Have you heard about AI text generator in Canva? Simply start a Doc in Canva and use + symbol to select Magic Write.

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As part of the Educator Network Blended Learning program, literacy practitioners share the resources that are most helpful in creating lessons and activities that engage learners and enhance and expand learning.

This is the collection from the Winter 2022 group.

These are the blended learning resources, activities and tools that practitioners have tested and are recommending. On some pages you will see their reviews or tips.

We start with an explanation of some of the terms we used and a link to a website about curating resources.
We have included an index. Some topics have several pages. If you open the PDF in a browser, you can use the back button to return to the index.

Use the link in the sidebar to open and download the collection.

“We are essentially social beings. We live in societies, of course; but more fundamentally perhaps, it is our participation in social communities and cultural practices that provides the very materials out of which we construct who we are, give meaning to what we do, and understand what we know.”

— Etienne Wenger, Communities of practice: where learning happens, Benchmark Magazine, Fall Issue 1991

We created this resource with the Silver Linings Café participants in June 2020. We updated it in October 2022.

The Silver Linings Café was an Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy initiative that AlphaPlus was invited to participate in.

This resource includes ideas from the Silver Linings Café instructors for how to engage learners and build community in video conferences (Zoom) during the pivot to remote learning during the COVID-19 lock down period. We were all getting used to working in this new environment and came together to share ideas, support each other and figure out how to support learners and learning.

Reference: Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Learning: A Quick Overview by Maria Ocando Finol

The Digital Inclusion Playbook is filled with ideas, information and resources you can use to support local digital inclusion efforts. We hope the site builds awareness at a provincial and national level on behalf of all literacy and basic skills (LBS) programs and the many learners who find themselves excluded from full and equitable participation in a digital society. 

Resources, articles and mini-infographics you can use

Digital inclusion and literacy development work together, and LBS plays a key role in digital inclusion as a provider of digital learning opportunities for adults. LBS educators, volunteers and program co-ordinators are on the front lines of digital inclusion work and often address issues — such as access to devices for learning and low-cost internet plans — that go beyond everyday teaching and learning work. The playbook’s facts, resources, articles and mini-infographics can be used to:

• Help adult learners access affordable internet and devices.
• Discuss key issues with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Make a presentation to your board or institutional partners.
• Build a case for support with funding partners and community partners.
• Get involved and take action.

Information, ideas and strategies to help build awareness

Digital inclusion is bigger than LBS and involves affordable and adequate broadband internet service, internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user, quality and affordable technical support along with applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation and collaboration. The playbook contains information, ideas and strategies that explore the following topics:

• Digital inclusion and the digital divide.
• Impacts of digital exclusion.
• Digital literacy in learners’ lives and leveraging their use of smartphones.
• Sources of free and open digital literacy resources.

We invite you to explore the site and share your feedback with us. We’d also love to hear about your digital inclusion initiatives and stories.

You can also contact Christine (Christine@alphaplus.ca) or Alan (Acherwinski@alphaplus.ca) directly. 

When students receive their own computer — and it’s really theirs — it sends a strong message. You don’t just own the computer; you own your education and your own future.

Alison Canning, executive director of Let’s Get Together

Access to Technology

Literacy practitioners know that limited access to technology can create insurmountable barriers for lifelong learners in Ontario.
Learn more about the issue of access to technology

Blended learning curriculum frameworks

These frameworks were developed to help educators design and develop technology-rich learning environments. The frameworks help us determine the level of technology integration in the learning environment and evaluate if the technology is enhancing, extending and/or transforming learning.

Tracey Mollins

Contact me at tracey@alphaplus.ca to talk about blended learning delivery models.

These are the Frameworks described on the website

• Designing for Learning Outcomes
  • A blended learning framework – ISTE Standards for Students
  • A computer basics framework – Northstar Digital Literacy Framework
  • A computer basics / blended learning framework – Maryland Department of Labor Digital Literacy Framework for Adult Learners
  • A roadmap to reach the City of Seattle’s vision to become a more digitally equitable city, where technology’s opportunities equitably empower all residents and communities – Seattle Digital Equity Initiative Digital Skills Framework

• Designing for Learning Experiences
  • The Technology Integration Matrix
  • The Triple E Framework

• Thinking about Teaching Innovation
  • The SAMR Model – SAMR = Substitution – Augmentation – Modification – Redefinition and describes a way to think about the result of integrating digital technology for learning into a curriculum.
  • The LoTi Framework – Levels of Teaching Innovation – This is a Teaching Innovation Framework that is similar to SAMR but includes a resource for reflecting on how different learning activities fit into the framework.

• Designing for Modes of Learning
  • Bloom’s Taxonomy – Some people have done some work to align the Bloom’s Taxonomy learning domains to SAMR.
  • HEAT – H.E.A.T Framework = Higher-order thinking – Engaged learning – Authentic connections – and Technology use is a student learning framework that describes what learners are doing at different levels of digital technology integration with reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

What are some ways to empower learners with choice?

We can make sure learners have agency over the elements of learning such as

• pace (flexibility over the flow of learning)
• path (learners make decisions about how to learn or how to demonstrate learning)
• place (blended learning opens up possibilities for learning in a variety of settings and at times convenient for learners)

Using hyperdocs as part of a blended learning approach can enhance these opportunities.

• What is a HyperDoc?
• How HyperDocs Can Transform Your Teaching
• Hyperdocs in adult literacy

Choice Boards are a type of hyperdoc where activities are organized in a grid, often like a tic-tac-toe board or a bingo board. Learners make choices about what activities they do and mark them on the grid as they finish.

In Educator Network (eNet) and Planning Your Digital Toolbox, participants learn about choice boards using this choice board. Join us or try it out on your own.

Some samples that eNet participants found:

• 7 Choice Board samples for remote learning
• Digital Media Design Student Choice Board
• Reading Choice Board: Story Elements (PDF)

And here is a collection of Choice Board templates from SlidesMania shared with us by Lindy Hockenbary from EDTech Teacher:

• SlidesMania Choice Board Collection

If you’d like to learn more about Choice Boards, contact Tracey or sign up for Educator Network (eNet) or Planning Your Digital Toolbox.

P.S. Here is an amazing collaboration non-hyperdoc choice board I saw from @modernclassproj on Twitter.

Collaboration and self-pacing? Totally possible in a Modern Classroom! Kim Myers Manning shared with our Facebook group how she sets up her whiteboard to facilitate both.

• The tweet
• My quote tweet

Canvas is a robust learning management system you can use for free.

Often called an LMS for short, a learning management system is an online platform that provides the framework and tools to handle all aspects of the learning process – it’s where you house, deliver, and track your training content.

An LMS is designed to make life easier for curriculum designers, instructors and learners. An LMS can streamline the process of identifying and assessing learning goals, keeping track of progress and collecting and presenting data for evaluating learning and how the learning environment is supporting learners.

If you’d like to learn more about Canvas or schedule a demonstration, contact Tracey or our Quick Tech Help service.

Padlet is an online bulletin board. Users can add text, documents, images, videos, and links. Depending on the choices the Padlet creator makes, users can comment on posts and rate, like, grade or vote for posts. It is a mini interactive website where you can create online discussions and opportunities for synchronous or asynchronous collaborative or individual learning.

Here is a Padlet about how to post to Padlet: padlet.com/traceyehm/padletpost

Here is a Padlet Tracey uses as a workshop warm up: padlet.com/traceyehm/meal (The map in this Padlet is a wallpaper, not the Map option.)

And here is a writing prompt about time capsules: padlet.com/traceyehm/tceNet

If you’d like to learn more about Padlet or schedule a demonstration, contact Tracey or our Quick Tech Help service.