"You are reading another post in the series "The Digital Learning Farm" based on Alan November's work of "The Digital Learning Farm", which he also outlines in his chapter of Heidi Hayes Jacobs' book "Curriculum 21"."
"This is the follow up post of the survey results I shared in "Do Student Jobs in the Classroom Affect Learning?"
The concept of the Digital Learning Farm is based on Alan November's work."
"Alan November's article Students as Contributors: The Digital Learning Farm has inspired me in my professional life beyond words and guided many of my research and actions in the classroom and professional development since then."
"As I discussed in a previous post What is…will be obsolete in Second Grade?, I am taking a closer look at student jobs and responsibilities in the classroom in relationship to 21st century skills, literacies and "The Digital Learning Farm", a term coined by Alan November."
"Alan November's concept of the Digital Learning Farm, asks schools and teachers to empower students by giving them relevant responsibilities that allow them to contribute in meaningful ways to their learning community (class/school/etc.). How can we give students the opportunity to CONTRIBUTE versus completing projects that end up in the trash, bottom of their backpack or at best on the refrigerator door for display in their house."
"I wanted to take a closer look at the iPad Evaluation I previously blogged about in Evaluating Apps with Transformative Use in Mind. The section of Content and Components deserved a closer look and explanation.
You can download the PDF file of the iPad App Evaluation for the Classroom with the following sections of evaluation included:
Considerations
Content & Components
Logistics
Fluency
Substitution vs Transformation Model (based on SAMR model of Ruben Puentedura and Alan November's work)
Evidence of Learning (based on conversation with Stephen Wilmarth)
After looking at iPad apps through the lens of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, November's Digital Learning Farm, 21st century Upgrades, let's take a closer look at the content and components of these apps."
"Mark Engstrom. 8th grade Geography teacher and Assistant Principal at Graded- The American School of São Paulo, has redesigned his entire course. Students move through the modules of this blended learning course on Geography at their own pace. They build out content knowledge using a Personalized Map (through google maps) and the content delivered through this Digital Learning Farm method will be curated so that they can build out multiple pins on their map. This content is then used as content knowledge to increase their understanding of the region. He wanted to experiment with a different type of note taking to add to students' documentation of gaining subject specific content knowledge."
"We are intensifying the quest to empower our learners by allowing the students to become contributors to their classroom learning community. Our model is Alan November's six roles he outlines in The Digital Learning Farm.
One of these roles is The Tutorial Designer."
"Teaching ourselves, our students and other educators how to use screenshooting (images) and screencasting (video) tools is a relevant skill to have that integrates in so many areas. Think Tutorial Designers (A role from the Digital Learning Farm) or the Flipped Classroom model. Being able to create, share and take advantage of readily available screencasts touch upon so many of the skills (create, communicate) and literacies (network, media, information literacy)."
"There is a lot of thoughts and ideas about what learning in the 21st century is supposed to look like. Most likely you are constantly bombarded with books, workshops, keynote presentations, webinars and good old lectures (yes, even on the topic of modern learning…) that remind you that it is time to upgrade traditional teaching and learning."
"Helping students become quality Tutorial Designers has been on my mind and agenda lately. The reasons are plentiful, from the train of thought "if you can teach it, you know it", being a vital skill in the 21st century, Alan November's work "Who owns the Learning?"/ "Digital Learning Farm" to tutorials being an important piece in the self-motivated and self-directed learning of our times."
"Tutorial Designer" is one of the six roles, Alan November lists in his Digital Learning Farm that empower student learners and describes in his book 'Who owns the Learning?.
Take a look at the examples below of students:
sharing what they have learned in class
sharing beyond their classroom and their parents
sharing with a global audience in mind."
"Images like the following ones, visualize for me the urgency for all of us to become information literate to wade through the incredible, ever increasing, amount of information being created and shared with the world."
"Through a tip from Twitter, I requested a beta invite from a promising new iPad app called ShowMeApp. It promised to screen capture AND upload the video recording AND then provide me with an embed code. That ability was the one that caught my attention. "
"Should Teachers Be More Like Conductors? This bog post from 2009 took me to the following TED talk by Itay Talgam. Although I am not a musician, nor listen to much classical music, I was mesmerized. This TED talk was geared towards organization leaders, but I so agree with Tania Sheko, that it seemed to directly speak to me as an educator."