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EdTech Tips

Dwayne Harapnuik — March 21, 2022

In the Applied Digital Learning (ADL) program students develop an innovation project that they work on throughout their time in the program. In contrast EdTech students only have 4 courses in the ADL. To help you with the adjustment to the ADL program and to deal with the authentic learning opportunity/project focus of the ADL we have put together the following resources specifically for EdTech students.

EdTech and Educational Leadership students will need an innovation project to work on for the 4 courses you are taking in the ADL program. The Leadership Project that is part of your practicum log can/should be used as the project in the ADL courses. It will add 20 hours to the overall Internship/Practicum Log so you need to pick a project/topic that fits under the Leadership umbrella and that you can then build on in each of the ADL courses. You have control over the choice of the project/topic and we encourage you to use the Choosing your Innovation Project section below to help you decide on what you can do. If you have spent any time at all in an instructional environment you can easily see many things that may need to be fixed. Focusing on fixing one of these problems is a good start for your innovation plan project. The ADL Why & Principles page provides the theoretical background for why authentic projects are so important for what we ask you to do in the program.

The ePortfolio (eP) is another very important component of ALL ADL courses. You will need an ePortfolio to complete all of the assignments in each of the courses. We suggest creating one with a simple tool such as Wix or WordPress. Both applications have lots of video help. You must include a blog page on your site, so Google Sites is not typically recommended because there is no built-in blog page. The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios section below will point you to the same resources that ADL students use to create ePortfolios.

Hopefully, the following information we have put together will give you a better idea of the how, the why, and the what you are heading into. In every course from the ADL program, there are facets that you will be able to include in the practicum report.

What to Expect from the ADL

The Applied Digital Learning (ADL) at Lamar University is designed with and uses constructivist principles that make it different from traditional programs. We believe that it is important to more than talk the constructivist talk and actually walk the constructivist walk have moved beyond the rhetoric by a creating significant learning environment (CSLE) in which we give learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities (COVA).

To better understand the CSLE+COVA vs Traditional table comparisons in the video please take a few moments to review the full tables and explanations found at:

CSLE vs Traditional
COVA vs Traditional
CSLE+COVA Mindset vs Traditional

How the ADL is Different and What That Means to You

You will NOT find checklists, progress bars, completion status checks, competency or activity-focused rubrics, quizzes, and other related lower-order thinking or behaviorist tools or methods that will help you to check a completed activity off a list in the ADL program. The post Why I Don’t Use Checklists, Progress Bars & Other Activity Monitors will help you to understand and work through the constructivist and outcome-based education foundation that we use in the ADL.

Change in Focus

Shifting your focus from traditional information and content-focused instruction to using authentic learning opportunities, summed up as projects, will help you to make the adjustment to the ADL program. You can view Part B of this video series and explore additional resources that will help you with your Change in Focus.

Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios:

I make the argument that ePortfolios can and should be simple to understand and, more importantly, simple to create and maintain. Especially if we keep the academic and scholarly jargon down to a minimum and focus on what we need to know and do to effectively use ePortfolios to enhance learning.
Dwayne’s Minimalist ePortfolio Fundamentals

Why Do You Need to Have an Innovation Project?

In EDLD 5315 you will be asked to create an action research plan to measure the impact of your innovation project. Being able to effectively measure the impact of a learning innovation project is a key responsibility of all educational technology leaders.

In EDLD 5317 you will be asked to create a podcast or long-form video and a publication about some aspect of your innovation project. As educational technology leaders, we need to be able to share how others can bring out an effective change in the learning environment. Being able to promote these enhancements to learning is an essential part of our professional responsibility.

In EDLD 5318 you will be asked to create an online or online blended course that will be related to your Innovation Project. If you consider the above example moving your Professional Learning online would be a great option that will benefit you and your learners.

In EDLD 5389 you will be asked to create a Professional Learning Plan/Strategy that will be based on your Innovation Project. Once again we encourage you to look to your organization and consider what needs to be improved or enhanced. The remote teaching that most people have resorted to because of the pandemic doesn’t work that well and you may want to look at how you can move from remote teaching to blended learning; this would be a great innovation project that will require considerable professional learning.

Choosing Your Innovation Project

Links to pages highlighted in the video:

Applied Digital Learning
ADL Why & Principles
ADL Program Map
ADL/EDLD 5305 Assignment Examples

Blended Learning Resource we use in the ADL:
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. John Wiley & Sons.

Course Design & Fink’s 3 Column Table

The online course you will be asked to create in EDLD 5318 will require the development of a course map that will take the form of Fink’s 3-Column Table. Consider the following video to help you develop the course map for the course you will be putting online. Even though I refer to EDLD 5313 where ADL students have the opportunity to develop their course maps this applies to the course map you will be asked to develop for EDLD 5318. Also note that the development of the course map was one of six activities students addressed in EDLD 5313 and this task can be accomplished in over a few hours. Once you are familiar with the process you can develop a course map for an existing course in very short order so this is a very useful tool to learn how to use.

4 Keys to aligning outcomes activities & assessment – There is an easy way and a difficult way to work through Fink’s taxonomy and the 3 column table – please take my advice and use this post and use the easy way.

Mapping Your Learner’s Journey – It is our responsibility to guide our learners through their personal development journey and help them take ownership of their learning.

Why Create Significant Learning Environments – Are you looking at the bigger picture or have you intellectually stepped far enough back to see the full learning environment?

Why you need a BHAG to design learning environments – Use a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to help define a visionary type goal that is more strategic and emotionally compelling rather than being simply tactical.

Why You Need to Rethink Your Role as an Educator – If you really don’t want to be replaced by an inspirational robot then you need to not only talk the talk of Dewey but walk the walk.

Difference Between “Doing Projects” and “Project-Based Learning” – Project-based learning is very powerful but we tend to limit its impact by focusing on just doing projects.

Revised August, 2024

PPL vs DPL

Dwayne Harapnuik — March 16, 2022 — Leave a comment

Listen to this Podcast on Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/episode/4sLDW4dnBo4kpPg1KaHxNt?si=6243d5830e284387

In LMD EP41, Personal Professional Learning vs Dependency Professional Learning Dr. Sue Bedard and I explore why we encourage a move from dependency professional learning (DPL) to personal professional learning (PPL). The move toward PPL is another more to fully igniting the Learner’s Mindset.

I have been exploring the benefits of self-directed or autodidactic learning for several decades and am continually excited to see the success stories of those who have taken full control of their learning.

The following links include a wide assortment of perspectives that can you used to either reinforce this notion of personal professional learning or to explore other aspects of learning that will augment this approach:

We Need More Autodidacts
The Shift from Engaging Students to Empowering Learners
Professional Learning Tips
Professional Learning
Professional Learning Plan
To Own Your Learning You MUST Use Higher-Order or Deeper Thinking
Applied Digital Learning
Applied Digital Learning Student Stories

One of the best ways to embrace personal professional learning is to continually seek out or emply authentic learning opportunities. Consider the following:

Authentic Learning Opportunities
Benefits of Life Long Authentic Learning Opportunities
Authentic Learning Leads to Authentic Adventures
Power of the Continual Practice of Authentic Learning
Why Authentic Learning Converts Into Lifelong Learning

In Learner's Mindset, Learning, Video - Wednesday Watchlist authentic learning, dependency, personal professional learning, PL, PPL, professional learning

ADL/EDLD 5302 Tips & Perspectives

Dwayne Harapnuik — March 10, 2022

Growth Mindset Resources

Learner’s Mindset

ePortfolio

EDLD 5302 Learning Manifesto

EDLD 5302 Final Compilation Post

Why Does Technology Continue to Fail Education?

Dwayne Harapnuik — February 22, 2022 — 2 Comments

I purposely used a provocative title to highlight an intrinsic problem with the use of technology in education. We all too often use technology as a treatment, quick fix, or even a silver bullet when we attempt to apply a narrow technological solution to the complex problems we have in education. History repeatedly shows us that technology alone, or the hope that the application of technology, will radically transform the way we do education. Consider the following shortlist of predictions about technology that failed to deliver:

Schools have had a longstanding immunity against the introduction of new technologies. In 1922 Thomas Edison predicted that movies would replace textbooks. In 1945 one forecaster imagined radios as common as blackboards in classrooms. In the 1960s, B.F. Skinner predicted that teaching machines and programmed instruction would double the amount of information students could learn in a given time. Filmstrips and other audiovisual aids were fads thirty years ago, and the television, now seen as a supplier of brain candy, once had a sterling reputation as an education machine (Seidensticker, 2006, p. 103).

In the post Why AI Should Scare Some Educators and Not Others, I update these predictions by pointing to the failure of MOOCs and also point to the more recent AI predictions that many are promoting.

In the post Computers in Schools – Not Working…Yet I point to an OECD research report that shows adding technology (ICT) or computers in schools has not improved test scores. Rather than just give you the link to the 200+ page report I pulled some of the key information and quotes and summarized the highlights.

I am not alone in pointing to a long history of educators attempting to use simple or narrow applications of technology in an attempt to solve problems that require a much more complex solution.

In the post We Need More Autodidacts I explore Justin Reich’s (2020) article Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education. Reich’s article and this later published book point to the primary challenges that so many teachers have faced in moving fully online due to the Covid lock-downs. The challenge is not the technology; it is the fact that most students are not prepared to learn more independently or without direct instruction, close supervision, and control cannot be maintained as effectively in online learning. Reich also points to the fact that students who are more autodidactic have not been adversely impacted by forced online learning because these students are learners first who can learn more independently anywhere and at any time.

In this post, I also have links to Larry Cuban’s review of Reich’s article and links to Cuban’s book Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom which offers an earlier version of Reich’s argument. Some of Cuban’s warnings on the empty promises of technology go back to the 70’s and 80’s so this is not a new idea. While Cuban is often referred to as a technology skeptic his examination of the data and conclusions are difficult to oppose.

Perhaps one of the most ardent skeptics of technology in education is Thomas L. Russell who’s book, “The No Significant Difference Phenomenon” (2001, IDECC, fifth edition), offers a fully indexed, comprehensive research bibliography of 355 research reports, summaries, and papers that document no significant differences (NSD) in student outcomes between alternate modes of education delivery. Russell’s book is difficult to get but you can review the No Significant Difference database at – https://detaresearch.org/research-support/no-significant-difference/

While Russell’s criticisms are well-founded, he doesn’t provide a perspective of how technology can be used to help to enhance learning. Cuban does acknowledge the limited benefits in the use of technology but reasserts that many of the better implementations of technology use are not sustainable or don’t do much more than support for the traditional implementation of direct instruction. Similarly, Reich suggests that we need to help students become more autodidactic but doesn’t offer how to do this.

In contrast, I have been arguing for several decades how we can use technology to enhance learning. In many of the above posts, I point to how we can help learners become self-directed and independent learners or autodidacts. I have spent the last three decades exploring and researching this question and you will find that my site is filled with posts on learning how to learn. My most recent emphasis on the Learner’s Mindset is just the latest synthesis of how we can help learners change their thinking about learning and change their approach to learning without ignoring that we need to change the learning environment.

Technology is a powerful tool that can enhance learning but it can only do so if we focus on first creating significant learning environment where we give learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities (CSLE+COVA). If we focus on learning first technology then can be used in practical ways to enhance learning. If we focus on the technology first the learning has to be fit into the limitations or constraints of the technology which we have seen just doesn’t work as well as the hype that precedes it.

You will find that my site is filled with posts on learning how to learn. To save you some time on searching my site consider the following posts as a starting point:

Reignite Your Learner’s Mindset
Change in Focus
Connecting dots vs collecting dots
CSLE+COVA
In pursuit of the better way – the learners mindset
DIY Mindset Requires a Learner’s Mindset
How to Grow a Growth Mindset
Assessment OF/FOR/AS Learning
To Own Your Learning You MUST Use Higher-Order or Deeper Thinking