Future Ready Learning

move into deeper and more complex thinking about a particular issue. With such portfolios,
learners will be able to transition through their education careers with robust examples of their
learning histories as well as evidence of what they know and are able to do. These become
compelling records of achievement as they apply for entrance into career and technical education
institutions, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities or for employment.
DEEPENING STUDENT UNDERSTANDING: USING INTERACTIVE VIDEO TO IMPROVE
LEARNING
Reflective teachers can search for new ways for their students to engage with technology
effectively, especially when students are not optimizing their learning experiences.
Every year at Crocker Middle School, Ryan Carroll would ask his sixth-grade world
history students to watch a variety of online videos for homework. He found that no
matter how entertaining or interesting the videos were, his students were not retaining
much of the information being presented, and often they were confused about key
concepts. After learning about Zaption, a teaching tool funded by the U.S. Department
of Education, Carroll realized his students could get more out of the videos he
assigned. Using Zaption’s interactive video platform, he added images, text, drawings,
and questions to clarify tricky concepts and check for understanding as students
watched the video.
Zaption’s analytics allow educators to review individual student responses and classwide
engagement data quickly, giving greater insight on how students are mastering
key concepts as they watch and enabling teachers to address misconceptions quickly.
Educators can be co-learners with students and peers. The availability of technology-based
learning tools gives educators a chance be co-learners alongside their students and peers.
Although educators should not be expected to know everything there is to know in their disciplines,
they should be expected to model how to leverage available tools to engage content with
curiosity and a mindset bent on problem solving and how to be co-creators of knowledge. In
short, teachers should be the students they hope to inspire in their classrooms. 15
CO-LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM: TEACHER USER GROUPS PROVIDE PEER
LEARNING FOR ADULT EDUCATION EDUCATORS
Recognizing the power of virtual peer learning, the U.S. Department of Education’s
Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education has funded projects that have established
teacher user groups to explore the introduction of openly licensed educational
resources into adult education. This model of professional development recognizes
that virtual peer learning can support teachers to change their practice and provide
leadership and growth opportunities. The small groups of far-flung teachers work with
a group moderator to identify, use, and review openly licensed resources in mathematics,
science, and English language arts.
Reviews referenced the embedded evaluation criteria in OER Commons, a repository
of open educational resources (OER) that can be used or reused freely at no cost and
that align to the College- and Career-Readiness mathematics and language arts and
Next Generation Science Standards. They also included practice tips for teaching the
OFFICE OF Educational Technology
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