It was so interesting and inspiring to read through almost all of my #diffimooc colleagues' posts this week about their diffi-tools and the real, implied, or hoped-for effectiveness of those tools. Nearly everyone expressed some concern about not having hard data as to how often their tools were used and/or how useful teachers and students found them to be. The lack of teacher-completed surveys should not be a deterrent, in my opinion, as "optional" surveys for a project likely are not at the top of most teachers' lists of urgent items for completion. Instead, the knowledge that their tools were available and the clues that they were used to any extent should be encouraging. Beyond this, the tools that were created have contributed to a new stockpile of resources that can be used by teachers in future iterations of Givercraft (and Survivalcraft).
The social nature of this course, and the social ways in which the diffi-tools were shared reminded me of an Edutopia article I came across during reading and research for this course. John McCarthy's "50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media" focuses on the use of social media to differentiate for students, but it could certainly also apply to differentiating support for teachers as they participate in new learning projects and experiences with their students. A teacher or team of educators could also use a tool like Kaizena to set up a help site specific to their project...and they could partner with other teachers to create a team of supports for students engaged in a shared project. Thanks to the ways we are able to connect ourselves and our students to resources via technology, differentiating has certainly become a more robust, rich experience for all.
Reference:
McCarthy, J. (16 Jan 2015). 50+ tools for differentiating instruction through social media. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-social-media-tools-john-mccarthy.
The social nature of this course, and the social ways in which the diffi-tools were shared reminded me of an Edutopia article I came across during reading and research for this course. John McCarthy's "50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media" focuses on the use of social media to differentiate for students, but it could certainly also apply to differentiating support for teachers as they participate in new learning projects and experiences with their students. A teacher or team of educators could also use a tool like Kaizena to set up a help site specific to their project...and they could partner with other teachers to create a team of supports for students engaged in a shared project. Thanks to the ways we are able to connect ourselves and our students to resources via technology, differentiating has certainly become a more robust, rich experience for all.
Reference:
McCarthy, J. (16 Jan 2015). 50+ tools for differentiating instruction through social media. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-social-media-tools-john-mccarthy.