Throughout my tenure with the School of Education I have incorporated creative and innovative strategies into my coursework. The first overview below was created to encourage a multi-perspective conversation around the words text and literacy during Literacy in the 21st Century. In this course, we spent much of the first class session defining these words based on prior knowledge, video and audio artifacts, and research. Students created a class definition of the words based on new learning and agreed that multimodal creations satisfied the collaborative definitions.
Students were then introduced to digital story-telling components and required to create their own digital story board. Some of the students went as far as making their own multimodal presentation.
The following course is an example of such work:
| Literacy in the 21st Century (2008) Information from all around the world appears not only as words on a page but as powerful images and sounds. These forms of communication use a complex audio/video language which has its own rules (grammar) and which can be used to express multidimensional concepts and ideas about the world. Through active learning and shared experiences the class will explore a more complex meaning of the word literacy and what it means in the education of the future. |
Mind mapping was a course I believed to be an essential, missing component in the SOE curriculum. This strategy, using color, shape, words, concepts, and symbols, is in my opinion the best differentiation tool a teacher could have. Mind mapping presented an incorporation of critical thinking, visual and symbolic relationships, numeracy, concept building and support, in addition to enhancing individual organizational structures. The course was taught as both a teaching and learning strategy.
The following course is an example of such work:
| Mind Mapping (2010)Students will gain introductory information regarding the art of mind-mapping, uses as a teaching strategy, organizational strategy, and learning strategies. The course will explore content through the use of multi-media presentations, digital applications, and creation of personal mind-map.https://drhilvitzstokes.wordpress.com/mid-mapping/?preview=true&preview_id=234&preview_nonce=d86659acd1 |
While researching for my most recent book about Academic Curation, I found that practicing educators were being given tools and training on technology but there was little or no pedagogy that accompanied these tools. Specifically, teachers did not know how to effectively incorporate these tools into instructional design. This course was created to marry the instructional decision-making, design, and implementation of new tools to increase student learning.
The following course is an example of such work:
| Tools and Tricks to Transform Learning (2013) Students will explore new digital applications to create and curate student learning. This course will be highly individualized to meet current K-12 students needs. Students must bring a lesson or unit that has been already prepared to work with. Personal electronic devices needed.https://avila.instructure.com/eportfolios/1588/II_Teaching_Activities/Tools_and_Tricks_to_Transform_Learning |
| Instructional Design Technology Avila Advantage Certificate 2013In collaboration with Mark Eaton, we created a new certificate for the Avila AdvantageManagement program. The certificate includes 5 classes (Four 3 hour courses and One-1 hour course). We secured Cerner Corporation to run our pilot program. The first eight week course began this summer and is followed by two courses in the fall semester, two courses in the spring semester, and one weekend course in the late spring.https://avila.instructure.com/eportfolios/1588/II_Teaching_Activities/Instructional_Design_Technology |
| School of Education Technology Course Strand Design The School of Education required one technology course ED 320 Technology in Education for graduation. This requirement met state certification requirements. Early last year, the Missouri State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education decided this one course would not satisfy new requirements.The School of Education Technology Course was born.https://avila.instructure.com/eportfolios/1588/II_Teaching_Activities/Technology_Strand_for_School_of_Education |
I learned many new ways to incorporate technology into my teaching practice over the past three years. The following links will take you to my experience creating content bundles and using other technological tools within my course designs.
Digital Tools
Bundle Creation
https://avila.instructure.com/eportfolios/1588/II_Teaching_Activities/Curated_Bundles
Reimagining Education 