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About CO18 Connecting Online (CO) is a free 3-day online conference that has been taking place on the first full weekend of February since 2009.  CO18 is the 9th annual CO event will take place from February 23-25, 2018. The themes of CO have been to improve instruction and  learning.

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About CO18 Connecting Online (CO) is a free 3-day online conference that has been taking place on the first full weekend of February since 2009.  CO18 is the 9th annual CO event will take place from February 23-25, 2018. The themes of CO have been to improve instruction and  learning.

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Topics and Highlights of CO18

Connecting online for information

Connecting online to improve instruction and learning

Online learning and instructional experiences

Experiences with technology in face-to-face and online classes.

Best practices: What worked and what didn't work?

Challenges involved in teaching and/or learning online

How do you use technology to promote your online workshops, consultation, and communities?

Books written on e-learning

Business Models for Online Teaching

Marketing Online Courses

Challenges involved in Online Businesses

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On Learning Spaces and Cross Action Spaces, 2/24/2018- Dr. Ebba OssiannilssonLearning and teaching spaces (linear/nonlinear, formal/informal, physical or virtual) have been shifting given the technological developments (online, mobile learning, social media spaces). Given these developments, alternative analysis and assessment methods need to be implemented. Some of the questions addressed in this talk include: How can we learn, facilitate and assess learning, and how can we empower our students to encourage critical dialogue and cross-action? How can we adapt/moderate learning spaces to mediate challenge-based learning? Some of the arguments made by the presenter included bringing the world into the classroom through social media, augmented reality, mobile learning technologies to afford learning anytime and anywhere, allocate sources in a more efficient way. The EVO courses, weekly webinars provided opportunities for cross-action. I have also implemented technology and service-learning in my classes with international students last semester because I wanted them to have more exposure to L2 speakers and understand cultures in the US. Though this talk was a bit theoretical, given the instructional technology knowledge I gained in EVO (Thank you, Nellie), I could follow the discussion and will likely join Dr. Ossiannilsson’s Facebook group to learn about this topic and network with like-minded professionals. Some questions that came into my mind:How can we implement online learning spaces for international students? I am asking this question because most ESL programs in the US primarily use face-to-face teaching. How can I help my students design their own learning space?

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On Learning Spaces and Cross Action Spaces, 2/24/2018- Dr. Ebba OssiannilssonLearning and teaching spaces (linear/nonlinear, formal/informal, physical or virtual) have been shifting given the technological developments (online, mobile learning, social media spaces). Given these developments, alternative analysis and assessment methods need to be implemented. Some of the questions addressed in this talk include: How can we learn, facilitate and assess learning, and how can we empower our students to encourage critical dialogue and cross-action? How can we adapt/moderate learning spaces to mediate challenge-based learning? Some of the arguments made by the presenter included bringing the world into the classroom through social media, augmented reality, mobile learning technologies to afford learning anytime and anywhere, allocate sources in a more efficient way. The EVO courses, weekly webinars provided opportunities for cross-action. I have also implemented technology and service-learning in my classes with international students last semester because I wanted them to have more exposure to L2 speakers and understand cultures in the US. Though this talk was a bit theoretical, given the instructional technology knowledge I gained in EVO (Thank you, Nellie), I could follow the discussion and will likely join Dr. Ossiannilsson’s Facebook group to learn about this topic and network with like-minded professionals. Some questions that came into my mind:How can we implement online learning spaces for international students? I am asking this question because most ESL programs in the US primarily use face-to-face teaching. How can I help my students design their own learning space?

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Teaching Unplugged and Plugging It In, 2/25/2018, Zoriana Diak- Zoriana shared with us her experiences with blended learning through the Teaching Unplugged Method (Meddings & Thornbury, 2000), a method that assumes that “teaching should be done only using the resources that teachers and students bring to the classroom- i.e., themselves- and whatever happens in the classroom.” In other words, the curriculum should be driven by learner discussion, light material, and emergent language. The learning centers on the student (learner-created materials, discussion, and language) as opposed to the curriculum, technology, materials, or a combination of these three. While I embrace this method, it might be less applicable to certain learning contexts. For example, it is applicable to our own professional development (se discussion about PLNs by Judy Wong). In the past three years, I have taught immigrant ELLs in a program that had no curriculum, resources, and assessment and low-connectivity. Similar to this method, I focused on learner-created materials (photographs and discussions about these visuals). However, I am not sure how to fully adapt it to a standardized course so I will need to read up on this. I enjoyed learning about the different types of learners (Acceptive, Driven, and Not Apt) and the various sources suggested to enhance learning. As Zoriana described, there are tech-savvy learners who would enjoy using technology to learn (and I am sure teachers can find a way to help other students enjoy technology!). The Teaching Unplugged Method might not address the needs of technology-oriented students, and thus it should be used in combination with other methods in the classroom. My questions to Zoriana:How would you adapt the Teaching Unplugged Method in a standardized course at a university setting?How would you adapt this method with young learners?Here are some of the sources from this talk:https://lyricstraining.com/https://writewellapp.com/example/cover-letter-job-applicationhttps://www.class-central.com/I highly recommend visiting these links to learn about the Teaching Unplugged Method:https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/about/https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-unplugged

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Teaching Unplugged and Plugging It In, 2/25/2018, Zoriana Diak- Zoriana shared with us her experiences with blended learning through the Teaching Unplugged Method (Meddings & Thornbury, 2000), a method that assumes that “teaching should be done only using the resources that teachers and students bring to the classroom- i.e., themselves- and whatever happens in the classroom.” In other words, the curriculum should be driven by learner discussion, light material, and emergent language. The learning centers on the student (learner-created materials, discussion, and language) as opposed to the curriculum, technology, materials, or a combination of these three. While I embrace this method, it might be less applicable to certain learning contexts. For example, it is applicable to our own professional development (se discussion about PLNs by Judy Wong). In the past three years, I have taught immigrant ELLs in a program that had no curriculum, resources, and assessment and low-connectivity. Similar to this method, I focused on learner-created materials (photographs and discussions about these visuals). However, I am not sure how to fully adapt it to a standardized course so I will need to read up on this. I enjoyed learning about the different types of learners (Acceptive, Driven, and Not Apt) and the various sources suggested to enhance learning. As Zoriana described, there are tech-savvy learners who would enjoy using technology to learn (and I am sure teachers can find a way to help other students enjoy technology!). The Teaching Unplugged Method might not address the needs of technology-oriented students, and thus it should be used in combination with other methods in the classroom. My questions to Zoriana:How would you adapt the Teaching Unplugged Method in a standardized course at a university setting?How would you adapt this method with young learners?Here are some of the sources from this talk:https://lyricstraining.com/https://writewellapp.com/example/cover-letter-job-applicationhttps://www.class-central.com/I highly recommend visiting these links to learn about the Teaching Unplugged Method:https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/about/https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-unplugged

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Edupreneur or Teacherpreneur, 2/23/2018- Harshita KapoorHarshita shared tips related to starting an online teaching business. She discussed the following:-setting up your LMS (Learning Management System), such as Moodle-using an existing platform-developing your own website-integrating LMS within your website (Wordpress)-why learning programming?-some key words related to programming- HTTP, FTP, IP-hosting and hosting plans (shared, dedicated, cloud, VPS)-Wordpress tutorial, pluginsShe touched on the importance of programming knowledge in the field of academia (instructors are expected to know some level of coding). Another interesting idea I learned relates to the similarity between programming and language learning (they are both a language used to communicate). I did not dare to think about starting my own company but Harshita has provided information that entrepreneurial instructors can rely on. In addition, Rob’s presentation about the business aspects of teaching can complement Harshita’s talk.Although, she has covered a lot in her talk (I appreciated her Wordpress tutorial !!!!) perhaps a future talk can focus on cybersecurity issues. It seems that there are many cybersecurity issues arise with online teaching and education institutions do not have guidelines developed to address these issues. Instructors and students have limited knowledge and support to address these issues. 

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Edupreneur or Teacherpreneur, 2/23/2018- Harshita KapoorHarshita shared tips related to starting an online teaching business. She discussed the following:-setting up your LMS (Learning Management System), such as Moodle-using an existing platform-developing your own website-integrating LMS within your website (Wordpress)-why learning programming?-some key words related to programming- HTTP, FTP, IP-hosting and hosting plans (shared, dedicated, cloud, VPS)-Wordpress tutorial, pluginsShe touched on the importance of programming knowledge in the field of academia (instructors are expected to know some level of coding). Another interesting idea I learned relates to the similarity between programming and language learning (they are both a language used to communicate). I did not dare to think about starting my own company but Harshita has provided information that entrepreneurial instructors can rely on. In addition, Rob’s presentation about the business aspects of teaching can complement Harshita’s talk.Although, she has covered a lot in her talk (I appreciated her Wordpress tutorial !!!!) perhaps a future talk can focus on cybersecurity issues. It seems that there are many cybersecurity issues arise with online teaching and education institutions do not have guidelines developed to address these issues. Instructors and students have limited knowledge and support to address these issues. 

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Copyright Dot Com: Teaching Old Dogs New Clicks, 2/23/2018 with Dr. Robert DiotaleviIt is nice to see a speaker from Florida! Dr. Diotalevi’s session provided an overview about copyright laws in the US. In particular he focused on copyright use in education (for example, do you know who owns the copyright to the courses you create at a university,  do you know if  the way you want to use material in class is allowed by copyright law? Are you clear on how face-to-face and online courses are treated differently by copyright law?). He advised instructors to take a closer look at how the university copyright policy, US copyright law and its exemptions affect the classroom (TEACH Act determinations, fair use, DMC act) and provided a list of Dos and Don’ts and online resources that are available to help answer copyright questions, help you make fairuse and TEACH Act determinations, and find materials you can use in classwithout running into copyright issues. Knowing about copyright issues is another under discussed issue (as well as the business aspects of teaching), however, it is important to note that instructors are liable for copyright issues and in most cases the university will not represent or provide legal aid to the instructor in litigation. This is an issue that should be revisited in future webinars to raise awareness. To avoid copyright issues I predominantly rely on my own visuals in presentations and always attribute sources in academic papers and presentations. 

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Copyright Dot Com: Teaching Old Dogs New Clicks, 2/23/2018 with Dr. Robert DiotaleviIt is nice to see a speaker from Florida! Dr. Diotalevi’s session provided an overview about copyright laws in the US. In particular he focused on copyright use in education (for example, do you know who owns the copyright to the courses you create at a university,  do you know if  the way you want to use material in class is allowed by copyright law? Are you clear on how face-to-face and online courses are treated differently by copyright law?). He advised instructors to take a closer look at how the university copyright policy, US copyright law and its exemptions affect the classroom (TEACH Act determinations, fair use, DMC act) and provided a list of Dos and Don’ts and online resources that are available to help answer copyright questions, help you make fairuse and TEACH Act determinations, and find materials you can use in classwithout running into copyright issues. Knowing about copyright issues is another under discussed issue (as well as the business aspects of teaching), however, it is important to note that instructors are liable for copyright issues and in most cases the university will not represent or provide legal aid to the instructor in litigation. This is an issue that should be revisited in future webinars to raise awareness. To avoid copyright issues I predominantly rely on my own visuals in presentations and always attribute sources in academic papers and presentations. 

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Effective Strategies for Enhancing Foreign Language Acquisition, 2/24/2018- Nives Torresi and Sheryl McCoyI had the opportunity to interact with the speakers about the topic of board games in the Teaching Young EFL learners EVO 2018.  Nives and Sheryl revisited this topic but this time they discussed board games for adult learners within various methods, such as Gamification, Authentic learning, and Student-centered learning. Board games require no internet and can be played anytime and anywhere. But they also have some drawbacks, such as they require preparation and design time, they can become boring and repetitive, may lead to competition (as opposed to collaboration), and may not engage all students.  Some takeaways from this session: -Cs- chance, challenge, competition, collaboration, and communication-using the L1 during board games is part of the meaning-making process -accept mistakes-have fun and be socialI would have liked to see how board games were implemented with adult language learners: How would you use board games to reinforce vocabulary and encourage students to take charge of their own learning?

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Effective Strategies for Enhancing Foreign Language Acquisition, 2/24/2018- Nives Torresi and Sheryl McCoyI had the opportunity to interact with the speakers about the topic of board games in the Teaching Young EFL learners EVO 2018.  Nives and Sheryl revisited this topic but this time they discussed board games for adult learners within various methods, such as Gamification, Authentic learning, and Student-centered learning. Board games require no internet and can be played anytime and anywhere. But they also have some drawbacks, such as they require preparation and design time, they can become boring and repetitive, may lead to competition (as opposed to collaboration), and may not engage all students.  Some takeaways from this session: -Cs- chance, challenge, competition, collaboration, and communication-using the L1 during board games is part of the meaning-making process -accept mistakes-have fun and be socialI would have liked to see how board games were implemented with adult language learners: How would you use board games to reinforce vocabulary and encourage students to take charge of their own learning?

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Interdisciplinary e-Collaboration, 2/23/2018 Ewa Kozłowska“Collaboration opens minds and increases awareness of the mistakes”- I liked this opening quote by Ewa Kozłowska, a PhD student of Mechanical-Medical Engineering, who presented about interdisciplinary collaboration. I enjoyed her perspective on interdisciplinary collaboration and examples she has provided from her work.She mentioned some issues that prompt people to not engage in collaboration: authorship issues and fear about who “owns” the data, misunderstandings, lack of time, ethical issues, etc.  I have heard about these issues at my university from other students and I know we have rules that we need to follow but for some reason these can be bypassed. I have also heard about professors asking to become first authors on a student project. These issues seems to stem from a lack of oversight and accountability.Despite the many challenges, my own interdisciplinary research collaboration has been positive. A couple of years ago I was part of a learning group (I was the only student) and engaged in a year-long-research on teacher identity. Being part of this group provided me with great examples to HOW to negotiate research (we did not have a contract but we listened to each other and negotiated the authorship rules, involvement in the study/publication/presentation/workshop). She also discussed the different ways of seeing the world, working/learning styles, online/offline/mixed collaborations, and the importance of communication. I believe that proper coaching, oversight, and implementation of ethical standards can lead to meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration. Though I appreciated examples from the medical field, I would have liked to see some examples related to the field of language teaching and learning or perhaps discussion about how interdisciplinary research can benefit our field. I enjoyed Ewa’s presentation because it helps me think about interdisciplinary collaboration/learning as related to my field. For example, Ewa's digital literacy project with elderly learners can be implemented with refugee/immigrant ESL learners of ESL learners with limited literacy skills. I am wondering if Ewa or my peers would know similar interdisciplinary collaborations in language teaching and learning?

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Interdisciplinary e-Collaboration, 2/23/2018 Ewa Kozłowska“Collaboration opens minds and increases awareness of the mistakes”- I liked this opening quote by Ewa Kozłowska, a PhD student of Mechanical-Medical Engineering, who presented about interdisciplinary collaboration. I enjoyed her perspective on interdisciplinary collaboration and examples she has provided from her work.She mentioned some issues that prompt people to not engage in collaboration: authorship issues and fear about who “owns” the data, misunderstandings, lack of time, ethical issues, etc.  I have heard about these issues at my university from other students and I know we have rules that we need to follow but for some reason these can be bypassed. I have also heard about professors asking to become first authors on a student project. These issues seems to stem from a lack of oversight and accountability.Despite the many challenges, my own interdisciplinary research collaboration has been positive. A couple of years ago I was part of a learning group (I was the only student) and engaged in a year-long-research on teacher identity. Being part of this group provided me with great examples to HOW to negotiate research (we did not have a contract but we listened to each other and negotiated the authorship rules, involvement in the study/publication/presentation/workshop). She also discussed the different ways of seeing the world, working/learning styles, online/offline/mixed collaborations, and the importance of communication. I believe that proper coaching, oversight, and implementation of ethical standards can lead to meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration. Though I appreciated examples from the medical field, I would have liked to see some examples related to the field of language teaching and learning or perhaps discussion about how interdisciplinary research can benefit our field. I enjoyed Ewa’s presentation because it helps me think about interdisciplinary collaboration/learning as related to my field. For example, Ewa's digital literacy project with elderly learners can be implemented with refugee/immigrant ESL learners of ESL learners with limited literacy skills. I am wondering if Ewa or my peers would know similar interdisciplinary collaborations in language teaching and learning?

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http://sp4ce.moodle.pl/

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Hipsters and Hypesters - The True Track to Teacherpreneurship 2/23/2018 with Rob Howard. I was not able to attend this session but watched the recording  on 2/25, thank you Nellie for posting the recordings! I did not have an opportunity to participate in a talk by Rob Howard but it seems to me that he has an interdisciplinary background (teacher development, partner at Business Language Institute, founder of EFLtalks, active in IATEFL, founder of a publishing group, word of mouth referrals, affiliate marketing, funnel marketing, etc.). He focused on professional branding (social media use, examples from different businesses).He advised the following- VALUE YOURSELF:-have a contract with your client/student-don’t discount your value-don’t do rescheduling!- do not use an online scheduler, find out what days work with your students!!!-do not give away (free) sample classes-think about name/brand recognition-”when you are giving stuff away, tell the WHAT not the HOW”I typically don’t hear discussion about the business aspects of the teaching profession, so I appreciate this talk! Rob mentioned the devaluing of teaching profession and I can relate to this. I was an adjunct ESL instructor and lost my job due to low student enrollment. After seeing current job ESL teaching jobs (majority are part-time) and online tutoring opportunities, I realized that I need to rebrand myself and account for transferable skills (media related skills- multimedia product development, photography/video, editing; book publishing; instructional technology; material creation; program development) to apply for jobs outside ESL teaching. Rob’s talk comes in very handy as I am in the process of applying for jobs. I face many challenges as I have to develop different brands (media, ESL teaching, ESOL teaching, instructional technology) but thanks to the EVO 2018 course and Rob’s talk, I feel confident to brand myself and apply for various kinds of jobs. I hope that in future talks, Rob will bring more examples, perhaps provide short testimonials from teaching professionals who have successfully rebranded themselves. :) This was nevertheless a great overview of the teaching business!!!! 

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Hipsters and Hypesters - The True Track to Teacherpreneurship 2/23/2018 with Rob Howard. I was not able to attend this session but watched the recording  on 2/25, thank you Nellie for posting the recordings! I did not have an opportunity to participate in a talk by Rob Howard but it seems to me that he has an interdisciplinary background (teacher development, partner at Business Language Institute, founder of EFLtalks, active in IATEFL, founder of a publishing group, word of mouth referrals, affiliate marketing, funnel marketing, etc.). He focused on professional branding (social media use, examples from different businesses).He advised the following- VALUE YOURSELF:-have a contract with your client/student-don’t discount your value-don’t do rescheduling!- do not use an online scheduler, find out what days work with your students!!!-do not give away (free) sample classes-think about name/brand recognition-”when you are giving stuff away, tell the WHAT not the HOW”I typically don’t hear discussion about the business aspects of the teaching profession, so I appreciate this talk! Rob mentioned the devaluing of teaching profession and I can relate to this. I was an adjunct ESL instructor and lost my job due to low student enrollment. After seeing current job ESL teaching jobs (majority are part-time) and online tutoring opportunities, I realized that I need to rebrand myself and account for transferable skills (media related skills- multimedia product development, photography/video, editing; book publishing; instructional technology; material creation; program development) to apply for jobs outside ESL teaching. Rob’s talk comes in very handy as I am in the process of applying for jobs. I face many challenges as I have to develop different brands (media, ESL teaching, ESOL teaching, instructional technology) but thanks to the EVO 2018 course and Rob’s talk, I feel confident to brand myself and apply for various kinds of jobs. I hope that in future talks, Rob will bring more examples, perhaps provide short testimonials from teaching professionals who have successfully rebranded themselves. :) This was nevertheless a great overview of the teaching business!!!! 

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Assessing Young Learners 2/25/2018 @10 am CO18  Alessandra Machado and Virginia Borges The presenters discussed assessment strategies with young learners. They covered the following: -the importance of feedback and fair grading -what is the purpose of assessments in your class?-are the assessments informal or formal?-are learners prepared to provide long answers?-are they exposed to test taking strategies?-are they exposed to various types of assessments?-are learners’ ways of learning incorporated into the assessments? (young learners have shorter attention span and prefer movement and play)-are the assessments aligned with the activities?-are they appropriate to students’ age and focus of the class? -assessment types: board-games, songs, role plays, exit ticketsI enjoyed this presentation because the speakers promoted going beyond paper and pen (print-literacy driven assessments). Quizzes, questionnaires, and essay type assessments assume a learner that has acquired the appropriate linguistic, literacy, and content level knowledge. However, this might not be the case for all learners. I have been thinking about assessments since I started teaching.  As a learner I remember being bored during the GRE exam. I also remember that I got distracted during my final exam in my MA program because the professor started walking around the classroom. When I started teaching, I avoided traditional assessments, however, this approach was not aligned with the current testing environment. After this phase, I was wondering about creating a balanced approach to assessment through using various assessment types, explicitly instructing test taking strategies, modeling, providing examples of assessments, and implementing similar assessments in the learning units to get students used to the tests. I also taught students how to create critical thinking questions, integrated 2-3 exit tickets per week, and gave them the opportunity to create their own questions, create their own tests on Twitter, Kahoot, and Quizlet and incorporated their questions in the assessment. Perhaps offering other incentives, such as badges, certificates, and extra credit, students will be motivated to engage in learning. For example, last semester I asked students to attend 10 tutoring appointments (one per week) for extra credit. It seemed that this semester long task helped some students develop learning habits.

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Assessing Young Learners 2/25/2018 @10 am CO18  Alessandra Machado and Virginia Borges The presenters discussed assessment strategies with young learners. They covered the following: -the importance of feedback and fair grading -what is the purpose of assessments in your class?-are the assessments informal or formal?-are learners prepared to provide long answers?-are they exposed to test taking strategies?-are they exposed to various types of assessments?-are learners’ ways of learning incorporated into the assessments? (young learners have shorter attention span and prefer movement and play)-are the assessments aligned with the activities?-are they appropriate to students’ age and focus of the class? -assessment types: board-games, songs, role plays, exit ticketsI enjoyed this presentation because the speakers promoted going beyond paper and pen (print-literacy driven assessments). Quizzes, questionnaires, and essay type assessments assume a learner that has acquired the appropriate linguistic, literacy, and content level knowledge. However, this might not be the case for all learners. I have been thinking about assessments since I started teaching.  As a learner I remember being bored during the GRE exam. I also remember that I got distracted during my final exam in my MA program because the professor started walking around the classroom. When I started teaching, I avoided traditional assessments, however, this approach was not aligned with the current testing environment. After this phase, I was wondering about creating a balanced approach to assessment through using various assessment types, explicitly instructing test taking strategies, modeling, providing examples of assessments, and implementing similar assessments in the learning units to get students used to the tests. I also taught students how to create critical thinking questions, integrated 2-3 exit tickets per week, and gave them the opportunity to create their own questions, create their own tests on Twitter, Kahoot, and Quizlet and incorporated their questions in the assessment. Perhaps offering other incentives, such as badges, certificates, and extra credit, students will be motivated to engage in learning. For example, last semester I asked students to attend 10 tutoring appointments (one per week) for extra credit. It seemed that this semester long task helped some students develop learning habits.

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Here is an interesting link on assessment.

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How To Design A 21st Century Assessment
by Mike Fisher

Contemporary curriculum design involves multiple facets: engaging 21st Century skills, using digital tools, collaborating with others around the globe, performance tasks, and more. Getting these design elements into a teacher's current curriculum demands that teachers create professional habits around Replacement Thinking.

In my book Digital Learning Strategies, I describe four considerations for Replacement Thinking around assessments. In a nutshell, those considerations include:

1. Students must demonstrate what they've learned. Whatever they create with digital tools should still represent what students were to learn. The assessment shouldn't tell you more about their use of a tool than it does about the student's work using the tool.

2. Students should demonstrate content proficiency and sophistication. Their new product should reflect the content knowledge that they've learned and the multiple cognitive zones they participated in during the learning process.

3. Students should be frequently reflecting on their choices. Students should be able to articulate and defend their tool choices, content inclusion, and degrees of audience interaction and how those choices affected the resulting product.

4. Students must give credit where credit is due. They should know about copyright, Creative Commons licensing, and how to search for and use appropriate content, giving attribution for the media resources they use.

And while assessments are the focus of this blog post, replacement thinking can be applied across the curriculum: in instructional strategies, classroom activities, or in formative data collection using tools such as Kahoot, Socrative, or Google Forms. To help you start thinking about Replacement Thinking, I'd like to offer the following action steps to bring more contemporary ideas into your own professional practices:
Action Step 1: Stop thinking technology first.
Instead, use the best tool to support learning (e.g., feedback, performance, knowledge, creativity, etc.) The task should drive the tool(s) dependent upon what the students need to do for learning. That might be to pick up a pencil, read a print text, FaceTime their grandma who happens to be a veterinarian in Denmark, log onto a library database, send a Tweet to find an expert around a topic they are learning about, etc.

The tools support the learning, they are not, in an of themselves, the learning objective. My friend and mentor Heidi Hayes Jacobs often shares a metaphor about "Crayon Labs" in schools. We don't plan to use crayons, they are just an always available option. Computer Labs and Digital Devices are the same. They are tools in a classroom toolbox and are always available.
Action Step 2: Give students authentic choice in how they will demonstrate their learning.
Part of an educator's charge in the 21st Century is take what we know about good instruction and apply it to today's contemporary kid. We've done decades of research about how best to teach children and much of the research intersects at instructional methods that allow for personalization of the learning process.
Action Step 3: Help students seek feedback from other students, other educators, and experts in the field.
Kids think differently, perform differently, have unique experiences, and have different ideas around what engages them. We can standardize tests from now until forever but we can't standardize children. In fact, we should be seeking out ways to develop their unique skills and perspectives for the sake of engagement and that means offering choices in learning products, particularly if those learning products can be created in the myriad tools available online and on digital devices. (So long as the task is valued over the tool!)

Feedback is more powerful than grades; Let students learn to amplify.

Traditional education is at a crossroads. There are so many things that impact the practice in a contemporary classroom and one of those things is our socially acceptable, decades old practices around grading, much of which perpetuates desired behaviors over real learning and a punitive system of disparate generational values. In this day and age, grades are more likely to result in roadblocks to learning rather than motivating students to achieve. So how do we grow our students without grading them?
Action Step 4: Provide always-on, asynchronous access to that which is being assessed.
We offer them feedback about their work in the form of conversations and questions and constructive criticism. We publish unfinished drafts of their learning products online and solicit feedback from multiple audiences. We habitually amplify student work from the classroom to the world and seek perspective analysis from other students, other educators, and experts in the field. We teach students to consider suggestions and improve their work. This also opens up cans of worms about authenticity and work worth doing. Do we want school to be a graded check off list of the way we've always done it, or an experience that makes our students world-ready inquisitors ready to solve unique problems?

Everything. All the time. Access (and equity of access) is a priority cornerstone in the contemporary classroom. Access to print and digital resources is essential. Kids don't need to come to school in order to be vessels we fill up with knowledge, that can look up anything on the Internet. School needs to be the place where knowledge is evaluated now-the how's and the why's are so much more important than the what's. But the what's have to be available at all times for every student.

The task of the contemporary teacher is to help students learn to take what is now ubiquitous (knowledge), learn to filter it for relevance and quality (critical thinking), and use it to learn, grow, and demonstrate 21st Century Skills (communication, collaboration, creative problem solving - from P21.org). This can only happen with 24-7 access to all forms of knowledge and that also means having some real conversations about what we filter in schools. See my previous post on Ditching Internet Filters.

We need to think about our end goal. Is it to transfer knowledge? Is it to teach students to be thinkers? Is it to instill a passion for attaining goals? Do we want our students to be really good at Trivia Crack and Jeopardy! or do we want them to have a toolbox of opportunities that allows them to solve unique problems?
Mike Fisher is a former teacher who is now a full-time author, consultant, and instructional coach. He is the author of Digital Learning Strategies: How do I assign and assess 21st Century Work? and the co-author of Upgrade Your Curriculum: Practical Ways to Transform Units and Engage Students, both published by ASCD. You can now pre-order his new book, Ditch the Daily Lesson Plan: How do I plan for meaningful student learning? His website is The Digigogy Collaborative and he can also be found on Twitter as @fisher1000; image attribution flickr user TeachingJedi'; previously published at TeachThought.com
Contemporary instructional practice is about letting go of past ideals. Contemporary curriculum design is about inviting students to the design table and allowing them to co-create the learning experience. We should be seeking the sweet spot of learning, where the 21st Century tools and practices enhance the lesson, but is not the lesson itself.

Download a free copy of Mike Fisher's book, Digital Learning Strategies: How do I assign and assess 21st century work?, courtesy of Mike and ASCD as a limited-time offer for Connected Educator Month (CEM) 2015. ASCD is leading the CEM theme, "Innovations in Professional Learning," and will be sharing free and discounted resources all month. Additionally, you can get ASCD's assessment resources, aligned with the "Innovations in Assessment" CEM theme led by NCTE.

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How To Design A 21st Century Assessment - TeachThought PD

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How To Design A 21st Century Assessment by Mike Fisher Contemporary curriculum design involves multiple facets: engaging 21st Century skills, using digital tools, collaborating with others around the globe, performance tasks, and more. Getting these design elements into a teacher's current curriculum demands that teachers create professional habits around Replacement Thinking.

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CO18: Teaching an old hat new tricks and the importance of a PLN  2/25/2018 @10 am CO18 by Judy WongTeaching an old hat new tricks and the importance of a PLN or how I came to be a student /teacher online.I joined the 2018 EVO webinar for Young EFL learners because I wanted to learn about a topic that I was not exposed to (I teach adult learners). Judy Wong, an artist, writer and TESOL instructor, had a weekly session on storytelling. In her CO18 talk, Judy presented her transformational journey to become a global ESL professional. She primarily focused on Professional/Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) as the driving force behind her professional development. She described her initial fear from online learning, which I believe many instructors could identify with, and her overcoming challenges through PLN. She discussed about:the importance of PLN continuing education and networking with like-minded people and international associations (for example, Dr. Nellie Deutsch, free online classes, open MOOCs, such as the EVO courses, EFL Talks, and organizations, such as ITDI International Teacher Development Institute, TESOL International)The benefits of PLNs include:-information sharing-support -collaboration everywhere and anytimeJudy’s advice:-perfection is not an option-refuse to be old-be flexible-learn from your students (“we are teachers and students and our students are our teachers”)-unplug for at least one day per week -offer online webinars-mediate-get coffee I am fascinated about Judy’s journey and wonder if she plans to discuss more in-depth how her arts background influences her pedagogy. As an ESL instructor with a media background, I constantly infuse storytelling, media, social media in my course to make learning meaningful. I also wonder about my own PLNs. I am on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook but I find it hard to juggle work, study, and my own PLNs. It seems that Judy’s suggestion to unplug for a day might be a realistic choice to start being more mindful about being connected to social media all the time. 

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CO18: Teaching an old hat new tricks and the importance of a PLN  2/25/2018 @10 am CO18 by Judy WongTeaching an old hat new tricks and the importance of a PLN or how I came to be a student /teacher online.I joined the 2018 EVO webinar for Young EFL learners because I wanted to learn about a topic that I was not exposed to (I teach adult learners). Judy Wong, an artist, writer and TESOL instructor, had a weekly session on storytelling. In her CO18 talk, Judy presented her transformational journey to become a global ESL professional. She primarily focused on Professional/Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) as the driving force behind her professional development. She described her initial fear from online learning, which I believe many instructors could identify with, and her overcoming challenges through PLN. She discussed about:the importance of PLN continuing education and networking with like-minded people and international associations (for example, Dr. Nellie Deutsch, free online classes, open MOOCs, such as the EVO courses, EFL Talks, and organizations, such as ITDI International Teacher Development Institute, TESOL International)The benefits of PLNs include:-information sharing-support -collaboration everywhere and anytimeJudy’s advice:-perfection is not an option-refuse to be old-be flexible-learn from your students (“we are teachers and students and our students are our teachers”)-unplug for at least one day per week -offer online webinars-mediate-get coffee I am fascinated about Judy’s journey and wonder if she plans to discuss more in-depth how her arts background influences her pedagogy. As an ESL instructor with a media background, I constantly infuse storytelling, media, social media in my course to make learning meaningful. I also wonder about my own PLNs. I am on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook but I find it hard to juggle work, study, and my own PLNs. It seems that Judy’s suggestion to unplug for a day might be a realistic choice to start being more mindful about being connected to social media all the time. 

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How THE INTERNET IMPROVED the QUALITY of my LESSONS a Thousandfold- 2/23/2018-Susan BrodarI enjoyed this presentation because Susan has a background in journalism (like I do). According to Susan, full immersion is the best way to learn a language. She shared many examples from her professional life (presenting materials through Wordle, Wordart, or Padlet to establish immediacy in each class, including photographs taken in class to enrich Padlets). She mentions that using Worldle/WordArt help her students visualize vocabulary and Padlet helps her connect with students and also monitor their interactions. Thinglink, comic strip creators, such as Plotagon, Toontastic, and online game-based quizzes, such as Quizlet and Kahoot were other resources presented. Although I did not play around with some of these source, Susan’s examples clearly illustrate the pedagogical value of these tools. Her advice was to create these quizzes, games with students.  Finally, she discussed how to use technology to incentivize L2 writing. I encourage my students to use Grammarly (in addition to attending tutoring sessions or stopping by during office hours). I will experiment with some of the sources, such as Thinglink, Chasing Time English, Playposit, and others in this talk. I appreciated her brief description of the positive and negative aspects of these sources and applicability of these tools in the language classroom. I would like to see this topic continue as technology constantly changes. Would it be possible to have a Google Doc on these sources and perhaps we can update it?

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How THE INTERNET IMPROVED the QUALITY of my LESSONS a Thousandfold- 2/23/2018-Susan BrodarI enjoyed this presentation because Susan has a background in journalism (like I do). According to Susan, full immersion is the best way to learn a language. She shared many examples from her professional life (presenting materials through Wordle, Wordart, or Padlet to establish immediacy in each class, including photographs taken in class to enrich Padlets). She mentions that using Worldle/WordArt help her students visualize vocabulary and Padlet helps her connect with students and also monitor their interactions. Thinglink, comic strip creators, such as Plotagon, Toontastic, and online game-based quizzes, such as Quizlet and Kahoot were other resources presented. Although I did not play around with some of these source, Susan’s examples clearly illustrate the pedagogical value of these tools. Her advice was to create these quizzes, games with students.  Finally, she discussed how to use technology to incentivize L2 writing. I encourage my students to use Grammarly (in addition to attending tutoring sessions or stopping by during office hours). I will experiment with some of the sources, such as Thinglink, Chasing Time English, Playposit, and others in this talk. I appreciated her brief description of the positive and negative aspects of these sources and applicability of these tools in the language classroom. I would like to see this topic continue as technology constantly changes. Would it be possible to have a Google Doc on these sources and perhaps we can update it?