Unit 3 - Experience Creating a Digital Learning Product Using Canva

Hello colleagues,

Welcome to my third blog post. In this unit, I summarized the ISTE standards as follows: Education professionals should plan, design, and implement activities that incorporate technology to engage learners in digital citizenship practices and overall learning. As part of this units' learning we were tasked with identifying a digital publishing platform to create a digital product. Coincidently, this week I had a lesson scheduled for Thursday November 9, 2023. This lesson is part of my Models of Teaching course. In this course, I have learned about different research-based teaching models to integrate in the classroom. These models are student-centered and promote students' critical thinking skills. For the past couple of weeks I have been researching the Integrative Model. The Integrative Model is a style of teaching that helps promote students' metacognitive skills, such as a students' ability to develop conclusions or generalizations about their learning (Kilbane & Milman, 2014). The Integrative Model in particular is perfect for the Social Studies classroom due to its ability to help learners engage with large bodies of information. Given this teaching models' nature, I chose it as part of my research assignment. After researching the Integrative Model, we then needed to teach a lesson by modeling our chosen model to a group of peers and then reflecting about the experience. Hence, my hands were full this week, and I dedicated most of my time in preparation for this teaching session.

To prepare for my lesson, my sister was kind of enough to invite her peers to my teaching session. I wanted to express my gratitude to these ladies by preparing lunch for them. My sister and I bought a variety of goodies for our three participants. We bought sandwiches, fruit, beverages, chocolate brownies, donut holes, and chocolate gold coins. It kind of felt like a professional development session! Finally, the day had come to implement my understanding of the Integrative Model. I was able to reserve a study room at the Arbor building to execute my lesson. In the study room, they had a computer and a conference table. The perfect space to give my lesson.

I prepared the room and decorated it based on the theme: Spanish Explorers. Long story short, my lesson was a success! My participants engaged well with the learning resources I created through Canva. As part of the lesson, I created three digital resources. I created a Spanish Explorers' reading, a Spanish Explorers' Hero or Villain graphic organizer, and a point of view graphic. The objective of the lesson was to compare the motives of two Spanish explorers and support a point of view by drawing conclusions from the readings. My students used the reading to collect information on the two Spanish explorers: Hernan Cortes and Cabeza de Vaca. I appointed different roles for each of the girls in my session. One student was appointed the reader, another was tasked with identifying any villainous or heroic characteristics and record them on the graphic organizer, and the other two were appointed the time keepers. I then had them alternate roles for each reading. To prepare for the discussion, I had the students record their point of view on each explorer based on the evidence or facts they collected about each explorer on the graphic organizer. I asked them to explain to me if they thought that Hernan Cortes & Cabeza de Vaca should be considered heroes or villains. Then, to explain their rationale on their point of view graphic. When it came down to the discussion, all members had slightly different views about the explorers. Using a discussion starter handout, students discussed their point of view on each explorer and even challenged each others' perspectives. The Integrative Model was a success. Through the Integrative Model in this teaching session, students were able to voice their point of view, but also challenged each others thoughts and perspectives by hearing what their peers had to say. At the end of the session, I had the participants fill out a Google Form to give me feedback on how well I had integrated the Integrative Model in the lesson and if the discussion component of the lesson challenged or influenced their point of views. To my surprise, all of them said that the Integrative Model helped them expand their thinking and the point of view of their peers broadened their perspective and or influenced their own point of view. This is the essence of the Integrative Model, the ability for students to bring or integrate what they know; their knowledge, perspectives, and thoughts into the learning process. Thus students become active participants in the learning process. Through the Integrative Model, students bring what they know and enrich the learning for both themselves and their peers. In the end, the teacher simply acts as the facilitator.

When I went home that afternoon, I was so happy with the outcome of the lesson. I quickly turned on my computer and logged in to Blackboard to prepare for my INST 6031 assignment. I honestly had not had an opportunity to read the instructions for the upcoming assignment because I had prepared for my lesson delivery for most of the week, so I was a little nervous at the thought that the assignment was going to be due in two days. As I was reading the instructions, it dawned on me that I had already completed most of my assignment! The assignment instructed us to choose a digital publishing software to design a digital product. I couldn't believe my mind. I thought that sharing the digital resources that I had created for my lesson and then blogging about my teaching experience, would be perfect!

Truthfully, creating my digital resources using Canva for this lesson was a breeze. I have been using Canva for a few years now. Canva is the perfect digital publishing platform to create digital resources for students. To engage with Canva, you don't need any coding or programming skills; you don't even need any background in digital design. Canva offers a variety of templates based on your needs. For example, when I was ready to create my Spanish Explorers' reading, I simply went to the search bar and typed "history templates." To make my search results more specific to my needs, I made sure to click on the "education" templates. Once I found the template I liked, I clicked on it and I could now begin to customize it based on my preference. Canva has so many customizing features that you can use to make your design stand out. It has different elements that you can add to your template such as graphics or images. Once you are finished with your design, you simply click share. You are able to share it with anyone, including those that don't have a Canva account. The coolest thing about Canva is that you can get an embed code and embed your design on your website or blog!

In all, I am very satisfied with the digital resources I created for this lesson using Canva. I highly recommend it for those teachers that want a platform that is simple but powerful enough to create beautiful digital products. Canva can also be used by students. Using Canva or other digital publishing platforms are a great way for teachers to satisfy ISTE standards, specifically standards 1 and 5, which state that educators should plan, design, and implement activities that incorporate the use of technology. When educators incorporate technology and allow students to create digital products, they are fulfilling their professional roles and contributing to digital literate scholars.

Please check out the digital resources I created using Canva below. And take a look at some of the pictures I took from my lesson delivery!

Can you spot the chocolate gold coins & the cross?

Happy digital creation...

Sincerely,

Ana

Resources:

Kilbane C. R. & Milman N. B. (2014). Teaching models : designing instruction for 21st century learners. Pearson.