Week 5 - Essential Question

What are your overall take-aways from the methods/tools that you might use to differentiate the classroom environment (for teacher productivity and student progression)? Which of these may you use in your classroom in the future?

Tools:
I'll start with tools, since that is more concrete.  What everyone in our #diffimooc seems to be discovering to some degree is that the more flexible a tool is in terms of how it can be used, the better it is for differentiating the classroom environment.  Here are some examples of multi-use tools that people seem to really be talking about most:

Blogs - this type of webpage is great for hosting class content, communicating with parents, having students post content, or a combination of those things.  It can host all different kinds of digital media quite easily, as well as links.

Wikis - another basic webpage that is great for hosting just about any type of content you want to share or collaborate on, and it can be revised quickly.  It can also host digital media and links. 

Evernote - Notes - all kinds of notes for anything.  Can be added to any time, any where, with any device. Can be shared. Can include many kinds of media and links.  Keeps notes organized. Gather notes about kids, projects, ILP's, IEP's, you name it. 

Edmodo - like Facebook, but for school.  It can manage your courses, store and deliver your content, and serve as a networking and discussion forum for things you are really interested in. 

Diigo - primarily a web-based bookmarking tool, which is a handy enough function.  Diigo lets you easily follow others and find related bookmarks, to join discussion groups, and to create your own groups for peers, colleagues, or students. 

There are lots of other multi-use tools that I am fond of, such as YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, SlideShare, VoiceThread, and Skype. But for this particular MOOC, the tools listed above really seem to be striking a chord which means people have found them relatively easy to use, and have found an immediate, working use for them. 

Methods: 
We've thrown around some methods for using these tools on our twitter#diffimooc chats (hard to do more in 140), and many members have delved into methods for using these tools for differentiation on their blogs.  

Some people are using a blog or a wiki as a home base in their classrooms, and incorporating a number of tools and resources into those sites.  This is a great method of differentiation, because it gives students two important things crucial to their learning - autonomy and choice.  When students can take some control over their own learning, they will often differentiate for themselves at an appropriate level, as well as gain some independence.

Here are some examples of how that can look:
If a student doesn't understand the directions, posting clear, step by step directions on a class website in the form of a list, a video, or even a series of pictures (or a combination), gives the student the ability to go back through them at their own pace, review where necessary, and begin to process them in a way they can understand. 

If a student is working at a different level (and who isn't?) posting a collection specific links or resources for that student on a wiki is very fast and easy for the teacher, and it allows the student to have a place where they can go on their own to review resources they may need (independence), to select from an appropriate list of activities to do (choice), and to get resources from a variety of mediums such as video, print, sound (learning styles). 

Teaching students how to use two different tools for a project (for example, VoiceThread and GooglePresentations), allows students the opportunity to explore and personalize the tools, and then gives them a choice about how they will present their content - they can choose a tool that they personally like and have a comfort level with, as opposed to being told they will use the same tool as everyone else. Posting links to both of these tools on a class website gives students the opportunity to explore the tools on their own, and then go to them as their resource when it is time to work on their assignment.

Takeaways
I have used almost all of these tools methods in my classroom already over the years, and I would say that based on the reaction of the #diffimooc members, my ideas about them as solid tools and methods for learning and differentiation have been reinforced.  I was interested to see how quickly people who had no prior experience really jumped in and saw practical uses for many of the tools, such as Diigo, blogs, and wikis.  

I'll continue to use these tools in the future.  I feel very justified in knowing that some of the tools I have believed to be the most powerful for learning still really are.  Their power lies in their flexibility, and the willingness of teachers to seek new methods for using them.