Instruction Without Boundaries: Enhance Your Teaching Strategies with Technology Tools in Any Setting
Instruction Without Boundaries, what a great title. What it implies! Dare we envision that we now have the capacity to tear down the four institutional walls that literally and figuratively restrict our capacity as educators to maximize our potential to maximize all learners' potential?
The authors, clearly experts in instructional design theory where technology is embedded in a multidimensional whole, firstly, define those dimensions, and then, provide multitudes of strategies that can be used in and out of conventional classroom settings with synthesized success.
Using a book like this is useful in college methods course programs and in school district systems' professional development efforts. Not only do the resources provided soothe those with reluctance to engage these strategies, but it also gives more than sufficient information about how to make them successful realities.
Dr. Richard Bernato, Professor, Author, Consultant, and Futurist
Instruction Without Boundaries: Enhance your Teaching Strategies with Technology Tools in Any Setting is very informative and thorough. Filled with great information and well put together, I like the strategies and found the book to be a great read. There is plenty of evidence and research, but the book is not overly "researchy" at all.
Students will be enriched by the information and knowledge that educators will gain by reading this well needed book.
Jeff Kubiak, Assistant Principal, and Author
In Instruction Without Boundaries, the authors challenge educators to reflect on what we've learned about engaging students with EdTech during the pandemic, and what we need to keep as best practices for students. This book is foward-thinking; it is not about how to just get through a challenging moment but how to design instruction that merges the best of what we "used to do" and what we "now know we must do." This book should be required reading in all teacher preparation courses!
Dr. Larry Dake, Assistant Superintendant of Instruction and Finance, Professor, and Author
Instruction Without Boundaries is a thoroughly researched book with practical approaches to purposefully integrating tech into our classrooms. An accessible and useful book for teachers no matter their years of experience.
Nicole Vieira, Secondary English and Language Arts Teacher
About the Book
Throughout this book, six chapters describe an assortment of instructional strategies and EdTech integrations to create classrooms that can transcend in-person, online, and blended learning settings. Learn more about the book and the chapters throughout this website and below!
Chapter 1: Digital Classroom Routines
Chapter One is an introduction on how to build foundational classroom routines to amplify student learning within any classroom setting. This chapter highlights the importance of establishing routines in a traditional and digital classroom and is broken into six major categories to consider: student accessibility, social-emotional learning, flexibility and responsive environments, communication, leveraging technology, and navigating digital and physical spaces. Additionally, the chapter notes how to leverage a learning management system to ensure each learner, regardless of space, can effectively access the materia
Chapter 2: Student Engagement in Classrooms Without Defined Borders
Chapter Two provides a series of research-based instructional strategies which enhance student engagement and amplify student learning within various classroom settings. An effective engagement framework, which includes four main approaches (building connections with students, intentional design, students as co-creators of knowledge, and gamified learning) is established in order to provide practical ideas as to how educators can cultivate classroom environments that foster student engagement.
Chapter 3: Student Collaboration within Classrooms that Transcend Boundaries
Chapter Three begins by defining student collaboration then highlights how to optimize collaboration within any classroom setting, followed by outlining the benefits of collaboration related to student learning, then finishes with considerations to think about when implementing student collaboration strategies in any classroom setting. Within this chapter’s vignettes, you will find six effective collaborative instructional strategies that amplify learning, including: concept making, think, pair, and share, jigsaw, Socratic seminar, structured academic controversy, and gallery walks.
Chapter 4: Inquiry and Critical Thinking Amplified by Technology
Chapter Four provides several frameworks that promote higher-order and critical thinking skills in the classroom. The Teaching and Learning Inquiry Framework (TLIF) by Molebash, Lee, and Heinecke (2019) is used to illustrate how the strategies, skills associated with critical thinking, common core standards, and universal design for learning framework can be synthesized together to propel our instruction to help spark inquiry and critical thinking.
Chapter 5: Creativity and Innovation Within Modern Classrooms Without Boundaries
Chapter Five is guided by the concepts outlined in the Partnership of 21st Century skills Framework, as well as insight provided by the Design Thinking and Diffusion of Innovation Theory, all of which provide pragmatic approaches to integrate creativity and innovation into the classroom. Eight instructional strategies that are derived from these conversations are illustrated such as Design Thinking, Makerspace, Choice boards, Genius Hour, Play and Prototyping, and Virtual Reality to Experience.
Chapter 6: The Age of Formative Assessment and Feedback
Chapter Six establishes a guided approach to implementing research-based strategies on assessment and feedback to amplify student learning by strategically monitoring and adjusting instruction. The chapter outlines effective approaches to formative assessment, alternative assessments, and choice-based assessments in an effort to enhance student ownership over their learning.
