Latest / IB Unplugged / Putting UDL into Practice: Designing Inclusive Learning with Kognity
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to IB Unplugged, a Kognity podcast for IBDP educators,
- 0:04that tackles your submitted questions and challenges by connecting you with
- 0:08experts and peers who share their ideas and stories from real classrooms.
- 0:12Hi everybody.
- 0:13Welcome to this week's bonus episode of IB Unplugged.
- 0:17Today we are going to interview
- 0:18Wayne Wright who is a learning designer at Kognity.
- 0:21So we wanted to take this week in this episode
- 0:24to really dive in a bit deeper from our last episode with Diane,
- 0:28where we talk about UDL and now focus that onto
- 0:31how UDL principles have helped design the way that Kognity structures
- 0:36their product, how we develop content and really,
- 0:40how the company operates and what we want to support in student learning.
- 0:44Yeah.
- 0:45And as you know, if you've been listening to our show,
- 0:46we're not always about like just pumping the products like,
- 0:49oh, you got to listen, you know, use Kognity.
- 0:51But instead, what we really looked at here is like as a teacher in the classroom,
- 0:55what are the ways that I can use something like Kognity to help implement
- 0:59a lot of this universal design for learning?
- 1:01If I really want to do that in meaningful and impactful ways,
- 1:04what are the ways to do it?
- 1:05And so, yeah,
- 1:06we wanted to chat with Wayne about how there's intentional scaffolding,
- 1:10intentional thought that goes behind, how are we putting this product together
- 1:14so that teachers can still facilitate some great learning in the classroom?
- 1:18So we think we've got some really great stuff for you here.
- 1:20We're really glad that you're here for this episode,
- 1:22and we hope you enjoy this bonus episode with Wayne Wright.
- 1:32We are
- 1:32having a special segment today with Wayne Wright from Kognity.
- 1:36We are having this conversation around UDL and it felt right
- 1:40to get to the source of who works with us in our company.
- 1:44So we got Wayne on the call to talk through a bit of his work
- 1:49behind the scenes at Kognity and some ideas with teachers.
- 1:52So we're really excited to have you on the podcast, Wayne, and thanks for joining.
- 1:56Yeah, thanks for having me. So, yeah.
- 1:58Do you want to kick us off by explaining a little bit about who you are
- 2:02and what you are actually doing at Kognity?
- 2:05Yeah, sure.
- 2:06So, my name is Wayne Wright.
- 2:09I live in the United States, and,
- 2:12but I am a learning experience designer, which basically
- 2:15when when we think about it, it's basically making sure that we have
- 2:18best practices in place to help teachers and learners be able to,
- 2:24work with the curriculum to make sure that,
- 2:27that students are actually engaging with it in a meaningful way,
- 2:30and that teachers have the insights that they need in order to be able
- 2:34to see the progression of students ideas over time within curricular materials.
- 2:39So that's kind of basic summary of what I kind of do at Kognity.
- 2:43Awesome.
- 2:43And when we, we've been talking a little bit with other people with regard
- 2:47to like universal design for learning versus differentiated instruction.
- 2:51And I know that Kognity does a lot of work to try to make sure that,
- 2:54just as you say, you've got instructional and pedagogical framework that supports
- 2:58what's going on in the textbook and the online resource that teachers can use.
- 3:03Can you give us kind of an overview here
- 3:04in terms of like, what are the intentions behind this and how the UDL practices
- 3:08integrate into the instructional and pedagogical framework?
- 3:11Great question.
- 3:13So I think, you know, UDL, you know,
- 3:15as we already know, is universal design for learning.
- 3:19Basically the big ideas here are about student
- 3:23epistemic agency, which is a kind of big term.
- 3:27So basically say like how do students, have authority over their learning,
- 3:33and contribute to evaluating themselves along the way?
- 3:37So like student ownership of that learning experience.
- 3:41And so when we think about this is when we develop curriculum
- 3:44to be able to have good agency, our students have good agency.
- 3:48There's a couple of big key things that need to happen.
- 3:51Students one need to be able to see themselves
- 3:54within the curricular materials.
- 3:56So like how do we connect students to what what they're going to be learning about?
- 4:01Because when it comes to content like content doesn't change, right?
- 4:05Like physics is physics, regardless of what what we're looking at, what,
- 4:09you know, different, whether it's IB or some other,
- 4:13curriculum out there.
- 4:15But how do we get students to connect to that?
- 4:18And so we first start with a connection to it,
- 4:21and then that kind of draws on then and then we say, okay,
- 4:25but how do we, with using UDL practices, help them to engage
- 4:30with the learning and then help them actually make good choices?
- 4:36So UDL is kind of like a great, tool and resource that we one
- 4:40we integrate within the curriculum as we design it.
- 4:44But then it's also a really great tool belt for teachers
- 4:48to be able to localize it to their personnel, like localized
- 4:53region, and also situated within what their students are doing as well.
- 4:57And I can expand that if you're interested.
- 5:00But yeah.
- 5:01Well yeah.
- 5:01So obviously there's the choice aspect.
- 5:04And you know, as a Kognity user I'm you know, as you mentioned
- 5:07that I'm thinking there's the text.
- 5:09Obviously there's videos.
- 5:10There's kind of like the interactives and the practices and that sort of stuff.
- 5:15Is that what you mean by the choice that students can kind of choose
- 5:17that sort of stuff?
- 5:18Or is it more of like once they have gotten into that, that's
- 5:21what allows them to engage in it in their own kind of pathway,
- 5:24because they recognize UDL is like, how do they engage with it?
- 5:27How do they how do we kind of represent the knowledge for them?
- 5:30And then what sort of action are they taking on that? Right? Right.
- 5:32So yeah.
- 5:33So the first bit before before students even get that kind of choice.
- 5:36Right?
- 5:37It starts with getting them engaged, which I think like when we think of IB,
- 5:42a lot of those our unit starts with like the big picture right.
- 5:46Kind of introducing students to these things.
- 5:49We we make sure that the curricular materials
- 5:51have you know, from a standpoint have things that students can relate to.
- 5:56In some of the examples that that we have within the, the materials.
- 6:01So it's something that students can connect to at a first glance.
- 6:05I think we're even as intentional within our, our images that we use, that
- 6:10we make sure that they're accessible, not just like, like, oh, I can read them
- 6:15and I can, I can see them, but I but that they're also something
- 6:18that students can connect to regardless of what culture that they come from.
- 6:22And being part of a global citizen.
- 6:24So I think that's the first bit, right?
- 6:26We have this connection that draws students in.
- 6:30But then when it
- 6:30comes to student choice, I think the IBDP does a great job
- 6:34about thinking about the application
- 6:37of the materials that that they're engaged with.
- 6:40So, like, you know, within the IB program, students then take these things.
- 6:45They have, different projects that they're involved with.
- 6:48And so they are using the application of what they're doing
- 6:54within the Kognity program to be able to then apply it to,
- 7:00an area that they're, you know, specifically interested
- 7:03in to dive deeper in, into some of those subjects.
- 7:06So I think one, the IB does a great job at trying to do this.
- 7:10So then Kognity’s big goal is making sure that we're providing enough
- 7:14good content and enough good ways where students can see the connections
- 7:20that they can make so that they have some choice and agency
- 7:23and and being able to come up with good ideas, in those areas.
- 7:27I do want to dive deeper into that, if that's all right, Court.
- 7:30I'm kind of jumping on to all the questions right away.
- 7:33Go for it. Go for it.
- 7:34So help me out Wayne, like, okay.
- 7:36So obviously, you know, I'm teaching with Kognity and, oftentimes
- 7:40I might, like, give students like, a book assignment,
- 7:43say, right, I want you to read through this for,
- 7:44you know, this sort of information before you come to the lesson.
- 7:47And we're gonna kind of walk through there.
- 7:49I've also been experimenting with, blended learning.
- 7:51So sometimes just kind of giving them
- 7:53the time in the classroom to work on that, too.
- 7:55And that's that kind of harkens back to,
- 7:57an episode we did with Damien a while ago who kind of inspired me on that.
- 8:01Okay.
- 8:01But in general, I kind of give him the book assignment and say, here,
- 8:05make sure you know this content by this sort of time.
- 8:08What's kind of the better way that I could do that
- 8:10that allows students to have that choice, to have that engagement
- 8:14of their own level, or I guess, what can I direct them to so that there
- 8:17so that they're doing that
- 8:18in a more meaningful way as opposed to just like, okay,
- 8:20I got to read through all this thing? Right.
- 8:22So, so that's kind of, again, where those UDL principles like
- 8:27can either be applied, by the teacher or
- 8:31in the sense of like, can, you know, do you, do you go through just reading it?
- 8:35Do we jigsaw it? Do we
- 8:38do we use a graphic organizer?
- 8:40So like when we think about representation, how students engage
- 8:43with that, there's lots of different ways that teachers have choice,
- 8:47to be able to take that and say, these are the needs of my students.
- 8:51These are the levels.
- 8:52This is the level of scaffolding that's going to be needed.
- 8:55And I think this is this is one of the things that I love
- 8:57about UDL in general, at of it being a tool belt.
- 9:02When we think about teaching, oftentimes we revert back to as teachers,
- 9:07being a former teacher myself, I learned that's this one way.
- 9:11And so I'm going to apply that because this was this really worked well for me.
- 9:15So I'm going to apply that to my students.
- 9:18Well that worked well for you.
- 9:19But there might be another way of reaching students that I didn't think about.
- 9:23Right? Sure.
- 9:24And so I think the great thing about UDL and you go to like the website
- 9:29and stuff like that, and, and you look at the different ways that,
- 9:34you can take that information and disseminate.
- 9:36It gives you ideas of different ways of being able
- 9:40to have students engage with, let's say, an article.
- 9:44There's maybe more than one way of thinking about it.
- 9:46I mean, even Kognity, you know, some students,
- 9:48maybe they're reading levels not there,
- 9:50English isn't their first language.
- 9:52And so there's there's options where we have like an immersive reader
- 9:55that is built into our platform, that provides
- 9:59some other ways of students to be able to access that information
- 10:04other than just we're just going to read through this.
- 10:07Right.
- 10:08And I think there's even like,
- 10:10you know, what are the key things that I need to get out of this?
- 10:13And I think that's the most important bit as, as a learning
- 10:17experience designers, I'm saying like, hey, what are my main goals here?
- 10:21The activity isn't read this.
- 10:24What am I hoping my students take away from this? Yeah.
- 10:27And so using that to kind of drive the decisions I make as a teacher
- 10:32using UDL principles, I think,
- 10:36is a really powerful way of, kind of marrying
- 10:39both what's in the content and then using those,
- 10:43so be able to reach our students, which I think is the ultimate goal.
- 10:47Yeah.
- 10:47You can see a lot of that especially from that start you know the big picture.
- 10:50And then of course the summary at the end was like here's what you know
- 10:53by the end of this I should be able to do this.
- 10:55And I should know these things now.
- 10:57And especially, you know like international school context for me
- 11:00I'm constantly working with students for right up front.
- 11:02I'll kind of show them the immersive reader
- 11:04and the different languages and that sort of thing.
- 11:06But especially like our EAL team
- 11:09love like the different ways that you can call out the specific parts
- 11:12of speech, for example, or kind of, you know, make it more clear for somebody
- 11:16that that might have trouble reading or accessing the text in that way.
- 11:20I think it also, I just to add on to that,
- 11:22I think it's really cool that IB does a really great job at the beginning,
- 11:26and especially in Kognity, we do it as well.
- 11:28We put those guiding questions because it's not like a hidden thing for students.
- 11:33Right?
- 11:34About this is what I need to know or what I need to gain from it.
- 11:37But this is there, and it's helping us guide
- 11:40and think about how we need to engage with this content
- 11:43to be able to help them to be able
- 11:45to figure out what I need to know by the time I leave it.
- 11:48So great, great point John.
- 11:50When we talk about the way that the Kognity is built
- 11:55and what it lives under,
- 11:56I think that you guys did so much work on developing the learning principles,
- 12:00and I think that they are something that hold true
- 12:04through our product and something that I feel quite good standing behind.
- 12:07Could you give a quick overview of the learning principles
- 12:12and kind of how they do connect to the UDL principles?
- 12:16Because I do think there is quite a bit of overlap there too.
- 12:19Yeah.
- 12:20So, just to give some context, the learning principles at Kognity,
- 12:24in case people don't know, is teaching and learning should be active.
- 12:29Teaching and learning should be inclusive.
- 12:32And then, the idea is
- 12:34that, the value of learning extends beyond the class.
- 12:38And then formative assessment is an integral part of the learning process.
- 12:43So those are kind of the big,
- 12:46learning principles we have here at Kognity.
- 12:49And when we think about active I think in education we've moved away
- 12:53from thinking about learning is just this passive thing
- 12:57that happens where information is disseminated, but it's really
- 13:01about actively engaging students in that learning process.
- 13:05So I think when we think about the learning is active,
- 13:09we've tried to really reimagine what that kind of looks like.
- 13:13And again, while there's a lot of choice that we want to make sure
- 13:16that teachers can localize because we, you know, the IB is a global thing.
- 13:20So we need this to work wherever you're at. Right?
- 13:24But I think the Kognity platform
- 13:26has some really cool ways of helping students to engage with things.
- 13:29Right?
- 13:30So when when we think about, like the strength battle questions and students
- 13:34being able to engage with each other within their learning, it's not,
- 13:38you know, I think sometimes in edtech it can become the silo.
- 13:43And so how do we break the silo of learning and,
- 13:47and kind of break that where students are learning from each other,
- 13:51working with maybe in some aspects, competing with each other,
- 13:55I think that we're trying to reimagine ways that,
- 13:59how learning can be active in that way.
- 14:03So I think that that's kind of a cool thing that we have.
- 14:07I would say, learning should be inclusive.
- 14:09I think that the IB does a good job at this.
- 14:12And I think that because this is an IB, curriculum here,
- 14:17we work really hard to give students
- 14:20the opportunity to think about things from a global citizen standpoint.
- 14:24And so we're constantly using some of the call out boxes
- 14:27within the materials to be able to draw on that,
- 14:30to think about things from different perspectives,
- 14:33not just maybe they're localized positions.
- 14:37And so I think making sure that students
- 14:40have those opportunities to, metacognitively reflect,
- 14:46on their learning.
- 14:47And, also thinking about different perspectives,
- 14:52is, you know, I think something that we, you know, really strongly
- 14:56feel at Kognity is important for students in their learning.
- 15:00We talked about learning happens beyond the class.
- 15:05And so we think about,
- 15:08you know, beyond learning physics, we think about the examples
- 15:12that we put before students and we think about,
- 15:16okay, how does this apply and connect to their life?
- 15:19And then how do we bring in those perspectives
- 15:22of their life and their experiences into some of their learning,
- 15:27that they're doing in the classroom?
- 15:28So it's it's one of those things of like, how do we take these real world examples,
- 15:33apply them,
- 15:35and make sure
- 15:36that they resonate with students so that they are not just like,
- 15:38okay, I've learned about this, and then we're moving on that
- 15:42we're going into a different direction.
- 15:43So I think there's a lot of different ways that the Kognity principles,
- 15:47I think, align very much with both the IB principles.
- 15:51But along with the UDL principles, I think that all these things
- 15:54kind of come together to really,
- 15:58to one, help
- 15:59make sure that students are connecting to it
- 16:02and then that there's opportunities for teachers
- 16:05to be able to get those insights into students thinking over time.
- 16:09You know, and I think the the benefit
- 16:12with what Kognity has is oftentimes when I wasn't using like an edtech
- 16:17resource, those insights would happen a week or two after.
- 16:21I'm able to get those insights faster.
- 16:24Tell me a little bit more.
- 16:24What do you mean by that? With the insights would take place a lot.
- 16:27Yeah.
- 16:28So like within the questions,
- 16:29within the Kognity platform that students are doing,
- 16:32those insights that teachers have of the those checkpoints
- 16:36of what a student knows at any given time within the learning process,
- 16:41sometimes would be a week late before using an edtech program.
- 16:45Right?
- 16:45Just due to like our feedback loop. Is that what do you mean?
- 16:48Yeah, the feedback loop is just the it just it's
- 16:52it's not as fast to be able to do it.
- 16:54So to be able to adjust the instruction or to be like, oh my goodness.
- 16:58Like kids need, you know, my students need more time
- 17:02to be able to engage with these ideas before moving on.
- 17:06And so I think there's just like a really strong benefit
- 17:10to make sure that the time that's passed between feedback
- 17:13and what teachers know and giving that feedback to students,
- 17:17it really makes it more
- 17:20tight and, honed in so that we get better feedback.
- 17:23So yeah, it fosters agility, right?
- 17:25Like you can,
- 17:27if you have a structure that isn't using any technology,
- 17:31you're going to be in quite a rigid system
- 17:34where you're going to have things planned out for a longer amount of time.
- 17:37You can't pivot as quickly, if you're learning.
- 17:41Actually, I thought that they got this, but they absolutely did not.
- 17:45I need to to shift and
- 17:47and double down on whatever I need to focus on these kinds of things.
- 17:50Yeah.
- 17:50And it allows for the flexibility that, you know, like as a teacher,
- 17:55you can go in and you can adjust things and say like, oh, my kids need
- 17:58more practice on these questions, which is totally like
- 18:02that localization piece of what UDL is really calling for here is,
- 18:07you know, I think sometimes we think can curriculum must be taught in
- 18:11a very rigid manner where it's like, I need to go very sequentially
- 18:15and it needs to happen and look like this exactly as the curriculum spells out.
- 18:20But Kognity’s made its platform so that teachers don't be like, whoa,
- 18:23my students need more of this, and so I can adjust.
- 18:27I can give more practice on these types of questions,
- 18:29because this is where my students need more work and more practice.
- 18:34Becoming a better IBDP
- 18:35educator is a daily practice informed through reading, research,
- 18:39personal experience,
- 18:40and episodes from IB Unplugged,
- 18:42like the one you're listening to right now.
- 18:44But sometimes the show can go a bit too quickly,
- 18:47or we simply forget some of the key points
- 18:48once they're out of the car or back from our walk.
- 18:51So to revisit the content in a condensed version, you can download
- 18:55the episode summary at kognity.com/ibunplugged.
- 18:59You'll find useful links to other resources and exciting
- 19:01bits of information that you can use immediately in your daily practice.
- 19:06So now back to the show.
- 19:09Wayne I really appreciate what you were talking about before
- 19:11with regard to how, you know, Kognity’s learning principles, UDL
- 19:15principles, and I guess the ideas of the IB kind of all aligned.
- 19:19And as you said that, I thought, well,
- 19:20you have to be intentional as a teacher to make sure that's clear, because
- 19:25while I also like I'm a big believer in the IB, obviously I love it.
- 19:29And at the same time, there are ways that if it is,
- 19:32if it's not delivered intentionally and really thought about it can feel like,
- 19:37okay, we're just going to acquire content and students just have to know stuff
- 19:41so they can do a test really well instead of very intentionally
- 19:44and meaningfully connecting
- 19:48here’re the call outs.
- 19:50Here's the global citizenship.
- 19:51Here's like nature of science, for example, or theory of knowledge.
- 19:53And how that kind of relates in these areas,
- 19:55and really expanding students to think beyond that a bit more.
- 19:59And so I'm just I'm, I'm still want to kind of dig into this a little bit more.
- 20:02And I guess from your perspective,
- 20:04what are the best ways that, like me as a teacher,
- 20:08that I can really pull all that together
- 20:10and help my students see, like that bigger concept, that bigger idea?
- 20:13And it might just be certain examples that you already know of or that you were
- 20:16thinking of with this design, but I'm just very interested.
- 20:20What are some of the best ways that
- 20:21that I can really be pulling that out with my students?
- 20:23That was a big hit for me as well in my classroom.
- 20:25And while I didn't teach IB, it became this thing of like..
- 20:30Education has changed a lot in the sense of like you're saying
- 20:35it's not about just acquiring information
- 20:38because I can acquire information from Google.
- 20:41I can acquire information from AI. Right?
- 20:44So then what is it that is really going to benefit my students?
- 20:48I think it comes down to those skills, right, of how to take in
- 20:55information, how to process it, and what do I do with that.
- 20:58Right?
- 20:59And I think that that really kind of connects to a lot of the
- 21:02IB ideas of approaches to learning, right?
- 21:06When we think about like, okay, you know, what are my thinking skills?
- 21:09How do I communicate? Right?
- 21:12What are my social skills?
- 21:13What are my reasoning skills?
- 21:15These will apply to students no matter what
- 21:20what field, whatever decisions they make to go into in terms of a career.
- 21:25And so how do we leverage those, you know, within our curriculum
- 21:29and say like this content is important, right?
- 21:32We want them to be good consumers of that content so that they,
- 21:37you know, one, we want them to perform well on these exams, 100%.
- 21:41But at the end of the day, like, how do we teach them to be good
- 21:44consumers of content, regardless of whatever they in and beyond
- 21:48maybe just my classroom.
- 21:50And so I think about that from my student’s perspective.
- 21:55And I think that fits very well
- 21:56with like the universal design for learning approaches as well.
- 22:01Because a lot of it is about like, wait, how do I engage with this?
- 22:05How do I then take these skills and how do I support, you know,
- 22:12being able to take in and
- 22:14acquire knowledge and actually gain what I need from those things?
- 22:17And then what do I do with that after I'm done?
- 22:19Like, how does that information then get stored within me?
- 22:24How do I communicate that to others or the important bits to others?
- 22:28And I think that that's kind of like our goal as a teacher
- 22:32is to help students to be able to learn how to process information.
- 22:36And I think the UDL principles at that point, this is like,
- 22:39okay, so the approaches, the learning, for example, are like the what?
- 22:43Like what we want students to kind of do?
- 22:47Whereas the universal design for learning principles are kind of the scaffolds
- 22:52to kind of help us to be able to do that within our classroom.
- 22:56Nice. Okay.
- 22:57So then I guess, like as a as a teacher, one
- 23:01okay,
- 23:01I think I've got all of these options in front of me
- 23:03in terms of how students can kind of engage with the content
- 23:05and how they might learn from it in terms of its representation.
- 23:08And then I guess it's then kind of down to me to look at
- 23:11how am I going to pull that out so that students actually
- 23:14take action on it, or they can express their knowledge,
- 23:17whether that's through some of the stuff that's on the platform,
- 23:19or maybe it's something that I design within the classroom itself.
- 23:22But ultimately, I'm recognizing that when I intentionally
- 23:26kind of upfront load and I guess that's the big difference
- 23:28between like UDL and differentiation, right?
- 23:30Differentiation is kind of like, let me react more to the students
- 23:33that are already in my classroom, what I need to do.
- 23:36Whereas UDL is kind of like,
- 23:37let me just provide all these different ways in
- 23:39which students can engage and therefore represent their knowledge.
- 23:42I guess as a teacher, I just need to recognize, here's
- 23:44all the ways that we've kind of done this, and now I can give them choice in terms
- 23:48of how they're going to express their knowledge. Yeah.
- 23:50And they might use the Kognity platform for that or they might do otherwise
- 23:53as well. Right?
- 23:54100%. Yeah.
- 23:55And I think that's one of the things that's scary.
- 23:58You know, I think about when I talk to teachers like it's scary
- 24:02to give up some of that control of like, oh, I'm giving students choice.
- 24:06Like it feels like the scary thing, right?
- 24:09I love it.
- 24:10I just I let go and then I just kick my feet up.
- 24:13I have a great time.
- 24:14Yeah, but but it's one of those things.
- 24:17It's like, you know,
- 24:19there's there's different ranges of that.
- 24:21Right?
- 24:21You can give students choice where,
- 24:23you know, like you give a lot of information upfront,
- 24:26but they have a lot of choice in how they express that
- 24:29or you give them a lot of choice upfront when say, like, here's a range of things
- 24:33you can be looking at, but I want you to communicate in this very specific way.
- 24:37I think when we when we have, we figure out where do we want the choice
- 24:42choices to be within that it helps to frame it so that we're not,
- 24:46like all over the place as a teacher,
- 24:48because I think that that becomes very difficult
- 24:52in planning and thinking about it.
- 24:54But I agree, like, you get to make that decision.
- 24:57Do we start with a platform
- 24:59and then we have choice in how we're going to communicate that?
- 25:01Or do we start outside of the platform and,
- 25:04and maybe have a lot of choice out here
- 25:06and then kind of bring it back to the platform
- 25:08to see how those things are connected to the ideas that we, those
- 25:13big guiding questions that we are trying to maybe answer along the way.
- 25:16Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
- 25:18And I think that one thing that I think is an important distinction
- 25:22when having the freedom for students is just because
- 25:26you have freedom, doesn't mean you don't have structure.
- 25:30And I think that that's a really important
- 25:34piece of it, that makes the freedom
- 25:36feel scarier, because you associate it with not having structure, but
- 25:41it has to be intentional and instruction
- 25:45designed to still be a classroom, not a free for all.
- 25:50And I think it's about what is your frame or your framework of your classroom.
- 25:56Like what what are your hard limits that are important so that it still stays,
- 26:01that you have these learning objectives that can be met.
- 26:04So it's like freedom within,
- 26:08frame that I think is really the important way to implement it
- 26:12in your classroom without feeling like you've just lost control.
- 26:16Exactly.
- 26:17I think you're 100% correct here, Courtney.
- 26:20It's just the the structure is so important
- 26:23and and it helps to make sure that one,
- 26:27you're getting the artifacts you need to be able to understand.
- 26:30Again, when I think about learning, it's like making students thinking visible
- 26:35and in the constant decisions I make as as a curriculum developer
- 26:40is, I'm like, how do I help make the most of those opportunities
- 26:45and make sure that that's visible
- 26:46for both teachers and students within our, our materials.
- 26:50And so I think if teachers also have those ideas in place as well, right?
- 26:55It's like, okay,
- 26:56like you said, the freedom's there, but I'm going to have these structures
- 26:59to make sure that I'm seeing student thinking all along the way.
- 27:04What I love about this
- 27:05so far is, you know, there are some times where it feels like some of the,
- 27:09the tech that I might want to go to in the classroom might have heard of.
- 27:12It doesn't really feel like
- 27:15that's doing a whole lot that's based off of metacognition
- 27:18or actual cognition or ways in which kids are learning.
- 27:21And so far, even just in this conversation so far away.
- 27:23And it's very clear that you guys are thinking deeply about
- 27:28how how is knowledge constructed, how do young people acquire knowledge?
- 27:32How can we facilitate that?
- 27:34And I think that's something
- 27:35that I very much appreciate, because it doesn't feel like a
- 27:39we just want people to be using the platform more and more and more and more.
- 27:42It's like we want to make sure that this is a useful way
- 27:46that that young people can develop and learn,
- 27:48you know, in the ways that it's intended.
- 27:50And yeah, when I think about different texts
- 27:53or something like that, that maybe I've used in the past,
- 27:55it's harder sometimes to really connect the intentions.
- 27:58And especially in the IB where it's I want global citizenship and want TOK.
- 28:02And when all these things can come in
- 28:03and want students to have a way that they can apply this and understand
- 28:06that connection with themselves, it's just clear to me that it that you're doing
- 28:11a lot of reading and a lot of research ahead of, like, developing something here.
- 28:16And so I don't have a question there.
- 28:18I just was like, I appreciate that, I guess.
- 28:22Yeah.
- 28:22And I'll say I'll echo that is,
- 28:25you know, I think sometimes..
- 28:27We think a lot about Kognity,
- 28:30specifically about students and teachers.
- 28:34And we really, at the end of the day, we drive home
- 28:37that we want this to be a useful thing.
- 28:39We don't want to just be like, okay, great.
- 28:41People bought our product.
- 28:43No, we want to make sure it works.
- 28:44And we're constantly looking at how do we improve that.
- 28:48And we look at what is the research say what is the best practices out there
- 28:53and how do we incorporate that
- 28:54to make sure that students are getting the best thing.
- 28:58And I think that that's what I love about it.
- 28:59The iterativeness of Kognity, the feedback that we
- 29:03get from teachers and students all the time that are honing
- 29:06and making our curriculum materials better year after year after year.
- 29:11So I mean,
- 29:13yeah, everything is done intentionally and we
- 29:16truly take that feedback to heart because we do like you're saying,
- 29:19John, we want this
- 29:20to be something that's useful, not just something that people buy.
- 29:24So what I've gathered here is obviously we've got a wide range of resources,
- 29:28a wide set of options for teachers to still have some control, but really
- 29:32to think through the scaffolding, think through the structure of what
- 29:35I'm doing, think through my UDL principles and what I need to be doing
- 29:39so that students can engage at their own sort of pace, at their own choice,
- 29:42and at the same time,
- 29:44they can recontextualize the knowledge as they like.
- 29:46And then that representation in the knowledge
- 29:48is also quicker for for me to understand.
- 29:50And it sounds like
- 29:51I have lots of responsibility as an educator in the classroom.
- 29:54I'm not just handing all this over and just saying, right,
- 29:56you guys take them through the diploma program.
- 30:00But I have now greater options based off of that resource
- 30:03to engage meaningfully with, with UDL, in my classroom.
- 30:07Yeah, I will just echo that.
- 30:10I think that, you know, it's sometimes UDL
- 30:14gets put into this box of it's just about accessibility.
- 30:19And I think
- 30:19that the principles that are there are so much deeper
- 30:23about connecting students to the curriculum,
- 30:27regardless of where they're at, making sure that we're reaching all students.
- 30:31I think, like, you know, that's beyond accessibility.
- 30:33And then as you're saying, you know, like, how do we take this
- 30:37these principles of UDL and thoughtfully design options
- 30:42where students have true agency within their learning.
- 30:45And I think it's a challenge
- 30:46for both curriculum writers and for teachers, as you're saying,
- 30:49like really challenging ourselves to think about what are some ways that we can,
- 30:54you know, thoughtfully and intentionally, do this in our classroom?
- 30:58Great.
- 30:59So with a lot of our episodes, we usually start with warmup questions.
- 31:03You, had to start with all of this.
- 31:06I thought maybe this time we could end with some spontaneous warmup questions.
- 31:10How does that sound, Wayne?
- 31:11Okay. I heard that that you're quite a singer, and so I'm interested
- 31:15what's your what's your go to karaoke song?
- 31:17I will say, when it comes down to, like, what music I enjoy,
- 31:20I'm kind of a 70s kind of kind of guy.
- 31:24So kind of like a lot of soul and pop music from the 70s.
- 31:27So. Okay.
- 31:29All right.
- 31:29Also, I have had the pleasure of seeing you do magic.
- 31:33What is your go to magic trick?
- 31:35My go to magic trick?
- 31:38So, there's a couple
- 31:40different that are like, staples.
- 31:44I have one, or it's called the battle on tube trick,
- 31:47where you have a battle that keeps jumping and,
- 31:51from tube to tube.
- 31:52And then there's, you know, you flip it
- 31:55upside down, back and forth, and and you do it
- 31:58with an audience participation person, and it just whatever
- 32:02we do it the same way, it doesn't turn out the same way.
- 32:05And so it creates a lot of fun along the way.
- 32:07So I love doing that.
- 32:09But I also love doing some close up stuff with some,
- 32:12cards and sponge balls and all sorts of fun things.
- 32:15So yeah.
- 32:17Awesome.
- 32:18Well, I really hope that we get the chance to, to see each other in person.
- 32:21You know, obviously right now you're in Michigan, and
- 32:23I'm in Austria right now, but I hope we get a chance to to be in person.
- 32:26You can show me some magic and we can make some music together.
- 32:28That'd be great. Sounds great.
- 32:30Thank you so much, Wayne.
- 32:31I appreciate you joining us today.
- 32:33And yeah, this has been really valuable I appreciate it.
- 32:36Yeah, absolutely.
- 32:36Thanks so much, Wayne.
- 32:37Really, really good to talk with you and understand a lot more in terms
- 32:40of like the development behind behind the product here.
- 32:42And so thanks so much for taking the time.
- 32:44Thanks for having me.
- 32:45IB Unplugged is a Kognity podcast hosted by John Patton
- 32:49and Courtney Marline and produced by Katilina Gaffney.
- 32:52Be sure to subscribe or follow and share with your fellow IB educators.
- 32:55If you'd like to submit a topic, request or a question, please do
- 32:58so on kognity.com/ibunplugged.
- 33:02Let's keep the conversation going
- 33:03and support each other in teaching with confidence, creativity, and joy.
- 33:07See you next time.