This post is one in a series for a MOOC. You can find similar posts searching under the Category MOOC or searching for hashtag #eteacherTOOL for more about this particular MOOC.

MOOC Series #eTeacherTOOLStudents & Differentiation

Students are often dependent on a teacher’s permission to use their own judgement in differentiating products. Sometimes it is evident that students have experienced years of teachers dictating the thought process of what tool to use for a product.

[Enter stage right: Informal Learning]

My 6YO should experience some tremendous growth during his primary school experience – he should watch his teachers grow in their confidence of  technology integration that is. He can go weeks without using technology to produce anything. And when he does right now, it is with me. Not school time.

Here is an example of a series of ongoing questions he had about our recent (an infrequent) snow fall in Georgia:

Seth and I collected several pictures of how snow was melting. I uploaded them to VoiceThread and he supplied the questions. I emailed the link to University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professors and some of my colleagues. These responses had a huge impact on my son!

I would argue this informal learning might be more meaningful than some of the fleeting learning happening in a traditional classroom.