THE HYPERDOC EFFECT

Have you ever tried HyperDocs? If your answer is “No,” you should definitely try them to see how they will transform your classroom. The idea came from three amazing teachers: Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis and I think one of the reasons why HyperDocs work so well in the classroom is due to the fact that they are created by teachers who are actively teaching in the classroom. Here is the link to some of their poster resources at ISTE19.

So, why HyperDocs? Teachers have to assume several roles in the classroom today.

Image Source: https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/6783

We are expected to cover all the standards so that our students do well on the standardized tests. We should also teach 21st Century skills and to integrate them into our lesson plans. Our students will not be ready for life if they don’t know how to communicate and collaborate effectively, think critically, solve problems and come up with innovative solutions. Today information changes at such a rapid rate that most of the information they have learned at school will not be valid by the time our students graduate, so we have to teach them how to learn, not just what to learn. The ‘sit and get style’ of instruction is not serving our population of learners. Therefore, our lessons have to be student-led. We have to differentiate learning so that we can include everyone in the classroom, establish good relationships with our students and manage our classrooms well while engaging and empowering everyone in the classroom.

The HyperDoc teachers came up with a package that can enable you to do all these. On the surface, a HyperDoc may look like a colorful Google Doc with links, but it is based on strong pedagogies such as inquiry-based learning, the SAMR model, and DoK, providing opportunities for the exploration of a topic with activities that are self-paced or delivered in a flexible blended learning environment, often flipped and differentiated with extensions to meet the needs of all students. That’s why a HyperDoc is so much more than just a doc with hyperlinks.

Image Credit: @KarlyMoura

The inquiry-based lessons provide opportunities for exploration of a topic both individually and collaboratively by scaffolding learning. Teachers deliberately choose web tools to give students opportunities to Engage – Explore – Explain – Elaborate (Apply – Share – Reflect) – Extend the learning. Reflection is used at the end of each phase of this learning cycle. Reflection opportunities built into the HyperDocs help students gather feedback from their classmates and teachers. They also enable teachers to evaluate students’ understanding of key concepts and skill development and plan future learning activities accordingly.

Image Credit: Jody Meacher @meacherteacher

Technology is used to create purposeful opportunities for learning. By using the appropriate tools, teachers carefully choreograph collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking to design lessons that provide the students with voice and choice and with opportunities to share what they know with an authentic audience. Students make decisions about how and what they learn based on personal needs and preferences. This self-paced nature of HyperDocs enables the teachers to spend more time with the students who need their support as teachers have more face time with their students. All of these is packaged in one easy-to-find place, shared by all students in Google Classroom and can be accessed anytime on multiple devices.

Delivering lessons with HyperDocs is a big shift from teacher-led instruction to student-driven learning. Teachers become designers or architects of learning experiences instead of assigners. There is less focus on teaching moments and more on learning moments. You can visit this Padlet to see what teachers think about HyperDocs.

Image Credit: @SEANJFAHEY 

One important tip about creating HyperDocs: Don’t prepare them as an e-learning course. Integrate non-digital student collaboration and communication activities such as Think Pair Share, Socratic Circles, Concentric Circles, and Gallery Walks.

Students find the interactive nature of HyperDocs that encourage social learning engaging. In addition to this, HyperDoc teachers emphasize the significance of visual packaging. Our students live in a media-infused world and are exposed to several colorful and appealing media messages every day. We should try to compete with these with the lessons that we prepare and make the visual packaging as appealing as possible to engage them. Here is an example.

Before I shared HyperDocs with my colleagues at school, I curated a series of resources for them about the must-haves of HyperDocs. If you think you need more information on Google Apps for Education, inquiry-based learning, formative assessment, integrating the 4 C’s into your lessons, differentiated learning or the flipped classroom you may check it here.

The best way to start with HyperDocs is by remixing them to modify a pre-made HyperDoc for your own use depending on the needs of your students. Please don’t forget to give credits to the owners of the HyperDocs that you have remixed. You can check my Genius Hour HyperDoc, which is a remix. You will also need different templates and editable digital graphic organizers to prepare HyperDocs. Check these templates created by Amanda Sandoval. Check this list before you start preparing your HyperDoc and use this checklist after you have finished preparing it.  Finally, check these tips and recommendations by Sean Fahey to make the most of your HyperDoc experience.

SUMMER IS THE PERFECT TIME TO DEVELOP YOUR PLN

We all love summer as we can relax and catch up on many things we can’t do during the school year. If you haven’t set up your personal learning network (PLN) so far, it may be the perfect time to do that.

We are living in times when as educators, we should be continually growing and changing. We now know that our students don’t benefit from one-size-fits-all education and we have to transform it. In order to meet the needs of all learners, we have to replace teacher-centered, textbook-based classrooms with learning environments where deeper learning* occurs. The expectations of the 21st century workplaces have also changed. We live in a world where abundant information, some of which is subject to change in time, is accessible everywhere you can find an internet connection. What is valid nowadays is not the information itself, but the skills to process the information effectively and use it to create meaning. Moreover, workplaces need workers who can think critically and creatively to find innovative solutions to challenging problems, who can effectively communicate and collaborate with other workers in local or global teams. Therefore, their education should involve all these skills.

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IMAGE CREDIT: Krissy Venosdale www.venspired.com

With the help of the new technologies we can help our students internalize all the skills that 21st century education requires instead of having them memorize information for an exam as passive recipients of content and forget everything the next day. Of course it is not easy to make all these radical changes in the way we teach. First, we should learn about the modern pedagogies that will enable our students to be effective communicators, collaborators, thinkers, inquirers, makers, creators and lifelong learners and create learning spaces and environments to address the needs of all learners. We should also learn to integrate the new technologies to be able to reach our learning goals.

Luckily, we are living in a networked society, which enables us to learn from the resources available online, and most importantly from each other. As Med Kharbach says, Educators from different stripes of society find in them new promising ways to connect with others in the other end of the world. What was before strictly limited to local environment is now open-ended and restricted only by users’ choice. Educational affinity spaces, virtual platforms, and communities of practice have mushroomed everywhere online and any teacher from anywhere in the world can join in the conversation and participate in the knowledge building taking place inside these learning hubs. There has never been such abundance of opportunities for teachers’ professional development as it is now. In this context, being a connected educator in the 21st century means being part of a universal community of teachers ready to help you as well as learn from you. No one is as smart as all of us.”

SOURCE: @DocbobLA

HOW TO START AND IMPROVE YOUR PLN?

 If you haven’t set up your PLN yet, the infographic below may be helpful:

How-To-Build-Your-Professional-Learning-Community-infographic

SOURCE: http://elearninginfographics.com

There are also many resources available online for teachers who want to improve their PLNs. Education is now in a period of tremendous change that requires all of us to stay current with the trends and learning environments. Therefore, learning to create and manage a personal learning network is a necessary skill and an essential tool for teachers in the 21st century. After all, we should model our students as lifelong learners just as we expect it from them. We need to lead by example.

As an English teacher, I would like to finish this post by recommending some online PD websites for English teachers. My Scoopit on Cool Web Tools for ESL, EFL, ELL and MFL learners, which is available on my blog, may also be helpful to teachers who are looking for tech tools. If you know more PD websites for English teachers, please let me know. Have a great summerJ

Pearson Elt 21st Century Learning Series for teachers http://www.pearsonelt.com/21stcenturylearning

Cambridge English Teacher http://www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org/

The Best Places for ESL/EFL/ELL Teachers to Get Online Professional Development by Larry Ferlazzo: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/06/03/the-best-places-for-esleflell-teachers-to-get-online-professional-development/

Professional resources for LA Teachers by Web English Teacher http://www.webenglishteacher.com/profres.html

Teacher Development by British Council http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teacher-development

English Teaching Forum http://americanenglish.state.gov/english-teaching-forum

ELT Teacher Trainer by John Hughes http://elteachertrainer.com/

Professional Learning for Connected Educators by Powerful Learning Practice http://plpnetwork.com/author/shelley-wright/

100 talks, sessions & interviews on Harrogate IATEFL 2014 Online by British Council http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2014/sessions/index

TeacherCast University by Jeffrey Bradbury: http://tcu.teachercast.net/

25 Excellent Professional Development Tools for Teachers by Med Kharbach http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/23-excellent-professional-development.html

* The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. “Deeper Learning Defined.” April 2013.