(the BEST) course is designed to help you develop a strategic approach to designing and implementing edtech-based routines with your learners. It will begin
. Throughout February, March and April, you will work through an online course and attend monthly webinars to connect with other course participants.
Application deadline extended to February 6, 2023. You will be notified by February 8th if you have been selected to participate.
The course is organized into four sections. As you complete the readings and activities within each section, you will work your way toward designing two routine “templates” that, through careful consideration and evaluation, can become part of your regular instructional practice.
• In Section 1: Understand Your Learners, you will consider your learning context, your learners’ goals and motivations, your goals for instruction, and your learners’ skill needs. These activities are designed for you to consider the factors that impact your learners.
• In Section 2: Tech Integration Strategies, you will explore evidence-based strategies and match strategies that are best suited for your learners based on the factors you identified in Section 1. You will then consider what types of edtech-based instructional routines match those strategies, and identify routines and underlying strategies you wish to further explore using with your learners.
• In Section 3: EdTech Tool Exploration, you will examine edtech tools to identify which tool or tools are best suited for the routines you intend to design. You again will draw upon the learner factors you identified in Section 1 to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each tool.
• In Section 4: Implementation and Evaluation, you will design at least two edtech routines you intend to use with learners using a template
This is a facilitated course. Given this, you will have lots of opportunities to engage with fellow participants through discussion and collaboration. Each of the synchronous and asynchronous activities within this course are designed to model the process of edtech integration. In most cases, we will take time to reflect on a) the routine that is employed and b) why the edtech tool being used for the routine is effective.
A stipend of $250 is available to participants who complete all course components.
The course will be facilitated by Susan Wetenkamp-Brandt (swbrandt@literacymn.org), Jason Brazier (jbrazier@literacymn.org) and Nicholas Houlson (nhoulson@literacymn.org). Contact any of us with questions about the BEST course cohort.
