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Flipsnack is a digital catalog maker that makes it easy to create, publish and share html5 flipbooks. Upload a PDF or design from scratch flyers, magazines, books and more. Author: brockmanba, Catalog: Schoology Affordances and Constraints, Published: Oct 14, 2018

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Ubiquitous Learning can be considered the belief that all learning occurs within the classroom and that everything in the knowable world can be accessed through media. In early forms of education, this was seen as the learning of anything heard within the walls of the classroom. This includes listening to someone speaking, like a lesson being taught or someone reading from the text aloud. This meant that the classroom was the barrier to information outside it’s walls. Today, information can be accessed through online sources and media. There is now no barrier separating the classroom from the knowable world, except if the information is not documented online. According to Conceptualizing e-Learning written by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis, they provide examples of ubiquitous learning in the classroom. These examples can be summarized into the following concepts: equal opportunities of student response, asking open-ended questions, and a good mix of multimodal activities.

Through the use of Schoology, ubiquitous learning can be met through the use of the site as a place where this learning starts. For example, through Schoology, a teacher can set up a class for their students in which they can access the content needed for class. This occurs ubiquitously because in a sense, the site becomes the classroom through the organization of said information (classroom content). Using the examples above, teachers provide an opportunity where all students can respond equally. However, they must be wise in the questions they ask so that students have to dig deep within for answers, as well as, be engaged by the variety of activities, or information, provided.

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It can be argued that prior to technological education and the use of online sources in the classroom, our education hinged on the textbook. The textbook contained information that was only controlled by the producer. The only decision making teachers and school leaders had freedom in was which textbook they chose. Through the use of active knowledge making, this selective process can be eliminated. This process begins through the introduction of a sample of openness. This allows students the opportunity to learn through a variety of sources versus just one.

In Schoology, teachers have the opportunity to provide a variety of sources to make students learning more active. For example, a teacher can provide an article, a video, and an image that relates and reinforces content from a specific topic in class. However, this process can eliminate the freedom students have to make this knowledge their own. In response, teachers could provide a list, or Symbaloo, of 10 sources and ask students to review three of them.

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Affordance 2: Active Knowledge Making | e-Learning | New Learning

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A knowledge community, international conference, scholarly journal, and book series.

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Up until roughly ten years ago, most classrooms consisted of a set of textbooks for reading, a projector for observing and analyzing images, and possibly a TV for viewing videos, movies, etc. Today, most of these technologies are non-existent and students can perform all of these tasks not only online, but using one tool. This is referred to as multimodal. This occurs when text, image, and sound are all found in the same place. This not only substitutes the need for textbooks, transperancies, and TV’s, but they are reinvented through multimodality.

An example of this in Schoology can be similar to the example used above. Teachers have the opportunity to add text, or post links to other versions of text, and can imbed videos or images. What’s important in this is that students have the opportunity to work at their own pace and can learn using all the sources at hand versus building knowledge one source at a time.

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The concept of Recursive Feedback is the belief that students receive feedback on what they have learned that is consistently given throughout a unit. Traditionally testing consists of a large summative assessment given at the end of the unit which focuses on the content of said unit versus the student’s understanding of that content. For example, Recursive Feedback can be the use of more formative assessments to better recognize students understanding throughout the unit versus the end. A teacher fails when a student realizes they’re lack of understanding at the end of the unit. This makes them question the entire unit and their abilities. Rather, if teachers implemented consistent feedback throughout the unit, every student would know where they would need to grow. The hope is for students to understand their goals going into a summative assessment.

In Schoology, teachers can imbed Google Forms assessments and can grade using the grading tool. However, in Recursive Feedback, grading and test giving shouldn’t be the focus, communication, or feedback, should be. This can be done through the grading tool or the teacher sending students messages through Schoology. When finished grading an activity, students can better understand where they would need to grow.

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According to Cope and Kalantzis, Collaborative Intelligence can be broken down into two aspects. “First, a shift away from knowledge memorization toward a culture of knowledge sourcing and, second, developing skills and strategies for knowledge collaboration and social learning” As teachers, it is vital that we move from memorizing content (the what’s, when’s and where’s) and move towards knowledge sourcing (the why’s and how’s). Students need to better understand why they are learning specific content and how it applies to their world. When we knowledge source, we move away from the application of one source’s information (like a textbook) and move towards a variety of sources that promote a variety of viewpoints. Second, we as teachers must focus our views on student learning and understanding towards our students’ skills and strategies used when acquiring this information. By doing this, we promote an environment that separates itself from the strict memorization of content.

In Schoology, we do this by simply using the site as a hub where many sources can be found in which the students can develop a diverse knowledge on the topic. We can also use the site and the grading aspect to move towards newer grading systems, like badges or Standards Based Grading, which both focus on skills learned rather than knowledge learned.

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What is COLLABORATIVE INTELLIGENCE? What does COLLABORATIVE INTELLIGENCE mean?

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Since we are moving away from the knowledge obtained in our students and moving towards the thoughts obtained, we must consider our use of Metacognition. Metacognition, or the thinking about our thinking, can be best used when reflecting on the skills used and how our students used them. For example, a teacher could provide a variety of sources on our Schoology, like we’ve discussed, and ask students to introduce themselves to the topic by exploring these sources. These sources could be an informational text, a primary source, an article with strong opinions on the topic, a video, and other images related to the topic, like maps, drawings, or even political cartoons. At the end of class, the teacher could bring the students together and can discuss with them the sources they chose. When students realize why they chose the sources they chose, they are more likely to better understand their thought processes. They now know what sources best help them to learn a content and why.

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In traditional education, there was a strong push towards sameness and gathering students abilities by consistently pushing the same activities for the whole class. Today, we know that this cannot be possible with some student needs due to accomodations, however, what about the use of modifications for our students who struggle with specific activities? In differentiation, teachers are always creating a pathway for students who could learn the same content but in different ways. Teachers do this when they provide multiple sources like in the example above.

In Schoology, we can provide multiple sources or options for an activity and embed them into the site, or when can message specific students their modified activity. This then shows no difference between them and the rest of the class and once practiced, no verbal communication would be need. All students could just begin and go from there.

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Teacher:
When a teacher implements multimodality in their classroom, they are introducing a variety of opportunities for their students to engage in. A teacher’s focus on student learning should be “experimental, flexible, and connected” This means students should feel the freedom to experience their learning and engage in the knowledge making process and structuring it individually. Second, this means that they can differ from other student’s choices. This promotes the theories of Multiple Intelligences and Differentiation in that students learn differently from others. Lastly, through experimental and flexible activities, students should feel more connected to the content. They should also feel this through relatable examples to the content and how they apply to their worlds.

In order to achieve multimodality, by using Schoology, teachers can imbed a variety of sources and activities, use these sources to construct “real-world” and applicable examples, and even differentiate instruction by providing specific students with different activities. However, teachers need to find their own sources and completely construct these activities within Schoology. Sometimes, this can be overwhelming and difficult for teachers. For example, in years past, teachers could construct an activity that is focused on just one source. Today, in order to accomplish multimodality, teachers need to construct an activity that includes multiple sources. Schoology, being a “hub” that generates as a tool that simply collects activities, does not make this process easier for teachers except for being a place students can access all sources in an activity.

Publisher:

When considering a publisher for multimodality, when can look at this quote from Smith and Kennet: “All too often, learning activities and assessments are reduced to alphabetic expressions that can be collected and counted. This holds true for teacher planning materials as well, such as in the prescribed talking points and quiz questions in annotated textbooks.” It is important that our publishers are providing opportunities for our teachers to easily access and implement multimodality opportunities.

However, Schoology does not provide specific tools within its site that could promote multimodality. For example, some online techbooks, like Discovery Education, provide texts with a variety of reading levels, and visual and audio sources that apply to said text. This tool also provides a classroom setup feature that resembles a general “hub” students can access like Schoology. Where Schoology thrives is that all forms of sources can be posted or imbedded unlike specific examples like Discovery Education.

Student:

When referring to a student’s use of multimodality in the classroom, when can look at the concept of Synesthesia. Again while looking at Smith and Kennett, this concept can be described as “when sensory inputs (like a smell or a sound) contribute to sensation in a different sense (like a taste or an image).” In education, this can be when using audio or visuals can contribute to a reading or text. In traditional education, only one sense would typically be used. For example, a class might only read the textbook, take notes together, or look at an image or chart on a projector. Today, students, through their access to technology and accessible media, can use multiple sources, or senses, to define a topic or term. This allows them to create their own definition instead of having one universal definition.

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Social: Community. That is the word that continues to come up when it comes to social presence. Things such as: how is your classroom setup for effective instruction? What resources are being used? When I think about social presence as an instructor I like to think about comfort. Are the students comfortable in their learning environment? Are how the desks situated effectively for maximum learning? As a special education teacher, I think about my learning community quite a bit. I don’t have the option of having my own classroom so every room I am in I share with colleagues.  We set our classrooms up so that it can be most effective in reaching students. The room is set up in rows so that all students can easily see the front of the room. Again, moving the desks around can be a little taxing because we may share with the room with other teachers. Another component of social presence is social interaction. How are we interacting with our students? How are they interacting with each other? Are the eTools we’re using effective in communicating with each other? Do the students understand the effective ways to utilize the eTools? My interaction socially varies from classroom to classroom. I don’t believe one form of social interaction should be used for every class. Our interactions are based on the feel on the class for that day. We cannot assume everyday will be the same in every class and there for my social interaction will vary based on that.

In regards to Schoology with social presence, the students could use Schoology as a platform to discuss assignments, collaborate and compare notes from a thread their instructor creates.

Cognitive: In the readings, cognitive presence has been associated with the nature of the course and the type of assignments (The Conceptual Framework p. 58). As a special educator, this is something I work with daily, cognitive presence. Working with so many students at varying academic levels, we have to be aware of our students cognitive needs. Special education students can have disabilities in several different academic areas that affects how they work in class, which affects their cognitive functioning. In regards to eTools we have to make sure our directions/expectation are clear so that every student understands how to properly use the tools. The nature of our classes completely affects cognitive presence. We have to set our classes up for student success. How we present information as instructors is crucial in relation to cognitive presence.

In regards to cognitive presence with Schoology, special education and general education teachers could use Schoology to share information about student performance. Teachers could also use Schoology to share student performance information with students. Information like reading level, writing level, math level (for students with disabilities).

Teaching: The online and blended learning environment increases access and extends interaction (The Conceptual Framework p. 69). Teaching presence may be the most important of the three presences because we’re the leader of the classroom. If our presence is negative our classroom will be negative. If our presence is positive our classroom will be positive. Students want to feel like we care about them first and foremost. It can almost be seen as a coach-player relationship. A student-teacher relationship. A coach wants what’s best his/her players and teachers wants what’s best for his/her students. We believe in our students and set high standards for them. We develop lessons for their success. We ultimately want what’s best for them. Our presence as an instructor affects success daily. Our attitude as an instructor frames the entire classroom setting. With relation to eTools, we have to effective communicate our expectations to our students.

In regards to teaching presence with Schoology, a teacher can create a profile on Schoology and invite other teachers to be co-teachers. Once connected, they can discuss different aspects of their school day. Specifically, if they are on a team and see the same students the entire day, Schoology can be a great way to learn more about students from their colleagues perspective.

We as teachers needs to be cognizant of one more type of presence, diversity. There are many students of varying backgrounds in our classes. We work with students with disabilities, students from foreign countries, students who don’t like school, students from rough home lives. We as teachers need to be aware that this may affect their academic performance and thus, affect our presence as teachers. Distance learning needs to keep those same thoughts in mind as well.

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Student-Content: Direct interaction with instructional materials. The materials are online for students to view and work with inside and outside of school. With Schoology, students could do quizzes, online assessments, view notes and watch videos.

Student-Student: Peer-to-peer interaction. Students work directly with each other. This could be in the group setting, in a lab during science class or a seminar discussion on a reading given out in class. Using Schoology, students would join their class and can discuss class projects, assignments, notes, readings and study for quizzes/tests together online using this platform.

Student-Teacher: The student-instructor relationship. This relationship is effective for providing feedback and support to the students in class. Within Schoology, teachers have students log-in to their class through a code and the teacher can provide performance feedback, advice answer questions and leave messages.

Teacher-Teacher: Interacting with professional colleagues. Professional Learning Communities, common conference hours, classroom observations, meeting before or after school are examples of this. Utilizing Schoology, co-teachers can communicate with other, leave notes for students and links to articles for further discussion. Teachers in different classes can also communicate with each other. A teacher will need to share their classroom code with another teacher and each can access one another’s classes. Teachers can also organize their lessons with Schoology.

Teacher-Content: This interaction is the teacher interacting with resources. Resources such as articles, journals, websites, social media, eTools. In Schoology, links can be added to the site to various online tools/resources.

Content-Content: Interaction with electronic content such as the internet, AI or augmented reality. In Schoology, programs can interact with each to communicate and provide feedback on students for data analysis.

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Capacity for Presence (cognitive, social, teaching, other)