Join #TeachDoNow Summer MOOC

By Matt Williams, Educational Technologist, KQED

#TeachDoNow is a free, collaborative learning experience offered by KQED this summer in partnership with Educator Innovator and the National Writing Project. This online opportunity is open to anyone interested in learning how to use Twitter and other media sharing applications to promote social and civic discourse with students and will take place this summer from July 7 – August 17.

Weekly activities will center around KQED’s Do Now, a program that allows students to engage and respond to current issues in science, news and the arts. using social media tools.

In #TeachDoNow, participants will engage in weekly discussions designed to promote deep discussions among formal and informal educators. The topics to be covered include: civic discourse, mobile technology in the classroom, student safety and digital citizenship, visual communication, 21st century communication and connected learning. The discussions will be accompanied by weekly missions that challenge participants to learn new tools and skills, discover and share new knowledge, and creatively express themselves using new media tools. To accomplish all of this, participants and facilitators will be working together as both learners and change agents in an open environment known as a Massive Open Online Collaboration (MOOC).

To participate, please sign up at the #TeachDoNow blog and join the #TeachDoNow G+ community.

Throughout the MOOC, discussions will take place on a variety of platforms and in a variety of media formats from tweets, to photos, to blog entries, to video and audio, with everyone encouraged to contribute and follow along. It is through participation in these discussions that learners will gain new knowledge, share their experiences and views, practice new tools, and learn how to promote digital conversations with their own students. Teachers, administrators, after school program leaders, and connected learning practitioners will find the #TeachDoNow MOOC a fun and powerful way to use social media tools for deep learning. All are welcome to participate at the level and to the extent that make sense for their own individual learning goals, but we encourage a deep dive.

The goals of this MOOC are to:

• Engage participants in relevant and important conversation around issues critical to 21st century learning.
• Use a collaborative, challenge-based approach to learning and employing new tools to promote digital conversation and civic engagement.
• Create an opportunity for participants to plan to implement digital conversations and Do Now in their own educational settings in the fall.

Schedule:

Week 1: July 7 — What are the best strategies for accessing professional learning online?

• Join moderators from MindShift, KQED’s influential blog charting the future of education, as we share and explore the best resources for understanding current trends in education and develop and share strategies to achieve our own professional learning goals.

Week 2: July 14 — How can we use Connected Learning principles to promote 21st century learning and address Common Core State Standards?

• Teachers from the National Writing Project will share Connected Learning principles and resources and lead an exploration about how to promote the kinds of skills in students required by our 21st century culture and CCSS.

Week 3: July 21 — What media making and social learning tools are best at engaging learners?

• We will examine a wide range of tools and tips that enable communication through multiple modes of media. Educator Innovators will moderate a creative expression of ideas that takes place through audio and visuals created and shared through the use of these tools.

Week 4: July 28 — How do you engage millennials in civic discourse and promote community engagement?

• Experts from higher ed, as well as innovative K-12 practitioners will lead an inquiry into how to best use participatory media to promote positive student engagement in their communities – both online and offline.

Week 5: August 4 — What are your biggest concerns about online safety and digital citizenship in a web-based learning environment?

• One of the critical roadblocks for teachers interested in student media making and online discourse is concern about safety and behavior online. Join moderators from Common Sense Media in an important sharing out and examination of these issues.

Week 6: August 11  — How do you manage learners, tasks, resources, and assessment in a connected learning environment?

• The skills required of 21st century learners are clear. How to manage a 21st century learning environment that actively promotes those skills is less so. Join leading education innovators in thinking about how to transform your learning environment and the pedagogical strategies needed to teach in a connected learning environment.

MOOC Ends August 17

View the #TeachDoNow course blog to register.