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.

EMPOWERING STUDENTS VIA BLENDED AND FLIPPED LEARNING

Today, educators all around the world are rethinking the traditional school model as they are expected to personalize learning and boost achievement. The changing paradigms in education and the expectations of the society have resulted in new learning models, one of which is blended learning. Blended learning is a shift to an online environment for at least a portion of the school day. This digital portion gives the students the opportunity to study at their own pace and get personalized instruction targeted to their needs and tailored to their unique learning styles. The videos below describe the fundamentals of blended learning:

While planning blended learning, educators should start with learning goals and decide on platform and content accordingly. Learning tools should never dictate the learning goals. Blended learning allows students to learn some of the academic content at home and gives teachers the ability to engage students in a richer, deeper, and more meaningful context in the classroom. Therefore, teachers can maximize their teaching abilities and be more creative in their ways of educating students. In the video below the founder of Khan Academy, Salman Khan sketches a plan on how digital learning tools can enable teachers and students to allocate more time for real-life creative learning experiences:

SOURCE: Edutopia

SOURCE: DIGITAL LEARNING NOW!

Flipped Learning is one type of blended learning in which the classroom activities and homework elements of a course are reversed. Students watch short video lectures at home before the class session so that more time can be allocated for social interaction, discussions, active and experiential learning experience, critical thinking and problem solving activities, inquiry learning and creative projects during class time. Teachers should check understanding to group students according to their levels and assign tasks accordingly. Student advancement should be based upon competency and mastery of the material. Differentiated instruction, active learning and student engagement are the key concepts in a flipped classroom where students are expected to take full responsibility for their learning. During class time, teachers function as coaches or advisors, encouraging students in individual inquiry and collaborative effort.

In the YouTube video below, 8th grade math teacher, Katie explains why she is using the flipped classroom model:

Video lectures are either created by the teacher and posted online or selected from a website. The YouTube video below gives tips on how to do that:

Flipped Learning has its pros and cons like all the other learning models. I personally think that all learning models that are student-centered, that enhance higher order thinking skills and creativity, and help students internalize the other 21st century skills will enhance learning and will eventually contribute to their test-prep skills much more than the teach-to-the-test models.

What is a flipped Classroom

SOURCE: Visually

 

Some free resources that teachers can use for blended or flipped learning are listed in the slides below:

However, flipped learning is not about finding and using resources and tools. It is about the learning that takes place in the classroom. Teachers should be active participants in this learning model, which makes technology the tool, not the focus. Therefore, professional development on blended or flipped learning should not only focus on the use of technology, but cover key areas in learning such as differentiated instruction and inquiry-based learning. Moreover, teachers should be equipped with  effective classroom management skills as inspired and passionate classroom facilitators, creating environments where students thrive.

Flipped Classroom

SOURCE: KNEWTON

If they are implemented correctly, blended and flipped learning models may have a positive impact on education in new learning environments that work better for students and teachers. Therefore, schools should invest in training and development. They should also plan scheduling to enable teachers to collaborate, develop, and analyze student data in-school time; and give them credit and accountability for the growth of their students. Flipped learning, together  with a supportive school environment that values 21st century skills and effective leveraging of new technologies to enhance student inquiry and personalize learning, has the potential to transform education. Teachers who want more information on flipped learning, can watch the Flipping playlist by Spartan Guides below and check the EdSurge page on blended learning.


What do you think about blended learning? Have you flipped your classes? If so, please let me know about your experience.

HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGY INTO THE 21st CENTURY CLASSROOM – PART 2: TRANSFORMING LEARNING

After my previous post, some colleagues asked me what I think the best web tools are and which ones we are using at my school. I am going to answer this question in a future post when I write about tools and websites for English teachers. On the other hand, I think there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Schools or individual teachers should choose them by considering their learning objectives and expectations for the school year and manipulate them to serve their needs. In other words, learning should drive the technology rather than technology driving learning. Therefore, the choice of these tools may change from one school to the other depending on the learning objectives and expectations. Indeed, it isn’t really about the tools, it is about how you use them to enhance learning and  to combine the incredible powers of the human brain with the creative potential of the new technology.

The chart by Teachbytes below shows the difference between using technology just for the sake of using equipment and web tools and integrating it to serve specific purposes to transform and enhance learning.

We all know that our students are motivated if they are given the opportunity to choose and if their curiosity is triggered. Big questions that are interesting and difficult to answer, encourage students to offer theories instead of giving answers.  Moreover, they learn much better if they interact socially. If they are allowed to discover and experiment in flexible and creative environments where they are not afraid of making mistakes, they can construct their own understanding of new concepts by relating them to what they already know with the guidance and encouragement of their teachers. Otherwise, it is against the human nature to expect them to sit at their desks all day long, trying to learn what we have planned to teach them. Research has proved that if curiosity is not triggered, the human brain can’t retain or internalize information.

All this information matches with the 21st Century skills that our students have to master to be ready for the future. Therefore, inquiry, project, and challenge–based learning are the key learning approaches today. Provided that they are carefully planned and conducted, all these approaches align with the requirements of the 21st century education. Learners are faced with authentic situations to explore and solve problems. They are involved in social interaction via collaboration. Learning is structured around big or essential questions, which require higher order thinking skills. Students use their critical thinking skills to solve problems and innovative skills to come up with their own solutions.

SOURCE: Essential questions by Susan Oxnevad (Please hover your mouse and click on the interactive images).    

Luckily, technology provides us with many tools to adapt these approaches more easily and effectively in and outside the classroom. It also helps us to access information like how our students learn best and how we can make learning real, more enjoyable and engaging for all types of learners in the classroom. Consequently, it enables us to reconsider the old methodologies we have been using and discover, learn, unlearn and relearn the new pedagogies that increase learner engagement and autonomy. Many people think that transforming education in the 21st century is about using modern technology. However, it is mostly about our approach to learning.    

 
SOURCE: TEACHER FACILITATED LEARNING EXPERIENCES by Susan Oxnevad (Please hover your mouse and click on the interactive images).

As educators we already know that every child learns differently, so our job should be to give them choices to express what they know in various ways and give them the opportunity to use their imagination through innovation. Technology offers us many different tools to differentiate our instruction according to the diverse needs and interests of our learners and to personalize learning.

SOURCE: FLEXIBLE LEARNING PATHS by Susan Oxnevad (Please hover your mouse and click on the interactive images).

If the purpose of schooling is to enable the students to discover who they are and what their talents and passions are, why are students still being loaded with irrelevant information they will forget before the school year ends? Today, we need teachers who can foster curiosity and exploration and guide their students to find joy in learning and discovery through their passions and interests.  Only this type of schooling can motivate disengaged teenagers bored of traditional schooling. The graphics below illustrate how the source of information and the way we build knowledge have changed in the 21st Century:

 

SOURCE: Richard Wells http://ipad4schools.org/

With all this in mind, we should see technology not only as an aide to learning  but as an important factor to transform learning, helping us create dynamic learning environments where learners become active participants in their own learning, rather than passive recipients of knowledge. This new definition of learning shouldn’t focus on getting high marks. We should care more about our students’ cognitive needs than the results they achieve at school.  We should encourage them to create and share information instead of memorizing it so that we can instill the joy and love of learning in them. They need to know how to think critically, creatively, and to evaluate multiple viewpoints. In these new learning environments enhanced by technology, the teachers are learners, too. They don’t control the learning any more, but instead, try to empower their students to take ownership of their own learning as passionate learners. This will eventually open the doors to self-directed learning by increasing learners’ involvement and responsibility for their own learning.

SOURCE: Med Kharbach Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

Of course, all these changes won’t be easy but  as we often tell our students, we should all have the confidence to take risks, learn from our mistakes, try new things, and develop a discipline of self-reflection to become the change agents in our communities.

Video for teachers on becoming a change agent by Justin Tarte.

Please share how you have personally transformed education.