WCPSS Digital Learning

This episode delves into the crucial topic of digital citizenship. In this episode, they explore effective strategies for teaching responsible online behavior, leveraging resources from Common Sense Media, and integrating ISTE standards into daily activities. Whether you're curious about managing cyberbullying or enhancing AI literacy among students, this discussion provides actionable insights and resources to help educators foster a safer, more responsible digital environment in schools. Tune in to empower your students as adept digital citizens!

Dive into the world of Canvas Commons with Sadie Hoover and Chris Zirkle in this episode of The DLC Podcast. Discover how to save time and enhance your courses with pre-designed modules and customizable templates. Whether you're looking to streamline your workload or enrich your classroom resources, this episode is packed with practical tips and tricks for Wake County educators. Tune in and transform the way you use Canvas today!

Teachers are facilitators and partners of student learning. This podcast episode explores options that develop the partnership between teachers and students through effective feedback, student goal setting, and self-assessment.

Academic discussions promote deep student understanding and lead to meaningful learning. This podcast episode shares some benefits and tips for engaging students in online and in-person discussions.

The Blended Learning Model works best when teachers take on the role of a partner with their students. This episode discusses practical ways teachers accomplish this role.

WCPSS teacher, Paul Cancellieri, shares his experiences in the classroom with the Flipped Instruction model. In this episode, The DLCs asked Paul if the time and effort to create flipped instruction is worth the effort. Paul shares his insights and the benefits he and his students have experienced because of implementing Flipped Instruction.

This podcast episode discusses the three step process as a best pratice to use when flipping the deliver of instruction to your students. Teachers then can use their time to support students in other ways. Other best practices are discussed.

This podcast episode focuses on the effective creation and management of digital learning environments, emphasizing the importance of providing students with access to instructional resources and materials online. It highlights best practices for setting up a digital space that supports education and delves into how the 4Cs (Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity) can be integrated into blended learning experiences. These discussions aim to guide educators in enhancing their teaching methods through the strategic use of digital tools and collaborative learning strategies.

Differentiation & Personalization is one of the benefits of blended learning. This episode discusses what differentiation & personalization is and what it looks like in the classroom and LMS.

In this episode, Sadie and Chris discuss what student agency is and what it looks like. Blended learning provides opportunities for students to be in the drivers seat of their learning experiences.

There are many benefits to implementing blended learning strategies and best practices. This episode discusses the roles of the teachers and students and introduces several benefits.

This episode kicks off a new season and format for The Blend podcast. Sadie Hoover has joined the podcast and the duration of our podcasts are now short and about Blended Learning topics. Listen to this episode to hear about the purpose and goals of The Blend podcast.

Playlists are one way that teachers can implement Blended Learning in their classroom. This podcast episode explores what playlists are and how to utilize them.

The DLC Blend is a podcast that focuses on implementing blended learning into classroom instruction. The WCPSS developed four courses to support the implementation of Canvas as the District LMS. One of the four courses is about using Canvas to facilitate blended learning. This episode will explore the definition of blended learning.

In this episode of the DLC Blend, we are discussing the month's theme, Empowered Learner. Topics in this episode include transitioning to Canvas from Google Classroom, Women's History Month, and bluesnarfing.

In this episode of the DLC Blend, we are discussing the month's theme, Knowledge Constructor. Topics in this episode include curating resources with Canvas Studio, annotation assignments in Canvas, Digital Learning Day, and holiday shopping scams.

In this episode of the DLC Blend, we continue with the month's theme of Innovative Designer. Discussion topics include designing lessons with increased student voice and choice, Get Organized Month and how to use the design process to achieve goals, Data Privacy Day, and ways to clean up your digital footprint.

The DLCs are experimenting with their podcast format. This episode features the segments we are testing out. Let us know what you think about our format.

The DLCs have reformatted the podcast and have a new name for the show. We are changing our podcast name from WCPSS Digital Learning to The DLC Blend. It is a play on blended learning and coffee. Listen and enjoy. We will post one podcast each month on our website, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.

This podcast episode unpacks the collaboration between the DLCs and the 2nd grade teachers, media coordinator, and students at Scotts Ridge Elementary to produce stop motion animation videos that explain the process of pollination.

This podcast episode features a discussion among the Digital Learning Coordinators. They reflect upon their collaboration with Ms. Porras and share some of their insights.

In this podcast episode we discuss the creative design process used in a visual arts class. The creative design process can be used in any subject and grade level because it is used for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

This week is the second half of our two part series on Maker Mindset and Making in classrooms. We continue our conversation by talking to some secondary educators about their experiences with older students and how to incorporate making at the secondary level.

Show Notes - One of the biggest trends in education over the past few years has been Maker Spaces. Over the next two episodes, we will be speaking with guests who have embraced the Maker Mindset and brought a Makerspace to their school environments to allow for student's to get creative and bring learning to life!

One of the most fruitful partnerships in a school is the collaboration between a classroom teacher and the specialist or elective teachers. By extending core content into these classes or partnering to increase student exposure to a topic or tool, students gain a rich perspective on the curriculum and increased opportunities for creativity. In this episode we spoke with media, technology, and STEM specialists to hear how they connect with classroom teachers and expand student learning & creativity.

Show Notes - After a year of teaching in a virtual space and with increasing amounts of devices getting into the hands of students, teachers are able to design more and more interactive and authentic digital learning activities. Knowing where to start in moving from a traditional paper and pencil environment can be challenging. In this episode we talk about the how and why of creating learning activities that leverage technology for increased engagement and student learning.

It is powerful to hear about students that make connections to others in their immediate and global communities. Students spend quality time learning and acquiring content and knowledge and then they are given opportunities to synthesize the content along with their prior knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and opinions and they can express this through global collaboration. During this episode, we will hear from Kim Holland and her exploits with global collaboration.

Show Notes - During the podcast this month, we're focusing on topics related to collaboration. Every teacher knows how important collaboration is and every teacher has also had to completely rethink what collaboration looks like now that they're teaching students online. In this episode we talk about virtual collaboration so teachers can both increase and improve those opportunities.

In this special episode, Katie & Chris bring the most frequently asked questions from teachers about digital learning to a panel of Digital Learning Coordinators. The DLCs share their ideas and strategies for streamlining and improving online learning.

Show Notes - Podcasting is an exciting way to increase student voice and engagement in your classroom. Join us as we talked to one teacher who started podcasting with her students and saw inspiring growth in her students.

Show Notes - The most commonly discussed topic right now among teachers is how to engage their students in online learning. This is a critical discussion but when it comes to the idea of engagement, we also have to consider how we are engaging our families. This episode features two WCPSS staff members that share their experiences and expertise about family engagement.

Researching and presenting information are critical skills that are included in the standards for just about every grade level. There are a variety of ways and tools that students can use to share information they've learned. In this episode an ELA teacher and an AIG teacher share how they modified a traditional research report into an engaging documentary project.

Show Notes- Backchannel communications enable a parallel conversation to occur during a live presentation or as a way to communicate outside of live Google Meet meetings. This episode explores a teacher's experience with using backchannels with her students and the resources that are available to use for backchannel communication.

Show Notes - A frequent discussion in educator circles is how to engage students in learning, especially in a virtual environment. There's talk of authenticity, collaboration, and even how to make it fun. Engagement is a critical component to get buy-in from students but what lies beyond engagement? In this episode we discuss the idea of student empowerment and what that looks like in the classroom.

Show Notes - During this time of comprehensive online learning, the number one question we have been hearing from teachers is how to engage students. In this episode we examine how personalized learning can encourage students to take a more active role in the classroom.

Show Notes- Student engagement looks very different when teachers are not in the same room as their students. In this episode of Digital Learning, we get a teacher's perspective about the strategies they use to engage students in an online environment.

Show Notes - This podcast episode features the discussion of using digital badges as a way of providing feedback to students.

Show Notes - John Spencer is our guest in this podcast episode about empowering students by providing them with flavorful feedback.

Show Notes- In this special episode of Digital Learning, the hosts of the WCPSS podcast Data Lit join us to discuss how to provide student voice and choice within assessments. The DLCs, Barb Vinal and Jenny Conrad, then give an overview of how to use the rubric features in Google Classroom and Canvas.

Show Notes - This episode features 10 Digital Learning Coordinators discussing 10 applications that can be used for digital assessments. Access the show notes to vote for your favorite assessment app.

Show Notes This episode features two high school teachers sharing their experience with asynchronous instruction. Visit our Digital Learning Coordinators Website for show notes and other resources. You can visit our website at dlc.wcpss.net.

Show Notes This episode discusses using choice boards for asynchronous activities.

Show Notes This episode discuss the challenges and approaches to teaching concurrent face-to-face and remote classes. The show notes have several samples of how to approach this model of teaching.

Show Notes This podcast features a conversation with Michael Meehan from West Lake Middle School. Michael shares several activities and approaches that he uses to engage students during asynchronous instruction. We also captured some of the work Michael has done in a video so that you can see some of the engaging content Michael has developed for his students.

Show Notes - This podcast episode highlights what Discovery Education has to offer students and teachers. It also discusses how to integrate Discovery Education into online instruction and provides examples of how to use DE for synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

Show Notes This is a special edition episode. We interviewed three teachers to ask them about their experience with live instruction. This episode features an elementary school teacher, a middle school teacher, and a high school teacher. They share their personal experience with live instruction and some best practices.

Show Notes This episode continues the conversation about live instruction and discusses chunking instructional time, flipped instruction, station rotation, collaborative protocols, and sample lesson grids.

Show Notes - This episode features discussion around live instruction. We discuss protocols that can be used , various models, and best practices.

Show Notes (available at dlc.wcpss.net) This podcast episode reflects on the deployment of Remote Learning and showcases some of the accomplishments that were achieved.

Show Notes (Show notes can be found at dlc.wcpss.net) This episode explores building and connecting to a PLN with Twitter. Diving into the definition behind acronym, “PLN”, to the real power that comes in the connectedness of a PLN. The question, “How does the tool Twitter and social media support connected educators?” will be answered.

Show Notes ( available at dlc.wcpss.net) Providing students valuable feedback is a key step. This podcast episode features insight to providing students digital feedback.