Using iOS devices with iTunes, teachers can enhance audio with pictures and video, making important visual connections to the second language being learned. Teachers and students can also use the iLife suite of digital authoring applications included on every Mac, such as iMovie and GarageBand, to create their own content for iPad and iPod. The curriculum is similar in concept to Everyone Can Code, Apple's effort to spread Swift programming in schools worldwide. Apple Stores are using Everyone Can Create in Today at Apple Teacher. An interactive digital STEM curriculum will help them understand the concepts of science, engineering, and math in an engaging manner. Combine this with guidance from teachers in the classroom, students will be able to comprehend various complex topics and concepts in a much better way.

Modern Learning in school today is a complex undertaking which requires a robust strategy of support to be successful.* Today I’m in the Dallas, Texas, area, and had the chance to visit with both Good Shepherd Episcopal School (@gsesdallas) and Prestonwood Christian Academy (@PrestonwoodPCA) teachers, students and staff with a team from our school in Oklahoma City. At the end of our day, I created the following graphic to represent my understanding of the 14 different elements of successful “modern learning in school” involving Internet-connected digital devices for learners. In this post, I’ll briefly highlight and define what I understand each of these elements / legs to mean. I’d love to hear from you (either via a Twitter reply to @wfryer, a Facebook post comment, or a blog post comment below) on what’s missing from this model / framework, or your responses / feedback to these ideas. A larger version of this graphic is available on Flickr and as a Google Drawing. It’s shared under CC-BY.

Here are the fourteen legs of the table of “Modern Learning in School.” For an earlier iteration of this, listen to my podcast, “Planning for 1:1 Project Success” from 13 years ago in October 2006.

1. “The Why”

What is the shared vision for learning at our school? What does, can, and should learning inside and outside the classroom look, sound, and feel like? Part of our answer to this question today is our “Portrait of a Graduate.” Other elements involve “making thinking visible,” “durable learning” (which persists long after formal assessments are over) and “peak learning moments.” Engagement and multi-disciplinary / cross-curricular learning are also elements of this vision.

2. Student Computing Devices

Learners in the twenty-first century require access to digital, Internet connected devices to become fully literate and thrive in our society. Whether that device is a Chromebook, a laptop, an iPad, or other kind of tablet, it’s essential students as well as teachers have access to Internet connected devices which not only allow them to access and consume media in various forms, but also create and share media. Learners should have the opportunity to regularly “show what they know with media.” This “new normal” for modern learning requires ubiquitous access to digital computing devices.

3. LMS – SIS – Databases

Modern learning requires sophisticated database support. Schools require learning management systems (LMS) and student information systems (SIS) to digitally manage student data including attendance, grades, assignments, and curriculum.

4. Technical Support

The roles and importance of technology hardware and software programs, which are increasingly Internet connected, have grown dramatically in the past decade and are on track to continue this growth pattern. Modern learners in schools need access to “help desk” staff and “genius bar” style support to fix problems and get technology devices working again quickly when problems are encountered. Information Technology (IT) support goes beyond “level 1 triage” of immediate problems, however, and includes support for a wide variety of Internet- connected devices and network-delivered services. (See my February 2019 post, “Lessons Learned as a School Director of Technology” for more details on this range of devices to support.) Australian curriculum v7.2 updateeffective curriculum ideas free.

5. Professional Development

Schools historically tend to under-invest in professional development for teachers. Modern learning requires that schools cultivate cultures of ongoing and continuous learning among teachers. This not only includes summer and school year workshops, conferences, and meetings for teachers, it also should include “just in time” support at department, grade level, individual and after-school meetings which allow for “showing and sharing,” collaboration, and learning about new tools and strategies which support student as well as professional learning.

6. Instructional Support

IT (Information Technology) support alone is insufficient for modern learning in schools. Instructional support, including educational technology focused support but also including lesson design / pedagogical support, is also vital. Schools support modern learning by providing certified, instructional coaches who are available to meet regularly with teachers to brainstorm, co-teach, design, deliver and facilitate lessons with students.

7. Infrastructure

Modern Learning, increasingly powered by cloud-connected digital devices and services, requires a robust technology infrastructure of fiber optic cabling, ethernet cabling, network switches, WiFi access points, firewalls, and other server computers with various functions. Many server functions which have historically been hosted locally can and should be “moved to the cloud,” but some applications require local server support. All these infrastructure elements must be regularly updated as well as maintained to create a digital learning environment where web resources are accessed by students, teachers, and staff as naturally as we breathe air.

8. Web Filtering and MDM

As the resources and positive learning potential of modern learning continues to increase, the potential for those resources and technologies to be abused and used for malicious / inappropriate purposes has also grown. We live in a “seek and find world,” and media inappropriate for classroom use (and arguably any constructive use) can be only a few mouse clicks or touchscreen taps away. In this environment (also regulated by the eRate requirements in the United States) it is imperative for all schools to provide web content filtering as well as monitoring of student digital devices. The effective and efficient management of digital devices with required software and applications today in schools requires the use of mobile device management (MDM) platforms.

9. Curriculum

Throughout human history, learning has always required ideas, content and curriculum. As oral traditions gave way to written texts, teaching and learning models changed. Similarly today, as curriculum becomes increasingly digital, the strategies employed by teachers and students to engage in learning are also evolving. Digital textbooks / ebooks are one form of curriculum today, but the landscape of curriculum is more diverse as well as fractured than ever. Modern learning requires curriculum, which can include required media (textbooks) but also a wide variety of web resources and interactive learning platforms.

10. Parent Education

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Parents expect many things from schools, teachers and administrators. Since the arrival of the World Wide Web and Internet connected devices in schools and our homes, and the explosive growth of digital communication technologies including social media, parents have had and continue to have many concerns and fears about the ways these tools are used and their impact on their children. Screentime concerns today are prominent in the minds of many parents, just as fears about Internet predators were ten years ago. Both are real issues and important to address. Screentime is not monolithic, however, and helping parents as well as teachers “see” and understand this is critical. School leaders and teachers need to regularly and intentionally communicate with parents to explain the ways we are working to mitigate/reduce online risks, promote responsible technology use, monitor use to support accountability, and helping empower students to develop their executive capacities to make good choices in our digital world.

11. Learning Spaces

Modern learning requires far more than Internet-connected devices and curriculum. The layout of the classroom, the desks (and hopefully furniture) available to students, the availability of multiple projection devices: All of these elements of learning spaces create an environment which can be supportive or challenging for modern learning. For more on this, see the 2010 book, “The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning.”

12. SSO and Security

Single-Sign On (SSO) is the process of using a single identity credential to access multiple systems. These can include websites, computing devices, software programs / platforms and physical locks like doors and gates. Many schools today (including ours) use Google Suite for Education for students and teachers. Many online curriculum platforms and web services allow user logins via Google. Others integrate with third party SSO services like Clever or Class Link. These tools are essential to reduce the number of userIDs and passwords modern learners must use and maintain. They also can enhance digital security and accountability. An ongoing focus on digital security, avoiding phishing / identity theft, and protecting both personal and organizational resources is critical for modern learning as well as life. Everyone (at least starting in middle school) needs to be using long, complex and unique passwords on every website / application requiring a login, using a password manager, and using multi-factor authentication whenever possible.

13. Financing

Modern learning is not free. How are the varied requirements of modern learning highlighted in this framework funded? Funding is required to not only launch / start a modern learning initiative, but also sustain it. Adequate staffing for modern learning is essential and can be expensive. Schools utilize a variety of funding mechanisms to start and sustain modern learning.

14. Policies, Expectations and RUP

A variety of school policies and expectations for modern learning are important. These are not limited to students but also extend to parents. Helping students stay safe and make good choices both in classes and in life is and should be an ongoing partnership between parents, teachers, administrators and staff. Many schools have migrated from using an “Acceptable Use Policy” (AUP) to a “Responsible Use Policy” (RUP) for students. We made this transition at our school several years ago, and links to those policies as well as presentation resources shared with our community are available on the “student resources” page of our Digital Citizenship website.

So those are the “14 legs of the table of Modern Learning,” as I see them today. What do you think. What’s missing?

* Shout out to Jason Kern (@jasonmkern) who is the first school Director of Technology / Chief Information Officer I heard about and know who changed his official job title to “Director of Modern Learning.” Also thanks to our trip collaborators and colleagues from The Casady School as well as Good Shepherd Episcopal School and Prestonwood Christian Academy who discussed many of the ideas highlighted in this post with us today. Also thanks to The Noun Project, the source for all the icons used in this graphic.

If you enjoyed this post and found it useful, subscribe to Wes' free newsletter. Check out Wes' video tutorial library, 'Playing with Media.' Information about more ways to learn with Dr. Wesley Fryer are available on wesfryer.com/after.

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Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. The New Media Consortium, which publishes its annual “Horizon Report for K-12” previewing the technologies likely to impact education in the coming five years, forecast back in 2015 that by 2019, we would see drones playing a role in education.

The future has swooped in early: We’re already seeing drones being added to the mix of teaching tools that educators are using to help bring STEM to life in their classrooms. And while schools are coming to drones from a variety of directions, they are all finding that this technology offers learning opportunities for students that touch on every part of their curriculums.

MORE FROM EDTECH: Check out how K–12 students are using drones to tackle complex problems.

Drone Competition Creates Fun STEM Opportunity

For the Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Fort Worth, Texas, the introduction of drones into the school came by way of the Bell Drone Competition. Sergio Flores, the school’s competitive engineering coach, signed up his school and joined five other schools in the area to compete in this 2018 event sponsored by Bell Helicopter, an aircraft manufacturer whose headquarters are in Fort Worth.

“From the kickoff event in April, where we learned exactly what we’d need to do, to the competition itself, it was only six weeks,” says Flores. “We had the box of drone parts and the dimensions of what we’d need to construct. Once we got back to the school, we planned out how we were going to tackle this challenge and broke off into teams to work on the different events. There was lots of trial and error.”

This is not the first challenge that Flores has presented his competitive engineering team. It regularly participates in several different competitions, including ones for robotics and solar cars. “Our goal is to get the girls interested in as many different types of engineering challenges as we can — whether in the air, on the land or in the sea,” says Flores.

Challenges Make Engineering More Exciting

Most of the girls had never worked with a drone before. For the competition, they had to design and put together the drone itself, along with programming the motors and the servos. It was up to the team to figure out the best design for each of the competition’s events.

One such event was the Wimbledon Challenge, which involved picking up tennis balls with the drone and then dropping them into a basket. Another event was a search-and-rescue mission using the camera on the drone to navigate an obstacle-filled landscape. Each event presented its own unique engineering challenges.

While the team did not win the competition, its members gained a great deal from their work with the drones. “For the girls, the big takeaway was the teamwork it took — working in groups, collaborating on ideas and coming up with a solution,” says Flores. “We worked through the entire engineering process, defining the challenge, specifying the requirements, brainstorming solutions, building prototypes, testing and redesigning. I’m proud of our team.”

Schools Adjust Curriculums to Include Drones

Dripping Springs Independent School District, located in Dripping Springs, Texas, arrived at drones by way of a parent. The district, which had been applying a STEM curriculum in its schools for six years, had grown comfortable with using innovative technology in its classrooms.

Makerspaces were available in each of the schools; Ozobots and Spheros were a common sight rolling across classroom floors. It was hard to see where else the district could go with technology in the classroom.

Then, four years ago, Marisa Vickery, facilitator of learning and innovation for the district, was approached by a parent who is a software engineer and was interested in working with students on building a drone. To take it a step further, the students would make the drone parts themselves.

“We completed the project over a few months, with the kids 3D-printing the parts,” recounts Vickery. “Then, with the help of parents, we soldered and wired the drones, all very hands-on stuff. We programmed them and used a flight simulator that allowed each student to learn to use the remote control to finally fly the drone.”

As drones grew in popularity and came down in price, Vickery realized they could become a regular part of the district’s STEM program. Around this time, the same parent saw an opportunity to build an app that would make it easy to program the drones. He created DroneBlocks, a drag-and-drop block programming app that’s available for free for both iOS and Android devices.

“We then built a curriculum around drones,” says Vickery. “For some classes, teachers may use a drone for flying as an incentive or for basic coding practice, while others have the students plot out equations, using the drones to study math. We also did one drone lesson for student writing. The drones really open up student interest, and there are so many applications for them across our curriculum.”

How Teachers Can Get Comfortable with Drones

While DSISD has a longstanding openness to using technology in its classrooms, there are still challenges to getting it into students’ hands. Not all teachers have the same level of comfort with technology and working it into their lesson plans.

“Part of my job is planting seeds, suggesting where we can promote and utilize drones across our district,” says Vickery. “Just getting teachers to bring this into the classroom, the initial first step, can be difficult and can feel out of their skill set. However, when they see how easy it can be to integrate, they open up to it. Teachers then begin to feel empowered after that initial lesson and seeing the excitement of their students.”

Drones Prepare Students for a STEM Future

The use of drones in Golf School District 67 in Morton Grove, Illinois, stems, in part, from Classrooms First, an initiative driven by Niles Township High Schools District 219, the local high school district that district 67 feeds into. This initiative provides support to local elementary districts to help prepare students for high school and college.

“We provide each grade with coding and robotics opportunities appropriate for each level throughout our district,” explains Steven Shadel, executive director of K-12 STEM and literacy for district 219. “We make a point to change up the platforms and technologies we use each year. We want students to be able to adapt to technology’s changes. It’s what they will see as they move forward in their education and careers.”

With that support, district 67 teachers have found some innovative ways to work drones into lesson and curriculums. For example, third-grade students at the district’s Hynes Elementary Schoolrecently used drones to learn about agriculture and the weather in a lesson called “Farmer Grady.”

“We set up a fake orchard in the classroom,” explains Katharine Casleton, who teaches the third grade. “The students use Chromebooks to do block coding with the Tynker platform. They walk through their code, then they trial their code, flying the drones, to see if it is successful. They can then make modifications if needed, redesign the code, then test again. We talk about the engineering process throughout all of this.”

Where Do Drones Fit into the Curriculum?

Casleton is the STEM leader for her grade at Hynes, putting her on the front lines of working drones into the curriculum.

“I never worked with coding or drones until I introduced them into the classroom with our STEM program. I try new things out, seeing what works and what doesn’t — and not everything works. As a STEM leader, I’m open to experiencing failure in my teaching, reflecting on that failure and sharing with my teammates what we’re doing.”

A big part of her role as STEM leader is discovering ways to relate the coding and the technology to the lessons in the curriculum. This can be a challenge, given the government mandates that drive much of the focus on what students are taught. “The hours in school are limited,” explains Shadel, “so teachers like Katharine need to figure out where to fit in robotics and drones and coding into a very tight schedule. The only way to do that is merging it into what we’re already teaching. We don’t have any choice but to integrate the tech into what we’re teaching in the curriculum.”

Support Teachers Through STEM Training

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To help make that happen, the STEM leaders in district 67 are given multiple tiers of support. “We have embedded job training such as lunch and learns or on-site team meetings,” says Shadel. “We encourage them to take risks and teach something over the summer that they might be interested in bringing into the classroom in the fall, letting them work out all the kinks and firm up their teaching plans, and we provide coaching opportunities that occur outside the classroom as well.”

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The biggest challenge for Casleton has been time. “Using the drones is something that I could spend an entire week on, and I only have two or three days to work with them. We just brush the surface, and I’d love to have more opportunities for them to change their code or to offer more challenging flights for them. The kids are really excited about the drones. It brings something different to the typical learning situation.”

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