What is the opposite of a digital native? A digital immigrant? I guess that’s what I am. I didn’t really decide to move to this new country, in fact, I moved reluctantly and only adapted as was necessary. I looked fondly back on the simple days back in the old country. Sure, many tasks took longer and you had to commit more to memory, but I knew my way around it and how to get the job done with the available tools. So now, here I am, realizing that I will never be moving back to the old country - it does not even exist anymore. It’s time to learn the language, culture, and tools of my new digital home beyond just surviving and barely keeping pace. Time to become fluent. In fact - it’s far past time! So to the task at hand - to review a digital tool I’ve used in school that is not a GSuite app nor one we’ve discussed in class. Embarrassing to admit - I got nothing! Probably the most significant reason I decided to enroll in the Innovative Learning masters program was to push my own comfort zone and force myself to learn more technology tools. At this point I am still soaking in the knowledge of others and trying out the tools that have been suggested - I have not yet reached the stage where I am the innovator. For the sake of having something to contribute, I’ll review a digital learning platform introduced to me at Credit Recovery Summer School. APEX is an online learning platform used by the Adult School and now the district’s high school credit recovery program. I have four different English semesters running concurrently. Students come in every day and access their online course. The full, Common Core aligned course is available to each student. This course is prescriptive, meaning that each unit is preceeded by a pre-test. If a student can demonstrate mastery of a part of the material, that lesson is taken out of their personalized learning plan. Each student progresses self-paced through a series of readings, activities, videos, quizzes, projects, and writing prompts. As they demonstrate mastery of each part, the program opens up the next unit. Most assessment is done by the program with a couple teacher assessed parts (usually the writing) in each unit. Conceivably, a very motivated student could move through a course quickly by logging in from home. The teacher’s role from the perspective of the use of the program is to maintain the classroom dashboard: enroll students, manage the class content, monitor students’ pacing through the semester to ensure completion, unlock tests so students can only access them from a proctored environment. From the perspective of instruction in content knowledge, the teacher supports each individual student when he or she encounters difficulty. Already I’ve plopped down next to a few students to help them through difficult concepts or writing prompts. It took me 2 training sessions to feel comfortable navigating the platform - the first session was in person for 2 hours and the second was an hour long webcam training. I find the teacher platform very easy to navigate, and I am also very impressed with the content and tools given to the students in their portal. This is a very appropriate and effective tool for this job. Students have only 17 days to complete a semester and receive their credits for the course. It’s also helpful to the instructor because you can run several courses simultaneously without having to create your own lesson plans and assessments. One of the challenges the students face is staying engaged when they’re working at a computer for 3 ½ hours a day with little peer interaction. We have to take breaks often. I’ve also kept a constant circulating presence to make sure they aren’t just surfing the web and also to discuss the content of the course with individuals. As a whole, though, I am very impressed with APEX learning’s course design and online platform.
1 Comment
I love your honesty, and can really relate. I was a digital immigrant not too long ago. The thing is that once I began to experience some of these tools, I kind of fell in love with them, and they way that they targeted specific issues/skills in the classroom. I love things that work, and there is a lot of stuff out there in cyberspace that really works! One step at a time, my digital padawan!
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Nancy JaminetArchives
December 2017
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