Module 6 - Designing for Deep Learning

Designing Learning with Technology in Mind

1. The ISTE Designer Standard addresses ways Educators can "design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability" in its Designer Standard. Educators: 
1. Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
2. Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.
3. Explore and apply instructional design principles to create innovative digital learning environments that engage and support learning.
2. The Backward Design Approach - setting the final goal for the learning, and building curriculum from that backwards, creating learning activities that work towards that goal.
3. Checking for evidence of learning can help guide students and educators on the right path to their goals. You can use Assessment Plans to formulate how to reach those outcomes.
4. There are also many different kinds of assessments, including:
1. Formative Assessment - assessment during learning, to help guide the process
2. Summative Assessment - assessment after the fact, to help gauge the entire unit
5. After deciding the final goal and how you will assess the students in their completion of that goal, it comes time to decide what activities and tasks will help the student reach those goals.
6. "When planning the activities, consider: 
1. What will be taught and how should it be taught to help learners meet the performance goals?
2. What sequence of activity best suits the desired results?
3. What activities will help making the learning experience engaging and effective, given the goals and needed evidence?
4. What learning events and instruction will help learners acquire the targeted knowledge and skills, make meaning of important ideas and transfer their learning to new situations?"
7. Grant & McTighe recommend using a "WHERETO" approach:
1. Where are We HEaded
2. Hook and Engage
3. Equip for Success with Experiences
4. Reflect, Revisit, Revise, and Rethink
5. Express Understandings and Self-evaluate
6. Tailor
7. Organizing Learning Experiences to Foster Understanding
8. Technology can fit into these processes in many ways, including using the technology to enhance your curriculum-building, and also as learning tools for your student's activities.
9. Keeping these technological tools in mind when designing, assessing, and creating activities can help you enhance your student's learning, but it's good to keep in mind not all technology will help in every situation and simulation.