Technology Initiatives
MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM
Creating clear policies, guidelines, and procedures around media use in the classroom is important for schools for both legal and ease of use reasons:
Legal compliance: Policies and procedures can help ensure that teachers are using media in compliance with copyright and intellectual property laws. This includes guidelines for using media in the classroom, such as using only legally obtained materials and giving proper credit to the creators of the media.
Ease of use: Having clear policies and procedures can help to ensure that teachers understand how to effectively use media in the classroom. Clear policies and procedures can also help to ensure that the use of media is well-organized and manageable, reducing the risk of technical issues and helping to create a more efficient and effective learning environment.
I aided in the creation of these policies and guidelines and led professional development to go over the material with faculty.
I crafted these Guidelines and Policies that were then added to the faculty website.
COMPUTER SCIENCE WEEK
HOUR OF CODE ACTIVITY
I created a game titled DECODE THE FUTURE, a game that helps you think about what might happen next. Based on a thought game for adults, the aim of the game is to help you quickly imagine a future possibility.
Using an interactive slide presentation, students were presented with a combination of variables to combine together to think of possible scenarios for the future.
REVISING THE AUP INITIATIVE
An acceptable use policy (AUP) sometimes called a responsible usage policy or fair use policy, is a set of rules and guidelines around the usage of technology. Clarity of this document is especially important when a school is operating in a remote environment.
One of my initiatives was to assist in reviewing, revising and updating the AUP to reflect the changing educational landscape. I also created the associated infographics to help with student digestion of the information.
Step 1
Revising the written document.
Step 2
Creating an infographic.
Step 3
Applying this to virtual learning and creating a visual.
Providing Spaces for Support
As a Tech Coach, I work side-by-side with teachers in classrooms as well as directly with students. I am also asking myself, how can we provide spaces to support the usage of technology for teaching and to meet learning goals?
One way that I provide support to both teachers and students is to provide places for them to go to find vetted and comprehensive information for their educational technological needs. For this aim, below are a few examples of sites created to meet those specific needs.
The Tech Learning Portal was created as a resource to help teachers learn how to use technology to differentiate and personalize learning for all students and support teachers in learning how to use technology for rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning. It provides vetted, searchable resources, and information.
This site was created for students to act as both a supplement to my work with teachers for specific video related projects and as an additional resource for them in their video creating needs.
Student Tech Resource Site
The Academic Technology site was designed as a place of growth for the continued support of students in their educational technology needs.
Faculty Summer Learning Opportunities
This page on the faculty website was created as a space to promote the summer learning of teachers.
Curated list of offerings
Sortable by type of material: webinars, websites, courses, etc.
Sortable by content
Interactive area for reflection and feedback
Design in & for Education
So why is design important and how can it transform education?
First off, let’s define what I mean by “design.” Design is, but not limited to, the creation of new artifacts, the remixing of existing things or ideas, aesthetics, the process of planning, the art of creating workflows, projects, systems and solutions and the presentation of information.
Design is really about how things work. Design is about creating solutions.
Within the educational environment I have leveraged design in two different facets. I have used design as a tool to convey information and as a way to break down copious about of material into a more digestable fashion. I have also use design to help facilitate the learning environment to promote clarity for students, create more appealing presentation of material, and a provide a structure that would promote a student self-paced workflow.
Take a look below for some examples of design projects I have created and how I have assisted teachers in redesigning their materials.
Humanities Bookshelves
This project was for the Secondary Humanities Department. They were looking for a way to present the books that were being read in each grade in a way that was both easy to understand and also engaging to present to both internal and external viewers. We collaborated on the idea for a “bookshelf” and this is the project that culminated
teacher editable google slides
Curriculum mapping
Created as an interactive Google Slides, teachers and administrators have the ability to edit and tweak a visual display of their curriculum.
Humanities History Sequence
The Humanities Department was grappling with how to showcase many of the aspects of their classes. This project was designed to illustrate one of the many layers of the curriculum, the historical sequence that was explored in conjunction with thematic and literature.
This poster was created as a way to easily and attractively visually convey the grade levels and their studies as students progress from grades six through twelve. Iconography was also used to help communicate studies.
Google Doc Redesigns
I have also worked with many teachers to assist them with redesigning their project documents in a way to promote clarity for students, a more appealing design, and a structure that would promote a student self-paced workflow.
The newly redesigned documents now:
Clearly denote project steps
Use icons to help visually denote which step the student are on (example: research, outline, write)
Employ design elements such as image and color to help convey visual hierarchy as well as specific information
Create a more appealing student experience
Utilize hyperlinks to make the document more interactive
Some of these original document were separated into multiple documents (example: so students could “choose their own path” depending on their research topic)
Virtual Spring Break Field Trips
In response to the global pandemic, we wanted to provide students with virtual spring break field trips in each of their classes. We may have been homebound, but that doesn't mean students cannot visit other cities, states, countries, and even outer space!
I worked with teachers to facilitate creating the experiences and designed and put together the website as a portal for students to use to access all the information.
