Teachers: Are you overwhelmed by the ever-growing amount of innovative ed tech options? Are you tired of spending copious amounts of time searching for innovative resources online, knowing that there are other teachers searching and creating similar instructional materials as you? Are you ready to participate in a collaborative mobile “sharing economy” (Vogt, 2022)?
Students: Are you wanting a voice in your learning, and wish your classroom learning experiences to be focused on what you personally are interested in, and need? What if you had a higher stake in your learning, and were able to be in the driver’s seat of your learning?
Look no further than the My Class – My Way app! Take a look at the video I created to present the app prototype, where I frame the issues at hand, describe the features of the app, and present a critical perspective.
View the video here: https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/cE2vRGfqlvM/etec-523-my-class-my-way/
Hi Agnes, great forecasting project. I liked having the visuals in the video as well as the audio explanation. You sounded personable and trustworthy – if it were coming down to me considering this for my class, I would be interested in exploring it as an option. The possible drawbacks that the ‘disapproving’ characters at the end brought up addressed the possible concerns I may have had, but you answered them in a convincing and logical way. Something I found very interesting was the idea of districts working with tech/app developers to create ‘acceptable’ and accessible assessment options. Some of my favourite in-class activities with my students are where the assessments are flexible and up to the student to decide how they wish to share their knowledge and learning. The assessments that were less flexible tended to be the ones organized by our school management, so having them come up with alternative options would be a really great opportunity. Another interesting aspect you brought up was the possibility for collaboration between students and between teachers. Was there a particular age group you were considering? I’m also wondering how this could work if there are limited mobile devices in the classroom. I guess if it’s login-based, then students could take turns or work in groups.
Agnes, I enjoyed your project. Giving students options for how they want to learn and how they want to be assessed is a universal design for learning practice. I appreciate the ability of students to work ahead if they wish to, with all students meeting learning outcomes. By reviewing each student’s progress, I imagine that teachers will be able to see which students may need additional support and encouragement to try different learning modalities. One potential issue may be access to the hardware and bandwidth at home for families with lower income. A child may have no choice but to choose a paper option if they do not have a smartphone.
How would you ensure equity?
Hi Agnes. Thanks for the great visual presentation. I really like this proposal because it helps both the teacher and the student. This would be a go-to app for any teacher that wants to pursue student-centred learning. I’m a bit curious about how this would look in the classroom. If many students had different learning outcomes, how could monitoring and tracking of all these different student-guided projects happen? To add, the app offers conferencing to check in with students; would there be a certain class size maximum this program would be restricted to?
Thank you Jackson for viewing! Hypothetically, the teacher dashboard would be able to track all the outcomes covered. The fantastic thing about that is that students who are not ready to move on to the subsequent learning outcome can spend more time on it, whereas other students who have mastered the outcome can move forward in their learning. Since the teacher still maintains a heavy role in supporting student learning, I recommend 25 students per classroom. This is an ideal number, but of course, classrooms could be +/- that amount.
Good job Agnes! I would like this app to exist for real and it seems possible in the not so distant future. I’m really a fan of student choice to encourage motivation and engagement. Offering choices is, in my opinion, one of the best strategies for teaching differentiation. With your app, it’s also a way to integrate mobile technology into teaching, another element that motivates students a lot. I often use an article in the training I give to teachers to explain to them the importance of choices in teaching strategies. It motivates students, but it is also a way to prevent behaviour problems. “Choice making is a low-intensity classroom management strategy that involves a teacher giving a student two or more options for how to engage in a certain task or activity. Providing choices is an antecedent strategy, which means it’s given before a predictable problem behaviour occurs as a form of prevention.” I suggest to all our colleagues to read this article which explains very well the importance of choices with several concrete examples. https://limened.com/provide-choices/
Thank you, Sebastien! When deciding on what I would do for our forecasting assignment, I really wanted to choose something that is possible in the near future, combines best practices in education and something I know myself and other teachers would appreciate and deem valuable. I am glad you recognized the value in it! Thank you for sharing the resource you included in your comment, on choices- I will share with my other colleagues too.
I loved your App’s concept, Agnes! We somewhat had similar goals for our app in assisting teachers and professional development. Teachers spending 12 hours a week finding and creating instructional materials can be overwhelming, another point is that teachers are not completely sure these online materials are effective and personalized for their learners. The app gives the opportunity for learners to choose their own way to learn, which is an important concept considering how education is the most effective when it’s personalized. In my opinion, the best features of the app are the personalization in the learner’s choice to work independently or collaboratively and the mixed reality components in the learning experience. Some questions that occurred to me while watching the video are: Is the app well-suited to all ages of learners? Can learners rely independetaly on this app without the need to be present in a physical classroom? Is the teacher the facilitator of the learning experience and what would be the responsibilities of teachers in a physical classroom besides tracking students’ progress and reviewing assessments?
Thank you, Maria, for the insightful questions you posed. In regards to the age of the learner- the app would begin in a blended style with primary and elementary learners and then move to full with middle school to secondary. The teacher is still a critical part of using this app within the classroom, because, they are part of the rapid and consistent feedback cycles for assessment that would happen throughout the school day. They also would provide social-emotional support for all learners too! Outside classroom hours, they would of course contribute to creating new content with their colleagues and ed tech business(es) their school is partnering with.
My Class- My Way! What a great innovative app that can support teachers in increasing their technology use for pedagogy. How would this be different from a standard LMS like D2L or Moodle where teachers can facilitate students learning in a variety of modalities asynchronously. Would this be a model for ‘flipping the classroom’? or other ways of differentiating? Great concepts where students can choose the way they’d like to learn the objectives. What would students do to discover what way they like learning? Would everyone try the modalities and then students could choose?
Hey Jennifer, thank you for exploring my video depicting my app! Great question about how one would discern this app from a typical LMS or D2L experience. At its core, my idea is focused on students being able to view all the curricular objectives for the year and select when and how they want to learn and prove their learning through assessment. Typically in an LMS, students will be learning all the same content at the same time, with the teacher providing a small number of different possibilities accordingly. However, with this app- students can learn a math outcome ie. Pythagorean theorem in October if they wish, whereas another student may choose to learn that outcome in March. Furthermore, students would have greater access to the most innovative lessons. In addition, students would complete a learner profile (2-3 times) throughout the year to reflect on how they learn, what they like to learn etc. AI would also assist in recognizing students’ preferences and strengths. In regards to whether this would be similar to flipping the classroom- there would be lessons that are available that offer flipped learning styles, but students could also choose live lessons with their own teacher, or virtual teachers.