How to Succeed in the DLL
If you haven’t already reviewed this page and the related links you owe it to yourself to spend the 30 minutes that it will take to see how to really do well in the DLL.

Collaboration

The key to improving student achievement – Hattie argues examining, thinking and talking with other teachers about the learning environments that we have created and are creating and the impact that we can have on learners is the most important thing we can do to improve our learner’s achievement.

Who Do You Trust Enough to Learn From? – The evidence is clear; if you want to learn more effectively online you need to collaborate with your classmates.

Learner’s Mindset

Why Authentic Learning Converts Into Lifelong Learning – We need to allow our learners to choose and work on authentic projects that will inspire their intrinsic passions for learning and help them grow their learner’s mindset.

In pursuit of the better way – the learner’s mindset – Perhaps, if we focused on nurturing and supporting our learner’s natural inquisitiveness and predisposition toward learning we would be much further ahead and wouldn’t then have to attempt to restore or rebuild what we have torn down in the first place.

Innovation Planning

How to Avoid EdTech Quickfix Traps – If you are considering a 1 to 1 initiative or using a software system for drilling in Math or Language/English then I want you to recognize that these are only a small part of a bigger picture and you need to shift your focus from technology to learning. Something along the lines of blended learning or project-based learning would be a very logical focus where these technologies would be used effectively.

Innovation Proposal & Planning Tips – An overview of who you should focus on, what should go into your innovation proposal, and how to pull all your planning pieces together.

Examples mentioned in video
Brooke Josephs
https://bjosephs6.wixsite.com/teachingincolor/project07

Mike Yakubovsky
https://stemtoolkit.weebly.com/project-proposal.html

Kaman Hung
http://www.professorhung.com/innovation-proposal/

Carl Mohn
https://carlmohn.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/innovation-is-the-key/

Caleigh Heenan
https://onedisruptiveeducator.com/innovation-plan/

More 5305 Proposal Examples https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6556

Are You Bolting a Jet Engine onto Your Horse Cart? – If you really want to get the most out of any learning opportunity you have to fight through the cognitive dissonance and experiment with the new ideas and processes to see if they really can make a difference.

Do You Care Enough to Let Them Take Ownership of Their Learning? – When we let our learners take control of their learning the experiences they can embrace, the meaningful connections they create, and the knowledge that they gain will be life-changing.

Literature Review – What does the Data Say

To Get the Real Story You Need to Go to Primary Sources – Because we live in an age when so much information is available we must not only be prepared but be willing to take the time that it takes to critically and analytically assess all the information we are taking in.

What are you learning today? – We need to continually ask – what are you learning today? This question leads to the next most important question – What do you want to learn next?

Case Studies

Why Good Ideas Too Often Go Bad – Useful ideas like Project-Based learning, 1 to 1, and blended learning can all too easily lose their benefit when we shift the focus from learning and just do projects, just focus on the devices, and just focus on the content delivery part of the blended learning.

The Gift of Intrinsic Motivation – Letting your learner experience the consequences of their actions (as long as they aren’t life-threatening) will be much more valuable to them in the long run than your intervening.

Opening Up Spaces for Answers – Why we run EDLD 5305 the course on innovation planning before we run EDLD 5313, the course on creating significant learning environments

Computers in Schools – Not Working…Yet – If focusing on the technology doesn’t improve learning then what does? the research is overwhelming…Focusing on the learning first then finding ways to enhance that experience with technology will improve learning.

My Video & Media Tools

How to Use The Power of Video – Make sure your videos are targeting the hearts before you target the minds of your audience.

Dwayne’s DIY Video Creation Toolbox & My Video & Media Tools – Video examples, the tools, and resources I used to create, edit and publish those videos and the full list of hardware, software and videos resources that I use on a regular basis to create the videos for your learning environments.

Innovation Plan Google Docs Option

Sample Google Doc used in video

Putting it all together

The Power of Vision – Transformative Scenario Planning
Telling stories about what might happen. Not stories about what will happen, not forecasts; not stories about what should happen; not proposals or visions or positions but stories about what MIGHT happen–relevant, challenging plausible clear stories about what might happen.

Professional Learning Plan – a commitment to a lifelong passion for learning.

Revised on September 15, 2020

How to Succeed in the DLL
If you haven’t already reviewed this page and the related links you owe it to yourself to spend the 30 minutes that it will take to see how to really do well in the DLL.

Why
What’s Your Why – EDLD 5304 Week 1 Assignment Tips

Knowing Your Why?
The more clear you are on your Why, the more impact you can have with your How and What.

The Why is born out of pain
The Why behind Simon Sinek’s Why.

Why TED talks don’t change your life much
Neal Martin explains why it is so difficult to make changes if you attempt to do so based solely on your conscious or rational mind.

Why Change

How to Change Before You Have To
Deals with the challenging question: How do you deal with people who are reluctant to change?

Want to Change the World – Tell a Good Story
We are drawn to TED talks because we moved by powerful stories about how humanity can change the world

Influencer
Influencer Model – EDLD 5304 Week 2 Assignment Tips

Influencer Model – EDLD 5304 Week 3 Assignment Tips

Influence vs Requirement – Influencer Model tips

4 Effective Ways to Find and Test Vital Behaviors
4 steps to getting crystal clear about the results you wish to achieve and identifying the vital behaviors that are crucial to your change initiative.

Why great teachers aim for influence not control
When you lead through influence, you multiply your efforts and reproduce your values and principles in the lives of others.

Science Of Persuasion – We Aren’t as Rational As We Think We Are
4 powerful videos that point to research-based ideas that confirm that we are motivated and controlled by intangibles or the affective domain much more than tangibles and the cognitive domain.

The Head Won’t Go Where the Heart Hasn’t Been
If you really want to get people to change then you need to engage the heart before you engage the head.

People who like this stuff…like this stuff
Sometimes we just need to acknowledge that some folks like things the way they.

4DX
4DX Model – EDLD 5304 Week 4 Assignment Tips

How to Proactively Limit the Whirlwind
Life is busy and hectic enough so proactively controlling the things you can control is even more important.

The Paradox of Being Proactive
Stop rewarding reactive behavior and really work at being proactive.

Crucial Conversations/Failure of Nerve

Organizational Change Strategy – EDLD 5304 Week 5 Assignment Tips

How to Listen for Understanding
Listening with the purpose of understanding and developing empathy can change relationships.

Dare to disagree: Good conflict equates progress
Truth won’t set us free until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.

Culture Trumps Vision
The solution to this problem is to not let the culture get to the point where it is toxic. This requires balance of compassion, character, strength of conviction, communication and sound leadership skills.

Please note: The DLL course goals and program map must be read from the bottom starting from EDLD 5305 then moving onto 5302, 5303 and so on. The large red text points to the main plan, strategy, or publication that you will have created upon completion of the course.

Related DLL links:
What to expect from the DLL
What you get from the DLL
How to succeed in the DLL

Link to the Orginal DLL Program Map 2015-2019

Revised: October 5, 2020

Digital Learning and Leading (DLL)

The Master of Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) at Lamar University was a collaborative learner-centered program that embraces technological innovation through collaboration and active and authentic learning that will prepare learners to create meaningful change. The program ran from the fall of 2015 to the Spring 2022. The DLL was updated completely and now runs as the Applied Digital Learning program at Lamar University.

In creating significant learning environments (CSLE) by giving learners choice ownership and voice through authentic learning opportunities (COVA) we help our learners grow into digital leaders who can embrace the opportunities of the future. We refer to this as the CSLE+COVA framework or the COVA approach.

While technology is continually used to enhance the learning environment in the DLL, it isn’t just relegated to being another tool our learners put in their instructional toolboxes. Innovative technologies are used as catalysts to enhance learning and when effectively employed, the technology disappears into the learning environment. This online program is designed to develop both your digital knowledge and your leadership abilities and give you tools, skills, and knowledge to empower those in your educational community to step outside their comfort zone and into the digital future.

The DLL program is grounded in the learning approaches of Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, Papert, Jonassen and other constructivist theorists who advocate that learning is an active, dynamic, and social process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge and experiences. The making of meaningful connections is key to the learning and knowing.

The educator and philosopher Mortimer Adler suggests that:

teaching is a very special art, sharing with only two other arts — agriculture and medicine — an exceptionally important characteristic. A doctor may do many things for his patient, but in the final analysis, it is the patient himself who must get well — grow in health. The farmer does many things for his plants or animals, but in the final analysis, it is they that must grow in size and excellence. Similarly, although the teacher may help his student in many ways, it is the student himself who must do the learning. Knowledge must grow in his mind if learning is to take place (p. 11).

In the DLL we create and model significant learning environments where the learner is given choice ownership and, voice through authentic learning opportunities (COVA).

DLL students learn how to purposefully assemble all the key components of effective learning and create their own significant learning environments that will then, in turn, help their learners to learn how to learn.

Research and experience confirm that we learn most deeply through effective collaboration and feedback from our peers. DLL collaborative activities are structured so that students can bring their ideas to their group, examine and test those ideas, and then apply those refined and strengthened ideas to their own projects.

Collaboration is not used as a consensus driving process, rather it is part of the significant learning environment where learners are immersed and engage in productive thinking and problem solving and emerge with enhanced knowledge and skills that they can apply in their own classrooms and professional development.

In DLL the learner will not be asked to sit and get professional development but will be required to go and show what they have learned through the creation of their own authentic projects and learning ePortfolio. The DLL ePortfolio reinforces learner choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning which the DLL students are then able to share with their learners and their learning communities.

Related DLL links:
CSLE+COVA
DLL Program Map & Course Goals
What You Get From the DLL
How to Succeed in the DLL

References

Adler, M. J., & Van Doren, C. (1972). How to read a book: The classic guide to intelligent reading. New York, NY: Touchstone.

Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31(1), 21–32.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Papert, S. (1993). The children’s machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Papert, S. (1997). Why school reform is impossible (with commentary on O’Shea’s and Koschmann’s reviews of “The children’s machine”). The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 6(4), 417–427.

Piaget, J. (1964). Development and learning. In R.E. Ripple & V.N. Rockcastle (Eds.), Piaget Rediscovered: A Report on the Conference of Cognitive Studies and Curriculum Development (pp. 7–20). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

If someone needs directions, don’t give them a globe. It’ll merely waste their time. But if someone needs to understand the way things are, don’t give them a map. They don’t need directions; they need to see the big picture (Seth Godin, 2017 para. 1).

In order to fully understand what the CSLE+COVA framework is and how it can enhance and transform learning, you need to see the broader perspective of creating a significant learning environment (CSLE) in which we give the learner choice ownership and voice through authentic learning opportunities (COVA).

The CSLE+COVA framework isn’t just a theoretical construct it provides the learning foundation for the Masters of Education in Digital Learning and Leading program and Masters of Education in Applied Digital Learning at Lamar University, is being used in the Lamar Honors College and several other programs at Lamar, is being used in the K-12 classrooms all across North America and is also being used to transform corporate learning environments.

We recommend that you use the following linked pages (traditional blue link text) in sequence but as you will see from the principles of COVA we leave that choice up to you:

CSLE+COVA – The synergy of creating significant learning environments by providing learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities.

To benefit from the CSLE+COVA framework you must begin with a Change in Focus
You will find that these two videos (Part A – 7 min & Part B – 4 min) will help you to recognize how a simple change in focus can help you and your organization stay focused on helping your learners to realize their full potential and grow into future leaders who will help improve our world.

Creating Significant Learning Environment

CSLE
This short video (6 min) explains how important it is to look at the bigger picture when you are creating significant learning environments.

COVA
The short page and video (2 min) provides the overview and context for COVA and will help to reinforce how important it is to have choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities.

CSLE+COVA Framework
The short page and video (2 min) provide the overview and context for CSLE+COVA.

Why CSLE+COVA
Since people don’t buy into what you do but buy why you do the CSLE+COVA Why, How and What page and the short 4 Keys to CSLE+COVA (5 min) provide the foundational starting point about how to use technology to enhance learning.

How The CSLE+COVA framework is used as the foundation for the Masters of Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) and Applied Digital Learning (ADL) at Lamar University:

DLL Program Map & ADL Program Map
The DLL Program Map and ADP Program Maps pages and related videos (8 min) will give you a detailed explanation, and a visual representation of how the DLL and ADL programs works and how each of the courses works together to help you build, implement and measure an innovation plan that will help you succeed as a digital leader.

What to expect from the DLL & What to expect from the ADL
Constructivist hold that people learn by making meaningful connections between what they already know and what is new. Therefore, it is our hope that the What to Expect video (6 min) which compares and contrasts the CSLE+COVA to the traditional information transfer model will help you to understand how to deal with the differences you will experience in the DLL program

What you get from the DLL & What you get from the ADL
Since the DLL and ADL programs use authentic learning opportunities that are core to the constructivist CSLE+COVA approach this page points to all the authentic, plans, strategies, and related resources that you will create in the program.

Research that supports the CSLE+COVA Framework
We encourage everyone to always look at the research and supporting ideas and theories behind what you read. The CSLE+COVA and the DLL and ADL programs are based on well-established constructivist theories and research so we encourage you to explore these foundational ideas further.

References
Godin, S. (2017, January 8). Maps and globes [Blog]. Retrieved from http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/01/maps-and-globes.html

To better understand how the CSLE+COVA approach compares to traditional approaches, how it is used in the Masters of Digital Learning and Leading at Lamar University and to view the research supporting the approach consider the following:

Change in Focus
Why CSLE+COVA
CSLE
COVA
CSLE+COVA vs Traditional
Digital Learning & Leading
Applied Digital Learning
Research