This is a guest post written by Amanda Holstrom, Instructional Technology Specialist at Sartell Middle School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development?  Apply today!

This year at Impact Education I was excited to learn about the many ways to merge learning and technology especially focusing on storytelling and student voice and choice.

Carl Hooker’s session “21 Things Every 21st Century Educator Should Try”. This session focused mainly on helping students curate and share their learning with others, using digital tools to convey their message. This type of approach in the classroom allows students to see their learning and it makes the content more impactful for students. I appreciated that Carl used everyday apps in ways that allowed students to express their learning. Some of the apps and ideas that Carl covered were: stop motion videos, creating infographics and virtual learning environments.

Carl focused on setting the stage for learners and getting out of their way being mindful of not accidentally putting limits on student learning by restraining their creativity.

Stop motion videos offer students a quick way to animate their learning while using both digital and tactile materials to create a product that can be shared with others.

Infographics were another component that I had not thought of as being such a strong learning vehicle. Allowing students to create beautiful and intriguing signage encourages them to invest in their learning, sharing their knowledge and passion for artistic design.

Student-created virtual learning environments are something that we are slowly implementing in classrooms this year and I was encouraged that other educators are finding success with this approach.

Since Impact Education, I have been working with our science team to implement virtual learning using CoSpaces. We started by taking a current assignment and adding on the option to create their learning on a Merge Cube which is an add on in CoSpaces. The first experience with CoSpaces led to another challenge: students have been asked to create a learning environment to reteach their peers about a science topic that has already been covered this year.

Students have worked hard to add in both the content but have risen to the challenge of making the learning highly immersive. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.