Catch a Wave to Pre-Con Micro-credentials

[erin_keefe]

Instructure and Digital Promise are working together to innovate education. We’re starting at Pre-Con in just a few weeks! Read on to learn all about it!

Instructure recently entered into a partnership with Digital Promise, whose mission is to accelerate innovation in education to improve opportunities to learn. Digital Promise works internationally with educators, researchers, entrepreneurs and technology developers to help close the Digital Learning Gap with a variety of initiatives, including networking through their League of Innovative Schools and Verizon Innovative Learning Schools, research through their Research Map and education technology Marketplace, and engagement through Challenge-Based Learning and Maker Learning opportunities.

“For students and teachers to stay competitive, they need digital tools that seamlessly work together to help improve the education experience,” said Tara Gunther, VP of Partnerships at Instructure. “Our partnership with Digital Promise is a perfect fit due to our shared focus on helping people learn and grow throughout their lifetimes.”

We are excited about all of the ways we at Instructure can work with Digital Promise to help advance their work. The first step along that path will take place next month at InstructureCon, when we deliver some exciting sessions at Pre-Con that are aligned to Digital Promise micro-credentials. Digital Promise has built an extensive platform of micro-credentials, where educators can personalize their professional learning by exploring over 400 topics. The micro-credentials are all research-based, and developed and awarded by over 50 of Digital Promise's learning partners. When earned, they are awarded to the educators in a form of a digital badge.  

“Educators need to have the knowledge and skills necessary to take advantage of a technology-rich environment and create powerful learning opportunities for all students,” said Karen Cator, President and CEO of Digital Promise. “We see this partnership with Instructure as a strategic way to advance innovation in education."

Current research supports that when learners - all learners - can personalize their learning, it becomes more meaningful. Using the old models of sit-and-get, one-size-fits-all, someone-else-picked-this-topic-for-me professional learning just doesn't work for educators today. What busy, driven educators want is the ability to customize what they learn, and the ability to decide when and where that learning occurs. That's why we think that micro-credentials and what Digital Promise is doing with them is so exciting.

At Pre-Con on July 9, we will be presenting five topics that each are designed to have participants earn a Digital Promise micro-credential. We hope if you are joining us for InstructureCon, you'll consider adding on one of the sessions below, so you can start on personalizing your professional learning journey with Digital Promise this summer.

• Aligning Outcomes and Assessment for Data-Driven Learning: This session includes the option to earn the Digital Promise Micro-credential - Aligning Standards and Assessments. Using outcomes to drive teaching and learning can have a powerful effect on student performance. Tracking student progress doesn’t have to be tricky. Use outcomes! We’ll cover everything from creating an outcome to reporting, and everything in between. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a single course or across your entire district or university, outcomes can help students achieve higher levels of learning. In this session we will 1) discuss best practices of where and how to create outcomes, 2) actually create the outcome in your Canvas instance, 3) align outcomes with Assignments and Quizzes, and 4) discuss how to use Admin, Teacher, and Student reports to drive learning in a course.
• Creating Highly Engaging Blended/Online Courses With Canvas: This session includes the option to earn the Digital Promise Micro-credential - Providing Digital Resources. Canvas provides all the tools you need to create and maintain high-touch, high-engagement courses, both for blended and online learning environments. It also allows the flexibility for incorporating a host of educational technology tools that embed or integrate with Canvas. As educators, we know that technology tools should help to promote the 4Cs for students: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Come explore the very best of these options with us in this best-practices session. Be prepared to dig into the tools and leave with content you can use right away!
• Creating Technology-Rich Professional Learning in Canvas: This session includes the option to earn the Digital Promise Micro-credential - Technology-Rich Professional Learning. Teacher quality and quality teaching are directly tied to strong systems of professional development that span from mentoring and coaching to communities of practice. This session will highlight best practices in creating professional development courses in Canvas, designing personalized learning options, and ways to set up communities of practice, mentoring and coaching.
• Personalizing Learning Experiences with Canvas: This session includes the option to earn the Digital Promise Micro-credential - Setting Goals for Students. Ready to level up your Canvas experience? Join us in an exploration of strategies for redesigning your Canvas courses to incorporate more personalized learning. Participants will discover a number of ways to motivate and inspire students through a learning journey that will increase engagement with course content and generate enthusiasm for achievement. Various methods will be introduced, including setting goals for students, differentiation, digital badging, student choice, and collaboration. Come see how personalized learning can help you create more and better learning time and enhanced equity for your students!
• Transforming K-12 Classrooms with Canvas: This session includes the option to earn the Digital Promise Micro-credential - Why Use Tech in the Classroom? Using Canvas in the K-12 classroom has the power to transform learning. With such a tool, how do we best plan to introduce, use, and make Canvas a part of our daily experiences? In this session we will explore applications of Canvas that help to support instruction and add value to student learning, not simply substitute technology for traditional classroom tools. Participants will explore how the use of the SAMR model applies to the use of Canvas. We will learn about Canvas tools that progress student learning from the Substitution level to the transformative levels of Modification and Redefinition.

Want to join us? Space is limited. Click here to sign up for one of our Pre-Con sessions!

[Bobby2]

I'm making my 'fly-on-the-wall' costume.  @erin_keefe these sessions look amazing! Top work.

[erin_keefe]

Think you'd fit in my suitcase,  @Bobby2 ‌? 🙂

[Bobby2]

Dreams would come true then.