A Michigan First grade teacher, Jenna Sperling, wanted her students to understand the impact that sea turtles had on their environment.  She also wanted her students to understand why it is important to protect sea turtles (and other endangered animals).  She also wanted to meet the ISTE-NETS student learning goal of an "Empowered Learner".  Jenna decided that in order to meet her goal, and make it as authentic as possible, she would do a virtual field trip with the National Aquarium in North Carolina. She learned that that National Aquarium does free virtual field trips through Microsoft's Skype in the Classroom program.  To begin the unit, she had the students read books and study about sea turtles.  Before the virtual field trip Jenna made very careful instructional moves to make sure her students took an active and collaborative role in the virtual trip.  First they brainstormed questions for the experts at the aquarium and deciding on their roles in the virtual field trip.  Below is how Jenna (in her own words) scored the lesson on the Triple E Framework:
How does the technology engage students in learning? 
The virtual field trip engaged students in learning by keeping them focused and interested in the learning goal. Using Skype to learn about a topic was new for all the students and was, therefore, exciting, engaging, and motivating. In addition, the virtual field trip allowed for joint engagement (social co-use), as the whole class participated all together, both in brainstorming questions beforehand as well as in the Skype call itself.  
How does the technology enhance student learning? 
Virtual field trips definitely add value to student learning, as they do something that traditional tools cannot. The technology allowed us to connect to an aquarium employee in North Carolina and to even see a live sea turtle. In addition, the learning was personalized to my first graders, and they had a lot of choice in the questions they asked and the information they gathered.  
How does the technology extend student learning? 
This virtual field trip did connect the learning to student’s everyday lives, because we talked about what we (as humans) do to potentially harm sea turtles and what we can do to stop that. We also connected with an authentic expert on our learning topic (sea turtles), which is an instructional strategy to elicit extension.  


Assessment:
The pre-assessment for this lesson was a class discussion about prior knowledge about sea turtles. This way, I was able to get an idea of what they already knew before diving into our virtual field trip. As a post-assessment, students wrote down one new thing they learned about sea turtles after the virtual field trip. It was interesting to see their major takeaways. It was clear to me that they all learned something they did not already know, based on my comparison of the pre and post assessments.   

Jenna's reflection:  "I would definitely do another virtual field trip if given the chance. The students seemed to really enjoy it, and they definitely learned new things (as I saw in the post-assessments). I am glad that we brainstormed questions ahead of time and also talked about how I would call on students to ask questions. Overall, I would call it a success!"

5th grade teacher, Sarah Godek, decided that she wanted to simulate the revolutionary time period through discussion.  She chose to use Twiducate, a tool that is a kid-friendly microblogging tool like Twitter.  ​This lesson is situated within the larger context of a unit on the events leading up to and the play out of the American Revolutionary War, with a focus on the various different perspectives of people living in and around the British colonies. In Twiducate, students each took on a different perspective during the American revolution, so that they would better understand why some colonists decided to become loyalists, patriots or indifferent to the revolutionary cause.  Prior to this lesson, students have learned about the unfavorable acts passed by the British Parliament, retaliatory events such as the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, and about the factions of colonists that developed as a result (loyalists and patriots). Following this lesson, students will study how the American Revolution began, progressed, and ended. This lesson is intended to allow students to see the greater arc of the American Revolution in the context of the various perspectives that it affected, and how not every perspective experienced the arc of the Revolution in the same “patriotic” way.  Below Sarah describes how technology helped to engage, enhance and extend her learning goals.  

• How does the technology engage students in learning?
  • Students are used to engaging in online chatting every day in their personal lives. Being able to do so in school is a novelty that allows them to connect with their peers in a way that they are not usually able to access during school.  Students that do not usually like to speak may feel more comfortable sharing their ideas out in an anonymous forum. Students will be able to engage with peers through joint media engagement in ways they may be unable to in the regular classroom due to interpersonal conflicts or social awkwardness.  Students will always have something to be working on. No longer will they be able to leave the thinking to their more eager peers; everyone has a computer, so no one has an excuse not to be typing a response to a question or another peer’s thoughts.
• How does the technology enhance student learning?
  • Students will be able to quickly read over a variety of perspectives, rather than having to wait for hands to be raised and a myriad of answers to be spoken verbally. Students may quickly refer back to viewpoints from perspectives that are highlighted by which “characters” are talking, and can get a better sense of each perspective given the number of responses written down from each perspective all at once. Students can sift through at their own pace, such that they won’t be subject to a classroom environment that is either too fast-paced or two slow-paced should it be based on verbal communication.  Students that are quiet will feel more comfortable sharing out their thoughts online. Students that do not have reliable access to a computer will gain practice typing, and having responses prepared for those students that need extra scaffolding will allow them to participate in a way that might otherwise be impossible with verbal communication in the classroom.  Verbal communication is undoubtedly important, but in the context of sharing and synthesizing thoughts, an online chat allows for the visual aid of a hard copy of what has been said for students to use higher-level thinking skills such as being able to analyze and consider at their own pace, allowing them to make more informed replies as well as giving them a stress-free outlet to reply at their own pace, when the question has been posed and the topic remains the same for long enough for them to formulate a response.
• How does the technology extend student learning
  • Most students use online communication every day, and those that don’t likely will someday. Online communication is part of student's prior knowledge and increasingly at the heart of our society. Being able to discuss educational topics in an online forum allows students to consider the possibility of further discussing educational topics in online forums with their peers. This lesson allows students to explore the various uses of online communication and consider that online communication is not necessarily just for messing around with friends and snapchat filters, but can also be used as a space for intellectual conversation surrounding an educational topic.  Students that use online communication everyday will feel at home connecting with their peers in this medium, and students that do not have the opportunity to use online communication everyday will feel excited that they get the opportunity to interact with their peers in an online forum.  Online discussion on scholarly topics is increasingly commonplace through professional live twitter chats, webinars, and email communications. Practicing discussing educational topics in an online forum is giving students tools that they will need in the future in our increasingly web-based society.

A second grade teacher, Beverly Ladd, from North Carolina is teaching Geography in a whole new way:  Skype!  Her classroom is trying to find 50 classes from other states to Skype with and share geography and cultural norms.   She set up an open Google doc where classrooms can sign up to do a mystery Skype with her classroom.  This is a wonderful way to use technology to extend learning and make it more authentic.  Rather than reading about other states, learning from the local "experts" in an inquiry-based way is something that these students will remember, and this would be very difficult to do without the aid of technology!

In this lesson on Google Earth, elementary teachers (but it could be used with any grade level, K-12) are asking children to research, locate and share their family ancestry using Google Earth tours.  The students first research their family history, find out about their immigration paths, and then using the Google Earth tour recording feature, they can record and narrate their families path the U.S. (using pinpoints and authentic family pictures as well).
Engagement:  Students can co-engage by creating and researching with their parents or another student.  The Google Earth software allows the students to connect with the actual places their families came from and dive deeper into visuals and placing images in exact locations of where they are from.  (Score=5)
Enhancement:  Google Earth allows students to see the places overseas, place authentic images and reflect on their families history through the recording feature. This would be much harder to do without Google Earth (Score=5).
Extension:  This project is situated in an authentic setting and asks students to use research skills (Score=4).

*This lesson could also take full advantage of Ancestry.com to do research on families!

Total Triple E Score= about 14

In this lesson (via the Teaching Channel), the instructor is able to use technology to differentiation learning around poetry.  Differentiated learning allows teachers to find ways for students to learn the same content as their peers but in their own leveled Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).   Notice in this lesson that the teacher integrates technology to allow students to listen to poetry, make poetry visual, allow students to create their own poetry and collaborate with others on poetry.  Technology gives students opportunities to differentiate the content, the process of learning and the product.  

In this lesson (CC TIMS website)  elementary students use a spreadsheet and the Internet to create a budget for an authentic community service project.
How it meets the Triple E Framework
Engagement:  The spreadsheet is scaffolded to help keep the students focused on the learning goal (creating the budget for the community service project) with few distractions.  They are also co-using the technology (working in pairs) so that they can provide checks and balances, probe each other with questions and construct knowledge together.

Enhancement:  The spreadsheet allows students to quickly calculate and modify their purchases based on their budget.  They are able to quickly use the Internet to gather knowledge about costs and review best options of items needed for the project.  Both would be more difficult without digital tools.

Extension:  The technology is connected with an authentic project that the students will participate in (cleaning up elderly neighbors lawns).