Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom by Shelly Sanchez Terrell

Our students are growing up in a connected world, and they must learn to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals around the globe. The mission here is to coordinate a video meetup with students from another country. Shelly suggests an initial conference to get to know each other and a second to discuss a real global issue. Students should also get to know each other’s surroundings and culture. Teachers need to communicate first to plan how they will facilitate the meetings.
The Skype in the Classroom website has a spot to post your project and contact information for other classes to see. PenPal Schools, ePALS, and Skolinks are other websites that connect classes from different countries. If the students in the other class aren’t native English speakers make sure your kids allow for that by speaking slower, distinctly, and avoiding jargon and big words. Also, encourage your students to continue the connection over time.

Schools waste students’ intelligence on solving textbook problems with only one possible answer. This may be why so few go into STEM fields. Investigative research takes the focus off finding one answer and encourages learners to gain intimate knowledge about a problem’s complexities to innovate better approaches and strategies. For this mission, our students act as local citizen scientists and
use technology to conduct field research to advance the public’s understanding (and their own) of a complex problem or phenomenon.
Students will study a phenomenon, species, or ecosystem over a time period, and publish their research online. During their research, they should also search the literature on the subject and reach out to experts in the field. Some students may wish to continue their work after they submit their final work for this assignment. As the work with images, text, and videos for their research, they should also develop skills for presenting their work online.

Grades fail to show potential employers the skills students possess that make them good team players, project leaders, presenters, innovators, and problem solvers. Since schools use grades, students spend less time concentrating on these qualities. For this mission, students start by designing digital badges to issue to their peers. The process includes students defining the criteria to earn the badge, understanding how to provide evidence to support earning a badge, and offering validation or testimony of the student’s achievement.
Students will work in groups to determine the things students can demonstrate to earn badges. The separate lists can then be used to create a class list. For each badge, there should be a list of things a student has to do to earn it. Prior to issuing a badge, a student will have to review the list. Shelly has a great deal of experience with digital badges and suggests some sites you can use to assist with this mission. It is important here to remind the students that it’s learning the skills that is really important so they will be intrinsically motivated.

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