Using Hapara to Help Guide Student Learning

Research shows that constructive, immediate feedback, and anecdotal comments given in a timely manner, result in greater student learning (Chappuis, 2007.Hapara is a tool that supports personalized learning in this key, strategic way. Leveraging Google Apps, Hapara allows teachers to get a snapshot view of each student’s most recent work in Docs, Sites, Blogger and Picasa.

Hapara creates shared folders between students and their teachers where student work is kept. From here, teachers can see the initiation and process of student learning, and even the final product of individual student work. They can support learning during the process by provide timely feedback and by designing strategic in-class learning experiences. Watch the video below for a demo of how Hapara can help teachers support the learning process.

I have used Hapara to assess students' homework prior to class and then to organize their next class based on readiness. I no longer need to wait until they are in class to take in their homework, nor do I have to assess it, and then design the learning for the following class. Through Hapara, I use their understandings immediately and design learning experiences appropriately.

I can guide some students to engage in learning activities that reinforce the learning, while students who have demonstrated a solid understanding of the previous lesson can extend their learning. This allows me to work more directly with the students in each group to help them achieve their learning goals at a pace that is appropriate for them. This immediate feedback gives students a strong sense of their own understanding, and ensures that they know the lesson before moving on to the next concept and/or skill.

Garth Nichols
Teacher, Student Adviser Program Coordinator

Supporting Personalized Learning with Flexible Spaces

I had the opportunity recently to attend a presentation by representatives from Steelcase that focused on how school design is changing to make learning more interactive and student-centered. Over the past few years, Steelcase has researched how space and furniture within schools can be repurposed to better serve the needs of 21st century learning. Their research indicates that learning spaces could be improved if they were made more flexible and allowed for greater student movement and interaction.

By making all furniture movable, teachers can easily reconfigure the room to suit the purpose of the lesson.

The presenter shared many examples of colleges and universities that have incorporated these principles into their new learning spaces. A key change in these classrooms is ensuring the teacher is no longer confined to the front of the room. By making all furniture movable, teachers can easily reconfigure the room to suit the purpose of the lesson. This type of movement might happen two or three times within a single class.

Another key feature of the adaptable classroom is making use of all four walls as surfaces for learning. This approach also ensures teachers don’t simply lecture from the front of the room. Rather than listening passively, students can instead work actively in small groups. Rather than having a single Smartboard or whiteboard at the front of the room, adaptable rooms have interactive surfaces on three points of the room. This allows small groups to have access to mobile technology, which is useful for sharing visual information and solving problems as a group rather than solely relying on teacher direction.

Adaptive and flexible learning spaces are fundamental to Greenwood’s delivery of personalized learning. Increasingly, students will need spaces to work individually or in small groups. Presently our classrooms are configured to support large group learning. Not surprisingly, the learning spaces designed for our planned expansion will take full advantage of the ongoing research by Steelcase and other organizations about what type of learning spaces will best meet the needs of our students.

Allan Hardy
Principal

2.0 Schools: Learning in the 21st Century

One of Canada’s most influential voices on the future of digital technology is Don Tapscott. The author of numerous books and articles on this topic, Tapscott has long been an admirer of Greenwood’s use of learning technology. In Growing Up Digital (2009), he referred to Greenwood as an excellent example of a “2.0 school.” Tapscott defines a 2.0 school as one which prioritizes learning over teaching, customization over a one-size fits all approach, and interactive learning over the broadcasting of information.

More recently, Tapscott was featured in a Globe and Mail interview in which he reiterated the need for schools and universities to work harder to transform themselves into 2.0 schools. According to Tapscott, “we have the best model of learning that 17th-century technology can provide.” For education to equip students to participate fully in the 21st century, Tapscott argues that schools must “use technology to free up instructors from transmitting information to curating customized learning experiences,” and have “learning occur through software programs, small group discussion and projects.”

One of the oft-expressed concerns about moving schools in this direction is that it will minimize the importance of the teacher or professor. However, Tapscott disputes this assumption. Instead, instructors will have greater opportunities to “listen and converse with students” and accordingly, will be better able to “tailor the education to their students’ individual learning styles.” This goal can be accomplished, according to Tapscott, by allowing computers “to provide instruction for anything that requires a right or wrong answer.”

Much of what he outlines in the article resonates with Greenwood’s current approach to personalized learning. Our blended learning approach allows students to use online resources to direct their learning and collaborate in both face-to-face and virtual media. Our use of Hapara in our student adviser program provides advisers with genuine opportunities to customize classroom programming for individual students. I am sure that if Don Tapscott were to revisit Greenwood, he would be impressed by how far we have come with digital learning since his earlier visit to our school seven years ago.

Our use of Hapara in our student adviser program provides advisers with genuine opportunities to customize classroom programming for individual students.

On a closing note, a recent editorial in The New York Times endorsed the use of blended or hybrid learning. Columbia University’s Community College Research Center released a study which tracked the results of 7 million students enrolled in online courses and concluded that students in these courses were more “likely to fail or withdraw than those in traditional classes.” However, the Centre also found that students “in classes that blended online instruction with a face-to-face component performed as well academically as those in traditional classes.” This result was attributed to students’ need for engagement with their teachers.

Allan Hardy
Principal

Next Year, More Personalized Learning

Blended learning is the combination of classroom learning with technology-based lessons and activities. At Greenwood, blended learning is used as one way in which we personalize instruction for students. Currently we run a handful of blended learning courses at the Grade 11 and 12 levels. In 2013-2014 we will run a few Grade 9 and 10 blended learning courses as well. We are increasing the number of courses using this approach because we have seen how it benefits student learning.

We have seen that learning time becomes more flexible for both the student and the teacher. Students who struggle with a concept can watch the video lesson, complete a different activity or conference with the teacher in order to consolidate the concept. Students who understand a concept quickly can move ahead to the next lesson or move beyond the regular content to complete some enrichment activities. Within a blended learning environment, technology helps students maneuver through the various available pathways without waiting for their peers or the teacher. The teacher can also guide the student to an appropriate pathway based on assessment results.

During the 2013-2014 school year, students in Grades 9 and 10 will experience a blended approach in a small portion of their courses (geography in Grade 9, history and civics in Grade 10). These courses will be more teacher-guided than their Grade 11 and 12 counterparts and self-pacing will occur within one lesson or within a small group of 2-4 lessons, rather than within a whole unit or within the entire course. We are exposing our students starting in Grade 9 to this approach for two main reasons: 

1. We want to support students as they acquire the skills needed to be successful in a technology-rich course in the future. Students in these courses will have teacher support while developing their organization, self-monitoring and self-advocacy skills. This will help prepare students for the blended learning courses offered in the senior grades and in postsecondary.
2. This type of course utilizes technology to help the teacher personalize and meet the needs of every student. At Greenwood, we have seen that using technology allows teachers to customize the programs and pathways for students and enhance student learning. As we move forward, we are continuously evaluating our programs and making certain that we use tools, such as blended learning, to support our learners.

Heather Thomas
Director of Personalized Learning

Readiness for Personalized Learning

It is very easy to rationalize a personalized approach to learning. Given the choice between an educational program that is tailored to individual needs and a program that is the same for everybody, the choice seems obvious. The difficulty with the former lies in implementation. Personalized learning gives students more control and ownership over their learning but control can be very daunting for some students. To successfully transition into a personalized program it is essential that students possess the proper skills. It is the teacher’s role to help students develop these skills.

While there are many considerations when implementing a personalized program, there are two major elements needed for student success:

• The first is a technological element. In order to facilitate a flexible learning environment, technology is generally utilized, which requires students to have a certain skill set. 
• The other essential element is a collection of personal skills that learners need to possess. For example, in order to thrive in a personalized learning environment, students need to be organized, self-motivated, good communicators and able to persevere. Fortunately, all of these skills can be developed with time and practice.

One course that has been redeveloped at Greenwood with the goal of better preparing students for personalized learning is the Information and Communication Technology in Business Course, more commonly known as BTT. A large component of this course focuses on the development of important IT skills. Students are exposed to a variety of software and become skilled with word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation software, developing web pages and using search engines. With the strong IT skills developed in this course, any technological barriers preventing students from being successful in a personalized program are removed.

Developing the personal skills to be successful in a student-centred program is a considerably more challenging task. In a traditional classroom where teachers control the pace and content, it is very easy for students to become passive learners. Passive learners are accustomed to being told what, how and when they need to learn.

BTT, on the other hand, gives students complete control over their learning in an environment that is flexible and accommodating, and allows students to develop the necessary skills for a personalized program over time. Although BTT is a grade 9 course, at Greenwood, the course is generally started in grade 7 and completed by students over 2 years. By extending the program over 2 years, students have a lot of time to develop the required skills. This course is also available to new grade 9 students so that they can reach the same level as returning students, but in this case it is completed in 1 year.

BTT is run as an independent course, with only extra help scheduled, and is integrated with other subjects. Integrating with other subjects allows students to complete assignments for BTT and other courses simultaneously. For example, one unit in BTT requires students to use software to create a presentation. Since the assessment for BTT is primarily skills-based, students can easily create a presentation with content for another class, ensure that the appropriate skills are demonstrated, and then submit the same assignment for BTT.

The format of this course requires students to look ahead and determine the most appropriate assignments to complete, to organize their time, to coordinate meetings for extra help and to collaborate with each other. The flexibility of the course and the 2-year completion time allows students to improve their work and hone their skills without worrying about rigid deadlines.

While it is very challenging for many grade 7, 8, and 9 students to take ownership of their learning, this course aims to promote and help develop the skills needed for a personalized learning program in a safe and supportive environment.

Kyle Acres
Learning Technology Adviser

Personalizing with Google Drive

As mentioned in previous posts, an important element to personalizing education is giving students control over when, where, how and what they learn. Technology is not essential to facilitate this outcome but can definitely simplify the task.

One tool that is becoming increasingly popular at Greenwood College School is Google Drive. At first glance Google Drive looks like any other folder on your computer but below the surface it behaves very differently as all documents saved to Google Drive are automatically uploaded to The Cloud.

Simply having a folder to automatically back up files is great in itself but the bigger advantage for teachers comes from the fact that any file saved to The Cloud is given a web address. More importantly, if a file’s web address is shared with others, it can be accessed at all times by anyone with the link.

When teachers share using Google Drive, they give students easy access to files without generating a lot of additional work for themselves. For example, teachers always create unit plans for their courses. These unit plans generally consist of a table developed in Microsoft Word that breaks a unit into a daily progression. Using Google Drive, teachers can give this unit plan another purpose. An online version of the outline can become an interactive path for students in their class. The teacher can link handouts, resources and activities to the unit plan, share it with students, and in turn provide an easy to navigate location where students can find all lesson resources. An image of a few lessons from a sample chemistry unit outline can be seen here.

By making the unit outline available online, it is easy for students to catch up when they are away, to return to concepts they did not understand or to work ahead.

Another advantage of this system is that shared assignments and resources are always current. Teachers alter assignments and lesson progressions on a regular basis and when changes are made, Google Drive automatically synchronizes the updated file with the online version of the file. This ensures that students always have access to the most recent document. This method saves teachers time as they do not need to upload or print a new version of a document each time a change is made. Google Drive can share any type of file which allows teachers to develop and share resources using familiar software such as Microsoft Word and SMART Notebook.

At Greenwood College School, teachers teaching the same course use Google Drive to collaborate efficiently. Previously when teachers wanted to share or develop documents they would email them back and forth until a final version was completed. This method would often result in several versions of the same document being created which was confusing. Now, using Google Drive teachers can create a course folder and modify one document from their own computer. Since the document is shared through The Cloud, any updates will be added to all files no matter where they are located.

Google Drive was only released earlier this year, but already it has become an important teaching and collaborating tool for teachers at our school.

Kyle Acres
Learning Technology Adviser

Momentum for Personalized Learning Continues

One of the areas of inquiry during my time here at the Klingenstein Heads of School Program has involved a critical examination of the role of technology in the future of education.

As you may be aware, a lively debate about the effective use of technology in schools has been underway for a number of years. Critics of technology in school argue that the millions of dollars invested in technology would have be better spent on other areas of school improvement.

Proponents of technology in education feel it has the potential to transform education for the future and ensure that all students have an equitable opportunity to be successful.

This latter belief is evident in the Obama administration’s National Education Technology Plan, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology (2010). As a school founded on a belief in individualized learning, it was gratifying to read that the plan called for greater emphasis on “engaging and personalized learning experiences” and that teachers need “to focus what and how we teach to match what students need to how and how they learn.”

In a recent class, the school heads spent time reviewing and discussing this plan. We agreed that the goals are ambitious and if achieved, will result in an approach to education different from the one students presently experience. The greatest concern expressed by the various heads was the impact of the growing presence of technology upon the vital social dimension of an independent school.

This important question is one we are studying closely at Greenwood. Throughout the year one group within our school leadership team has been researching how we can best move toward a personalized learning model that embodies the spirit of learning anytime, anywhere.

At the same time, a second group within the team is focused upon ensuring that we maintain a strong focus on the development of the whole person, an essential element of our school’s mission. Clearly we cannot turn our back on technology, as it has much to offer in the advancement of student learning.

However, the key here seems to be that we continue to move forward in a balanced and measured manner, keeping in mind that the social dimension remains a critical element of the high school experience.

Allan Hardy
Principal

Personalizing without Technology

Technology definitely improves the classroom experience and has been an important tool for personalizing our program at Greenwood College School. However, is it possible to personalize a program without using technology?

While presenting at a conference last week, this argument was presented to us by several participants who felt that the personalized approach adopted by Greenwood is only suitable for schools with technology. While I would agree that it is easier to create a personalized experience if every student has their own electronic device, it is not imperative.

Personalized learning is about good teaching. Personalized learning is about providing the learner with some choice about what is learned, when it is learned and how it is learned, and these goals can be attained with or without technology.

In the early 80s, I was fortunate to be a student in a personalized elementary classroom. While in Grade 7, I attended a rural school that did not have any computers. My first computer, a Commodore 64, did not arrive until several years later.

However, despite the lack of technology my teacher did a tremendous job personalizing our program. At the beginning of every month he would post a chart on the bulletin board. On the chart was a grid with every student’s name in a column on the left and all the assignments for the month across the top.

As you completed an assignment, the teacher would cross it off the chart. This approach allowed students to work independently and at their own pace which in turn allowed the teacher to spend more time with students who needed extra support.

While the program I experienced was delivered without any technology, most schools in the 21st century have access to at least some technology. Even though many schools have limited access to computers, teachers can be creative and effectively utilize what technology they do have.

For example, suppose a classroom has access to only three computers. The teacher of this classroom could design a unit that can be completed in non-sequential order. While one group is working on the computers, other groups can be conducting a lab, completing a problem-set or participating in a debate.

The key to personalized learning is not technology. The key is to develop structures that provide students with more control and responsibility for their learning. When personalizing a classroom, one goal should be to eliminate the “one size fits all” teaching approach.

Problems will always be present when trying to personalize a program - but difficult obstacles should not be seen as a reason to abandon efforts, but as an interesting challenge and opportunity to develop creative solutions.

Kyle Acres
Science Teacher