiration and perspiration. Construction calls on creativity as well as persistence, flexibility, and revision. Construction asks our students and teachers to focus on the power and patience employed during work process…and not just the final resultant work product.

During the ORC process students learn during an inquiry process and then send this message out to others using a text or tool of their choosing.

. Education has become more prominent topic in the public discourse of social promise. The expectations of education have been ratcheted up,

We have created networks and affiliations and worked in joint projects

Meaning makers don’t simply use what they have been given; they are fully makers and remakers of signs and transformers of meaning.

Three major innovations over that time have been: to focus less on the teachable specificities of meaning-system and more on the heuristics of learners’ discovering specificities amongst the enormously varied field of possibly-relevant

a pedagogy of Multiliteracies may go one step further, to help create conditions of critical understanding of the discourses of work and power, a kind of knowing from which newer, more productive and genuinely more egalitarian working conditions might emerge

Literacy needs much more than the traditional basics of reading and writing the national language; in the new economy workplace it is a set of supple, variable, communication strategies, ever-diverging according the cultures and social languages of technologies, functional groups, types of organisation and niche clienteles.

And these new literacies are embodied in new social practices—ways of working in new or transformed forms of employment, new ways of participating as a citizen in public spaces, and even perhaps, new forms of identity and personality

the traditional emphasis on alphabetical literacy (letter sounds in words in sentences in texts in literatures) would need to be supplemented in a pedagogy of Multiliteracies by learning how to read and write multimodal texts which integrated the other modes with language.

3literacy curriculum taught to a singular standard (grammar, the literary canon, standard national forms of the language), the everyday experience of meaning making was increasingly one of negotiating discourse differences. A pedagogy of Multiliteracies would need to address this as a fundamental aspect of contemporary teaching and learning.

n the sense that each new mix becomes a meaning-making resource (affordance) for subsequent remixes, there is no “end” to remixing.

These features can be applied analogously to cases of digital remix. If we claim in this case that “family” within the conventional biological taxonomy encompasses particular types of expressive media and services, then the concepts of “genus” and “species” help us to trace fertile interbreeding at both levels (see Table 1).

Photoshopping remixes (e.g., Lostfrog.org)•Music and music video remixes (e.g., Danger Mouse’s “Grey Album” and the Grey video)•Machinima remixes (e.g., Machinima.com)•Moving image remixes (e.g., Animemusicvideos.org)•Original manga and anime fan art (e.g., DeviantArt.com)•Television, movie, book remixes (e.g., Fanfiction.net)•Serviceware mashups (e.g., Twittervision.com

We remix language every time we draw on it, and we remix meanings every time we take an idea or an artefact or a word and integrate it into what we are saying and doing at the time.

Lessig (2005) claims that at a very general level all of culture can be understood in terms of remix, where someone creates a cultural product by mixing meaningful elements together (e.g., ideas from different people with ideas of one’s own), and then someone else comes along and remixes this cultural artefact with others to create yet another artefact.

By “remix” we mean the practice of taking cultural artefacts and combining and manipulating them into a new kind of creative blend.

e remix meanings every time we take an idea or an artefact or a word and integrate it into what we are saying and doing at the time.

The evaluative dimension has to do with knowing how to enhance or improve the practice in order for it to better fulfill the interests of those who engage in it and who are impacted by it.

The discourse dimension involves bringing cultural knowledge to bear on the tasks or purposes of the practice in which one is engaged; how to mobilize and co-ordinate the meaning elements.

The technical dimension involves knowing one’s way around the processes and tools for encoding the meaning one seeks to articulate.

It reminds us that texts evoke interpretation on all kinds of levels that may only partially be “tappable” or “accessible” linguistically.

Encoding means rendering texts in forms that allow them to be retrieved, worked with, and made available independently of the physical presence of an enunciator.

They defined practices as “socially developed and patterned ways of using technology and knowledge to accomplish tasks.” That is, when people participate in tasks that direct them “to socially recognized goals and make use of a shared technology and knowledge system, they are engaged in a social practice”

In the sense that each new mix becomes a meaning-making resource (affordance) for subsequent remixes, there is no “end” to remixing. Each remix in principle expands the possibilities for further remix.

These include remixing clips from movies to create “faux” trailers for hypothetical movies; setting remixed movie trailers to remixed music of choice that is synchronized to the visual action; recording a series of anime cartoons and then video-editing them in synchrony with a popular music track; mixing “found” images with original images in order to express a theme or idea (with or without text added); and mixing images, animations and texts to create cartoons or satirical posters (including political cartoons and animations), to name just a few types.

We remix language every time we draw on it, and we remix meanings every time we take an idea or an artefact or a word and integrate it into what we are saying and doing at the time

Lessig (2005) says that every single act of reading and choosing and criticizing and praising culture is in this sense remix, and it is through this general practice that cultures get made.

Lessig (2005) claims that at a very general level all of culture can be understood in terms of remix, where someone creates a cultural product by mixing meaningful elements together (e.g., ideas from different people with ideas of one’s own), and then someone else comes along and remixes this cultural artefact with others to create yet another artefact.

Creativity

Learning STEM Skills by Designing

Cultural Anthropologist Mimi Ito on Connected Learning, Children, and Digital Media

Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture

As we begin to integrate these online communication tools into our classrooms, we should not ignore concerns about child safety.

Someone reading this standard with a lens to the past would interpret it by teaching point of view within narratives, engaging students in discussions about the point of view held by different characters. Some-one reading this standard with a lens to the future would interpret it by teaching point of view in relation to the evaluation of a website’s reliabil-ity, where point of view is one of several important elements to consider when evaluating the reliability of information that is found online.

To make this approach work, teachers must be willing to “cede the floor” to the students.

Connected learning is realized when a young person is able to pursue a personal interest or passion with the support of friends and caring adults, and is in turn able to link this learning and interest to academic achievement, career success or civic engagement.

They do this by being sponsors of what youth are genuinely interested in — recognizing diverse interests and providing mentorship, space, and other resources.

Construction calls on creativity as well as persistence, flexibility, and revision. Construction asks our students and teachers to focus on the power and patience employed during work process…and not just the final resultant work product.

Design in the sense of construction is something you do in the process of representing meanings, to oneself in sense-making processes such as reading, listening or viewing, or to the world in communicative processes such as writing, speaking or making pictures.

Literacy teaching is not about skills and competence; it is aimed a creating a kind of person, an active designer of meaning, with a sensibility open to differences, change and innovation

That is, meaning makers are not simply replicators of representational conventions. Their meaning-making resources may be found in representational objects, patterned in familiar and thus recognisable ways. However, they rework these objects. Meaning makers don’t simply use what they have been given; they are fully makers and remakers of signs and transformers of meaning.

•Photoshopping remixes (e.g., Lostfrog.org)•Music and music video remixes (e.g., Danger Mouse’s “Grey Album” and the Grey video)•Machinima remixes (e.g., Machinima.com)•Moving image remixes (e.g., Animemusicvideos.org)•Original manga and anime fan art (e.g., DeviantArt.com)•Television, movie, book remixes (e.g., Fanfiction.net)•Serviceware mashups (e.g., Twittervision.com

a very general level all of culture can be understood in terms of remix, where someone creates a cultural product by mixing meaningful elements together (e.g., ideas from different people with ideas of one’s own), and then someone else comes along and remixes this cultural artefact with others to create yet another artefact.

By “remix” we mean the practice of taking cultural artefacts and combining and manipulating them into a new kind of creative blend.