Differentiation is an elegant mindset that suggests to teachers a framework that permits them to engage students while focusing on learning results, and digital technologies offer many opportunities to differentiate instruction in meaningful ways.
Contents contributed and discussions participated by Rosalyn Martinez
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Differentiation Meets Digital Technology | literacy beat - 12 views
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three-phase approach to planning differentiated instruction: Where do we start planning for differentiated instruction with technology, What are considerations for who we teach, what we teach, and how we plan? How do I put it all together?
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Planning differentiated instruction enhanced by technology is a perfect fit for the principles of understanding by design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) in which teachers plan instruction based on the results they intend for their students.
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This means that before any digital tools are chosen, before a single activity is determined, before assessment instruments are designed, the intended results must be decided.
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It will be tempting to think something like, “I really love Prezi and Glogster” so I’ll design my activity around those two tools.” An analogy might be helpful here as a kind of caution about choosing the technology before moving forward with other aspects of instruction.
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Once we have a firm grasp on what results we expect based on standards and objectives, we can begin to think about the best ways to challenge our students.
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Curricular elements we can differentiate commonly include the processes of learning, the products of learning, and the content on which learning is based (Tomlinson, 2001).
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High-quality differentiation typically means different students doing different things that lead to achievement of a common learning goal. Developing options is an effective way to put differentiation into effect.
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Teachers develop options that meet identified learner needs while keeping key attributes of the target concepts and results in mind.
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They can be simple tinkering (or micro-differentiation, as Tomlinson, 2001, asserts) or those digital tools can vastly improve how students learn and how they interact in our digital world.
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In the following example tasks, notice how the tools enhance the learning rather than restrict it; at the same time students are encouraged to use new literacy skills in learning as they complete the tasks.
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In your classroom, what successful tasks have you designed with the end in mind that were built on solid principles of differentiation and use of digital technologies?
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This is a great article about differentiating instruction with the use of digital tools. Have you considered differentiating instruction? If so, please provide an example to share with the group as to how you differentiated instruction on a particular lesson and/or how you differentiated an assignment. If you haven't considered differentiation, please state how you feel about this topic now that you are better informed.
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Thank you for your response, Marie! I'm certain there are drawbacks due to lack of resources, and I'm sure it's time consuming to set up. Still, I would really like to try this in the near future. Thanks again.
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I agree with you, Jeannine. Differentiation can very difficult especially when you have various levels of student learning. I was unfamiliar with the flipped classroom model. I'm glad you mentioned it. I've researched it and can see how it would help so many students. One idea mentioned in an article I read was to have students view short videos of an upcoming lesson. On the day of the lesson, students are then able to focus on the lesson itself and work on exercises & activities in the classroom. We do that in this class & it really does help. FYI - the article I read on this subject can be located at https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf.