G.A. Scale: A Targeted Approach for Mastering the Standards

Over the weekend, I had the privilege to work with my colleagues in Douglas, Arizona at one of our LoTi Digital Age Schools, Omega Alpha Academy School (OAAS). Part of our work was analyzing H.E.A.T. Walkthrough data from Friday’s classroom visitations and adjusting future lesson plans so as to place greater emphasis on authentic problem solving in all K-12 classrooms.

One of the unique protocols they use at OAAS is a weekly Goal Achievement Scale or G.A. Scale (XLSX • XLS • PDF) for Math/ELA Literacy classrooms. During regularly-scheduled PLC Meetings, grade level or content area teams thoughtfully unpack the weekly Math/ELA standard and then design targeted lesson plans and Pre/Post Assessments to measure growth according to that standard. The entire process provides each team with a heightened sense of personal responsibility to ensure that students reach their targets.

Our role was to assist staff with increasing the amount of H.E.A.T. with their lesson plans so that their daily instruction possessed the same level of rigor (LoTi Level 3 and above) as their weekly G.A. Scale Assessments. Great job OAAS!

Factors Impacting Effective Technology Use: Guidance for Use of Digital Resources

From whom do you mostly seek primary guidance, information, inspiration, and/or direction relating to your use of digital resources in the classroom? Does your primary input come from a popular website such as The Teaching Channel or YouTube, a special mentor on your campus, or perhaps from an annual conference that you last attended? Pinpointing the source of inspiration for the ways that we organize, implement, and evaluate our instructional curriculum including how we use digital assets in the classroom can help stakeholders shape their PD offerings. 

Personally, my primary inspiration came from regular life experiences. I remember owning several VW Bugs and unfortunately having to sit in repair shops as one of my trusted German-made cars was getting an oil change, tune-up, or tires rotated. Later, this quarterly ritual (remember- change the oil every 3,000 miles) lead to the design of a literacy station for one of my special needs high students who, by the way, was a master mechanic as a 14 year old. 

Getting better acquainted with the driving force behind teacher innovation in the classroom and effective technology use is one of the goals of the 20th Anniversary Edition of the LoTi Digital Age Survey. What if a significant portion of teachers actually looked to their students or business/community members for guidance in terms of the best ways of using technology in the classroom? How might this alter conventional staff development planning? In a global community, seeking helpful advice does not stop at the school entrance, but includes a broad range of unconventional mentors whom we may encounter in the classroom, faculty room, waiting room, or boardroom.

This blog post is the fourth in a series of fourteen online entries highlighting factors that impact the effective use of technology in today's classrooms. This series focuses on each of the research variables used to conduct comparative analyses as part of the 20th Anniversary Edition of the LoTi Digital Age Survey. 

Factors Impacting Effective Technology Use: Digital Models

Asking teachers how they are using computers in the classroom no longer conjures a simple response given the variety of available digital models. One model that has captured the limelight and pedagogical buzz in recent years is the flipped classroom. Bishop and Verleger (2013) define the flipped classroom as an educational technique that consists of two parts: interactive group learning activities inside the classroom, and direct computer-based individual instruction outside the classroom. Given that flipped classrooms promote student directed learning, does a correlation, therefore, exist between the Level of Teaching Innovation (LoTi) and those practitioners who subscribe to its theoretical underpinnings?

The 20^th Anniversary Edition of the LoTi Digital Age Survey will attempt to unravel the mystery of the flipped classroom along with other hybrid models (e.g.,rotation, online lab, flex, face-to-face self-blend, online driver) and their individual and collective impact on teaching practices.

To date, it is safe to say that the jury is still out in terms of impact. Our goal is to tabulate data over the next 12 months from the LoTi Digital Age Survey in hopes of helping stakeholders consider ways of maximizing their technology investments on both student achievement and teaching innovation.

This blog post is the third in a series of fourteen online entries highlighting factors that impact the effective use of technology in today's classrooms. This series focuses on each of the research variables used to conduct comparative analyses as part of the 20th Anniversary Edition of the LoTi Digital Age Survey. 

Factors Impacting Effective Technology Use: Digital Infrastructure

During my professional lifetime, school systems nationwide have spent billions of dollars equipping classrooms with the newest technologies in the hope of preparing students for a future work force. How many times have I heard futuristic terms like world of work, 21st Century skills, or wireless society? In the early 80’s, it was Apple IIe’s and MS-DOS machines, in the 90’s, it was the iMac G3, Carmen SanDiego, VHS Tapes, AOL Dial-Up, and Microsoft’s transition to Windows. Since then, we have seen many latest fads come and sometimes go – all with the promise of changing the educational landscape. Remember when interactive white boards and TI-80 calculators were the thing! 

But what impact have these technologies – old and new, had on teaching innovation in the classroom? The 20th Anniversary Edition of the LoTi Digital Age Survey will attempt to determine the degree of correlation between classroom digital infrastructure and the Level of Teaching Innovation (LoTi) using the variables below representing classroom digital infrastructure: 

• No access to digital resources 
• Teacher workstation only 
• Classroom laptop/mobile device station(s) 
• Access to laptop/mobile device cart(s) 
• One-to-one laptop/mobile devices 
• BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) 

By conducting comparative analyses with variables such as classroom digital infrastructure, district and campus leaders will be able to make more focused decisions as to the real needs of their constituents toward maximizing the impact of technology infrastructure on the continuous improvement process in the classroom.

This blog post is the second in a series of fourteen online entries highlighting factors that impact the effective use of technology in today's classrooms. This series focuses on each of the research variables used to conduct comparative analyses as part of the 20th Anniversary Edition of the LoTi Digital Age Survey.