Rebecca Eller-Molitas

Choose the simplest tools that can get the job done. In my role, we often have students and volunteers collaborate with staff on projects. Given the diverse range of digital literacy skills, device access, and bandwidth we encounter, we have learned that tools themselves can often become major barriers to collaboration. If your stakeholders are diverse, ensure the tools you choose are accessible to participants with the lowest levels of access.

Remember that you don't necessarily need to be the creator of content learners consume. Consider curating social media for your own sake in order to explore practices other master teachers are implementing in the field. Ask questions about how your learners use and learn from social media and share the ways you're learning. This will give you insight into how they view social media, the formats they embrace, and what existing resources you could introduce in class. Become a curator before becoming a creator. It'll give you a much better understanding of what works for the learners you serve.

Giving back is a crucial step. A reflective practitioner who stays up to date in the field, actively seeks feedback from colleagues and learners, and acts on the relevant feedback has much to share with the field at large. Consider sharing your tips, tricks, and findings on social media. If you prefer long form, write a blog or journal article. You could even appear as a guest on a podcast or speak at a conference! Taking these steps will enhance your own skills and bring fresh perspective to the field.

When selecting tech for the classroom, remember to choose things your learners need to use confidently in the next steps of their education or work journey. My students are often in the workforce. Many of them are excellent TikTok users, but it's my responsibility to make sure they're also able to use the tech they'll encounter in jobs. Knowing that the tech choices were made deliberately with their future goals in mind can motivate students to engage.

Providing choices on assignment format can feel like a lot of work, but AI may be a cheerful helper as expand assignments to offer more choice. For example, if you typically ask students to complete a poster project, input your instructions into an AI tool like ChatGPT and ask it to apply the principals of Universal Design for Learning to create 1-2 additional projects that require the same learner skills. You might ask for a video project and a writing prompt, for example. Once you settle on the options you'll offer, AI can assist by sketching out a rubric that measures the same core competencies across projects. Expect to make tweaks to any AI outputs, but using it can be great way to jumpstart your own ideas and planning.

I recently received a very helpful reminder on this from a student. I create my course materials on my home laptop. However, many of my students only have access to a phone for much of their online learning. Even if you're creating from a computer, be sure to log in and test the shared resources on your phone before going live for students. If you have access to both Apple and Android devices, check them both. I've found a few attachments that would open on one but not the other. Finally, if you're working with under-resourced communities be careful about assuming they have access to Microsoft Office products.