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Social & Emotional Learning

Common Sense Media. (2018, March 8). Resources for Social and Emotional Learning. Common Sense Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/toolkit/social-emotional-learning.

This article is more of a toolkit for educators. It begins by sharing that social emotional learning is not core content but the core of all content. There are six character strengths listed. Each strength can be accessed by clicking on the image. It will then load a new page that has technology resources available such as websites, apps and games, that can then be used in the classroom to promote social emotional learning.

I think this article is very beneficial because it lists ideas to focus on as well as giving tools to implement social emotional concepts.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Social Emotional Learning Through Classroom Technology

W, N. I. (2019, July 31). Social Emotional Learning Through Classroom Technology. GoGuardian. https://www.goguardian.com/blog/technology/social-emotional-learning-through-classroom-technology/.

The article begins by discussing how everyday functions of our lives rely on our own social emotional skills—such as communication, assessing our own needs, empathizing with others, problem-solving, and goal-setting. The article further states that certain programs both enhance student engagement and support differentiated learning by encouraging students to track and measure their own progress and assess their own learning. Using social learning tools, students are able to determine areas of personal struggle and growth in real time and, as a result, are provided with more intuitive, individualized learning experiences. The last part of the article focuses on why teachers should foster social emotional learning through technology. It states that suicide rates decrease as well as leading to happier, healthier more productive students.

The information in this article seems very relevant to what is currently happening in classrooms and shares resources to help promote social and emotional learning. I chose this article because it is published by Go Guardian and this past school year, I used it in my classroom.

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Social Emotional Learning Through Classroom Technology

From managing our schedules, to corresponding with parents and coworkers, to recognizing when we need to eat, our ability to complete the everyday functions of our lives relies on our own social emotional skills-such as communication, assessing our own needs, empathizing with others, problem-solving, and goal-setting. For students, these skills are gained and refined through social emotional learning, and technology can be useful in providing students and teachers with the tools and means to aid that learning.

Social emotional learning technology helps teachers integrate SEL into classrooms in ways that are meaningful and measurable, as well as provide teachers and students with the means of measuring the effectiveness of SEL and progress toward learning objectives. These programs create personalized learning experiences through software that analyzes and adapts to students' study behaviors and progress to support their individual learning styles and needs.

Integrating Social Learning Tools

Programs like McGraw Hill Connect, GSuite, and Office365 are great examples of social emotional learning technology that both enhance student engagement and support differentiated learning by encouraging students to track and measure their own progress and assess their own learning. Using social learning tools, students are able to determine areas of personal struggle and growth in real time and, as a result, are provided with more intuitive, individualized learning experiences. This enables students to learn to set and meet realistic, individual goals and problem solve to meet personal learning objectives, while remaining mindful of their needs, learning styles, and other educational factors in the process.

Practicing social emotional skills through technology has proven to be especially beneficial to students with special needs, as it provides them with a less pressurized learning environment in which to do so, while giving them a sense of control over their own learning.

Why Foster Social Emotional Learning Through Technology

Social emotional learning helps students develop better peer social relationships, emotional awareness, and job readiness skills. Through social learning technology, students are further encouraged to take charge of their own learning, as well as empowered with the ability to see their progress in their own social emotional learning and completion of learning objectives. Students who are introduced to technology that encourages their learning of social and emotional skills do better both academically and in their personal lives.

Social emotional learning has been beneficial in teaching emotional regulation and empathy that has been proven to help in the prevention of both cyberbullying and suicide, leading to healthier, happier, more productive students with greater short-term and long-term outcomes. SEL is essential to whole-child learning and giving students their best chance at their best future!

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Social Emotional Learning Through Classroom Technology

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From managing our schedules, to corresponding with parents and coworkers, to recognizing when we need to eat, our ability to complete the everyday functions of our lives relies on our own social emotional skills-such as communication, assessing our own needs, empathizing with others, problem-solving, and goal-setting.

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Best Technology Tools to Support Social-Emotional Learning

Scarborough, C. (2020, October 14). Best Technology Tools to Support Social-Emotional Learning. TeachHUB. https://www.teachhub.com/technology-in-the-classroom/2020/10/best-technology-tools-to-support-social-emotional-learning/.

The article begins by discussing how technology is a prevalent aspect of our everyday lives. The author believes that his experience with using technology has benefited students with social/emotional needs. He shared that students have been able to ask him questions privately through a chat instead of in front of the entire class thus preventing any unkind comments by peers or any unwanted attention. He states that, “the ability to not be face to face but still make a connection is part of the process for them building better relationships and overcoming anxiety in expressing themselves to others.”

The article then continues by giving examples of tools to use in the classroom that support social/emotional learning and a brief explanation of each. The descriptions are thorough, however, it would have been more beneficial if the author shared a direct link to the products site as well as a picture.

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The year is 2020 and technology now seems like a utility (lights, electricity, water, etc.) in our lives. It is a way of life for our students growing up. With that, the basic needs of our students to develop the ability to manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, demonstrate empathy for others, build positive relationships, and make good decisions in a technological world that can lend itself to isolation can be a struggle.

How Technology Can Benefit Social-Emotional Learning

Since technology is now so integrated into our world, it also serves as a tool to help students develop the social and emotional learning aspect of their development. There are many students in classrooms everyday that would feel safer expressing themselves through technology. For some, the ability to not be face to face but still make a connection is part of the process for them building better relationships and overcoming anxiety in expressing themselves to others.

From my own experience teaching technology applications, I had software where I could see each computer in my room to monitor students' work, take over a computer to model what to do instructionally, and to chat with the students. There were times when students felt better asking questions through the chat rather than in front of their peers.

Just this week, I was doing a walkthrough in a class and part of the review for the students was on Quizlet. The teacher had the classroom divided into teams, and since I participated, I was on a team also. Let me add at this point I did poorly on this review of spanish numbers above thirty, but I digress. Students immediately started working together on their team to get more points than the other team. There was nothing on the line, except doing better than their friends. Through technology, students were working together toward a common goal. Sounds like a soft skill that employers desire-which is another benefit of using technology to develop social-emotional learning.

Best Technology Tools to Support SEL

Classcraft

Classcraft is based on the Self-Determination Theory which is based on what drives individuals to engage in specific activities. Those factors include extrinsic or intrinsic motivators, cultural factors, and competency.

Each student has the ability to earn points and improve regardless of their starting point so each student has equal opportunity regardless of where they start. The games involve collaboration and competition and allows educators to connect with students.

The games meet the student where they are in their development and builds from there, so the game is helpful in meeting students' needs and their various backgrounds.

Weird Enough Productions

At Weird Enough Productions, they have developed some superheroes called "The Uncommons" where "five unlikely outsiders must save each other to save the world." The comics focus on social-emotional learning, literacy, and digital citizenship in such a way that students identify with the superheroes. The stories help students to embrace their quirks and be comfortable being themselves.

After looking at samples, I get the picture that their goal is to help students who feel out of place or not necessarily included to have a place where they can identify themselves in their stories.

Class Catalyst

This program focuses on three goals: connection, self-awareness, and self-regulation. The website provides detailed information on how Class Catalyst benefits teachers, administrators, students, and parents.

For teachers, Class Catalyst is discreet so that a student has a private way to connect with an adult and it provides a look at each student's emotional and social needs. For administrators, Class Catalyst can de-escalate situations and help address Tier II students and their needs.

For parents the program helps to pinpoint issues before they happen and fosters self-awareness and personal responsibility. The benefits for the students seem fairly obvious in their SEL development.

One main difference between Class Catalyst and other websites is that it boasts there are no cartoons, tests, or cheesy content to follow.

FUNecole

This cloud-based program incorporates an interdisciplinary program with components of STREAMS (Science, Technology, Reading and Writing, Engineering, Arts, Math, and Social Sciences), digital literacy, computer science coding, 21 st-century skills, and social-emotional learning.

One of the teacher benefits of FUNecole is that if you are not strong in computer science or coding, there are materials to help you through so that you can help your students.

The FUNecole diverse cartoons feature Mr. Attitude, Starjack the Innovator, Ram the Doer, and Systematic the Analyst. These characters all have features to reach out to the diverse economic and cultural backgrounds of our students.

In the end, as great as technology is and will be in all of our lives and the lives of our students, by its nature it makes it easier for the introvert or person who would rather 'hide behind a screen' to do so and not have as much face-to-face interaction. With that at times comes a natural regression in basic people skills.

The programs listed above and many more online will help many of these students have a safe and comfortable way to come out of their shell in a way that is more familiar to them and at the same time, learn valuable skills that will help make them successful in their future endeavors.

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Best Technology Tools to Support Social-Emotional Learning - TeachHUB

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The year is 2020 and technology now seems like a utility (lights, electricity, water, etc.) in our lives. It is a way of life for our students growing up.

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Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning

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Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning

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Farber, M. (2019, August 15). Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-digital-tools-promote-social-and-emotional-learning.

The article begins with the author explaining their curiosity about a study that was completed about SEL and technology. The author then goes on to describe the findings of the research. To begin, the research demonstrated the importance of student voice and choice. To help foster these skills, the researchers worked to create a meaningful way for students to demonstrate their SEL skills. They had the students work to create a tournament for Super Smash Bros to help reinforce these skills. The author then goes on to discuss how PBL can be used to foster SEL skills because students are able to work collaboratively towards an end goal.

In comparison to my other two articles, this one was confusing at times and I believe that is because the author kept referencing research I was unfamiliar with. I also found that it was not as well organized as the other two articles. This one, while working to be organized, felt jumbled at times. Like the author only could use so many words to get their point across. I would have liked to see more details and for the author to have taken the information from the research and given examples of how this could be done in a K-12 setting. While the author says this can be done, he did not provide any examples of how teachers can do this.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Educators can take advantage of digital tools that students want to use to enhance social and emotional learning efforts.

age fotostock / Alamy Stock Photo

As a researcher on digital learning, I was intrigued by the release of a new guide called Reclaiming Digital Futures, which is an effort to help community-based organizations integrate digital learning into their programs. My interest was piqued because the researchers behind this guide had unearthed ways that digital learning can support the fostering of social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.

I contacted one of those researchers, Rafi Santo, to learn more. The organizations that the researchers worked with combine "foundational approaches to youth development that have various SEL outcomes at their core with powerful work around digital tools and practices," Santo said. The organizations imbued learning with real-world applications of SEL-the young people were engaged in relationship-building, responsible decision-making, and self-management.

Although the researchers studied out-of-school programs-also known as informal learning spaces-many of the findings can be applied to K-12 schooling.

Youth Voice and Power

The researchers unearthed several themes in the course of their work, including the importance of youth voice and power, or student voice, choice, and agency. "This was because many of the organizations in the cohort had a strong orientation towards having young people be part of the process of shaping what programmatic practice and pedagogy looks like," Santo explained.

At YOUmedia, a program at the Chicago Public Library, codesign of programming happens in an organic way. "Educators developed rich relationships with kids in this space," Santo said. "This included hanging out and messing around." An example that's included in the toolkit centers on youth who played Super Smash Bros., a fighting game from Nintendo. This interested me because esports programs (electronic sports leagues) have been growing in popularity outside of schools, and increasingly in schools.

There was just one problem: "Kids were playing together, but the game tended to foster controversy and competition-not the best SEL we were looking for, as it brings out conflict," Santo said. The solution was to work with the most excited teens to create a Super Smash Bros. tournament that channeled that fun and competitive spirit into a more structured opportunity that pushed participants to collaborate, a component of SEL. They were empowered with tasks outside the game such as youth outreach and recruitment, project planning, timeline planning, and tournament facilitation.

This approach reminded me of conversations I've had with New Jersey-based educator Chris Aviles, who launched an esports program at his middle school. He runs his program as a team, not a club: Students need to maintain a certain GPA and can get cut from the squad.

What makes esports seem promising to Aviles and many other K-12 educators is that many participants may have no other home-school connection. Some of Aviles's students play competitively, while others maintain the website, run social media accounts, record game videos, or shout-cast during livestreams (i.e., they do the play-by-play coverage). This approach is similar to the ways in which traditional team-based sports can guide young people to build character.

Embedding SEL in PBL

Another theme shared in the Reclaiming Digital Futures toolkit pertains to adult-youth collaboration on big digital maker projects, a theme developed in a set of case studies that reflect tenets of good project-based learning (PBL).

One case study of note is from the award-winning after-school educational program AS220 Youth, which runs a huge project each year called FutureWorlds. Many of the young people served by AS220 Youth are in the care and custody of the state. The organization is composed of interest-driven studios based on music, fashion, digital arts, visual arts, and video production. "You can be a youth in any of these studios and then become an apprentice," Santo explained. "Apprentices then collaboratively come together at the beginning of the year and talk about what they would want future worlds to look like."

In the case study shared in the toolkit, the AS220 Youth members use concepts from Afrofuturism, "a framework which is very rooted in both social justice and youth interest in sci-fi and speculative fiction, as well as a very positive orientation around speculating about possible futures rather than purely looking backwards," Santo said. Wakanda, the high-tech society in Marvel's Black Panther film and comics, is an example of Afrofuturism.

Each year, the kids in AS220 Youth choose a theme, and each studio plays a different role in developing that theme. "One year they made a massive haunted house where the theme was incarceration," Santo said. "The apparel studio made all of the costumes, and the maker studio built the sets, and the music studio created the soundtracks."

This case study connects SEL to youth leadership in a way that is "rooted in core issues relevant to youth," Santo said. "Empathy is put into the context of community-based issues, which is really at the heart of what marginalized young people think about, and care about. On the other side, it speaks to the digital production interest youth have. It also provides an advocacy stance that they may not have ordinarily been able to have."

The adult-youth collaboration approach can be adopted in K-12 schools using project resources provided by PBLWorks. Different grade levels, content areas, or entire schools can come together to address a community-based theme. For example, the K-2 social studies project Make a Difference begins with the driving question, "How can we take action to make a change in our community?" and culminates with a community service event.

The examples shared in the Reclaiming Digital Futures guide illustrate just how well SEL can be embedded in digital learning experiences. Educators need not carve out class time to explicitly teach empathy or collaboration; instead, opportunities should exist for students to practice those competencies in authentic and meaningful ways.

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Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) Educators can take advantage of digital tools that students want to use to enhance social and emotional learning efforts.

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Eduporium Blog. (2021, June 13). EdTech and Social-Emotional Learning. Eduporium Blog. https://www.eduporium.com/blog/eduporium-weekly-edtech-and-its-place-in-social-emotional-learning/.

The article begins by discussing how the core of social-emotional learning is to help students to find their voice. The article then discusses how various technology tools can help students find and use their voice in the classroom. This happens naturally when technology is used in an authentic way in the classroom. The article then goes on to discuss different ways tech can strengthen SEL. For example, using technology to direct their own learning experiences. Technology can also be used to help close the gap that students may have. The article ends by giving examples of using tools like Flipgrid and Wakelet for students to use to help share their thoughts with other students to help promote communication between peers.

Overall, this source was very informative and it was clear the authors knew what they were talking about. I liked how they chunked the article and gave examples about what they were talking about. The only critique I have is that they referenced MakerEd Technologies quite a bit, but never explained what it was in the article. If I had not gone to the article about it, I would not have understood what the author meant. Other than that, the article presented the information in a thorough manner and in a logical manner.

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* In social-emotional learning, tech tools help kids explore more than the 'here and now.'
* There are many different ways EdTech solutions can enhance your SEL experiences.
* Technology can sometimes help to close developmental and social gaps in kids.
* Combining SEL and technology often helps your students create connections.
* Integrating tech tools intentionally can ignite development of key SEL skills.

There are many benefits of social-emotional learning, including helping students learn to work as part of teams, helping them manage their own emotions in the classroom, and helping them to build up stronger connections to their school work among others. So many unique social-emotional learning strategies have popped up around the world. For starters, they help educators to legitimize this teaching approach across grade levels. With SEL practices come the opportunities for students to learn some of the most important social-emotional skills, like self-awareness, goal setting, social awareness, and more. And, when adding in educational technologies, they can unlock new sets of benefits and expand the power of SEL.

SEL and Technology: Creating Greater Connections

Perhaps the most basic goal of social-emotional learning, creating relevant connections for children, often takes center stage in classrooms. When it first gained popularity, social-emotional learning was essentially its own entity-a branch off your instructional tree. It's now, however, found itself connected to some other instructional practices, including perhaps most notably, using technology. SEL and SEL practices help with empowering children to have their own voice and to expand their minds. Technology tools can help expand that voice, so it's natural that the two have formed an effective pair in day-to-day learning. For starters, any educators can weave SEL concepts, like social awareness and authenticity, into their instruction but that is just the beginning. Bringing EdTech into the mix can take social-emotional learning to a new level.

Expressing emotions in a social setting.

Social-emotional learning and soft skills.

The soft skills students develop through SEL experiences, including those we've already mentioned, have become crucial in recent years. Previously, educators had been putting a lot of focus into teaching the hard skills, like coding. Though it's easier to measure hard skills development, it's equally important for students to develop soft skills. We've found that hard and soft skills are actually closely connected and beneficial for students to establish. One of the most sought-after skills at the moment, for example, is well-being-a skill that's closely related to SEL. Knowing how to manage workloads and ask peers for help when they need it is something kids can grasp from social-emotional learning. It's one example of how clear communication, which is another component of SEL, can help prepare them for the future.

How Tech Might Enhance Social-Emotional Learning

Though not commonly associated with social-emotional learning and social and emotional skills, students can certainly learn other relevant skills through SEL experiences. These include the skills like persistence, , problem solving, and redesigning experiments to overcome previous failed attempts. Particularly when educational technology comes into play, the ability to persist through failures can take a lot of different routes. Besides this, technology can align with SEL in a few different ways. Students might start to connect more deeply with this academic content and develop more meaningful intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. Not only could EdTech integration help to make SEL more meaningful, there's also potential for it to help students learn key 21st century skills in the process.

Benefits of SEL and technology.

One of the greatest benefits of using EdTech in social-emotional learning is enabling students to direct their own learning experiences. When they're learning things they actually want to learn and care about, children tend to exhibit better engagement levels and, ultimately, achieve greater results. Leveraging helps kids work to their strengths and enjoy a greater personalized experience in the classroom. Plus, technology tools also help with assessment in social-emotional learning. Teachers can use various tools to better understand how students are doing with SEL skill development and their overall mindsets. They can try formative assessments or capture other forms of data to show children how they can improve. This is especially useful if they exhibit negative behavior at times (but teachers can also track positive behavior).

Using technology to monitor student progress.

In SEL, technology enables greater levels of personalized learning for students. They can essentially stay in their comfort zone when using EdTech tools. This ensures that they're not too bored with material they're learning nor moving too fast. With higher comfort levels often comes improved performance. Additionally, if educators have a tracking platform available, the increased access to student performance data could go a long way. It can even show how kids are sticking to what they need to learn or identify any changes in their emotional states. Finally, technology in SEL helps students build agency. By assuming greater amounts of leadership in their own learning, kids are often able to explore new problem-solving methods and use this chance to make their own decisions.

Social-emotional learning helps teachers create more cohesive learning experiences for students in a lot of situations. The addition of technology can also help close some gaps students experience with social and emotional skill development. Though educational and maker technologies aren't designed to replace kids' human interactions, they can, however, help to make those interactions more meaningful and help enhance learning experiences for students. This allows them to express themselves on deeper levels and bolster the connections they have with their projects. Specifically, it's the supplemental benefits of tech tools that help improve on social and emotional development. When integrated with SEL content, various EdTech tools can help students to express their ideas and emotions more effectively, which can provide educators with new ideas for balancing the two and creating high-quality learning.

Social-emotional learning, soft skills, and STEM.

Many of the that kids typically use in learning have features that are naturally compatible with SEL development. When programming robots, for example, SEL-related experiences include responsible decision making, communication, collaboration, and even frustration. Collaborating with peers is also very effective when students are working together on a program-something we already know-and their skills in communication often become clearer when student groups or pairs have a common goal. Then, there's the tangible side of SEL, which is definitely visible when students are learning with hands-on tools. In this particular example, when they see their program run, they'll gain greater self-confidence. They'll also stay engaged for longer periods of time and, ultimately, this should lead to greater retention.

Surprising SEL tools for the classroom.

Social-Emotional Learning: More than 'Here and Now'

It's probably easy to tell that we believe educational technology and MakerEd tools can collectively bolster social-emotional learning. Students can still learn a lot, however, even if they're not actually using any tech tools in their SEL experiences. Let us explain. Social-emotional learning doesn't always have to be hands-on-even when technologies are involved. If children are using other technology tools in another class, for example, educators don't necessarily need a deep instructional plan. This is an opportunity for a reflective discussion on the role technology plays in students' day-to-day lives. It could also help them express their emotions, frustrations, and excitement while connecting with classmates who share similar viewpoints.

Using technology to foster relationships.

Enhancing social-emotional learning with classroom tech tools.

Aside from the physical benefits of EdTech tools and platforms, they also offer social-emotional benefits to students. Take robotics, for example. Students can learn computer science skills or coding concepts when programming a robot but teachers can also tap their social-emotional sides. They could challenge students to think about how a robot might interact with other robots or with people. This might help kids understand that it's okay to feel nervous in new situations but that collaborating and communicating can help that fear go away. Finally, if technologies are not available during SEL lessons, teachers could still incorporate them by leading discussions on relevant topics. Some of them include sharing views on violence in video games, the usefulness of AI platforms like Siri, or the ethics behind self-driving cars. All of these can tie into social-emotional learning in one way or another.

How EdTech Use Helps Kids Strengthen SEL Skills

Not only do EdTech tools have a strong presence in education but the technology has become increasingly immersive and powerful. So, while the state of the workforce demands students gain experience with high-tech tools, school leaders and parents also want to ensure they are developing these social and emotional skills-since those are also important. Technologies that enable students to learn both hard and soft skills are ideal and STEM and maker tools can help them do so. Simply providing students with tech tools and telling them to collaborate with their peers is not going to do the trick. Kids require basic guidance when it comes to using new technology, specifically in conjunction with social-emotional instruction. Plus, there's many different ways educators can bring these connections to life through authentic learning experiences.

The social-emotional learning foundation in different subjects.

Using robotics kits for education and SEL.

Finally, educational robotics kits show positive results among technologies that can boost social-emotional development in kids. Particularly when children have social or language disorders, they could use various educational robotics tools to communicate by programming the robot to say certain messages or execute certain actions that indicate how they are feeling. Many robots for the classroom are quite perfect for this purpose but the takes things to another level. This highly advanced humanoid is very effective with special populations, particularly students who have Autism. It offers a calming presence and can truly help them feel comfortable with communicating. Plus, it's just one of the many emerging technologies that can help today's students.

Finally, students can use digital platforms, like or , to share their thoughts and new things they have learned on important topics. By voicing real emotions, they can better connect with this content, their peers, and themselves-the main goals of SEL. Follow us on and for more.

Click below to contact our team for guidance on combining STEM and SEL in the classroom.

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EdTech And Social-Emotional Learning - Eduporium

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In social-emotional learning, it's all about engaging kids beyond their minds. Tech tools help teachers activate their hearts and hands, too.

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How Tech Is Taking Social-Emotional Learning out of Its Silo

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How Tech Is Taking Social-Emotional Learning out of Its Silo

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Krause, C. (2019, July 12). How Tech Is Taking Social-Emotional Learning out of Its Silo. EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-07-06-how-tech-is-taking-social-emotional-learning-out-of-its-silo.

The article starts off by discussing what led the author to see the impact technology can have on social-emotional learning. The author talks about how technology and SEL are not in their own silos, but rather are interconnected. Later on, the article discusses how SEL skills are seen as "soft" skills, but rather are necessary as we look towards long-term goals. By incorporating technology into the classroom, teachers and students are better able to connect to each other. This helps to reinforce SEL skills with the help of technology.

I really enjoyed the layout of the article. It was straightforward and easy to follow the author's thought process. I think the author's use of an anecdote at the beginning and then referencing it throughout the article helped to keep the central idea of the article at the forefront of the reader's mind. Overall, the article was very well organized and had many important pieces of information regarding technology and SEL.

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When I started out as a high school teacher in the early 2000s, I was using a lot of technology designed for connection. It was the advent of SmartBoards and podcasts, voicethreads and vlogging. Yet even in the midst of all the excitement, I didn't feel completely connected with my students.

It was only when I coupled tech with meaning-with my own pedagogical practices of mindfulness, attention and presence-that the social-emotional skills and the academic learning began to take off. I realized then what's always been true: Meaningful, authentic learning is connected and interdisciplinary by nature, and communities thrive when there's social care at the core.

This year's ISTE 2019 conference in Philadelphia marked nearly 20 years since I entered the education profession, and I'm seeing a tidal shift in the approach to integrating technology in learning. No longer are social-emotional learning and edtech siloed, or even separate entities. In a way, you could say it's all connected.

The meaning behind connected learning, and human connection itself, is taking center stage, with technology being used as a means to facilitate, expand and empower the mind and voice of every learner-student and teacher alike. Just as edtech is blending with our pedagogical practices, social-emotional learning, or SEL, is also being approached in a more holistic way. Our approach to learning is undergoing a necessary sea change, at a point when it seems all parts of the educational ecosystem-students, teachers, parents and administrators-desperately need it.

SEL is not a new topic, yet for years it's been approached as its own separate entity, to be focused on in a discrete way, perhaps along with a separate mindfulness program. In my book "Mindful by Design," I approach mindfulness from a designer's lens, showing ways that mindfulness-related concepts, such as awareness, advancement and authenticity can be infused directly into daily content and teaching practices. In the same way, research shows that SEL is most effective when it's made part of the daily curriculum, and a regular part of the way in which educators approach using technology.

It makes perfect sense, as true learning happens when we link the lesson to a context that feels real and when we practice interacting with others in a community. Using SEL, we begin to see that no student is an island.

The benefits don't stop there. A meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs involving over 270,000 students between Pre-K and high school not only linked these programs to boosts in attitudes and behavior but significant academic performance as well.

At ISTE, it was clear that the community we're talking about spans the globe, and the ways that companies are taking SEL-infused tech to the next level are as vast as they are visionary.

In some cases, students play the heroes as they map their own journeys. Classcraft, for example, has built an engagement management system that promotes SEL through a game-based platform that blends physical and virtual learning. Weird Enough Productions gives you a chance to create stories where the superheroes and comics represent you and your world. (Or, in their words, "We tell stories that inspire people to embrace their quirks, and get hype about being themselves.")

ClassCatalyst is a new tool that lets students log in how they're feeling during a day, allowing a piece of SEL to be quantified and increasing chances for teachers to connect with students, no matter how busy the day. And Wabisabi Learning -whose motto is "Restore balance and energize the school day"-is a multifaceted community platform that captures evidence of learning, focuses on ways to approach formative assessments and offers portfolios that showcase creativity.

New Metrics for Success

There's so much development and growth in the SEL arena. But it often takes a bit of patience and determination to prioritize it and make the deeper connections using tech. And, perhaps part of the intimidation at first is the vagueness of the term "social-emotional learning" itself. As Voltaire said, "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms." Those working with SEL often point to the definition from CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, which both defines the term and identifies five related competencies related to its definition that can be assessed and mastered: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

These skills, sometimes labeled as "soft skills," have often been sidelined, especially in edtech arenas, in favor of the hard skills-think: coding-that are more easily measured and used for testing academic ability and growth. Fortunately, these labels are being reevaluated as we learn that they are inter-reliant in terms of looking at long term measures of success. Soft skills help build important qualities such as attention, motivation and positive mindset, which are among the many plastic attributes that can be cultivated for both teachers and students, to incredible effect.

In essence, society is starting to form new metrics for success, which include well-being. To that end, my experience at ISTE revealed people and organizations in the edtech space who are focusing on student voice and expression, visible learning, storytelling and social and emotional learning-a critical part of education's sea change. From Adobe to Flipgrid, Mind Yeti to 3DBear, the legends and newcomers in edtech are innovating ways to amplify student voice, foster wellness and promote social learning across disciplines and cultures, with accessibility for all. These are big visions, and the timing is ripe for it.

The industry now realizes that technology, of course, can be a bridge, helping students and teachers to connect. It can even help us to connect with ourselves. It's no longer the case that tech is competing with humans to build these skills, but rather is complementing our efforts. The question for edtech developers has become: How does SEL look when it's built into technology as one of the core values in the design cycle of product development, with the user experience as top priority?

When I began to prioritize using elements of mindfulness and SEL in my teaching strategies, my classroom looked and felt different, though the content was the same. I didn't announce any shifts, but my students could feel it. I was present, and the tech tools I used became intentional by design. Now, with even more powerful edtech developed with mindful values, teachers can take advantage of a precious resource-time-in order to be even more present and available to students we serve, as well as resilient and refreshed, with a better balance for ourselves.

When done right, this human-centric approach to edtech feels completely natural, as it should be. And, it's already revolutionizing the education world in ways that have a ripple effect, inside out.

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How Tech Is Taking Social-Emotional Learning out of Its Silo - EdSurge News

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When I started out as a high school teacher in the early 2000s, I was using a lot of technology designed for connection. It was the advent of SmartBoards and podcasts, voicethreads and vlogging. Yet even in the midst of all the excitement, I didn't feel completely connected with my students.

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If you don't log in with a Padlet account, please ensure that you include your name in your post . You must contribute a minimum of three sources. The annotation should summarize and assess the source in the citation. The first paragraph provides a brief summary of the article, covering the main points of the work. The second paragraph points out the article's strengths and evaluates its methods and presentation.

For information on formatting APA citations, see

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You can also watch our APA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel .

General APA Guidelines

Your essay should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11"), with 1" margins on all sides. Include a page header (also known as the " running head") at the top of every page. For a professional paper, this includes your paper title and the page number. For a student paper, this only includes the page number. To create a page header/running head, insert page numbers flush right. Then type "TITLE OF YOUR PAPER" in the header flush left using all capital letters. The running head is a shortened version of your paper's title and cannot exceed 50 characters including spacing and punctuation.

Font

The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual requires that the chosen font be accessible (i.e., legible) to all readers and that it be used consistently throughout the paper. It acknowledges that many font choices are legitimate, and it advises writers to check with their publishers, instructors, or institutions for guidance in cases of uncertainty.

While the APA Manual does not specify a single font or set of fonts for professional writing, it does recommend a few fonts that are widely available. These include sans serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode as well as serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point Computer Modern.

Major Paper Sections

Your essay should include four major sections: the Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Title Page

Note: APA 7 provides slightly different directions for formatting the title pages of professional papers (e.g., those intended for scholarly publication) and student papers (e.g., those turned in for credit in a high school or college course).

The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. A professional paper should also include the author note. A student paper should also include the course number and name, instructor name, and assignment due date.

Type your title in upper and lowercase letters centered in the upper half of the page. The title should be centered and written in boldface. APA recommends that your title be focused and succinct and that it should not contain abbreviations or words that serve no purpose. Your title may take up one or two lines. All text on the title page, and throughout your paper, should be double-spaced.

Beneath the title, type the author's name: first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Do not use titles (Dr.) or degrees (PhD).

Beneath the author's name, type the institutional affiliation, which should indicate the location where the author(s) conducted the research.

A professional paper should include the author note beneath the institutional affiliation, in the bottom half of the title page. This should be divided up into several paragraphs, with any paragraphs that are not relevant omitted. The first paragraph should include the author's name, the symbol for the ORCID iD, and the URL for the ORCID iD. Any authors who do not have an ORCID iD should be omitted. The second paragraph should show any change in affiliation or any deaths of the authors. The third paragraph should include any disclosures or acknowledgements, such as study registration, open practices and data sharing, disclosure of related reports and conflicts of interest, and acknowledgement of financial support and other assistance. The fourth paragraph should include contact information for the corresponding author.

A student paper should not include an author note.

Note again that page headers/page numbers (described above for professional and student papers) also appear at the top of the title page. In other words, a professional paper's title page will include the title of the paper flush left in all capitals and the page number flush right, while a student paper will only contain the page number flush right.
Student APA title page

Professional paper APA title page

Abstract

Begin a new page. Your abstract page should already include the page header (described above). On the first line of the abstract page, center and bold the word "Abstract" (no italics, underlining, or quotation marks).

Beginning with the next line, write a concise summary of the key points of your research. (Do not indent.) Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph, double-spaced. Your abstract should typically be no more than 250 words.

You may also want to list keywords from your paper in your abstract. To do this, indent as you would if you were starting a new paragraph, type Keywords: (italicized), and then list your keywords. Listing your keywords will help researchers find your work in databases.

Abstracts are common in scholarly journal articles and are not typically required for student papers unless advised by an instructor. If you are unsure whether or not your work requires an abstract, consult your instructor for further guidance.

APA Abstract Page

Please see our Sample APA Paper resource to see an example of an APA paper. You may also visit our Additional Resources page for more examples of APA papers.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in APA

Individual Resources

The page template for the new OWL site does not include contributors' names or the page's last edited date. However, select pages still include this information.

In the absence of contributor/edit date information, treat the page as a source with a group author and use the abbreviation "n.d." for "no date":

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Title of resource. Purdue Online Writing Lab. http://Web address for OWL resource

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). General Writing FAQs. Purdue Online Writing Lab. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/general_writing_faqs.html

The generic APA citation for OWL pages, which includes author/edit date information, is this:

Contributors' names. (Last edited date). Title of resource. Site Name. http://Web address for OWL resource

Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style can be found here.

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You can also watch our APA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel . General APA Guidelines Your essay should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11"), with 1" margins on all sides. Include a page header (also known as the " running head") at the top of every page.

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Only a few decades ago, most people felt that social and emotional skills should be taught primarily at home. Today, the proliferation of character education, antibullying, and social skills programs signals a growing recognition of the important role of schools in promoting social and emotional learning, or SEL.

Too often, however, schools teach social and emotional skills outside the daily curriculum. Consider how much more relevant such skills would be if we embedded them in daily work, supporting students as they learn to cooperate effectively with a lab partner, set realistic writing goals, persevere through a tough math problem, or self-regulate well enough to allow others to speak in a class discussion.

Interestingly-perhaps even counterintuitively-we may find the impetus for this next step in our evolution of SEL teaching in the Common Core State Standards.

Common Core and SEL Together? Really?

Have you ever examined the Common Core State Standards with an eye toward social and emotional skills? As I've worked with schools and districts to help bring academic and social and emotional learning together, I've increasingly been turning to these standards and others (the Next Generation Science Standards, Virginia's Standards of Learning, and so on) to find connections to social and emotional learning.

I tried an exercise that yielded fascinating results. Combing through the Common Core English/language arts standards for grade 5 as well as the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, which cut across all grades, I found an amazing number of places where SEL skills were embedded in these academic standards. Here are just a few examples of connections between the Common Core standards and the five core social and emotional competencies outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL):

Responsible Decision Making

It's clear that SEL skills and academics are intertwined. Teaching students how to share ideas respectfully, have empathy for academically diverse partners, push through challenges to meet goals, and control impulses are just as important as teaching them to read fluently, multiply fractions, and write a well-constructed essay. Learning these social and emotional skills is especially important for students who struggle in school academically; these students often lack appropriate social skills and self-regulation, yet interventions often involve pulling them from class to drill them with academic skills, either away from peers or grouped with peers who also lack SEL skills.

Instead of viewing social and emotional learning as tangential-something to fit in around the edges of the curriculum-we should treat it as an integral part of our daily teaching for all students.

Teaching SEL Skills

Once teachers begin to see the connections between teaching for academic learning and social-emotional learning, it makes intuitive sense. After all, we've all seen the powerful academic work that can happen when a group of students work cooperatively and respectfully, and we've all watched even the best-planned lessons and activities disintegrate into chaos when students are antagonistic, irresponsible, or self-absorbed.

Yet many teachers feel that they don't know how to teach social and emotional skills. "I know how to teach math just fine," they might think, "but I don't know how to teach self-regulation. That's a job for the counselor." Actually, the same instructional practices we use to teach academic skills can be applied to teaching social and emotional skills.

For example, like academic instruction, SEL instruction requires the teacher to preplan the key elements of what to teach. What is the skill that students need to succeed? What should it look like in action? How might we break that skill down so we can teach it well?

Another important practice that applies to both academic and SEL instruction is modeling. The same steps we might use to model a new math algorithm can be used to model how to follow group norms during a social studies debate: We model skills so that students see them demonstrated effectively, we explicitly point out the important details of the demonstration, and we give students an opportunity to try the skill out right away. And more broadly, we model social and emotional skill by maintaining positive relationships with our colleagues, keeping our cool when we're frustrated, and apologizing when we make mistakes.

Small-group and individual coaching also work for both academic and SEL instruction. Just as you might pull together a small group of students who all need to practice long division, so, too, you might pull together a small group to reteach and practice setting realistic personal goals.

Finally, both academic and SEL skills require practice. We know that most students can't learn how to balance chemical equations in just one lesson. They'll need several lessons and lots of time to practice and consolidate. The same goes for SEL skills. Managing stress under pressure, regulating one's emotions, empathizing with others, and negotiating conflicts respectfully and effectively are hard skills to master. We should have patience and empathy for our students as they try, practice, make mistakes, and try again.

A Look at Tim's Classroom

Tim's 6th graders are about to begin working together in literature groups to learn and practice skills from the Common Core State Standards, including analyzing the way plots unfold, understanding how authors develop a narrator's point of view and create believable characters, summarizing, and expressing opinions about the texts. They will also practice Common Core speaking and listening skills through their collaborative conversations.

In years past, Tim might have simply assigned students to groups on the basis of what he knew about their interests and abilities and then encouraged them to cooperate and be respectful as they followed their discussion protocols. This year however, Tim has been working at setting students up for success with social and emotional skills through their academic work. He uses several strategies to help students get the most out of these book groups.

Direct teaching and practice. Each day, in addition to teaching and having students practice academic skills, Tim also teaches social and emotional skills. For example, to show what it looks like to disagree respectfully, he has another student role-play a scene with him. The student shares an opinion, and then Tim gives a respectful counteropinion using the prompt: "I can see your point of view, and I have a different idea." After he shares, he asks students to describe how he disagreed respectfully. He then challenges students to try this strategy using the prompt he demonstrated. As groups work together, Tim coaches and reinforces them when they disagree respectfully.

Tim noticed something interesting as he embedded SEL skills in the context of academic work. At first, he feared that teaching these skills would take too much time; after all, like nearly all teachers, he has an insane amount of content to cover. However, in past years when facilitating book groups, Tim would often have to stop to unravel disagreements and hurt feelings that resulted from students' lack of social and emotional skills. These interruptions in the academic work made Tim reluctant to try book groups again.

This time around, although there were still some behavior challenges, groups didn't tend to fall apart. And when Tim saw challenges arising, he simply wove the new skills that students needed right into the next day's academic lessons or coached individual groups as needed. For example, on Tuesday he saw several groups getting derailed when one of their members with a powerful voice took over, so on Wednesday, he led a brief class discussion on how to share "airtime." Tim and his students worked more efficiently and enjoyed the work more, and the students were more academically engaged than he'd ever seen them before.

Not Just One Lesson

We wouldn't expect that one academic lesson, no matter how good, would result in students mastering a new concept or skill. We know that using one intervention wouldn't ensure that students who struggle academically will suddenly catch up to their peers. Good academic learning takes time and practice.

The same is true for social and emotional learning. Tim might teach a great lesson on how to use a calm and respectful tone of voice when disagreeing with a group member, but he knows it will take time and practice for students to master this skill. (Heck, if he's honest with himself, he recognizes how hard this skill still is for him when he disagrees with a colleague in a meeting.) He also knows that some students will require more coaching, support, and patience than others do. Fortunately, the integration of SEL skills into the new standards now gives teachers like Tim a framework and structure to provide the time and practice students need to master these life skills.

Getting Started: A Few Action Steps

Here are some steps your school, grade-level team, or department can take to get started in integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) with academic instruction.

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Social-Emotional Learning and Academics: Better Together

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The Common Core State Standards give us a golden opportunity to teach social-emotional skills and academic skills together.