Posts Tagged ‘digital literacy for EDAD’

storytelling with data

Storytelling with Data: An Introduction to Data Visualization

Mar 04 – Mar 31, 2019

Delivery Mode : Asynchronous Workshop 
Levels : Beginner,Intermediate 
Eligible for Online Teaching Certificate elective : No

Data visualization is about presenting data visually so we can explore and identify patterns in the data, analyze and make sense of those patterns, and communicate our findings. In this course, you will explore those key aspects of data visualization, and then focus on the theories, concepts, and skills related to communicating data in effective, engaging, and accessible ways.

This will be a hands-on, project-based course in which you will apply key data visualization strategies to various data sets to tell specific data stories using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Practice data sets will be provided, or you can utilize your own data sets.

Week 1: Introduction and Tool Setup
Week 2: Cognitive Load and Pre-Attentive Attributes
Week 3: Selecting the Appropriate Visualization Type
Week 4: Data Stories and Context


Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to create basic data visualizations that are effective, accessible, and engaging. In support of that primary objective, you will:

  • Describe the benefits of data visualization for your professional situation
  • Identify opportunities for using data visualization
  • Apply visual cues (pre-attentive attributes) appropriately
  • Select correct charts/graphs for your data story
  • Use appropriate accessibility strategies for data tables

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets is required to successfully complete this course. Resources will be included to help you with the basics should you need them, but time spent learning the tools is not included in the estimated time for completing this course.
What are the key takeaways from this course?

  • The ability to explain how data visualization is connected to data analytics
  • The ability to identify key data visualization theories
  • Creating effective and engaging data visualizations
  • Applying appropriate accessibility strategies to data visualizations

Who should take this course?

  • Instructional designers, faculty, and higher education administrators who need to present data in effective, engaging, and accessible ways will benefit from taking this course

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more on digital storytelling in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+storytelling

more on data visualization in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=data+visualization

Data Use and School Leaders

Five Questions About Data Use for School Leaders

https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2018/08/five_questions_about_data_use_for_school_leaders.html

Anna Egalite, assistant professor of leadership and policy at NC State. Previously, Anna taught elementary school and did a postdoc at Harvard. She’ll be writing about education-leadership research—what we know, where we have good intuitions, and where we’re still very much in the dark. 

It’s back-to-school time and education reporters are highlighting stories about how school leaders are “leaning on data” to promote student learning, making administrative decisions that are “supported by a data-driven process,” and drawing on their experience in “data-driven instruction.”

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more on data use and ed leaders in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=data+ed+leaders

AI tracks students writings

Schools are using AI to track what students write on their computers

By Simone Stolzoff August 19, 2018
50 million k-12 students in the US
Under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), any US school that receives federal funding is required to have an internet-safety policy. As school-issued tablets and Chromebook laptops become more commonplace, schools must install technological guardrails to keep their students safe. For some, this simply means blocking inappropriate websites. Others, however, have turned to software companies like GaggleSecurly, and GoGuardian to surface potentially worrisome communications to school administrators
In an age of mass school-shootings and increased student suicides, SMPs Safety Management Platforms can play a vital role in preventing harm before it happens. Each of these companies has case studies where an intercepted message helped save lives.
Over 50% of teachers say their schools are one-to-one (the industry term for assigning every student a device of their own), according to a 2017 survey from Freckle Education
But even in an age of student suicides and school shootings, when do security precautions start to infringe on students’ freedoms?
When the Gaggle algorithm surfaces a word or phrase that may be of concern—like a mention of drugs or signs of cyberbullying—the “incident” gets sent to human reviewers before being passed on to the school. Using AI, the software is able to process thousands of student tweets, posts, and status updates to look for signs of harm.
SMPs help normalize surveillance from a young age. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal at Facebook and other recent data breaches from companies like Equifax, we have the opportunity to teach kids the importance of protecting their online data
in an age of increased school violence, bullying, and depression, schools have an obligation to protect their students. But the protection of kids’ personal information is also a matter of their safety

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more on cybersecurity in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=cybersecurity

more on surveillance  in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance

more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy

K12 administrators and data analytics

Data Analytics a Key Skill for Administrators in K–12

A recent report highlights how data can open the door for K-12 school administrators to maximize student outcomes.
Eli Zimmerman
K-12 school districts looking to improve student success rates should invest in training administrators in data analysis, according to a report from the Data Quality Campaign.
Report authors also call on state policymakers to help lead the charge for more literate school administrators. School and district administrators need to model and support effective data use at every level, including as part of classroom instruction

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more on data analytics in education in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=data+analytics

SITE 2019

SITE 2019 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education

http://site.aace.org/conf/

March 18-22, 2018

Digital Storytelling/Media SIG

http://www.learntechlib.org/search/?q=digital+storytelling

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Games & Simulations SIG

Games & Simulations Papers in LearnTechLib

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Technology Leadership SIG

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Wearable Technology in Education SIG

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K-12 Online Learning SIG

K-12 Online Learning Papers in LearnTechLib (10,000+)

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more on digital storytelling in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+storytelling

badges in Washington State

Digital Badges Initiative to Support Professional Development in Washington State

By Rhea Kelly 07/11/18

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/07/11/digital-badges-initiative-to-support-professional-development-in-washington-state.aspx

The Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (SBCTC) is teaming up with software development company Concentric Sky on a digital badging initiative that will use Badgr digital badges to document professional development accomplishments of faculty, administrators and staff across the system’s 34 institutions.

Each college will be able to implement badging as well as guided pathways within their courses or programs, particularly for co-curricular activities that typically aren’t represented on transcripts. Examples of such programs include internships, community service and museum activities.

he platform is certified compliant with version 2.0 of the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Open Badges Specification. With Badgr Pathways, badges from Badgr or any other Open Badges compliant platform can be stacked to create “learning pathways” that are shareable across institutions.

As part of the four-year project, SBCTC will also contribute to the Badgr open source project.

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more on microcredentialing in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredentialing

Essential Elements for Digital Content

Navigating the Digital Shift: Quality Learning Connections in the Digital Age

https://home.edweb.net/webinar/digitalcontent20180530/

This edWebinar highlights SETDA’s latest research, Navigating the Digital Shift 2018: Broadening Student Learning Opportunities. As states and districts shift to implement digital instructional materials, the report provides information and guidance on state acquisition and procurement policies, selection and curation processes. States are increasingly providing guidance, definitions, and vetting policies and practices for the implementation of digital materials to help ensure that digital materials are available to learners via devices anywhere, anytime.

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see also
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/06/25/iste-standards-ed-leaders/

transform education via digital tools

Digital tools can transform, not just replicate, the teaching and learning experience

Commentary: The SAMR and TPACK models of technology implementation can help schools as they transition to using more digital tools.

By EdScoop Staff  MAY 8, 2018 2:37 PM

https://edscoop.com/digital-tools-can-transform-not-just-replicate-the-teaching-and-learning-experience

The SAMR (substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition) model and TPACK (technological pedagogical content knowledge) model can help schools as they transition to using more digital tools.

In a recent edWebinar, Michelle Luhtala, library department chair at New Canaan High School in Connecticut, reviewed these models and discussed apps that can take teaching, learning and reading to the next level.

The SAMR model determines the level of technology integration of a tool: substitution, which doesn’t add value; augmentation, which adds a few features with only a little improvement; modification, which redesigns some structures; and redefinition, which allows the creation of new tasks and is the ultimate learning goal. Transformation in how educators are teaching and how students are understanding content happens in the modification and redefinition parts of the model.

MackinVIA’s Classroom allows educators to create a collection of digital content for students; build assignment around it; and share the collection, or an individual book, with the classroom. Students can also highlight text, make annotations, and save these to Google Drive.

Emerging Tech for Schools and Libraries is a free professional learning community where school librarians, teachers, and administrators can explore all the ways to integrate technology and 21st century learning into school library programs.

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more on the SAMR model in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=samr

Fortnite Craze

https://www.npr.org/2018/05/05/608164530/the-fortnite-craze-might-be-here-to-stay

In April, a PLAYlive Nation lounge in Tracy, Calif., hosted its first Fortnite tournament and sold out. Hundreds of players bought tickets to play against one another and win prizes.

Joost van Dreunen, the CEO of Superdata Research, a video game analytics firm, says most shooter games are serious and simulate violence. Fortnite, he says, is more like a friendly game of tag.

His company estimates the game has made about $223 million across all platforms in March alone. In lifetime sales, it had made about $614 million. The game is free to play, but Epic Games, the company that owns Fortnite, makes money through microtransactions. Players can spend real money to make cosmetic changes to their characters in the game. They can buy things like skins, which are like costumes, for their characters or emotes, which are celebratory dance moves their characters can do after winning or killing another player in the game.

Ninja, the gamer name taken by 26-year-old Tyler Blevins, is now a legend in the Fortnite world. He is a master at the game and rocketed into popularity after playing in an online battle with rap artists Drake and Travis Scott on March 14. That battle has been watched more than 9 million times.

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Educators Battle ‘Fortnite’ for Students’ Attention

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/05/03/educators-battle-fortnite-for-students-attention.html

Many educators want to ban the game from their classrooms, but some are taking the opposite approach, attempting to weave students’ interest in Fortnite into class discussions and assignments.

Nick Fisher, a science teacher at Fort Zumwalt North High School in O’Fallon, Mo., said his students like to take screenshots of gameplay and send them to friends over Snapchat. Teenagers want to broadcast their victories, and because the game is on their phones, it’s easy to post updates to social media, making Fortnite “the perfect concoction of addiction,” said Fisher.

North High blocks all social media and gaming sites on its WiFi, said Fisher, but students tell him how they circumvent the restriction: They use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to establish independent internet connections. (Dozens of YouTube videos provide step-by-step tutorials for students looking to get around school WiFi controls.)

“Kids can’t multitask,” she said. “Even having a digital device within sight can cognitively distract the student enough that they can’t focus on the academics.”

Schools and teachers should be guiding parents when it comes to appropriate limits around screen time, said Kolb. Most parents will appreciate research-based recommendations, such as turning off all screens a set amount of time before bed, she said.

Games like Fortnite can even have social benefits, said John Velez, an assistant professor of journalism and electronic media at Texas Tech University. Velez, who studies the positive effects of video games, has found that playing violent games cooperatively with helpful teammates promotes pro-social behavior.

Chris Aviles, the coordinator of innovation, technology, and 21st century skills for the Fair Haven Public Schools in New Jersey, wrote “A Teacher’s Guide to Surviving Fortnite,” an exploration of ways the game can be used for instructional purposes. The guide, posted to his blog Teched Up Teacher, suggests how to integrate the game into writing prompts, math lessons on probability, and physics.

Aviles doesn’t advocate playing the game at school. There isn’t any educational value in letting students engage in virtual combat during a lesson, he said. Instead, teachers can build a lesson around one aspect of the game, such as having students calculate the best angle of approach as they jump from the “Battle Bus,” the floating bus that drops players onto the map at the beginning of each match.

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Instagram, Snapchat, Fortnite: The distractions are endless. Here’s how to help kids cope.

 May 14 at 9:00 AM
In January, two of Apple’s shareholder groups asked the company to look at the addictive effects of iPhones on children. Google’s recent developer conference highlighted tools to help users better control smartphone usage.
2015 survey of more than 1,800 teachers and 400 principals in Alberta, B.C., found that nearly three-fourths of teachers frequently or very frequently observed students multitasking with technology, and 67 percent of teachers believed that the number of students negatively distracted by digital technologies in the classroom was growing.
2017 study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science tracked college students’ progress on their goals over the course of a semester and found that successful goal attainment was less about self-control and more about blocking and eliminating potential distractions.
The best approach is to use empathy, compassion and collaboration to help the young people in your life find ways to manage their digital workflow.
Encourage visualization for inspiration and motivation. The first step is getting students to buy in and to want to make behavioral changes.
Focus on compartmentalization. A 2009 study from Stanford researchers found that people who juggled several streams of electronic information were not able to pay attention, remember key information or switch tasks as effectively as those who completed one task at a time.
Using the Pomodoro technique of spending 25 minutes focused on one task followed by a five-minute break can be an easy way to have students begin to shift from a multitasking to a monotasking mind-set.
Make focus fun. There are now numerous ways to use technology to help us be more productive with technology, and it doesn’t have to be arduous. Students in my office use apps such as Forest or Flipd to motivate them to stay off their phones during class or when doing homework. Forest has a simple interface that will build a digital tree for users who stay off their phones. Flipd allows users to hide certain apps, allot time off their phone based on their schedule and, for a premium, track their progress over time.
Provide structured support as needed. A middle school student with whom I worked recently was relieved when his mother used the Mac OS app SelfControl to block YouTube and ESPN while he was doing his homework (Cold Turkey is a similar PC-based app).
Allow opportunities for regrouping. Even the best plans can go awry (for adults and kids alike). It’s important to focus on progress rather than perfection. Create time daily or weekly for students to think about what went well in terms of managing distractions and improving productivity, and what they would like to do better. Ask open-ended questions without judgment or expectation

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more on gaming in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=gaming

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more on social media addiction in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/05/08/social-media-addiction/

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