A HyperDoc for The Outsiders an Instructional Design Proposal

My proposal is for the creation of a HyperDoc to use while teaching a class novel, The Outsiders. I am hoping to incorporate more technology into the teaching units of my novel. I am also hoping that by creating and using such a document I will encourage other staff members in my school to use it as well. 

The Process

The process for this project has been interesting. I have learned to analyze the assignments that I put forward for students from multiple perspectives including learning styles but also by soliciting feedback from teachers and students prior to implementation. In general, I think that I have learned a lot, and this project made me approach the novel in a different way than I have in the past. I focused more on student connections and reflections and less on written responses and questions. I am hoping that this will be a better way to teach the novel and will keep me more engaged with a book that I don't love. I think that the students will appreciate the more interactive tasks, and while I'm not certain they will love the idea of being on camera, I think when we are finished they will have overcome their hesitation and will like the video portion.  For these reasons I am excited to start teaching this unit in January when we return from break. At the very least I'm curious to see if organizing it this way makes things more efficient. 

Challenges

The biggest challenge that I have faced is finding time to actually create the HyperDoc. This is a time consuming document to create. Both re-engineering a unit that I have taught for 20 years with minimal changes, and the actual copying, pasting, linking, image finding, etc. are both time consuming tasks that would be better done with a team or partner, but I am working on this alone. My colleague will likely try and implement at least large chunks of this HyperDoc, but she is not interested in putting forth the time to re-create a unit that exists in a perfectly acceptable form already. 

Positive Aspects & The Role of a Coach

The most positive aspect of this process has been reminding me about the roots of my teacher training program. I attended my undergraduate courses over 20 years ago, and while the technology aspect looks vastly different now than it did then, the research behind the units, lessons, assignments, and activities is much the same. Over the years though, we tend to focus more on the day to day than the big picture. This course was a good reminder of what that big picture should look like and will help me as a technology specialist who is looking to help other teachers re-make their own units. Ideally, this will be a part of my job when I finish the program. Currently my position is part-time and generally consists largely of support and "fun stuff." As I finish this program and move to a full-time role, I'd really love to help my co-workers rethink their units rather than just their individual lessons. There are several good examples from this class about how to do that in a way that is helpful and not overwhelming. 

Changes

The biggest disappointment of this class was the fact that I did not have a chance to complete the HyperDoc I was hoping to create yet. The process was helpful, and I have the HyperDoc started, but it's only about a quarter done. It would be helpful if completing the assignment instead of creating the presentation was an option for the final piece. For many of these projects that require approval or much lengthier time line I understand that it wouldn't make sense for them, but for people who are working on an project that is just for their own personal advancement I think it would work. Seeing the HyperDoc completed would give my classmates an overview similar to the presentation of the process would I think. Just a thought. 

 

Instructional Design Project Reflection One

You are at the mid-point of your proposal preparation, so it is time to reflect on the steps you have journeyed through.  

Background on the Project

We are going to include more technology tools this year during our class reading of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Novel studies in my classroom have historically used more traditional tools and basic technology. Discussions, questions with answers, quizzes, and essay writing comprised the bulk of assessment. Most of these things had moved from paper and pencil tasks to a digital version, but the type of work was the same. This year I  am using a HyperDoc to plan a research project for the final assessment. Students will relate the theme of the book to a research topic. They will study that topic and then create a presentation (video, movie trailer, interview, or possibly document) to demonstrate their understanding of both the book themes and their supplemental research. 

How Has the Process Been?

This process has been interesting for a few reasons. First, the discussions with my fellow teachers were interesting. Generally speaking, all are fairly tech-savvy and use our student chromebooks with regularity. These teachers are comfortable with basic levels of technology, attend our yearly school-run tech camp program and and are generally people I  felt would be interested in increasing their use of technology to achieve greater student learning in more creative, student-centered ways. These teachers are not opposed to what I am creating and suggesting we try to implement, but they are skeptical about their ability to incorporate it. There are concerns that the benefits will not be great enough to justify  the amount of time and effort needed to implement it into the classroom. Going forward, there are also concerns about the amount of time it would take to prepare similar units for other grades and novels. There are also justified concerns about student behavior in some of our classrooms. While I understand these concerns and am sympathetic to them, I was quite surprised that these teachers were so fully satisfied with their current level of technology inclusion, and that they weren’t all that interested in working through these issues.

Second, this project has challenged me to not only just think beyond, but to actually move beyond my comfort zone with student technology use in the classroom. I am doing this project mostly alone. It would be great to have had a partner teacher, but that’s not in the cards right now. I  am going to be the model and the lead for the building. Hopefully it works well, and we’ll be a positive example for others to follow. But it’s a little scary because I ‘ve not done a lot of work with video. I  can usually figure it out, but I like to be prepared for all eventualities in my lesson planning. I don’t like to waste time. This project, these readings, and this class has reminded me that ‘learning as we go’ is still learning for students. I  don’t want our class time wasted, but problem solving tech issues and figuring out how to produce a product is also valuable. I  just need to remember that students shouldn’t be looking to me as the answer to all their questions. They need to lean on and learn from each other to ignite their constructivist learning. 

Challenges

The biggest challenge that I  have had during this project is that I  am always reshaping the focus and resizing the scope of my project as we learn more. I  started with a very broad idea that incorporated predominantly substitution and modification type tasks.  As we’ve learned more about social constructivist theory and the benefits it brings to student learning, I have shifted my project to focus primarily on activities and instruction that support this theory. I'm constantly reworking the ideas, setup, resources, and directions in my head.

Looking Forward

I  am looking forward to teaching this project. I am optimistic that it's going to be a great experience for students, and that they will really demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in a creative way that I would never have considered. I believe that I can set up parameters and structure the assignment in a manner that helps students immerse themselves in the process and develop a rich final product. However, this type of creative technology usage is not something that I  have much experience with, so I am also nervous. I have a really great class this year though, and it’s a good group to try new things with so I  am excited that we are going to learn together.

This is also the type of learning, unit creation, and technology usage that  I have set as one of my own professional goals. Once I get comfortable doing this type of work on my own, I  will also be able to use this experience to guide other teachers in our building toward using these collaborative, creative tech tools to generate  content driven instruction and assessment. This a big part of my future role in the building.

The Best Part

I  have taught The Outsiders  for years, and I ‘ve never particularly loved it. In my opinion, the writing is sub-par, the vocabulary is ostentatious (oh, there’s some irony for you), and the themes are cliche. However, the students love it and my colleague loves it. So I  teach it. This project has made me excited to teach the book this year. I ‘m looking forward to having a better plan and more in-depth objectives and assessment. This project has increased my investment and interest in the novel, something that my previous teaching lacked.

The Worst Part

There have been some disappointments in this process as I  stated above, but I haven’t had any truly negative experiences. 

Technology Specialist as Instructional Designer

The idea of the technology specialist as an instructional designer gives me a lot of ideas and hope for the future of my school. Currently, as the part-time instructional technology coach there isn’t the time (on my side or the classroom teachers) to approach our technology integration is such a systematic way. We are integrating based on what we feel capable of, what looks fun or interesting, and what we can do easily without much planning or prep time. Teachers are overwhelmed and always juggling new expectations; it’s difficult to ask for time to integrate one more thing into their classrooms. This piecemeal approach has been slow and isn’t resulting in the type of tech use and teaching that we ultimately want to see. The idea of using instructional design and working on tech integration from a top-down, wide lens approach makes sense and reaffirms my belief that tackling units rather than individual lessons or skills for tech integration is a better long-term approach. As my role grows into a full-time position, this idea will provide a more comprehensive approach and make the outcome more valuable for not just me, but also the classroom teacher.