Insteaducation: My Classroom Experience

Leveraging technology to put differentiation in the hands of students

Rather than redesign individual lessons I have redesigned the whole paradigm in which I engage with my students. A typical lesson can be described with this generic sentence: Help students to learn X by doing Y so they can be assessed with Z. Educators therefore spend a lot of time redesigning assessments (Z), redesigning pedagogical strategies (Y), and redesigning curriculum (X). The problem that arises is that there is no single combination of X, Y, and Z that will meet the needs of all students. What I have decided to do is that instead of choosing X, Y, and Z for all students I provide multiple versions of each and allow them to chose the version the best meets their needs. Essentially, I am putting differentiation in the hands of my students.

This sounds like a very daunting task. And it is. But advances in technology, specifically Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have provided tools to extend class outside of the face-to-face time that you have with a student and make the time that is together more dynamic and individualized. I spend no time handing out or collecting papers, nor do I spend time describing particular assignments. Students can access everything that they need to do through our learning management system, submit their assignments at anytime from anywhere, and receive instant feedback from me regardless of whether or not we are in class. This saves time, enhances communication, and allows for organization that makes real differentiation possible.

In the past I have found myself wondering "should I have the students do A or B in class?" or "Is it better to assess them with C or D?" or "Should we learn about E or F?". I no longer ask any of those questions. If I did, the answer would always be "All of the above!" Leveraging technology to organize and share course materials allows me to give students the option to choose the assessment strategy where they are most confident or learn material in the way that works best for them. I accomplish this by posting every version of X, Y, and Z to our LMS. From there, my job is to help students determine the best way to navigate the course independently instead of how best to acclimate to way I decided to teach and assess.

Moving from activities to experiences

Over years of teaching Physics I have always used a simple activity to kill two birds with one stone. Students would calculate their own reaction time by dropping meter sticks and then catching them as quickly as possible, which would let student practice vertical motion problems and also help to quantify the human error inherent in anything measured with a stopwatch. I made this a more authentic experience by making the assessment relevant to a real world issue that is part of student's lives: distracted driving. The new assessment was also coupled with the video on the right, which lead to a class discussion where students got to apply what they learned to an important and relevant issue that they could start to address in their own lives.