Digitally enhanced learning in the covid 19 era for steam ed dec 20

STEM Education, Gender
& Online Education
EMERGENT Cyprus online
training
2-4 December 2020
Gender awareness and
implementation strategies in STEM
education

Digital enhanced
learning in the Covid-
19 era for STEAM
education
Loucas T. Louca
Associate Professor, Science Education

My purpose in this workshop
• Define distance education
• Description and discussion of pedagogical issues that arise during teaching and
learning through distance education
• Examples of pedagogical solutions through the use of selected tools of new
digital technologies for learning with students
– How do we use the disadvantage of "distance" in distance education as an advantage in the
learning process?
– How can digital tools enhance the learning experience?
– How do we create communities (of learning) outside of the traditional classroom that have meaning
and added value for our students?
– How do we turn distance learning into a productive distance learning active experience?
– How do we offer differentiated learning opportunities for all students with digital learning tools?
– How do digital technologies support different types of learning?

What does distant education mean
for you;
Reflection

• www.menti.com is a very popular tool for engaging large audiences
• Provides
– Visualization
– Real-time response and monitoring of responses
– Easy access
• Free for the basic package
• Pedagogical…
– The teacher can have a direct picture of a group (small or large) and its response to
the topics under discussion
– The teacher can monitor the development of his audience in real time
Mentimeter

• Substantially improves student learning experiences
• Provides students with enhanced learning experience
– Better, more meaningful, more useful and more valuable experience with
cutting-edge knowledge of the field
• Builds communities of practice in beyond the in-class meetings
– Meaningfully keep in touch throughout the week
– Student peer feedback and collaboration
• Increase student active and meaningful engagement throughout the
week
• Transform student learning
• Instructor on-going formative assessment
Digitally enhanced Learning

• Added (not replaced) pedagogical value – restructure the course in ways
that have added value!
• It is not simply about adding technological tools in everyday teaching
• By the use of new, cutting-edge technology-mediated tools that can transform
student learning experiences
• There is not a single recipe of success!
• Use of distance teaching and learning features in favor of the process
• Reduction of synchronous teaching time
• Increase the time of asynchronous involvement of children in the process
• Maximize active learning time through tools that specifically allow this
Digitally enhanced Learning

• Replacing activities with distance lectures…
• Transfering regular class online…
– It is not a transformation of teaching and
learning by teleconferencing, one after the
other…
– It is not sending worksheets to students to fill
out ...
What is NOT distance learning

• In terms of student learning, one size does not fit all!
– a variety of collaboration types
– a variety of learning activity types
– Interaction
– Increased students’ engagement to course activities
– Give role/voice to students
– Differentiation
– Flexible, non static
– Active learning
Characteristics of the DeL

• Use digital technologies to provide
– Learning-centered and student-centered courses
– Knowledge and ability centered courses
– Assessment-centered courses
– Scientific Community centered courses
• More (and more meaningful) work for students
• Includes (from the instructor perspective)
– Reflective practice
– Facilitator
– Adaptive expert
• Yes, more work for instructors, BUT there are a few tricks I can tell you
about…
What does this mean…

• Learning to teach effectively (with or without
technology) requires that we (instructors) come
to think of and about, and understand teaching
in ways quite different from what we have
experienced themselves as students
• Therefore, design pedagogically sensitive
courses
Overall…

• Variety of activities
• Cooperation
• Interaction between students, content, teacher, activities
• Increase student engagement
• Students take on roles / responsibilities
• Flexible procedures
• Active learning
• Differentiation
• Continuous observation
• Cultivation of a new learning culture for teachers, parents and students
Characteristics of successful teaching &
learning

• Variety of activities
• Cooperation
• Interaction between students, content, teacher, activities
• Increase student engagement
• Students take on roles / responsibilities
• Flexible procedures
• Active learning
• Differentiation
• Continuous observation
• Cultivation of a new learning culture for teachers, parents and students
Characteristics of synchronous distance
learning

Elements of active
learning and student
interaction in digital
learning

• More personalized learning (one size does NOT fit all!)
– Variety of activities for different learning style
• Class reflections, hands-on, reflections, problem solving, provide feedback to one another, “copy-paste”
– Provide multiple resources for supporting learning
• Videos, readings, ppts
• Use of videos= watch them before class, in class ask questions about the “lecture”
• Theoretical and practical part of the course
• Peer homework
– Peer grading
– Self grading
– Provide quick answers in odd hours
– Tutoring each others
• Types of learning
– Lecture
– Mastery learning
– Individual tutoring
Characteristics of the DeL

• Assignments are not meant for evaluation of
knowledge per se, but they are tools for facilitating
learning
– They are evaluated based on the effort
– Aligned with the learning outcomes
– Assignments are in sequence, have pre-requisites
– Start working on them in class
Assignments

(Re-)design pedagogically sensitive
courses
So, what does it take to design
productive learning environments?
Overall…

Watering Hole: Group, Seminar,
Collaborative

Mountain top: Explain, Exhibit, Show

So, what does it take to design
productive learning
environments?

• Supplemental
– high in content but with very little student interaction
• Complementary
– used primarily for one-way teacher-student communication
• Social
– high peer-to peer interaction through discussion boards
• Evaluative
– heavy use of assessments to facilitate content mastery
• Holistic
– high LMS activity with a balance use of assessments, content, and
discussion
Types of online courses

Biology Education
An example of distance education
course at the University

• The course was taught on Mondays during
S2019
• 3 Mondays were lost due to national holidays
– Green Monday
– 25th March
– 1st April
• The three teaching sessions were replaced with
one activity
Background

• As part of their course requirement students have to
make a 15-minute presentation (15% of their course
grade)
– Choose in groups of 2 one scientific-process skill that we
teach through biology courses
– Prepare a presentation that includes
• Overview of the skill
• Ways to develop this skill through biology courses
• 1 biology activity that specifically focuses on developing this ability
for particular student age in particular in a particular content and
context
Activity Re-designed

• Requirements
– Students need to submit a presentation
– Students need to videotape the presentation and
provide the video link from youtube to a forum
– Students need to provide feedback to at least 3
other groups about the content of the presentation
– Students need to use the feedback provided by
their classmates and the instructor and revise their
presentation
Activity Re-designed

• 1 student did not participate
• 17 students participate – average of 10 posts per student
• 2200+ views – average of 91 views per student
Statistics

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Unique posts and views per student

The snail…
Example of a distance learning
learning module with 20 4-5 year-
old students

• Online meetings 2Χ60
minutes
• April 2020
• 20 children 4-5,5 ετών
• Through Zoom
• Preparation of materials
by parents
About the Unit

• Organize all the elements of the course
in sections and time format
– Instructions
– materials
– children work
– communication with parents / children
– Teleconferencing links
– submission of children work (Assignments)
• Many available options (free or not)
• ►
Learning Management System

• Submitting children work
• Collection of information from children and
parents
Google forms

• Many options (free or not)
• It is important to have essential pedagogical
elements
• Work in independent teams under
supervision
Video conferencing tool

Σαλιγκάρια
Preparation for meeting 1

• Collect 2-3 snails with your children from the garden or the
neighborhood
• For the activity, keep your snails awake
– a little water 10 minutes before helps them wake up!
• Basic materials from the bench
• A disposable tray
– it could be a regular disc and then washed. We will use it for snail races.
– should be larger in size, if possible A4. Not bigger than A3. The ideal size would be
A3
• If there are sea snails in the house, we would like to show them to the
other children in the group.
Instructions for parents…

• Materials for snail races
– Some cotton or 2 crumpled tissues
– Some vinegar on a piece of cotton or tissue
– Some juice (that you have home) on a piece of cotton or tissue
– Peel an apple or other fruit or vegetable at home (ask your children:
eat the fruit before the activity!)
– Some sugar or whatever candy is in the house
– 1 teaspoon nescafe, or coffee of any kind available (even coffee
used for espresso)
Instructions for parents…

• Discussion of children's experiences
– They are mainly about what they noticed their snails doing
– What they know about snails
• Snail observation by children
• Each child prepares a drawing for the snails
– (Send the plan)
• Talk about different types of snails
• Snail races
– (Send results) ►
Meeting 1

• Activity related to the
eating habits of snails
• Materials
– Flour
– Sugar
– Coffee
– Fruit peels
– Juice
– vinegar
Snail race

• Development of culture
• Development of synchronous communication
routines
– Which tool do we use?
– How we take the floor?
– How do we manage who speaks?
– How do children manage whom / whom they see?
Distance teaching & learning

• Not all parents will send their children's work
• Not all children will do their best
• Not all children have access to
communication devices…
Known difficulties

• Snail racing results
– Snail eating habits
• Usefulness of snails in humans
– What other animals do we know that look like a snail?
• What do they have in common?
– Voting results for the best snail design
• Evaluation - Reflection - The main parts of the snail
• Create a 3D construction of a snail
Meeting 2

0
1
2
3
Xυμός
Προτιμήσεις Σαλιγκαριών
0
1
2
3
Καφές
0
1
2
3
Μήλο
0
1
2
3
Ζάχαρη
Snail eating preferences Snail eating preferences
Snail eating preferencesSnail eating preferences
Apple Sugar
CoffeeJuice

• More children stated that usually more than
1 snail prefers fruit and vegetable skins (15
snails in total)
• Coffee also seems to be preferred by snails
(9 snails)
• Sugar is not one of their favorites…
Snail eating habits…

1 2
3
4
5
6
►
Parts of the snail

• Online peer-evaluation environment for student work
• Free basic package
• Allows customization as needed
• Students who take part in peer assessment do better in
classes
• Learning is supported by technologically supported social
interaction
• Development of higher cognitive skills
• Use the teacher's time for other things
Peergrade
https://www.peergrade.io/

Peergrade in 4 simple steps…

• Free, open source, online tool for creating,
sharing and using interactive content
• Over 40 types of content that can be done in an
interactive mode
– Interactive videos
– Interactive pictures
– Interactive presentations
– Quizes
H5P
https://h5p.org/

• … but what are the specific needs for
– My students
– My course
– My specific lecture(s)
A lot of digital tools for teaching are
available…

• Substantially improves our student learning experiences
• Provides students with enhanced learning experience
– Better, more meaningful, more useful and more valuable experience with cutting-edge knowledge
of the field
• Builds communities of practice/learning beyond the synchronous meetings
– Meaningfully keep in touch throughout the week
– Student peer feedback and collaboration
• Students will more (meaningfully) get engaged throughout the week
• Transform student learning
• Instructor on-going formative assessment
• Added (not replaced) pedagogical value – restructure the course in ways that have
added value!
• There is not a single recipe of success!
What to remember about Distance Learning

Digitally enhanced learning in the covid 19 era for steam ed dec 20

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