Flow Like Water:Understanding Work Product & Workflow

in LMS-Based Classrooms

Christopher Lee a.k.a

Chris Cloudwalker, Founder

ChrisCloudwalkerTech

Perspective & Context

“But we need to remember that the LMS is meant to help us think about teaching, not to do the teaching, or to tell us what teaching needs to occur. The LMS is not the course; it’s the launching pad for the course.”

Sean Michael Morris & Jesse Stommel

HybridPedagogy Blog

The World We Live In…

• Device/Network availability are still issues in some systems/homes

• The PURPOSE of some assignments is a huge factor in instructional design & how teachers run their rooms (LFS police…)

• Paperless Rules! (Handing out & Turning in paper is for the birds) The paper on my desk is administrative & advertising

I Was Built For This…

• Formal & Informal Assessments & Feedback loops were built for LMS’s

• Student (& Teacher) Collaboration were built for LMS’s (Cross-curriculum projects/ Scaffolding & cross-training skills/ Departmental planning)

• Reflection on & Modification of Assignments (year over year)

Assignment/Project:Test Drive Level

Class/Section:Daily Driver-Procedural Level

Grand Design:Semester/Year Outlook

Basic Workflow Scenarios

Generalized Workflow

1) Teacher (“T”) creates lesson/assignment/ material (“Package”)

2) T distributes Package to Students (“S”)

3) S receive Package4) S complete Package5) S returns Package-

requested file(s) (“Work”)

6) T receives Work7) T grades Work8) T returns annotated

Work to S for review9) *S saves annotated

Work for e-portfolio/ possible revision/ study material for subsequent Package*

10)T evaluates Package for effectiveness

Where Can I Start?

• Notes• Articles• Textbooks• Presentations• Videos• Rubrics• Checklists• Diff./step-by-step directions (rem.)• Extending/Refining material (adv./gifted)

Aren’t LMS’s Mainly for Assignments?

• Assignment Distribution & Tracking is an LMS’s “Bread & Butter”

• The Assignment function is where most teachers decide whether or not to keep & use a particular LMS

• Understand, however, this is also the area where details matter the most (& where they may be the hardest to see without hands-on time)

What Is Included in Assignments?• Batch/Class/Multi-Class & Individual/Small

Group Distribution?• Tracking (turned in? on-time? X times taken?

allow revisions/ additional uploads? do students/teacher get live notifications?)

• Does it allow easy/batch/self grading?• Does it export/upload to your system?!?!?!

(We all know we hate double-work…)• Does it export/upload/chart anything besides

grades? (attendance, assessment / question analytics)

An Issue of Perspective

• Where does collaborating stop & cheating start in your class?

• Option: Work together only when specifically stated in directions

• Option: Work together on anything but formal assessments

• Option: Work together and submit teamwork rubric for each assignment

Does My LMS Offer a Workspace?

• Most teachers opt for an external workspace for their students, regardless of the inclusion of the option

• Why? Because IF they have it, it’s have-baked & easy to loose work in

• Different Why? Because systems like GAFE & Office365 are making it a moot point, especially given the new standards

Any other reasons not to use the built-in content creation options?

• YOU design your assignments & assessments. Your labs / rooms run the way YOU want them, not the other way around.

• Not every assignment can/should be done with just text…

• Since uploads are not limited in file-type, teachers are open to assign work in ANY program with an export option or distinct URL option (cut & paste link into doc & upload)

Can I Have My Quickies?

Some assignments just require a quick read, response, & (possibly) grade:

• Bellringers/ E.Q.-learning journals• Summarizers• Tickets Out the Door• Quick Polls/ Checking for Understanding• Vocab. Word/ SAT-ACT-EOCT ?otDay

Try to Be Brand Agnostic

• But we all understand that faculty have limited decision-making authority

• Especially if you have BYOD (officially or not), flexibility & availability is key

• ANY GOOD TEACHER/PROFESSOR WILL USE AN APP AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR MOBILE OS’s!!!

Infamous iPad Workflow

• Just in case you weren’t aware…• This is one case where device ecosystem

plays an important role in workflow• Issue comes down to “Best Use Case” &

“Choice of Weapon” decisions• Most of programs/apps on cheatsheet

were developed either specifically for iOS or with it in mind

Push Button to Start…

• Google Apps for Education (GAFE) or Google Drive with personal account

• Office365 or personal Hotmail/Outlook account & Office Web Apps & SkyDrive/ OneDrive

• Evernote & Skitch (& Penultimate-iOS)

• Dropbox/Box.net• Diigo bookmarking• iOS devices can use

all of the above, plus iWork suite & iCloud storage

Questions???Please ask. I don’t mind ☺

Thank you all for coming!!!

So What I Said Was…Learning Management Systems (LMS's) are the foundation of the new blended classrooms and digital distribution environments. However, most of these systems are not built with the capabilities of producing the content, the actual student "work," that needs to be submitted. Therefore, a workflow dynamic needs to be created and implemented linking a combination of LMS to a (best case scenario) digital & online productivity suite. Luckily, several of these are available for use. This session is designed to give you an outline of the connection between a chosen online content-creation program and the submission process of a given LMS. The information is based on best practices, actual classroom experience and state of the art technology, but is not vendor or brand specific.

Flow Like Water:Understanding Work Product & Workflow

in LMS-Based Classrooms

Christopher LeeFounder, ChrisCloudwalkerTech

@technbizteacherchriscloudwalker06@gmail.comchriscloudwalker@icloud.com

chris.cloudwalker@outlook.com