Learning More than Required: Edu 790 Social Media & Emerging Technologies

Edu 790 Spring 2018 (personal photo)

I’ve had the pleasure of designing and teaching a Social Media and Emerging Technologies course for Dominican University the past two years. This course has been offered as an 8 week online graduate level course. This year I was asked to teach it on campus to a group of River Forest District 90 teachers, many of which I’ve taught in a previous course. There are differences between an online 8 week course and a 16 week face-to-face course with teachers you’ve already taught- time being a big one.


Students in the face-to-face course received much of the same content as the online group did (discussions on how we use social media and what platforms we visit, digital tattoos, PLN exploration, research and digital spaces mapping). Because we were face-to-face we had many discussions and time to talk about our learning but these educators also kept a “Reflection Journal” via Google Docs where they were able to reflect privately and I was able to ask specific questions.


When our content was covered the students had a unique opportunity- they were informed that the second part of our time together would be spent on projects they designed. We began by brainstorming some ideas I brought to the table: design/run a MOOC, create a digital starter kit for new district employees, set up a professional development program for the district, just to name a few. We talked about and wrote down the pros and cons of each of these and everyone had a chance to voice their opinion about what they thought the group should explore. I presented an anonymous survey in which the students could say what they were interested in pursuing.


The students eventually settled on two projects: the music teachers wanted to create a Flipped Classroom program for the Recorder and the larger group wanted to create a badging professional development program for the district.


Each group was given a guiding document to help them focus on the following:

-what is the intent of your project?

-who is your audience?

-is this needed in your district?

-does something like this already exist?

-what features need to be included?

-is there anything you need to clarify with the district before proceeding?

This document also included information from the survey for each topic and had a place for all of us to add resources that were shared in class and resources that were found by individuals as the projects developed. The next 8 weeks of class was spent working on the projects and providing feedback to each other.


For the final class student invited leadership from the district (Superintendent, Director of Technology, Director of Communications and Principals and Assistant Principals) to view their projects in hopes of implementing them on a larger scale. They've since been asked by senior leadership to present to others in the district.


My one requirement was that they share their projects on social media so all educators could benefit. The work is fantastic- see for yourself.


Digital Learning Badging Site:
https://sites.google.com/district90.org/digital-learning


Recorder Flipped Classroom Site:
https://sites.google.com/district90.org/recorder-flipped-classroom/home?authuser=2