It's About Learning

If there is one significant lesson that educators can learn from the COVID pandemic it is that shifting to virtual teaching or remote teaching without a plan or preparation was hard at best and more chaotic for students, teachers, and families than anyone could have predicted.

With the dispersion of vaccines, we are now hearing about a potential resumption of school this coming fall of 2021. But, once schools return to traditional face-to-face attendance, will they revert to pre-COVID norms? Perhaps this past year of reactive remote learning will help school leaders to recognize that we need to be proactive and leverage technology to reshape their schools and transform student learning outcomes in the process.

The question we need to address is how do we go from hard pivot to seamless integration? The following are links to articles, blog posts, YouTube videos, TED Talks, and books that were used or referenced in my session for the School Leadership Progress & Innovation Series at Governors State University.

Workshop Slides, Resources & PDFs

Free COVA eBook

Context & Why

• Lamar University Masters of Education in Digital Learning and Leading and Masters of Education in Applied Digital Learning
• Vancouver Community College VCC Provincial Instructor Diploma Program
• Steve Pinker Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
• John Hattie Visible Learning

No Quick Fix

• How to Avoid EdTech Quickfix Traps
• Are You Bolting a Jet Engine onto Your Horse Cart?
• Thibodeaux, T. N., Harapnuik, D. K., Cummings, C. D., & Wooten, R. (2017). Learning all the time and everywhere: Moving beyond the hype of the mobile learning quick fix. In Keengwe, J. S. (Eds.). Handbook of research on mobile technology, constructivism, and meaningful learning. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Access draft file from https://www.dropbox.com/s/bk0epb76sr3u27v/Learning%20All%20the%20Time%20and%20Everywhere-InPressDraft.pdf?dl=0

Technology – No Significant Difference

• We Need More Autodidacts
• Larry Cuban Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom
• Why AI Should Scare Some Educators and Not Others
• Why You Need to Rethink Your Role as an Educator
• Why We Are Wasting EdTech Dollars?
• Computers in Schools – Not Working…Yet

Learner’s Mindset & Assessment As Learning

• Learner’s Mindset Explained
• Assessment OF/FOR/AS Learning
• Feedforward Vs. Feedback
• Aligning Outcomes, Activities & Assessments
• Engaging Synchronous Collaboration with BOPPPS

Connecting the Dots vs Collecting the Dots

Change in Focus Part A

Links to Authentic Learning & CSLE+COVA posts:
I have been advocating authentic learning or project-based learning and creating significant learning environments for decades both professionally and personally. Talking the talk as an academic takes on a much more significant perspective when you walk the walk in your personal life.

• Benefits of Life Long Authentic Learning Opportunities
• Authentic Learning Leads to Authentic Adventures
• Power of the Continual Practice of Authentic Learning
• Five Standards of Authentic Learning
• Why Authentic Learning Converts Into Lifelong Learning
• Do You Care Enough to Let Them Take Ownership of Their Learning?

Creating Significant Learning Environments

• CSLE
• Significant Learning Environments
• Why Create Significant Learning Environments
• Optimal Learning Environments
• Arts Integration for Deeper Learning: Its the Context and Environment that Matter
• Piaget’s Key Implications for Learning

The CLSE+COVA section of this site is also a great starting place to see how to create a significant learning environment by giving your learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities.