Monthly Archives: February 2020

Edpuzzle

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An interesting online application I ran across recently was Edpuzzle. It allows an instructor to link to a video url and prevent students from skipping through it but also adds in the ability to ask students questions or make note of important ideas. Instructors can narrate over the top of parts or the entire video. It also offers analytics to help inform the instructor on the effectiveness of the video.

I can see this being a good tool to use for visual and audio learners. It will allow them to process information through those formats. Kinesthetic learners may find the breaking up of the video sections with pop ups with question to be more appealing than a standard video. I could see this being an issue for learners who may have visual or auditory disabilities and for low level ELLs. However, content can be made specifically for ELLs that could address vocabulary or conversation.

EdTech Trends

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Forbes’ Bernard Marr, made some interesting assertions about the direction of 5 tech trends that could disrupt education in 2020 in his article, “The Top 5 Tech Trends That Will Disrupt Education In 2020 – The EdTech Innovations Everyone Should Watch”. I think his term “disruption” meaning more of a dynamic shift from the traditional classroom to the digital-friendly spaces many classrooms are moving toward. In adult education, we see how accessibility to e-books versus traditional textbooks has opened access to many students who may pursue digital learning through online courses. Electronic textbooks can be formatted to address a variety of accessibility issues and with the use of various digital readers and translators, can further bridge the gap left behind with hardbacks. For those programs using online LMS and assessments, we can already see the benefit of data-driven insights into a learner’s performance. Those insights are also accessible to the learner and can help to empower a learner in their educational journey and give a focus to areas needing mastery.

Customization of education is appealing to adult learners and I’m sure will be to learners of all age groups. To focus on those areas specific to your individual needs, means less time wasted on subjects a learner has mastered. I find that this trend follows naturally from the workforce driven direction that adult education and k-12 has gravitated to. Streamlining your education aligns to many practices we see in the workplace with reduction of wasted time and resources. I would hazard to say that this trend is already evident in adult education. As adults, we pay for classes or take ones that meet our needs at the time we need them. Marr also mentions the rise of immersive education which would encompass such things as virtual reality in a classroom, using voice assistant technologies (Alexa, Siri, Bixby, Google) to aide in homework or chatbots to gain information. Many of these are used for knowledge gathering and sharing in both adults and young learners. I most look forward to see how this could help to shape materials or lessons in a classroom.

Overall, pretty interesting insights. I would argue that the future he describes is already present in some areas. However, access to funds for such technology can be big issues both for k-12 and adults. How does a school with limited funds best utilize their technologies to stay abreast of these trends? Many LMS systems offer an array of assessments and tracking capabilities but at such rates that many small or non-profit programs would be hard pressed to afford. It should be interesting to look back in five years to see if these trends become more prevalent in both the public and private school setting.

PrintFriendly & PDF Extension for Classroom

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Sometimes, as an instructor, I want to print out news articles or materials from a website to use in the classroom. However, sometimes web ads and other things might distort the article or add several blank pages in the printing process. PrintFriendly & PDF is an online site that allows you to enter a web address and remove blocks that you don’t need (editable preview), save as a PDF, email and print. It has saved me countless time from cutting and pasting and then reformatting in MS Word or Google Docs. You can also download the extension for Chrome if you want quick access. Although sites like Newsela and CommonLit are great at levelizing reading—they are delayed in having articles about current events. I often bring in current event articles from differing news sites and ask students to evaluate how to recognize slant and bias. This tool helps me to reduce wasted space and make it easy to read and save to display on my whiteboard. It works for most websites however some sites may still have display issues. Make sure to keep attributions of where you obtained the information and get rid of the side bar ads and blocks of links that add unneeded space to your document.

Lesson Planning with UDL–For Adult Learners Too!

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has many applications beyond access for learners who may have disabilities. Many objectives in the UDL framework tie-in directly to the adult basic education learner (a population I am very familiar with). Many of my adult basic education students may have differing levels of ability, language proficiency and barriers that have interrupted their educational goals in the past. By implementing UDL in the lesson planning process, I believe that it would empower students to take control of how and what they learn. It would prep them for higher education or training where much of the learning process is internally driven. I came across an article for an educational technology class I’m taking that can help those struggling with how to implement these concepts, Lesson Planning with Universal Design for Learning by Allison Posey MEd.

Instructors implementing UDL will find the focus will change from “why doesn’t the student…” to “how can I change the lesson” to get the response needed. By focusing on the goal of the lesson, the range of your student’s abilities, and implementing design strategies, the instructor can reduce student barriers and help to develop student skills and increase their educational autonomy. The article provides a number of introspective questions educators can use to evaluate and guide in their lesson planning. Examples of instructional changes are given dependent upon what the focus of the goal is–which I find very practical and effective. I would definitely suggest this article to fellow instructors or administrators who are looking into UDL and its aims. We always talk about barriers to education and how to equip learners to overcome them in education. But by utilizing UDL we then change the focus on how do we equip learners into–what ways can I engage my student using modalities and methods to best ensure their growth and self-regulation?