U.S. public education has always been a hot topic, and even more so over the past decade. It is a field of constant change, debate, trends and new philosophies. You may have heard the phrase, "new paradigm of learning" or "21st century paradigm of teaching" being used in articles or workshops over the past couple years. What does this exactly mean? Is it really new?

There are variations on what one might say when it comes to defining this phrase. Upon researching different opinions, I like Terry Heick of Teach Thought’s version, 4 Goals of Paradigm Thinking, as a way to sum up what schools and educators should be focusing on with today’s learners. Mr. Heick’s version is:

• Self-knowledge
• Meaningful Community Interaction
• Adaptive Critical Thinking
• New (Digital) Media Literacies

Of course, there is a lot of detail and content that can be discussed in each of these categories, but I like a more simple statement versus ones that are a bit bogged down.

As an educator in the K-8 realm, I reflected on what I personally would create as my statement for a “new paradigm of learning” in my own teaching and decided on the following:

• Collaboration
• Process
• Student-Interest
• Global Connection (Awareness)
• Digital Literacy

I used some pretty general terms in mine. The word 'process' however, sums up more for me. It addresses not only the concept of critical thinking, but also meaningful ways to achieve this, such as design thinking, project-based learning, gamification, flipped learning, and so on. The avenue one chooses these days to communicate content can potentially launch learning and motivation to a whole new, exciting level. I think 'collaboration' deserves its own category, as we all know what a valuable skill this is in the real world.

I have become a big advocate of community outreach in my projects and lessons that I design for my classes, which is one I don't see enough on lists. I feel this area is underutilized and is important. This concept falls under 'global connection (awareness)' for me, as the term 'community interaction' did encompass enough of how I view the idea. Not only should students be engaging with their local community, but they should be engaging with the global community as well. This assists in supporting other crucial areas, such as problem-solving and empathy, two areas that are at the top of my list for students to actively engage in during class time. Student-interest is also a big one for me. In a survey, I will ask my students at the beginning of the year what they are interested in learning. Self-interest equals buy-in and self-motivation.

As to the question, “Is it really new?” To me, much of what is touted as new in education is not really new. There have been great educators out there doing all of these ideas long before such lists were being made. Ideas and philosophies in education tend to cycle, even if the cycle is a long one.

One major change in education has been in our ability to connect on a global scale and to learn more about our world today, due to technology. This ability has really opened doors to more creative endeavors and possibilities for the classroom teacher. However, the biggest change over the years is the accessibility of technology and the educational technology tools of today that allow for affordability and much easier integration into the classroom for the average teacher. So many educational tools...but that is a topic for another post.

What would your personal 'new paradigm of learning' be? I encourage you to reflect and create your own. No matter what level you teach, it can assist with guiding your overarching goals as an educator.

A few months back, I wrote about the beginning steps for a project I designed, called The Survey Project, which can be found here. Our class completed this experience. I am happy to report that this project was not only successful and fun for the students, but for the teacher!  Here was the first page of the overview for the project. I made an effort to use my write-up as written, in order to review its feasibility and clarity.

Objective: Students will create survey questions centered around their community using the online program Fluid Surveys. Students will generate QR codes, print them out, and post them at key locations in the community. Students will analyze data collected from their survey questions through tallying and interpreting the information. Students will write a letter and sent and/or present to local council representatives about their results and opinion on how to address an issue, if needed.

Grades: 3-12 (This lesson was originally written for a 3rd grade class, but the concept can be modified and adapted/aligned for almost any grade).

Standards (3rd grade):

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1a Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.
  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1b Provide reasons that support the opinion.
  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
  
• CCSS.Math.Content.3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories.
  

Other:

• With guidance from the teacher, student survey questions will be inputted online.
  
• With guidance from an adult, students will interact with their local community to understand what successes and challenges residents face in their town, by placing QR codes in key locations to collect data.
  
• Students will analyze data collected from their survey by tallying and interpreting the information.
  
• Students will draw a bar graph that represents the information collected in their survey.
  
• Students will learn what a council member is and what they do for their community.
  
• With assistance from their teacher, students will make contact via email, letter or in person with a city council member(s) to share their findings.
  
  

Equipment/Materials Needed: laptop, Fluid Survey program, paper or digital text document. Note: the Fluid Survey iPad app version can also be used to present surveys to an audience by the creator. Fluid Survey is a free program, but for for additional features such as graphs to print, a monthly upgrade is needed.

Vocabulary: survey, data, results, graphs, analyze, community, outreach, frequent, axis, objectives, tally

The project was divided up into different activities. Here are the general sections, with my reflection for each one.

Activity 1 - Introduction to types of surveys, vocabulary, and a partner online activity to fill in their Activity 1 worksheet (see attached document below).

Reflection: The introduction went great. It is important to give background information for any project in a way that best works for your student population/age. How can you relate the content to them? Since I have younger students, I found a website for them to directly go to in order to fill out information for the worksheet, but it was up to the students to figure out what information they thought was important to add on their worksheet, rather than me telling them what to write and what was important.  I wanted to see how they were able to understand the information as well deciding how to communicate their understanding. We had a great follow-up discussion, where all students were able to share their insights.

Activity 2 - Brainstorm a topic related to community that student feels is important and brainstorming survey questions around approved topic.

Reflection: The students really took off with this. They were excited at the prospect of doing something for their city that people would participate in. It gave the project a sense of importance to them. They came up with topics related to recycling, littering, types of stores, quality of community parks, crime, and more!

I knew that what makes a good survey question would require more background information. I did end up doing a mini-lesson on a separate day around types of survey questions and the kinds of answers one needs to give a user in order to measure the results. I viewed this as a meaty part of the project. After students brainstormed their questions, I met with each team to review and talk out how to hone their questions. As writing good survey questions is often not easy for adults to do, I was impressed with how most students understood this concept and how some took off with it.

Activity 3- Create their survey online by choosing the best type of question format and typing in their questions.

Reflection: This went very smoothly, for most teams. The UI of Fluid Surveys is pretty straight-forward, which is one reason why I chose their survey program over others I had researched. I gave them a very general overview as a whole class, but left enough out that would require students to play around with the program to figure out. I did have several students who found this more difficult, but that is ok. Every student has their own personal skill set around technology, regardless of what I may have taught them in class. I also encourage students to collaborate and help each other, so my "experts" could help those who needed it.

Activity 4- Generate QR codes, making a poster explaining project, and posting up for people in the community.

Reflection: My class had previous experience with using QR codes. Another reason why I like Fluid Surveys is because they have the ability to generate a QR code within their program versus taking a link, finding a generator site, pasting etc. (been there, not so fun).  Super easy!

Activity 5 - Analyze data by use of tallying answers and meeting with teacher in their teams to discuss how they could view the data in different ways. Students then draw a bar graph that represents the data.

Reflection:  This was the other meaty section of learning. I had students practice first on how to tally and organize a sample survey I had made in partners. This was good practice and pretty easy for the students, as it turned out.  After they tallied their answers for each of their questions, I realized that students would find it challenging to be able to write this information into sentences, so I ended up taking my example survey and modeling how you can "report" the facts. I also did meet with each team to review their drafts of sentences and help them with this, due to their age. It was great practice in writing complete  informational sentences. If you have older students, this is an excellent way to observe and and assess critical thinking skills as well as writing structure. 

Since my students had background knowledge in creating a simple bar graph, this activity was pretty easy for most students. For those who struggled, it helped reinforce math concepts that had been previously taught. Students helped each other out, as needed.

Activity 6- Write a letter about the project with results and suggestions to local city council members
(Optional: Attending a city council meeting to experience first hand our system and process)

Reflection: Instead of having my kids write an entire letter on their own (they had been inundated with writing from other projects and testing), I created a guiding template for them to fill in blanks. I did give them some guiding verbiage to mode, such as "This suggests..." and "I recommend...".  This proved to be very helpful for them and for me. The original intention was to use the guide and have them write the entire letter out into their writing notebooks, but kids wanted to write on the actual worksheet, which I should have realized would happen. I would have made more lines for them to write on. The hardest part was understanding the sentences they drafted during analysis could directly be used in their letter, so I had to direct them where this needed to go in their letters.  After we had writing conference review on their drafts, students then typed up their letter.

I don't know who was more excited to drop off our letters and graphs to city hall, the students or me! It was great watching the city hall employee's expression change from listening to excitement and watch her smile grow as I explained what my manila envelope contained for city council members to review.

Some of the students and I will be attending the city council tomorrow evening. I look forward to sharing this experience with them! Overall, I was very pleased with this project and the multiple areas it addressed. My hope is to encourage others to think about how they can use a technology tool to enhance learner experience. Feel free to email me for additional information on this project.

Last week, I attended an EdSurge Meetup at Nest GSV in Redwood City titled, "The Missing Link Between Researchers and EdTech Innovators." The format was a panel discussion with Q/A afterwards. One of the reasons I attended was due to the panelists scheduled to speak - Gayl Allen, CLO of Bright Bytes, Steve Schneider, Senior Program Director of West Ed, Tamas Makany, Learning Researcher at Glasslab, and Dave Hatfield, Director of Assessment at Kidaptive. I was  already familiar with 3 of the 4 organizations and the great work that they do, and as someone who has taken to reading white papers a lot these days, I was interested in where the conversation might lead. 

The idea of the meetup was to connect start-ups who are looking to create or refine their own education apps, games, etc. with researchers in the field. The conversation discussed the disconnect between educational research and the people who are working to create a product, as well as why using proven methodologies while developing a product can make all the difference. This makes sense, as the typical start-up does not necessarily have an internal understanding in educational pedagogues, developmental stages, and statistical data on what can create a successful learning experience for a user. 

As one of the few teachers at the session, and possibly one of the only elementary classroom teachers in the  trenches of directly teaching younger students, I was happy that this conversation had been initiated. Over the years, there have been many meaningless educational games, tools and apps out on the market. Let's face it - education is a big business and to be able to get your foot in the financial door can be be very lucrative. According to the US Department of Education, ed business generated $30 billion in domestic sales for product and services suppliers in 2011. It is also expected to grow over the long term, as U.S. student enrollments are projected to hit 58 million in 2021 compared to 55 million in 2010.

The first thing a teacher will evaluate or want to know when introducing a technology tool in the classroom is, what educational value will be gained from using this tool? Where is the evidence that this tool will assist in raising developmental understanding or achievement of my student? With the new Common Core  and Next Gen Standards, there is a significant push to integrate and use technology more consistently in the classroom, so the critical lens on educational products is even more important these days.

What I realized during the discussion was the third link- the educator. It became apparent how little many people in the room knew of what life is like in the actual classroom for an educator and what learning looks like for a student. They are the third factor, and having one on the panel would have assisted in the conversation even more. I have been an elementary teacher for 11 years. Not once have I ever been approached by an educational researcher or company that was seeking information for use in a product, and cannot say that I know any other educator who has. Why is this? Educators by nature like to help. By reaching out to educators, a researcher or potential product could gain practical information to assist in the development of their product. 

Another point was brought up that teachers now live in an age of rapid assessment. No longer is it acceptable to wait a month to find out whether a student is achieving expectations. Individualized intervention and instruction is also what every teacher tries to strive for in the classroom. Expectation to bring a child up to grade level (or to their respective next level) as soon as possible is high. Correctly using data collected on a child is mandatory. With today's technology, these goals are more doable. Understanding what this looks like could be of great value to businesses when creating their product.

The other point that was brought up was the lack of professional development and training, which unfortunately is common in many districts across the United States. Lack of time in the day, money, and general understanding of what good training can be is often the norm. Companies should take this into consideration when creating a product, as well as something to offer a school. Give them quality training for free, with follow up. Don't just do the 1.5 hour intro after school when teachers are burned out and leave it at that.  Think, how can you support the teacher to successfully implement your product? 

I enjoyed Gayl Allen's comment that many things are literally thrown at teachers and keeping up with everything that a teacher is tasked with is a constant challenge on a daily basis. This is absolutely true. I also liked her closing point that businesses should consider what they can "give" to an educator or school,  not just "take" from them. Vendors constantly come to districts with the attitude of 'buy my awesome product,' often with ineffective follow up or training, if at all. It is, to say the least, annoying. If companies created a more partnership-like atmosphere, this would help, as the benefits help both parties. Share data and results you discover when working with a school. Follow up during the first year in a manner that makes a teacher's life easier, not harder. 

And the reason Ms. Allen understands this? She was an educator for over a decade. If you have not been a direct educator, it is very difficult to understand the nature of our profession. If you do not have a former educator in your company, consider having one.  Do not view educators as just another number for sales. Value educators for the experiential knowledge and insights they possess from being in the field that others don't have or can understand. Utilize the hard work researchers put into their studies. By establishing connections between researcher, start-up and educator, everyone wins. 

This year, I decided to make my technology goals to focus around using our school's new iPads this year. I tend stick with the philosophy to practice and incorporate what a school site does have with regard to software or tools first, before going down other technology paths.

After starting my year off with The Poetry Project, a conversation came up on how to be able to have data which showed how many people may have clicked on student QR codes that had been placed about in the community. This discussion, as well as being a grad student in the throes of research and data within my own program, spurred the idea of The Survey Project.

There are several ways to address analytics. It depends on the level of analytics you are looking for in your results.  Analytics can be anything from the number of hits on your You Tube post to more in depth information such as location, purchasing patterns, and potential trends, to name a few. Google Analytics is a great resource to incorporate with middle and high school students. Results from a survey can be used in various ways by how one chooses to sort and disseminate the data provided.This is a valuable skill for kids to participate in at any age. My audience is eight-year old 3rd graders, so general understanding of reading results was needed.

As with many teachers across the U.S., I have been working to incorporate Common Core standards into my teaching this year before official testing starts up again in the 2014-2015 school year. I tend to come up with an idea or design first and then seek standards that relate to the project. However, working with standards first is a sound way to go when creating material or curriculum. Start with your goals or standards first and then work backwards. For me, it can be easier for the standards to reveal themselves based on my outlined concept.

I decided to make this project tighter on the outset when writing it up and then follow the steps as it was written while in the classroom.  I began the project this past week with my students. I was pleased with how the introduction and activities following have gone, so far. I will post the project after it is completed with my students. We will also be incorporating an interactive wall to assist with reinforcing knowledge. More to come!

(To read Survey Project Part 2, go here).