Author Archives: Kris McElroy

Create a Storyboard

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Traditionally a storyboard is a sequence of drawings, often with dialogue or directions, that is used in filmmaking to visualize and organize a scene before it is filmed. Storyboards are very good for media projects where you need to prepare before you begin filming or creating content, but they can be used for lots of other things. You can essentially use a storyboard for anything where you need to move through a process or a collection of content or information.

Storyboards are great for designing a course or even just a learning activity. They allow you to work through a process step-by-step before your students have to do it. By creating a storyboard, you can see the big picture of your course and how everything connects together… or doesn’t. You ensure you haven’t overlooked potential obstacles as well as potential opportunities. Visualizing how all the pieces of a course or assignment work together can help you communicate it to your students making sure they too know how their learning is connected.

The video below walks through creating a journey map for getting a cup of coffee. Sounds simple, right? Even simple things can have many steps. How many did you think weren’t important to mention, but were actually quite critical to the end goal?

Journey Map from Stanford d.school on Vimeo.

Backward Design

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Backward Design is a method of designing courses that works backwards from the desired end goals of a course rather than beginning with a list of content and activities that will be taught.

To begin the backward design process, you identify what your students need to know and be able to do once they have completed the course. These are your course goals or outcomes.

Next, you identify what evidence you will need to determine if your students are meeting those goals. How will you know they are able to do the necessary tasks you identified as your course goals? Will a test truly tell you if they have mastered a skill or will they need to create a project?

Finally, you design the activities and coursework students will complete to develop the skills and knowledge and result in the evidence you need to assess them.

This backwards process ensures that your students have all the content and activities that they need to achieve the goals of the course. It also helps eliminate extra course content that may not work towards those goals creating a focused and streamlined course and allowing plenty of time for students to practices their new skills in ways that are meaningful and directly relate to the content.

The two videos below will provide you with a couple of examples of backwards design.

 

Visible Thinking

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Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to making learning visible so that it can be reflected on and built on. It emphasizes three core practices: thinking routines, the documentation of student thinking and reflective professional practice. It is the difference between teaching skills and teaching students to think creatively and critically. The use of thinking routines encourages the development of habits of observing and analyzing situations and problems. Project Zero developed thinking routines as simple structures that help students work through complex information to make it accessible and then to reflect back on what they have learned.

View the video below for an introduction to Thinking Routines. Then review the tools to find one to begin using in your classes now.
 

Introducing SAMR

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Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition, otherwise known as SAMR.

www.commonsense.org

www.commonsense.org

SAMR is a model for integrating technology into your classes that was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. The strength of the SAMR model is that it allows you to start small with the knowledge you already have and to begin using technology to do a task that you already do. For example, you may substitute your paper calendar for a digital one. Later, you may decide to step up your technology use by sharing this calendar with others to coordinate scheduling, augmenting your use of a digital calendar in a way that you could not have done with a paper calendar. For more examples of integrating technology in small, but manageable steps, take a look at SAMR and Bloom’s Taxonomy and listen to Dr. Puentedura describe his model in the video below. 

Why We Need Digital Literacy Skills

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The American Library Association defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” The ability to find, evaluate and synthesize information in a digital world with massive amounts of information has become a key skill in today’s workplace as is the need to communicate and collaborate using online technologies. There is often an assumption that students who have grown up with these technologies are adept with them. However, research often shows that a person’s age has little to do with their comfort level using technology and rather on the need or desire to interact with these technologies on a regular basis.

 

To learn more about digital literacy skills and how to integrate them into the curriculum, check out these resources:

JISC Developing students’ digital literacy
Educause Faculty Digital Fluencies and Frameworks
Deakin University Library’s Elements of Digital Literacy