Digital Learning Experience
What is a Digital Learning Experience?
The Alliance for Excellent Education outlines the qualities of a Digital Learning Experience:
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Digital learning is any instructional practice that effectively uses technology to strengthen a student’s learning experience. It emphasizes high-quality instruction and provides access to challenging content, feedback through formative assessment, opportunities for learning anytime and anywhere, and individualized instruction to ensure all students reach their full potential to succeed in college and a career.
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Digital learning encompasses many different facets, tools, and applications to support and empower teachers and students, including online courses, blended or hybrid learning, or digital content and resources. Additionally, digital learning can be used for professional learning opportunities for teachers and to provide personalized learning experiences for students.
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Digital learning advances school reform by increasing equity and access to educational opportunities, improving effectiveness and productivity of teachers and administrators, providing student-centered learning to ensure college and career readiness for all students, and recognizing teachers as education designers.
Example of a Digital Learning Experience: Comparing the Lessons of The Crucible to Modern Day Examples
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Lesson Plan
Videos to Generate Discussion
McCarthy enhances the fear of Americans in the 1950s
Tensions run high after racial issues in 2015. Are police profiling African-Americans? Is this similar to the "profiling" seen in the play?
Read Trump’s Lips: No New Muslims
The Young Turks
Arthur Miller discusses the lessons of The Crucible
The Ebola panic of 2015. People fear what they don't understand, just like in The Crucible.
Donald Trump discusses his views on Muslims. Is Trump using fear tactics to get elected? Are his tactics similar to those used by McCarthy?
Resoures used during this unit:
Revise the Crucible-This revision application is aimed at those who have been studying Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. It includes detailed summaries of characters, themes, context and plot as well as several interactive quizzes to test your knowledge of the text. Plus with Twitter integration you can tweet your thoughts on the play.
Salem Witch Trials app-The Salem Witch Trials is a comprehensive and interactive digital reference to the largest and most famous witch hunt in American history. It includes over 450 events in the witchcraft crisis of 1692-1693, plus more than 100 events in the years leading up to and following the trials. The app also includes biographical information on more than 350 individuals, from Reverend Samuel Parris to Rebecca Nurse and Judge Samuel Sewall. Over 200 events are geo-referenced, so you can use it as a guide to trace the activities of 1692-1693. You can even search for accusations of the use of specific acts and aspects of witchcraft from a list of more than forty such crimes, ranging from black cats and spectral attack to references to the devil’s book.
Red Scare Propaganda site-A multitude of resources related to this dark period of American history.
Salem Witch Trials site-Court records, maps, etc.
Propaganda and the Red Scare-Examples of propaganda used to spread anti-communistic messages.
Edublogs- Students will blog about the play as they read it.
Edynco-Create mindmaps to demonstrate mastery. Include video, audio, PDFs, etc.
Storyboard That-Create storyboards to demonstrate mastery.
Celtx-Collaborate to write own version of the script.
Podbean-Create podcast.
Essay component:
Persuasive Essay
Prompt 1:
The famous Spanish-American philosopher, George Santaya, once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
In light of this quote, do you think reading The Crucible can help modern Americans? Or, in your opinion, is it a play that only applies to the past? Create an argument based on textual evidence, anecdotal evidence, and current world events.
Prompt 2
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Reverend Hale tells Elizabeth Proctor that “no principle, however glorious” is worth dying for, and he argues that it is better to give a false confession than to die for a principle of belief. Defend or refute Hale’s assertion using evidence from The Crucible, anecdtoal evidence, and current world events to support your stance.
Prompt 3
Do you believe that people today are more or less tolerant than those who lived in the 1950s? Support your opinion with anecdotal evidence and examples from primary source documents, as well as evidence from news articles from the 1950s or from modern news sources.
Exemplars:
Sample Bubbl.us mind map
Sample storyboard
Sample Google Slides presentation
Rubrics
Overview of this assignment
The purpose of this assignment was to design a DLE that could be used by anyone who viewed this page. The projects outlined on this page are ambitious, but students need to be pushed to achieve high standards. That is why this project is so involved.
I redesigned this page several times, for it was a bit challenging to find ways to relate the play to modern life. Still, I believe that the examples provided will assist with that process.
Ultimately, the projects outlined here will help to engage students in the play and to enhance their writing, speaking, collaboration and technological skills.