Heartland AEA Digital Learning News

Hopefully everyone had a safe, relaxing winter break and you’re feeling recharged for the new year! The start of a new year often leads us to examine where we are and to set goals for where we’d like to be, personally and professionally. We would love to hear your education-related New Year’s resolutions on Heartland's Innovative Educator Facebook Group!

Adobe Spark is a tool many schools have used to provide free access for students and educators to creatively express themselves with graphics, videos, presentations, web pages, and more. This free access continues with Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education. In addition to all of the features that were included with Adobe Spark, students and educators now also get access to new classroom templates, guided editing tools, Photoshop Express, Adobe Premier Rush, and Adobe Stock images curated for K–12.

For more information on the update to Creative Cloud Express, check out the video below from Adobe for Education:

Please reach out to the Digital Learning Consultant assigned to your district or email our team at haeatech@heartlandaea.org for additional support with Adobe Creative Cloud Express.

Are you looking for new ways to provide opportunities for students to be creative, collaborative, critical thinkers, and communicators? Few would argue with this goal, but it can be difficult to design learning experiences that accomplish this. HyperDocs are interactive, student-centered digital activities designed to shift the learning experience toward these goals.

We are excited to continue our Heart of Innovation Learning Series with a license renewal course that explores the pedagogy behind effective implementation of HyperDocs, applies these concepts to instruction, and allows participants to create a HyperDoc for use in the classroom. This course will be online and runs from January 31 through March 11. Register for Designing Digital Lessons with HyperDocs today!

Want to learn about using HyperDocs as an instructional tool, but don’t have time for a full course? We’re excited to bring the HyperDocs Team to you as part of our Heart of Innovation Webinar Series! Sign up today to join this FREE webinar from 10:00am–11:00am on Tuesday, February 15. We know this may fall during your class times, so feel free to join us for all or part of the live webinar and remember that all registrants receive a recording of the webinar to watch at their convenience.

Heartland AEA is excited to continue offering support to districts as they create or expand plans to implement computer science for their students. SCRIPT workshops provide a framework for visioning, self-assessment, and goal setting as districts progress toward rigorous, inclusive, sustainable, K-12 computer science programs. Heartland AEA is excited to host an in-person workshop that meets on April 12 & 19 and a Zoom session on January 19, February 2, February 16, and February 23. For more information or to register for these SCRIPT workshops, please see course #201243 in the Professional Learning Registration System.

Computer Science Curriculum and Professional Development Grants are available to help Iowa school districts and accredited nonpublic schools with the cost of providing high-quality computer science curriculum for students and aligned professional development for teachers.

The Department of Education originally announced a $10,000 limit per grade band (K-5, 6-8, 9-12) under this funding opportunity, with a maximum potential award of $30,000 per district. Effective immediately, the grade band limit has now been removed, as has the overall amount available, in an effort to provide for increased flexibility and local need. Each district approved for a grant can now receive up to $50,000 and may divide these funds between grade bands as they see fit.

Additional information on this grant opportunity, including how to submit an application, can be found on the Department’s Computer Science Curriculum and Professional Develop Grants webpage. Questions can be directed to Justin Lewis at justin.lewis@iowa.gov.

Please see Heartland AEA's Computer Science Overview and FAQ document for additional information about Computer Science in Iowa and supports Heartland AEA provides for districts.

Have you been taking advantage of the free premium Pear Deck accounts provided for Iowa educators? This tool helps engage students in interactive learning while gathering formative assessment data that helps us guide instruction.

Whether you’ve been using this tool in class or it’s is still on your list to learn, the Pear Deck Delights webinar series provides a great way to learn from the Pear Deck team and to hear how Iowa educators have had success with this tool. Attend one of this month’s 3 webinars live on January 5th, 12th, or 19th, or watch recordings of the four webinars at your convenience.

For additional support with Pear Deck, check out the Pear Deck Resources from Iowa’s AEAs or contact Heartland’s Digital Learning Team at haeatech@heartlandaea.org.

As we begin 2022, our Digital Learning Team has been reflecting upon 2021 to consider what we've learned, who has influenced us, and what technologies we found effective. Although this is far from a complete list, we chose a few of our favorites to share in this message.

• Best Tech Tool - Pear Deck is a valuable tool for teachers in all subject areas and grade levels. This tool allows teachers to create interactive presentations and experiences that students can move through at their own pace or the teacher can lead the class through a presentation together. Not only do the interactive elements help students engage with the content, but they also provide valuable formative data for the teacher to assess progress toward learning goals. And, all Iowa teachers have free access to the premium features within Pear Deck!

• Best Free Resource - TeachingBooks | Author & Book Resources to Support Reading - TeachingBooks is a free resource to all Iowa educators that houses thousands of audio files, lesson plans, online resources, and videos that are aligned with specific books geared towards K-12. I love being able to curate lists for specific topics, like computational thinking, and having the book titles and resources all in one place.

• Best Blog - The Teaching Factor Blog - This weekly blog, written by Michele L. Haiken Ed.D, is filled with research-based learning activities with great support material provided (the slide deck or Google Doc is all ready to go!). She also has organized her blogs by topic, so click on a topic such as Lesson Plans, SEL, Reading, etc. and find fantastic ideas and info. One of my fav editions: Podcasts Are Mentor Texts, Too. Check it out!
  

• Best Feedback Tool - Research has long shown us that quality feedback is one of the most impactful things we can do to improve learning. But we also know that good feedback takes time - and extra time is certainly in short supply! Because of that, Mote was one of my favorite tools in 2021. Mote allows you to leave audio comments, allowing for a quicker and more accessible option for you and your students. It works with lots of tools, including most of the Google Workplace tools. Check out their Learning Hub for some great templates and integration ideas!
  

• Best Podcast - Divergent By Design Podcast - I enjoy this podcast for many reasons, one being they are fellow colleagues of ours from Grant Wood AEA, but also they bring together Universal Design For Learning (UDL), blended learning, and technology and share it in applicable ways for educators.
  

• Best Tech Read - I recently read Educational Duct Tape - An EdTech Integration Mindset by Jake Miller. It was a toolbox full of edtech resources both new and old. There were some applications that I hadn’t used in awhile, and gained a new perspective on them. There were also a number of new apps and tech tips that made this an easy and refreshing read.
  

• Best Book - Six Shifts to Improve Special Education and Other Interventions: A Commonsense Approach for School Leaders - The title of the book does little for the quality content found in this text. In my opinion, this should be required reading for every educator right now, as the depth of conversation around the “shifts” is clear, pointed, and compelling. Nathan Levenson combines his experiences with research to provide guidance around six shifts schools and educators should be implementing for increased achievement of all students.

Hopefully you find something in this list that is helpful for you! Please feel free to share this Best of 2021 list with your colleagues. We would also love to have you share your favorites on Heartland's Innovative Educator Facebook Group.

Our team of five consultants serves the 9 regions of Heartland Area Education Agency and designs and delivers the Heart of Innovation Summer Summit and Webinar Series. We are ready to deliver professional learning focused on effective digital learning and technology integration. Please reach out if we can design learning just right for you!

Email: haeatech@heartlandaea.org
Website: https://www.heartlandaea.org/educators/cia/instructional-tech/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/heartlandaeainnovativeeducators