SEL FORWARD

Social and Emotional Learning Towards Meaningful Social Contribution

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Technology will play a vital role in this curriculum. One of the ways technology will be used is as a form of resource. Students will use the computers to research about the history of a social problem as well as facts about their chosen civic groups. For students who have learning disabilities, it is recommended to pair students with a student mentor who is well verse in using the software as well as to have a technology specialist to support the student in navigating the different applications and softwares.

Videos will also be used to present informations that aims to engage students and as an additional source for knowledge building. Other platforms recommended for this curriculum are:

Adobe Spark can be used for creating a video presentation or a blog. This web-based application is designed with beginners in mind. A short session on how to navigate the tool might be necessary but it doesn’t require a steep learning curve. There are presets and templates available that can guide the students in their projects. Just like Google Docs, it is recommended to set up student mentorship and/or technology specialist to accommodate students with learning disabilities.

When students are using Adobe Spark to use for blogging, students with learning disabilities must also use Google forms to compose their blogs and take advantage of spell checks and other assistive features (Courtad, C. & Bouck, E., 2013, p. 159).

iMovie is another video making platform that is easy for kids to use to create a video presentation for their final project. Providing time to learn the software must be accounted for when planning the time frame allotted for the creation of the end unit project if student decides to create a video. Students must also be guided with strategies on how to plan, prepare and execute the production of their movie by creating a script or a storyboard that is geared towards a content guideline.

Padlet can also be use as a classroom note taking tool. This can encourage a typically shy student to jot down their thoughts and ideas, share it to the class without having to recite it out loud. This is an easy tool for students to collaborate and gather their ideas in one place.

One of the students’ tasks is to reflect on the historical context of the social issue and the civic groups engaged to address the problem. Students will be creating their reflection piece that will make use of technology as the main tool. Whether it be creating a video, a blog or a mindmap, students will build their understanding as they create these pieces using different softwares that applies to their choice of presentation.

Google Drive will be the collecting space for all learning materials, resources as well as materials gathered during the planning and research phase. Teachers must explain and model to students ways of organizing materials in their Google drives. In the beginning of the unit, the teacher must have already created a folder name Unit 3: Civic Engagements and have sub folders that contains note taking guidelines, rubrics, peer and self review and learning materials that will help scaffold students knowledge creation.

Note-taking sheets and guidelines will be shared to the class in Google docs. Students will use their Google drive to organize their materials for their presentation. Students with disability can be assisted by a student mentorship or a technology specialist. For students who doesn’t have access to computers at home, a hard copy of the note sheets, rubrics and other materials will also be provided to the students. For students who have trouble reading or writing, Google Docs can also be used as an assistive technology by using the text to speech feature (Courtad, C. & Bouck, E., 2013, p. 157).

Google Forms a free online survey platform will also be used for students to complete their peer reviews and self reviews. This type of reflection will help students realize what works and how they can improve individually and as a group.

Google Slide is part of the Google Suite that is free with any Gmail account. Teachers can use this platform to create their instruction guide and learning activities that can be presented to the class. When instructions are created using Google Slides, it makes it easy for students to refer back to the objectives, rubrics or instructions (Courtad, C. & Bouck, E., 2013, p. 159). Students can also use this platform for their reflection and/or final presentation.

Youtube or a similar video sharing platform can be a source of information that can serve as a knowledge building technology for this unit (Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C.,2006, p. 404). One of the activities included in Unit 3 is to show student videos of various civic groups that addresses social problems similar to their community such as recycling, food insecurities, etc.

©2018 Bhavi Doshi, Alice Kahng, Joan Calandria-Nelson and Paulo Ribeiro
Teachers College, Columbia University