Differentiation

Differentiation is a buzzword in education.  There are some real benefits to differentiation.  Advanced students can be accelerated in their learning.  Remediation can be provide to those students that are struggling with a topic.

Besides covering different topics with different students, differentiation can mean presenting information in a variety of ways.  The idea is that different students learn in different ways, and by using a variety of methods, a teacher gives each student the best opportunity to learn.

As a note, I agree that it is good to prevent information in a variety of methods.  This allows students to more fully understand material and to understand material in a number of contexts.  I do want to note here that the idea of personal learning styles is way exaggerated.  I defer here to this article

Myth of learning styles

That said, I still believe in presenting information in variety of ways.  Teaching is communicating ideas.  Here are three different modes of instruction that I have recently used in my online course.  I will also write a bit at the bottom of this page about communication that is not specifically teaching.

The subject of my teaching in the next three presentations is plate tectonics.

First is a video lecture over plate tectonics.

Second, they had a hands on "Volcanic mapping activity."  Here were the brief instructions for the assignment.

This is your first lab assignment.  In this lab, students will graph the locations of earthquakes and volcanoes and examine trends in terms of plate boundaries.  This will not be completed online - it will be completed and handed in by hand. 

In this activity, students had a map of the globe and different plates that make up the earth's crust.  They had to cut out the plates and match them to their locations on the globe.  This tactile teaching got them to 'see' the paltes.

Third, they had an online interactive presentation that integrate a reading assignment with visual understanding.  Here is an example of part of that assignment.

Annenberg learner convergent boundaries.

Variation in presentation is also important in communication.  My most common method of communicating with my online students and their parents is email.  I also call.  Voice is a different method of communication.  I also make a point to meet with students, even my online students, face to face or by Google Chat.  After having completed the last couple of assignments, I have added a little flair to my email.

While I haven't used them all and don't like them all, I did find the different websites for creating varied content useful.  Some of them I was aware of and had used before (Quizlet, Presi,) and some of them I had not (Smores, Wordle, etc.)