For the final project of my EDTC 6104 course this summer, my cohort members and I were tasked with developing and submitting a conference session proposal for a professional learning opportunity. Within this professional learning opportunity, we needed to identify how this training connected to ISTE Coaching Standard 3. As I reflected on the indicators of this collaborator coaching standard, I thought about the upcoming professional development I would be facilitating for my colleagues as we prepared for the fall. We are adapting a new digital learning hub, Seesaw, to use as our school-wide platform for student-driven digital portfolios. Knowing that I would be facilitating several training sessions and that the majority of my colleagues have no prior experience with using Seesaw, I knew I wanted to use this community engagement project as an opportunity to develop meaningful, engaging professional development.
As I was creating the Seesaw Digital Licenses, I thought about my experience using digital badges and certificates with my students in the past, and that they shared how much they enjoyed the autonomy they felt in completing the tasks at their own pace. Seesaw Digital Licenses incorporate self-paced tasks for students to complete to demonstrate their understanding and expertise on the use of different Seesaw skills and tools. As students progress in their understanding of Seesaw, they can move to higher certification levels that challenge them to demonstrate more advanced skills. While these tasks are differentiated in their difficulty, each of the certification levels maintains cohesiveness in the terminology, usage, and essential skills.
One of my recent blog posts on personalizing professional development came to the forefront of my mind as I was creating my presentation. The feedback many colleagues shared with me as we began discussing faculty training on Seesaw, was that they had concerns about getting adequate time learning how to use Seesaw and also how to facilitate the implementation of it with their students. This made me realize how important it was to provide teachers with intentional opportunities to engage with the Seesaw platform from the student perspective and empowering them in feeling comfortable supporting students in problem-solving through moments of challenge with this platform.
In the hopes that my conference proposal is accepted, I plan to facilitate a 50-minute professional learning session on Utilizing Digital Licenses to Engage Learners in Using Seesaw at NCCE’s spring 2021 conference. This professional learning experience is designed to support educators in developing deeper instruction through the use of Seesaw, as a learning hub in remote learning and blended learning environments. Educators will receive training and resources on how to support students in developing critical digital citizenship skills and empower learners through the personalization of the learning experience. Through these experiences, students will explore how to use Seesaw in ways that promote creativity and collaboration and foster exploration. For my presentation, I will be using Nearpod to allow for active, live participation from educators in attendance. Participants will have the opportunity to follow along simultaneously while I am presenting, and they will also be put into Zoom Breakout Rooms to explore and complete Seesaw Digital License tasks on interactive Google Slides connected with the Seesaw platform. Through this active practice, educators will gain experience using the platform, as well as be provided with the opportunity to work through tasks their students will be experiencing when using Seesaw. In my presentation, I have also linked several opportunities for participants to get connected with the Seesaw community. These links provide session attendees with the chance to communicate and collaborate about the use of Seesaw. Participation in surveys both before and after this presentation will also help guide future groups and sessions.
This presentation is aligned to the indicators from ISTE Coaching Standard 3 in the following ways:
3a: Establish trusting and respectful coaching relationships that encourage educators to explore new instructional strategies.
At the beginning of my presentation is to give participants an overview of the objectives and the skills covered in the session, to help set the foundation of where we are headed in the learning together. Additionally, I am going to share my own experiences with Seesaw and using Seesaw Digital Licenses, as well as feedback provided by students and teachers who have used them. The goal of sharing this feedback is to build trust with the educators attending my session and to help encourage them to explore these digital licenses.
3b: Partner with educators to identify digital learning content that is culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate, and aligned to content standards.
During the session, participants will engage in conversation about how this digital learning connects with digital citizenship standards, ISTE standards, and state technology standards. Additionally, participants will discuss how to determine which certification level is developmentally appropriate for their students, and how added content like audio recordings and screencast video recordings help to support accessibility of learning for all individuals.
3c: Partner with educators to evaluate the efficacy of digital learning content and tools to inform procurement decisions and adoption.
Throughout the presentation, there are opportunities for educators to engage with Seesaw Digital Licenses, collaborate with participants, hear feedback from students and educators, and provide their own evaluation. Additionally, participants will be receiving copies of materials to modify and adapt to their own classrooms. My hope in providing participants with these opportunities is that they feel informed to effectively decide if this a useful tool for their students.
3d: Personalize support for educators by planning and modeling the effective use of technology to improve student learning.
The design of this session not only provides participants with effective ways to implement the digital licenses, but also puts them in the learning seat, to experience from a student-view what completing the Seesaw Digital Driver’s Licenses would look like. The intention of this design is for educators to feel better equipped to facilitate these digital licenses and support students in problem-solving and troubleshooting while they are working through the self-paced tasks.
Below are links to the presentation materials that I plan to use as well as share with participants. Additionally, there is a video recording that provides an overview of my presentation.
- This is a link to my Utilizing Digital Licenses to Engage Learners in Using Seesaw Google Slides, which will be shared out as a view-only copy for participants to have access to.
- I will be presenting these Google Slides using Nearpod, to allow for participant interaction. Here is the Nearpod Presentation (student-paced version). I will be running this as a live presentation, but this allows you to access what it will look like.
- This is the end of the session survey I will be sending out to participants who attend my session.
Seesaw Digital Driver’s License Materials:
My hope is that through this presentation participants will leave with a better understanding of how Seesaw Digital Licenses are beneficial to promoting creativity and collaboration, and foster exploration. Additionally, I hope they will have learned actionable steps on how to facilitate utilizing Seesaw digital licenses with their students and feel equipped with the necessary digital resources to implement them effectively. I am excited to give this presentation to my fellow colleagues and use Seesaw Digital Licencses with my students, and to share the feedback they provide in future presentations.
References:
Cheng, Z., Richardson, J. C., & Newby, T. J. (2019). Using digital badges as goal-setting facilitators: a multiple case study. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 1-23. doi:https://doi-org.ezproxy.spu.edu/10.1007/s12528-019-09240-z
ISTE Standards for Coaches. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-coaches
Johnson, L. (2015, January 22). Using Pre-Needs Assessment for Effective PD. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/pre-needs-assessment-effective-pd-lisa-johnson
Nearpod. (2020). Retrieved August 2, 2020, from https://nearpod.com/
Preisler, T. (2018, December 27). Not Just About Students: The Importance of Personalizing Learning for Teachers – EdSurge News. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-11-28-not-just-about-students-the-importance-of-personalizing-learning-for-teachers
Seesaw Get Started Guides. (2020). Retrieved August 14, 2020, from https://help.seesaw.me/hc/en-us/articles/205565209-How-do-I-introduce-Seesaw-to-my-students-
Seesaw PD Kit Effective and Engaging Remote Learning. (2020). Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://web.seesaw.me/pd-effective-and-engaging-remote-learning
