Wyoming Digital Learning Plan March 2019 Newsletter

Update from the Wyoming Department of Education  |  view online |  website

WYOMING DIGITAL LEARNING PLAN

February 2019

Welcome to the Digital Learning Plan (DLP) monthly newsletter

This newsletter will explore the Wyoming Department of Education’s (WDE) Digital Learning Plan (DLP), its goals, and suggested strategies to ensure equitable access to opportunities for students.

Future newsletters will provide resources for districts to create their own action plans/implementation plans for achieving these goals.


Future Ready Gear 1

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Through a more flexible, consistent, and personalized approach to academic content design, instruction, and assessment, teachers will have robust and adaptive tools to customize the instruction for groups of students or on a student-to-student basis to ensure relevance and deep understanding of complex issues and topics. Providing multiple sources of high-quality academic content offers students much greater opportunities to personalize learning and reflect on their own work, think critically, and engage frequently to enable a deeper understanding of complex topics. Data are the building blocks of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments — all of which are key elements in a system where learning is personalized, individualized, and differentiated to ensure learner success.

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment gear with 2 people in the center reading a book.

The elements that comprise this gear are as follows:

  • 21st Century skills/deeper learning
  • Personalized learning
  • Collaborative, relevant, and applied learning
  • Leveraging technology
  • Assessment-analytics inform instruction

 

GOALS

WDE Strategies

Provide a common understanding of what students should know, understand, and be able to do, specific to digital learning and digital citizenship.
Technology is used to gather and utilize data to inform educators and students with personalized instructions.
Educators use instructional practices that shift their role to be facilitators of learning.

Future Ready Gear 2

Use of Space and Time

Student-centric learning requires changes in the way instructional time is used. There are new opportunities for utilizing in-school and out-of-school time, and leveraging approaches such as competency-based learning to make learning more personalized and learning opportunities more accessible. These new opportunities leverage technology to meet the needs, pace, interests, and preferences of the learner. This transition is made possible through innovative uses of technology for assessing student learning, managing learning, engaging students in learning, disseminating content, and providing the infrastructure necessary to encourage flexible, anytime, anywhere learning opportunities.

Use of space and time gear is a clock with the hands pointing at 3 o'clock

The elements that comprise this gear are as follows:

  • Flexible learning; anytime, anywhere
  • New pedagogy, schedules, and learning environment for personalized learning
  • Competency-based learning
  • Strategies for providing extended time for projects and collaboration

 

Goals

WDE Strategies

Students will be provided with a continuum of high-quality learning opportunities that can be easily identified, personalized, and accessed.
Educators across the state will have access to models of effective Digital Learning across time and space.
Offer quality online and blended courses for students that include opportunities for students to demonstrate mastery of content in a variety of ways.

Innovative Idea

For several years, Weston County School District #7’s Upton High School has been invested in creating a culture where students are in the driver's seat of their education. Through flexible scheduling, students take control of their own learning and advocate for their education. Both teachers and students are so enthusiastic about the use of classroom time they will never go back to a regular school schedule.

Innovative Ideas

If your school or district is contemplating incorporating a flexible schedule, take a look at these innovative ideas WCSD #7 shared:

  • Have a clear district vision and make sure all stakeholders are on the same page. Have an end goal in mind of what you want the students to reach.The end goal is what you want your graduates to be able to do when they leave high school-what describes the ideal graduate.  
  • Find a balance of what works best for your school and district. There is no cookie cutter method and, even better, there is no right or wrong way! Take the best pieces from other schools who have flexible schedules and make it your own.
  • Be patient with the growing pains. It will be a shock to the system and will take time to adjust. If it doesn’t work at first, don’t burn it to the ground-just keep pushing through.
  • Don’t be afraid to change things throughout implementation. Failure is part of learning. Have conversations with teachers and students constantly about what is working and what isn’t.
  • Establish a plan for your content creation. Have your teachers trained in the Learning Management System and build courses first.
  • Don’t forget this is about the students’ and increasing their chance for success.
Weston County School District #7 Learner Centered-Future Focused

 

To learn more contact Linda Crawford at lcrawford@weston7.org or Clark Coberly at ccoberly@weston7.org


Digital Learning Upcoming Professional Development

Canvas

  • Canvas Online Subscription Training
    • Available all year long!
  • Canvas In-person Training
    • The WDE has purchased training days to be used by districts. Districts just have to express interest.

Contact Robin Grandpre at robin.grandpre1@wyo.gov or 307-777-5315 for more information.

Quality Matters (QM) Online Course Review, Teaching and Development

  • Districts can schedule a workshop for any time of the year
  • QM courses are also available online year round
  • All QM training is sponsored by the WDE

Contact Lori Thilmany at lori.thilmany@wyo.gov or 307-777-7418 for more information.

Open Education Resources Summer Workshops:

  • June 12th and 13th- Cheyenne, WY
  • June 24th and 25th-Casper, WY
  • June 26th and 27th-Powell, WY
  • July 10th and 11th-Green River, WY
  • July 22nd and 23rd-Jackson, WY
  • July 25th and 26th-Gillette, WY

Contact Alisa Cook at alisa.cook1@wyo.gov or 307-777-3679 for more information. Register Today!

Wyoming Innovations in Learning Conference

  • Nov. 6-8, 2019 (preconferences Nov. 5-6) - Gillette, WY

Contact Robin Grandpre at robin.grandpre1@wyo.gov or 307-777-5315 for more information.


Stay Tuned

Next month’s Digital Learning Plan Newsletter will introduce the first three gears of the Wyoming DLP:

  • Robust Infrastructure.
  • Data and Privacy

For more information, on the DLP, or the Future Ready Frameworks, or if you have an innovative idea to share, contact Alisa Cook at 307-777-3679 or alisa.cook1@wyo.gov.

Stay Tuned