TSTM EdTech Maker Space Series
From July 2022 - April 2023, we have been running EdTech Maker Spaces around the Teaching Skills That Matter framework. As we learn alongside other makers, we've been evaluating, organizing, designing, and adapting content to put into SkillBlox with the ultimate aim of delivering content via SkillBlox that support the implementation of the Teaching Skills That Matter framework.
Subject-area Frameworks
This set of topical frameworks was vetted by participants and supports activity alignment to TSTM.
Resource Evaluation Guide
This evaluation guide provides participants with a structure for vetting free and open resources.
Activity Design Guide
This design guide is used to support participants in designing reusable, TSTM-aligned activities.
Teaching Skills that Matter is led by our partners the American Institutes for Research and funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education, with the goal of supporting instruction of transferable 21 Century skills.
What is the EdTech Maker Space?
“ The EdTech Maker Space is an incredible opportunity to create resources that you and other adult educators can use immediately.
You'll learn valuable skills for how to make use of quality tools to enhance your instruction and your students' learning."
~EdTech Maker Space Participant
As more learning is happening with edtech in a wide range of contexts, we see two trends: 1) instructors want to learn how to effectively use edtech tools, and 2) learners and instructors are looking for more free, quality online content that can be readily used (and RE-used).
Enter the EdTech Maker Space!
Imagine you could learn how to use new tools and in doing so create quizzes, study sets, and other engaging online resources that help support the broader adult education community?
In response to this very question, CrowdED Learning found 40+ adult educators in Summer 2020 interested in learning the ins and outs of edtech tools such as Quizlet, Google Forms, and Wakelet, all the while applying their new skills as they built resources that are now freely available to all! The EdTech Maker Space was born.
As a result of that project, two participants in turn ran their own EdTech Maker Space with nearly 30 participants, to create over 50 Jamboard activities to support ESL instruction.
Since then, we have continued to experiment with new project formats, including resource curation and creation, as part of a broader set of processes and tools that will help establish a more open, equitable content ecosystem.
Previous Projects
Spring 2021 + Winter 2022 - Digital Skills Library
Digital literacy IS literacy...
...but where should adult educators turn to find resources that support the skills learners want and need for personal, educational, civic, and career success?
Our most recent EdTech Maker Space two-part event involved over 50 adult educators nationwide (and beyond) who worked collaboratively to help answer this very question! Together, these makers developed expertise in a digital skills framework designed to support diverse learners, created relevance statements for each digital skill while working in topic-area teams to curate learning resources to this framework as we begin the process of building an open digital skills resource library!
Watch our project showcase webinar, where you can learn about the project, process, and end results.
Check out this collection of resources, including the digital skills framework and learning resources used.
Watch the University of Washington's Stacey Wedlake introduce the Seattle Digital Equity Initiative framework.
Summer 2021 - Maker Camp
During Summer 2021, adult educators from across the country (and beyond) came together for a series of "content jams" and "design slams" aimed at generating content and activity ideas to support digital skill instruction and integration.
Check out the Camp Handbook, which includes all of the resources that were used as part of the Maker Camp series. This includes some of the great content and ideas that were generated by campers, including this starter Digital Skills vocabulary list that contains open content and this set of vocabulary activity ideas that can draw from the vocabulary list and/or be used for future EdTech Maker Space projects.
Through this collaborative effort, we have the building blocks to run some exciting new EdTech Maker Space projects in 2021-22! Interested in joining future Maker Space projects events? Stay in touch by joining the EdTech Center @ World Education's newsletter.
This project was generously funded by the WES Mariam Assefa Fund and the EdTech Center@World Education's Mobile Learning initiative.
Summer 2020 - Leveled Reading Library
Over the course of 6 weeks in July and August 2020, 44 educators from 25 states and the District of Columbia built their edtech tool chops using Quizlet, Google Forms, and Wakelet. As a result, over 1,000 engaging, mobile-friendly resources were created and are now part of the Marshall Leveled Reading Program!
Reading Skills for Today's Adults (RSTA) is a fantastic, free leveled library designed to provide extensive reading and fluency practice for early level readers. Each story also includes a supplement that includes vocabulary and comprehension exercises available within a Word Document.
For our summer 2020 cohort, we asked:
What if we took these supporting exercises and adapted them using interactive edtech tools such as Quizlet, Google Forms, and Wakelet to provide more engaging, mobile-friendly learning options?
The result? A brand new, shareable, customizable leveled reading library - the Marshall Leveled Reading Program!
Our Summer 2020 cohort was funded in part by a Creative Commons Global Network Communities Activity Fund Grant! Thank you to Creative Commons for their tireless, global effort to increase educational access by expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.