Go Bold With Digital Notebooks, Playlists, and Hyperdocs to Empower ALL Learners

Outline

1. Introduction and Overview (10 minutes)
Content:
Brief introduction to blended learning and its impact on student engagement and learning outcomes.
Overview of digital notebooks, playlists, and hyperdocs and how they can transform classroom instruction.
Engagement:
Begin with a poll using a platform like Mentimeter to assess participants' familiarity with these tools and current challenges they face in designing digital learning experiences.
Share a few real-world examples of how these tools have been used to promote differentiation and student autonomy.
Process:
Poll to gauge experience levels.
Quick peer-to-peer discussion in small groups or pairs about their current digital learning strategies.

2. Exploring Digital Notebooks (15 minutes)
Content:
Demonstrate how to create and structure a digital notebook using tools like Google Slides, OneNote, or Google Keep.
Discuss how digital notebooks support student organization, reflection, and formative assessment.
Examples of how they can be used across various subjects and grade levels.
Engagement:
Participants will access a sample digital notebook and complete a quick task, such as adding a reflection or organizing content by subject.
Process:
Device-based activity: Participants will experiment with a template notebook shared with them.
Open a short chat-based Q&A after the activity to address questions and observations.

3. Designing Learning Playlists (15 minutes)
Content:
Explain how learning playlists provide students with choice and personalized learning paths.
Showcase examples of playlists that differentiate by learning styles, pacing, and depth.
Walk through the process of creating a playlist using Google Docs, Wakelet, or a similar tool.
Engagement:
Participants will begin designing their own mini-playlists using a shared template. They will select 3–5 activities that students could choose from in a real lesson.
Process:
Peer-to-peer interaction: After creating their playlists, participants will share with a peer or group, discussing how they might use them to differentiate instruction.
Use a Padlet for participants to post playlist ideas and provide feedback to each other.

4. Hyperdocs for Inquiry-Based Learning (15 minutes)
Content:
Introduce hyperdocs as a tool for guiding students through structured, multimedia-rich inquiry-based learning experiences.
Provide examples that incorporate diverse media (videos, articles, interactive apps) and student-driven activities (collaborative projects, self-paced learning).
Showcase how hyperdocs can promote deeper learning, engagement, and critical thinking.
Engagement:
Attendees will begin drafting their own hyperdoc by embedding multimedia and inquiry-based tasks, using a shared hyperdoc template.
Process:
Device-based activity: Participants will create a basic hyperdoc, with links to digital resources and scaffolded learning activities.
Peer review: Have participants swap hyperdocs and provide feedback in small groups, discussing potential improvements and adaptations for different learning environments.

5. Wrap-up and Q&A (5 minutes)
Content:
Summarize key takeaways from the session, focusing on how digital notebooks, playlists, and hyperdocs can enhance blended learning and student engagement.
Provide next steps for participants, including access to templates, resources, and further reading.
Engagement:
Conduct a closing Kahoot quiz or brief survey to assess understanding and reinforce the session’s core concepts.
Process:
Open Q&A for any final questions.
Share a resource document with all templates and examples from the session for participants to take away.

Supporting research

In both the presenters books: Personalized Reading (ISTE, 2018) and New Realms for Writing (ISTE, 2020) she introduces and elaborates on the use of digital notebooks, playlists, and hyper docs for differentiated literacy learning.

Additionally there has been much published and mentioned in books from Casey Bell, Dr. Kaitlin Tucker, Matt Miller's Ditch That Textbook, and Cult of Pedagogy.