Introduction to “Implementing a Unit of Study that Leverages the Use of Technology.”

Video Transcription

Welcome to an introduction for the unit, Implementing a Unit of Study that Leverages the Use of Technology. I'm Trisha Fyfe. And during this video, I will be taking you through a glimpse of the concepts that we will cover throughout this unit.

Those of who choose teaching as our profession learn quickly how essential it is for our students to have opportunities to learn in a way that works for them. This looks different and unique for each student at times. And we spent a good deal of our time and energy as teachers differentiating and personalizing lessons in units. We strive to get our students what they need to learn and understand.

Technology has come so far over the years. And there are so many tools and resources to help us teachers create the very best activities and learning environments for our students. One objective of this unit is to analyze personalization and differentiation strategies as they connect to the objectives developed for your unit of study.

We will dive into personalization and differentiation and what each of these mean by looking at examples in action. We will discuss personalized learning and how this is creating lessons and units that are relevant, offer many resources, and consider learning styles and multiple intelligences. We will look at differentiated learning and explore how this is when teachers evaluate and make changes to the content, process, products, and learning environments in their classroom.

The next objective of this unit is to develop a unit of study that integrates technology, pedagogy, and content, using the theories, models, and frameworks presented throughout this course. We will look back at the TPACK framework, where the model encompasses using the domains of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge, as well as other overlapping areas.

We'll focus especially on the sweet spot where these three domains of knowledge, technology, pedagogy, and content, are intertwined together and meet in the middle. We will also look at Marzano's High-Yield Instructional Strategies, a set of nine strategies that Marzano indicates should be apparent in your teaching. And we will look at UDL, or Universal Design for Learning, a set of principles for designing instruction.

The third objective of this unit is to deliver the unit of study using Sophia or a learning management system of your choice, as a means for students and participants to access information, collaborate virtually, and create and publish their work. Here we will walk through how to begin the process of using a learning management system to create lessons and units that students can access via the internet. This has so many benefits.

Students can set their own pace, slow down or revisit ideas when needed, or move ahead if they need. I will walk you through how to enter information from all three of the stages of Understanding by Design lessons into different sections of Sophia. You will see visuals all along the way so that you can utilize this tool for yourself.

The final objective of this unit is to reflect on student participant feedback to your newly implemented unit of study. How will you improve or refine the unit of study based upon student or participant feedback? We will look at student feedback. What is it? What are the benefits to using it? And how can we gather it?

I will walk you through tools for obtaining student feedback with different groups of students, tools like plus, minus, delta, written and verbal feedback, consensograms, and more. We'll look at how you can improve your feedback by gathering it frequently and consistently and using it often to build trust with your students.

The objectives in this unit are connected throughout. As you become more familiar with personalized learning and differentiated learning in your classroom, you will have the ability to develop a unit of study that integrates not only the theories and models essential to teaching, but also technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. Having a strong base of knowledge in addition to learning how to use learning management systems such as Sophia will give you the ability to offer your students diverse opportunities for learning, such as units delivered in Sophia or other learning management systems.

Finally, you will use all three of these objectives as you learn how to gather, use, and reflect on student feedback. This is the final objective of the unit. These objectives not only build on each other, but they are essential to your students' engagement and achievement in your classroom. The ideas presented to you in this unit can be applied to any environment where learning takes place, especially the classroom setting. Most of these concepts and tools can be utilized in professional development or training or even workplace training and development.

At the end of this unit, you will be able to answer the following questions. How can we personalize and differentiate our instruction and units of study? How can we develop a unit of study that integrates technology, pedagogy, and content, while utilizing the various theories, models, and frameworks? How can we deliver a unit of study using Sophia or a learning management system? And lastly, how can we reflect on student feedback and improve our units of study based on this feedback?

Again, I want to welcome into this unit, Implementing a Unit of Study that Leverages the Use of Technology. I would like to invite you to follow my video lessons throughout this unit as we learn in depth about how you can better use technology throughout the process of your teaching.