Day: May 17, 2021

I have been exploring common interests for the last six months or so with Elliot Solloway from the University of Michigan’s Digital Curricula Project and I thought it about time I offer a post to describe what they are working on.

The Center has created both tools and curricula for the K12 environment and I am certain they would welcome your interest. I will include a recent pdf they have generated to explain the resources they offer.

I first became interested in a specific tool the Center had created. This tool was developed as a simplified writing tool I thought was perfect for a strategy for digital argumentation I have written about previously.

This writing tool is based on a “block” approach I now see in several different authoring environments (e.g., this WordPress blog platform). In a block approach, you add blocks that serve a specific function and build something more complex from these blocks.

In the Collabrify Writer, you add one of a simple set of blocks (second image), add content to a block, and then combine blocks if the combination of blocks would produce a more desirable product. The application of this approach to argumentation (based on a texting strategy developed by Kuhn) would involve teams (usually two-person debate teams) connecting to the same Writer page and then taking turns to enter the elements of their argument as alternating blocks.

The Michigan Center has created multiple tools serving the functions of popular productivity suites (Google, MicroSoft 365), but is focused on how educators can tie content the application of these tools together in instructional activities they describe as RoadMaps. The teacher creates a sequence of instructions, content, and activities presented to students as one of these Maps.

The following images show the full complement of tools, my simple map to launch the Collabrify Writer task, and a more typical map.

The Center has been working with K12 teachers to create curricula based on this online environment and is not ready to offer these tools and the curricula content to other schools. The following pdf explains their program.