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Mobile Technology in FCS Education

In a Family and Consumer Science (FCS) classroom, hands-on learning is key—but tracking and grading projects like cooking and sewing can be a challenge. This plan introduces Google Classroom, Flip, Canva, and Google Slides to make submissions easier and feedback faster.

The goal? Boost assignment submissions by 25% and help students stay accountable. To keep things fair, students can choose from different submission methods, and those without tech access can use school resources. The rollout includes admin approval, teacher training, student tutorials, a pilot phase, and feedback adjustments to fine-tune the process.

By embracing mobile tools, FCS teachers can simplify grading, engage students, and create a smoother, more interactive learning experience.

Mobile Technologies Plan

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Hi Readers! 👋😁

Have you ever used VR or AR? You probably have, maybe while playing a game, shopping online, or while using a map application. VR and AR are becoming more and more popular, especially within education. Attached is a video I created, diving a little more into the world of immersive learning, and also diving in how it can be used within Family Consumer Science classes. It's important as educators that we stay up to date with our technology, and incorporate it as much as we can into our classes for our students to learn from it.

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Personal Learning Network (PLNs)

Hi Readers!

Attached within this blog post is my Personal Learning Network (PLN) plan. As an educator and instructional designer, having an involvement within various PLNs has many benefits. Collaboration, communication, areas of growth, relevance, new ides, and so much more! If you are unsure what PLNs are, maybe want to know more, or are already involved in your own PLNs, I hope you are able to take away some new information from the plan, that you can use within your personal or professional life. 😁💡

Personal Learning Network Plan

See you next week!👋

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Microlearning Training Programs:

Thilip Moorthy defines microlearning as a teaching pedagogy that is used to reduce learner fatigue by focusing on a single learning objective for a brief amount of time (Moorthy, 2024). Unlike the traditional training programs that a workplace may offer that could last hours, or even days, microlearning is quick to consume, highly engaging, and immediately applicable, making it ideal for busy professionals who need efficient ways to upskill and learn new information quickly.

Teachers are constantly having to balance lesson plans, student interactions, parent interactions, professional development, grading, and more throughout not only the day, but semester. Microlearning in education provides a quick and efficient way to review and reinforce best practices quickly or even introduce new teaching strategies, without causing stress or overwhelming teachers through lengthy training sessions. This can be presented to staff through videos, infographics, audio (similar to podcasts), interactive quizzes, and more. The variety of delivery options ensures that microlearning is not only accessible but impactful to the participants as well. 

The training that I created, “Exit Tickets: A Quick and Powerful Assessment Tool”, was designed with the core microlearning principles in mind… Here’s how: 

Concise and Focused: The training was created to be 5 minutes or less, where each section/segment of the training is 2-3 minutes long. Each section of the training will continue to focus on the topic of how to use exit tickets effectively. 

Clear Learning Objective: The goal of the training is clear for the participants. By the end of the training the teachers who participated should be able to successfully design and implement exit tickets within their classrooms, no matter the discipline. 

Action-Oriented: This training will not only be used to learn a new concept, but will encourage the teacher participants to create and apply an exit ticket to their classrooms within a week. This ensures that the training was useful and impactful. 

Microlearning is not all about absorbing new content, it's about improving workplace practices and strategies in real time. With microlearning training like “Exit Tickets: A Quick and Powerful Assessment Tool”, teachers can maintain quick, simple, yet effective strategies that will make a positive impact on their classrooms, students, and teaching. 

Exit Ticket Microlearning Training Plan

Reference: 

Moorthy, T. K., & Silvam, Y. P. (2024). The effectiveness of microlearning approach from the perspectives of practicum teachers. Issues & Perspectives in Business & Social Sciences (IPBSS), 4(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.33093/ipbss.2024.4.1.1

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Post #1: Bringing Blogging into the Classroom

When thinking of a blog, many people's minds go straight to travel blogs or foodie blogs, but in the digital world today a blog can be a powerful tool for education that can impact and transform the learning experiences of students and teachers. The technology space of a blog has gained world-wide popularity by making it easier to search and collect documents, share thoughts in an open public space, and contribute to communities (Blogging for Informal Learning, 2011). Blogging has helped to provide a unique opportunity for students to not only reflect on their learning, but also develop essential skills such as communication, and learn about a new resource that will allow them to dive deeper in a content area. But how exactly can blogging be incorporated into the learning environment to help students expand their knowledge and skills? 

One of the many benefits of blogging within education is that it encourages student engagement. Throughout their educational journey, students have learned how to absorb information through demonstration, textbook, and notetaking. Students can use blogs to reflect on content lessons, share insights and experiences on a given topic, and document their findings. Within my culinary classroom using blogs could look like, having students create a blog post on a recipe, the culinary techniques used within it, the development of the recipe, and things that would change or add to the recipe in order to enhance it or make it unique to them. Making the documentations about a recipe will not only help to reinforce their understanding of the culinary techniques, but also will help them to develop other skills like critical thinking. 

The second benefit of blogging that I will be talking about is how it promotes collaboration within an educational setting. “In blog-supported environments, learners

learn to and begin to appreciate information sharing, idea exchange, and collaboration, which in turn contributes to student learning or professional development” (Learning through Blogging, 2017). When students create and use blogs within learning, they can comment on each other's posts and engage in discussions with one another. Through this discussion they can offer feedback, insight, experience, and ideas from a different perspective. It's important for students to learn how to communicate and collaborate properly, as they will use those skills in their future professional environments. 

Incorporating blogging into the learning environments is an easy, yet effective way to enhance the learning experience for students, through engagement, collaboration, and communication. So give it a try in your classrooms, and you might just be surprised at the creativity and insight it brings to your students and your classroom!

💡Additional Online Resources:💡

EduBlogs: A free, education-focused blogging platform designed specifically for students and teachers. Offers tools for creating class blogs, managing student posts, and encouraging collaboration.

What are Benefits of Student Blogging?: This article explores the benefits of blogging in education, offering practical strategies for incorporating it into various subjects and grade levels.

References: 

Blogging for Informal Learning: Analyzing Bloggers’ Perceptions Using Learning Perspective. (2011). Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 14(2), 149–160.

Learning through Blogging : Students’ Perspectives in Collaborative Blog-Enhanced Learning Communities. (2017). Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20(2), 37–50.

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Purpose of Blog

The purpose for creating the Engaging by Design blog is to dive into the many facets of instructional design, experiment with new approaches, and find ways to make learning more dynamic and impactful for my students. My goal is to continuously grow as an educator and as an instructional designer, while helping others do the same. While adding to my blog, I hope to connect with others who are just as excited about education, instructional design, collaboration, and growth as I am.

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Welcome to Engaging by Design!

Hi, I’m Ellie. I've been teaching high school Family and Consumer Sciences—primarily culinary arts—for the past four years, and one of my biggest passions (other than cooking🍽️) is bringing instructional design into my classroom in meaningful ways.

I started this blog as a space to explore all things instructional design—learning, sharing, and collaborating on new strategies to create engaging and effective learning experiences. If you're a teacher, an instructional design enthusiast, or simply curious about how these ideas can enhance education, I’d love to have you along for the journey!

Lets use this blog to learn from each other, share our experiences, and make our classrooms the best they can be. Don’t hesitate to join the conversation!😊